well since the first and easiest thing to mod is i/h/e then are they easy to do yourself for a complete beginner

 

I'm not really sure what you're getting at here, but I'll try to make it out as best I can. I/H/E mods are, for the most part, the easiest mods for someone who is new to cars. Intakes are probably the easiest, followed by cat-backs, and the hardest of the three is the header (just because you're working in a tight space and everything's rusted)

 

In my experiance, cat back exhausts are also fairly difficult just because of all the rusted bolt. Out of 4 or 5 attempts(on two different cars), I was only able to remove a muffler one time and that is because it fell off.

 

intakes are pretty easy even idiots can do it as long as you stick to like CAI's

headers will not be to entirley hard either, you just have to unbolt it and make sure you dont break any bolts though if there is any ( one on a A6)

exhaust, those can be semi difficult. you might have to torch some thing off or cut them.

 

as already stated above the hardest park of the job is getting those rusty bolts off. even if u spray the whole thing down with WD40 half the time is still goin to be spend on trying to loosen those rusty bolt. other than tht it pretty easy its just a little time consuming and get frustrated at time but in the end it worth it and u will be proud tht u did itur self.

 

make PB Blaster and a wire brush(to scrape off rust), your friend

 

I would actually switch it up a little bit...

My intake took me 20 minutes. My header took me 45 minutes, but I would think my Exhaust would take a little over an hour.

It's a good thing my garage has an oil pit in it. I dunno how I'm going to hang it laying on my back under a car on stands.

IMO the best way to get rusted bolts out (if there's enough room) is putthe closed end of the wrench on the bolt, and tap it with a hammer until you feel it loosening. After breaking two bolts doing my brakes all around, I tried it and haven't broken any bolts, including those of my header or my front brake bolts/nuts.

 

all I'm saying is that with a cat-back, you have like 2 bolts holding it to the cat and several of those rubber hangar things. With a header, it's two bolts holding it on to the cat, a bolt holding the header to the car, 8 bolts holding it to the block, and you have to deal with the 3 annoying heat shield bolts. Not to mention that if you have a/c, you have almost no room to work with (trust me, I have a/c and a 2-piece header)

 

IMO all mods are easy for the most part after you get over the "omg it's to hard for me" factor. It's all nuts, bolts, hoses, clamps, and a little work. The biggest thing is to have the correct tools on hand and plot out what you are doing.