belms4's Silver Auto Avant Conversion to Noggy 6 spd Widebody Build Thread

[Danza]

Congrats on getting the car back, looks good

[belms4]

Okay, got the unibody all primered up on December 4th! Finally had everything sanded/scuffed on it to where I wanted it. I ended up spraying the roof, rear quarter panels, rocker panels, everything on the sides right up to the spot welded door jambs, and all around the windshield. So amazing to finally be able to see the new body lines and really get my first look at those rear quarter panels all in one uniform color even if it is just primer gray.

Pretty much just been block sanding and doing putty work straight through til now. A few low spots showed up on the roof after blocking it, so they got a thin putty layer on top. I also got a bunch of pinholes that appeared in the primer on the rear quarter panels. Not sure what that was about, these were really the only panels the body shop fully prepped and not me (I did my usual cleaning prep for spraying on them but that's it), so maybe they used something I was unaware of that reacted a bit with the dtm primer or some sort of impurities were left mixed in there. Used a razor blade and went through and filled all the pinholes with putty as well though so all taken care of now. Can't just spray more primer over them to fill them because primer is too thick and you'll just end up with air cavities underneath, they won't fill in, so that's exactly what glazing putty is made for.

Most everything is leveled and blocked to 320 grit for now. I'm scuffing the rocker panels, door jambs, and windshield frame currently. Will probably need some putty around the windshield frame to get it all leveled too. I had some good scratches left in the metal from the cutting wire when removing the old windshield. Primer wasn't enough to fill them evenly. No big deal there, should finish that up in the coming days, just want that level so my new windshield will eventually seal properly without an air gap. I'll do my final sanding over the roof and panels to 400 grit and do another 3 coats of primer, then repeat the block sanding... 240 (if necessary), 320, 400 grit. I think that second round of primer should be all that's needed then the unibody will be ready for sealer and paint!

It will be on to doing final repairs and then primer over the 4 doors and front fenders from there. At some point I need to primer the rear bumper as well. Then block sand all those panels by hand. Front bumper is probably going to be painted separately later on once the car is closer to together. Haven't totally decided yet, but we'll see. It's in great shape, but it was narrowed for the s4 body, so I'm widening it back out. It had sections cut (done professionally) so I'll have to cut the bottom and get it widened to where I want it, then bond it back together adding a small amount of material back. So I may wait to do this til when the car is together so it's fit to the car assembled. Other option is see if I can mock up enough parts to the frame like the radiator support/carrier and fenders with no engine and see if I can fit the bumper to it well enough to be able to know how much material to add back and bend it. Obviously can't just blindly go cutting it and adding an unknown amount of material back and hoping it'll fit later!

For now, here's some pics after primer and during the block sanding process. I'm loving seeing the body lines now if I haven't stated that enough times yet!



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[wbrunner23]

Looks good so far - I applaud you for taking on so much of the finishing work.

I personally think it would make more sense to sell the narrowed RS4 front and buy another. Why add another job to the list when somebody will pay good money for what you have...

[MetalMan]

Looks good so far - I applaud you for taking on so much of the finishing work.

I personally think it would make more sense to sell the narrowed RS4 front and buy another. Why add another job to the list when somebody will pay good money for what you have...

Agreed with all of this. For all the narrowbody guys who own a non-narrowed RS4 bumper, with any luck you might be able to find someone to swap.

[belms4]

Looks good so far - I applaud you for taking on so much of the finishing work.

I personally think it would make more sense to sell the narrowed RS4 front and buy another. Why add another job to the list when somebody will pay good money for what you have...

Thanks, it's been one hell of a project and learning process. One long project doing it all solo too. I think I'm in the longest portion now of mindless sanding, more primer, more sanding.

I've been looking and put it out there that I'd be willing to swap with a couple people that were looking for narrowed bumpers if they find a wide front bumper in great condition but nothing yet. It's going to be hard to find anything in as good of condition as the narrowed one I have. Many still around have pretty heavy damage. I was originally going to fit it to the narrow body avant is how I ended up with it. Maybe you're right though and I should just make an ad and see what's out there. I need to be sure I can get a wide bumper cover before I get rid of the narrowed one though. This would be a score for anyone looking for a narrowed bumper, it just needs to be paint matched to their car and that's it.

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[bshanna]

never get tired of seeing the hips! Plus when you get the... front hips? shoulders? on too, i think only the B7 has nicer curves. Congrats on the work, keep it up!

[AudiAR01]

What a project.. awesome conversion.

2003 A6 2.7T 6spd Stage 1+ (motor pulled for stage 3+ upgrades)

2001 Allroad TIP Stage 1
2006 A3 2.0T 6spd Stage 1

[belms4]

Time for another update here, though not a whole ton has happened since my last update. I'm in the slow but steady part of the prep process before painting and I'm a one man show. I finished round 1 of block sanding primer and doing some more minor putty repairs on the unibody. I was able to get the unibody all masked off again and had time Christmas day to spray round 2 of primer over it all. I've since block sanded the whole unibody again and it's finally looking leveled with no major sand-throughs or low spots/dents.

As you see in some of the previous pics I've been taping off body lines in order to sand up to them and not through them so they are accentuated and not rounded off. As I've found, there's a fine line here! The body lines start to look a little too sharp compared to what they were from the factory as I keep doing this over multiple primer layers, so I've needed to round them down a bit in areas so the car doesn't start looking like something from the 80s with squared off body lines haha. Just some of the fun little details I've been working with.

