Well after well and truly getting stuck in with the car now I decided to make up a build thread for her so others and including myself can look over the progress, and maybe help some fellow modders.
Starting with my very post on the forum
Just dropped through to say hello to everyone, been a visitor to the site for quite a while now but only just got round to setting up an account and introducing myself mainly due to the fact that recently I purchased myself a cheeky GTI.
So here's a little background on myself, Names Ashley but most of my friends call me Rumple (Don't ask
) 22 years young and from Sunny Dartford in Kent! been into my cars from quite a young age and when I finally was able to get myself a ride after passing my test there was only one affordable choice a little black MK4 Golf 1.4
absolute dog to drive and slow as a sh*t but I fell in love with her and the car quickly grew a character of its own, as much as I slate her now she did me well and put up with quite abit of abuse
it didn't take me long to have a fiddle and once I started I knew I caught the Vdub bug!
Here she is, halfway through a journey to Amsterdam (She did the trip 3times in total)
But after two and abit years, a few insurance quotes and a change of career I figured out that I could make the change happen and had my eyes set on a MK5 GTI!
Initially I was convinced I wanted to get a DSG version but after a couple of weeks skimming various forums including your own, I was so mixed minded about the issues surrounding reliability and costs to repair that I decided if I did get one and the worst happened I would kick myself so hard that it wasn't worth the risk, so I started looking for a manual model a week or two later I found the one!
A 2005 Volkswagen Golf GTI 2.0 TFSi 3-door In black.
Pretty much as it was out the factory except a stage-1 remap which unfortunately the seller didn't know too much about
Leather interior, heated seats, parking sensors , satnav & Sunroof yadayada the list goes on!
Here she is!
Number plates interesting I know, the guy was gonna buy a MK5 R32 and bought the number plate before he did and then ended up getting the very non-V6 GTI aha.
Needless to say I instantly fell in love with the power and the ride of the mk5 they seemed to have really hit the nail with the way it drives especially compared to the mk4.
she didn't come without her problems though, having nothing to compare it too led to me not realising that it was down on power but after a visit to forum member Dokez and some live readings taken he informed me that the most likely reason for the loss in boost was the DV that VW revised on the later models, so a quick trip to beadles was in order to pick up a replacement and sure enough when we took it out the rubber was completely perished, hopped back in and took some more readings all was in order but I was blown away in the difference aha having only just got my head around the change initially to be taken aback again was a real shock! and needless to say again I was even more in love with her!
My first port of call was a few retrofits, started with a nice easy one cruise control, I say that
but it was a right pig everything went smoothly until it came to connecting the new wire too the steering wheel block. What a PITA the end pin just wouldn't play ball and ended up useless but we managed to crimp a Molex pin that was salvaged from an old PSU and that worked nicely
After a very spontaneous decision to buy a Forge Twin take, I got it all fitted and whilst very happy with the CAI kit itself I wasn't too keen on the bare engine looking rather untidy so I set about neatening it up with a new Audi TTS cover. Following the example of some other lads off the forums I went for the Audi badge delete and carbon wrap, this was my first attempt at using 3M Di-noc wrap and whilst very fiddly its really good stuff once you get going, once I was finished the results were far from perfect but very much acceptable to me.
Pretty much finished under the bonnet, just need a couple of black caps from AKS, an r8/911 oil cap and a replacement battery cover.
So next I moved round to the back where there was a real niggle of mine, the dreaded white worm badge of doom, I jest but seriously it looks crusty as hell.
So I got a hold of BrookesB the forum God of Boot badges, who sorted me out with a very smart Mk5 handle/Mk6 Badge, was simple to fit and really cleaned up the back end.
(Excuse the filthy car)
Much better, any hoo moving on I decided to give the ICE a little TLC so grabbed a Blaupunkt TH-555 OEM Amp and an RNS-510 Rev.C so a little trip to Great Yarmouth to visit the legendary EddieNL was in order and he performed the usual RNS duties swapping out the old Can-bus for a newer less drainy one and also a Mic loom for some added voice control very impressed with his work and one of the most knowledgeable guys on the scene for sure. On returning to the home county I set about getting the new amp wired in with the sub and thankfully all went smooth with the use of a few how-too's and once completed I was very pleased with the results, a nice full bass and sound from the whole car!
So with winter rolling in I decided to hatch my plan for the car, I knew that I wanted to put some new wheels on and drop her down on coilies but after some thought decided it wasn't worth doing this yet with the risk of snow and ice mixed with salt. I decided to try and get as much done on the car as possible aside from the wheels etc so I figured Id start with the rear end, now I know many of you at this point will question why I would do such a thing but honestly I wanted to try something a little different and although its already been done I had never seen a MK5 in the flesh with the Twin singles so I went for it
I set about gathering all the required bits and bobs and got my mechanic on the same page as me and dived in.
This was how she looked after fitting the exhaust, I had to fit it first so the body shop could align the bumper exits correctly.
And here she is with the body work sorted, Im very pleased with the work and its pretty much how I wanted it to look barring the tips themselves, but I'll be in the garage this weekend getting them pulled in slightly and fixed in position so that should sort it all out.
A trip to the JKM Forum rolling road day was in order and I had the car mapped to Stg1 REVO, she was already at stg1 but the vendor was unknown and it wasn't particularly aggressive so in the run up to going stage two I decided it would be best to utilise the Discount and get it switched over. My god it made a difference not huge but very noticeable she feels a lot more responsive through the range and very torquey throughout.
Id highly recommend JKM, they know their stuff.
And well that's pretty much me upto date, looking to get an S3 intercooler fitted and go upto Stage2. Also looking into getting a Votex splitter sorted and colour coded Skirts.
Oh and I couldn't help another cheeky purchase of some Valeo lights from Gti_mad, another top bloke!
Again, excuse the filthy car! she's clean now
Its been a while since my last update and the car has moved on a little but still loads to go! Decided to get a list going of bit I want to do going forward if not for your benefit for mine
To do List:Front Splitter
Fog light bulbs
Xenon Head lights
Oil Cap and AKS Black Coolant etc
Re-Trim Engine cover centre
Seat bolster repairs
Boost Gauge
Subwoofer boot recess build
Exhaust tips
Painted side skirts
Arches rolled and painted
Full paint correction and detail
Find a cheaper way of spending money
List is provisional and in no order as I'm usually spontaneous with what and when I buy
Since the last pictures, she been lowered on some cheap as chips coilovers and some equally cheap BBS LM reps - I wish I could afford the real thing but I cant so these will do for now
but overall I'm happy with the way she's sitting and haven't compromised the car hugely although she has her moments. Also got the car mapped to stage 2 and she ran a 270hp / 325ft-lbs so I'm happy with that for the moment until funds allow a possible k04 upgrade
anyways, here she is!
(In some quickly taken, incorrectly resized photos
) - Will update soon with some better layout and pictures!
