The Project Pad

Been a lurker on most Audi related forums the better part of 15 years and have noticed that the community has been getting smaller for the older cars so I figured I would join here to provide pictures of my daily driver coupe for those who browse these forums as I do.

The car is an early cq, 000895, that I picked up in June 2006 all stock except for Eibach springs and 163k miles. Had wanted one since I was 13 and bought this one after my '89 90q was totaled when I was 20. It now has 233k miles and has been extremely reliable without any major failures.


Here is the car's appearance over my ownership

06/06 - When I bought the car stock with Eibach springs


08/06 - B4 hood, RS2 headlights, 17" Team Dynamics wheels. I also think I swapped to GC coilovers before this picture.


06/09 - Pearl B4 hood, 15" Fittipaldi wheels and Euro coupe front bumper


06/14 - S2 front and rear bumpers, 5x112 swap, S4 Avus wheels with 8mm spacers, VAP CCK with BBSE's.


06/15 - H&R springs with BBSE's, late model rear subframe with sway bar and UrS Fuchs with 8mm spacers.
Haven't taken a picture yet.

I also have a '90 90q 20v that I bought a couple years ago, will post any significant updates on it here as well.


I will post some more info and pictures of the things I have done over time.

What part of Washington are you in? Cars look great!

Looks great! Welcome!

Love the progression of your cars, looks like you take good care of them.

Welcome to the forum

Glad to see the post!

Thanks. I am in Lynnwood.

The coupe looks better in pictures than in person as the paint is not in the best condition aside from the bumpers which were resprayed almost two years ago. The whole drivers side was resprayed at some point in its life and it is a pretty bad match but most people don't notice it, annoys me a great deal though. Mostly concerned with keeping both cars in good running order so taking the time to do a full respray isn't on the list right now although I was very tempted to when I saw the fresh pearl paint on the bumpers.

The 90 came to me in very good condition aside from damage to the hood which is why it has the car bra on it. I have a B4 hood and Rs2 headlights for it in the garage but I need to paint the hood first, or find a black one. Also tempted to put B4 front fenders and one of my spare Euro coupe front bumpers on there too but I have other things to work on at the moment. The cool thing with this car is that with it I received maintenance records from it's first oil change all the way up to when I bought it totaling over $21,000 in repairs and such since new. There were also two small notebooks that contain the date and mileage of every single service done to the car including when it was washed and vacuumed. A little too meticulous for me to continue adding to them but it was definitely well cared for, and still is.

I have been through a few different suspension set ups with this coupe since I bought it with Eibach springs and mystery struts. It was too soft going from my old 90q that had GC coilovers so I put those on the coupe with Bilstein sports. I drove it like that for a long time swapping around 200lb, 300lb, and 325lb springs and going with and without a front swaybar and never was truly satisfied with it. I eventually changed the fronts to VAP CCK with the BBSE and urs4 Bilstein sports in the front while keeping the rear with GC's setup and regular coupe Bilstein sports. My car is a bit heavier than most as it is lined in dynamat and a sound absorber along with another acoustic insulation, and then a couple amps, few speakers, and fiberglass enclosures so it is a bit of a heavy weight. This obviously makes the handling worse but it is very quiet inside and the acoustics are great. I am not in a hurry to go anywhere anyway just looking for a balance of comfortable cruising and an enjoyable spirited drive.
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A few months ago I decided to replace all the rear subframe bushings (HPR), differential mounts (HPR), and add the stock rear swaybar. I also needed to replace a couple seals in the rear diff as It has been leaking so I took the opportunity to switch over to a set of H&R springs I had keeping the urS4 Bilstein sport struts up front and regular coupe Bilstein sports in the rear. Also replaced most of the hardware and had the subframe and strut housings powder coated 20% gloss black.




Fairly happy with this set up but could use a slightly bigger rear swaybar and the struts could be revalved especially since the rears are pretty old. Might try stock springs in the near future too or pick up some S2 springs if they are any different than stock cq springs.