So I've got the unibody sanded and level. It will get a final 600 grit quick pass done closer to when I'm ready to spray sealer, base, and clear coats. I don't want to sand it to sealer-ready now and have it sit collecting dirt, dust, and oils in those scuff valleys for weeks or months, as that will make it hard to get it perfectly clean for that sealer coat. So I'd rather do a final 600 grit pass in the week leading up to sealer.

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I removed the front subframe and all attached components once again. This time disassembled everything that was attached since I'll be replacing just about all of it. I decided to buy aluminum uprights and convert the car to early style there. The aluminum uprights will give me a tiny bit more wheel clearance on the wide wheels I'll undoubtedly be installing later. Shaving a few pounds of weight is nice too. I've got a a full density line front control arm kit (plus end links) from 034 coming. Will be pulling the adjustable 034 upper control arms off my imola S4 before I sell it to put on this avant (yes I have 3 of these cars all stage 3). I've got new metal outer tie rods from 034, a rebuilt steering rack from Rack Doctor, new oem inner tie rods, slotted 330mm stoptech rotors to go with 17z calipers. So everything but the subframe is going to be replaced on front end. 300mm rear slotted stoptech rotors are going on as well with Apikol kit to move out the calipers on rear. I plan to get new kw v3 coilovers ordered soon too.

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For now I'm finishing up prepping the doors for primer. I fully stripped them of parts inside and out and spent a day cleaning them and removing sound deadener pieces. They were ready on the front sides of the panels back from the body shop, but I still had to hand scuff the side sections (are they called door jambs even on the door side?), which takes forever with maroon scuff pads over old hardened clear coat. There was also a lot of damage and rust on the bottom edges of these RS doors. I had to use an angle grinder and take the bottom edges mostly to bare metal and grind the rust away that was forming even under the paint there. They had a poor repaint job done at some point in their life (all the RS panels minus bumpers did) and that complicated things a bit. I'll probably do a rust inhibitor layer before primer just to be sure that doesn't come back. Had to rebuild a couple corners on the doors that had metal damage with putty as well. A lot to do now, but these little items will make things nice in the end once painted. I should be on to the front fenders soon and they also have minor rust areas to take care of before primer. Hood is pretty much set for primer as is.

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In other news... I got a full 3M PPS (paint prep system) in my hands. This kit looks amazing! Essentially gives me mixing/spray gun cups with disposable liners with built in strainers that attach in place of the paint pot on the top of the spray gun. The liner can have the air sucked out and I can even spray the gun upside down without spilling pot contents everywhere and breaking the suction seal on the gun causing sputtering. This should be nice for tight areas underneath I need to get to spraying. Should cut back on cleanup and supplies used too. Takes me close to an hour to cleanup after each spray session and now I'll only need to clean out the gun and throw the liners out. Haven't used it yet, so sorry no pics yet.

Finally, I got my trim set back from paint at the body shop. I had the exterior RS4 window trim pieces that on the doors that came with the widebody kit. Was missing the rear quarter panel window and large upper trim piece from that kit. I had these 2 pieces of trim from each side taken to a body shop after I scuffed them and I had them paint match these pieces to the other RS trim pieces. They came out really nice! Very happy with them. They seem to match near perfectly.

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[Joel_S4]

I didn't realize this was your thread. Super impressed that you're doing a lot of the body work yourself. It's coming along nicely.

[belms4]

I didn't realize this was your thread. Super impressed that you're doing a lot of the body work yourself. It's coming along nicely.

Yeah same idiot half blindly working my way through this project haha! It's a big learning curve to start but I've figured it out pretty well by now. Doing most everything but the rear quarter panel welding myself. So 90% of the body work and painting and 100% of the mechanical side. At some point I'll pickup a welder and learn that too, but I'm beyond the point needing that on this project. I get a lot of satisfaction learning skills, figuring out problems and accomplishing things myself, so might as well spend my free time off work on something I can enjoy for years to come when it's done.

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[Joel_S4]

Lol well I applaud you for taking that on and learning new skills. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing future updates on this car.

[Hiduke73]

If you don’t mind, I’m curious on what they charged you to do the quarters. Assuming you prepped and all they did was weld them in and you did all the rest.

[belms4]

If you don’t mind, I’m curious on what they charged you to do the quarters. Assuming you prepped and all they did was weld them in and you did all the rest.

I gave the cleaned up RS quarter panels to them and they did the measuring, cutting (of original panels), welding, fabrication of a flange near the rear of the rocker panel, fabrication of about a 2" strip welded in between the wheel well and RS panel edge since there is a gap left behind between panels, cavity wax between panels, seam sealer, and foam cavity filler. Also had the roof antenna hole welded closed with a patch and they did repair of the major dents on the RS panels exterior. Maybe $1500 for welding and fabrication only based on my invoice? See image for full breakdown.

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[belms4]

Looks like about time for my monthly update here. Been doing a hell of a lot of work since the last update in mid January.

I guess I'll start with the doors. Though they came back with the exterior surface mostly ready to spray with primer, they needed a ton of work otherwise. I went over all the side door jamb sections and bottoms with scuff pads to get them ready for repaint. I won't be doing primer on the door jamb sections/side of the doors since they don't have damage (mostly). They just need a scuff and spray. I think every single door had some amount of rust on the bottom though along with some major dents. The body shop did some putty over the bottom area, but I really didn't like it and there was still plenty of rust left, so I mostly stripped the bottoms to bare metal and did a layer of putty where needed on damaged sections and rust inhibitor across the rest since some of the crevices I couldn't 100% strip. I also had some corners on the doors that didn't come back well from the shop and I rebuilt/rescultped them with putty. Eventually got them to my liking and set the doors aside to be sprayed later with primer.





