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Build Log: 2006 Audi A4 Avant Stealth 24" sub build.

ThePanzerFuhrer said:
ProjectTwin how much longer till we get to hear this masterpiece play :smokin:

I’m super excited to see this get finished up!!
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I'm planning on being wrapped up by the 31st. There's a get-together near Pulaski, VA on the 5th-6th of November that we'll be going to.

I was going to put the driver front door card on for the final time today (had it off to remove drivers so I could shoot video of the changes to the car) and got to the point that it was fit to the door before installing fasteners and I decided to do a function test before buttoning it up.

None of the switches worked. :confused:

Windows, door locks, fuel door, hatch release, nothing.

So I double-checked the single cam-lock plug that comes into the module for the door card. Solid and secure.

Disconnected the battery and pulled the plug that feeds the main module on the door. Reconnected the battery and checked for voltage at the input to the module.

No voltage.

Went to the door jamb and checked the connection between the body and door.

The door side male connector wouldn't stay plugged into the cabin side female connector. This is because the previous owner had ran speaker cables OUTSIDE of the connectors and not only bent the sheet metal around the connector, but also messed up the connector a bit.

This happened on all four doors.

I showed that in the following video on the passenger side. After I fixed things, deadened/sound treated the door, and installed the door card I tested the speakers. There was an intermittent issue and I found that to be the connection between the cabin and door side connectors. I shoved them together and they've been solid since.




This is what the sheet metal on the driver's side looks like after I straightened it the best I could without removing the door.
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This is the male (door side) connector.
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Clearer image. There should be a shoulder on that locking clip to keeps it retained in the female (cabin) connector.

We discussed just running a zip-tie around the connectors to keep them together but I don't want to risk cutting into the wiring. Packed awfully tight there.

All of this damage was from the previoius owner.
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So...I'm pissed.

I re-pinned the connectors a while back to add one wire pair but didn't pay attention to the damage to the connectors. The driver's side is borked.

Contacted the owner and sent him the pics you see here. He said "Fuck it. Hardwire it. When is the door ever going to come off?"

I absolutely do not want to do that.

There's an A4 at the local yard that I should be able to pull the driver's door power harness from and keep the car serviceable. The only question is the cabin side connector and hoping it's not borked as well. I don't see anything that would lead me to believe it won't retain the male side connector.


So, yeah. Tomorrow I planned on getting started on the false floor build and designing/welding amp racks for the left/right sides of the car.

Looks like that'll get put on hold for one more day. I'll cross my fingers and make a trip to the local junkyard and hope the cable I need is there and isn't fucked up.

If I can't get the cable I may just hardwire the thing. I REALLY do not want to go that route. :shaking:

Once I get that door buttoned up all of the work left to do is in the back. Mostly welding up the false floor and amp racks from 1/2" square tube. Upholstery on those parts will be easy since they're all flat surfaces.

The fun part will be flocking the linear actuators. :laughing: I wanted to dress them up from their dull gray appearance and with all of the black suede, carbon fiber, and tan/gold back there I didn't want big gray actuators visible.

So I'll flock the bodies and leave the rest raw metal.
 
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Man that sucks on the connector. Could you plastic weld the nub/should for more engagement? Soldering iron and zip ties works surprisingly well....
 
So I messaged/called Nick and let him know what I found. Told him I had looked online and saw a 2005 A4 on the local yard. I'd have to go see if the harness from it would work and, if so grab the harness from it.

He suggested hardwiring the door to the cabin.

I refused to do that. :homer:

So...took the boy to school, went to Lowe's to grab some stuff, and then went to the yard and waited for them to open. Nice being there early.
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I pulled the door card and immediately knew I could use this harness. Good thing, too. This was the only Audi A4 on the lot.
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The 2005 harness (top) and the 2006 harness (bottom). You'll notice there's a difference in wiring between the two. That's because the 2005 didn't have accelerometers in the doors for side impact sensors to trigger the airbags and I had previously added a wire pair for the tweeters.

In hindsight I saw the damage to the connectors at the time that I installed the extra wire pair for the M25s, but thought nothing of it - after all, it had been working.

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So I de-pinned the tweeter and airbag wiring and moved them to the 2005 harness. I had to blow apart both harnesses to rebuild one good harness.

The completed harness ready to go in. Just need to add wire ferrules for the TM 65 MkIV.

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So that was today's adventure.

The new harness snaps in nice and secure with a positive click that the old plug didn't have. Performed a function check of power windows, mirrors, and locks as well as fuel door and hatch release. Everything functions as it should. Also double-checked wiring for both the TM65 MkIV and M25 to make sure they not only function, but polarity is correct.

Glad I found this issue now vs days after sending it back to Nick. While it was good initially, cycling the door open/closed ended up in no power to the door.

It was destined to fail. Best for it to fail here.
 
bigun said:
Did you think to grab the passenger side also just in case?
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Yes, but banged my head today and had to stop working.

The driver front door harness is the hardest one to get. The other three are easy.

The door harnesses are a common failure point. Driver especially
 
ProjectTwin said:
Yes, but banged my head today and had to stop working.

The driver front door harness is the hardest one to get. The other three are easy.

The door harnesses are a common failure point. Driver especially
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Now you know why we construction guys wear hard hats ! :flipoff2:
 
Today's update:

Spent a lot of time cleaning the shop. Bunch of trash (cardboard mostly) finally made it to the curb.

