Alex's Shadow Blue GTI

[pandaman]

Sadly selling the downpipe now if anyone's interested, brand new but open box. Check out the car parts for sale section here.

[pandaman]

Bought this 3M kit ages ago and finally had some free time and nice weather to do it, as you can see the headlights were in a complete state and they even were an advisory for the MOT back in march.

The kit was very well reviewed on amazon but I'm still pleasantly surprised with how well they came out.

Took about 3 hours to do both, taking my time with the first and it was much easier and quicker for the second.

The kit was i about £15, it really has given new life to the headlights and save me a few hundred getting new ones!

The kit i used.



Before



During/what have i done!?




After

[GVK]

My headlights could do with being done too, do you have a link to the kit you used?

That 'during' shot fills me with dread to do them myself 

[pandaman]

My headlights could do with being done too, do you have a link to the kit you used?

That 'during' shot fills me with dread to do them myself 

Yeah was a bit of no return point, I think there were 4 stages, by the 3rd it starts to look clear again.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/3M-39073-Restoration-Discoloured-Headlights/dp/B0078IHJ1K/ref=sr_1_5?crid=VVQIVTNP5KIP&dchild=1&keywords=3m+headlight+restoration+kit&qid=1623806223&sprefix=3m+headligt%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-5

There you go, gone up a bit since i got it but totally worth it.

[GVK]

Thanks for the link 

[LC5F]

Tempted to give this a try too, but I have very few blemishes.
Funny - that jungle website link offers it slightly cheaper if you "subscribe & save" - just sign up and then cancel.
Apparently the most common renewal is every 3 months... I would hope it lasts a lot longer longer than that!

[pandaman]

Fitted the R32 rear lights I got recently.

Here's a Before



And an After



And an Inbetween




Been quite a busy afternoon, I've taken out and cleaned the filters of the Twintake witch I shamefully will admit is the first time since i installed it... (July 2018)

This fell out as i tipped them upside down on the table.


Here they are nice and clean



Those with a keen eye or just have OCD may have noticed in the picture above my rear wiper was broken, 13.99 on amazon for a whole new arm and wiper.
The plastic had deteriorated and snapped and it was hanging low, the metal part was a bit of a pain to get off.




Put the Twintake back together then tackled the very messy engine bay with some autoglym engine cleaner, bit of a splatter from doing the headlights last week.
Also managed to remove the oil filler neck and the engine now looks a bit tidier.

[ahsan82]

i put the r32 lights on my shadow blue gti a few months back... subtle but make the rear end look soooo much nicer

[pandaman]

It's been awhile since I posted here, there's been a few updates.

Replaced the alternator pulley and belt, the pulley had seized and the tensioner was making a racket as I pulled away.

The genuine LED rear number plate lights i bought a while ago very sporadically and occasionally threw up a light on the dash. Ended up buying some off Aliexpress with a weird resistor wired in. Not a single dash light since, i would recommend them.



Replaced the bonnet upper latch as it started to always stick and was a fiddly pain to open. I tried to clean it some time ago but the problem persisted.



Light switch had seen better days, again, Aliexpress to the rescue.




I wrote this up in the “What did you and your MKV do today?” thread but i think it deserves another mention. My front passenger wing was bubbling so bad it made a hole. Lothian Autoparts is mentioned a lot on these forums and the reviews are mixed. I however, had no problem with the fitment or colour match.






Rear discs and pads had had it, went with normal brembo discs this time rather than grooved EBC. The pads, I had a pair of EBC redstuff on hand and they worked perfectly well before.






The rear boot handle was one of the first things I did myself when I got my Gti. It had white worm and looked a bit dated being a flat badge. Adding a MK6 Badge to the original more dampened MK5 handle was simple enough and looked a darn sight better.

Recently the handle had become stuck in the open position and required poking back down everytime i used the boot, but luckily I had already bought a replacement.

My Head unit displays “No Video Source” every time I put it in reverse, and the boot handle failing was the perfect excuse to get a reversing camera/boot handle.

A real one could set you back a few hundred quid, add coding and maybe the need for a genuine VW radio for it to work it all adds up. Having a Sony headunit, and what seems like an obsession with Aliexpress, I purchased a handle/camera for about £100 after tax.

Not actually for a MK5, the boot needs a minor adjustment with a dremel and the Wiper mount loses one of its three legs.