On to the never ending fender panel work! So, I started looking close at these and found I wasn't liking the thick layers packed on these. Little did I realize just how thick we were looking at until I decided I didn't like the body shop work on these and I stripped both fenders' full exteriors to bare metal to start over. I wasn't liking that I was finding rust underneath the paint layers, which tells me someone probably repainted these at some point in the past and just said fuck it, and sprayed right over rust spots. So they had to be stripped. I started with a mechanical strip with 40 grit DA sander, but as I went along I found the absolutely crazy number of layers built up on these. They definitely were damaged in the past on the RS4 they came off and may have been repainted twice from the original paint already (very poorly). On top of that, they had a measurably thick layer of filler in some areas that were particularly bad (see pic after partial chemical strip, it's nuts!).

So I moved on to trying a chemical strip that took about 2 full days and probably 8+ coats of Aircraft Remover every few hours. Layer after layer just kept coming off, I was amazed and petrified at the same time. The passenger fender looked like the surface of a golf ball underneath over maybe a quarter to third of the whole panel. I have no idea what could've caused this or if this was some crappy metal work pounding it back out that got it looking like this. Also had many larger dents, including one right on the ridge for the body line above the wheel well. I began work with putty on these doing thin layers and block sanding over and over and over. Took me 4 full nights of work after my day job just to putty and get the passenger side back to mostly leveled. This should workout a lot better though with a thin layer over bare metal to start and not 10+ layers of paint, filler, clear, primer, etc added over 20 years. Resculpting the one body line mentioned took a lot of work. They all had sections of rust I needed to strip from edges along the backside too. Plus I removed the flanges off the bottom where they'd had broken studs and tons of rust. These got a layer of rust inhibitor sprayed over them too. Looks like I was able to save them though!











Here's where you see some of the thickness of the filler put on... smh


Golf ball surface... these are all dents!


After putty work


Driver side didn't need nearly as much putty work


Finally, after all the putty work and rust work I was able to mask them all off and clean them to prep for primer! And over the course of the past week I was able to make a plastic room out of half the garage and spray primer over 8 different panels! 4 doors, 2 fenders, 1 hood, 1 small gas filler door (which was my favorite since it took about 4 seconds to spray and 5 minutes to prep). I'm done with spraying primer for the moment. I'm out of primer and UPS decided to exploded my next gallon coming in the mail and throw it away, so I have to wait on a new shipment here. Last panels to primer will be the 2 sideskirts and the rear bumper cover. Front bumper is mint and may only need small sectional primer coverage where I need to add material back to widen it. Though I have a special flexible polyurethane body filler that may be enough there to get those spots level without primer. We'll see.





New 3m PPS prep system (I love it btw!)






Dried primer




3 more doors with wet primer




All dried in primer (noggy fender is S4 and I didn't paint that one, ignore it)


Prepping the hood


Plastic city


Ready to spray






And the gas door. Can't forget about that one!


Enjoy the pics! Next up will be block sanding every one of these panels until my arms fall off, then I anticipate a third to half of them will need a second spraying of primer and block sanding to get perfect without sand-throughs. My next update on the project with body pics will probably come in March where I'll have reached the 1 year milestone of getting the car and starting the project. Still plenty to come!! I've been collecting parts and working on the mechanical side of things throughout this whole time as well, so maybe I'll dedicate another post to just mechanical updates and the parts collection that's going on. I got a gun and equipment for powder coating in December, so at some point I'll be powder coating the 17z brake calipers I got along with some other small items. Just need to pick up a crappy old oven off someone here in town first and wire up a circuit for 240v here somewhere so I can cure those parts.

[RMode]

a lot of work right there! I've been there...this isn't the enviable part. But man when the color goes on and the assembly begins!

[belms4]

a lot of work right there! I've been there...this isn't the enviable part. But man when the color goes on and the assembly begins!

Yup I'm inching closer! The majority of work is done as far as repairs to all the panels. Good news is I started sanding primer on the really bad fender last night and with the putty done underneath it's looking really smooth. Should be a good sign I may not need further primer coats on as many panels as I'm expecting.

Still gotta figure out a plan for paint. I don't have the space to do all these panels at once so it'll likely be a long couple days of rotating panels in and out of the garage and I may need to build some dollies to roll the chassis out of there once it's dry enough. Likely be spring or even summer when I can do this. Weather here right now is fine for spraying primer but 60 degrees one day followed by snow or temps at or below 0 like we had weeks back would really screw with basecoat spraying. Plus I plan to wet the floors in the garage so they'll attract and stick as much dust out of the air as possible when spraying and I'd end up with a frozen mess this time of year.

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[RMode]

Did you decide on a color yet, or did I miss that?

[belms4]

Nogaro blue. I've had the color already mixed up and a gallon of it ready since around July last year. I'll be spraying part of a test panel here sometime soon to be sure I've got my gun settings and pressures right to come out with the same shade as the factory nogaro blue pearl color.

[sammy78]

Let me get this straight. You, (and RMode he was awesome too), helped me diagnose and locate a misfire and later an electrical issue in my S4 while doing some seriously advanced body and paint work on an S4 with RS4 panels?

