Charlie D's Build Thread

[CharlieD]

Having had this baby for just over 9 months now... guess it's time I make a start with my own thread...

Got her with 29k on the clock, had it fully inspected, immaculate condition with all the usual trimmings, electric sunroof, heated wingbacks, only thing really missing was the flat bottom steering wheel but no biggie...



Pads were just about gone and discs were nasty due to the steel pins in the OEM pads...



Got Marcus from Disc Skimmers to come and sort them out including re-drilling the holes... we threw on a new set of YellowStuffs while he was at it... did an incredible job at a good price and I can't recommend him highly enough, he even gave the calipers a thorough cleaning:




Next up... a full Enhancement Detailing at a friend of mine's place.



The paint work was swirled up pretty bad especially the boot lid and roof, all sorted:






Tyres were down to 3mm and only 2 of them actually matched, so I thought I'd may as well get some fresh rubbers on her (Michelin Pilot Super Sports) and a full tracking/alignment done at the same time... oh and a cheeky plate change

[CharlieD]

After a couple of months having fun driving the car... I felt it was time to shake things up a bit.

Time to try some new wheels (19" Rotiform Forged TMB Splits with Polished Finish), they looked good but would have needed big fat spacers for brake clearance. Decided against them in the end.



Picked these up instead off Jules... 20" 360 Forged 3-piece Mesh 8 with Staggered Concave, 9.5" all round on good Toyo Proxes. Only set like this in the UK and amazing fitment with no spacers needed.
Test fit was great however suspension looking too high!








Increasing the tempo a wee bit... H&R Anti-rollbars & Air suspension (Airlift Performance with AccuAir e-Level Management). Nice and low now





Raised to speedbump height:

[CharlieD]

The engine bay needed some attention, so threw in a Pipercross / Revo kit and some carbon bits



Bought a fresh set of Carbon engine covers without the yellowing. Haven't put them on yet as I want to try and protect them somehow first.

Got rid of the notorious Elvis bonnet gap at the front:



A couple of nice shots of the wheels and enjoying some limelight at some car meets

[CharlieD]

So the new induction kit sounds nice, but what sounds better? Yep that's right, a new exhaust!

Got a set of Tubi exhaust backboxes installed... quick teaser vid link below, will put up a proper one soon...

https://www.facebook.com/charlied/video ... 929673935/

Other than the Tubi backboxes, the exhaust is fully at stock at the minute.

Booked into MRC this Friday for a full decoke, stage 2 remap, CAF, deflap manifold, and decat downpipes, fingers crossed I get to see some nice numbers


Next mod coming soon... teaser pic:

[boombastik]

Air suspension (Airlift Performance with AccuAir e-Level Management). Nice and low now

looking very nice, got any more info on the air lift & what it was like to fit ?

[Bogyoch]

Hello Charlie

Your car looks very nice, and those wheels certainly enhance its appearance.

An aspect that does concern me though, are the brakes. After your man Marcus skimmed the discs, there is still the deep groove on the outer edge, as shown in your last picture of the disc. This groove can also be seen in the Chris Herbert picture, after the pads have been bedded in. I would guess that the disc thickness is probably under size: did he use a micrometer to measure this?

As the brakes are the only thing that stop you, I would be a bit concerned over this. Of course, if they fail, then usually a tree takes over their job.

[CharlieD]

Cheers And yep, Marcus didn't want to take the discs any thinner to get rid of the groove, as it's pretty deep.

He measured several times and although quite close, the discs aren't below minimum thickness yet. Will give them another measure tonight though as it has been several months since he did the work.

The groove itself I'm not too bothered about in all honesty.

looking very nice, got any more info on the air lift & what it was like to fit ?

Thanks bud. Basically you just buy the complete kit and follow the instructions. This is basically what I got with lots of extras plus a custom boot build with hard lines: http://caraudiosecurity.com/e-level-ele ... -a4-b7-kit

Installation Manual for front and back suspension:
http://www.airliftcompany.com/content/m ... MN-759.pdf
http://www.airliftcompany.com/content/m ... MN-760.pdf

[boombastik]

did you do the install yourself or was the car put to a garage ?

[CharlieD]

Got a friend of mine to do it at his unit as he had done it 100s of times and is very tidy with his work. Didn't want to be messing about with £4k worth of kit tbh

[MikeFish]

I feel in love with those wheels when I 1st saw them on Luke's car (they were black or dark grey back then) and decided I wanted a set. Then I saw the price!!

Car is looking good Charlie, you've done a good job.
Personally I'd detango and then go for black optics and darks wheels but each to their own.

[CharlieD]

Thanks Mike And yeah detango and trim Already on the radar... here's a photoshop of what she should look like soon

[FaisalJ]

Wow, those wheels are epic! Very very nice.

How does it ride on air?

[CharlieD]

Thanks mate. Yeah much comfier than stock considering I'm on 245/35's. I drove with those wheels over to get the air fitted and the ride was definitely much harder than it is now!

With the Performance suspension and 32mm solid ARBs it seems to handle corners way better too... way more control at the grip limits

[DavidRS4]

Lovely looking car. Doing the same with the Gill on mine at the minute. Got an RS6 gloss black grill to go in pace of the old one. No more ugly plate filler! Having the fog lamp grills sprayed gloss black to.

[Covkiller]

Now that's a sharp looking RS4, certainly black optics will make it look even meaner.
I like your mods a lot.