Update on events from September through this last weekend
I started work on widening out the front RS4 bumper cover. This took a solid couple weeks of work as there was more damage or general weird things going on with this bumper than I originally noticed. I made cuts on the lower sections just behind the fog light area and split this cut out a little bit. Stretched it open and clamped it off to add some material back. Holes were drilled to help the new plastic (urethane) take and bite in better and it was added from the back. Looks like a bit of a mess til it's cleaned up and sanded down.
So here's where the fun started on the driver side corner. This first pic is of a normal RS4 bumper corner. Thanks to a friend on here for lending me that one to use as a model and for parts (it was half a bumper).
Here's that same corner on mine. Clearly missing some material like it was shaved off. I think this had something to do with being mounted on an S4 prior to this. They never really fit 100% perfect to a narrow body from what I've seen.
After a lot of adding material, sculpting, and sanding to shape I finally got it looking right again. I think it was roughly 3/4" that was missing from this end.
Other fun on the front bumper included a missing tab for mounting the center grille. Same process as the corner... just add back material and sculpt it into shape! Also a little crack I cut out and filled.
Received new Raxles axles. I've got 4 newly rebuilt axles for the car!
Thanks to Jens in Germany again for some new material for the RS4 seats. I've got the black leather Recaro B5 RS4 seats (imported from UK) and at some point will be reupholstering the center sections with brand new original Hi-Tech material. That's the only portion of the Hi-Tech seats different from the all black leather, so should be the same once center areas and piece of the backs are reupholstered. I'll have a shop do this since I'm no upholstery expert. May be later next year though, not sure yet.
Back to the front bumper. I primered just the sections I worked on since the rest really was in good shape. I filled some tiny pitting in the paint with putty, but that's all I needed to do in the other sections I didn't primer over and sand out.
Ready to paint, finally! Starting to see why body and paint work costs so much!? Also painted the washer caps and some tiny parts from the gas filler cap hinge.
And the results:
Obviously I had to fit in the new grilles to see how they'd look at first chance I got
That's it for this iteration of the booth! Say goodbye! All done painting the separated parts from the chassis. The shell/chassis is all that's left!
And first look at fitting up some of the newly painted parts
Unfortunately, I'm pretty unhappy about this next picture. Colorado salvage rebuild requirements tell me I must stamp "Rebuilt from salvage" into the driver's portion of the B pillar in lettering no smaller than 1/4". I started by smashing in some steel lettering to spell this out, but I started seeing it denting the panel lightly more than actually stamping the letters in. So, I went for plan b which was to retrace my lettering with a dremel and etch in the letters by hand. So I was able to save that decently well. I still hate seeing this bs in the door jamb. I've got a plan though! Once it's inspected and I've got my rebuilt title I'll be ordering a new vin sticker and it's going directly over that pile of crap. And if I still don't like how it looks, I'll waste more time sanding it down, filling it with putty and smoothing it over, then blend in a section to respray the area.
And back to the shell! Stripped back down and working on sanding the primer on roof and rear quarter panels. Haven't touched this thing in a while since I was off painting every separate part.
I also found in the middle of this that the front RS4 seats mount to the car entirely differently due to being a manual forward and back movement, not electric (though every other movement is electric for some odd reason). So it mounts to a single rail in the middle of the floor that only manual seat A4s would have. See the difference between the mounting in the bottom of the S4 seat in first pic and RS4 seat in second pic? At some point I'll be having my main RS parts source in the UK (Steve, who I'm sure many of you know) cut out some brackets from the floor to send me. I'll need to get with my neighbor to borrow a welder and weld them in to the floor. Will find some covers to cover the S4 bolt hole and carpet cutouts.
Next up since I've finished sanding the shell is clean the hell out of it for paint! I'll paint these wheel wells on the back later, but the idea of cleaning everything first is you don't want a single spec of dirt blowing off a dirty area while you're painting and into your fresh coats. I'll go back later and need to grind some rust bubbles I found under where the strut mounts sit down to clean metal. I'll do sealer and maybe paint the wells. Depends how much paint I've got left at that point seeing as it costs me about $730 a gallon :) About a $110 dollar per gallon increase from summer 2021 when I bought the first gallon.
Anyhow, got to work this past week scrubbing everything. Sprayed a degreaser first, then went to town scrubbing with a carpet brush and soapy water. Results cleaning those areas speak for themselves.
I removed the last few items impeding into where I need to paint. The evap lines that run the length of the car along with the fuel lines. The 3 you see in this picture came out along with the other evap/emissions line on driver side. Found where these hard fuel lines connect to the lines coming from the gas tank and fuel filter where in pretty bad condition in the rubber soft sections. I'll be finding some sort of replacement. 1 of the 3 lines is available new from Audi Tradition only. So I'm even looking at possibly buying the fuel line kit from THE-Tuner (meant for dual pumps) and ditching half the kit. Otherwise I'll make my own lines and filter connections or see if I can get the fittings replaced somehow where they crimp the soft hose sections in.
Final update for this time around... I bought a full set of original B7 RS4 brakes for front and rear! I was planning 17z first, but ditched that plan. Going with the big boy brakes! 8 piston and use 2 piece 365mm rotors up front. Rear upgrades to 324mm 2 piece rotors. Currently sourcing some slotted rotors for these. I'll post a pic of the rear calipers in my next update. I just cleaned them up last night. Currently cleaning around the engine bay, as that will be first up to paint on the shell. I'll build a new booth around the shell and should be painting within a couple weeks here I hope!
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