Picture of the car as it sits today with the H&Rs and urS4 Fuchs, tires are 225/50/16.

Sweet! Is this Nick's old coupe by chance?

Alex were you in bellingham at one point? I think i remember seeing this car

Fuchs look great!

I bought it from a guy named Jason in Las Vegas.

Afterthought wrote:Alex were you in bellingham at one point? I think i remember seeing this car

Lived in Bellingham for a number of years so I am sure you have seen it at some point.

I feel like I remember meeting you and you were building a 20vt for this car or something? I dont remember what I was driving at the time, a coupe or a 20vt 4000 maybe.

Afterthought wrote:I feel like I remember meeting you and you were building a 20vt for this car or something? I dont remember what I was driving at the time, a coupe or a 20vt 4000 maybe.

I did build a 20vt originally for my former 20v 90q that I was going to use in the coupe but after getting rear ended for the 3rd time around 2008 I was not physically able to do that kind of work. Right now I have a left hand drive 3b S2 engine harness in the garage that I plan on using once I collect more pieces on my travels to Europe. I do recall your 20vt 4000 and if you had the coupe that you have now back then then I remember that car too.

Alex, I had a Lago blue coupe but now have a black one that was in bellingham at that time but owned by someone else.
Sorry to hear about the wreck, hopefully your health is better now.
That harness is a good find man. I wish I would have gotten one, but wasn't able to track one down and ended up splicing the AAN harness in. Its not a fun job but I have a better understanding of how wiring and the ecu works now which is good from a troubleshooting stand point.

Taking a bit of a break from removing the foam and glue from the spare headliner I have and thought I would share what I did on the passenger side rear interior panel.

The vinyl had delaminated from the fiber backing and had pushed the leather insert out. Was hoping for quick clamp and glue fix but I did not find it possible to glue any of it back down as the vinyl had shrunk and would not form back into place. I ended up cutting it all away and decided to make new pieces.


The flimsy board insert that the leather is glued onto was bent so I opted to make a fiberglass piece instead. I do not use rear speakers so I covered up the hole and sanded it flat, glued on a foam backed grey suede and some Velcro tabs on the backside so it is simply Velcro and the wood trim piece (painted with plastidip) holding it in place. I made a cover for the armrest portion out of carbon fiber and painted it with a gloss clearcoat. A new piece will be made later as I would like to use a different weave and not a glossy finish but it is what I had on hand.






Overall I like but I did it as a proof of concept rather quickly to see how it would look so I will make some new pieces, specifically the carbon piece. Headliner and pillars will be getting the same grey suede fabric and I will redo the door panels once I find a suitable set to build from and have spare time. Planning to cover the headliner tomorrow as the one in the car is starting to sag a bit and I would like to have this new one ready to go on when I pull the current one out. Should brighten up the interior a bit which will be nice.

yess. That looks awesome, are you going to redo all the door panels like that?
I wish I knew how to do carbon fiber!

Afterthought wrote:yess. That looks awesome, are you going to redo all the door panels like that?
I wish I knew how to do carbon fiber!

Afterthought wrote:yess. That looks awesome, are you going to redo all the door panels like that?
I wish I knew how to do carbon fiber!

Thanks. The rears will be as pictured but with a different weave carbon as I use that particular pattern (284) all the time. The fronts will match color and style wise but I have 6.5" components and must incorporate them in. I haven't come up with an idea for how I want to do that so it will wait for now.


It is fairly simple to learn how to work with this stuff, it just takes practice. As long as you use fiberglass and polyester resins the materials are inexpensive so you only really lose time when experimenting with it. Carbon costs a lot in comparison but for decorative stuff you just use one layer and the rest is fiberglass so it is not too bad.

Picture of the headliner I did yesterday. First time doing one and this material is not very flexible. Might be a few weeks before I put it in and do the rest of the trim but should look better when it is above my head.