If there’s a B5 S4 award, this guys gotta have it.

But seriously I’m impressed. I’ve had a set of quick disconnect bumper clips sitting in my garage for weeks now because I’m too lazy to install them. Couldn’t imagine going into something like this.

I also think a build of this proportion deserves something more extreme than a pair of K04s! But one step at a time haha.

[belms4]

Let me get this straight. You, (and RMode he was awesome too), helped me diagnose and locate a misfire and later an electrical issue in my S4 while doing some seriously advanced body and paint work on an S4 with RS4 panels?

If there’s a B5 S4 award, this guys gotta have it.

But seriously I’m impressed. I’ve had a set of quick disconnect bumper clips sitting in my garage for weeks now because I’m too lazy to install them. Couldn’t imagine going into something like this.

I also think a build of this proportion deserves something more extreme than a pair of K04s! But one step at a time haha.

Lol, much appreciated my man, thanks for the kind words! Happy to help people in any way I can!

It's been a long and difficult journey on the build, but I'm happy I decided to go through with this much myself so far. I do owe everyone an update on this, just been crazy busy between this and work lately (plus my 2 other S4s needed some love!).

I agree on the k04 comment 100%! That's what I've got lined up for now, but I do actually have a spare BF block 2.7T I fully tore down for a rebuild. Once this car is together and running I can put some time and money into the spare engine build. A little preview... Mahle 82.5mm pistons obviously with the block bored to that making it a 2.8L and Pauter rods. I'd been looking at a tial 770r build and fully built supertech 2.8 heads with THE girdle, oil pump, intake manifold, etc. Something that'll rev out much higher and hopefully last. This is a ways out though, so don't get too excited haha! Like you said, one thing at a time!

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[avant1987]

Looks like about time for my monthly update here. Been doing a hell of a lot of work since the last update in mid January.

I guess I'll start with the doors. Though they came back with the exterior surface mostly ready to spray with primer, they needed a ton of work otherwise. I went over all the side door jamb sections and bottoms with scuff pads to get them ready for repaint. I won't be doing primer on the door jamb sections/side of the doors since they don't have damage (mostly). They just need a scuff and spray. I think every single door had some amount of rust on the bottom though along with some major dents. The body shop did some putty over the bottom area, but I really didn't like it and there was still plenty of rust left, so I mostly stripped the bottoms to bare metal and did a layer of putty where needed on damaged sections and rust inhibitor across the rest since some of the crevices I couldn't 100% strip. I also had some corners on the doors that didn't come back well from the shop and I rebuilt/rescultped them with putty. Eventually got them to my liking and set the doors aside to be sprayed later with primer.





On to the never ending fender panel work! So, I started looking close at these and found I wasn't liking the thick layers packed on these. Little did I realize just how thick we were looking at until I decided I didn't like the body shop work on these and I stripped both fenders' full exteriors to bare metal to start over. I wasn't liking that I was finding rust underneath the paint layers, which tells me someone probably repainted these at some point in the past and just said fuck it, and sprayed right over rust spots. So they had to be stripped. I started with a mechanical strip with 40 grit DA sander, but as I went along I found the absolutely crazy number of layers built up on these. They definitely were damaged in the past on the RS4 they came off and may have been repainted twice from the original paint already (very poorly). On top of that, they had a measurably thick layer of filler in some areas that were particularly bad (see pic after partial chemical strip, it's nuts!).

So I moved on to trying a chemical strip that took about 2 full days and probably 8+ coats of Aircraft Remover every few hours. Layer after layer just kept coming off, I was amazed and petrified at the same time. The passenger fender looked like the surface of a golf ball underneath over maybe a quarter to third of the whole panel. I have no idea what could've caused this or if this was some crappy metal work pounding it back out that got it looking like this. Also had many larger dents, including one right on the ridge for the body line above the wheel well. I began work with putty on these doing thin layers and block sanding over and over and over. Took me 4 full nights of work after my day job just to putty and get the passenger side back to mostly leveled. This should workout a lot better though with a thin layer over bare metal to start and not 10+ layers of paint, filler, clear, primer, etc added over 20 years. Resculpting the one body line mentioned took a lot of work. They all had sections of rust I needed to strip from edges along the backside too. Plus I removed the flanges off the bottom where they'd had broken studs and tons of rust. These got a layer of rust inhibitor sprayed over them too. Looks like I was able to save them though!











Here's where you see some of the thickness of the filler put on... smh


Golf ball surface... these are all dents!


After putty work


Driver side didn't need nearly as much putty work


Finally, after all the putty work and rust work I was able to mask them all off and clean them to prep for primer! And over the course of the past week I was able to make a plastic room out of half the garage and spray primer over 8 different panels! 4 doors, 2 fenders, 1 hood, 1 small gas filler door (which was my favorite since it took about 4 seconds to spray and 5 minutes to prep). I'm done with spraying primer for the moment. I'm out of primer and UPS decided to exploded my next gallon coming in the mail and throw it away, so I have to wait on a new shipment here. Last panels to primer will be the 2 sideskirts and the rear bumper cover. Front bumper is mint and may only need small sectional primer coverage where I need to add material back to widen it. Though I have a special flexible polyurethane body filler that may be enough there to get those spots level without primer. We'll see.





New 3m PPS prep system (I love it btw!)






