A little background, I purchased the car as a gift to myself after fighting (and winning) against the VA.
A month after ownership I hydrolocked the engine. I thought that was the end of it. Insurance would not pay and I thought long and hard if it was worth it...
It sat for a few months as, at the time, I did not have a garage to work on it. Moved a few months later (because of lack of garage space) and it began.
What a nightmare it was finding a 2013 3.0t. Audi in its infinite wisdom decided that changes were to be made after 1 year of the engine. Hearing and reading mixed views if a 14+ 3.0t would work, I truly didn't want to risk it. I contacted RomanK off of this site and he shipped it out quick. Once it arrived the work began. Having a background in building old 4G63 powered DSMs back in the day the swap was simple. Service position is a god send for this type of work! Got the swap done in one weekend! Ended up having an oil leak from the rear timing cover so my oldest son and myself pulled it back out to reseal it. Took the better part of a day to pull it and put it back in. Got pretty good at it after doing it the first time!
She was back on the road and I was in love with it again! Then I had an idea... The thing is, shes a rebuilt car. When I bought it, it was in a minor wreck.. no frame damage at all, but the insurance decided to total it. The place I bought her from "repaired" the car. Well, one fender was not a good color match and the clear on the hood was failing... I enrolled myself into school (gotta burn up my GI bill anyways) for Auto Restoration. Learned a lot in the class about the body side of things. But most importantly, I had access to a paint booth... a real top dollar paint booth!!! So it began! After getting to know the instructor and learning that he likes for students to do their own projects it was perfect! We talked about it and both agreed that we would do a show quality finish on her.
Work began and then Covid happened. School was on lockdown and I couldn't work on her. She was at the school in pieces and no one could continue the work..
She sat there for 2 months! Finally got the message that I would be able to come in and continue working on her. Within 2 weeks she was prepped for paint!
We laid 4 coats of clear on her then block sanded the entire car the next 2 days to lay 3 more coats (flow coating) of clear. A normal factory paint finish is somewhere between 5-7 mills thick. The clear alone on this car after blocking it dead flat is around 25 mills thick... Block sanding the car took me a month.. all by hand, 5ish hours a day! The buffed and polished it... the end result, I'll let you be the judge. I know how I feel about it!
More pictures of the project and progress of it #_Midnight_s4PSX_20181207_174148.jpeg20191102_193337.jpeg20200309_115755.jpegIMG_20200514_164745_013.jpeg20200522_112809.jpeg20200613_193227.jpeg20200626_202940.jpegPSX_20200802_094240.jpeg
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Originally Posted by fastboatster
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