Ajs Avant

ajax1976 said:
And is still one of my all time fav cars, still many, many £££sss tho!!!

Wheels survived the tyre fitters so,





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I'd also love an RS2, IMO it's still the best RS of them all, the closest I have come is owning an S2.

As for your car, hats off to you is all I can say, absolutely fantastic job!
 
ajax1976 said:
And is still one of my all time fav cars, still many, many £££sss tho!!!

Wheels survived the tyre fitters so,





Click to expand...

They look spot on fitted, and like I said earlier in the thread the red looks like a reflection from the car.
 
Euans2 said:
I'd also love an RS2, IMO it's still the best RS of them all, the closest I have come is owning an S2.

As for your car, hats off to you is all I can say, absolutely fantastic job!
Click to expand...

I'd take a S2 in a minute too!! When I was younger all my mates had XR3is, RS turbos etc I went a different route and bought a 2.0E coupe. Wasn't the fastest but was cheap to insure, epic long distance car and I absolutely loved it, got more attention from the younger ladies too. The RS2 was the ultimate pipe dream car but the S2 was the achievable dream car, sadly never happened but I still occasionally look at them from time to time. Came close recently and missed out on a V6 coupe for peanuts but thought about too long and missed out.

Gazwould said:
Love this RS2 launch , and yes it's red !

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Thats epic, 5 pot and a turbo is always a winner for me!!
 
Jimmy TDI said:
They look spot on fitted, and like I said earlier in the thread the red looks like a reflection from the car.
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Thanks Jimmy, I was a bit concerned about it being too much but as you say it almost looks like a reflection so quite chuffed with them.
 
You should be mate as you've made a really good job of them, and they're something a bit different.
 
Another day and another probably over ambitious project!!

Always been slightly bored with rear diffuser and with a total lack of options available to buy I realised it was going to have to be something custom. Thought about an RS4 one doctored onto the standard bumper but it wouldn't suit my exhaust and don't really want to clone a RS4. I'm not so keen on the side vents of the euro DTM rear bumper and again would need exhaust work plus major chopping to turn a saloon bumper into an avant one. A US DTM/25th anni was the closest stock sort of option, DTM valance and it has cutouts for quad exhaust tips but again would take major chopping with the risk of wasting a £500 bumper so that was a no go. So with running out of options I spent a couple of nights trying to work out what other cars have decent looking diffusers with dimensions I could work with.
Ended up buying a rough fibreglass one meant for a Merc and started chopping it up today. I'm not even sure what this will look like on the car but going to potter away with it, a 50/50 project. If it all comes together and looks ok great. If it looks **** I'll bin it, my only rule is no chopping of the replacement bumper.

I knew from the dimensions it was roughly ok but I'd have to alter the exhaust cutouts as they are too big and overall it is too long but losing the material from the cutouts would bring it down to the right length.




Exhaust cutouts chopped,



3Hrs of grinding and cutting and the joints were actually quite good,




The join to the bumper looks uber rough because it is, couldn't fine tune it until I had it the right length.




All opinions welcome!!
 
I think it's going to be one of those mods that needs to be finished and fitted before your going to know if it works or not.

Will you be carbon skinning the valance?
 
Exactly, Its a definate 50/50 at the moment if I like it or not.
I'm not planning on bonding it to the bumper as I don't want to commit a bumper to it, nor do I want any filler etc on the join. I'm thinking if I can glass on some small bolts to the back of it I can drill the bumper and bolt right through to secure it. Only issue with that is I'll need to make the joining edge mega precise and neat, time will tell if i'm up to that. I really think skimming it will be beyond my skills and it would take me forever, it'll probably just get a waft of satin black to start with.
 
Look forward to finished result on this fella, hats off for attempting something different.
 
You've done it again, looked at the 1st picture and I thought oh no way that's way over the top but seeing it trial fitted looks a little more subtle. Though not too subtle mind you.

As you've already said it'll only become apparent if it works when it's all finished and fitted to the car.

More good work sir
 
Looking good at the moment but as has been said above, I don't think anyone can decide until it's finished, painted and on the car.
 
At his rate of play it should be finished and fitted by Sunday evening, so we shall soon see
 
Cheers guys but letting you down Jimmy, not done yet!!

Kind of got the bit I was dreading out the way today. I never wanted to fix this permanently as such to the bumper and go down the cracking filler etc route. I wasn't really sure if I would be up to shaping it to the bumper to get a nice dry joint but made good progress today and it reality it wasn't bad and looks half decent. I don't really want to be too fussy at the mo as the bumpers floppy and I'll be able to refine the fit once I have the bumper on the car with my home brew fittings in place instead of self tappers. Gave it a waft of black to see how my filling was and it just highlighted more flaws in the actual molding of it but I should be able to tidy it up a bit.
I'm actually struggling to even imagine what it'll look like on the car so there's every chance I might hate it so no point spending too much time on it just yet.




