The Victims - A6 to A3 honeycomb grille

[ceese]

If you still have to run a front plate why even bother?

It will still look a lot cleaner even with a plate. Also, I will have the only prefacelift A3 with ABS honeycomb mesh on this side of the Atlantic and I will be able to take the plate off for shows and track days. Plus it's just a fun project and it was an opportunity to learn to work with plastic.

[ceese]

I only run one additional wire for each high beam. The rest is VAG-Com. That's the easy part. The hardest was to open the halogens, custom cut and fit the A4's. The pre-faselift headlights have different shape. I am not sure if you can fit A4's inside. Overall is a loooooong and risky project.

I've been thinking about modding out a set of these, but your mod looks so much better than anything I think I could do with them.



These look cheap so I was trying to figure out if I could dress them somehow. Wrap the interior in carbon fiber, recoat the chrome rings and replace the LEDs with a light strip of somesort.

[BL-2-8P]

I only run one additional wire for each high beam. The rest is VAG-Com. That's the easy part. The hardest was to open the halogens, custom cut and fit the A4's. The pre-faselift headlights have different shape. I am not sure if you can fit A4's inside. Overall is a loooooong and risky project.

more info on what you had to cut...?

[Evo V]

I've been thinking about modding out a set of these, but your mod looks so much better than anything I think I could do with them.



These look cheap so I was trying to figure out if I could dress them somehow. Wrap the interior in carbon fiber, recoat the chrome rings and replace the LEDs with a light strip of somesort.

I actually ordered these first, unaware of difference between pre and facelift (mine is 2009). The seller had listed them as 2006-2009 and even after I asked him he said it will fit. After I returned them I decided to do what I did. This will be the easiest mod for you.

@BL-2-8P the mounting points for the insides are all different. The bracket that holds the xenon was also a b!#$ to fit.

[ceese]

I actually ordered these first, unaware of difference between pre and facelift (mine is 2009). The seller had listed them as 2006-2009 and even after I asked him he said it will fit. After I returned them I decided to do what I did. This will be the easiest mod for you.

@BL-2-8P the mounting points for the insides are all different. The bracket that holds the xenon was also a b!#$ to fit.

Did they look as cheap in person as they do in the photos?

[Evo V]

Did they look as cheap in person as they do in the photos?

I liked them. Didn't get a chance to turn them on but saw few cars on the forum with these installed. I think hon-dee's car is with them. Maybe somebody else can give you more info.

[tp.]

I've been thinking about modding out a set of these, but your mod looks so much better than anything I think I could do with them.



These look cheap so I was trying to figure out if I could dress them somehow. Wrap the interior in carbon fiber, recoat the chrome rings and replace the LEDs with a light strip of somesort.

Now i know why they look weird. they are missing the clear reflector on the side

[JaxACR]

Looking good, strong work!

[sleepy3]

I'm planing to install fogs probably later this summer. I went to my local dealer and asked for the fog grille. His comments were: This is very expensive retrofit that will cost you 1000'S of dollars and you have to have experienced Audi technician to do it for you. 30sec later he saw my headlights and said: Oh, I guess you are way beyond that level. Anyway, I'm buying a condo now and my funds are going different dirrection.

nice! gotta love those "in your face" moments

[ceese]

So I had a couple hours yesterday while watching the season premiere of Game of Thrones and got the mesh cut out.

Next steps

1. touch up filler areas that I wrecked while fitting the mesh
2. Epoxy in the mesh to the Grill frame and let cure for 24 hours
3. Puddy Epoxy in the gaps and let cure for 72 hours
4. Sand down any Epoxy spillover
5. Use filler for any final touch ups and sand
6. Paint



Don't knock the gap. Still trying to decide on which coils to get.



Also can't tell in this photo but installed the gloss black mirror covers to match the black of the open sky.

[tp.]

wow we have same wheels

[ceese]

wow we have same wheels

Have any links to pics of your car. Would like to see it.

I love the BBS CH wheel. I wish I could get a set of 19s without the motorsport. I've thought about buying a set and having the motorsport filled and repainted to keep the OEM look.

I couldn't find a set of CH 024s (the OEM upgrade wheel for the A3) when I bought my car so I ended up going with the CH 028 (the upgrade wheel for the 2008 S4). They are identical other than the 028 is 18x8 et 43 and the 024 is 18x7.5 et 46. A lot of people think they are BBS CO wheels which were just a poured cast wheel that BBS discontinued but the OEM Audi wheels are in fact true CHs that are gravity poured just like the ones that say motorsport.

