Hello! In January i bought myself my first Audi, and my first " old car ". It is a 1996 reg, 2.6 V6 front wheel drive model with 180,000 miles and counting. I bought the car from Yorkshire and i live near Derby so was a good drive back home for a new car and it did it without fault, and surprisingly wasn't too bad on fuel!
My cars very rarely stay standard and this one is no exception, i've already spent quite a lot on maintenance parts & modifying it and i'll keep the thread updated as i fit more stuff! I do 99% of work myself as i'm a mechanic by trade which makes it even more enjoyable.
Above is the day i bought the car, got it back home & cleaned it of course! The paint was really bad, had tonnes of swirls and was looking more pink than red/purple.
First up was rectifying the air intake that was already on the car when i bought it. The K&N item was fitted quite loosely and wasn't air tight, and i guessed it was the cause of the hesitation on throttle i was experiencing, i ordered a brand new Ram-Air filter that came with brackets and pipework, claiming to be bolt on, although it wasn't and i made up my own intake piping. Actually sounds and drives much better with this sorted!
The original owner had a pretty decent head unit in, so i can't blame him for taking it with him! This meant i had to source my own, and i came across this JVC head unit that seemed to fit in nicely and came with bluetooth & aux, just like a modern car
Shortly followed a deep interior detail, i'm no pro but every surface had to be cleaned thoroughly as it hadn't had much love in the past years, but it came up very nicely!
Now some real progress has been made. I replaced the very tired dampers for brand new Bilstein units, and coupled them with H&R 40mm lowering springs. Upon replacing them i noticed that the dampers all round had original Audi part numbers on, so could well have been factory fitted items, not bad for 180,000 and 20+ years!
Pictures showing its nice new ride height & vastly improved paint, i spent almost a full day with Meguiars compound, polish & wax getting the paint up to an OK standard. It still has plenty of defects but at least has a good shine to it now!
The H&R springs and new dampers have completely transformed the way it drives, it has a much more modern car feel in the way it feels slightly stiff, but still rides more than comfortable enough. I can't judge outright handling performance differences yet as its not tracked up yet, but that's getting done later today.
Onto some smaller touches for now. A sun strip with a classic Audi badge, and replaced the tired old number plates with clean looking new ones without borders. Much better!
I've got much more to do to this car, such as better brakes & more! Hope you like my progress so far and feel free to drop a message, i'm looking forward to attending some local meets and major shows!
My cars very rarely stay standard and this one is no exception, i've already spent quite a lot on maintenance parts & modifying it and i'll keep the thread updated as i fit more stuff! I do 99% of work myself as i'm a mechanic by trade which makes it even more enjoyable.
Above is the day i bought the car, got it back home & cleaned it of course! The paint was really bad, had tonnes of swirls and was looking more pink than red/purple.
First up was rectifying the air intake that was already on the car when i bought it. The K&N item was fitted quite loosely and wasn't air tight, and i guessed it was the cause of the hesitation on throttle i was experiencing, i ordered a brand new Ram-Air filter that came with brackets and pipework, claiming to be bolt on, although it wasn't and i made up my own intake piping. Actually sounds and drives much better with this sorted!
The original owner had a pretty decent head unit in, so i can't blame him for taking it with him! This meant i had to source my own, and i came across this JVC head unit that seemed to fit in nicely and came with bluetooth & aux, just like a modern car
Shortly followed a deep interior detail, i'm no pro but every surface had to be cleaned thoroughly as it hadn't had much love in the past years, but it came up very nicely!
Now some real progress has been made. I replaced the very tired dampers for brand new Bilstein units, and coupled them with H&R 40mm lowering springs. Upon replacing them i noticed that the dampers all round had original Audi part numbers on, so could well have been factory fitted items, not bad for 180,000 and 20+ years!
Pictures showing its nice new ride height & vastly improved paint, i spent almost a full day with Meguiars compound, polish & wax getting the paint up to an OK standard. It still has plenty of defects but at least has a good shine to it now!
The H&R springs and new dampers have completely transformed the way it drives, it has a much more modern car feel in the way it feels slightly stiff, but still rides more than comfortable enough. I can't judge outright handling performance differences yet as its not tracked up yet, but that's getting done later today.
Onto some smaller touches for now. A sun strip with a classic Audi badge, and replaced the tired old number plates with clean looking new ones without borders. Much better!
I've got much more to do to this car, such as better brakes & more! Hope you like my progress so far and feel free to drop a message, i'm looking forward to attending some local meets and major shows!
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