cort
Texas Boy
Whats up guys.
I guess I'll introduce myself. I'm Cort.
I've been a dubber since I was old enough to toddle. I grew up in all over the world and in Germany for 8 years, I now live in Texas, and own an Audi S3. I've owned three baywindows (aircooled VW Busses), an 89 Golf GL, 2002 25th Anniversary GTi, an 87 GTi which I VR'ed from a 92 SLC Corrado. So yeah, you could say I'm kinda a dubber.
Anyway, I found this site via edition38, and was told to check it out.
Here's what it looked like when I first got it. Thats me next to it.
2nd Car show I took it to at H2ointernational '06 Thats over 1200 miles from Texas to Ocean City, Maryland.
Didn't really change anything on the car for over a year because at the time I had A. Gotten married B. Gotten divorced C. Built the mkII VR D. Sold the MkII
Then H2ointernational '07 came around... And yeah, I got in a lil bit in of trouble. Its a really long story, but long story.short ..I wrecked the S3 up there. I'm sure alot of you know about this already, and I'd rather not go into details about it. We all make mistakes, and it's the way we learn from them that judges us. It was almost two years ago, and I'd like to let sleeping dogs lie.
Sooo....
Well, let me explain a little bit about the front bumper/front end. I was in a pretty bad wreck about two years ago, and the whole front end basically got smashed up pretty good. I broke a headlight, front bumper was ripped off all together, busted my radiator, passenger side intercooler, some front fender dents, and a motor mount.
Since my car isn't sold in America, I had to call on Tmtuning to do a big order for me. Now, as some of you may know, TMtuning is kinda like a middle-man organzation for us americans. They basically just order from the manufacturers there, and get their stuff shipped stateside. That being said, I ended up ordering my front bumper from an outfit called "rs4-trade" who specifically makes RS4 replicas for the 8L A3 and S3's. They are kinda hard to get a hold of, and keep in contact with and I had to wait over 3 weeks before I even got word that they were getting started on it.
Also, the one company that Tmtuning doesn't really deal with is FK automotive. Well it figures that the only set of headlights I liked were from FK. I was going for an all black headlight housing, and considering the fact that I had the 2000-two piece style headlights, I wanted the smoother one piece "facelift" look. OEM projectors are over 1300 euro new, and I just didn't have that kind of cash at that moment, so I waited for 4 months on back order for my headlights from FK. So, the reason I waited for so long was because I specifically ordered "Ohne Leuchtringe" Black headlights. Basically that means that its without Angel eyes, I had FK angel eyes on my old MkIV and didn't think it was that great after owning it. Long story short, Tmtuning received my headlights, and didn't open the box... I got black headlights with angel eyes.... Not exactly happy about that, but whatever. Then I popped in a 6k HID kit for the projectors. Then ordered "mercury" style bulbs for the turn signals that are silver when off, and yellow when illuminated. Then I got the 6k match LED for the city lights.... Thats about all the info on the headlights.
The grill was a mattig 3 bar grill that didn't fit my bumper because the RS-4 style grill opening is NOT the same as an OEM S3. Therefore we had to cut and mold the bumper around the grill to get it to fit. I also have OEM RS4 fogs and lower grills to match the bumper.
Now, for the hood. First and foremost, let me start by saying. From the moment I saw my first boser hood when I lived in germany, waiting for the train and heard a VR6 mkIII come around the corner and lock its angry eyes at me... I was in love. I've had a boser style hood on my old mkIV, and I knew as soon as I was going to have to do body work to the hood a boser was in the making. The creator of my hood, is one of the best in the business, he's a personal friend of mine, and has built a few magazine article VW's. He is the one who got my car when it was wrecked, and we both knew that this was going to be a long slow build. I discussed at great length how I wanted my hoodline to look, and he followed through perfectly. We made the orignal base out of tape, then cardboard, then cut a piece of metal to match the tape and cardboard, pounded the metal till it had the shape we wanted, and then tack welded it to the hood, grinded down the welds, smoothed, and painted.
