OEM+ 2012 Phantom Black Avant Build Thread

[dropshadow]

I am currently looking for two rears, if @avantagg doesn't need them.

I'll check with him and let you both know.

[bakedziti]

Thank you @dropshadow

[avantagg]

I'll check with him and let you both know.

I'm all set @bakedziti! They are yours. The seller included 4 handles, he just didn't show them in that group photo.

[bakedziti]

Sweeeet! Thank you guys!

[avantagg]

Silly little update, but I found a black rear dome light on eBay last week and popped it in this weekend. The only bits left for the conversion to black are a panorama sunshade and the headliner.

[HenrikMeister]

Good luck on this big project. Can't wait for updates


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[avantagg]

Good luck on this big project. Can't wait for updates


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Thanks! It's going to be a PITA, but the end result should be awesome.

[dropshadow]

Thanks! It's going to be a PITA, but the end result should be awesome.

You have your work cut out for you, but it'll be so worth it.

[avantagg]

You have your work cut out for you, but it'll be so worth it.

Ahhh, that photo makes me cringe. Hahah.

That was such an awesome allroad build, the avant roof rails on that car looked great.

If I could find a totaled Allroad with chestnut interior that would be huge! Trying to do this with used parts to keep the budget reasonable.

On another note, I'm hoping to swap in black roof rails while the headliner is dropped. So I should have a set of chrome rails for sale after the conversion if any Allroad owners out there are interested....

[dropshadow]

That was such an awesome allroad build, the avant roof rails on that car looked great.

It could be yours for a cool $52k

[bakedziti]

It could be yours for a cool $52k

Somewhat surprised that this thing is still for sale, but then I see that the $52k price tag hasn't moved since it was listed. Love the color! It was available on the Q5s for a bit, but have only ever seen one in person.

The swap for the sedan wasn't terrible IMO, and at least you won't be laying with your feet through the trunk opening with that hatch you guys have!

[avantagg]

Somewhat surprised that this thing is still for sale, but then I see that the $52k price tag hasn't moved since it was listed. Love the color! It was available on the Q5s for a bit, but have only ever seen one in person.

The swap for the sedan wasn't terrible IMO, and at least you won't be laying with your feet through the trunk opening with that hatch you guys have!

@dropshadow Wow! I'm surprised as well. That's a lot of cash.

Zeko, definitely going to be reading your DIY thread a few more times before I sink the trim tools : ) Glad to see that someone else has tackled it. I wonder if there will be any difference with the avant headliner.

[dropshadow]

@dropshadow Wow! I'm surprised as well. That's a lot of cash.

Zeko, definitely going to be reading your DIY thread a few more times before I sink the trim tools : ) Glad to see that someone else has tackled it. I wonder if there will be any difference with the avant headliner.

Probably not too different, except for around the pano shade and the rear near the hatch with that extra piece that sedans don't have. The B-pillars might be tough, since you'll have to remove the seat belts to install them, and the D-pillars might be challenging too, but I'm just guessing. The A-pillars are super easy, just don't drop the one screw down into the dash. The C-pillars should be easy too.

Whatever you do, take lots of pics. Nobody has documented this swap yet.

[bakedziti]

@dropshadow Wow! I'm surprised as well. That's a lot of cash.

Zeko, definitely going to be reading your DIY thread a few more times before I sink the trim tools : ) Glad to see that someone else has tackled it. I wonder if there will be any difference with the avant headliner.

Probably not too different, except for around the pano shade and the rear near the hatch with that extra piece that sedans don't have. The B-pillars might be tough, since you'll have to remove the seat belts to install them, and the D-pillars might be challenging too, but I'm just guessing. The A-pillars are super easy, just don't drop the one screw down into the dash. The C-pillars should be easy too.

Whatever you do, take lots of pics. Nobody has documented this swap yet.

