rayray's garage

Boooo

2008-06-29T23:04:00.005+10:00

Fark, it's been nearly a good six months since I've posted aye. No excuses, just been plain lazy. I've been doing a bit on the Golf though, and while I'm typing away I was thinking I should show what I've done in pictures... BUT I've been THAT lazy that I haven't even taken many pics either.

So in brief, what have I done in the span of 6 months?

BBS RS and Work Equips both sold, bought OZ Superturismos and steelies; the latter I had widened, powdercoated black.

VR6 subframe, control arms, tie-rods, drive-shafts and front sway bar finally installed - no more crooked wheel, it looks straight now!
Front wheel bearings changed (DIY, thanks Vortex).
Driver-side damaged fixed (insurance job).

Another badgeless grille.
VR6 seats.
Audio install (amp, sub and false floor).
Battery relocation to the rear.
Integrated indicators into headlights.

Ghetto fender roll (haha hammer FTW).

But most important, I got closer to the VW community which is what got me started in all this in the first place. A bunch of Melbournians from the VWW forums came up for the annual VW Nats during May and we all had a blast hanging out and just talking shit. Dominic a.k.a. WABIT on the forums came up again this weekend and took some professional photos of the car as well (Pierre a.k.a. fuzion as well), which turned out fooking fantastic! I can't wait 'til he has the photos uploaded.

Two pics I took at the Nats (camera phone, excuse the quality):

It's like that as a daily now but it just scrapes everywhere. Planning to fit the duck-bill back on soon.

DIY: Headlight refurbish

2008-01-07T15:56:00.000+11:00

It is a common problem with a lot of car headlights that they start to turn cloudy and yellow over time. This is a result of all that mother nature throws at the headlights as you drive through rain, dirt, sunny day etc. Fortunately there's a way to bring the headlights back to its former glory! This DIY is for the most part an adaptation to the one written by FaelinGL on VWVortex. He made an excellent DIY.

Materials:

Water bottle w/ detergent+water mix
Masking tape
Bucket with clean water
Waterproof sandpaper (400/600/1000/2000)
Terry cloths/polishing cloths/applicator pads/rags
Rubbing compound (I used Meguiars Diamond Cut Compound)
Plastic polishing compound (I used Plexus Plastic Cleaner: Protectant & Polish)
Torch

Products:

Meguiars Diamond Cut Compound (MDCC) & Plexus Plastic Cleaner (PPC).

For this application, I thought MDCC was not heavy enough. I applied it about three times after the sanding and the result was far from what I hoped for. This may be due to bad sanding procedure though...
The PPC was a bit awkward and different to use. I was expecting it to be a substance similar to all the other polishing compounds I've come across, but this one was a spray in an aerosol can. It did next to nothing after the MDCC, though the sales assistants that helped me out said they had lots of good feedback for that product. I reckon the Meguiars PlastX as used by FaelinGL would have been a better alternative.

Procedure:

First off, make sure you're working under shelter and that the paintwork is not hot to touch.
Mask off surrounding paintwork as to avoid any accidental scratches. I just used newspaper but it was a pain to work around.
Spray (liberally) the detergent water mixture on the headlights, and proceed to sand using 400 grit waterproof sandpaper. Sand in one plane (e.g. left-right), maintaining the same amount of force throughout the surface. Continually wet the surface; use a rag to wipe off any particles. About every 5-10 minutes, wash the surface with water and wipe dry - run your fingers over the surface. If the surface texture is inconsistent, keep sanding. Proceed on to the next (finer) sandpaper when the texture of the whole headlight feels the same.
Repeat step 3 with the finer sandpaper, except sand in a different plane (e.g. up-down). Every time you check for surface texture consistency, you can check the direction of the scratches on the headlights. Use a torch if visibility isn't that great. Keep sanding until all the scratches are in the new plane. Repeat this until you finish sanding with 2000 grit (yeah it's bloody annoying, but you won't get perfect results otherwise).
Clean with water only and wipe dry. Now, we apply the rubbing compound. Just like a car polish, work the compound into the headlights and buff off completely when it dries. Best to follow the instructions on the compound you bought. Repeat as many times as needed (three is usually enough).
Similarly, apply the plastic polish.
Buff out any residual polish on headlight and paintwork. Remove masking slowly and (hopefully) marvel at your work!

Results:

Before:

After sanding (notice that the yellow tinge is gone):

After polishes (haze gone):
Imperfections:

These were only apparent after the polishing work. In the first pic, you can still see bits where the haze is still present. The rest of the headlight was still not clear enough to my liking, though it was far better than what we started off with. In the second, the deeper scratches weren't sanded/polished out well enough.

I did this DIY with 600 and 1200 grit sandpaper, and went through it all rather quickly. 600 grit just wasn't rough enough to sand away the haze quick enough, so I reckon starting off with 400 would be best. Working through more sandpaper grades would be easier when it comes to sanding out scratches.

Just a comparison with the indicator lens:

It's nowhere near as clear, but I reckon when done right, it can get very, very close.

Maybe not a problem with the Mk3 (I've never seen an example of this on a Mk3), but this can be carried out whatever the condition the headlight lens is in.

Homebush meet

2008-01-02T11:32:00.000+11:00

Hope everyone had a fantastic New Years.

Before the New Years, some of the guys on VWW decided to meet up as long time member Andrew (gtimk5) of Tasmania came up for the holiday season in his Tornado Red Mk5 GTI. Also, Neil (99gti) of Melbourne in his Jazz Blue Mk4 GTI have permanently moved to Sydney due to work and family commitments. Both were very welcome additions to Sydney though!

We ended up meeting at Homebush again for its wide spaces, central locations and photo ops. We went to eat at a local Italian restaurant (Jouliana's) that served great pizzas by easy-on-the-eye waitresses haha. It was definitely a very nice chance to see some other VWwatercoolers in a more relaxed environment.

Work-ed up

2007-12-23T19:37:00.000+11:00

Mixed emotions over these. I love them and think they look tons better than the RS on my car, but they just poke toooooooo much for my liking at the moment. I've taken them back off as the scraping is just unbearable. Steve wants his stock BBS wheels back so I'm on the market for wheels again (like I ever left it haha). Think I might just settle for 16" Mk4/A3/TT OEM wheels for now. Montreal II's are floating around everywhere but I'm hoping to snag one set up for less than $500.

Anyway, pics:

Silly poke.

I was very proud of my camera work today haha. Pictures came out great IMO for a point and shoot digital camera. Only did some cropping and didn't resize them. Check out my Photobucket for the other 15.

Plans for it now is to save up for a pair of smaller adapters (20mm), refurbish them (full polish?) and maybe get some neg camber in when the wheels are ready to go back on.

404 not found?

2007-12-19T17:36:00.001+11:00

Oh, but I did :)

Quality stuff that fits on like it came from the factory (fits better than bits that actually did come out of the factory :P). Basically there's a rail that hooks on to the roof edge that's covered up by the rubber seal lining:

Easily tightened and aligned by the allen key screws:

Followed by the cover that's locked in by key. Really looks neat!

Pity about my shitty photo taking though. It's been raining a lot in Australia (especially for summer). Looks like the drought's breaking.

And... I'm selling the BBS wheels. I'm not saying who to, but he will definitely look after them very, very, very well. I'll miss them, but it's time to move on!

How's this for moving on?

:)

Mk3 meet

2007-12-17T18:10:00.000+11:00

So some of the blokes on VWW wanted to do a Mk3 photoshoot meet. I chimed in and suggested doing a dinner get-together thing as well.

It was pouring like crazy but definitely didn't stop the regulars from meeting up. Pedro (red Mk3), Louis (burgundy VR6), Steve (white + textured VR6), Aaron (black VR6), Demil (white Mk3) and myself were the show-ers including George (Mk5 TFSI Jetta), Pierre (red Mk4 GTI) and Ray (B5 Passat 1.8T). We first met up at one of Homebush Olympic Park's carpark followed by Rhodes Shopping centre indoor carpark lot. We then headed off to Auburn RSL for some all-you-can-eat buffet and then back to Homebush for some night shots. Overall it was a great afternoon/night that involved a lot of catching up and just talking shit.

I left it to the boys with SLR's to do the photo-taking:

All pics courtesy of VW_Hawk aka Aaron. Louis took a few (read: many) too, but used film so those pics will be up later.

Update:

Roof racks came in today, and they look great. Installed them on and I can't help but say the car has that Euro flavour to it now haha.

And I've got some sad (not bad) news that I'll elaborate on in due time.

:(

2007-12-12T14:49:00.001+11:00

Sorry about the lack of updates - just haven't been in the mood lately.

Dubmissile rocks!

2007-11-05T18:30:00.000+11:00

Alan of Dubmissile sent me an awesome email at the end of that bloody awful last week of Uni. The result of that email came in today, while I was doing my rear brakes:

He sent me an awesome sample of his badges! They'll be on the bag for now until I get my headliner and pillars done in custom fabric :) Thanks Alan!

Oh, and as I said before, the badges came in while I was doing the rear brakes. Dan's (of VWVortex fame, Dan J Reed) "Rear disk brakes" DIY page was very handy when I was doing this. His DIY page is definitely worth visiting (and bookmarking) if you have a Mk3 Golf/Jetta/Vento.

My old man helped me out today, and I very much appreciated it. To be honest, he was a bit hesitant about my/our ability at first, but we got through it fine.

Of course, we hit a few obstacles. The caliper carrier bolts that required an 8 mm allen key were bloody hard to undo. The air compressor (yes, I impulsively bought one) with the 250 lb rated impact gun couldn't budge two out of a total of four, but after loads of WD40, a few hours and a lot of persuasion, they finally came loose. We ended up chopping our L-shaped allen key so that it was a straight rod about 8-9 cm long, and used Pedro's breaker bar. It gave us decent leverage, though we still had to use a lot of force on the breaker bar to force the bloody bolt loose.

Everything else was relatively smooth. I ended up using the inner wheel bearings already on the 5-studded rotors, but used the old outer wheel bearings and race. I went to buy new split/cotter pins though, and ended up buying slightly longer ones (4.0 mm x 50 mm) as they didn't have any that were shorter. Stock ones were the same width but only about 40mm long. It didn't cause too much drama though, as we were able to bend the new split pins around so that they stay within the wheel bearing dust caps.

It was then time for the adapters. The 1.3" were quite big... they nearly matched the thickness of the brake hub! I started worrying about whether the 8" ~ET12 wheels would fit, but I was more worried about how I was getting the adapters to fit on. It ended up pretty easy though - the lug+nuts A-DAPT-IT included were actually bolt on studs for the brake hubs. The lug/studs went on first (in which I applied Locktite to, along with the rest of the bolts for the brake reassembly), then the adapter followed by the nuts. Two problems encountered here - my lug wrench, which is the right size for the nuts, did not fit within the adapter hole. Ended up buying a thin-walled 13/16" deep socket - there was a thin-walled impact socket, but it was still too thick :( The other problem was that one of the nuts had a thicker section than the rest. The oversize was only a hair's breadth, but it was still enough of a difference to prevent the nut to seat properly. I'll have to get the angle grinder out for this one.

No 'during' pics as my hands were continuously greasy or dirt black, but here are some 'after' photos:

Exactly the kind of poke I was aiming for. I thought an offset of roughly ET12 would be too much poke, but it ended up being subtle. I'd say ET20 on an 8" would be flush with the rear guards.

And that down-n-out stance ;)

Starting on the fronts tomorrow, then hopefully done by Thursday/Friday so I can give the car a proper wash! I haven't done that for MONTHS, and to be honest, I feel bad!

Flat Fours Shootout

2007-11-04T21:16:00.000+11:00

Finally a post that's not about my car.

Flat Fours held a show today at Miller. They are known to be a modified VW club that is open to all those that own a VW, although they are predominantly filled with aircooled owners/modifiers. It was an excellent day today. It was actually forecast to rain (as it was doing for the past few days) but I woke up to blue skies and glaring sunshine. I hope the VWW Summer cruise to the 'Gong will be the same!

Met up with a few regulars but also met a new VWW member by the name of Mike. Owns a VR6, but used to have a modded up S15! I'd say it must've been a step-down in his case power-wise...
Steve was there too, and picked up his other deep VR6 lip. To be honest, I kind of miss the look of it, but I think what I'll do is use the VR6 lip for cruises/meets and events and such, but for daily driving duties, I'll just keep rocking the duckbill. Anyway, Steve's new-look VR6 looks fucking HORN. The rear especially, with the shaved VW badge recess and deleted wiper, and colour-coded boot-look which makes it look like the top part of the plate recess was shaved too. His whole stance with the KW coilovers look great too over his polished Porsche 928 wheels. Smoked long turns and dummies also look the part with the smoked theme, and the Aero wipers that are usually more associated with the latest generation of VWs goes with the whole clean look. Anyway, here's some of the pics.

The rest can be found on my Photobucket.

Oh, and many thanks to Louis for giving me a ride to the event!

On schedule...

