About a year and a half ago I bought the car. It was a good deal, $4000 for a 130k mile, 6 speed A6, 2.7t, fully optioned (solar sunroof, rear window shades, rear power shade, heated seats, memory seats, xenon's, etc). I had been looking for a project car that I could still daily and I really loved what the A6 had to offer. It had timeless lines, speed, class, and a lot of potential for modding. Shortly after I purchased, I tinted the windows and clear cornered the headlights.
My next idea was to go ahead swap out the tan interior for black, because I hated the tan. Absolutely hated it. I started to rip out the interior and look for a good quality one I could purchase. I couldn't find anything I liked so I put it back together. Soon after this, I had a brake failure. My pad fell out of my caliper (literally) and the brakes seized. I redid all the brakes, pads, lines, etc. Turns out the PO actually put the old pad's in backwards and when it got that low it literally fell out. Soon after this, I got very busy with work and school and didn't do much.
About 4 months ago, I decided it was time to tackle the timing belt job. I went ahead and started with my good friend who owns an 07 335i (we do all work on our cars together) and had no idea what I had just done. The actual timing job dragged on for about a week because of our conflicting schedules and things that popped up. We got it all back together and fired it up. She started and ran fine but I was still having consistent issues with oil leaks and lots of oil in my spark plugs. I also decided we may as well rip the interior out and get everything ready to go for the swap. We pulled everything except the two front seats, including dash and headliner. I was working on figuring this all out and I still had the hood cable undone from my hood latch, when a gust of wind caught the hood and slammed it down while I was in the cabin. I couldn't get it open at all. More than that, I had a lot going on with family and work, and I totally lost my desire. I needed a break from everything. So, I parked it for about a month, just to get everything caught up and clear my head before I got back to the car. After all of this, I went to open the car on a Saturday morning and realized something was terribly wrong. I opened the door and got hit with a terrible stench. The car had been parked on a slope leading up to my garage, and it had rained a few times but I hadn't given much thought to it, since I live in Miami. Somewhere along the line while it was parked and raining it leaked, I think through the sunroof. and there was about 2.5" of standing water in the rear passenger footwell. The front seats, seatbelts, and steering wheel were covered in a mildew. I used a respirator and removed them, and vaccumed out the standing water. Then, I aired out and blew out the car, and used a mold bomb, followed by blowing and airing out again. At this point, the car is a shell. I put a cooler down prior to steering wheel removal and moved the car under my covered awning, where it should have been originally. I turned the car on, and it runs like a charm. I have no cluster, dash, seats, etc in there right now.
Some timing belt pictures:
Getting everything taken apart for the timing belt job
So, when this happened I went interior shopping again. My new (to me) interior is due next week! I have the two tone black allroad interior, the full interior. Seats, dash, seatbelts, door panels, carpet, etc. I'm super excited to get it in! Since I've had all this time, I've been doing some work.
I have made custom sub boxes for the trunk, where the two side compartments were. They are made out of fiberglass. I bought a new radio, speakers, and I'm picking up subs and amps soon. Nothing to powerful, probably 1500-2000 watts overall, but clean and crisp sound is really what I am looking for. Also, I got the gauged faces kit, and upgraded the center LCD since my old one was bad. I put in the TSX-R projector lens in the headlights along with new bulbs, and buffed and stripped them down so they look brand new. I purchased power folding mirrors, which was the only option as far as I can tell mine didn't have. I plan on cutting out the rear metal hump in the trunk where the spare goes, and using this as a staging area for the amps and my (future) air system. I purchased Avery vinyl and the car will be wrapped in mid March. I have the suede for the headliner wrap sitting in my room. I've also got OZ futura faces that I purchased and powder coated pure white, so I'm looking to get lips and barrels in the near future and get my wheels done up.
Getting the cluster taken apart
Mechanically, all seems to be running well. I am going to have to address the oil problem (thinking warped valve covers?) sooner rather than later, hopefully this month. It'll be stock a little while longer before I start going for an engine and turbo build.
Sorry it got so long and drawn out! I will post up all the picture to go along with the thread tomorrow! I'll be updating this as things happen..
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Originally Posted by a4kamila6
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