I think the biggest differences, as dropshadow pointed out, will be the extra piece toward the rear of the car, as well as around the pano roof. I actually think that the extra piece toward the back of the car may make your swap a little easier, but that could just be a case of greener grass. I say that because if the furthest back piece simply holds the back of the headliner up, it will be easier to get the headliner out without fears of bending. The A-pillars have a plastic housing around the lone T25 screw, so you luckily can't drop the screw all the way down into the dash; instead, it will just sit in the plastic housing behind the "AIRBAG" badge at the top of the A-pillar. For the B-pillars, I didn't have to take out the seat belts, just disconnect them from the bottom of the seat rail by opening the clip. The other big difference that I can see from the picture above will be for your retracting sunshade. It doesn't look too terrible from the picture, but I have no experience.

I'm excited to see you guys get the swap done!

[dropshadow]

I think the biggest differences, as dropshadow pointed out, will be the extra piece toward the rear of the car, as well as around the pano roof. I actually think that the extra piece toward the back of the car may make your swap a little easier, but that could just be a case of greener grass. I say that because if the furthest back piece simply holds the back of the headliner up, it will be easier to get the headliner out without fears of bending. The A-pillars have a plastic housing around the lone T25 screw, so you luckily can't drop the screw all the way down into the dash; instead, it will just sit in the plastic housing behind the "AIRBAG" badge at the top of the A-pillar. For the B-pillars, I didn't have to take out the seat belts, just disconnect them from the bottom of the seat rail by opening the clip. The other big difference that I can see from the picture above will be for your retracting sunshade. It doesn't look too terrible from the picture, but I have no experience.

I'm excited to see you guys get the swap done!

This is news to me about the B-pillars. I thought the seatbelts would have to be unbolted from the car. I had a set of black B-pillars, I just never got around to putting them into my old car, now I wish I had tried.

And that T25 screw holding the A-pillar up can fall out of that little plastic housing, slide down the cover and disappear into the dash. Ask me how I know.

[avantagg]

This is news to me about the B-pillars. I thought the seatbelts would have to be unbolted from the car. I had a set of black B-pillars, I just never got around to putting them into my old car, now I wish I had tried.

And that T25 screw holding the A-pillar up can fall out of that little plastic housing, slide down the cover and disappear into the dash. Ask me how I know.

Well alright! Happy to be the first one to attempt this swap and document it. I think the bigger PITA for the avant may be the pano sunshade. Unlike the sedans, it retracts onto a roller. Still trying to find info on how that gets disassembled/assembled.

[dropshadow]

Well alright! Happy to be the first one to attempt this swap and document it. I think the bigger PITA for the avant may be the pano sunshade. Unlike the sedans, it retracts onto a roller. Still trying to find info on how that gets disassembled/assembled.

Did you talk to the ebay seller who had one? I think rolling it back up tight might be a huge pain, but at that price, I'd be tempted to try it. My concern would be that if it's not as tight as when it's installed at the factory, it might bunch up later during operation. You might just have to bite the bullet and buy new.

[bakedziti]

This is news to me about the B-pillars. I thought the seatbelts would have to be unbolted from the car. I had a set of black B-pillars, I just never got around to putting them into my old car, now I wish I had tried.

And that T25 screw holding the A-pillar up can fall out of that little plastic housing, slide down the cover and disappear into the dash. Ask me how I know.

I will take your word for it on the A-Pillars.

@avantagg maybe these two diagrams will help you out on where the clips are, and how many.

http://etka.cc/audi/part_single/cata.../267380/lang/e

and it looks as if the retracting sunshade is held in place by 2-3 screws from the 2nd and 3rd links below. Post #6 on the AW link for a Q5.

http://etka.cc/audi/part_single/cata.../lang/e#sec_14

http://www.audiworld.com/forums/q5-s...ideas-2860839/

[avantagg]

Did you talk to the ebay seller who had one?.

I did, no response yet. Trying to get someone in Poland to dismantle a full sunroof and send me the shade. There are lots of used ones for sale over there. I've talked to a few sellers, but haven't had anyone follow through with the sale yet. I'm hopeful though.

I will take your word for it on the A-Pillars.