2007-10-29T08:57:00.000+11:00

Did a lot yesterday and today. Used the electric detailing sander for the first time and boy, does it make things bloody easy. The front side of the front bumper is 95% smooth save for the top indents which I think I'm just going to fill over where they join - I'll be heading to Bunnings for a dremel bit that I can use so I can make the necessary modifications to shape the filling to look exactly like the rest of the indenting. I'm thinking that'll be the easiest, rather than try and work my way with hot, viscous plastic.

I got sanding-happy with the machine :P It should make filling easier though, since I'm working with raw plastic rather than paint.

I've also made a few modifications so the donor panels I used now follow the curvature of the bumper (as close as possible). I basically added some support behind the bumper so the donor panels are now pushed to match the curve of the bumper top. It was merely a thought at first but then decided to give a try, and so far it holds up bloody strong. However I'm not sure whether it'll hit the rebar - it might be too thick. I've yet to put the bumper back on but will be doing it tomorrow as I'm getting the fender rolling done - more info later.

That's the side with three of those 'holders'. No budges at all when you push with force, so they're held on very well. The other side though I only welded in one - it does the job in holding the curvature, but part of it still flexes when pushed with force. I'm lazy in creating another holder for it for added support.

Did the filling with Isopon's Bumper Fill too. Very easy to work with, but very quick to set. Once it does though, it's very soft. The sander made light work of it.

I used a whole lot of it at first but manage to sand down pretty much 80% of it.

Also bought the engraver bit for the dremel and tried to make the indent. Did a very bodgy job but it looks OK. I couldn't be fucked with it at the end so I just quickly did another layer of filler to go over any indented spots. Towards the evening, I sprayed a few coats of satin black paint over. I will be wet-sanding to try and get an even finish (the finish right now is quite shitty). It looks quite rat-stylz right now :P

I also did the front indicators. I've done the wiring - basically just crimped the ends and did a test, and they work fine. I've since taken apart the lights (they're Mk1 front bumper indicator items) and cleaned the insides ready for proper sealing - they were originally "sealed" by rubber insulation. Also tinted the lens - they look much better than the clear side indicators. Leaves me here thinking that I should just ditch them and tint the stock ones.

Hate anything to do with wiring...

Oh yeah.
Managed to trim the lower duct trim today and get the indicators to fit. I cut holes on the far lower corner of each duct. With a few adjustments with the dremel, I managed to get the indicators to fit through and fit rather snugly in the ducts. I'll definitely need to hold them tightly though.

Much like the front bumper, I couldn't be fucked doing a proper job... I'm thinking of just using zip ties to hold the indicator down to the duct. I won't be able to use screws so the screw holes can be put to "good use".

Once I've wet-sanded and sprayed on another few layers of black on, I'll be able to fit the lower duct trim and indicators on and head down to the garage with the fender roller.

I jacked the car up to modify the inner guard linings as well. To my relief, only the fronts have a guard liner - the rears can be rolled as they are. Anyway, check out the DIY for what I did.

I inadvertently hit the paint work with the dremel on one of the fenders :( The mark is about two inches long, showing bare metal. It's right on the lip too. I'll have to touch it up after the rolling...

Tuesday update:

Painted the bumper - looks bad :( Not because it's black, it's just that I didn't do a good job at all with the sanding and filling. Looks really rat-stylez right now actually haha. Also painted the front indicator surrounds and lower duct trim while I was at it.

Went to UpGarage to get the fenders rolled too - $150. Also dropped by at Matt's to get the CV joints.

As referred to by Matt, I also went to Super Cheap for some DOT4 brake fluid - got some "Castrol Response Super DOT4". They had the "Advanced" version and it was $2.00 cheaper, so I just opted for this one. Also got this "one-man" brake bleeder kit.

Let's hope all goes well tomorrow! My goal is just to get two done (front two) and finish it off on Thursday. Then I can spend all Friday finishing up my rear bumper ready for Flat Fours. I'm not gonna overly rush that one though.

Oh, and pics of the car as of now:

DIY: Fender rolling for Mk3 vehicles.

2007-10-28T23:37:00.000+11:00

More of a fender rolling prep than the actual process, but here it is nonetheless.

Aim:

To remove sections of the front guard liner under the fenders in preparation for fender rolling.
Fender rolling involves folding the lip of the fender, effectively allowing more room for a wheel to fit under.

Materials:

Dremel (with a cutter bit)
Marker
Heat gun
Fender roller equipment

Safety:

WORK ON LEVEL GROUND. Don't make things difficult for yourself.
Use a hydraulic jack, or a scissor-type if you don't have one. Don't risk using the widow-maker.
Use STANDS. Don't work under a car with just a jack supporting it. You might think it's unlikely, but they can fail, and when they do, you'll be FUBAR'ed.
Chock the wheels so there's no room for your vehicle to move. Cars are known to roll off jacks or stands in unusual circumstances and this will also get your FUBAR'ed if you're working under the car. There's a very high chance of this happening if you don't heed the first safety point.
Wear gloves, face protection, ear muffs and work under shelter. You'll be working with a dremel up close and there will be falling debris. There's also awesome acoustics under the guards, and you'll find yourself going deaf with your head in there. Also, the sun will affect your vision too. I found out when I started doing this during the afternoon and I had to the car facing west :P

Procedure:

SAFETY! Make sure the hand-brake is on, chock the rear wheels (give just a little room for the car to lift up), loosen the wheel bolts, jack the front-end of the car up, place it on stands, take the wheels off and wear your gear.
Look under the fender. Along the length of the arch of the fender, you will see four bolts around the edge - one located near the jack sills, one located near the bumper-to-guard bolt, and the other two bolts between these. Let's focus on those two.

The lip of the guard between these two bolts will usually be the part of the fender that a wide wheel will come in contact with. We won't have to take these bolts out - instead, this is where we will commence our cuts.
Make a marking about 1cm away from the bolt. Cut perpendicular to the lip, making sure you don't come in contact with the metal. Do this for the other bolt.

There's a slight fold about an inch from the lip - this is where I made the parallel cut from bolt to bolt.

My cutting wasn't very straight but as long as there's enough room for the lip to roll over, you'll be fine.
Repeat for other side.
Follow the instructions of your fender roller and go crazy. Remember to use a heat gun to warm the panel first before doing any rolling.

Notes:

The DIY is only applicable for the front two fenders - the rears don't have a guard liner.
Before rolling both front and rear fenders, remember to clean the inside of the lip thoroughly so there's no debris - anything residing in there can lead to a thicker fold, or worse yet, dents on your panels.
Use the dremel slowly and carefully. I inadvertently hit the paintwork of my fenders.

Don't say I didn't warn you :(

Today I'm getting them rolled. Will show final pics when I get them.

Temporary update - midweek bump!

2007-10-18T00:51:00.001+10:00

Just procrastinating on my Uni work so chucking up a few pics on what's been happening.

Also received new clear side indicators and bought tinting paint. Smoked the clear sides to get a more consistent smoked finish as opposed to the JOM items I had before. Light quality is shit as and it doesn't look good at all when it blinks :( Should have stuck with the JOM items and just de-ambered the cap. I'll probably just tint the stock ambers too to see how that looks. If it gets rid of the amber look when it's not blinking, then I'm happy.

Update #2
Went tyre shopping today. I first told myself what size I wanted (originally it was 195/45R16 and 205/45R16, but have since settled with the only the former), then went about researching what tyres came in that size. It's a very uncommon size (how many 16x6/16x6.5 wheels do you usually see?!) but I was still spoilt for choice. I then set about looking for dealers stocking these wheels, and stuck with a shop that was reasonably close to where I live. Here's the tyres I came up with:

Toyo Proxes T1R (~$165/each)
- 195/45R16 80V
Yokohama S-Drive AS01 (~$225/each)
- 195/45R16 84W
Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 (~$300/each)
- 195/45R16 94V
Goodyear Eagle LS2000 (discontinued?)
- 195/45ZR16 80ZR
Dunlop SP Sport 9000 (~$350/each)
- 195/45R16 80V
Falken ZE329 (~$179/each)
- 195/45R16 84W XL
- 195/45R16 80W
Continental SportContact
- 195/45R16 84V XL
Event WL905 (from Continental website)
- 195/45R16 84W XL
Hankook Ventus K102
- 195/45R16 84V XL
Michelin Pilot Primacy
- 195/45R16 80V
Nankang NS-2 (~$139/each)
- 195/45R16 84V XL
Pirelli PZero Nero
- 195/45R16 84V
- 195/45ZR16 84W

They're not very wallet-friendly those prices :( Though I was pleasantly surprised that Beaurepaires was able to do Nankangs for only $139/each and Blair's Tyres for their Toyo T1R at $165 a pop. However, out of all those shops, only Beaurepaires was willing to stretch them on an 8" wheel, and he didn't care about fitting them onto a car with adapters (others were a bit iffy on the legal issues involved). Service was much better overall at Beaurepaires too. What I'm thinking of doing is going to Blair's to purchase the set of Toyo T1Rs, then going to Beaurepaires for the fitting and balancing, and the alignment. It will cost extra, but it'll be the difference between a well-known/respected tyre and an entry-level, no-name tyre. However, that said, I'm willing to "risk" (if you can even call that) trying the Nankangs purely because of my financial situation. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to afford better tyres (eye-balling SP9000) once the Nankangs are worn out since I should have a full-time job by then (hopefully). It'll be the only chance I try out some high performance but cheap tyres.

Anyway, pics of the two contending tyres:

Toyo T1R
Nankang NS2

Also gave Matt a call today. My VR6 brakes actually need VR6 CV joints in order for them to be able to bolt on. Matt quotes ~$100 per side, so shouldn't be too bad. Planning on doing it myself too. Matt quotes ~$350 for the labour if I give it to him. I'm gonna give it a go though. Also, I'll be picking up new brake fluid from him for $25/L.

I still gotta dremel the guard liners dremelled so they can be rolled too... Hopefully I'll have that done by end of Sunday so I can get the fenders rolled on Monday, then start work on the brakes. I'm aiming for it to be done by Friday so I can take it out to the Flat Four Shootout on the next Sunday (4th November)!

Update #3:
OK I ended up ordering the Nankangs. They only have THREE 195/45R16 tyres in the country at the moment so I settled for a pair of 195/45R16 for the front 7", and a pair of 205/40R16 for the rear 8". The stretch would be minimal on the wheels but it should be OK as my offsets aren't crazy low. $139/each so should cost me ~$550 all up for the tyres. Will be paying and getting them mounted tomorrow. w00t.

Update #4:
Matt will have the CV joints ready on Monday, fender guards will be trimmed on Sunday and fenders will be rolled on Monday, bumpers should be ready by next week (I've taken far too long), and hopefully VR6 brakes will be too. Nankangs came on Thursday so I had them fitted straight away. Disappointed with the 195 on 7", but content with the 205 on 8".

195 on 7":

205 on 8":
Comparison between the two:

Difference in rolling diameter (closer one being 205/40):

As you can see, hardly any stretch. I'm having doubts about the fronts fitting :( I guess I'll only know when I fit them on.

WHOA-O BLACK BETTEH!

2007-10-13T19:58:00.000+10:00

Sorry, wagenwerks has released their new video clip - it's of their coverage of the VAG Fair show event in USA. Awesome Mk3 content too.

YouTube. 480p. 720p.

I first came across their videos from Mike's post on their previous videos. Check it out for wagenwerks' other videos!

So what's around the corner?

2007-10-09T23:36:00.000+10:00

Mike of SubtileBlog, always being the bearer of good news, has now sent my adapters over the Pacific Ocean. $90USD was the shipping price.

So it's got me excited. Last weekend I had the coilovers done. This weekend I'll be working on the shaved bumpers. Next weekend might see me putting in the brakes and then the adapters along with the 16" BBS RS I've wanted to fit on for so long. So it's got me REALLY excited. I just have to show-off :P

RS225:
8" of BBS goodness. High offsets means adapter friendly :)

That's just a pair of them. The other pair should have a different RS model number as they are 7" from the factory. Same offset.

Oh, and remember how I got a BBS RS wheel for $20? Here it is. RS032; looks much smaller than the 16's. They're actually the same width as my previous 15" set but these are +17 in offset:

<3 dish.
So my plan for them is to whack them straight onto the car after the brakes and adapters are in (after some fender rolling and 195/45's of course) until I have the Equips refinished (pictures soon). Once the Equips are done, I'll completely take apart the RSs and do a very thorough rebuild job. At the moment I'm thinking of widening the front 7" pair to 8" to achieve a staggered offset rather than a staggered width. Since the offset will be lower on the new 8", they will go to the rear. Of course I'll be trial fitting the current rears to the fronts first to see how well they sit. For the appearance of the wheels, I'm thinking of an all (gloss) black powdercoat with gold bolts and gold BBS lettering caps (remember the ones I bought from Racing Team Hoffman?). Pictures of Ian Chan's blacked out lips on his RH ZW1's and more pictures from Wheel-Whores has sold me on the black look. The gold highlights would be a very special touch too IMO.

RH ZW1 w/ matte black lips and orange centres:

BBS wheels completely blacked out w/ polished highlights.

