Felt like I should finally make a "build thread" for my noggy avant. Some may recognize the username, I've been using it for more than a decade at this point. Anyways, I started out with a B5 A4 (first car) back in 09 and always coveted S4s. V8 swapped the A4 and it's still around, on a back burner for now.
So naturally interest got the better of me and in 2016 I finally was able to snag a silver/onyx (fastest color) 6 speed avant. Drove that thing everywhere for just a little over a year, and then was given an offer I couldn't refuse for it.
That left me with some cash and a desire to grab what I really wanted, a nogaro 6 speed avant. I searched for a few months and found a few, ended up finding one on Bring A Trailer that appeared to be in good shape. Unfortunately others thought it was a good deal as well and the bidding went higher than I wanted to spend. Few days after losing the auction, BAT got a hold of me saying that the auction winner didn't want to pay. Few calls and emails later and I bought a one plane ticket from Chicago to NYC to go get the car. Naturally, when I arrived the car was not in as good a shape as it had been described on BAT. But it was a nogaro/nogaro sport/cold weather package 6 speed avant in ok shape, so I bought it.
This next part of the story is pretty cool in my opinion. I didn't tell pretty much any of my friends that I had found and was flying out to purchase the S4, and I bought it 2 days before the first Midwest show of the year, Euro District just outside of Louisville. So I finished the deal and headed out from New York Thursday night, assuming I would just drive through the night and get to my friends house close to the show the next morning. About an hour into the drive, I pulled over to a WAWA because as a midwesterner I never get a chance to hit a WAWA. I pull off the highway and into the gas station, and there is a decent sized group of volkswagens in the parking lot (Thursday night weekly meet I assumed). One of the guys came over and introduced himself, we chatted a bit, I told him I had just bought the car and was headed to Louisville for a car show. He paused for a second and said "wait you're going to Euro District?? We are just about to head out there!" Unbelievable luck, I found the only group of people headed from New York/Jersey to Louisville, AND they planned on doing to exact same overnight drive as I had planned. Talk about fate huh? So I drove the whole way with a group of VAG owners to Louisville! No one broke down, the only issue was one guy lost a waffle for an RS wheel, sucked but didn't stop us from getting to Louisville in a reasonable time frame. Made it to the show, one of my buddies brought a set of my wheels down so I could swap on at the hotel. It's pretty cool showing up somewhere with a new car and having pretty much no one know that you bought it.
After many beers and a great weekend, I finally made it back to Chicagoland. Now the fun began. I stripped everything that I didn't like off the car and headed to a few u-pull -its to grab parts. Ended up finding a clean interior a4 avant and grabbing the whole bose system, and a lot of clean interior parts to swap back over. Then I swapped out the ST coils for a set of H&R coilovers, depo headlights were replaced with valeo e-codes, and the front bumper was removed in favor of a brand new OEM S4 bumper and a full front respray. After that, I just enjoyed the car for spring/summer/fall.
During the fall, I decided that I wanted to bag the car, so I ordered a set of bags and purchased a 3H kit second hand. Spent about 2 weeks putting the airride together and onto the car, and then headed out to Daytona for Simply Clean.
That brings this up to the end of 2017, I'll do another installment in a day or 2.
Bookmarks