Dried primer




3 more doors with wet primer




All dried in primer (noggy fender is S4 and I didn't paint that one, ignore it)


Prepping the hood


Plastic city


Ready to spray






And the gas door. Can't forget about that one!


Enjoy the pics! Next up will be block sanding every one of these panels until my arms fall off, then I anticipate a third to half of them will need a second spraying of primer and block sanding to get perfect without sand-throughs. My next update on the project with body pics will probably come in March where I'll have reached the 1 year milestone of getting the car and starting the project. Still plenty to come!! I've been collecting parts and working on the mechanical side of things throughout this whole time as well, so maybe I'll dedicate another post to just mechanical updates and the parts collection that's going on. I got a gun and equipment for powder coating in December, so at some point I'll be powder coating the 17z brake calipers I got along with some other small items. Just need to pick up a crappy old oven off someone here in town first and wire up a circuit for 240v here somewhere so I can cure those parts.

Incredibly impressive. My body guy is about where you are, he has gapped all the panels and hard mounted everything for my conversion. Prior to that everything was taken to bare metal, and body worked/epoxy primed, They are getting ready for second prime/sand and then it will see paint. I couldn’t imagine doing it myself, you have my utmost respect. Can’t wait to see it done!


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[belms4]

Incredibly impressive. My body guy is about where you are, he has gapped all the panels and hard mounted everything for my conversion. Prior to that everything was taken to bare metal, and body worked/epoxy primed, They are getting ready for second prime/sand and then it will see paint. I couldn’t imagine doing it myself, you have my utmost respect. Can’t wait to see it done!


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That sounds like we're in almost exactly the same place! I'm currently sanding primer round 2 of most of the panels while the chassis is done with leveling. Just need a final sand to 600 grit on my ready parts and the chassis to ready it for sealer.

I initially looked at an epoxy primer like you too, but since I'm doing the sealer layer I got talked into dtm (direct to metal) primer that's high build and very sandable since I had a lot of repairs. The dtm primer is nice in that it can go direct to metal and be sanded or layered up over the old paint (sanded old paint obviously). Still adheres perfectly fine to the plastics too with adhesion promoter of course. I didn't want to do a different high build primer over the epoxy to sand, so this made it easier on me. Once sealed over it should provide great protection.

So awesome we'll both have noggy rs4 replicas once done! Betting yours will be done first since as you noticed, I'm a 1 man show and it's a night and weekend project pretty much exclusively for me haha.

Any good plans for your interior? I'm redoing the headliner myself in black Alcantara and just bought a full set of oem b5 rs4 black leather seats with heat shipping from the UK soon I'm pretty excited about! Other than that moving my colorMFA converted rs4 mph cluster into the car with black rs handles, black button rs handbrake lever, black perforated leather rs steering wheel and shift knob, and was planning on carbon trim from oCarbon. Curious what other do with their widebody build interiors!

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[belms4]

Here's pics of the seats coming soon!



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[avant1987]

I’ll have to ask my painter about the DTM primer it sounds awesome! He has had the car since October but it’s been a journey, a lot more than just the conversion. We replaced a few structural components when we found out it was hit prior and the previous repair work was to put it frankly, terrible. Audi no longer provides any support for these car so I had to source structural components the old fashioned way at various yards, with a sawzall. I ended up cutting up 3 cars. But we hope it will see paint next week!

He fitted and gapped all the panels this week and it’s coming along beautifully. I can’t wait to see yours done! Dave Paster is the owner/painter of Straightline Autoworks, NJ he has been sharing quite a bit of the progress on his instagram @slawbuilt. If you are interested.

As far as interior. I spent a lot of time wrapping damn near every piece of the car from the pillars up, headliner, center console, etc in charcoal suede. It was intensive but worth it. I have a set of black leather pole position classics for the front seats and managed to source an black leather B5 rs4 rear bench. That’s amazing you landed an complete oem RS interior. I am going to run a euro spec Lamborghini gallardo flat bottom with an airbag from an D3 A8. It’s the same wheels as the b7 rs4 euro flat bottom it just doesn’t have the notch for the badge on the flat bottom portion.

I need to make a thread on all the work that went into this car but here are a few photos as it stands this week. Hopefully providing you with motivation to keep pushing!

We also changed plans on the paint color and it will be painted Porsche club blue/Blau, it’s essentially Nogaro blue without the pearl. I know Porsche uses glasurit for paint but he will be using sikkens, as that is what he is most comfortable spraying. It would be awesome to see them side by side one day to see the subtle difference.

[tjb616]

Saw you car in person yesterday when I was picking up some parts from Dave, avant1987. Really impressive what Dave has done with it. Can't wait to see it finished!

[belms4]

I’ll have to ask my painter about the DTM primer it sounds awesome! He has had the car since October but it’s been a journey, a lot more than just the conversion. We replaced a few structural components when we found out it was hit prior and the previous repair work was to put it frankly, terrible. Audi no longer provides any support for these car so I had to source structural components the old fashioned way at various yards, with a sawzall. I ended up cutting up 3 cars. But we hope it will see paint next week!

He fitted and gapped all the panels this week and it’s coming along beautifully. I can’t wait to see yours done! Dave Paster is the owner/painter of Straightline Autoworks, NJ he has been sharing quite a bit of the progress on his instagram @slawbuilt. If you are interested.

