Hi guys,
I have been trawling through nearly all of the first 6 pages of 'Members rides' over the last month or two picking up cool ideas for my 'new' GTI that I picked up last month.
All the known issues and cool little individual touches you can leave on these cars to make them your own, I came from a 17' BMW M240i that was running 470bhp but as I need to reduce outgoings and fuel costs due to saving for a first house I wanted to get something still fairly fast and good looking, the MK5 ticked all the boxes and still looks remarkably good considering its age!
Any way onto the photos as I know thats what all the great threads start with (image heavy is good)
First photo of the car when I collected it looking rather stock, standard photo when filling up
Then within the first week I wanted to get all the preventative/essential maintenance out of the way, all genuine parts from TPS
Cambelt, waterpump, cam chain, cam chain tensioner, cam follower (keep you eyes peeled for the horrific scenes you are about to witness), oil pick up pipe, and all the various o rings, gaskets and parts I would require.
Also got an inline thermostat and Main Stat but didn't have the time to fit them so they will be done as soon as this whole Covid-19 palaver is over with (hopefully)
The first day we cracked on with the bottom end replacing the oil pick up and cleaning out the sump, and all the shenanigans that go with that, we also carried out the 'poor mans balance shaft delete'.
(didn't grab any photos of that) but it all looked okay apart from a couple of shards of suspicious metal filings found in the bottom of the sump and then a further few more hidden in the pick up pipe......yeah you can guess where this was going.
So the next thing we checked was the cam follower as these are just the most genius things that vw didn't put on the service plans even though they know full well that they deteriorate at light speed. The car was on 82,000 miles when I got it and we suspected it was never changed so we braced ourselves...........this is what we found
Yep, is that not the worse thing you've ever seen in your life (car related), gutted was an understatement considering this car had FVWSH 3 owners from new and was never modified.
We then took a peak at the intake cam hoping for the best, but that was beyond fudged was practically circular (no wonder it felt like it was dying off in the higher RPMS
(stupidly didn't grab a photo but I was a little sad to do so in hindsight)
This was when we carried out a full overhaul on the top end and luckily being the Manager of a Tuning shop for German cars we had a couple of heads lying around with BWA cams still in so managed to salvage one of those that looked practically new and got that all in.
After all of that was done - bar the thermostats - the car ran 10000x better and was a heck of a lot quieter on idle which was a plus as these tend to sound like tractors usually.
What started out being a cheap daily with scope to KO4/KO3 Hybrid in the future it was soon turning into a money pit (like all cars, who are we kidding) £4750 for the car + another £800 on top worth of parts alone (I don't pay for labour) it was a very expensive stock GTI which was fairly low spec.
I have compiled 4 separate lists of parts that I want to get on the car, line for engine/drivetrain, one for interior bits, one for wheels/suspension and the last for exterior touches.
Engine and drivetrainfairly simple as I seemed to of done all the maintenance needed within the first week (against my will) but the rest will be done as and when - oh I also managed to grab a Evoms rep Intake from our stockpile of abandoned parts in our store room thats seen better days but that will get a fresh lick of paint and some gold heat wrap and may be upgraded later on to something else.
Wheels and Suspension
* Subframe Bolts + Shims to stop creaking when turning PART NO. N908 235 01 or 7M3 499 349 A
DONE* PowerFlex Anti Lift Kit PFF85-502G
* Eibach Sportline Lowering Spring Kit
Or
* Eibach B12 Sportline Suspension Kit
* Passat aluminium control arms/wishbones (2x 3C0407151G)
* Passat B6/S3 8P aluminium hubs (3C0407257F and 3C0407258F)
* Passat/S3 ball joints (3C0407365B and 3C0407366B)
*Rear ARB (opinions on what you guys are running as I am looking at H&R currently)
*Speedline Turini w PS4
or
*BBS CH 18x8.5 w PS4
Still undecided but I want to get the Suspension sorted first (even though my Monza's are white wormed to hell)
Exterior* New front Grille (Ebay Special)
Ordered* Lower Honeycomb Grill -
Odered* OS and NS open Fog light surrounds -
Ordered* Rear Bumper lower valance ED30 colour coded
or
*R32 Bumper (need some opinions on this not sure if I want the R32 or the ED30 one)
* R32 Dark Rear Lights
* Veyron Modded Rear Inner Lights £70 (Maybe)
* OEM LED Number Plate Lights 1K8 943 021 C
* Smoked Wing Mirror Indicators - need a link to some good ones on these if someone could help out
* Genuine Carbon Fibre Wing Mirror Covers
* Genuine Polo Roof Aerial - 6R0 035 849D
* Colour coded Side Skirts
* ED30 Front splitter
or
*Votex front splitter
Interior* Retrimmed Wheel/MK6/7 Wheel? or maybe retrimmed MK5 Wheel but MFSW
* Retrimmed Seats or Replacement Seats?
* GTI Seat handle Inserts (NEED TO FIT BUT WAITING TO SEE IF I BUY A NEW SEAT OR GET THIS ONE RETRIMMED)
* Genuine VW GTI Mats
* Genuine Gear Knob + Surround possibly ED30 (If anyone has one they are selling or know of one please let me know)
* Android Head unit - Thinking RCD330 as a lot of people rave about them but unsure on what seller on eBay most people use
* Cherry Red Hazard Switch -
ORDERED* Passenger and Driver Door Handles
* Window switches, Light Switch and fuel release with highline parts -
ORDERED* Highline Dash Cluster
* Cruise control retrofit
* MK6 Climatronic Unit
* Replacement Gear Shift Paddles - may not need these if I get a new wheel
* Meyle Gas Boot Strut
* Passenger Side Seat Wiring Cover thats currently missing 1k0971981B
Thats as far as the lists go at the moment, if anyone can offer advice or opinions on the above parts that I have highlighted that would be great!
More photos inbound
I spent some of the lock down correcting the paintwork \ never done anything on this level before so I went ahead and got loads of valet pro stuff off a friend who works for them along with a SPTA DA Polisher from Amazon and got to work sorting out all those swirlies.
Much better imo but I don't claim to be a detailer by any means, maybe just a hobbyist.
I have found some rust on 3 of the 4 arches around the car at varying levels of rustiness, but I will address those later as they aren't too bad.
Heres some pics of the interior woes I need to sort
I have some Gloss black Vinyl wrap coming to do the whole central dash facia and Gear selector surround as they have seen better times
Also I have a full set of Window and light switches ordered so these will all be sorted along with new door inner handles as they show signs that a possible werewolf was a previous owner
and a couple of pics of said drivers seat that is crying out for some patch work
Well that about covers it, I will be updating this as and when I do bits so should be fairly regular!
I have always been a forums Build thread nerd, love seeing peoples cars being transformed!