So anyway, that's my plan for the moment.

Is it December already?

2007-10-02T18:48:00.000+10:00

I received some presents already :)

Somewhat more detailed pics in my Photobucket.

Edit #1:

So I couldn't wait until my adapters arrived here so I can fit the VR6 brakes + BBS wheels (actually, Mike's got the adapters already and will be shipping them out next week! Cheers!).

Installation was a breeze - the only setbacks were trying to locate a suitable washer to hold the front mounts down (one of the washers were too small and so didn't hold the front strut mount properly), and confusing the front spring hats with the rears - we randomly picked two out to fit onto the rear and they both ended up to be the fronts... we were baffled about why the top hats were loose! Anyway, besides that it was smooth sailing.

They do look pretty :) By the way, I ended up winding them all the way down as that setting was giving me the same height as the previous setup with the Koni springs.

Thanks goes to Louis for helping me out a bunch on Friday and Saturday. It was like he was working on his own car - I'm grateful for his dedication and attention to detail! He was also the wielder of the camera. Good stuff.

Edit #2:

Excuse the dirtiness and uncompleteness.

Edit #4: Bottomed out on no less than 3 speed humps that I usually clear. Looks like I'll have to take a lot more zig-zag lines now!

Bumper paint scheme

2007-10-01T23:03:00.000+10:00

I have 4 options that I'm indecisive about.

Colour-coded with smoothed textured black tops.
Colour-coded with smoothed gloss black tops/valence.
Smoothed, completely textured black.
Smoothed, completely gloss black.

Note that I'm not going for a two-tone look; options 3 and 4 only apply to the bumpers.

I'm mixed between colour-coded and all-black as I want to show-off the shaved bumper, yet I like the all-black look. I'm mixed between textured black and gloss black because it's easier to do the gloss black (in terms of layering it down and maintaining it) yet I don't want to stand out too much with the gloss. I'm stuck! For any readers, give me your opinions!

Bumper shaving and badgeless grille #2 - progress

2007-10-01T22:32:00.001+10:00

Matt was kind enough to let me take a late Mk3 bumper for free due to the damage it has sustained:

Haha yep, that's the only damage to it.

As little damage as it is, I'm using it as a donor for bumper pieces so I can shave some parts. First of all, the exhaust cut-out:

Yeah it's subtle and probably only noticeable to 1% of people that look at the car, but I like the no-exhaust look. I also plastic welded the tow hook cover.

I cut off about 2 inches of the exhaust tips too.

It doesn't completely cover it :( I'll be cutting it more soon, and spraying the tips and rear muffler black.

Next was the indicator/foglight section of the front bumper. Hours was spent trying to get the shape right. It took longer than expected as the section between the foglight insert and plate recess did not have the indent, so I had to cut that out and weld on an extra piece.

The cut-out had to be perfect so a lot of time was spent sanding away. Dremel FTW.

Today I managed to completely weld all the custom bits in. It now awaits sanding, filling and painting.

Badgeless grille has been welded too. I've completed the sanding and am delaying the filling, as I hate doing that.

There are some imperfections. I wanted to keep the backing between the top and middle slats this time so I welded two parts together before welding it on to the actual grille. I found out that I didn't weld it on straight :@ It's not noticeable from far though, and I honestly can't be fucked redoing it. I've inhaled too much plastic already. I'll have to add an extra support for the bottom slat. It's very flimsy at the moment.
I've still got to do the lower metal part, but I want it properly welded in so I'll be asking a mate first.

I put all the parts back on as I have to use the car this week for Uni.

It's funny... the car looks wider from the front now. Louis also commented on that. Anyway, I can't wait to see the end result.

Anyway, I'll be updating more as I go along. More progress pics will be uploaded onto my Photobucket.

Drift Australia

2007-09-30T23:55:00.000+10:00

Yes, a bit unrelated to the Golf cause, but after posting about Team Peer and the drifting culture in Australia, I thought it deserved its own post. Drifting, in my opinion, is as much of a culture and lifestyle as driving a VW. Both has its own quirks and derivatives that I guess makes them unique in the automobile scene. They come from different parts of the world, but are actually quite similar in many ways (albeit due to different reasons). Both employ and love stretching tyres. Both poke their wheels as if they were rollerskates. Both use zipties as if they hold the car together. Both have a taste in rare wheels. Both explore different looks by using parts of different vehicles. However, the most important similarity that stood out to me was that they both are largely unknown and not part of the major modifying scene of Australia. I've always tend to go for different things that are not popular to the norm, and it was that appeal that led me to follow both cultures and lifestyles. I've had thoughts of learning how to drift before, and although I'm not pushing it aside, VW is my passion now and it is the VAG scene that I want to help introduce to Australia.

Anyway, here's Drift Australia's YouTube account - they have loads of videos of the latest drifting competitions being held in Australia.

Fixes - Part Four (+ update)

2007-09-17T22:54:00.000+10:00

I ended up spending all Thursday at Matt's workshop. Louis was kind enough to drive me down as he was heading there himself to have his car fitted with H&R coilovers - and fuck, they go lowww. He has about 2 inches of thread left on the coilovers and he's already tucking tyre. However they're not damper adjustable (as claimed by Louis) and their currently pretty damn stiff. The strut body was bloody thick as too.

Anyway, I ended up taking out the crank angle sensor out of the wrecked Mk3 myself. I figured Matt will be busy and can't be fucked doing it so I might as well do it myself so I'll have some confidence replacing the sensor on my car. The process was straight forward, but is damn long for what I was after... it was a damn wire! Screwed in by an Allen key, it can only be taken off with the transmission mount (front engine mount) out of the way :@

Come Sunday, I managed to fit the new sensor on without any major hitches. I finished with a small bolt and washer lying around that I don't know which part of the car that it belonged to, but it should be OK :P Here's the comparison between the two:

I taped up the one from the wrecked car as I do not want to replace it ever again. The sensor wire were originally only wrapped by rubber insulation which has naturally cracked under the immense heat it's exposed to when situated so close to the engine and transmission housing. I managed to tape up about half of the sensor wire of the old one before it finally died on me, but this was basically how it looked throughout the length of it:

Some nasty shit right there, with bare wires exposed and vulnerable to shorting out and gaining very high resistance with the lack of insulation in some parts. I'm guessing this was why the car ran like shit when it was only warm.

I also bought a dremel bit to clean my spark plugs which have been fouled yet again due to the weird signals sent to the ECU when the sensor was fucking up. Once everything was in, the car started like a dream - honestly it felt like a new car to me haha. Gave it a quick drive with both the bumpers off as I'm still doing the custom bodywork :) More on that later.

So finally all the repairs are done. With many other sensors and electronical components replaced (see previous posts), I am definitely not expecting the car to fuck up on me again. Fingers crossed. Now, finally on to the exciting bit...

UPDATES!

So, for $300 I ended up buying the Work Equips :) Louis was kind enough to let me store them at his place for the time being - he has helped me out a lot the past few weeks and I'm very grateful for that! My plan now is to take them back home when the BBS RS are on the car, so I can restore them. I'm heading towards the polished path for the Equips, and only spending money on new centrecaps if I can't get them looking good again. Once they're done (hopefully by the Nats next year), I'll have the BBS RS refurbished and re-done in a different way :)

A week later after visiting UpGarage for the Equips, Kevin (my friend's brother's friend, haha), his Lexus SC400 and I met up to take another trip down there for a set of 18" Enkei wheels he fancied. He let me drive it down and wow, what a cruiser. Very different to how the Golf drives. Anyway, the Enkeis were in good condition with your usual wear but they were 3-piece, 9" wide, and had some decent tyres - Yoko Advans. He snapped them up for $950 and to my surprise actually looked SICK. They suit the car perfectly in my eyes and are the best looking 18's I've set my eyes on. There's a JDM flavour to them - that said, I don't think they would work as well on a VAG vehicle, though I can be wrong. Looks were deceiving as far as their website pics are concerned; they had a classic race look to it. They're bloody wide too - they were poking in the front even on the Lexus. Kevin had his guards rolled while he was down there - $40/guard. Not too bad I think, and they did it properly with a fender roller, not the ghetto hammer. Not that there's anything wrong with using the hammer, provided that it's a professional panel beater that's handling it. I think I'll be taking the Golf down some time soon for its own fender rolling. Anyway, here's the Enkei wheels:

Yeah, he needs to lower it haha.

Speaking of UpGarage, had a pretty cool experience down there. When Kevin and I were test-fitting the Enkeis, Team Peer dropped in with their Onevia (S13 with a 180SX front) drift car. Part of the team were there: Darren Appleton, Leighton Fine (who complimented the Lexus with its new wheels) and their pit team. I was (still is?) a fan of drifting and have followed it religiously after watching the Initial D series. Since owning a VW though, I've forgotten all about it, but it's interesting to see that there are very different cultures within the car-modifying lifestyle.

Back to the Golf - after a month of thinking, I pushed the trigger and now have a set of GC coilover sleeves with 300 lb/250 lb F/R springs being sent over to me. The shipment was sent last Monday so it should be arriving some time late this week hopefully. It came out to be ~$500AUD. If the Koni springs will sell for ~$250, the GC kit will turn out to be a great value-for-money upgrade. Plans for suspension later will be a rear sway bar from Neuspeed (undecided between the 25mm or 28mm). I'm just gonna give myself some time before upgrading again.

Finally, I have some adapters on the way :) Thanks to Mike Templeton of SubtileCommunication, I'll be able to rock my BBS RS and Equips soon. I've chosen AdaptItUSA as their prices were the cheapest by far. They are 5x100 --> 5x114.3 with studs pressed out, two separate pairs being 1" (25 mm) and 1.3" (33 mm) thick and come with lugs. Made with 6061-T6 billet aircraft aluminium and recommended by Vortexers, I'm confident they will last a long time without breakage. They are being sent to Mike as we speak, and soon he will be able to give me a quote on shipping internationally. In due time, in due time!

Out with the old, in with the new?

2007-09-15T20:12:00.000+10:00

So in preparation for a VR6, I parted some of the stuff I had on AEH11E. These included the badgeless grille and the BBS RS, just to name a few. Believe it or not they were the bigger things on my car, and for the foreigners reading my blog, they're pretty hard to come by down under.

In the last post I was saying how I'm not going for the VR anymore... which means I'm free to do what I want with the 2.sl0w again. I'm basically going down the same route I went a few months ago, as I really liked the look of it. I'm in the garage working on another custom badgeless grille (3-slat) but this time I'm actually welding the parts rather than crudely bondo-ing. It started cracking within a few weeks. Anyway, I'm debating whether to colour-code the slats or leave them textured. More on this later.

After the badgeless grille, I'm wanting to shave the front bumper. I used to be against it as the relatively large indicator/fog cluster was so characteristic of the Mk3, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. As for the front indicators, I'm thinking of going OEM+ rather than reuse the Mk3 items, as I think they look rather awkward with their squarish appearance (compared with the rear lights). With the paint, I'm considering two options. Paint it as it is like now (colour-coded, but textured top) or texture paint the whole bumper. The former I'd like to do to keep the car looking "normal" and to show off the shaved effect; the latter I'd like to do as it's slightly more different and because I've always liked the panda theme AE86. Also, if I go with the former, I'd texture paint the slats on the grille; for the latter, I'd colour code the slats on the grille so there's not too much black. Still deciding on this!

I've bought another set of wheels. And yes, they are another set of BBS RS :P Except I've turned back to 16's again. These ones are off a Toyota Soarer - 16"x7"/8" ET45. Steep offset = perfect with adapters. I'll be putting the VR6 brakes I bought a year ago into good use now. I'm thinking of running 20mm/30mm front/rear adapters for now (so that's 16x7 ET25 at the front, 16x8 ET15 at the rear) which should give me the look I want - some subtle poke. I'm thinking of widening the 7's to 8's so I can run a lower offset at the back, but this will be later when I put the wheels aside for a good refurbish (they've got some nasty gutter rash right now). I've got my eyes on a set of Work Equips in the same size (not sure about offset) so I'm thinking of picking those up to and running them while I have the BBS on the sidelines. They're only going for $350 which is stupidly cheap for a set of sick wheels.

With the wheels on stretched tyres, I'd really "need" to go lower! The 14's with the 185/60 rubber is already exhibiting some noticeable wheel-fender gap and 16's with 195/45's, with a smaller rolling diameter, would look the same, if not accentuate the wheel gap. I've already spent a grand on my current set-up which is only half a year old so I don't want to get rid of it. Months of trawling through the Vortex has led me to Ground Control suspension systems. They make coilover retrofits that are essentially sleeves that slip over the current struts. With custom springs, they allow the current struts to act like your run-of-the-mill coilover system by providing height adjustability. Adjustments are anywhere from 0" to 2.5" lowering, which is definitely an "improvement" over the 40mm I have now. Of course, this isn't necessary yet as it's only a matter of looks that I'm considering this for. I've asked for a quote and they come in at ~$437USD, which isn't too bad at all. I should be able to get some money back from selling my Koni springs easily. Also, on the suspension side of things, I'm really digging the Neuspeed rear anti-roll bar s. I discovered that Ian (dub_rub_oi_oi on VWW and Vortex) had recently become a distributor of Neuspeed products and can ship the rear ARB for less than $400. Compared to a lower-spec, non-adjustable ARB from Whiteline at ~$250, I think it's a good investment. I've heard a lot about the improvements an ARB can do to the handling of the car. I definitely have autocross aspirations in the future so this should be a worthy upgrade. However, I don't know what to do first - coilover sleeve kit or ARB? Generally, I'm leaning towards the coilover for looks, and ARB for handling... I hate to say it but I'm really edging for the coilover kit!