As far as interior. I spent a lot of time wrapping damn near every piece of the car from the pillars up, headliner, center console, etc in charcoal suede. It was intensive but worth it. I have a set of black leather pole position classics for the front seats and managed to source an black leather B5 rs4 rear bench. That’s amazing you landed an complete oem RS interior. I am going to run a euro spec Lamborghini gallardo flat bottom with an airbag from an D3 A8. It’s the same wheels as the b7 rs4 euro flat bottom it just doesn’t have the notch for the badge on the flat bottom portion.

I need to make a thread on all the work that went into this car but here are a few photos as it stands this week. Hopefully providing you with motivation to keep pushing!

We also changed plans on the paint color and it will be painted Porsche club blue/Blau, it’s essentially Nogaro blue without the pearl. I know Porsche uses glasurit for paint but he will be using sikkens, as that is what he is most comfortable spraying. It would be awesome to see them side by side one day to see the subtle difference.

Yeah dtm primer is newer and less work overall, but I'm sure your body shop guy will tell you it's not as good at sealing things over by itself like epoxy would as first layer. That's why I'm doing sealer with it. Neither way is right or wrong, just depends what your plan is and sounds like since you had a lot more of the car taken to bare metal, then epoxy primer followed by high build primer was probably a good choice. I only took the roof, fenders, and part of the rear quarter panels to bare metal plus just small spots on other panels. Majority of the car was da sanded and putty repairs done, then primered over once, twice, even 3 times with sanding between to get it right.

I like that center console! That's a part I've not seen wrapped before, but I like it! Just scares me keeping that area clean when it's not something that can be wiped down anymore haha. Those front seats are nasty! Little sportier than I'm going keeping things more RS4 original, but those are really nice, especially paired with RS4 rear seats. I thought about the carbon fenders too since new oem replacements are pretty much nonexistent, but ultimately was able to save mine after probably spending 2 weeks on those alone melting off the old layers with aircraft remover then putty shaping everything many times over.

At least you're starting with a nogaro wagon! I've got to do all the door frames, engine bay, wheel wells, and even going to respray the trunk area inside under carpet. Adds such a pain to it all cleaning and scuffing all of that then spraying it.

[avant1987]

Saw you car in person yesterday when I was picking up some parts from Dave, avant1987. Really impressive what Dave has done with it. Can't wait to see it finished!

Thank you, you have some crazy plans up your sleeve, I cant wait to see them come to fruition! Dave has had exceptionally high standards, couldn't be happier with choosing him to take on this project.

Yeah dtm primer is newer and less work overall, but I'm sure your body shop guy will tell you it's not as good at sealing things over by itself like epoxy would as first layer. That's why I'm doing sealer with it. Neither way is right or wrong, just depends what your plan is and sounds like since you had a lot more of the car taken to bare metal, then epoxy primer followed by high build primer was probably a good choice. I only took the roof, fenders, and part of the rear quarter panels to bare metal plus just small spots on other panels. Majority of the car was da sanded and putty repairs done, then primered over once, twice, even 3 times with sanding between to get it right.

I like that center console! That's a part I've not seen wrapped before, but I like it! Just scares me keeping that area clean when it's not something that can be wiped down anymore haha. Those front seats are nasty! Little sportier than I'm going keeping things more RS4 original, but those are really nice, especially paired with RS4 rear seats. I thought about the carbon fenders too since new oem replacements are pretty much nonexistent, but ultimately was able to save mine after probably spending 2 weeks on those alone melting off the old layers with aircraft remover then putty shaping everything many times over.

At least you're starting with a nogaro wagon! I've got to do all the door frames, engine bay, wheel wells, and even going to respray the trunk area inside under carpet. Adds such a pain to it all cleaning and scuffing all of that then spraying it.

Yeah my back might hate me for the seats haha, I was inspired to go the OEM+ route. The B5 RS4 clubsport model, which Audi only made a few of, came from the factory with recaro pole position ABEs. I believe they used the same seats that came as a factory option in the Porsche 964/993 RS.

A little more on the clubsport model here, aside from different seats, I believe it received black window trim, black exhaust tips and black roof rails, the OG black optics package haha, as well as larger brakes which were also offered with a ceramic option and stiffer suspension- https://buy.motorious.com/articles/n...-allegedly-60k the youtube walk around and driving video of this car is pretty darn cool!

Doing all of the jambs, wheel wells, and some of the interior certainly sounds arduous, but its a testament to the level of detail you are willing to go to, to do the job right. It will be more than worth it! Dave will be spraying all of the jambs, but we are leaving the interior as is. Congratulations on savings your fenders, I was not that lucky after buying two different sets that turned out to be either muddy or have hidden rust, I settled with the carbon wings for a price less than what used OEM are sold for, should have done it from the start... But the fitment was fantastic so I highly recommend them to anyone who may be looking for RS fenders in the future, especially with OEM parts becoming even more rare

Good luck! I will be watching closely, I cant wait to see it done!

[belms4]

Thank you, you have some crazy plans up your sleeve, I cant wait to see them come to fruition! Dave has had exceptionally high standards, couldn't be happier with choosing him to take on this project.



Yeah my back might hate me for the seats haha, I was inspired to go the OEM+ route. The B5 RS4 clubsport model, which Audi only made a few of, came from the factory with recaro pole position ABEs. I believe they used the same seats that came as a factory option in the Porsche 964/993 RS.