@avantagg maybe these two diagrams will help you out on where the clips are, and how many.

http://etka.cc/audi/part_single/cata.../267380/lang/e

and it looks as if the retracting sunshade is held in place by 2-3 screws from the 2nd and 3rd links below. Post #6 on the AW link for a Q5.

http://etka.cc/audi/part_single/cata.../lang/e#sec_14

http://www.audiworld.com/forums/q5-s...ideas-2860839/

Nice find! I'll look into that a little further. Thanks for sharing.

[avantagg]

Another little update, but I scored the second to last missing link for the black headliner conversion today! Black panorama sunshade has now been found. Thank you @dropshadow for the ebay tip and @Meyek66 for having that random missing part I needed.



If anyone out there in Audi land knows of a wrecked Allroad or Avant w/ black headliner please let me know. Otherwise it's looking like this may be the only part I have to purchase brand new.

[Project Quattro]

Another little update, but I scored the second to last missing link for the black headliner conversion today! Black panorama sunshade has now been found. Thank you @dropshadow for the ebay tip and @Meyek66 for having that random missing part I needed.



If anyone out there in Audi land knows of a wrecked Allroad or Avant w/ black headliner please let me know. Otherwise it's looking like this may be the only part I have to purchase brand new.

Get in touch with Shokan in upstate NY, they're an Audi breaking yard and they may have one around. Worth a shot, anyway.

[avantagg]

Get in touch with Shokan in upstate NY, they're an Audi breaking yard and they may have one around. Worth a shot, anyway.

Thanks! Already tried LQK. Nothing in the country. I will give shokan a shot.

[ChicagoDave]

Which trunk mat is that? Happy with it? I'm in the market myself, and don't want to default to just getting WeatherTech.

Thanks for the info!

[avantagg]

Which trunk mat is that? Happy with it? I'm in the market myself, and don't want to default to just getting WeatherTech.

Thanks for the info!

That one in the reference pic (not my car) is an OEM Audi All Weather mat I believe. I have the weather tech mat in my trunk and it fits really well. It's got a waffle pattern as opposed to the grooved lines on the OEM one.

[redavant]

Silly little update, but I found a black rear dome light on eBay last week and popped it in this weekend. The only bits left for the conversion to black are a panorama sunshade and the headliner.

All I gotta say is: Respect! A huge project, indeed. If I'd be nearby, I'd love to give you a hand.

[avantagg]

All I gotta say is: Respect! A huge project, indeed. If I'd be nearby, I'd love to give you a hand.

Thank you sir! I would LOVE a hand with this, haha! The black sunshade arrived today and I'm already trying to figure out how to replace the old one. I'm not taking anything apart until I can source a black headliner THE FINAL PIECE to this puzzle. Hoping to tackle in the next few months. Cheers!

[dropshadow]

Thank you sir! I would LOVE a hand with this, haha! The black sunshade arrived today and I'm already trying to figure out how to replace the old one. I'm not taking anything apart until I can source a black headliner THE FINAL PIECE to this puzzle. Hoping to tackle in the next few months. Cheers!

Does it look like you'll be able to roll up the sunshade to make it work? Good condition?

[avantagg]

Does it look like you'll be able to roll up the sunshade to make it work? Good condition?

I think so. The person i bought it off replaced his shade and had an extra. He told me the process was fairly easy to do especially if the headliner is completely dropped. He told me when he did his he left the sunroof installed. It's in good shape!

[avantagg]

I spent a lot of time updating the interior doors in my car but did a terrible job documenting the upgrades. I thought I would try and give a bit of a recap on the process in case anyone else was inspired to try some of these updates. There are a few threads floating around out there that I found extremely helpful. Credit and thanks goes to the OPs. They are hyperlinked below.

Since I knew I was going to have the doors apart I tackled 3 mods at once: Ambient Lighting, RS4 Door Handles, and Facelift Switches.