Front of the car is completely together for the final time. :grinpimp:

Well, I MAY rip the glovebox back out one more time. It was broken and the previous owner had tried fixing it. I used some panel bond hoping it would work but it also let go. So...it's back in for now. I can always come back to it after the car is together. I fixate on that broken thing every time I open the passenger door. :homer:

What you can't tell in this photo is how much cleaner the car is here vs when it came in. And you can see the sagging glovebox door.
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Got to work on my little welding table building a false floor for the car. I really need to buy a bunch of nuts and weld to the bottom of the table for these clamps. As it is I have to move the clamp and nut from location to location.

Anyway, here's the perimeter built. I'm cutting/fitting pieces for the interior and welding them in. I clamp everything in place, weld it, and let it cool before unclamping it to keep the floor from being distorted.
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Started adding the internal structure to the floor.

The arc in the foreground matches the contour of the car near the liftgate.
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Adding more internal structure.
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Dropping the last row in. There will be more added before this is done.
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Dropped in the car so people can see how it'll all work.

I modified the linear actuators today to get better mechanical advantage. The pivot pins were on the same centerline. I rotated the cap on the end where the motor is so they're offset to one another. Now it'll naturally want to push upwards/at an angle vs a straight push like it would've done otherwise.

There's much more square tube that'll go into this. This is just tonight's stopping point.
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Lots of work. Lots of welding.

Welded top and bottom of each joint for the floor then welded the vertical seams. Eight welds per intersection. :homer:

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Cleaned up some steel expanded metal...

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Then started tacking it in place before cutting off excess.

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Still have hundreds more welds to finish. :homer: Every point where the mesh contacts the frame for the floor needs to be fully welded to ensure the mesh doesn't rattle against the frame of the floor.

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I grabbed a scrap piece of carpet that I'm upholstering the cargo area with and put it in place to see how I liked the overall height of the floor in comparison to the carpeted left side. Looks good.

This also gives everyone a full picture of what's being done.

Having the right side cargo panel out makes it easier to get the floor in/out of the car right now. I can just drop it in and slide it left into place instead of having dirty metal accidentally come in contact with freshly carpeted panels.


I love how this is going to hide an absolute monster of a sub/amp(s), look completely stock, and still retain full use of the entire cargo area. :smokin:
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ProjectTwin said:
Got to work on my little welding table building a false floor for the car. I really need to buy a bunch of nuts and weld to the bottom of the table for these clamps. As it is I have to move the clamp and nut from location to location.
Click to expand...

Yea, I bought one of those tables and while the top is OK all of the fixtures and clamps are kind of bogus and the top may not be thick enough for the normal 5/8" clamps that wedge in the holes. Might be worth a try though since you will not neet to deal with nuts and bolts if they will work.

All I ended up using the top for was a template for mag drilling out my actual fab table holes and now I am looking for a new use for it. It may end up on the folding Harbor freight welding table stand because at least it's kind of flat.

Awesome work BTW it is cool to see car audio done right.
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
That’s what I was thinking. My halfassed self would have used 2 sided foam tape and a few screws to hold it down from rattling.
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That was a thought - followed immediately about how it would result in bumps in the floor and the screws could (likely WOULD) work loose above the sub.

The top of the floor will get upholstered in that stupid Mercedes carpet. I want to build/assemble the floor once and be done.
 
ProjectTwin said:
That was a thought - followed immediately about how it would result in bumps in the floor and the screws could (likely WOULD) work loose above the sub.

The top of the floor will get upholstered in that stupid Mercedes carpet. I want to build/assemble the floor once and be done.
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And this is why your building award winning vehicles, and I’m just a ham fisted Neanderthal :flipoff2:
 
MigGunslinger said:
Yea, I bought one of those tables and while the top is OK all of the fixtures and clamps are kind of bogus and the top may not be thick enough for the normal 5/8" clamps that wedge in the holes. Might be worth a try though since you will not neet to deal with nuts and bolts if they will work.

All I ended up using the top for was a template for mag drilling out my actual fab table holes and now I am looking for a new use for it. It may end up on the folding Harbor freight welding table stand because at least it's kind of flat.

Awesome work BTW it is cool to see car audio done right.
Click to expand...

I thought about having the local shop just cut a top for me on their CNC plasma.

As often as I go there to have things cut, I should just buy one. :homer:
 
Update.

Hundreds of welds done. Top and bottom of this thing.

It is now fully welded at each point where the mesh comes in contact with the frame.

Despite doing everything I could to prevent/minimize distortion, it still bowed on me.

So I took it outside and use the big shop press to straighten it.

That means I ran it over with the '66 Chevelle. :homer:

Tomorrow I get to do it all over again when I build the floor section that will cover the amplifier.

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That's not a very big press. I've used a bottle jack and 2 boards under the front of my F250.
 
I'm stoked about your antic. It's what makes perfection beyond perfection and raise standard if you will.

Even more stoked you were able to find the wiring harness on the door to continue on the build from a local junkyard.

Amazing, beyond amazing what you partake in this build.
 
Since we lost posts…

Had a guy come over for some tuning today. Knocked that out then got the rear seat cleaned and installed.

Need to do some touch-up on the carpeted back of the seat, but it’s clean(er) and in the car.

Now I can build the floor section over the amp so it clears the seat back when it hinges open.


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