My audi 8p fix/conversion etc

Hi all I'm Leon and I'm 18 years of age. I posted not so long ago about me finally getting my first car, I did also mention that it was in rough shape and needed a lot of tlc so I figured we've all now reached the 1st day of June so what better time get started with the car.

An introduction of the car:

So the car is a 2004 audi a3 8p. It is the 1.6 (not FSI) 101bhp variant as it's the only type I can get insured on. At some point throughout the cars history it had unfortunately taken slight impact to the front right hand side and more recently received a few dents and scratches, perhaps due to the chaotic driving present in London or maybe just because previous owners couldn't be bothered to take care of the car properly, this is evident in the poor quality repair job on certain parts of the car. E.g. When I got started at 6AM today I found that the bumper was attached to the front wing with rivets and wood screws (pathetic attempt and I'm no mechanic) so even more reason to get this car looking good again.

So what I did today (01/06/14)

Today I set about replacing the headlights as one of them had a crack in it and was held together with some type of silicone. So a few days ago I managed to pick up a set of aftermarket headlights for £140 which is a much needed saving of around £100 off RRP as I'm on a budget. Anyways here are a few pics of what went on today:



As you can see not a very nice headlight. The other headlights was completely fine though. So I set about removing the headlights and installing the new ones. So now the lights look like this:









Now I know these aren't original and not to everyone's liking but I thought I'd do it anyways as they're affordable and I think they look quite neat.

I shall add more to the post later on as I'm being rushed at the minute to go somewhere but please feel free to help join this process. Perhaps give a few ideas or tips if you want. Also I get to meet new people, thanks everyone.
Bye

Right I'm not sure if I'm even supposed I be posting on my thread anymore as it's just under a year old but the car is still the same car and it has come a long way sine I first posted this thread. So a basic insight as to what happened next.

I decided to facelift the car to an 8p2, I was very tempted to carry out the 8p3 facelift but I instantly shied away from the idea when I saw what I believe to be Sandra grinding something during her build. I know myself and I know for a fact I would have got it wrong.
Anyhow I began but purchasing the front end from my place of work (part time at Euro Car Parts) got a set of wings, Bonnet and bumper all for £169 brand new.
IMG_6130.jpeg

At the time I was interested in doing a DIY gold chrome wrap which didn't work out to plan. Mainly because the roll of wrap I bought was cheap and tacky as well a the fact that chrome wrap is the hardest kind to use anyways. Below is a pic of how bad that went.
IMG_3680.jpeg

As you can see not very well, I then decided stuff the wrap and just put the panels on, so I set to work doing that, the bonnet an bumper were the easiest to remove an replace but the wings put up a fight mainly because I i thought I knew it all and only unscrewed all the bolts I could see. When I finally got some help from my old man to get the wing off I ended up slicing my fingers on my right hand on the inside of the wheel arch. So after a short ****** trip to the kitchen I came back bandaged up (put up a fight). My old man then realized that I was stupid enough to forget the most blatant screw which was the uppermost screw by the top of the A pillar by the wing mirror. I then went about unscrewing this one until the inevitable happened (rounded off the inside of screw) this took hours of suggestions and trial and error to resolve. A friend of mine came over and drilled through it in an attempt to get some form of grip on the screw. He eventually did after a while grip the screw and begun unscrewing it (After he almost yanked off the plate fixed to the chassis).

The next day I then set about putting the facelift parts on the car which was relatively easy, pretty much just consisted of the exact same task when removing the 8p1 front except in the reverse order. As I was finishing up the drivers side wing, the worst thing possible happened. The jack I used to raise the car gave way and completely dropped the entire car on my already battered hand. I had nobody with me and didn't have my phone to hand, this meant I had to somehow try and wiggle my hand away from beneath the brake disc which resulted in 3 broken and 1 fractured finger. The pain at this point was horrendous and I was taken to the local hospital to get it x rayed and sorted. Luckily this happened towards the end of the facelift do all that was required now was putting the alloys back on and paint.

The original color of my car was what I believe is called Irish green. I figured I wanted it painted matte black. So it was then towed away by a close friend of my dads who claimed he had a friend who could not only provide the paint but paint the whole car for a cheap £1000 and of course I agreed in a heartbeat. This by far was one of my crappier decisions. The first paint provided was not even matte. It was like gloss black without the lacquer. I then insisted on MATTE! Eventually the color was correct and the car was prepped (wait for it....) OUTSIDE?!?
Let me find the pics and I'll continue the story.