A little more on the clubsport model here, aside from different seats, I believe it received black window trim, black exhaust tips and black roof rails, the OG black optics package haha, as well as larger brakes which were also offered with a ceramic option and stiffer suspension- https://buy.motorious.com/articles/n...-allegedly-60k the youtube walk around and driving video of this car is pretty darn cool!

Doing all of the jambs, wheel wells, and some of the interior certainly sounds arduous, but its a testament to the level of detail you are willing to go to, to do the job right. It will be more than worth it! Dave will be spraying all of the jambs, but we are leaving the interior as is. Congratulations on savings your fenders, I was not that lucky after buying two different sets that turned out to be either muddy or have hidden rust, I settled with the carbon wings for a price less than what used OEM are sold for, should have done it from the start... But the fitment was fantastic so I highly recommend them to anyone who may be looking for RS fenders in the future, especially with OEM parts becoming even more rare

Good luck! I will be watching closely, I cant wait to see it done!

That's one hell of a car, I'd never heard of the clubsport model. What I find interesting is they went with painted mirrors and that looks exactly like the dark anodized S4 window trim. I'd bet it actually is, I know the S4 trim is dark anodized. I had thought about going with a black optics look doing the back Audi rings black, painting the window trim black, and repainting the black roof rails that came on my S4. But against nogaro I liked the lighter look against that deep paint color and got brand new RS4 aluminum mirror caps, bought RS4 roof rails that came shipped in a big drain pipe from UK, and as you may have seen in my previous posts, I had part of the S4 window trim repainted to match the RS4 window trim I had that came with the doors.

Looking forward to watching your build progress as well! Keep us all updated!

[Alfabruce]

Need more progress photos ;)

[belms4]

Need more progress photos ;)

Haha you shall receive soon! Like maybe tonight if I get some time to upload the pics from the past month+ and do a writeup.

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[belms4]

Lots of new photos for everyone today! Mostly been doing more primer followed by more sanding rounds and followed by more primer and sanding where needed. These pics go back from my last update onward, so about mid February through the past few days.

Rear bumper prep for first round of primer over the repairs where you can see the plastic weld done across a crack and polyurethane flexible/sandable filler over top. Lots of pitting in the original paint underneath behind the wheels so that was sanded to bare plastic.







Came out pretty damn nice!



More panels. Looks like 2nd round of primer after sanding and final repairs.



Walbro 450 pump with all new wiring I received.



3m plastic repair time! Mostly broken out tabs I had to rebuild on the sideskirts. This stuff works amazingly well and comes out hardened just like the original plastic. Definitely just as strong.









4 door handles getting primer along with some of the RS fender brackets.



Doors starting to really look smooth after round 2 of primer/repairs. Looks like I may be down to final sanding before sealer and paint on some of these.



Round 2 of primer on rear bumper after 1st round was sanded. Sideskirts got their first round of primer in there and 2nd round of primer to rear spoiler.




Ended up buying a brand new trunk hatch license plate panel via the amazing Jens in Germany (came from Audi Tradition). Also able to get a new replacement to the somewhat mangled fender bracket you see here. Jens is also responsible for the brand new RS mirrors I received!




Been getting more nice days outside so was able to spray primer outdoors on one especially nice spring day here in the Denver area. That's round 2 of primer after sanding round 1 on the sideskirts.



Finally started in the past week looking at fitting the front RS bumper and preparing to do the widening on it (since it was narrowed previously). So I got the radiator support mounted up with RS bumper posts. I'm loving how my fenders are looking after all the repairs and sanding and primer! That passenger side was pretty trashed, but it's really looking smooth now and I think I finally got that wheel arch edge shaped properly (was a large dent right across the shaped edge).




Threw on the sideskirts and door sills just for the hell of it to take a picture. Nice little preview of later when it's done.



Sanding round 2 of hood primer.

[narth327]

Ended up buying a brand new trunk hatch license plate panel via the amazing Jens in Germany (came from Audi Tradition). Also able to get a new replacement to the somewhat mangled fender bracket you see here. Jens is also responsible for the brand new RS mirrors I received!

Great build, I love the detail!

couple of questions

1) how'd you get the part numbers of the RS4 bits, like these brackets? i am missing them and have been trying to find the part numbers!
2) who is jens and how do i also get some of these parts?

[lowestA4]

I would like to leave one hint after reviewing the latest pictures (might be helpful for anyone else doing this conversion):

Make sure the door hinges are not too much worn on any doors. It is a popular issue on these vehicles that the doors are damaging the rare RS4 plastic door sills as there is not much clearance in between of door sills and doors! In worst case the doors will permanently slide over the sills. This can happen even to the rear doors. I do remember your door sills were still in decent shape so be careful here.

[belms4]

Great build, I love the detail!

couple of questions

1) how'd you get the part numbers of the RS4 bits, like these brackets? i am missing them and have been trying to find the part numbers!
2) who is jens and how do i also get some of these parts?

Well I happened to have all of them (some damage to 1 pictured), so it was easy to read the part numbers off them haha. I'd say about half the front fender brackets can be transferred from the S4 and there's about 3 I can think of specific to the RS4. I can get you the parts numbers later this evening if you want them. I also use 7zap.com a lot to check out parts diagrams for the RS4. Many are still available via Audi Tradition, but not all. There is an oddball bracket/flange on the passenger side bottom of the fender where I'm taking it to a shop to weld a new stud on since I can't find a replacement anywhere.

Jens is "lowestA4" in the post between ours here. You'd have to ask him if he is able to help get you parts through Tradition, or I can see if next time I get parts from Germany I can have some extras added in my shipment to reship and sell to you. I've done that for some others on this forum.

