CQ project, the road less traveled (They're never done)

[Afterthought]

Or, save the money ($600+) you'd spend buying an AAN ecu, ABY harness and PnP VEMS to get a econoseal VEMS and standalone engine harness. It is really simple to keep the stock gauges; you do lose the trip computer (I don't think the PnP preserves it).

Right now I have the AAN ecu and harness, but I dont have any extra money to spend. Thats part of what fueling my decision not to do VEMS yet. Also, I am going to have to get down and dirty with this wiring anywauys- I can't avoid it becouse everything has already been torn apart.
VEMS sounds like a good idea but I just don't have any extra money right now otherwise I'd spring for it and get it over with. On top of that I guess I don't have a 100% understanding of how much it will cost in total and what I'll need to do so I guess I should look into that.

[araipilot]

Dave love the headlights, did you get those from stateside or that big land mass in the North Atlantic?

[scubadave]

Stateside. I fell into them from a friend on here who needed the money, whom also did not have them fully paid for, so i paid the remainder and him off. It worked out for everybody.

[araipilot]

Stateside. I fell into them from a friend on here who needed the money, whom also did not have them fully paid for, so i paid the remainder and him off. It worked out for everybody.

Nice it will definitely help with the look of the car. It should compliment the paint job nicely

[scubadave]

OK, so I may have the opportunity to pick up these wheels. they are Merc AMG 17 x 8.5. I think they look ok, but you are always biased about your own car. so I want others opinion about how it looks on the car. sorry, there was only 1 tire and wheel avail at that time, and I only have that 1 pic.

My plan is to convert the 90 to 5lug and move the current wheels over there. they are only 17 x 7.5, so the wider stance will be on the coupe if it works out that way.

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[PRY4SNO]

Those are money.

[AngryTaco]

Needz moar lugz

[scubadave]

thanks for the 1 opinion on the wheels.

Nobody else has an opinion about how this wheel looks on my car?

[Midnight]

I don't like them.

[Hank]

They look like the ABT wheels and I think that is the best looking wheel on the CQ period

[the german]

meh. Doesn't do anything for me, but I don't like most aftermarket wheels.

[varia]

for me its a Mercedes wheel, not so pretty

[AngryTaco]

I dub thee..... Mercaudi!

[Dave]

I like 5 spoke wheels, I'd rock them. How heavy are they?

[Mcstiff]

Audi Motor Group

I think the design looks good.

[scubadave]

I like 5 spoke wheels, I'd rock them. How heavy are they?

Im not sure how heavy they are. They cant be nearly as heavy as fat 5s though, so they're light.

Audi Motor Group :hide:

I think the design looks good.

The merc they were run on had the skinnier wheels up front and these 8.5s in the rear. All 4 are all 8.5s of course.

I have been on the fence for quite a while. Even if they dont look like a perfect match for the body style, they're 95% there, so I'm ok with running them. I think it will come down to putting all 4 on the car and running them for a while to give it a chance to get a different perspective. I will see how things work out with picking them up, or not. It will end up being some sort of trade involving my 40v plus maybe something more on his end, or a raincheck for later down the road.

[scubadave]

So I have had the engine back together for a couple weeks now. I have just been trying to find the time to spend on the car here and there.

A few weeks back I took a chance on having the brackets, intake, and valve cover anodized red. luckily, I did not give them the valve cover and intake. this is the color all the brackets turned out. Honestly, its ok, but not the red I was expecting and is due to the particular blend of alloy Audi used in the castings.

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its different and I'm ok with that. I will most likely powder coat the intake and valve cover clear right after I do a last polish on them.

While I have been spending a small amount of cash on upgrades for the 90 to get it closer to my style of sedan, I have also been trying to clean up the engine bay before I drop the engine back in for the (hopefully) last time.

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My hope is to have the engine bay clean and pretty like a few others on here as well as already being quite unique to the coupe community with the way I configured my engine bay. I guess the end result will speak for itself.

More to come...

[Dave]

Nice work dave, I've always liked the anodized look, i was talking to someone about that a few months ago... wanting to anodize things like i used to back in my BMX bike days... Doesn't look like you got the result you expected.

I'm excited to see this thing come together, but we all know it is never the 'last' time! Hell i just put the engine in my 90 thinking 'alright i'm done' 500 miles later i am pulling the trans to change a failed (new) pilot bearing!

[vt10vt]

First off on the wheels I'm "eh" on them, 5 spokes do usually look really good on CQ's I'd say but I usually don't like any Mercedes wheels. Maybe dome different angle pics?

A few weeks back I took a chance on having the brackets, intake, and valve cover anodized red. luckily, I did not give them the valve cover and intake. this is the color all the brackets turned out. Honestly, its ok, but not the red I was expecting and is due to the particular blend of alloy Audi used in the castings.

tmp_IMAG0454-70358224.jpg

Second if that's the line you got from the powder coater it's time to find a new powder coater.

Aluminum can be tricky to deal with because it eats up contaminants specifically like road salt, but the only time I've really had problems was doing a set of 18wheeler aluminum wheels which SUCKED in a lot of ways, even the local professional shop who have a good reputation couldn't get them right as they just kept burning shit out no matter how you prepped them. But I digress, outside of prep process, no alloy should make a difference, certainly to make it come out looking like that, and if that's the line you got he/she isn't being honest with you or doesn't know. I can't find a great pic of the same bracket I did but I can specifically take some if you'd like, it coated to the exact color it should have first time through and it's held up fine as have my engine mount brackets, fuel rail, intake manifold etc. so if you're not 100% happy I'd say you have grounds to demand a recoating or your money back.

[my2000apb]

shawn, its ano, not powder, alloy does make a difference

in the pieces I got anodized black, the welded areas were a different blackish color as they are 4043 rod I believev vs the 6061 stock mat'l

doing cast stuff is very very difficult to anodize to a color. it must be sanded smooth to almost a polish and even then, its not the most consistant coloring throughout the piece

anodized parts made of extrusions tend to come out much better looking once anodized, like a dullish but shiny smooth finish
anodizing also doesn't have any "smoothing" effect as a powdercoat would, shit I think anodizing only penetrates up to like 1.5-3/1000th's or so, where a decent layer of powdercoat will almost negate a rough cast finish into a smooth surface

[vt10vt]

Oh missed that vs the talk of powder coating, I know zero about anno but that's interesting to know I would never have thought it could be that picky but rhat makes sense since you're actually getting that shit into the metal.

[scubadave]

yeah, Im ok with how the brackets turned out even though it wasn't what I expected. I paid 0 for that, so I'm good that way.

[ringbearer]

I like the wheels.

[my2000apb]

Oh missed that vs the talk of powder coating, I know zero about anno but that's interesting to know I would never have thought it could be that picky but rhat makes sense since you're actually getting that shit into the metal.

all the different alloy combos react different to the ano bath. the nice part is you can still powder coat right over the anodized parts. giving you the ultimate in protection and corrosion resistance.

[audifreakjim]

This car needs a Carbon Fiber hood