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Author Topic: Richn83 progress thread  (Read 20351 times)

Offline Richn83

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Richn83 progress thread
« on: May 26, 2011, 12:15:54 pm »
So after over a year of ownership and a year on this site I thought it might be a good idea to do some sort of thread on my car as I have actually done quite a lot, maybe not in some of the obvious performance enhancing ways that a lot of people have but in adding OEM kit and extra toys!

So back in Jan 2010 I picked this up from VW, a 2005 MY06 DBP 5 door GTI with 27k on it and with standard kit plus Xenons and Leather seats, I think it is one of the earliest MY06 cars which had some of the spec changes bee sting aerial on the roof black leather wheel instead of grey and paddle shift as standard but still had the blue tint glass the extra lights and metal handles trim inside.


As you can see the original owner forgot to tick some very important boxes, having spent £1500 on DSG £1000 on xenons and £1000 on leather they didnt bother to spend £200 on the armrest £50 on the highline cluster and £200 on cruise control!  :confused:

As part of the purchase I got the supplying dealer to agree to fitting the cruise control and arm-rest retro-fit, although they were to stupid to find the right part number for a leather arm rest and fitted a very odd cloth version which made it nearly impossible to swop the top for a leather piece. They also replaced all the VW emblems that were white wormed which resulted in me getting a MK6 style 3D badge  :happy2:  At this stage I got them to fit mud flaps and carpet mats.

For the next 2 to 3 months I just got on with enjoying the car, the standard stereo was pants so it stayed switched off and I enjoyed listening to the engine exhaust and the quiet ride (compared to the focus 1.6 I had come from) however spending too much time on this forum as we all know is dangerous so the first mod came when I got myself an RNS510 a nice simple first mod since I have always played around with car electronics.

Once I started I had to fit one or two more items, next up was a ipod insert for the arm rest (which the dealer had ordered me a unit with a big whole rather than the cubby hole type  :fighting: while I was fitting the cable for this I decided I wanted my rear vents to work so I stuck in the additional pipping between the lower dash and the arm rest pipe (this is not an easy job) a roll top cup holder as well as fitting a factory 729B bluetooth kit at the same time!




After a full day of ripping the car to pieces grazed and scrapped fingers it all finally went back together and more importantly it all worked! The day after this I then replaced my front brake pads myself which is the first time I have ever done anything like this myself so I was rather pleased the first time I stepped on the pedal and actually stopped!  :chicken:


As well as spending lots of time upgrading my standard kit I have been getting into detailing and had slowly started amasing bits and pieces the first time I did what I consider to be a proper detail I spent 7 hours washing claying polishing cleansing and waxing the car this was all done by hand as I still havent invested in a machine polisher, the results were a massive improvement but you just cant get a good level of correction with just your arms unless your names Arnie!


I was rather happy with the results the car was wearing some HD wax at this point and the beading and protection has been great!

Next on my list was to get myself some buttons to add to the DSG wheel a simple mod as long as your comfortable removing the airbag due to my plans to eventually fit a highline cluster I went for the newer style single phone buttons with the raised plastic design, unfortunately without a highline cluster the functionality is rather limited but volume control and trip computer control from the wheel is a lot better than reaching over to the stereo or on the wiper stalk, and the additional lights on the wheel at night give the car an improved look.

The next step for me was to get hold of some Monza II's as the 17" looked lost in the arches luckily someone posted up on here that they were looking to do a swop for some Monza, so I jumped in the car and drove up to Derby swithced the wheels and drove back again.

Taking the car from this


to this


Much better  :pomppomp:

After that things went a little quiet for awhile I was enjoying the car and thinking about what to do next while always keeping an eye out for parts I wanted, while looking on ebay at work I spotted a German seller who was selling a batch of electric fold and puddle light mirrors for right hand drive car for good money so I swooped and before I knew it I had an electric folding mirror, then the saga of control modules right hand drive folding mirrors and mirrors switches began its literally a mind-field I eventually gave up on finding the right part for the driver side second hand and handed over my sole and credit card to the stealer as no where could I find a right hand folding door mirror, and two door controllers later I eventually had the right part  :sad1:  