Other plans so far include fixing the rust (probably replacing the driver's door), interior enhancements (headlining, pillars, just to update the appearance for my pleasure) and custom-modding a lip - don't want to reveal too much yet :)

Tuesday 04/09/2007

2007-09-15T19:49:00.001+10:00

Had the shittest day two Tuesdays back. The car finally broke down on me, in the middle of Parramatta Road during peak hour. Misfiring like crazy and idling like a heartbeat, it finally gave up and stalled, not wanting to start but cranking like a chundering drunk. Long story cut short, I ended up pushing a 100m up-hill to a side road as the APEC thing was going on during that week (clearways were enforced). Towed it to Matt for a 170 fucking dollars + a ripped lip.

Matt tried to diagnose the problem for about 3 days. Some of the parts he replaced were:

two distributors (new)
dizzy rotor
dizzy cap
a set of spark plugs
waterpump sensor
lambda probe
fuel regulator pressure sensor
fuel pump relay + other associated relays

and the worst part was, it still didn't fix the problem. The car would keep overfueling and overcharging the spark and with the above changed to new parts, it was first thought to be an ECU problem. We were all set to get a towie to take it to the dealer along with a new (well, wrecked) ECU to have it recoded to suit my keys and car, until Oli came along in his new Caddy TDI and gave us a few pointers. He had a similar problem with another car and it turned out to be the crank angle sensor, which was the item I was supposed to fucking replace but couldn't because the part wasn't readily available. As mentioned in a post earlier, the wire was getting brittle, and the insulation would just crack off. It became so bad that the bare wires were being exposed, causing them to touch each other and create a short. This was the culprit for my misfires and shitty starts. The car would run fine when it's cold - the wires don't have as much resistance (basic physics). But once it gets warm, that's where all hell breaks lose. It became so bad that spark plugs would foul within 5 minutes of the car running. They would be black-as when taken out for another cleaning, only to foul again. So what Oli suggested to do was to tape the wires up individually and the sensor as well so it would let me at least drive small distances until we can source a crank angle sensor... well, a cheap one. Oli called one of his mate's from a VW parts dealer and even with his connections the best he could come up with was $400. For a piece of fucking wire. Matt's going to buy a few of them from his UK connections and he thinks they should get here in no more than ~$100AUD, which is bloody decent... but recently when I visited him, the 1998 Mk3 he was wrecking had an intact, good condition crank angle sensor, and hopefully he will take it out for me soon so I can replace it and be happy again.

So yeah, a lot of text up there but I've bolded the important bits :P

Looks like there's no more VR6 in the works anymore, as that fucking wire has/will cost me in excess of $500. So it's back to the 2.slow - it's all good though, I still love the fuckin' thing so much. Some big plans comin' up, hopefully most done by the end of the year. Will go through these things in the next post.

I don't think anyone reads these posts, let alone the guys that helped me out, but I'd like to give a big thanks to Matt, Brenton and Oli.

Fixes - Part Three

2007-09-03T17:49:00.000+10:00

So I went to Matt's again to pick up a better condition crank angle sensor wire. His were as f*cked as mine, but as I was about to leave, the car wouldn't start. Just cranked and cranked and cranked but no ignition. This time it was for real, it just wouldn't start. Pretty good timing mind you, I wouldn't have been able to fix it otherwise.
Anyway we did a few tests here and there of the electrical system and found that it was the dizzy that was f*cking up on us. It was sending very little spark at first but then ended up sending none at all. The cap looked pretty new but was burnt on some parts, which would mean that the dizzy was being sent heavier signals than normal.

That still doesn't cure the car of its misfiring but now I'm more certain that it may be caused by the crank angle sensor wire. I don't have access to my camera now but it looks very brittle and is very much exposed to a lot of heat. I'll have to insulate it more when I fit a new one in. Which reminds me, I gotta go make an order for it now.

Up for sale

2007-08-31T20:23:00.000+10:00

I've finally got the ad put up on carsales.com.au. Decided to go premium since it's advertised at carpoint.com.au too!
I took the pics at the abandoned warehouse at Merrylands Station. The pics came out great, besides the fact that there was too much light coming in (I took the photos at noon... I originally planned early in the morning or in the afternoon but was busy during those periods :@). Here are some of my favourites:

Updates - nearly sell-worthy

2007-08-24T23:58:00.000+10:00

Just a few updates - the car is slowly getting into selling-mode. I've refitted the duckbill lip back on along with the orange side indicators, badged grille (needs painting) and the factory Enkei alloys. The VR6 lip and smoked side indicators will be going to Louis, and the debadged grille and BBS RS wheels have been given to Pedro (in exchange for $$ of course). I've still got to replace the rear taillights with the stockies and also refit the pencil tray back on. Pedro suggested it, as I could get more $$ from selling the glovebox separately. Fair enough!

I haven't got pics yet though, but I reckon I will be able to take some on Monday, and if not then, then definitely by Wednesday. Found two potential photoshoot sites though. One is near my local train station (Merrylands) - it's essentially a two-wall storehouse, with the corrugated iron roof and walls that give it the deserted, empty look. The other one is slightly similar but is in an open space. Backdrop is a very old tram and the train tracks leading to Redfern, while the two sides are old train "hangars". One of them is currently used as an art gallery for digital media, which I'm studying at the moment. The entrance to it is photo-shoot worthy too.

This would be part of the "Fixes" post but since I've only done one minor fix, it doesn't really deserve its own post :P Side mouldings were starting to pop off as I broke one or two tabs when I took them off for a respray ages ago. I finally got around to putting them back on permanently with some double-sided tape, which has been long suggested by members in the VWVortex forums. It works a treat. As with the mechanicals, it's still misfiring, though sometimes I hear a bit of a creak at low RPMs when I start moving. Very distinctive and coming from the rear passenger side. I think that's where the fuel filter is? Anyway, I'll be getting new spark plugs and leads when Pedro goes to Tooleys for his shit, and he has a battery recharger so I'll be able to use that to temporary fix the low battery charge problem.

I think that's about it.

Wheel repair

2007-08-19T18:01:00.000+10:00

So I've written about this before - I was thinking of repairing my factory 14" alloys, and finally got around to it. So far I have sanded the imperfections down and prepared the surface for re-painting. Some of the deeper chips I did not bother fixing - I had thought of filling it in with metal epoxy but decided against it. I am planning on painting the alloys satin black anyway so most chips can't be seen. I have sanded them down enough anyway. All gutter rash has been eliminated but the lip surface is now slightly irregular. You can't really see it (well, hard to tell since some parts are sanded down to bare metal and some parts still have slight paint) but it can be felt. I'm not really too fussed about this though as they'll be put on to replace the BBS which I'm selling. I'm sure the next owner of the car will want to get bigger wheels anyway.

21/08/2007

The wheels are done! To be honest, I could have done so much better. The layering of coats were pretty bad on my part. The photos show some overspray on certain parts of the wheel. Since the centre-caps were sprayed black as well, I had to redo the logo painting. Found some hobby paint that I borrowed from Pedro AGES ago and went for it. A bit on the darker side (Ford Blue) but it was the closest I have to the Enkei blue. Done two coats already and I might add one more coat tomorrow and then wait for it to dry and flash off. The wheels I'm gonna fit back on on Friday when I re-adjust the suspension. Might be a good idea to get an alignment booked in...

Once the wheels are fitted back on, the RS's will be sold to Pedro.

:(

Fixes - Part Two

2007-08-14T23:54:00.000+10:00

So the car went in for a service on Friday. Ended up costing $185 so there wasn't a major problem. Aside from the usual oil change, filter change, fluid level checks etc., the mechanic managed to find some minor faults to fix. A loose fuel line was clamped down, and a duct (would he be referring to a vacuum line? I wasn't sure) had come off too, which he had fixed and has it holding shut. That's fixed up the mis-starts. Not the misfire though. May almost definitely be due to a electrical problem now. The battery was tested to be low in potential too, so that's gonna be replaced soon.

There were two faults he found that he could not replace without ordering a VW technician and parts - a faulty ignition switch (Matt was right) and a brittle crank angle sensor wire. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but when the key is in the ignition, you could jiggle it around. The movement is small, but enough to trigger any faults. He found that the engine won't spark if the key isn't turn all the way when starting the car. He and I managed to replicate it, and I can always start the car now. With the crank angle sensor, he told me that the wire connecting it is starting to wear, or in his words getting "brittle". If it's not replaced, it could easily snap and when that happens, the car will stall and won't start. Easy fix but some inconvenient problems if it breaks. Pedro suggested I fix it with tape so I might check it out tomorrow. As for the ignition switch, I think I'll leave it since I know what the problem is and know my way around it. Not suggested I know, but I'll take my chances and let any potential buyers know about it.

On the topic of potential buyers, James, a guy who used to go to the same high school as I did, has expressed his interest for my Golf. He's damn slow at replying to messages though - last I messaged was about the good, the repairs, and the bad. And I also made a price offer. I just hope he'll take it - there's a damn nice VR6 up for sale on VWW!

Basic details are that it's going for $10K with 100K km on the clock. No modifications whatsoever except for the VR6 front lip. All replacements have been from the factory. I asked him about the heater core and timing chain, and he's not sure about the history of them for the car though. So I'm a bit speculative. But I'm also excited at the same time haha.

More pics: 1 2 3 4

Anyway I'm gonna try hard not concentrate too much on car hunting, but more on car selling!

Fixes - Part One

2007-08-02T22:27:00.001+10:00

So I finally got fed up of the misfires, mis-starts, f*cked up power window, epileptic headunit and the bunch of wires that kept hitting my foot as I try to brake. Off went the relay and under dash panels, and I find this:
I had no idea what it was, and it had a "1996" sticker on it, so I assumed it was factory, although VW symbols were nowhere to be found.

I went to Matt (a.k.a. Golf Loon on VWW - kinda like the Dan J Reed of our forums) and he confirmed for me that it was not at all factory. This was kind of a giveaway though, as all the wires surrounding it were all spliced and crudely twisted and taped over. Matt went through the wires like I would run through a can of Pringles. I eventually ended with this, with the car running the same (if not better) than before:

Yeah, all those wires that look like they do something, did nothing at all. Matt's guess was that it was an aftermarket immobiliser or alarm of some sort - thing is, I don't have a remote for the car, and the car opens and shuts fine without one. So that's that.

I also got Matt to look at why my headunit was always turning on and off by itself. It was basically resetting on its own again and again - as if there was a loose wire. I managed to get the Clarion headunit out easily with Louis' removal prongs (he actually had a Clarion headunit too and carried those in his car - so convenient, lucky we drove down together!). All wires were very secure, but Matt was able to pinpoint the exact wires causing trouble by manually tugging on each one. He found out there was a problem with the live/ground wires, which were connected to the ignition barrel - jiggling it with the keys in would make it reset. He ended up reconnecting the live wire to one of the many empty connections in the relay box, and voila, it was fixed. He's a bit of a genius, Matt :D

I also went to Pedro's to start swapping some parts over - but that didn't happen. Probably end up doing that in a week or two. He did help me with my window regulator though - the rear driver's finally works now.

Now I've got the misfires and mis-starts to fix. The misfire would be due to an electrical problem, maybe spark plugs or leads (I'm thinking the latter). The mis-starts would be attributed to the fueling, as predicted by my Dad and Matt. Quite obvious with the blatant smell of fuel everytime I start the car. Matt says the fuel pump or fuel pressure regulator. I just hope the total of these fixes won't be too harsh on my pocket :( After all I want to sell it.

It's being booked in for a service tomorrow. Probably have it scheduled for mid next week.

Infidelity

2007-07-27T14:34:00.000+10:00

Yes, I'm having unfaithful thoughts of leaving the 2.0L, and have a dirty fling with a VR6.
EOI.

*Pervs*

VWW cruise - Blue Mtns

2007-07-22T17:30:00.000+10:00

Went on a cruise today to the Blue Mountains with the VWW folks. Met some new members, including NickZ (Polo GTI) and SoundofaVR6 (have a guess ;) ) who both organised and planned out the itinerary for a run through the mountains; thumbs up to them.

The road to Glenbrook and Wentworth Falls were pretty tame, with a few climbs and descents but wide lanes and corners. Food was yum, company was great, and the weather was mostly compliant. Couldn't complain. Bells Line of Road though, was arguably the best part of the cruise. This was where the excitement grew, with 50km of mountain passes, with dips and rises, tight hairpins and long, fast corners. A good place to the test the suspension out! The Konis were handling very nicely without much of a skip on acceleration or off. While not the most comfortable ride (lots of bumps), I did feel safe taking fast corners.

