Ted's B7 RS4 build thread

[TedKarslake]

Thought I would start a progress / build thread of my car on here. As I said in the introduction I made, my car is a B7 Audi RS4 in black with a black leather interior. It has the bucket seats and armrest, and is a 56 plate. 88k on the clock, I chopped in my Mk1 TT 225 for it and I am loving the car.

Here are some photos I took the night after I bought the car:

After a week of having fun in the car (and quite a few more miles than I intended) I had London to Brighton classic Mini run. Luckily for me, one of the other founding members of our Mini club wanted to borrow my Mini to take to the show and have on the club stand, as his was out of action. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to take the RS4 as a support car and give it a proper run!

I had some Stickers printed up (slightly last minute) but this is what the car looked like at the weekend:

You can't really see in the photo but our club logo is actually stuck on there in Carbon, which has given me an idea...

I think this week is the week that I will be booking the car in for all the mods I have planned. These are in order as follows:

1. The car is going in for a minor service this week to change the oil and also replace the Reverse Light Switch - I currently have the problem where the reverse lights randomly come on when driving and the parking sensors go mad.

2. Book the car in to have all the minor scrapes and stone chips that annoy me sprayed.

3. Have all the silver trim wrapped in carbon, and then I will spray the silver rings front and back matte black.

4. Book the car into AMD to have the carbon clean done, as this has never been done on my car before so I am sure it is well overdue.

5. Get the windows tinted and then take the car to my local Alloy Wheel specialist to have the wheels refurbished and then powder coated gunmetal grey.

6. Get some wheels spacers - I need some advice on this, on standard suspension, would 10mm spacers all round be OK with the standard wheels?

For now, that's my list of things to do. I have already started looking at KW V3's, Miltek manifold back exhaust systems, remaps and air intakes, but that will be for the future. The car was such a step up from the TT in terms of performance that it's going to take me a long while to get used to this kind of power etc.

I'll keep this original post updated as things progress though!

TK

24/05/17

So the car went in last night for it's service and to have the Reverse Light Switch replaced, among some other niggly things. I'm going to a friends body Shop this weekend to get it booked in for the full respray I want, and I'll keep everyone updated!

TK

[daytonamart]

Good work Ted,

Car looks great. I think the consensus is 8mm front and 10mm rear.

Subscribed.

If you getting the wheels done this might be worth a read:

viewtopic.php?f=64&t=119953&p=792819#p792819

[MrHilario]

Welcome Ted, exactly same spec as me, good choice. Couple of quick points

Spacers - As above, 8 & 10 seem to be the standard, although I went 8 all round as I sometimes have heavy loads in the back and wanted to avoid rubbing.
Carbon Clean - Not worth the money apparently. It soon builds back up after a few months.
Rings - Just buy them off ebay, quite cheap
Wheels - Where are you based? If south east then Lepsons in Rochester are the go-to place on here, very professional job, I had mine done there.

Also take a look in the Trackdays & Meets section, plenty of local meets go on plus theres a big road trip to Wales in the summer that you can join if you like.

Good luck

[TedKarslake]

Thanks Chaps,

I'll definitely be looking into the spacers then! Any recommendations as to where I should get them from? I looked on DemonTweeks and they only seem to do 10mm.

Simon, thanks for the advice - I'll definitely be looking into the meets and track days, that sounds awesome!

TK

[Brooner]

Revolution should be able to sort you out with the spacers and bolts

[TedKarslake]

Hello chaps,

Just a little update, so I thought I wouldn't put this on my original post. The car was serviced yesterday with all new plugs, an oil change and just a bumper to bumper check - apparently everything is absolutely perfect, no leaks from the suspension (the shocks aren't even damp) but they shouldn't be, as the DRC was changed a year or so ago by the previous owner.

I also had the reverse light switch changed over and that seems to have sorted the problem where the reverse lights came on while driving and the parking sensors were going nuts. Thanks to this forum for the solution!

However, one thing that was brought to my attention was that from 1st to 2nd gear the gears are 'clipping' - and my mechanic reckons that the synchromesh might be worn. Apparently it now is a bit of a gamble, as the 'clipping' is slight and very intermittent (every 7 or 8 changes from 1st to 2nd) it may not need to be properly looked at for another 10k or 20k miles, but as I'm planning to take the car on track days and probably drive it hard, what's everyone's opinion on getting it sorted now?
As I've only had the car less than 2 weeks I may take it back to the stealer and see if that will sort it under my statutory rights.



In other news, the car is booked in for a respray on Tuesday.

TK

[TedKarslake]

Hello chaps,

It's been a while since I've posted on here. The car has now been sprayed, and the window tints have also been done. I will upload some photos of the finished article tonight (I didn't have time to clean her over the weekend and she is filthy).

Tomorrow afternoon I am hitting up Pipecraft in Basildon to have the resonators taken out, as I have read on here that it improves the sound greatly. After that, it's time for the carbon wraps on the silver trim, the wheels to be refurbished and then I'll start saving for some proper mods!

TK

[MrHilario]

Good work Ted, looking forward to pics

[daytonamart]

Good work Ted, looking forward to pics

+1

[TedKarslake]

So I managed to get a quick photo of the car with the tints in when I got home from work last night.

The appointment with Pipecraft is at 3pm today so I will take some videos of the finished product - fingers crossed it sounds better! I have decided to go for 2 straight pipes rather than a X or H pipe as I've read that these can make the sound a little tinny.

[daytonamart]

Good work Ted, tints look great. Coming on nicely.

[TedKarslake]

So yesterday I had the resonators taken out of the car. The low down noise is absolutely fantastic now, but I'm really not sold on the 'tinny' top end (this is the only way I can describe how it sounds). I was hoping for a louder version of just having the exhaust flaps stuck open.

For now, it's absolutely fine, and turns a lot of heads in my home town. But I think I'd rather a deeper exhaust note on the top end, so I'll start saving for a full system. I'm sure you guys will have loads of recommendations!

Anyway, here are some photos and a YouTube link to a video I took last night.

https://youtu.be/rWQAhsFgBFg

[TedKarslake]

Thought I would post up some updates as it has been a little while. Not a lot has been going on, but I have started the process of wrapping the silver window and grille surrounds in carbon, which I am very pleased with.

Now all I need to do it work out how to take the mirrors off so I can refurb them (they have been bashed a couple of times it looks like) and then I can wrap those and the rails too.

I went to a car show yesterday, and got some pics with my mates E46 M3. I also thought I would upload some of my favourite cars from the show. There were loads of modern cars there too but I am a massive fan of Hot Rods, Pro Street and American Muscle cars.

Here are the Hot Rods etc.:

Once I have the rest of the wraps done on the car I will get the wheels refurbed and then it's time to concentrate on some performance mods.

I'm also highly tempted to turn the car into a full blown pace car replica. I think I'd draw inspiration from Jon Olsson's DTM RS6 built for Gumball 3000 - I quite like standing out at shows. I already have some sponsors lined up so this could be a great laugh to do.

Ted