Hey, my names Chris and I'm from Bangor, Northern Ireland. I've bought myself a project GTI that needs rescuing. I'm new to the forum and so far its been a great help especially the Modification catalogue. I thought I would start a little build thread to document the progress of my car.
Back in 2008 my Dad bought a new mk5 Candy White GTI 5 Door Manual. At the time I had an ep3 Type R and although the Civic was class, I preferred the GTI. So when he came to trading it in after 3 years, I sold the Civic and bought his Golf from him.
I loved the car, I have loads of happy memories with it. Me and wife (then GF) used it to drive all over France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Sadly I only owned the car for 2 years until I sold it for a new M135i. Afterwards I always regretted selling the car, if I'm ever asked which car I've owned and miss the most, I always say the mk5.
So about 3 years ago, I wanted a cheap hot hatch for modifying and for track days. I wondered if I could find it again. So I set up some saved search alerts on Gumtree, Used cars NI and Auto Trader.
Every time a 2008 white mk5 comes up for sale in Northern Ireland, I get an email. And for the last 3 years I've had a few emails, but never mine. I ended up buying a Clio 182 FF and kind of forgot about the search for the Golf.
Until a couple of months ago. I got the usual email, but this time when I looked at the reg, it was my car! I couldn't believe it.
I had to have it back. Unfortunately I didn't have any room for another car so I started getting the Clio ready for sale straight away. The sellers ad was rubbish, 3 blurry pictures, very little information. The seller wanted to swap it for a Diesel. Funnily enough he didn't want to swap it for a track focused Clio
.
I went to view the car, and was honestly heart broken. It looked like it had spent the last few years in the sea. Every panel had paint chipped off, and rust had crept in. Underneath was even worse. If I was in the market for any old mk5 GTI, I would run a mile. I actually did at first, I didn't make an offer, told the seller thank you but the ad had no mention of rust whatsoever, and wished him good luck.
I went home annoyed and gutted, I guess I was hoping to find the same car I sold 8 years ago or at least something close.
That night I did a 180. Figured I'll only regret it and I won't get the opportunity to buy it again. So I messaged the guy, gave him a cheeky offer and we quickly agreed on a price. I guess he soon realised his valuation of the car didn't reflect the condition.
So now I am the owner, again, of a 2008 mk5 Candy White Golf GTI Manual.
Plans for the car is basically a restoration of the body work, and to increase power (stage 2 for now) and handling to something that is exciting on the track.
The car is booked in for a respray in March 2022 and until then I'm going to get to work on everything else.
So far I've replaced a couple of bits of interior trim and had the wheels refurbished. I've managed to clean up a good bit of the rust with touch up paint.
Plans for the car is to go Stage 2 for now and maybe pushing to a K04 conversion stage 3 maybe later down the line.
I'm in the process of getting as much new parts together before it goes to the work shop.
So far the parts I've bought are;
A pair of used S3 front brakes
VBT hooked discs all round, Ferodo performance pads.
Darkside upgraded intercooler.
Whiteline front and rear anti roll bars
Whiteline anti lift kit
KW V2 Coilovers
Helix organic clutch kit
Vibratechnics engine mount
Things I still plan to get bought asap;
A 3' power valve turbo back exhaust from
@Powervalve Nige if he can ship to Northern Ireland
A Revo intake and tune (R-Tech unfortunately involves a Ferry ride for me)
Obviously I'm new to the forum and in some ways mk5's in general so I need some help and guidance from some of the guys with loads of mk5 experience when it comes to the underside. I'll share some pictures of the state of it, but I think everything will have to be replaced or refurbished. I understand some of Passat b6 parts are considered a good option? Basically I'm not sure where to start with it. If there's any links to anyone elses projects who have to do similar jobs, that would be appreciated.
Any other advice or obvious things I should be doing while the cars at the mechanics then let me now.
