I stopped by my friends place instead to kill some time. He came up with a
cheap cosmetic mod for the A4. I was skeptical at first when he told me about it
but once I saw it, I was surprised at how good it looked (in my opinion). I said
what the heck and did it to my ride too.
For those folks who like the look of the lower chrome trim on the 2002 A4 and A6
4.2L models, my friend has come up with a $5 mod to add to the current A4 model.
Tools/materials needed:
- Door edge molding for trucks (picked up at Pep Boys for $5+tax
- Utility knife
- Flat head (for prying the grill out)
1) Buy some chrome door edge molding. I got the molding from Pep Boys for
$4.99+tax. It comes with two 48" strips.
2) Remove the lower bumper center grill. It just pops out after pinching down 3
clips behind the bumper. Just pop the hood and use a flat head screwdriver to
push down the contacts and slowly work the grill out.
3) Once the grill has been removed, use the knife to trim away the outer lip.
The plastic is fairly soft.
4) Now you'll need to add some slots to the grill on the sides. It'll give
clearance for the molding to be applied. You'll be doing this in 6 places (3 on
the left and 3 on the right). Just slice into the grill deep enough to allow the
molding to sit in the groove.
5) Take the first strip and start applying it to the grill. The strip will not
be long enough so I made sure to apply the long piece to the bottom portion (the
most visible). It should look like this.
6) Now cut the 2nd piece of trim to fit in the remaining gap.
7) Pop the grill back in and you're done.
This looks great on cars that don't require a front license plate (his) but it
still looks pretty good on ones with (mine). It takes less than 30 minutes to
do.