[belms4]

I would like to leave one hint after reviewing the latest pictures (might be helpful for anyone else doing this conversion):

Make sure the door hinges are not too much worn on any doors. It is a popular issue on these vehicles that the doors are damaging the rare RS4 plastic door sills as there is not much clearance in between of door sills and doors! In worst case the doors will permanently slide over the sills. This can happen even to the rear doors. I do remember your door sills were still in decent shape so be careful here.

Funny enough I looked over my hinges last week and got all the part numbers together. They aren't too worn, but I may replace them anyhow since it would be such a pain to replace them later and have to realign all the doors again... so I may have some new parts to speak with you about soon :)

[narth327]

Well I happened to have all of them (some damage to 1 pictured), so it was easy to read the part numbers off them haha. I'd say about half the front fender brackets can be transferred from the S4 and there's about 3 I can think of specific to the RS4. I can get you the parts numbers later this evening if you want them. I also use 7zap.com a lot to check out parts diagrams for the RS4. Many are still available via Audi Tradition, but not all. There is an oddball bracket/flange on the passenger side bottom of the fender where I'm taking it to a shop to weld a new stud on since I can't find a replacement anywhere.

Jens is "lowestA4" in the post between ours here. You'd have to ask him if he is able to help get you parts through Tradition, or I can see if next time I get parts from Germany I can have some extras added in my shipment to reship and sell to you. I've done that for some others on this forum.

Yes, if you could get the p/ns. Ill check out 7zap.com, my problem is I dont know what to look for if i dont know its missing. /fail

[belms4]

Been hard at work over the past weeks and have 50 new pictures for everyone! I'm happy to report I'm now painting! Only took 14 months to get here. The pics in this post start chronologically around April 13 through today.

Guide coat as I work up in sanding grit on the primer.



This bracket for the passenger RS fender was in a bit of rough shape to start. You'll see how this thing progresses as the pics go on. There is a threaded stud broken off of it.




All cleaned up next to the matching other side already primered. I had a friend's shop weld in a bolt to use as a stud.




My laughably in need of a bath helper Bernie



Sideksirt guide coat and sanding




Wet primer and spot primer for minor touch ups on sand-through areas.









That mangled bracket all primered




Found it really hard to scuff these door hinges and brackets with scuff pads by hand. So I picked up a blasting cabinet and soda blaster from harbor freight. Worked really nicely for prepping these parts and pulling just enough material off. Sadly I missed taking pics after blasting and before painting.





RS4 seats have arrived from the UK!




Ended up building my own paint booth! PVC pipes and plastic sheeting. Used fans and hvac air filters to keep cross air flow going to pull the overspray out of the air and out of the garage. Really worked near perfect!




Bolts that were painted silver all blasted and ready for nogaro paint. Brackets and hinges ready and hung up.




Ready to paint. Only a few items required lol



Interesting before I stirred the paint it was a milky white. Probably took 20+ minutes of just stirring to finally mix it.



Too busy running around and mixing and pouring during the first spray to get pics during the process, but here was shortly after. I did 1 layer of black sealer and a wet on wet application of 2 basecoat layers, followed by 2 clear coats layers. Really not bad for my first time spraying any of those 3 before now.







I'm loving the pearl in there






Round 2 of painting starting with the RS spoiler. Also door handles and more brackets.





The 1 pic I had time for after spraying black sealer before basecoat.



Clear coat on the spoiler doesn't look too bad on the edges. I think in general on these parts at least on the last layer of clear coat I went a little too light. Meaning the gun was too far away or I moved too fast over the part. I did 3 basecoats and 3 clear coats. Actually a 4th clear coat on the spoiler top specifically so it's built up nice and deep so I can cut and buff that orange peel down. I started with these smaller parts so I could get my bearings on how to set and move the spray guns when doing base and clear coats. So I'm picking up more info as I go along.







Good indicator here I needed to go heavier on the final clear coat layer, but this can be easily fixed. I'm happy overall!



Should look closer to this part around the keyhole.



And that bracket I keep showing in its final form!




I'll be taking down the booth for now. Next up is finishing the final 600 grit sanding on more of the body and panels and I'll rebuild the booth bigger over the whole car next. May take some time til I'm ready there. Other option as long as I can keep spraying on good dry days around 75-80 degrees is do the car part by part in the smaller booth until I'm ready for the chassis as a whole. I'll give it some thought, but after 2 uses I at least need to change filters and plastic on my booth and clean up the exit fan.

[wstpride92]

looks great keep it coming!

[Joel_S4]

I'm always impressed with every update. Looking forward to seeing more!

[belms4]

What have guys on here done with subframes to recoat them? I pulled off the rear subframe finally. It was basically the last part left on the car. Surface rust in some areas but nothing bad that's eaten away at it at this point. I cleaned it up and was planning to have it powder coated professionally. It's a bigger part than I coat at home.

Some people claim powder coating isn't the way to go with a subframe since the coating is flexible enough that unlike paint if it gets moisture under it through a chip it will hold it in and it will keep eating away at the part. The thought there is paint would flake off instead and not hold moisture inside.

I was considering powder coating, then scuffing up the powder coat and applying a 2k raptor bedliner over the top of the powder coat. Basically make it as durable as possible. Anyone have experience trying something like that with parts that are constantly exposed to rocks and weather like a subframe?



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