[tp.]

yea too bad they dont come in 19..i also have S4 et 43 wheels. those look betteer than A3 ones.
But after runnign 19 for a while. I go back to the BBS wheels. I like 18 better

[ceese]

Love the S3 body kit - looks awesome

[Evo V]

yea too bad they dont come in 19..i also have S4 et 43 wheels. those look betteer than A3 ones.
But after runnign 19 for a while. I go back to the BBS wheels. I like 18 better

Mine is black and I almost bought the same wheels. The guy that was selling them pull back in the last moment and I ordered replica titanium package. Was it hard to install S3 body kit? I am debating this for my next project.

[tp.]

Mine is black and I almost bought the same wheels. The guy that was selling them pull back in the last moment and I ordered replica titanium package. Was it hard to install S3 body kit? I am debating this for my next project.

front is easy.
take old bumper off
trim the impact strip down a bit to fit the s3 bumper
bumper go in same way


side skirts
bolt on no glue or nothing'
just need some time taking off the door sills.

rear bumper is rear bumper few screws here and there its off.

[dsbloom]

I'm loving the work on the grill, looks great. Will you post a complete DIY for those who want to try something similiar? I suppose if you don't we can just follow your work log from this thread

[ceese]

I'm loving the work on the grill, looks great. Will you post a complete DIY for those who want to try something similiar? I suppose if you don't we can just follow your work log from this thread

I will and I'll include a supplies list too.

[ceese]

Finally ready for paint



Joints in the middle of setting the epoxy



Joints after sanding

[tp.]

did u screw them in at the joint edges? epoxy will most likely fail in the future.

[dsbloom]

The sanded pic looks good, man. Can't wait to see the end result!

[dsbloom]

I will and I'll include a supplies list too.

Awesome.

[ceese]

I was originally going to use this ABS welding chemical but the gaps that were created when I was fitting the mesh required that I went with epoxy. I would take money on the fact that it won't fail. I used 20 minute set Loctite and it set rock hard after 48 hours. I also used a little extra in the back of the joints. Also, once the mesh was in and set the grill became extremely rigid with even less flex than the grill was stock. There is also about 60 joints so we'll see, but like I said I'd take money that after its primered and painted that it won't fail.

[ceese]

Awesome.

Here's a supplies list. I'm still working on the how to.

1. An old A3 grill that fits your car
2. A cheepo A6 grill from Ebay. Do a search for A6 grille not RS6 grille to find one they should be about $100.
3. A jig saw with a fine diamond blade (I used a battery operated oscillating saw. It worked but didn't do that great of a job. A dremel wont work to cut the grill out because it won't let you get the angles you need.
4. A dremel or the equivalent. Don't use the ceramic cutters go out and buy a small diamond one -you'll thank me later. Also get a selection of different size and grit grinding heads. Again, I found the diamond ones worked the best but the ceramic ones were very useful during the touch up stage. Also, low speed is your friend.
5. Plastic filler and hardener - see if you have a plastics store in your area. I went to a place called Taps and they were very helpful for pretty much everything I needed.
6. A pallet for mixing the filler and bondo and a thin piece of abs 10" by 10" that you can cut out to strengthen where you cut out the plate filler.
7. Bondo blades. If you get the tan ones from Home depot you can use scissors to cut them up into mini filler tools. You'll need to cut them for some of the detail and touch up stuff.
8. Epoxy resin and super glue (for quick touch ups) - Get the long setting stuff. I used 20 minute Loctite, I would have preferred the 60 minute but I couldn't find it locally.
9. A couple Epoxy syringes - I had one block up on me
10. Sand paper, a sanding block and make a trip to your local pharmacy and buy a selection of nail files and emery boards. I bought four of each grit of emery board (16 total) and went through them all. The best was the way the woman behind the counter looked at me as I was buying $30 worth of $1 nail files - LOL.
11. Important - clamps at least 10 medium ones and a smaller selection of large and small ones.

[tp.]

I was originally going to use this ABS welding chemical but the gaps that were created when I was fitting the mesh required that I went with epoxy. I would take money on the fact that it won't fail. I used 20 minute set Loctite and it set rock hard after 48 hours. I also used a little extra in the back of the joints. Also, once the mesh was in and set the grill became extremely rigid with even less flex than the grill was stock. There is also about 60 joints so we'll see, but like I said I'd take money that after its primered and painted that it won't fail.

