If you're sitting comfortably I shall begin, once upon a time............and after many MANY months of issues involving dodgy paint and electrical gremlins I now have the car I wanted in the first place. Nothing much has happened since I've had the car, re mods, due to these problems so just a few bits and pieces here and there so far.
As for the 7R itself, with all the choice within my £25k budget, did I make the right choice? IMHO yes I did. Even in its standard form with 300bhp it's such a great car, so easy to live with in town traffic, cruising on a motorway or having fun around the twisty bits.
Yes the 7R is a common sight on the roads but that made it affordable to buy but it's prevalence doesn't detract from it being an brilliant car and an all round, everyday car that ticks pretty much every box for me. There are peeps who say they won't own one purely because they're everywhere and the lack of exclusivity that brings...well good for them.
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DISCLAIMER:- I'm not counting anyone who has ordered/owns/or wants a GTI Clubsport as I drove one the other day and that was just cracking and on my list for the next cat.
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A few problems!!! I only had her a wee while before she was taken away for the first time with elecrical problems which showed up all over the place with random Start/Stop issues, EPC light appearing constantly followed by limp mode and even door module issues and a wing mirror housing that overheated and plastic part started to bubble up as if it were going melt ....go figure. VW fixed it all (lots of new wiring, some new parts inc every single part inside the door and a new wing mirror) but not under warranty (although they went above and beyond in sorting things) but that's another story.
Then during this time (if that were not annoying enough) paint started to peel from the car in several places. She'd been in the bodyshop
TWICE but new problems with paint started to appear so In the end they decided the constant "fixing" wasn't working so a decision was made to give the car a full respray, only parts that were left were the roof and the boot, everything else was stripped back to bare and resprayed. I cheekily asked if they could give her a complelty different colour but alas I'd of had to pay the difference which was ££££ as she would need to stripped to a shell and added another 2 weeks plus to the process......(you gotta try).
To say I'm chuffed with their work and (to be fair) the response of the garage I purchased her from, and for their part VW, is an understatement. She's now better than the sh*t you usually get when buying a brand new car. After a full professional detail she will look the shizzel (as the kids say).
Ohh and they kindly re cut the face of the wheels, thry look like new too!!
As I've said before if all I have to worry about in life is a car I'm a very lucky man indeed......which I am.
Pics below of the 2 worst areas although there were more places with paint problems. Made me chuckle when a bodyshop guy said "f*ck me, look at that!"
Moving along and drawing a line under that lot.....
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Bits and bobs and mini mods...First off I bought some Black decals/vinyl stickers from
Badgeskins ~~Clicky here~~ and put those on the front and rear R badges and also the side blades, then the front and rear VW chrome emblems were removed and the backings were painted in Lapiz blue and then new Gloss Black VW emblems were added, still not sure about the front one with a Lapiz backing but it stays for now, will probably go back to black.
Then I de chromed the rest of the front end re grill and splitter with Gloss Black vinyl wrap. I also just had delivered a
RIEGER front splitter and
MAXTON side skirt diffusers so that's a job for my next day off (with help) Also swapped the chrome wing mirror covers and replaced them with Gloss Black ones.
I put a shortened number plate on the rear and still need to remove the front number plate plinth and have the holes plastic welded and painted over so I have a smooth front end (will use double sided suction cups on the number plate after that as I did on the Eddy) but I've had enough of bodyshops at mo so that can wait. I also put on Gloss Black Eyelids just to add a little extra Black to the party (as if I hadn't added enough
). I may also have the roof wrapped...not sure yet.
Gloss Black mirror covers (from VW main dealer).....
Gloss Black Eyelids (from Aliexpress)
and in place....
The front grill separated into its component parts, that's was a faff to do...
I bought a pair of Gloss Black front and rear VW emblems (below) from eBay, pretty good quality and cheap plus they fit so a win win win. Luckily the rear one comes with a separate backing plate so no need to remove the whole handle/mech (a PITA of a job) for painting.
I needed some Lapiz Blue spray paint for the rear backing sections for both the front and rear emblems so a trip to the Halfords special paint mix peeps and all good. Who'd have thought so many colours to make just one....
All put back together and the various bits wrapped and/or painted as required and badgeskin fitted to the R and new VW Emblem in place.....
Gloss Black RIEGER front splitter I bought this from
RIEGER from
itectuning, link below (they do lots of bits for the Mk5 and Mk6 too if anyone's interested). it's just a single skin piece of flexible plastic, feels like a puff of wind will shatter it.......It cost £250 but considering the sh*t Chinese ones are £100 and the
OETTINGER splitter is £750 (excluding paint) its about right. Now I have her back I can get this fitted.
~~Clicky here~~
MAXTON Gloss Black Side Skirts. (Link to their website below). Also not a lot to these, pretty flexible and another less than substantial item for £150. Also a fair few options re side skirt extensions/difussers.
~~Clicky here~~
Black Climair Wind Deflectors. I always liked the ones I had on my Eddy so bought them for the 7R even before I picked up the car (link to their website below)...
~~Clicky here~~
How she looks now. I've replaced the Black VW emblems at the mo to the Chrome ones.....can't decide?
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As for modding my 7R a stage 1 map is the next call with associated supporting mods, some decent wheels and a few other aesthetic bits and pieces then at some point I need to decide if I sidestep stage 2 and go to Stage 3 with a hyprid turbo due to the weak OEM turbo but will take advice from those who know. There seems little point spending £3k on a full sport TBE (or even a DP) and intercooler and not being able to wind up the power and torque for fear of the OEM turbo shredding itself into the engine........all thoughts for another day.
I've FINALLY re booked into AKS to get a few bits and pieces put on to aid air flow.....a VW Racingline R600 Intake, TT Inlet pipe, VW Racingline Turbo Muffler Delete and also a GFB DV+ and probably having a
REVO stage 1 map and DSG map. May get a custom tune when/if I go stage 3 but REVO are now devolping one along with a stage 2 DSG maps so we shall see.
Any comments, likes or dislikes then please feel free to spam away.