We missed one of our stops for a photo shoot. The frustration from snail-like commuters/holiday-ers probably settled into the leading cars, which were taking the road at quite insane speeds!

Anyway, a great time was had, and I think our friends-based cruise might be through Bells again.

My most favourite pic that I've taken today.

At Wentworth Fall Lakes having the BBQ.

And my first rolling shot!

More pics here.

Go-karting = f*cking fun!

2007-07-22T16:56:00.000+10:00

With my 21st coming up, I decided to go go-karting. While it wasn't well-organised (let's just say the price was a bit higher than what most expected), it didn't matter as it was some of the best fun I've ever had.

I didn't take any pics, and didn't have a professional take any, which was a pity as I was willing to spend the extra money for some nice shots. Anyway, it was at Eastern Creek, and we had four preliminary heats (8 laps each) which determined the pole positions for the final heat (12 laps). A lap was about 1km long so there was plenty of racing to do. Tight chicanes followed by short straights meant there was lots of opportunities to hammer the shit out of the engines on the karts and for overtaking. One or two hairpins were the culprits for many spinouts and lawn-mowing, though I managed to escape with only two small spinouts ;)

I managed getting first place - I was riding on third most of the final heat, until the second-last lap when Kenny accidently hit John on the rear, causing him to spin out. This disqualified Kenny, and with John trailing far behind me, I managed an easy first :D

John took out fastest lap though, at 58.62, but I wasn't far behind with a PB of 58.82. In all, a very good experience, and I can't wait to go again!

Gosh I need a tripod and photo-capturing skills.

2007-07-02T02:52:00.000+10:00

It's been raining like crazy these days and I finally got the chance to clean the car. As always, went for a drive straight after. However, I got fuckin' pulled over and I was worried they'd chuck me an unroadworthy because of the rear lights (well, as much as I hate to say it but it's still flashing fairly red) but it was only because of the P plates not being displayed OUTside of the car. Today (well, yesterday) was the day the new P licence rules came in and one of them was the mentioned. Anyway, got out of it with only a warning. Treat the police with respect, and they'll do the same. You'll only get stories about them being dickheads only from those who are one too.

Anyway, the sun was setting and the sky was glowing a beautiful red/orange so I decided to chase it and find a nice spot for some pics. I ended up being only 5 minutes away from where I live, in the new area to the west of Greystanes (Pemmulway I think?). Some new houses but a lot of empty land to support the ever-increasing human population - Australia celebrates its 21-millionth. Anyway, found a deserted part of the area and couldn't help but appreciate the red and orange sky brought about by the winter sunset. It was a great sight and it was a nice location cos there was no one in sight. Pity that I'm spending it with 'just' a car haha.

So, on with the post title - fuck my photos came out shit. I can tell you 100x that it was a much better sight in person:
More of the garbage here.

Oh, and I just want to mention jkrate's Build Blog for their Mk3. I've come across it a few months back, but only started reading a few days ago. Finally finished going over it all and I can say that I'm pretty jealous! A lot of thought have went into their build and while they have their bad experiences, they also have the good experiences to talk about. Definitely worth a check out.

Slightly OT - new path?

2007-06-30T01:18:00.000+10:00

I've thought about this for fuckin' ages. Ever since I started my second year of Uni, I've always thought about dropping out and pursuing a different future. Apprenticeships/traineeships have always crossed my mind, and honestly I wouldn't mind being a mechanic of some sort. However, chances of getting an apprenticeship/traineeship for that are much slim compared to someone else who has done their Certs at TAFE first, and right now I don't think I can handle any study. I'm still at Uni now moreso because of what is expected of me than what I really want.

So, scrapping the mechanic idea aside for now, I looked up seek.com and found a traineeship that caught my eye: car detailing. Now I know a lot of people out there are thinking, how much are you going to earn cleaning cars? Right now, to me, it's not about the money. I'd rather do something that I will enjoy waking up early and coming home late for.

Anyway, I've applied for it on Wednesday (right after my last exam for the semester) and am still waiting for their reply. I've been anxiously and frequently checking my inbox only to be disappointed with a Nigerian king or whatever asking for my help (I'm sure everyone has received these kind of emails before). I do hope to get an offer for the traineeship though, just so I can be happy to try something different out. I've printed out a suspension form for my enrolment to the Uni, but I haven't filled it out yet.

Just something I wanted to get off my e-chest. It's another case of the "my heart says yes but my brain says no".

Blog update

2007-06-27T21:51:00.001+10:00

Wow, I just had a terrible 3 weeks, "preparing" and doing exams for Uni. It didn't really stop me from progressing with the car though, but it has hampered the time I could spend on it haha.

A few things have happened, though not "ground-breaking". I bought a used Eibach front upper strut brace from Steve on the VWW. After some digging, I found that they are a discontinued piece from the late 90's (I have the flat bar) and are starting to get big $$. There have been samples in the US going for as much as $400USD (though this was marked down later in that particular sale) and can definitely fetch a few hundred. I was so surprised, considering no-one on VWW wanted it. I was actually approached by Steve about it and after some talking, I went for a $60 offer (knowing that the previous owner who sold it to Steve gave it away for $70), and a few hours later, it was sitting in my room. It's in pretty bad shape (watermarks and fine swirl scratches everywhere) but nothing a bit of wetsanding and polishing won't get rid of. Pics:

It came with the set of nuts and bolts required for its fitment, and instructions from Eibach and a certificate in Deutsch was even provided. Cool. Fake or not, it's still a great deal for $60.

I've also started on polishing the centre-caps of my BBS wheels. I've only barely started on one but and have sanded it down completely and got rid of the failing clearcoat and corrosion. On to 320 grit at the moment and planning on getting it down to 2000 grit, but I honestly don't know if I've got the patience to! I'll definitely try though - the finer I go, the better the mirror polish result that I'll get. A pic, but I'll put it all together in a DIY on metal polishing ;)

I've bought new centre badges for the BBS as well in preparation of the rebuild (still a long way to go, but I just couldn't help it). Got them in black with gold BBS lettering. Hoping to get gold bolts along the way and I've found an eBay item on a close-to-original BBS gold paint but I'm going to wait out on that until I'm actually rebuilding them. As with new lips, I'm thinking of re-widening to 8" all-around or 8" front 8.5" rear, but I'm gonna research on prices first.

Also ordered some stuff from TMTuning - some new pedals and lowering caps. Got some grip-taped pedals as I'm getting annoyed with the current standard plastic items as it's been raining like crazy in Sydney these days. Not that I lose grip, but it squeaks everytime I move my feet. Lowering caps are rated at 10mm; I'm ignoring the VWVortex talk about it and giving it a try myself. At $20+USD a pair, I've got nothing to lose really. I'm due in to re-set the damper settings on my Reds anyway as I think I've dialed the fronts too soft in comparison to the rears. And I need an alignment. And I gotta install the Eibach brace too. See, lots of excuses to waste more money :P

All those things are coming from Germany, so I'll be waiting here in drabby, dull Sydney for them to come.

A bit more eBay perusing and I came across a fault finder. Reminds me of a VAGCOM, but much simpler. Asked the seller how it works, and he says it's just a matter of slotting it into the same interface, and searching the provided book/list for the fault code if any gets spit out. Should be a fun device to whip out at a GTG - and it looks small enough to fit in my glovebox.

Oh! And I purchased a glovebox from Matt which he got from a wrecked late model Mk3. I just looked back at my previous entry and I've mentioned before. Well, I've bought it for $100, which is still quite overpriced but I just felt that I needed one. At least now I have a closed space to store all my receipts/tickets/CDs into.

Also bought a handbrake boot (yes, another) from Peter Jones, also a member of VWW. It's actually off a Seat Toledo that he was wrecking, and I spotted it in some of his pics so it was worth a try asking. He was willing to part with it for $10 shipped so I just snapped it. Got it today, and it looks much bigger than what I think would fit for my Mk3, but it could be a template for something later that I want to make myself :)

Anyway, I think that's it for now...

DIY metal polishing should be up next :)

SEQ Drive Day

2007-06-04T01:51:00.000+10:00

The VWWatercooled folks of south-east Queensland had a Drive Day on Sunday the 3rd. It was a cruise in memory of a loved one of a fellow member of the VWWatercooled forums. John a.k.a. Golfer's fiance Jasmin recently passed away from a battle with cancer. Her progress was kept on the forums as Golfer expressed his emotions in what was unfortunately and sadly inevitable. She fought on longer than the doctors expected her to, which gave many a feeling of hope. She was only 24 years young. Sometimes the world is a cruel place to be, taking loved ones away far too early in theirs and our lives.

The Drive Day was originally supposed to be organised by Golfer before it happened, so shaneth took up the job. He managed to get 32 cars signed up, which is a magnificient effort, and photos have been taken to prove it. Being in rural south-east Queensland, it looked like there was much less traffic than the time we had our cruise to Wollongong. I'm so jealous!

I haven't been on a cruise/GTG since the Nats, and that's partly my fault since I've been lazy and also bogged up with Uni shit :( There was a cruise to Canberra as well, but it looked like there would be a lack of VWW members (was organised by VWVortex - there seems to be invisible beef between the two). I said I was going to make it, but with 2 assessments due in 12 hours, it wasn't possible :( I've missed out on too many events already.

There's a cruise/GTG organised for the 30th of June, so I'm anxiously waiting for that to happen :) I will have finished my finals by then so I'll be free to do whatever! And that includes the wheel repairing!

Anyway, here's the forum link to the post-event discussion/pics for the SEQ Drive Day.

Enjoy!

Installed: K&N High-flow Air Filter

2007-06-04T01:31:00.000+10:00

I ordered a K&N High-flow (panel) Air Filter from Phil and went to pick it up a week ago. At $98, it was much cheaper than what Autobarn quoted me (@ $140). Installed it on the spot at his place as well (10pm, had to test out who had the better light output from our mobiles). First thing I noticed once I started the engine and gave it a rev, it sounded the same as before (i.e. with the mutilated airbox). However, upon driving it, I felt it being much smoother. Maybe it was coincidence and I was rev-matching spot on while I was up- and down-shifting, but I definitely did not feel a lot of chugging. After a week, it still feels smooth. I don't know what brings this or if it's just a feeling of mine, but it definitely feels slightly more comfortable while cruising around.
I've opened up the throttle a few times and it sounds more aggressive than before, but not too much to arouse attention. Stock exhaust means none of that anyway :P

Phil also ordered a K&N filter for his new Ford Falcon XR8 GT. He gave it a spin around the block and I can tell you that it gooooes. Damn scary with him behind the wheel, taking side streets and weaving in and out of roundabouts at 80km/h. It's only run a few hundred kilometres, so he was actually going easy with it, never passing 4500 RPM, but being a V8, the extra revs aren't required :P That said, he still ripped a burnout and, remembering what he said about the car still being in its run-in period, took a glance at the tacho only to see it hit 6000+ RPM. So much for taking it easy!

Ghetto blacked out dummies

2007-05-25T02:03:00.000+10:00

I didn't like how ugly the clear dummies look compared to the rest of the car. Since I've been going with the smoked look, I decided to black out the dummies using the bumper black paint I had left from previous jobs. Dodgy to say the least, but it looks more suited to the car than what it was previously. Left it with the matte finish - I cleared it firstly but it just looked shit with the glossiness, so I resprayed over it lightly to get the matte finish again.

Looks good with the orange turns:

I don't think I'll be looking into fogs anymore. I'm toying with the idea to shave my front bumper, but I'm not ready to do that yet as I'm liking my front end at the moment + I'm lacking the confidence to tackle this kind of a body mod. But some day, it'll be shaved off. The look has grown on me after initially despising it (the big front indicator cluster is what gives the Golf character I reckon). I've made some photoshops to see how it would look:

And the originals:
Looks weird with the plates I have now, but I'm thinking of registering it with Euro plates one day. BTW, I don't think I would shave the plate recess.

I don't think I will ever run out of plans to make for the Golf!

Interior update

2007-05-25T01:40:00.000+10:00

I ordered a shift and handbrake boot from Mr Gaiter and also a Momo Short 'Anatomic' Leather Shift Knob from eBay 2 weeks ago. I received both this week :D I was very excited to get them on as the vinyl items that came with the car were becoming drab and boring. Piece of cake to install except the boot didn't have tighteners on the top part - held it together temporarily with a rubber on the inside of it until I can get someone to nicely sow on elastic to it. It looks damn good and the way the knob is designed allows it to sit much lower than stock (I'd say an inch). I haven't got around to installing the handbrake boot yet though. I'll have pictures up soon when I have them snapped!

