Bought my first VW back in 2012 at the end of December, love the car but it's been an expensive journey so far! Brief history is used to own a modified Mk1 Focus RS for 3.5 years, running 290 bhp & 336 lbft, until 1st Jan 2012 when it was sadly written off
Next move was an Astra 888 CDI, running 197 bhp & 215 lbft, really disliked the thing, seemed off the road more than it was on so kept it for 10 months until selling it for the Golf:
Which brings me to my Golf GT 170, seen it come up at a good price on Auto Trader, was over in Bishop Auckland being sold by a trader so decided to go over for a look, this is how she looked once I'd got her home:
Car has changed a lot and is very much a 'work in progress' - wouldn't class it as a GTI rep, i'm more just styling it with whatever bits I come across that I like so it could end up as a right mash up!
Within a couple of weeks I started collecting mods -
Bought these from a lad in Glasgow, VAG fitment but was running them on a Astra VXR using adapters:
Tried on for size, made the car sit very high!!
Then picked up these Apex RDX coilovers from a lad over in Annan a couple of days later:
Sadly from the second day of ownership, this little guy kept appearing:
A blast down the motorway to force a regen and clear the DPF seemed to do the job but only for 2-3 days at a time then the issue would come back, over a 2 week period the blocking got so bad that the car stopped performing regens and the car went into limp mode! After taking the car to a local VW specialist, the problem was diagnosed as a nackered DPF. Was pretty gutted but suppose it's the risk you take buying cars off traders. Thought long and hard about what to do with the car, as I'd already started buying mods I decided I was too committed and started looking looking for somewhere to delete the DPF and map it!
Called round a few places and following a phone call to ADS at Preston on 19th December the car was squashed in the following day for the work as I was due to be best man at a wedding on 23rd December and needed my car!
Set off to ADS in Preston at 6am to make it there for 8am with the car in limp mode, journey seemed to take forever as the car would slow down to 45mph on the slightest hill! Dropped the car off and went for a wonder around Preston and was told Dave would call me when the car was nearly done - sadly as the car was a late booking I was one of the last jobs of the day, Dave ran into various issues but worked until 8pm to fit a Milltek DPF delete pipe and load a stage 2 map to the car. The journey home seemed to take half the time and I drove home with a massive grin
Car seemed to ran great until the clutch started slipping - turns out my clutch and fly wheel were goosed too and the extra power highlighted this - in January 2013 I had them replaced by a mate. As you can imagine the car had cost me a hell of a lot by this point but still looked exactly the same!
The CH reps I bought had a couple of light marks and really didn't like the finish on them so decided to rub them down and paint them myself -
Before:
Rubbed down:
Primed with acid etch:
Then painted with Ford Stardust Silver -
First coat:
Second coat:
Then 2 coats of lacquer:
Once the wheels were done I sealed them with some Auto Finesse product then ended up sitting on them until winter passed:
Also bought some new centre caps and got a guy off ebay to make me some decals:
Next mod was the lower GTI rear valance, my GT one was pretty scuffed up from the previous owner so decided it needed replaced and sourced this brand new genuine GTI one - also debadged the rear of the car:
http://s282.photobucket.com/user/jonny_sri/media/null-92.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2One of my mates had a free Saturday coming up and said he would help me fit my coilovers in his garage, this prompted me to get my tyres fitted to my freshly painted rims so made a trip to the local tyre fitters:
Next step was fitting the coil overs, setting the height and fitting the wheels - also replaced the two front suspension arms whilst I was at it which resulted in this:
The next day I washed the car and took some shots:
Already the car was looking much better! Finally after a tough 4 months of ownership I started enjoying my car as it was beginning to look how I wanted it!
Next job was to paint the brake calipers, after fitting the new wheels, the corroded, unpainted ones really stood out so spent a good few hours wire brushing and rubbing them down:
Then painted with 2 coats of hammerite direct to rust smooth blue paint:
Next mod was to replace the front grilles - had been looking out for a genuine GTi set for a long time but couldn't find anything that was decent enough second hand, had read on here of a few guys buying replica sets from a ebay seller which were really good quality so decided to give them a try -
From this:
In between (couldn't resist cleaning it whilst the grilles were off):
Then built back up:
Plan to paint the red strip blue to match the wheels or black sometime soon.
Quality and fit are really good - very happy with them
Whilst fitting the grilles, I had the interior professionally cleaned. It wasn't too dirty if I'm honest but as my dad is a professional carpet and upholstery cleaner I thought it was worth getting done when all it would cost was a couple of brews:
Prior to cleaning:
Seats, roof lining and mats are now like brand new and have that clean feel! Really happy with how then come out
Following on from the new mods, the car was really missing a rear spoiler:
So the next mod was a carbon rear votex style spoiler, it arrived and rather impatiently/foolishly I got a friend to fit it straight away without checking the fit or trimming it up to get it flush, it looked ok but I really wasn't happy with how it sat but ended up running around with it on the car as it looked better with it than it did without:
Next task was to wrap my B pillars in gloss black vinyl as the original matt ones were looking very shabby:
All in all it tidies them up and looks better than shabby old matt ones!
Whilst keeping an eye out for a GTI tailgate and spoiler to replace the carbon one I came across a seller in Oldham selling one on Ebay in exactly the same colour as my car and managed to win the auction! Following this I managed to convince the missus we needed to go shopping in Manchester which would allow us to pick up the tailgate in Oldham on the way:
Picked it up on the Friday and had it fitted on the Saturday
Fit was much better! Also managed to get the panel gap much better than the original tailgate! See instagram style before and after pic:
Next step was to wash and de-badge the tailgate!
Big first update I know - been meaning to start a thread for a long time but haven't got round to it!
Car is my cheap to run, 'sensible' car - but doesn't mean I can't have it looking and performing how I want it haha! Returns good MPG when driven sensibly but has enough poke to keep me happy following the DPF delete and map. Next plans include sourcing and fitting some GTI skirts, new double din head unit - most likely an RDC510 and spend some time on the paint work with my DAS-6 - which I haven't touched since buying the car!
Thanks for reading