 
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From what we have seen up to now if any one can do it will be you, can't wait to see it finished
 
Great job, but I personally think those exhaust cut outs in the diffuser are a bit on the large side. They might look a little out of proportion. But as with every other mod you've done it'll most probably look spot on.
 
I love all your work chap , and this is also another great build, but , I don't think its quite the right thing to be honest, its just to bulky and boxy if you get my drift.
You seem to be loosing the avants great rear end going this route, i'm sure it will be a great job but I cant see it doing the rear end any favours chap.
good luck it anyway.
 
Have you measured that it will actually fit onto the car?

That fiberglass thing has a fair bit of back sweep to it, i'm thinking the cars towing eye might be in the way.

I just fitted a westfalia removable tow bar to mine and know that there is not a lot of clearance behind the lower valance.
 
Understand all your concerns guys but I think it's worth persevering with, it's growing on me and going by my measurements so far I think it will fit. Not sure if it's a 2wd/4wd thing Marc but my 2wd has a fair bit of space behind the valance. I'm sitting on the fence until it's done but I don't think it will detract that much from the avants rear, it's only a diffuser. My only concern is the slight arc along its top edge, would prefer it flat and level but not sure I can do anything about that.

Anyway a wee trip to Asda on Friday night and I came away with crack in my carbon rear diffuser, someone reversed into it the disappeared, raging!!

Really wanted to head up to Cleanfest, my first car show and as car shows go it's practically on my doorstep so managed to duck out of a homer on Saturday. Up bright and early for a clean up session, interior and paint all done for lunch. Thinking everythings going great and as I had some spare time I thought I'd fire on the 8 pots, passenger side on and bled with no probs. Drivers side didn't go quite so well, got them on and bolted up then started bleeding and that's when it all went Pete Tong. Turns out the link pipe has a minute crack in the flare and was spewing fluid, obviously didn't realise it was cracked until afterwards so thought I'd just nip it up a bit, then another wee bit then I rounded the union, Doh!! So ended up swapping back to the Porsche calipers, took ages to bleed as by this time I'd lost a fair bit fluid but the Easibleed sorted it and luckily the 8 pots survived with only minimal damage to the paint.

Diffuser isn't as bad as I'd thought, 2 way crack but I should be able to sort it, or at least make it a bit better.



Fecking link pipe!!



Only positive was I got the bumper in high build last night, self tappers have gone and replaced with hidden bolted mounts, a trial on the car next.


 
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Gutted about your brakes man,
But on plus side that rear bumper looks awesome
 
Irrespective of whether people like this or not..this is excellent work!

Me personally, ive always liked the DTM style valance pretty much on any car.

Great fabrication to make it fit..the effort on this is really incredible. Hats off mate
 
coming along nicely chap, i finally sussed out why i wasnt sure about it and it looked a bit bulky, its the present colour of it against a lighter bumper, once it's all painted in to match it will look different again.
keep up the good work .
 
I had a similar issue with fitting my S4 brakes on sunday.
Stripped down, cleaned, and fitted up the passenger side in less than an hour. Then went round to the drivers side to be greeted with chewed up flare nuts at the caliper end. Could I get them off, could I testicles!
 
I had a lot of grief with the fittings on the car when I initially changed over to the S4s and Porsche brakes. Mine weren't chewed but they just wouldn't undo and wanted to twist the pipes etc. Tried WD and then heat, eventually worked out that burning off the plastic coating around the pipes with a small gas torch/soldering iron thing just behind the fitting helped it to turn and free off. Worked a treat for the other 3 after I worked it out on the first one. As you probably noticed they do tend to collect dirt etc unfortunately due to their location.
You'll maybe have to try filing flats on them and go down a spanner size then try some heat on them to get them free Jimmy.
 
Passenger side didn't even need heat, they just came off nice and easy, and I had every one of the three nut undone at some point. My S4 brakes came with the hoses, so I thought I may as well fit them as they were from a B7 so are newer, but the hose fitting doesn't fit into the bracket on the chassis leg.

The drivers side caliper was replaced by an indi garage the year before I bought the car due to the old one sticking, so they must have done it. I tried attacking the chewed nut with fire and maul grips, but it just chewed up even more. Next port of call was the nut into the caliper which was also slightly rounded, so again I attacked it with fire, but I couldn't get the spanner to grip.
The top nut on the chassis leg (which has fuel lines behind it, so you cant use fire) was also really tight and I could feel the spanner trying to slip, so at this point I just put it back together and changed the engine mounts instead before I left the car immobile through anger.
 