Add a touch of cowboy wiring




And after taking most of the trim out on one side, a fight with a boot grommet and an afternoon the result is oddly satisfying.

[pandaman]

Passed the MOT back at the end of March, with the only advisory being slight wear on the inside of the rear tyres!

Although, on the day of the MOT I went to check and top up fluids and the bloody bonnet wouldn’t open and the pull release had gone floppy. The garage ordered a new latch thinking that would obviously be the problem yet it turned out to be the cable.

Also, a few days before the MOT the car started to pull to the left slightly and began to squeak and that ended up being a seized left front caliper. In hindsight it couldn't have happened at a better time as I was booked in for the MOT and a Brake fluid change already and they managed to fix the caliper and bonnet release all at the same time.

I Then made a rookie mistake of not checking the work done before getting home. I walked around to look at the caliper and it was silver… I’d assumed they were getting like for like and would have ordered a red one. Instead of wasting time and effort arguing about it I just painted it myself with leftover caliper paint I already had.



My mirror control knob had started to bubble and recently completely flaked off. I Ordered one from Aliexpress a while ago and finally fitted it, it works absolutely fine for the 5 or 6 quid i paid for it.





A slightly more interesting update, I got myself a BCS Downpipe with 100 cell cat!

I decided to fit it myself but was very aware that the studs could snap off the turbo, so I did some research on pennatrants and bought some SeaFoam Deep Creep.



This stuff worked amazingly. I soaked the nuts and studs over a whole day going back and spraying a few times throughout and once more the next morning and the nuts came off like butter.

The hardest part was actually trying to disconnect the pipe itself connecting to the mid silencer, I had to break out the blow torch and attach the clamp further down and whack it with a mallet. Mainly because it was a U clamp style and had basically crimped the pipes together.



I went to pull off the drive and almost had a heart attack as all the copious amounts of deep creep burnt off and smoke came bellowing out the bonnet. After a quick inspection I realized what was occurring and have had no problems whatsoever.


The fittement was spot on, it came well packaged and the welds are of a good quality.
As for the emissions from the cat, I'll have to wait a year to find out if it passes and I waited till after this MOT to fit it for that reason.

I've fitted it to the stock exhaust giving it a slight gurgle at idle, a slight increase in sound in the low rpm range and an obvious throaty sound above about 4000 rpm. That’s from the inside, I've not let anyone else drive it yet to hear from outside but I did drop off a mate the other day and he said he can hear the difference as I pulled away. Exactly what I was after, nothing too obnoxious.

[LC5F]

Nice work - I had the same smoke issue when I installed my downpipe, took a good while before it stopped.

You need to keep an eye on that type of chinese number plate light - Where they connect into the cars loome - they don't have any waterproofing and will start corroding your original plug - this happened to my Mk4, the loom terminal had dissolved, I had to replace the plug and part of the loom to fix.
Maybe some dielectric grease packed into the connector will stop water entering.

[pandaman]

I got round to cleaning inside and out this bank holiday and thought i'd try out something I bought ages ago. A tow hook number plate holder and new grill.

The chinese grill I put on years ago had lost almost all its retaining clips from becoming very brittle and I thought it was held on by 2 screws at the top, both had rattled loose and been lost so I'm not really sure what was holding it on..

The plastic was also becoming faded and so was the red stripe. I'd thought about just painting the original grill but if you take off the number plate holder it leaves 2 ghastly holes.

Before



After






Broke out the dremel and managed to make a surprisingly accurate hole in the fog light grill.



I may revert to a regular plate in the future and use number plate pads to stick it to this new grill at least losing the weird rectangle on the original. Or paint the original and remove that plate holder.

I have taken off the pinstripe for now as it looks a bit pink in reality and I may even paint it a different color. Perhaps the same shadow blue as the rest of the car or even something like a yellow whilst also painting all the calipers yellow too, I'm not too sure yet.


It may also be time to order the other side front wing from lothian autoparts on ebay!

[LC5F]

Nice work on the Golf - wish I had used 3M kit on my lights instead of the Holts one.

By the way - I have the same type of grill that you have, where the plate sites it curves both horizontally and vertical, took a few goes to bet my plate to stick with a bit of a gap at the top

[RBS]

Good job👍🏻 Not sure about that numberplate but when it helps😅
Yes those wings…😵🙄 but nothing that can’t be fixed👍🏻❤️

[pandaman]

Washed and taken to the coast, pulled over for some pics on the way back.