Step One. Find the Parts!
I was on a budget and tried to source everything used. ebay.de is an excellent place to look. The handles were hard to find and I ended up buying new through a seller on eBay.de but I found the ambient lighting enabled rear controllers for $40 each shipped, facelift switch for $80 and scored a set of the 4 LED lights from WolfAuto on ebay.com for $30. Wires and connectors for the lights were sourced from GAP for $80. Tip: When removing the doors buy a couple extra door clips from GAP or ECS. I broke at least one on each door during the removal and I was going very carefully.









Step Two: The Pocket Lights.
I followed DavidB8’s how-to on the light install and wire up. It’s fairly straight forward project, the trickiest part for me was the drivers door pocket light installation and figuring out the proper wires to splice into on the window control module plugs. He gives a very detailed write-up on his site so I’m not going to go into too much detail here but here are a few pics from my install.








Step Three: The Handles
Since I had the door cards already off, replacing the handles should have been a relatively easy swap. However, I wanted to retain the passenger and rear door locks (the RS4 handles do not come with these). I followed this DIY from @audi_S5 on how to swap the handles. You essentially remove the RS4 handles from the original cups and swap them into the A4 cups. THIS WAS A PITA. The spring clips are incredibly hard to keep in place and I spent way too long trying to get these things aligned and slid into place. The RS4 handles come with a thicker metal pin that has to be transferred into the A4 cup with the new handle. I created a temporary sleeve out of a penny nail to hold things in place and then slid the RS4 pin into the assembly. This required lots of patience.

Here are a few pics below from the original DIY to give you an idea on how they come apart. (Pics are from @audi_S5)










Step Four: Switches.
These babies were a piece of cake compared to the rest of this project. All of these switches can be replaced by pulling off the door pull trim and gently prying a small flat head screw driver against the tabs inside the switch housings. They come out rather stubbornly and I managed to break a few of the tabs on the original switches. The used switches that I bought actually had some broken tabs on them, but they went in snug and fit perfect despite their slight loss of integrity. The only door that actually requires removal is the driver’s side if you plan on replacing the truck switch.

[redavant]

^ love the RS4 handles! Great job putting the doors apart and then back together again.

[jaycurn]

Loving those handles!

[A4 Centaur]

Looking good!!

Thanks for keeping us up to date on how some of these conversions are done.

[avantagg]

So these arrived today. Found a set of black s-line roof rails, icing on the cake for this conversion to black! Now if I could just find a used headliner ... all of the other parts are ready :)

[kdaffy]

great work chris! this is really coming together nicely!

[avantagg]

Finally got around to installing my 3.0 Intercooler. Fun project but man those hoses are a PITA with these larger IC outlets. I used CTS hoses with a Eurocode HFIP, but ended up reusing the stock hose on the driver side because I was having so much trouble with the fitment. The drivers side hose actually seemed too long for the IC to Eurocode pipe connection and was getting bunched up. Anyone else have this issue?

At the time I ordered parts EC hoses were backordered. Makes me wonder if they would have been a better fit.... Oh well. The new set-up feels great.

[CloseEncounters]

I already had the Eurocode hoses installed when I did the Q5 IC and after some using a bit of elbow grease and a soap and water solution I got them to fit perfectly. I also followed up by using T clamps to make sure they stayed in place and not pop out under high boost. Been following your project and really enjoy watching what you've been doing with the OEM look. Kudos on the ballsy move in undertaking that project !!.

[avantagg]

I already had the Eurocode hoses installed when I did the Q5 IC and after some using a bit of elbow grease and a soap and water solution I got them to fit perfectly. I also followed up by using T clamps to make sure they stayed in place and not pop out under high boost. Been following your project and really enjoy watching what you've been doing with the OEM look. Kudos on the ballsy move in undertaking that project !!.

It's been a fun project so far and these cars have so much potential. It's really cool how so many parts are interchangeable. Thanks for the props!

[avantagg]

Swapped out my instrument cluster for something a little more fun. I've thrown together a DIY on how to retrofit the A5 cluster face on A4 electronics. Also finally installed the missing pieces for the full conversion to Piano Black trim. Totally changed the look/feel of the cockpit!

[kiw1]

Looks good. Rotors!

[redavant]

Love your build! Classy!