Jon hahahaha I was so f-ing pissed.

I was cursing to the gods. I went to sleep angry. I woke up early this morning to torque everything on the driver side. I put the wheels back on, and drove the car to a mechanic with the upper ca ball joint melted, and the pinch bolt for the tre half way in.

Lucky roads weren't busy and mechanic is 2min away. I swear though, last time I'm ever gonna do this again.

 

I decided to polish out my headlight lenses. I've only got the driver's side done so far but there is a remarkable difference. It wasn't that they had gotten hazy from oxidation, but more pitted from years of being on the road. Rather than using one of the kits, I did some wet sanding. I think it turned out really well.

Before: (passenger side)


After: (driver side)

 

^ that turned out well! Did you use various grit levels or did you go from 2000 grit wet sand then just buffed it out with some polish compound?

 

Looked for a DIY step by step and finally just tackled the job of replacing my
driver side mirror.
Broke when an unknown inebriated idiot broke the mirrors off 5 cars parked on the street while my daughter had the a4 at college. Little did I know what misery would follow.
Scoured salvage yards and ebay for affordable replacement...got it for $25 on a best offer ebay seller.
Removal of interior door panel (sounds simple) but scary due to clip breakage. I didn't break any but was very cautious.
and resultant rattles...2 small screws on top ends and one under the removable door handle insert.
Caution. DO NOT try to remove wood trim strip, it's fragile and not necessary.
Pull the door panel up while prying out at the bottom with a stout pry bar.
Next use a size 40 torx end to pull the one bolt holding the housing on.
Remove the old unit by pulling out and rearward after unclipping the power
connection.
Installation is much easier. We used needle nose pliers to hold the lock stem in place while pushing down to seat the door trim clips.
Hope this helps the next shade tree DIYer.

 

I actually started out at 220 wet. Then I went 400, 600, 800, 1500, and 2000. After the 2000 I cleaned it with water and then with alcohol. At this point it's still pretty hazy. To clear it up and protect it from the UV light that makes the plastic oxidize, I applied polyurethane mixed 1:1 with mineral spirits.

I know you're thinking polyurethane? Have a read through this and see that it has been successfully used to protect and seal headlight plastics for quite some time now. It looks great and was much cheaper than one of those "restore your headlights" kits.

 

I tightened up my front suspension and mounts. handles better or at least doesn't feel like its going to kill me.

Put my two mufflers on straight to the down pipe and it sounds ******* nice. running straight pipe the rest the way back so it doesn't vibrate the cabin.

 

Last night I took apart my brand new ProSport amber/white oil pressure gauge, and also took apart my cluster. Once inside the cluster I removed the analog clock so I could start laying out how the oil pressure gauge will fit inside the instrument cluster

After tossing some ideas around I came to the conclusion that I'm going to use the minute hand from the analog clock on the oil pressure gauge, and use the numbers from the analog clock to act as the numbers for the gauge... the Prosport oil pressure gauge is 0-100psi, and covers 270 degrees of travel. So 12 o'clock on the analog clock will be 0psi, 1 o'clock = 11psi, 2 o'clock = 22psi, etc until 9 o'clock which will be 99-100psi.

 

Pics!

 

why not a boost gauge? i have always contemplated making custom faces. its a huge pain in the dick tho.

 

MetalMan, I love the idea. Pics for sure when it's done.

I scored an RS4 grille today (minus rings) for $14 at the junkyard. Some dumb **** had no idea what it was. They took the $10 rings and left the $250 grille. I popped my rings off, painted them graphite metallic, popped them on the RS grille, and threw it on.

Win, pure and simple.



For an additional $33 I pulled the short shifter assembly out of the car as well as the white expansion tank and took them as well. $47 well spent, I think. And I do know that it's a short shifter assembly, as I know the owner of the car before it went there. I'll be back this weekend to take all the parts for a double-din console swap. I removed them and hid them in various cars since I forgot my wallet and only had $50 on me so I couldn't bring them home today