Without any pics there's not much advice I can give but here's things to consider.
1.Have you put the bonnet hinge on properly?
2. Have you got the correct parts hopefully your bumper and bonnet are either both 8p2 facelift or both parts 8p3 facelift. If not you may have an 8p2 bumper and 8p3 bonnet vice versa.
3. If the parts are non oem then they may need slight modification for them to fit. (My bonnet needs slight bending)
If you could provide a pic then perhaps I may be able to assist more
Here is the front of mine when I was doing it last year. Take a look and let me know any further concerns.

Anyways here's a continuation of my story:
So here is a pic of the car after it was prepped outside
Just like any other car owner I was angered by this but wasn't much I could do as I was advised by my father that it'd turn out fine. At that point in time I agreed and let everything play out (horribly). The paint was bought from ford which I guess is the same paint code as the focus rs500. It was tested out on the front wing first which wasn't even too bad pic below

So I gave them the go-ahead (regret that) and they eventually finished it months later, I kept coming everyday to check up on it, it always looked terrible but there was a slight ounce of hope that it'd all turn out fine. Below is a picture of when it was almost done


It was eventually completed and the disgust on my face when I saw what thy believed to be a respray must've been priceless. Luckily my father and I had only paid £350 of the agreed £1000 and after a downhill friendship between my father and the owner of the garage, we had agreed that no more will be paid and we took the vehicle. It looked like this


Sorry for bad pics but ultimately it's really blotchy and tacky. So at this point the gold chrome didn't work out, nor did the matte black. I decided I'd just make extra progress with the rest of the car so I looked into buying a lip kit consisting of s3 side skirts
Votex front lip

S3 style rear Valance

And lastly an Rs3 style grill

I'll add more later on

Didn't have any issues as I didn't have any adjusters. One thing I could suggest would be ensuring the wings are in the correct place and reposition the bonnet where the 2 nuts secure it to the hinges as there is a little bit of play in that area.

Next in my story:
I went and fitted the lip kit and grill as I couldn't do the side skirts as it required either buying an s3 door blade or cutting mine which I'll do later on nor could I do the rear lip as it seems the previous owner had smoothed the rear lip into the bumper which was a pain to get off as it resulted in chipping off loads of filler and paint so before I do anymore to the back I'd need to fill sand and paint the chipped areas. Anyways below is a pic of the grille and lip installed



Before I went any further with the build I decided I didn't want my A3 to be a monster truck so I invested in 55mm H&R springs all round and new alloys as I had standard Ronals all round that had been painted with B&Q's finest gloss black rattle can paint . The alloys I bought were 19" rotors. Below are pics

Rotors before lowering

Rotors after lowering

After this I went to replace my glove box as mine was broken but at the same time I decided the interior needed some WHITE!! So I bought some vinyl paint and got to way


I was thoroughly impressed with the results considering everything I've ever tried to do to my A3 has failed
I was so pleased intact I did it to the tray beneath the steering wheel as well

Oh yeah and the centre console

During this point I was on a white Hype so everything that I felt should be white is now (or will be) white: this included upholstering my steering wheel




Custom seat covers from autoleathers.co.uk (do not buy from them they took 4 months)
After this point i decided to order fabric paint for my headliner and pillar covers which should arrive soon.

I then thought I'd tackle the rear valance whilst I wait. So I began sanding the chipped bumper then filling and spraying with a few light coats (shall do more) and this is how it turned out

Thanks a lot. I appreciate its not to everyone's taste but its just really an extension of my imagination if that makes sense? To me there is still loads to do. its around 60% finished. and thank you too jonathan, I have that whole thread on my phone of the matte 8p but it didn't turn out anywhere near that unfortunately.
next on my list is:
1.camo wrap
2.A1 clubsport Quattro style internal headlight wrap

P.s. I also appreciate the safety tips and yeah like you said I completely ignored it but learnt my lesson the hard way

S3_Jacko said:

Thats it mate its your car and if your happy with it then thats all that matters and believe me i've learned the hard way about certain things more often that I care to admit

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Yeah I guess we've all been there and done that. I appreciate you checking in to give your opinion. Feel free to give constructive criticism wherever you see fit.
Cheers mate

I go

Adam Wilson said:

Not to my taste, but where did you get the rear valance? And was the fit good?

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hi there Adam. I appreciate your comments. Weird question but may I ask why you don't like it out of curiosity? And I bought it from a site called NKTuning. But I bought it from their ebay website as it was slightly cheaper. The fit is fine but I will mention that it's shorter than an original lip therefore making the back seem higher and as you can see from the pics it makes the bottom of the exhaust visible.
Hope I helped mate

Adam Wilson said:

Personally prefer gloss cars, matte doesn't look right to me.. But then again, half the people here don't like my car

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Oh right I see. Thanks for your input, I hope my reply helped, let me know if you have any other concerns.
Thanks