After owning my car for about 15 months, I’ve really enjoyed customizing my car to look different from your standard A4. I started out the S-line platform which includes the S4 front bumper, rear bumper and side skirts. From there I’ve several add-ons like a Seat Cupra-R front lip, DTH Sideskirts, and a S4 Rear Valence. Perhaps my most noteable (and unique) modification is a set of OEM S6 LED DRLs that I installed in my front bumper.
After owning two different B7 Audis now (an A4 and an S4), I’ve done a lot of body work, and written several posts with various options to modify the exterior of your car.
Here are my must read posts for body kits & modifying the exterior of your B7:
- A4/S4 Front Bumper Options – a complete guide to all front bumper / body kit options for a B7.
- S6 DRL LED Retrofit – how to retrofit OEM S6 LEDs into your bumper
- Clear Corner mod – how to remove the amber turn signal from your headlights for that euro look
- DTH Side Skirts – a nice side skirt option for B7s
- Gunmetal Trunk Rings – customize your trunk lid with blacked out rings
- Color Matched Sidemarkers – remove amber from the front bumper for an even more euro look!
- RS4 Grilles – a classic, OEM mod to make your front end look a little more aggressive
- Cupra R Lip – another great way to improve the look of the front end of your car with a simple front lip
- Carbon Fiber Rear Valence – add a little CF to the rear end
- S4 Door Blades – another great OEM mod to make the side profile of your car look more aggressive
My plan for my A4 was to use as many OEM or OEM-looking parts as possible, but another route to explore is to look a full body kits. There are several body kits for the Audi A4 I’ve seen, including ones based off of OEM designs like the DTM style body kit or the RS4 widebody kit, as well as an array of other body kits that feature more aggressive front lips, sideskirts and rear valences. The posts above should help you sort through the various options and decide what you want to do. My advice is to spend your time looking through pictures and really think through what you’d like your car to look like – and when you’ve decided, try Photoshopping it, finding more pictures of it installed, and really sleep on it for a while. Painting and installing body kits can be a time consuming (and sometimes expensive) procedure, but if you choose the right one – it’s well worth it.
The other important step is to invest in a quality paint job and installation. No body kit or lip spoiler fits 100% perfect out of the box, and no rattle-can can match your OEM paint finish perfectly. Find a shop you trust, and be sure to look at cars they’ve worked on to make sure the work is legit. Personally, I’ve dealt with bad shops and the money you save in lower labor costs is not worth it – you’ll spend twice as much fixing their mistakes.
What body kits or exterior modifications do you have installed? Leave me some comments and let me know!
Love your page, I am doing some lite mods for my gal’s b7. Trying to find those s4 blades and nice exhaust tips for a good deal.
ECSTuning.com has the door blades on sale right now for around $450 shipped – which isn’t cheap, but thats the best I’ve seen…You’re almost best off looking at junk yards or the classifieds on Audizine for used ones, IMO.
I recently purchased a full RS4 body kit for my 1997 Audi A4 from VFiber and am having difficulty with mounting the front bumper. Since it did not come with any mounting hardware or real instructions for install I thought maybe you can help. When I removed the stock bumper, I did not notice a lot of places where self tapping screws could be used besides the front wheel wells. I want it to be mounted as securely as possible so any suggestions would be appreciated.
Sean – I have no idea, sorry. I’d take it to a body shop if I were you…I’m unfamiliar with VFiber or B5 platform body kits. You may also want to try searching the Audizine Forums and see if anyone else has experience installing that kit: http://www.audizine.com/forum/forumdisplay.php/2-B5-A4