Now, for the rear, I shaved all the badges on the back, and bought a glass "plug" to replace the rear wiper arm to give the car a "smooth and clean" look. Since the car was in order for a full respray I decided to change the rear OEM paint scheme. I painted the oem gray to match in brilliant black. I also had had the previous crappy tint job I did myself removed, and redone.
From this...
To this:
The sides got pretty knicked up too, replaced the side markers with new tinted side markers too, I broke a side molding and trim piece, and had some one throw a cinder block at me. True story... Pics for proof, look just below the window.
Just as I did with the back, I painted the side grey sideskirts to match with brilliant black.
Since I had also destroyed one of my Avus wheels in the process of the wreck, I had decided to build a set of wheels. My good friend in Texas had a set of widened steelies on his MkII, and I absolutely loved them. Now, I knew the S3 had the same brake setup as the 25th Anniversary, which I had before, and I knew that only New Beetle Steel Wheels would clear the calipers since they are 16", so I bought a set of Beetle steelies from a friend of mine in Ohio, and had him take off the tires, and ship them to an outfit in New Jersey that widens wheels. They are 6.5" stock, so I had the fronts widened to 8" and the rears to 9". From that point, I had them then shipped to my body shop, where they paint matched the steelies with Brilliant Black.
Then I had to decide on tires (thats right, with an I :lol: ) anyway, On my 25th aniversary, I had stretch and poke, and that was back in '05... The trend hadn't really caught on yet, and I caught a lot of heat for being that wide. Didn't really bother me too much now, considering everyone and there brother is doing it now.
Annnnyway, I kinda like being new and exciting and trying new things. Therefore I'm going for a look that NO one is doing in the VW/Audi crowd. I'm going to go big and BEEFY tires. The exact opposite of poke and stretch, tuck and THICK. I wanted to have my tires come from germany, so I ordered Dunlop Sport Maxx's which is the same "official" tire of the DTM circuit racing, so I figured that was the way to go. On my 16x8's I ran a 205/55 and on my 16x9's I'm running a 225/55. I really like the way it sits, and its not for everyone, for sure. But man, this thing handles, and they are actually not loud at ALL!
I guess I'll introduce myself. I'm Cort.
I've been a dubber since I was old enough to toddle. I grew up in all over the world and in Germany for 8 years, I now live in Texas, and own an Audi S3. I've owned three baywindows (aircooled VW Busses), an 89 Golf GL, 2002 25th Anniversary GTi, an 87 GTi which I VR'ed from a 92 SLC Corrado. So yeah, you could say I'm kinda a dubber.
Anyway, I found this site via edition38, and was told to check it out.
Here's what it looked like when I first got it. Thats me next to it.
2nd Car show I took it to at H2ointernational '06 Thats over 1200 miles from Texas to Ocean City, Maryland.
Didn't really change anything on the car for over a year because at the time I had A. Gotten married B. Gotten divorced C. Built the mkII VR D. Sold the MkII
Then H2ointernational '07 came around... And yeah, I got in a lil bit in of trouble. Its a really long story, but long story.short ..I wrecked the S3 up there. I'm sure alot of you know about this already, and I'd rather not go into details about it. We all make mistakes, and it's the way we learn from them that judges us. It was almost two years ago, and I'd like to let sleeping dogs lie.
Sooo....
Well, let me explain a little bit about the front bumper/front end. I was in a pretty bad wreck about two years ago, and the whole front end basically got smashed up pretty good. I broke a headlight, front bumper was ripped off all together, busted my radiator, passenger side intercooler, some front fender dents, and a motor mount.
Since my car isn't sold in America, I had to call on Tmtuning to do a big order for me. Now, as some of you may know, TMtuning is kinda like a middle-man organzation for us americans. They basically just order from the manufacturers there, and get their stuff shipped stateside. That being said, I ended up ordering my front bumper from an outfit called "rs4-trade" who specifically makes RS4 replicas for the 8L A3 and S3's. They are kinda hard to get a hold of, and keep in contact with and I had to wait over 3 weeks before I even got word that they were getting started on it.
