Turning them into one grille that looks factory is going to be a challenge. Anyone have any suggestions for the best way to bond the ABS. The honeycomb from the A6 grill is getting trimmed out and down to fit inside of the A3 Grill after its been hollowed out.
Yes - I'm glad I went that direction it saved me $400 although the quality is no where near the same as an OEM grill and there are a lot of imperfections. However, after paint you have to look very close to see them. You want the A6 grill because the dimensions are larger than the A3 and it gives you space to trim down.
I probably would have gone with this OEM grill if it had been on ebay. My primary purpose was getting rid of the plate seperater.
This is the cheepo china grill next to the A3 grill that I cut up
If I had it to do over again I would have cut out the emblem mount from the A3 grill, filled and sanded it's edges and used it instead of the emblem mount that came with the cheepo A6 grill. The emblem mount is the one thing that really looks cheap.
Yes - I'm glad I went that direction it saved me $400 although the quality is no where near the same as an OEM grill and there are a lot of imperfections. However, after paint you have to look very close to see them. You want the A6 grill because the dimensions are larger than the A3 and it gives you space to trim down.
I probably would have gone with this OEM grill if it had been on ebay. My primary purpose was getting rid of the plate seperater.
I've never gotten good results with fusion for plastic and have had really good results with the Krylon Rust although I'm still not 100% certain how it will hold up on plastic but it seems to be doing just fine so far.
Got the A6 grill in today. Laid the A3 Ti surround on it and it is a close fit already. Just need to ship down my old grill to chop up. Will probably start this conversion next week. Plan is to paint it gloss black when its finished.
Ceese, I will probably be PM'ing you in the next couple of days.
Cool - One thing I've noticed when my car was up on the lift last week that the top joints on my grill have started to crack where I epoxied them. It's the result of my hood being dropped down. So after you do the mod you want to be gentle closing your grill.
I look forward to seeing yours done. I think it will look better than the honeycomb.
Ceese, I dig this mod! I am looking to this also. you mention that the A6 grill can be had for $100. I can't find it on ebay for this price. Do you know a supplier I could get this from for the $100 price?
Ceese, I dig this mod! I am looking to this also. you mention that the A6 grill can be had for $100. I can't find it on ebay for this price. Do you know a supplier I could get this from for the $100 price?
The first one would be a good donor, the second one is a full replacement grill for an A3 - you wouldn't need to do any trimming etc. But you wouldn't get the full mesh grill like Ceese has, you would want the A6 grill and then you use your own grill and mate the two.
Your grille looks just like the one on my B8 S4 that cost $240 and bolted right on. I can't believe how much work you did to make it. Excellent work!!!
It's kind of hard to tell exactly what's going on in this picture, but if I understand correctly the grill should essentially "pop" into place as you've cut grooves for the sides to go into (will be like a tiny Y going into the groove?).
Haha, I know what you mean about body filler. Super easy to work with, but comes at the cost of being incredibly non-durable.
The only modification I might suggest is to use bondo instead of epoxy. I'm a big fan of epoxy, but it's let me down in the past (over the course of 5 or 6 years). Bondo on the other hand has never really showed signs of letting up. It's a big harder to work with, and if you don't mind getting a little high every time you work with it, it can be really good stuff.
Thanks for the info, brother. If you have pics of the re-work that might be enlightening, I'd appreciate it.
Also, I really dig the brushed aluminum effect. I think I'm going to stick with matte black. I think I might also make some matte black mirror caps, too. I'm considering getting some matte red and black rs3 replicas while I'm at it, but this would definitely complete the look (I have a charactature lower lip versus an s3 bumper).
It's kind of hard to tell exactly what's going on in this picture, but if I understand correctly the grill should essentially "pop" into place as you've cut grooves for the sides to go into (will be like a tiny Y going into the groove?).
Haha, I know what you mean about body filler. Super easy to work with, but comes at the cost of being incredibly non-durable.
The only modification I might suggest is to use bondo instead of epoxy. I'm a big fan of epoxy, but it's let me down in the past (over the course of 5 or 6 years). Bondo on the other hand has never really showed signs of letting up. It's a big harder to work with, and if you don't mind getting a little high every time you work with it, it can be really good stuff.
Thanks for the info, brother. If you have pics of the re-work that might be enlightening, I'd appreciate it.
Also, I really dig the brushed aluminum effect. I think I'm going to stick with matte black. I think I might also make some matte black mirror caps, too. I'm considering getting some matte red and black rs3 replicas while I'm at it, but this would definitely complete the look (I have a charactature lower lip versus an s3 bumper).
There were no notches cut into the surround, the A3 grill was filled and smooth (sorry for the crappy pic). This is where I originally F'd up. I should have used epoxy instead of body filler. The edges A6 mesh pushed snugly into the surround and clamps were used to hold it while it was glued into place with epoxy. I acutally f'd up in a few places and cut it a little too short but was able to fill it with epoxy. Once it was cured sandpaper nail files (Bartell's drugstore sells them in regular sandpaper grades) were used to shape it after it cured.
When the A6 mesh was cut out, it was cut as close to the edge of the A6 grill surround as possible so that there would be room to trim down for the A3 surround. Sizing it down was the most time consuming part of the build since the convex nature of the mesh and surround don't quite match. You have to keep going around the outside of the mesh over and over again trimming a little off the edges at a time with a dremel. The A6 grill was more convex than the A3 surround so I'd put it on the ground and gently step on it every so often to flatten it out a bit - this actually got them to match pretty closely. Once it was sized, I cut the inside back edges of the A6 mesh at a slight angle so that they could be filled in that area with epoxy to give it more support than if it were just a seam when pushed on. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this.
if they laser scan the part then fix it on the cad then it should be pretty good fitment.
I think it will prolly cost around $15k min for the mold.
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