At the same time I had also spotted a speaker upgrade kit on ebay for not a lot of money and thought while I have the door cards off why dont I upgrade the speakers as well  :scared: yet more painful nights trying to fit parts which are rivetted to the car with a torch in my mouth and a hand drill needless to say I got quite good at removing the door cards.  I did the dirver side door in the day light on a weekend so took some pictures

original and upgrade side by side


This is a video I took of the two sides, left is upgrade speakers right is the originals
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/qny8RsRXkQZ2Ov0oasj4og?feat=directlink

That pretty much brings it up to date, the only other bits have been to replace the DV for the Rev D piston type and to have new spark plugs fitted along with the coil pack recall I went for iridium plugs which are a grade cooler and the combination of new coils and plugs certainly bought the car alive and increased its wish to rev  :evilgrin:

Current plans are to get highline fitted, (I have one somewhere in the post between the USA and UK at the moment) also about to fit a sharkfin for GPS signal and to get rid of the roof aerial, the car also needs the wheels refurbing from white worm and a proper machine polish which will be done once funds allow.  I also plan on adding the under-body aero mods mainly to improve fuel economy at motorway speeds (I hope) and have recently started thinking about handling mods along the lines of WALK new arbs and possibly 20-25mm lowering on springs but that sounds like the start of a slippery slope  :rolleye:
« Last Edit: May 27, 2011, 10:05:17 am by Richn83 »

5Dr Black GTI, DSG, Leather, Xenons. Retrofitted - Cruise, RNS 510, MFSW, Armrest, Skoda BT, 6cd changer, Monza II's, VW speaker upgrade kit, Lux pack, High-line, new CAN gateway, Polar FIS info display, R32 tinted rear lights, RVC

To Come...NQSBBK, highline CCM.

Offline StuF

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2011, 12:48:34 pm »
Love it mate  :happy2:

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Offline JPC

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2011, 01:25:05 pm »
Looking great mate ;)

Offline Tfsi_Mike

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2011, 01:29:40 pm »

Great work mate  :happy2:

Offline Richn83

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #4 on: May 26, 2011, 02:20:40 pm »
Cheers guys, now I just have to update it as I go along.  Mike not seen you around on here for awhile hows everything with you and married life?

5Dr Black GTI, DSG, Leather, Xenons. Retrofitted - Cruise, RNS 510, MFSW, Armrest, Skoda BT, 6cd changer, Monza II's, VW speaker upgrade kit, Lux pack, High-line, new CAN gateway, Polar FIS info display, R32 tinted rear lights, RVC

To Come...NQSBBK, highline CCM.

Offline Tfsi_Mike

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #5 on: May 26, 2011, 02:26:02 pm »
Cheers guys, now I just have to update it as I go along.  Mike not seen you around on here for awhile hows everything with you and married life?

Had all the bad luck life could throw at me last 6 months or so, but chin up.  Married life is good.  Missus is due our 1st baby in November  :jumping:
Crazy times, 13weeks and still not sinking in  :ashamed:

Car mods have ground to a halt recently :'(  I cant decide whether to let it take a sideline and get a sh*tter daily, till I can afford to finish it, or get rid and get another hyper hatch when I get a secind wind with the £££

Offline Richn83

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #6 on: May 26, 2011, 02:45:19 pm »
Cheers guys, now I just have to update it as I go along.  Mike not seen you around on here for awhile hows everything with you and married life?

Had all the bad luck life could throw at me last 6 months or so, but chin up.  Married life is good.  Missus is due our 1st baby in November  :jumping:
Crazy times, 13weeks and still not sinking in  :ashamed:

Car mods have ground to a halt recently :'(  I cant decide whether to let it take a sideline and get a sh*tter daily, till I can afford to finish it, or get rid and get another hyper hatch when I get a secind wind with the £££

At least your keeping positive and even if professional life is tuff sounds like personal life is going well enough to compensate!  Congratulations on the baby.  Having seen your car you might as well keep it as selling wont get you all the time and money spent back and enjoy it in its current configuration plus you have 5 doors for the baby  :wink:

5Dr Black GTI, DSG, Leather, Xenons. Retrofitted - Cruise, RNS 510, MFSW, Armrest, Skoda BT, 6cd changer, Monza II's, VW speaker upgrade kit, Lux pack, High-line, new CAN gateway, Polar FIS info display, R32 tinted rear lights, RVC

To Come...NQSBBK, highline CCM.

