Garth's GTI build thread

[Gene Hunt]

I got my GTI from Redline,they were ok with me.Got the price i wanted on my px & got them to do the cambelt/water pump etc as well before i would have it. 

[Garth]

New head unit (RCD510) is now in and working



Going to finish off the led's this weekend. Finally I can get rid of the awful yellow/orange fan speed indicator 
Should look sweet when it's all finished.

[Garth]

LED's are now all done. Thank god I've finaly got rid of those horrible amber ones!

I wanted to match the dials as best I could, so I went with the red line theme 



In the dark, it now looks like this:



I'm very pleased with them too as they now match the rest of the interior perfectly.

I then set about the rear lights and since I'm not prepared to pay the obsene amount of money for ED30 lights, I thought I'd do my own:

All masked up:


Tinted:


I'll get them on the car today and see how they look. I only did a very light tint to start with as I don't want some chav black lights! If they need to be any darker, I'll get them off and give them another coat.

 

[winrya]

Really good progress

Looking forward to seeing the rear lights on.

One question, is it just the photos or does it not have gti darkened front head lights?

[Garth]

Really good progress

Looking forward to seeing the rear lights on.

One question, is it just the photos or does it not have gti darkened front head lights?

Thanks.
Well spotted, it does not have the black GTI headlights. I can only assume that it either it was not fitted with them originally, or the lease company that owned it before me had some repairs done and replaced them with non-standard. The cars had some paintwork done for sure, so I'm guessing the latter. It doesn't bother me too much as I got hte car dirt cheap and I'm going to run it in to the ground before I sell it. 800 miles per week at the mo, so in a year or 2 it will be worth nowt anyways!

[Garth]

Tail lights are back on now.  Before:


After:


I think they're a little too subtle, so I might do them a bit darker in a couple of weeks when I next have time.

Note this photo was taken before I washed the car... It's clean now, honest!

[Garth]

I have now completed the joey mod on my headlights.
Full thread here: http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=10157.0

Before:


After:


It was a lot of hard work, but I'm pleased with the result 

[Garth]

I've finally replace dmy Parrot Bluetooth kit with something more OEM. I've now fitted a Skoda bluetooth kit to integrate with my RCD510 (it's a 729E version) which works superbly.

I've also been doing a little more with my climate controls and have replaced the black on blue with red on black, Audi style. This matches the MFD perfectly, although it doesn't photograph well. I'm really pleased with this mod as I hated the blue screens and since I'll be changing the dial LED's from blue to white, the climate displays need to fit in better with the rest of the dash.
Piccy:

[Garth]

New phone holder/charger now installed in the centre console:



How to here:
http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,12876.0.html

[Tahiti]

Loving this project - very subtle in a good way.  Can't wait to keep reading...

[Rich]

Loving all you touches up mate... car looks fab and i Steel Grey is a fab colour for the GTi I'm from Wakefield, which is faairly near Leeds, a few lads are meeting up together sometime from West Yorkshire, so i'll give you a tab when we do

If i'm totally honset, I'm not all that keen on the wheels, somehow i don't think they go well with the GTi.

[stealthwolf]

Love some of the mods.

How about a guide for changing the LEDs?

[Garth]

Thanks for the positive comments guys.

Loving all you touches up mate... car looks fab and i Steel Grey is a fab colour for the GTi I'm from Wakefield, which is faairly near Leeds, a few lads are meeting up together sometime from West Yorkshire, so i'll give you a tab when we do

If i'm totally honset, I'm not all that keen on the wheels, somehow i don't think they go well with the GTi.

No probs, I'd be up for a meet sometime.

Don't worry about your thoughts on the wheels. It's be a dull world if we all liked the same things 

Love some of the mods.

How about a guide for changing the LEDs?

Thanks. I might do a guide at some point for the LEDS when I get time. I've changed them again.... see below. In the meantime, I did find this one on changing dial LED's and it's the same process for the climate controls:
http://golfmkv.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2242183

HOWEVER, I would not recommend anyone doing this unless they're pretty competent at soldering. The reason for that is that it's easy to balls it up! I did a degree in electronic engineering and I still managed to strip one of the solder pads off. This lead me to have to make a fly wire to repair it as shown below 




Anyway, I have now repaled all the dial LED's from blue to white, which looks much nicer:



And i've re-done the fan speed indicator (AGAIN!), this time in white to match the dials, so the whole lot looks like this now:



It doesn't photograph well and the fan indicator looks much brighter on camera for some reason. Everything matches perfectly in the flesh though 

In the daytime it looks like this:



I just can't get the climate displays to photograph well, day or night!
I replaced the cruise icon's green LED with a blue one just for the hell of it too, which is nice 

That's it for the interior LED's now, I've got it looking just the way I want it now, it much nicer than the standard multi-colour set up in my opinion 

[WhiteGTI]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! I really wanted to do this to my GTI, but I have about as much electrical knowledge as a goldfish! At times like this I wish I could do all that stuff! Your interior is looking really good now! 

[Garth]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! I really wanted to do this to my GTI, but I have about as much electrical knowledge as a goldfish! At times like this I wish I could do all that stuff! Your interior is looking really good now! 

i might start knocking these out for people if there's a demand. it takes a while to do each one including removal and testing etc, but i've done this a few times now.
I've got to get some money for my wedding somehow!