Also, the one company that Tmtuning doesn't really deal with is FK automotive. Well it figures that the only set of headlights I liked were from FK. I was going for an all black headlight housing, and considering the fact that I had the 2000-two piece style headlights, I wanted the smoother one piece "facelift" look. OEM projectors are over 1300 euro new, and I just didn't have that kind of cash at that moment, so I waited for 4 months on back order for my headlights from FK. So, the reason I waited for so long was because I specifically ordered "Ohne Leuchtringe" Black headlights. Basically that means that its without Angel eyes, I had FK angel eyes on my old MkIV and didn't think it was that great after owning it. Long story short, Tmtuning received my headlights, and didn't open the box... I got black headlights with angel eyes.... Not exactly happy about that, but whatever. Then I popped in a 6k HID kit for the projectors. Then ordered "mercury" style bulbs for the turn signals that are silver when off, and yellow when illuminated. Then I got the 6k match LED for the city lights.... Thats about all the info on the headlights.
The grill was a mattig 3 bar grill that didn't fit my bumper because the RS-4 style grill opening is NOT the same as an OEM S3. Therefore we had to cut and mold the bumper around the grill to get it to fit. I also have OEM RS4 fogs and lower grills to match the bumper.
Now, for the hood. First and foremost, let me start by saying. From the moment I saw my first boser hood when I lived in germany, waiting for the train and heard a VR6 mkIII come around the corner and lock its angry eyes at me... I was in love. I've had a boser style hood on my old mkIV, and I knew as soon as I was going to have to do body work to the hood a boser was in the making. The creator of my hood, is one of the best in the business, he's a personal friend of mine, and has built a few magazine article VW's. He is the one who got my car when it was wrecked, and we both knew that this was going to be a long slow build. I discussed at great length how I wanted my hoodline to look, and he followed through perfectly. We made the orignal base out of tape, then cardboard, then cut a piece of metal to match the tape and cardboard, pounded the metal till it had the shape we wanted, and then tack welded it to the hood, grinded down the welds, smoothed, and painted.
Now, for the rear, I shaved all the badges on the back, and bought a glass "plug" to replace the rear wiper arm to give the car a "smooth and clean" look. Since the car was in order for a full respray I decided to change the rear OEM paint scheme. I painted the oem gray to match in brilliant black. I also had had the previous crappy tint job I did myself removed, and redone.
From this...
To this:
The sides got pretty knicked up too, replaced the side markers with new tinted side markers too, I broke a side molding and trim piece, and had some one throw a cinder block at me. True story... Pics for proof, look just below the window.
Just as I did with the back, I painted the side grey sideskirts to match with brilliant black.
Since I had also destroyed one of my Avus wheels in the process of the wreck, I had decided to build a set of wheels. My good friend in Texas had a set of widened steelies on his MkII, and I absolutely loved them. Now, I knew the S3 had the same brake setup as the 25th Anniversary, which I had before, and I knew that only New Beetle Steel Wheels would clear the calipers since they are 16", so I bought a set of Beetle steelies from a friend of mine in Ohio, and had him take off the tires, and ship them to an outfit in New Jersey that widens wheels. They are 6.5" stock, so I had the fronts widened to 8" and the rears to 9". From that point, I had them then shipped to my body shop, where they paint matched the steelies with Brilliant Black.
Then I had to decide on tires (thats right, with an I :lol: ) anyway, On my 25th aniversary, I had stretch and poke, and that was back in '05... The trend hadn't really caught on yet, and I caught a lot of heat for being that wide. Didn't really bother me too much now, considering everyone and there brother is doing it now.
Annnnyway, I kinda like being new and exciting and trying new things. Therefore I'm going for a look that NO one is doing in the VW/Audi crowd. I'm going to go big and BEEFY tires. The exact opposite of poke and stretch, tuck and THICK. I wanted to have my tires come from germany, so I ordered Dunlop Sport Maxx's which is the same "official" tire of the DTM circuit racing, so I figured that was the way to go. On my 16x8's I ran a 205/55 and on my 16x9's I'm running a 225/55. I really like the way it sits, and its not for everyone, for sure. But man, this thing handles, and they are actually not loud at ALL!