Dimmer50

After about 10 hours on the road home from vacation in Colorado, a deer the size of an elephant fell from the sky and ate my hood, bumper, right fender, headlight, and front passenger door. The insurance company totalled it out and I bought it back as a little shop project since the damage is all cosmetic.

My question is... Since I'm replacing the hood and bumper, what would it take to put the hood and grille of the next generation a6 on my car? I like the look of the grille on the 2002 but prefer the more reliable 2.8L to the 3.0L, and I'm using this project to get the best of both worlds. I have the older style 2000 a6 where the grille is fully enclosed in the hood and I'm looking to upgrade the front end to a 2002 hood and grille if the parts are compatable. Has anyone done this? Any help would be appreciated!

massboykie

Hey Dimmer

This is possible, but takes more than it looks so it is too expensive to do. If you search for pre- and post- "face lift" you will probably get more answers. As far as I can remember it takes fenders,bumper, headlights, radiator support, hood and the inside bumper support. As a project you may be able to do it on the cheap by taking your time (assuming you dont need it as a driver) and looking for deals on eBay etc. There is a kit from a company that will convert a c5 to a C6 but it is quite pricey. But looks pretty good. Company is LLtek or something like that. Have a look on VAGLinks (my sig). I have them on there

http://www.PlanetVAG.com/index.asp?c...lift&sa=Search

Hope that helps

Cheers
Massboykie

Dimmer50

Thanks for the input, I actually just found a guy on the VW forum that has done this mod with his '99 A6. He has assured me that I can use fenders and radiator support from my model, and will essentially need the whole bumper assembly, hood and headlights. As it turns out, this project won't be too expensive, although I wouldn't recommend it to someone without front end damage. The insurance company totaled my car, paid off my loan, and I should be able to complete this with a total cost below the amount of my settlement. The expensive part is going to be the 02-04 headlights, as I would like to go with the bi-xenon setup. I'll probably end up getting the non-xenon and doing an HID conversion. I've already located most of the OEM parts from auto recyclers in the area and it looks like the total project will cost in the neighborhood of $2K(including a new front passenger door, fender, and radiator support off a 2000; as well as a hood, grille and bumper assembly from a 2002, and 02-04 headlights).

This number seems high but it's actually only about $700 more than it would cost to fix it with the parts from a pre-facelift model. And I should get a little back from selling my OEM driver side headlight assembly and fog lights.

If you have any suggestions for the headlights (ie. where to order from, OEM or aftermarket, xenon or halogen w/ upgrade), I'd appreciate more input.

Dimmer50

P.S. I've seen LLtek's conversion, and IMO, its not a bad way to spend a couple grand and get the grille to stick out of the front end like a *****, ha. Thanks though!

audifirst

you will need fenders as well from facelift model ,
the reason you will have half inch gap between the headlight and fender
here is the photo I have posted a while ago that if you want to make it right you need to change entire front end

These are facelift headlights in pre-facelift model , you can see the gap between the headlight and front part of the hood, that will be eliminated once you install new hood, but the rear part of the headlight where the turn signal is the top portion has gap about half of the inch allowing water or other debris to get in

<img src="http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/5580/60136ma20a.jpg" />

Dimmer50

Thanks for posting that pic. This caused me some concern, but (correct me if I'm wrong), I think those headlights are possibly from a 4.2, which actually has a slightly different shape than the v6 facelift headlights. Now, I don't have the model numbers for the two headlights, but I'm going to check that out before I buy the parts.

audifirst

I can't tell you 100% if these are from 4.2 or v6 facelift the only way to find out is to try yourself, I don't think anybody did what you are doing hood/bumper and headlights, they did change everything to avoid issues.

Boston Driver

The pre-facelift and post-facelift fenders have slightly different cutout shapes for headlights. I don't have any pictures, but there will be a small uneven gap along the top corner of the housing on the fenders. I used to have a picture showing a 2001 and 2002 parked right next to each other, and you could see the difference in the shape. The 1998-2001 headlight comes up higher in the outer top corner. The 2002-2004 droops down like 1/2" for that same corner.

Look at this post from the other thread for a comparison in the shapes of the two:
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho...php?p=24054997

Dimmer50

Well, I just ordered the post facelift bumper and upper grille. Probably ordering the hood and headlights tomorrow. I'm going to try it with the pre-facelift fenders first. If there is a gap, I'll switch those out too. I'll let you know so we can settle the debate! :P

OGBULLYLOCDAWG

Sweet! I'll be awaiting the update (how long is the estimated shipping?)