Pedro has the screw threading tool so I'll be cutting the shifter down a bit more (another inch). I'm looking into a short shifter linkage as well - the only local product is the B&M that Rocket Industries are official dealers of. I've also asked Phil if he could get good prices on B&M products, so I'll await his response before going ahead and purchasing it. While I'm doing this, I'll might as well change all the shifter bushings (picture courtesy of Dan's VW page). I know I can get a set from Tooleys as I've enquired before - at $30, it's worth it.

Also, I'm thinking of getting the lower glovebox from Matt - he's wrecking a late model Mk3 at the moment. It's black (as always), but I've found a spray dye by VHT that NEARLY matches my navy blue interior. I bought a can and tested it out on my head-unit case (similar material) and it just comes out a bit lighter than what my interior is. Only noticeable when reflecting light, but I think I can get it matching very closely as it only had two coats - instructions recommend more coats to get a different shade. I think I'll most likely be getting it - Matt's asking $130 for it though, but if I could take it down to $80, I'll definitely take it. Oli was asking for $50 before :( I wish I snapped it up back then!

Since I've got the spray, I'm thinking of doing the pillars as well. At the moment, they're tan. I'll most likely leave the headliner, sun visors and top handles alone for now though...

Anyway, I'll see how it goes.

Wipers changed

2007-05-25T01:12:00.001+10:00

Finally got around to changing the wipers. No more scraping! Bought new Bosch "MicroEdge" items and they work very well. Can't beat OEM quality. I've toyed with the idea of buying Bosch Aero Wipers that I think come standard with the new VW range. They look damn good as I've seen them on the Mk5's - very slick. The local Corrado has them too, but he said he got them off a Lupo.

On the topic of wipers, I'm thinking of getting the rears shaved off, along with the rear badge. I'm really digging the clean look, but I don't know if I would want to go ahead with it and remove the last visible badge (from the outside). Pedro's planning on shaving the rear wiper off too but leaving the rear badge, so I'll see how that comes out.

I also went ahead and ordered some Autoglym products to keep things looking at their best. A mate of mine (Phil) recently opened up a shop and is currently a vendor for Autoglym products. I've asked him to order in Bumper Black, Fast Glass and Aqua Dry (chamois). I've heard good things about Autoglym products, and knowing someone who can get them at trade prices prompt me to get some to try for myself. I might look into their sealant Extra Gloss Protection after I've finished using my current wax. I've also got Phil to get me a K&N air panel filter as well.

Oh, and a word of advice to do with car body maintenance. Never EVER park under a flowering tree, especially when it's raining. I made this mistake as I was hurriedly finding a place to park so I won't miss the train to Uni, and I came back with probably what was nectar residue, bird shit and other contaminants. I also made the mistake of waiting a week until washing them off - they wouldn't wash off by hand so I had to take the trusty clay bar out. Even then there were still some marks left on it, though very faint. Should've took before and after pics to show the amount of damage they did... oh well.

Autosalon

2007-05-07T00:45:00.000+10:00

Haven't posted in a lonnnng while. I went to Olympic Park for the Autosalon Sydney show a few Sundays ago. Haven't been to one for quite a while now, and sad to say that the cars still look the same and most exhibitors there still have the same mindset when modifying a car. I liked the Mini section though, and the exhibit of more track dedicated cars, but there were still many many cars that were done rather distastefully in my eyes, with lairy paintjobs, Altezza-like taillights for cars other than the IS200 (will they ever get out of "fashion"?) and big chromies. However, that said, there were two things that really annoyed me. First was the fact that there were many "show cars" that weren't really cars at all - they arguably cannot be driven under many circumstances. One car had LCD screens for headlights. A few (RX-7s and S15s) that were sporting 22" rims (yes you guessed it, chromies) with rubberband tyres. I know that show cars are exactly that - for show - but at least it should be able to be driven from location to location? There's quite a distinct line between show cars and daily driven street cars at the moment but I'd like to see that line blur some time in the future. Reminds me of what Ethan from 8380 Labs wrote about in a recent issue of PVW.

Anyway, that's just my rant. It just seems like the modified car scene in Australia is just stuck on repeat. I remember seeing a lot of cars that were also in the Autosalon show back in 2000/2001.

All that said, I respect the effort that all the owners of the cars there have put into their cars. Every person has his or her own taste in car modifying, and I'm sure not many people like the way I'm going with mine in respects to modifying (I keep getting asked when I'm buying a bodykit...).

Anyway, here's all the pics I managed to take. Some highlights I deem worthy of putting up here:

SuperGT Supra

Team Peer drift team

The only car representing VAG :(

Skyline V35

DIY: Badgeless grille [Part 2]

2007-05-04T00:29:00.001+10:00

This DIY blog article may not make much sense without the first part of it. Part 2 of the DIY consist of tips/improvements, close-up pictures of the imperfections, and the final pictures of the grille on the car.

Tips/improvements:

N/A
- When sanding the cavity of the lower grille back to bare metal, use the disc sander on the dremel - however, be careful not to sand too much. As soon as you see bare metal, move on to the next spot. Do not apply a lot of force - just skim the surface just enough to sand things off. It's just very easy to drop the Dremel and let it do the work, so try and use it gracefully!
- Keep in mind that the epoxy bonds best with bare materials (metal/plastic). It is not as effective against paint or clearcoats.
- Make sure you cut out a larger section, as you can always sand it down to make it fit later on.
- I guess my only tip here is take lots of time. Make small adjustments until it fits perfect. If that means 100 trial fits, then so be it. More, small adjustments will get a better result as opposed to fewer, but larger adjustments.
- An extra person to help out with the alignment would be great, but if no one's available, masking tape should suffice while you do one side first.
- Make sure the epoxy is spread over most of the bare metal to increase the strength of the bond (well, that's what I think anyway). Frequently check the alignment as it's very important it sits perfect with the rest of the grille. A slight misalignment here and there will lead to frustratingly big sanding problems later and the final product will most likely come out shit.
- If you feel the epoxy is starting to harden and you still need to work it around a bit more, take it all out and throw it away. The epoxy hardening is a sign that it's bonding, and if you're just starting to apply it when it's nearly hard, it will not bond as strongly. This is very important, as the joints may show up some cracks in the final product due to insufficient time to bond - this is exactly what happened to mine on the top slats.
- Do little sections at a time. It will help greatly in the alignment. When I mention little sections, I mean both the front side AND the back of the same section. I think it may bond stronger if the consistency/time of hardening is employed in the same sections - that said, having the section aligned is much more important IMO, so decide a little compromise for yourself. This DIY is easy to do, but extremely hard to get right.
- The bonding does not have to look pretty; you will be sanding it down anyway. However, DO make sure the bond covers most of the bare metal part.
- Instructions say to leave the epoxy bond to do its job overnight. I left it for nearly a week; I like to think it holds stronger for longer if I do that. It's probably just a placebo effect, but I left it alone for that long anyway, as I went on to do other parts of the DIY while I let it stand.
- I found it easier to cut if I just marked the section in a rectangular manner, as opposed to cutting it right on the edges of the circle. In retrospect, both methods wouldn't end up being harder to do than the other throughout the whole job.
- I found it really hard to use a grinding disc on the Dremel to cut the plastic slats, so I ended up putting a drill bit on the end of it and slicing it side on. It doesn't matter if the lines are straight or not either, though it would make things easier if they were.
- The dimensions don't have to be accurate - as long as they're long enough to allow for adjustments to get the centering right.
- Again, it doesn't matter if the cut-out is not straight - as long as it's done with enough length to allow for adjustments.
- Remember step 4?
- Regarding the sanding to bare plastic - you won't need as much surface (compared with the metal grille) as the overall area is smaller and it will be more beneficial to use just enough epoxy as sanding it down later on becomes a bit of a nightmare.
- Don't worry about getting any previous paint completely off - as long as its roughed up, it should be fine.
- Similarly to step 5, work the epoxy before it hardens. Basically, just follow the same instructions as in step 5, except you would need to take even MORE care in handling the epoxy and also in the aligning. This step is so much more harder to get right than doing the lower grille, mainly because we're working on a much more defined and smaller area, and it's on plastic. By the way, to make sanding easier later, make sure the edges of the epoxy bond are smoothed out - use a bit of water on your fingertips and flatten/smooth out the edges.
- It's better to do the bottom section first; this part is easy to do and just requires proper alignment. Take into consideration the alignment of the slats as well, cos once fixed, there won't be much room for the slats to be 'adjusted' so get them each aligned properly when bonding.
- Checking out the grille from different positions and angles helps a lot in your perception of the alignment. If you have the patience, once you got it aligned, hold it there for 15 minutes, checking the alignment on it every minute or so. Remember, it is VERY important that they are aligned properly, as there's simply not enough plastic in the slats to allow you to fix up misalignments. Get it as straight as possible, and make sure the slats flow at every angle you can see. If you can't get it right, take the bond out before it completely hardens and re-do it.
- Regarding the wet-sanding step - I failed to do this, and only discovered the miracles of wet-sanding when I was going for an even finish on the paint job. I was too late then, and I couldn't be bothered re-doing the sanding after so many layers of paint :( Though I wish I did.
- Anyway, spend plenty of time wet-sanding. Try and apply even pressure as you're trying to achieve an ultra smooth, super level surface. Have a thin sandwich plastic bag handy - use it to "see" any uneven-ness on the surface by feel. Progress on to the next grit when the sand markings of the previous grit are totally gone. You can easily tell this by changing direction every time you change sandpaper grit. Putty/bond over cavities that present themselves. A thin layer is all that is needed, as you don't your surface to be overly 'bumpy'. Once you 400 grit (or similar) sandpaper, wetsand the entire surface in prepation for paint. Leave your final grit to be about 600-800, as the surface requires some roughness for the paint to adhere to.
- I went crazy with the coats of paint as I wanted to try and disguise the markings. It nearly worked - the more layers I put on, the more masked it became.
- The wet-sanding helped disguise the marking even greater and I was quite happy with the result. A step that shouldn't be skipped!
- Again, copious amounts were used for the clear-coating - I think I put on at least 4 layers. This gave it a more glossy feel to it, and the white now gave off a bit of a shine. Clear-coat, in my visual judgement, emphasised the marking a bit more, though it made the paint look better. At most angles, the marking cannot be seen, but at certain angles reflecting off the light, you can see a colour change. I don't know what causes this, but it's quite apparent in the picture just below.
- I found that it was generally easier if I used the same grit on ALL the bonded parts first, and then progress on to another grit. Also, use the plastic bag trick to check for levelness; fix accordingly.
- Similarly to aligning the slats together for epoxy bonding, make sure you check every angle of the slats, visually evaluating the levelness. Smooth over when necessary.
- Don't go apeshit on the sanding - be gentle. Remember that the plastic slats are thin, and any sizeable force can break the bonded parts. It's better to take your time sanding than trying to hurry it. I'm said it billions of times, but it's crazy how there's such an overwhelming feeling of trying to get it over and done with ASAP.
- While wet-sanding, continually spray the surface free of dust-sand particles with water, and also spray the particles on the sand paper off. I was able to use the same 120 grit sandpaper again and again this way.
- Keep a towel or rag handy to wipe away any dirt and water on the slats - it's good to inspect it and see how you're going with it, along with 'feeling' your progress too
- With the primer, it's best to make multiple ultra-light coats with enough time between each coat to dry. I sprayed a heavy coat at once, and I ended up accumulating a reservoir of primer at one end of the grille as they're quite runny. Needless to say, I've got a patch of thick primer on one corner of the grille, but it's not really that noticeable.
- Now, I was originally going for the colour-coded option, but knowing how impossibly difficult it is to get it looking perfect, I decided at the last minute to get it that black-textured look instead. That way, the imperfections aren't as easily seen.
- Multiple layers help cover up very minute imperfections. After about 4 layers, I called it a day and left it to stand overnight. I sprayed another 4 the next day. The grille was a very rich black.
- I had lots of different shades of black when I started this. I had matte black from way back when I did the Joey-mod; I had the plastic and bumper black from which I sprayed the sideskirts with (bought from Autobarn - great nozzle to use, but shit paint), and Pedro's plastic and bumper black from Septone. Now, the Autobarn paint was easy to use and a breeze to apply, but came out shit. Pedro's paint was annoying to use (paint didn't come out evenly at different angles, even though there was quite a bit left in it) and also dull to look at, but the matte black looked great with a fine, even finish. However I only had a little left. What I ended up doing was using all three different paints - the Septone and Autobarn one was mainly used as the bottom layers, while I finished off with the matte black.
- While you can't generally see the underside, it doesn't hurt to cover up the bonded area to get a more clean finish.
- Since the wet-sanding worked sooooooo great for me in the previous steps, I decided to do it before I cleared. Bad decision - the paint was pale after that. But no biggie - put another coat of matte black and it was looking tip top again. Then I cleared. And cleared. And cleared. And cleared. I still loved wet-sanding, so I did it. And it paled AGAIN! At this point I just couldn't be f*cked anymore, so I just put a layer of matte black over the clear, and now it looks good. Very texture-like. Don't know how long that'll last, but I'll take my chances. Anyway, the moral is, don't wetsand here! I don't know why it pales so I can't explain why it does that.
- Before I started this DIY, the passenger side of the grille was always sticking out, as if it didn't fit on properly. I've now rectified the problem by bending it back a little, and it looks as new with the tighter fitment.

