Not so many mods so far....
I remember with my E46, I spent a lot of money modding small stuff from the begining... like pedals, angel eyes, bulbs, and after I had spent a lot of money, my car still looked stock...
I decided I didnt want to do that with the A3.
So ive held off on the smaller mods, hoping to get the bigger ones done first...
One of the first mods i wanted to do was coilovers... however, I contacted Tein for coilovers, found out they didnt have any, and offered to R&D my car, in exchange for
free coilovers.
They agreed, but told me I had to wait 3 months before they could schedule me to go in... I agreed, saving $1000 was worth the 3 month wait... They told me they would reserve me a spot.
So... when the time came to schedule me... they contacted me and told me... THEY DIDNT NEED ME ANYMORE!
Eventually, I got scheduled to go in for springs... So thats coming July 20th.... I'm still waiting...
I'm planning on selling the springs after I get them and buying some FK Coils...
So... without the suspension, I cant get wheels, without wheels I cant get a bodykit, without the bodykit I cant get exhaust... So everything is being held up by suspension at this point.
IMO suspension is the most important part to a modded car, the stance can make or break the look of a car....
So while I've been waiting on Tein, I've been doing some small mods, here they are with some quick pics and descriptions:
Mods:
Interior:- S-Line Aluminum Vent Bezels
- I traded a guy in Norcal for these... I guess he didnt like the silver, and wanted to trade for my black plastic ones... Love these, they match the interior well, since it has lots of silver and aluminum accents
Exterior:- Color Matched Reflector
- Stock is the really ugly orange... due to pointless U.S. safety regulations. I figured the easiest thing to do was wrap them with vinyl, since its too small and not worth getting it professionally painted, since it would probably chip anyways. At first all i had was black vinyl, used for my E46. So i used that temporarily while i ordered some white vinyl, it looked better than the orange at least. After I got the white, i wrapped them, and they matched pretty well... not 100% perfect, but 75%. Close enough... The piece is small anyways.
- 20% Tint
- My friend Andrew Ho from UCI hooked me up with some tint.... I got 20% all around, and really wanted to get my windshield tinted either 50% or 35%, though the place I went to wanted too much money to do that... I'll probably get it done in the future when I'm more modded. No pics of just this, but you'll see in later pics.
- Debadged
- This was a pain, the tape was so sticky and got everywhere, but the finished product looks good. Also, at the time, I was thinking that the A3 was a pretty "rare" car, and wanted people to look at it and ask "what kinda car is that?!" Although I'm seeing more and more A3s on the road... so i guess that wont really happen. Pic not really necessary... but I'll provide one anyways, for comprehensiveness.
- Blacked Out OEM 17” (6-7-07)
- This was fun. my friend Andrew (again) blacked out his own wheels, and suggested doing mine. I had it photoshopped, and it looked pretty good, so I thought "why not," so I decided to do it just for the hell of it, for fun while I wait for real wheels. 3 Krylon Semi-Flat Black spraypaint cans and lots of sandpaper later, i was totally happy with the results... I loved it! Props to Kimi and Andrew for the help! Although we messed up on one wheel (*cough*andrew*cough*), and had to redo it, which i redid this last weekend.
- Blacked Out Grill (6-24-07)
- I was planning on getting the Oettinger grill, but I dont think I'm gonna get that till when I get my bodykit, so I painted this, which turned out pretty well for a temporary solution. I used Rustoleum Semi-Gloss Black. The Audi bumper is the hardest thing ever to remove, not like the BMW's. It took like 20+ screws, and a bunch of them were HIDDEN!! WTF! The BMW bumpers are SO much easier to remove.
- Yellow Fog Light Lens (6-15-07)
- This was really easy, just a yellow film I stuck on the fogs... Easily removeable if i didnt like it... but i do. I've always liked the blue headlights with yellow fogs. Speaking of blue headlights... I wanted 8000k HIDs, and ordered some on ebay for like 60$. However, turns out, my car uses some rare bulbs that cost more like 200$. What a pain... I'll prob get that in the future...
- CF Mirror Covers
- I got these like last week, and the fitment on the passenger side is perfect, it just snaps on. Although the driver side isnt that great, and needs some pressure. Its ok though, should be fine with some double sided tape.... Right now the problem is that my stock mirrors are white and the covers dont cover up ALL the white... so i need black mirrors.... Theyre not installed yet... I'm going to either buy some oem black mirrors, or paint them... we'll see.
Engine:- Forge Atmospheric Blow-Off Valve (3-9-07)
- I've always loved the "Pshhhh" blowoff valve sound of turbo cars... thats a big reason why I got the Audi in the first place... So i had to have it! Many Audi/VWers hate the sound, because they think its "ricey" or something. But hell, its my car, and I like the sound... So i'm gonna enjoy it! This thing was a pain in the ass to install! Its pretty basic, but its so hard to get your tools working well in the cramped underside of the car... my whole body was under the car.... I used jacks to be safe, but damn it was scary... If the car fell, my head would basically explode like a watermellon (or egg!)
- EIP Intake w/ Bi-Valve (6-24-07)
- I like this intake because it allows me to keep the stock engine cover... The other intake options make you remove the engine cover... and the Audi engine bare is a ugly thing! However, the cover is PITA to remove!!! I broke it in two spots!! But its ok, because i fixed one spot, and the other spot is unnoticeable. After installing, i noticed the car seemed really easy to accelerate, and even quicker.... although I dont know if this was due to me driving the FX35 over the last week.... probably.... But yeah, the car seems faster, and its a bit louder.... Although I wish it was even louder at high RPMs. I wanted a loud roar like I got in my E46.... I might change this out for a different intake... Oh yeah, when I got the intake, the finish was a really raw, unfinished metal... so I spraypainted the top half black... looks better now... The bottom half is still raw metal, but its not as noticeable.
So here is the car as she sits now....
Lots more to come so stay tuned...