Just my 2 pence worth but that bumper looks pretty awesome, i too am disapointed at the complete lack of options available! But it looks brilliant and in the right colours again will look even better! What merc is it from if you dont mind me asking? Keep up the good work!!
 
ajax1976 said:
Understand all your concerns guys but I think it's worth persevering with, it's growing on me and going by my measurements so far I think it will fit. Not sure if it's a 2wd/4wd thing Marc but my 2wd has a fair bit of space behind the valance. I'm sitting on the fence until it's done but I don't think it will detract that much from the avants rear, it's only a diffuser. My only concern is the slight arc along its top edge, would prefer it flat and level but not sure I can do anything about that.

Anyway a wee trip to Asda on Friday night and I came away with crack in my carbon rear diffuser, someone reversed into it the disappeared, raging!!

Really wanted to head up to Cleanfest, my first car show and as car shows go it's practically on my doorstep so managed to duck out of a homer on Saturday. Up bright and early for a clean up session, interior and paint all done for lunch. Thinking everythings going great and as I had some spare time I thought I'd fire on the 8 pots, passenger side on and bled with no probs. Drivers side didn't go quite so well, got them on and bolted up then started bleeding and that's when it all went Pete Tong. Turns out the link pipe has a minute crack in the flare and was spewing fluid, obviously didn't realise it was cracked until afterwards so thought I'd just nip it up a bit, then another wee bit then I rounded the union, Doh!! So ended up swapping back to the Porsche calipers, took ages to bleed as by this time I'd lost a fair bit fluid but the Easibleed sorted it and luckily the 8 pots survived with only minimal damage to the paint.

Diffuser isn't as bad as I'd thought, 2 way crack but I should be able to sort it, or at least make it a bit better.



Fecking link pipe!!



Only positive was I got the bumper in high build last night, self tappers have gone and replaced with hidden bolted mounts, a trial on the car next.


Click to expand...
Gutted for you about the asda incident, have you asked them if they have a camera on the car park? You never know you may get lucky and catch the ******** on film
 
:crying: The camera has been facing the opposite way on both occasions mine has been hit in a car park.
 
I got lucky with my incident, turned out to be a dentist of all people. Loved getting on the phone to the police about that git.He ended up paying cash for repairs hoping I would drop hit and run charges but little did he know once the police have the call it's on whatever I said:yes: even if I did try to withdraw the charge. Never mind eh!
 
Diffuser fixed and back on, it's not 100% perfect but presentable.



Also after a fair bit messing about got the 8 pots on with 380mm discs. Got the leaky pipe fixed but was a bit disappointed with the feel of them, no where near as sharp as the Porsche ones so bled them, then bled them again and then again. Still didn't feel quite right so left them on and thought about it over night, came to a conclusion and hopefully my logics right. At low speeds they feel just like normal brakes where as the Porsche ones were always pretty sharp, to the point it took me weeks to learn to be more subtle with the brakes. At high speeds and heavy braking the 8 pots were awesome yet much more user friendly around town so I've came to the concluion thats the benefit of having 8 pistons with 4 pads instead of 6 pots on two monster sized pads plus they're not really bedded in yet but overall I'm very happy with them.




Bumpers turned into a farce, Partial Ebay and my balls up. After prepping and priming decided to have a trial fit to get an idea of the end result. Spend an hour taking the existing one off then discovered it's actually a saloon one, DOH!! Luckily it was cheap but more hacked off with the wasted time and effort I've put into it. Keeping an eye out for a cheap avant one but in no real hurry.

Anyway, washed and some pics as it was sunny:)


 
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looking really sharp chap, wheels are growing on me now, love the colour , really tempted to get my dtm's done that shade.
brakes, now they are brakes probably way over spec but really nice , good job.
 
A4Rob said:
looking really sharp chap, wheels are growing on me now, love the colour , really tempted to get my dtm's done that shade.
brakes, now they are brakes stupidly way over spec but really nice , good job.
Click to expand...

Thanks Rob, Fixed your post for you!!
 
well it's better to have little extra capacity than not enough........I do like them though and they are in the right colour too.
 
Just read the full thread and wow, what a car you have. Fair play for all the homebrew stuff you've done as it looks fantastic. Dying to see this new rear bumper now :)
 
:hubbahubba::hubbahubba::hubbahubba: it looks great mate , look forward to seeing it with that rear bumper on.
I have to say i though i really do like it with those Rotors on, are they going to be your winter wheels ??
 
Thanks guys. Found another cheap bumper, definitely an avant one this time so the projects back on!!

Actually thinking about selling the rotors already but will hang off a bit before deciding.
 
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