Imperfections:

Slightly different shade of white between the pieces
Misalignment problem on one side of the lower metal part
Top slat cracks
Small cavity that I didn't notice until the layer of paint went on
Remnants of what was left from the cut out in step 6 - I didn't want to risk over-sanding so I just sanded as much as I could by hand. Hardly noticeable.

Final pics:

All the pics to do with this DIY are in my Photobucket.

Over and out.

DIY: Badgeless grille [Part 1]

2007-05-03T13:34:00.001+10:00

Remember my 'Getting ridiculous ideas' blog? Well, I've finally completed one of them, the badgeless grille. Turned out pretty good, though my handy work is not perfect. Looks good from afar, but up close, you can still see the lines where I made the cut-outs.. Just. ;) Slapped it onto the car, and it fits perfect and looks almost perfect :) Anyway, on with the DIY - here's the gallery of pics on my Photobucket. Some of it are linked on to here as well.

Materials needed:

2 identical grilles (GL/CL 3-slat, or VR6 2-slat)
Plastic welder or multi-purpose epoxy (I used the latter; make sure it adheres to ABS plastic)
Welder or metal epoxy (I used the latter)
Measuring device (if you want good results)
Permanent marker
Cutter (I used a Dremel)
Wax and grease (w&v) remover
Sand paper (I used coarse (80/120/180), intermediate (240/400), and fine (600/800/1200) grit)
Water bottle with spray
Masking tape
Plastic/etch primer (for slats/lower grille cover)
Paint (either satin/bumper black for textured look, or colour-matched)
Clear coat (depending on paint finish)
Paint thinner (to achieve even finishes)
Dremel (not necessary, but makes the job a whole lot easier for sanding in between the slats)
Safety equipment (goggles, gloves, face mask, covered clothing etc.)

Products used:

Your own grille + donor (cheers Oli) - detach the metal part from the plastic grille before commencing.
Selleys Steel Knead It Epoxy
Sika Multipurpose Epoxy
Dremel
Wet-sanding "tools" (imagine a water bottle with a spray nozzle and multiple grits of sandpaper)

Safety precautions:

Protective clothing: It is best to wear closed shoes, pants and a long sleeve top to cover the majority of your body. You won't know what will go astray and come in contact with your skin that shouldn't be.
Using the dremel: The dremel is such a great tool - there's so many different uses of it with the different adapters and all. It can function as a grinder/cutter, sander and drill. These things can make short work of metal, so I hate to see what it can do to fingers. Wear protective gloves while working with the Dremel. Wear goggles and a face mask to, well, protect your face, and stop you from inhaling harmful particles. I've had sand dust spray all over the place, grinding discs breaking and throwing debris at great speeds (check out one of the pics in my Photobucket; I've had several grinding discs break on me, propelling the broken grinder bits all over the place - lucky none of it hit me), and the Dremel jutting out of place while operating it at nearly full speed.
Sanding: It's always an arduous task. No one likes sanding. Coincidentally, it's also probably the most time-consuming step of this DIY. As such, remember to take rests at regular intervals. Have a beer, watch TV, have a drive, whatever. You're not getting paid to do this, just take as long as you want. You are doing this for yourself though, so it's best to have it done properly. A face mask should be used as the sand dust can be irritating for your respiratory system. Goggles aren't necessary, but some of the sand dust can get into your eyes (happened on a few occassions) and can cause discomfort.
Painting: Fumes! Wear that face mask, and make sure you're doing it in a well-ventilated area.

Procedure:

First things first! Make sure safety is prioritised as number 1. You will be dealing with toxic/potentially toxic products, using electrical cutting tools and others I haven't listed because I can't think of them. That said, make sure all safety equipment is worn before proceeding each step.
We will start with the lower grille part, which basically acts as a cover along under the headlights and the bottom half of the grille. I will refer to this as the lower grille or the metal grille in this article. The other part (the slats) will be referred to as the upper grille or plastic grille. Just makes it more simpler for me :)
[I used epoxy bond instead of welding, so my instructions will be based on that]

Cut the side protrusions that are situated horizontally on the top of the lower grille. Cut the tab that slots under the badging of the plastic grille as you won't be needing it - this is not shown in my pics as I thought I could still use it after the job was done. Sand the surrounding cavity where the badge usually sits*. Sand about 3-5 cm out*. Level the area by hand-sanding using intermediate grit.
Using the donor grille, mark out (well, trace) the section required to fill the cavity*. Pictures best explain this:
Test fit on the grille. Make the necessary trimming so it fits perfect, with very little gap in between for the epoxy to bridge over (1 mm)*. Sand down the donor piece completely as the epoxy will need to bond to this too. Clean everything with w&g remover making sure there is not a spec of sand dust on it. Ensure the working area is clean too.
Prepare the epoxy (for application on moderate-high temperature metal surfaces) as instructed.

Align the donor piece so that it sits exactly like the main piece*. Work the epoxy in, applying ample pressure so the epoxy squeezes into the gap*. Remember to also do the back at the same time too*.

Once the whole section has been done (i.e. no gaps at all), put aside standing the correct side up (not flat like in the pic below)* and leave for a day.
Moving on to the plastic grille. Mark out the circle badged section to be cut, extending down to where the section is completely flat.

Also, make a marking down the middle of the grille, using the tabs behind and in front of the grille as reference points*.

Also, try and cut the bottom part of the top slat to reveal an open slot - this can be seen beside the circle badge section on the pic on top of the above. The above pic demonstrates the backing cut out, but not the extension under the top slat. Hard to explain but you'll see it when you're doing this part, and would agree that it doesn't flow.

Take measurements between each slat to the middle of the grille and the bottom section. Take note as you will be marking these dimensions on the donor grille in the next step.
Mark the dimensions on to the donor grille, ensuring that the centre of it all is exactly where a support stands*.

Cut it out the same way as done in the previous step*.
Test fit - make sure the supports are directly aligned at the middle marking you made previously. Trim/sand off edges that overlap, ensuring that the maximum gap in between is only about 1 mm*.

Using coarse sandpaper, rough up the surface around the edges*. If your donor grille was originally painted, roughen up the surface using intermediate sandpaper*.

Clean the whole grille, and the working area with w&g remover.
Prepare the multipurpose epoxy (i.e. any epoxy that bonds to plastic - ABS specifically) as per instructions while you wait for the grille to air-dry.

When applying the epoxy*, I recommend doing the bottom section first (the bit that the metal grille covers)*. Pay special attention to aligning these sections. Stand from different distances, look at it from all the different angles*. Adjust accordingly to get it looking as straight as possible.
Make sure the undersides are thoroughly bonded too. All kinds of support will help, and will lengthen the life of it.
After that's settled (give it a few hours to harden and be fixed in place), apply epoxy to the top slat. Let it settle overnight before proceeding on to the middle and bottom slat.

For the middle and bottom slats, apply the epoxy in the same manner as you did for the bottom section and top slat.
Also, this is your chance to fix stone chips and other imperfections that have made their way on to grill after 10 years of use.

Once you're totally done with the bonding, set it aside while you move on back to the metal grille. Have the plastic grille sitting upright like in the pics.
Have all grits of sandpaper ready. Starting with the most coarse, sand until you feel that the edges of the epoxy are smooth and the transition from it to the metal are unnoticeable by feel. Using the finer coarse sandpapers, smooth the whole area until it all feels level.
Start wet-sanding* on the intermediate grits to achieve a smooth, level surface.

Clean the entire metal grille and work area with w&g remover. Air-dry.
Back to the metal grille. Spray etch primer on to the bare metal parts. Let it dry for about 20-30 minutes, then wet-sand using 1200 grit.
Spray on as many layers of paint as you want* - keep it to a minimum of 2. Paint thinner was used to try and keep the colour consistency, then a few more coats were put on.

I finished off with 1200 grit wetsanding* until I achieved a smooth finish.

Clear-coat* once you're satisfied with the paint. Again, wet-sand at 1200 grit but very lightly, taking off any specks that may have landed onto the surface.
And here's what made me smile and gave me that proud feeling:

That was one of my many progress shots! I took so much cos I thought I was going to make some progress blogs, but didnt end up doing so. This job did end up taking about a month only because I took my time and did most of the work on the weekends. Anyway.
Now with the lower grille done, it's time to sand that plastic grille. Depending on the thickness of the epoxy, you can start off with the disc sander on the Dremel. Use this to level out the epoxy slightly, just to make things easier. You have to be very careful not to accidentally go overboard and sand through to the plastic.

Starting from 120 grit, wet-sand until edges of the epoxy are level with the plastic. Next, level out the bond with 180 grit, wet-sand*. Once entirely done, check for cavities and cracks. Bond over these again using the multipurpose epoxy, but make sure you apply a thin layer. Repeat the sanding steps.
Keep doing this until it is perfect.

Once perfect, wet-sand with an intermediate grit sand paper. The goal here is to achieve smoothness - it should be level already, so there's no need to work it hard. There should be very little or no difference with the plastic parts and the epoxy part. However, don't progress on to a fine grit. We still want some roughness for the paint to adhere to.*

Once you're confident that there are no imperfections and the whole thing is as smooth as a baby's butt, then you're ready to clean the damn thing with w&g remover. Make sure there are no dust particles - actually, anything at all - on the entire surface.
Using plastic primer, prime the whole surface*.
Immediately after the primer is dry, start spraying a coat of paint*.

Spray many layers*. Allow time between each layer to dry.
Make sure you remember to paint the undersides of the slats too*. Basically cover anything that isn't the right colour in paint.

Apply clear once the last coat of paint has been given ample time to dry. Apply as many coats as you want - it will give it a more glossy look, but more coats will provide better protection. Decide on your own compromise.
Let to dry, preferably overnight, before you attach the lower grille back on.
Don't worry about wet-sanding at this step*.
Test fit just the metal grille onto the car, simulating where it would go with the plastic part attached to it too. Check the sides - shape/bend them in place to get a better fit when you actually put it back on in its entirety*.
Attach the metal grille back on to the plastic part. Take care not to scratch the paint and refrain from bending the parts.
Now the moment we've been waiting for - take a step back to admire some of that handy work of yours!

It put a smile on my face when I saw this in its final form. I was quite proud of what I made, as although it was not even close to perfect, it's not bad either for my standards! I'll definitely know now what it takes to make a better, closer-to-perfect badgeless grille.

So that's the DIY for making it. This is just Part 1 of it, and is basically what you need to make your own. Part 2 will be just about my experiences with it and some tips/improvements I would ammend to the current DIY. I will also post up pics of the imperfections that can be seen in the final product. And of course, pics of it on the car will also be up :)

Enjoy!

The US exchange rate

2007-04-30T13:22:00.000+10:00

... has me considering Koni coilovers from WRD (US-based). The last I got quoted for these coilovers were $2700AUD from the same guys that I got my Koni Reds and springs from, but WRD has posted them up on the Vortex for a special price of ~$1042USD. That's easily cheaper than what I can get here, and with the exchange rate at $1AUD for $0.83USD, there isn't a better time.

BUT I JUST HAD MY NEW SUSPENSION IN!!! And it would mean I'd have to spend a little extra for these coilovers, probably another $500-$800 or so. It'll be worth it, but can I justify spending so much money on my car?! My heart says yes but my brain says no.

I guess I'll put up some criteria that has to be met if I want to get these:

Combined postage + coilovers must be below $1300USD.
Must have a potential buyer for the Koni Reds and springs before the coilovers are bought. Must be sold for more than $800.

Gosh. I better start saving up.

Pics of Mk3's with Koni coilovers - wound all the way down:

The black one has got me all giddy. The white one looks too low, but probably cos the 17's emphasises it. Black one has 15's.

Argh, this desire is killing me!

Edit: Gave GT Suspension another call just then - they quoted me $3490 as the retail price, but they are able to do it for $2800 shipped to my place. Man, if I could get it for $1500 shipped from WRD, I'm seriously snapping it up.

Edit #2: WRD replied back with a shipping of ~$450USD!!! That's nearly half that of the coilover kit itself! But that's within the cost of $1800AUD all together - I remember getting quoted for $1990 for an Eibach struts + springs from Pedders. It's still a crazy deal.

Edit #3: Discussed with fellow watercoolers at the watercooled forum and they kindly reminded me that anything involving a foreign purchase in excess of $1000AUD would impose a GST and import duty tax, at about 20% of the cost of the product in question. That's about an extra $300-$400AUD, putting the price in excess of $2000AUD shipped to my place. I've got this idea totally out of my system now!

Rear fogs

2007-04-16T23:01:00.000+10:00

Got them working - when I got the car, only the right-hand side had the rear fog lit up. This was because the LHS did not have the cut-out for the fog bulb to go through. Due to my recent purchase of a dremel (hehe) I decided to put it to good use and cut out the cover. Was very simple to use - the small size of a dremel truly makes it easy to handle and control. I did the cut-out on my old taillights first just as a "trial", and it came out fine. I then proceeded on to the updated taillights, then cleaned out the dust and remnants of the cut-out.