[cooterbo]

guarantee the epoxy is stronger than the surrounding plastic. the plastic will fail before the epoxy i.e. in a frontal crash. I had to use similar stuff on an outboard i had to repair. The mounting point for a shift cable in the cast aluminum block of an engine ripped a chunk out of the block and i used epoxy to reset it back in the block. It held for the next two years i used the engine. i know it was a ghetto fix but i couldn't afford to down the boat and i had time constraints. Cant wait to see the final product!

[dsbloom]

2. A cheepo A6 grill from Ebay. Do a search for A6 grille not RS6 grille to find one they should be about $100.

Do you think it would be easier or cheaper to just buy mesh instead of another grill? I have seen shops online that sell mesh to make your own grill, but not sure if they match that RS look.

[ceese]

Do you think it would be easier or cheaper to just buy mesh instead of another grill? I have seen shops online that sell mesh to make your own grill, but not sure if they match that RS look.

You can't really see it in my pics but the A6 grill has a curvature and angle to the mesh that matches the shape of the grill frame. A sheet of mesh is going to look awkward and wierd when you try to shape it into your cutout frame. As far as easier, deffinitely not. With flat mesh you are going to have to shape it somehow to get the curvature.

Before I saw the A6 grill I was scoping sheets of honeycomb and couldn't quite work out how I was going to make it look OEM. Also anything worth using was over $80. IMO, go with the A6 grill.

Keep in mind that this is a seriously time consuming mod. I had hours and hours poured into it and I wouldn't do it again as it took me about three times longer than planned.

[dsbloom]

Hey Ceese, any more progress on this? Can't wait to see it finished and installed.

[ceese]

Been busy with other things the last couple weeks. Actually just stopped by a paint shop an hour ago on my way to work to look at color samples. Not too inspired by the shop, have another shop I'm going to try before I paint it myself.

Ordering the Carbon fiber material to wrap the surround today should have it middle of the week. Hoping to have both the grill and surround finished by the middle of next week.


Have a couple hours before I place my order - here are my 3 choices for wrapping the surround - opinions anyone?

Standard 2x2 carbon fiber


Zylon (kavlar/carbon fiber hybrid - bronze and black)


Zylon is the material on the top of the faceshield - looks just like carbon fiber but has a copper color too it as well.

Texalium (aluminum coated fiber glass)

[dsbloom]

Been busy with other things the last couple weeks. Actually just stopped by a paint shop an hour ago on my way to work to look at color samples. Not too inspired by the shop, have another shop I'm going to try before I paint it myself.

Ordering the Carbon fiber material to wrap the surround today should have it middle of the week. Hoping to have both the grill and surround finished by the middle of next week.


Have a couple hours before I place my order - here are my 3 choices for wrapping the surround - opinions anyone?

Standard 2x2 carbon fiber


Zylon (kavlar/carbon fiber hybrid - bronze and black)


Zylon is the material on the top of the faceshield - looks just like carbon fiber but has a copper color too it as well.

Texalium (aluminum coated fiber glass)

I like the standard or the aluminum.

[ceese]

Thanks, wussed out being different and ended up ordering standard carbon fiber.

Also, got a quote on the paint today but was told to fix a couple glitches so it's going to paint next week. I should have it installed a week from Saturday pending any surprises on finishing up the surround.

[asal]

Also can't tell in this photo but installed the gloss black mirror covers to match the black of the open sky.

where'd you order your mirror covers from? been thinking about changing the color or housing on mine, but the S3 covers are so $$$$!

[ceese]

where'd you order your mirror covers from? been thinking about changing the color or housing on mine, but the S3 covers are so $$$$!

I bought them from RedLineBob on the forum. They may be for sale very soon though. The glossy black looks sweet but its hard to notice them in person on the Lava gray. I just bought another set on Ebay (great deal) that I'm going to get sprayed satin black along with my fog covers to match my grill when it gets painted. Thinking the satin black might stand out a little more against my Lava Gray. If you are interested I'll have either the gloss black or satin black covers for sale in a couple weeks a lot cheaper than you could get them anywhere els just shoot me a PM to remind me and I'll give you first dibs.

[asal]

I bought them from RedLineBob on the forum. They may be for sale very soon though. The glossy black looks sweet but its hard to notice them in person on the Lava gray. I just bought another set on Ebay (great deal) that I'm going to get sprayed satin black along with my fog covers to match my grill when it gets painted. Thinking the satin black might stand out a little more against my Lava Gray. If you are interested I'll have either the gloss black or satin black covers for sale in a couple weeks a lot cheaper than you could get them anywhere els just shoot me a PM to remind me and I'll give you first dibs.

PM'd