Offline Pmoky gti

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #7 on: May 26, 2011, 02:49:25 pm »
nice one rich, glad you made use of the pipe and roll top,i couldnt have the balls to rip all that out,had enough trouble doing the armrest :signLOL:
cars looking good :happy2:

Offline LouCyffer

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #8 on: May 26, 2011, 04:07:06 pm »
Brilliant thread Rich. Interesting to me as my previous owner did the leather, DSG, 18" Monzas, but left off the armrest & highline. How easy was the covered cubby? I've still got a pauper-spec uncovered one.

Baffling what goes through the minds of some when they're spec-ing a new car. :rolleye:
Black 2008 5 door GTI. Leather, DSG, ipod prep, 18" Monzas. Retrofitted: Cruise, PDC, RNS510, 729 Skoda Bluetooth (thanks SteveP), MFSW buttons (thanks MortyGTTDi), Armrest & vents, covered cupholder, Highline (thanks Kalu), Polar FIS+ (thanks Richn), Reversing camera (thanks MortyGTTDi)

Offline Richn83

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #9 on: May 26, 2011, 04:19:00 pm »
Brilliant thread Rich. Interesting to me as my previous owner did the leather, DSG, 18" Monzas, but left off the armrest & highline. How easy was the covered cubby? I've still got a pauper-spec uncovered one.

Baffling what goes through the minds of some when they're spec-ing a new car. :rolleye:

Roll tops not too hard with it being at the back you will have to remove your arm rest, and loosen some screws it makes a big difference to the appearance, I had to remove more trim to install the air pipe so in comparison cup holder is a doddle!

I dont understand people that spend thousands speccing a nice car and dont give the details more than 5 minutes attention to see what they are actually getting!  :stupid:

5Dr Black GTI, DSG, Leather, Xenons. Retrofitted - Cruise, RNS 510, MFSW, Armrest, Skoda BT, 6cd changer, Monza II's, VW speaker upgrade kit, Lux pack, High-line, new CAN gateway, Polar FIS info display, R32 tinted rear lights, RVC

To Come...NQSBBK, highline CCM.

Offline rich83

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #10 on: May 26, 2011, 05:03:21 pm »
Looks good.

Your yoo toobe link it busted though!

Offline stealthwolf

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #11 on: May 26, 2011, 09:45:04 pm »
Lovin' it.

Did you manage to get the puddle lights and folding mirrors to work?
Do you have a parking mirror? (passenger mirror dips to the kerb).

The GTI isn't just a machine. It's very much a living, breathing thing.

Offline golfman

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #12 on: May 26, 2011, 10:11:28 pm »
Looking great rich keep up the good work :happy2:

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Offline Richn83

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #13 on: May 27, 2011, 10:04:13 am »
Should be fixed now rich was a bad link, its on picasa that its saved and even though it uses youtube (same company) it wont let me embed  :confused:

Stealth the puddle light folding etc all works was a bit of a pain with a dodgy gen1 max controller but all good now, the reverse dip however wont work so something else is needed to get that to work which I dont have!  I would like it too but I just cant get any coding to stick apparently it might be something wrong with the electric motor in the mirror itself not having the potentiometer to detect its position and move so I have decided to give up for the time being!

Cheers Golfman some of your bits are floating around with my car now  :wink:

5Dr Black GTI, DSG, Leather, Xenons. Retrofitted - Cruise, RNS 510, MFSW, Armrest, Skoda BT, 6cd changer, Monza II's, VW speaker upgrade kit, Lux pack, High-line, new CAN gateway, Polar FIS info display, R32 tinted rear lights, RVC

To Come...NQSBBK, highline CCM.

Offline Richn83

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Re: Richn83 progress thread
« Reply #14 on: May 28, 2011, 04:56:16 pm »
Gave the car a clean this morning and took the opportunity to take some pictures in a small gap in the sunshine to show of the fleck in the Diamond Black Pearl.




A little bit of processing was used :signLOL:




5Dr Black GTI, DSG, Leather, Xenons. Retrofitted - Cruise, RNS 510, MFSW, Armrest, Skoda BT, 6cd changer, Monza II's, VW speaker upgrade kit, Lux pack, High-line, new CAN gateway, Polar FIS info display, R32 tinted rear lights, RVC

To Come...NQSBBK, highline CCM.