The RHS fog used the same bulb as the brake light, and since I had a spare one, I just shoved it on. I'm sure it would be better to use foglight specific bulbs but I really don't know the kind of fitment for that - the brake light bulb fits fine so I'll just leave it as that (we don't get much fog here in metro Sydney so the foglights are kind of redundant anyway). Works great, and now it doesn't look weird when I put my rear fogs on, as both sides light up.

Here are some shots I took just then:

Park light only:

Park light + foglightPark light + brake light
Park light + foglight + brake light:
Peace :)

Edit: Gave Oli a call - he has a stock GL grille for me so I'll be picking it up either on Tuesday or Wednesday :D Got an essay due on Wednesday and a lab report on Friday though, so I can't really start on it until the weekends... Argh!

Getting ridiculous ideas

2007-04-13T03:13:00.000+10:00

I'm craving for more DIY to busy myself with! I've got plenty of assignments and presentations to do for Uni but being busy with the car is just totally different to being busy with Uni work. I guess I prefer working with my hands than my mind. F*ck, that sorta came out wrong, but yous get the idea.

After viewing plenty of DIY jobs on the VWVortex forums, I have decided to tackle a few DIY jobs the next few months. I'm saying months because I really need to take it easy with things relating to the car and start focussing on my study. Anyway, I've got three DIY jobs I'm thinking of doing:

Wheel repair:

I've been thinking of repairing the awful curb rashes on my stock 14's myself, then respraying them a different colour. This is purely a fun project, as my options are either to sell them for dirt cheap or just chuck them out - no one wants to buy OEM wheels, and if they did, they wouldn't want to fish out a decent amount of money for ugly, damaged wheels, so I might as well gain the best of my situation and learn a few things with this DIY.

It basically involves filling the curb rashes and other damaged parts of the wheel with metal filler (I recently bought some Selleys Knead It Steel) then doing your usual paint prep with sanding and cleaning. Paint would then go on like with all the other projects I've done - primer, basecoat, clear. Being used on wheels, they would be required to be able to withstand some high temperatures, so I'm still looking around for suitable products to use. When it comes to the colour, I'm thinking of going with gunmetal grey or charcoal, just so I can see what a darker shade of wheels would look like on the Golf. I'm thinking of refurbishing + widening + repainting the centres gold for the BBS RS (this will come much later), but many of my friends have expressed that black would look much better, so I'll use this project to try and sway my opinion a bit. Inspiration comes from this thread from VWVortex.

This project will most likely start when I go for my next wheel alignment, which may be soon (it already feels out - car doesn't feel as stable as when I first had the new suspension fitted on). I'll have the tyres mounted off the 14's as it will definitely make the project much more easier to do.
Badgeless grille:

At the Nats, Paul from EuroCarDriver gave me quotes on some aftermarket items. Now, these guys are the only stockists as far as I know when it comes to parts from in.pro and FK. At the moment, aftermarket support in Australia is barely existent and most people buy from eBay from international sellers when it comes to obtaining their aftermarket goodies. There are a few shops that sell the odd aftermarket taillights and headlights, but they are incredibly expensive. The quotes that Paul gave me included a badgeless grille (2-slat and Kamei look-alike), and they were $299 and $199 respectively. This would probably come off as no surprise - it's basically a monopoly when it comes to the watercooled VW aftermarket market. I cannot justify $299 for a badgeless grille, especially when I see examples on eBay selling for only $60USD. Why shouldn't I buy from eBay then? It would end up costing me about the same when it arrives here in Australia due to the costly shipping. I've been quoted $100USD for shipping a badgeless grille, due to their long shape. I really can't part that kind of money for something that just improves the aesthetics of my car.

Haha, /end rant. So because of that, I've decided to tackle my own DIY job on making a badgeless grille. Most obvious reason is cost, but there are other reasons too; I much prefer a 3-slat badgeless grille, and these seem to be quite rare in the market, and the only ones I've seen are the Bonrath ones. They are known to be of good quality, but I prefer it if there was no "by Bonrath" insignia on the grille itself. Since I have a stock GL grille, I already have 3 slats. All I would need is another GL grille (there should be plenty at the wreckers), where I can cut a small section out. I would then have the badge hole cut out, and in place would be the slats from the other grille; I can then weld/epoxy/glue them on. I would have to fill the bottom section of the grille too where the badge would have sat. All in all, it shouldn't be extremely difficult, though it may be when it comes to making it look flawless. Inspiration drawn from this thread.
Smoking the front indicator cluster:

Since I'm going for the smoked look, it's only a matter of time that I smoked the front indicator cluster. I was thinking of buying aftermarket smoked Hella fogs + middle blank + indicator, but they, like the badgeless grille, costs pretty much an arm and a leg for what they are. I would need to invest in a new headlight switch as well with the front foglight function, and a friend of mine has informed me that the dealer stocks them for $160. That's almost $500 when it comes to just getting smoked fogs and indicators installed and working. So that's a definite no for me.

What I could do is buy a set of standard Mk3 fogs and the blanks that go with it, and smoke them myself. It would be very similar to what I did with the joey-mod for the headlights, but taking the lenses apart would be bloody tricky. I've tried to do so with my long blanks, but I've did nothing but crack them. They just don't hold up as well.

Inspiration was drawn from this thread, again from the Vortex. As the pictures show, it looks great if done carefully.

I'm really set on doing #1 - hell, I've already bought what I need for it (I impulse bought a Dremel too :P), minus the wheel paint.

Idea #2 just sprang to my mind when I received an email from Paul about the prices today, but at the moment seems to be the most likely DIY mod that I'll be doing first. I really would like a badgeless grille, and they have been one of the first aesthetic mods that I wanted to do.

Idea #3 is just a 50/50 for me at the moment, since it just doesn't sound as fun as the first two ideas. I might just "ghetto" smoke what I have right now by just spraying matte black paint on the blanks and leaving the turns orange - I Dubmodder-ed this and it looks decent, though it doesn't tie in with my tinted and de-ambered rear lights + the smoked side indicators. Will have to see how it goes.

Here are some pics from Dubmodder with some Photoshop/MS Paint handy-work:

2-slat

3-slat

Haha, "modding" the grille to take the badge out was much easier in MS Paint. If only it was as simple as that in reality.

4am now, I need my sleep. Just went to John Mayer's concert and it was great - was a tad short though. Anyway.

Project DIY!

New pics

2007-04-09T16:09:00.000+10:00

Just want to post up some new pics. Took it at a parking lot in Parramatta - thought I'd have some pics in before I do any more stuff.

Man, I need to get myself a new camera + tripod + photo-taking skills haha.

VW Nationals 2007

2007-04-08T20:42:00.000+10:00

Good day - a lot more aircooled than watercooled, but from what people were saying, this year had the BIGGEST watercooled turn-out than the previous 20 years! The count was at about 50+ watercooled cars - we met our quota and hopefully have cemented the fact that the watercoolers are here to stay in the Australian VW scene.

There were judges there and awards too, but I didn't end up having my car judged - the best Mk3 went to an Autosalon-esque styled Golf GL. Not many people were happy. The engine was untouched, he had fake Hella dual round headlights, in fake carbon surround too, was not lowered, and was wearing a set of Gestalt chromies. The interior was nothing to be desired either - some of the plastic accents were colour coded, and looked fake with the shiny plastic texture. It had a decent sound system though, but even that was poorly designed. The owner had a shop selling rice goodies as well, and was advertising it while having his car on show.
Lots of us want to move the European/American VW scene down to Australia (with their "Euro-tuner" style) and seeing it win dampened our hopes of it. But I'd say give it a year or two more, and we should have our act together.

Here are some of the photos. All of it can be found under this link!

Oli's 16V and TDI
Euro-tuning!
Standard Mk2
Winner of Best Modified Mk3
Oettinger-kitted Mk5
Alex's (Australia's first) Vento-front Golf. Came all the way from Queensland!

Pre-Nats prep

2007-04-08T00:46:00.000+10:00

It's 1am on Easter Sunday, and today I will be having the car on show for the first time.

For the past 2 weeks, I have been sorting out some bad rust areas present on the car (imagine my reaction when I found out). Only discovered them while detailing the car. They're all occurring under the rubbing lining of the doors. Fixed it up temporarily by getting rid of the rust, added rust remover/converter, bogged, primed, then repainted. Looks OK now, but will definitely have to get it done properly some day.

Detailed the car as well - finally clayed the whole car - my arm :( - and polished and waxed. I couldn't be f*cked applying ScratchX onto all the panels, so I'll leave that for next year haha.

Worked on the car the whole day, and I am bloody tired. Gotta get some sleep - early start tomorrow, gotta get to the show and help out with the watercoolers. Hope it doesn't rain until I get the car under cover!

Edit:
Oh, and forgot, received the EmpireGFX taillight overlays, and got some cheap second hand stock taillights that were in good condition (mine were cracked to the sh*thouse). Stuck them on as per the instructions that came with the stickers (great set of instructions they were - will post them up as a DIY article later!) and even though my skill as a sticker-sticker sucked, the taillights look f*ckin' sick. Here are some pics:

Before:
Overlays:All-reds! Well, sort of...
There we go! After:Side-to-side comparison:
Pics on the car here. It was at night and I don't have a tripod, so I couldn't take proper pictures.

Double edit:
Got my smoked side indicators too!! Haven't taken any pictures yet though.

Don't worry, will have plenty of pics after the Nats :)

6 hours to go

Debadged emblem

2007-03-22T22:40:00.000+11:00

Finished uni early today, and my hands began to itch. Need my dose of modding!

I've been doing so many small things to the car lately that it makes me think, there's so many modifications that you can do to make it "your own". While many are inspirations from other cars, some you can manage to "fabricate" yourself either from imagination and your creativity, or just by good ole' fashioned experimenting. Now, I can say that all my mods are based on drawing inspirations from other Mk3's, but I'm hoping to contribute some time with my own "unique" mod. Given the amount of creativity (or lack thereof) I have in me, this will take a long time and a lot of thinking, but I reckon there would come a day!

Anyway, here's how I did the debadging. Note that the original emblem was stuck on with adhesive.

Materials needed:

Dental floss (or fishing lines)
Two strong twigs (I'll explain later :P)
Goof Off (or any remover that's safe to use on paints)
Rags
Heat gun (I used a blow dryer)
Detailing products (helps with getting a clean finish)
Bucket of water

Procedure:

Tie the ends of some dental floss to two twigs. It felt like I was gonna slice my fingers in half from the way I tried to secure a grip on the dental floss.
Heat around the emblem sparingly. Softens up the adhesive so it's more easy to manipulate.
Start "cutting" with the floss, taking it slowly but with enough force to slice through the adhesive. Repeat step 2 every once in a while.
Once completely off, the adhesive backing may still be attached (they used double-sided tape for this). Simply use your nails to gently lift it off and peel the rest of the backing off. Leave tiny fragments, the next step will take care of them.
Using Goof Off, spray onto a small area of a rag, and work on the stubborn adhesives that are still left on the car.
Once done, rinse off any remaining Goof Off with a different rag soaked in water.
Wash car or just the debadged area followed by a wax. If you want, clay then polish the debadged area before you wax. Remember that that specific area has not been exposed to the elements before, and so proper paint protection methods should be undertaken to keep the area looking tip top.

I ended up washing the both rear quarter panels, followed by claying, then application of Meguiar's ScratchX, polish, then finally wax. After hearing good reviews about claying for removal of contaminants and ScratchX for light scratches and swirl marks, I decided to have a go at it. It took me nearly 3 hours just to do those 2 panels, but I admit that I was taking things extremely slowly, working small section at a time.

Both products - the clay bar and ScratchX - worked not as well as I first expected. While claying took out a lot of surface contaminants, the fact that I used it for the first time on the car since it came out of factory 11 years ago meant that a lot of contaminants have embedded into the clear coat. A lot (what remained after the car wash) of the contaminants still remained, with some superficial/obvious contaminants (e.g. fingerprints, stains, semi-embedded contaminants that can be felt by stroking the panel etc.) able to be lifted off effortless with the clay bar. You can actually see impurities being picked up by the clay, but you could unfortunately still see some specks still on the panel that the clay bar failed to pick up. Overall, it is an easy to use product. It came with a "Quik Detailer" spray that greatly helps the movement of the clay on the car panel, making it very smooth. Without it was extremely hard to use and the clay would not glide at all; instead, it would "scrape" along the panel, as if inducing its own scratches. However, I could not located any new scratches that claying may have caused (the only scratches I had were swirl marks - I glided the clay bar up and down).

Next was ScratchX - a fairly easy product to use, in that it goes on and buffs off like you would with a polish or wax. I bought some Meguiar applicator pads to go with the ScratchX, and it was pretty much a matter of applying the ScratchX until it was no longer "wet", then buffing it off with a clean microfibre cloth. From what I could see, it reduced the "moderate" swirl marks to "light" swirl marks, but didn't completely take them out. I was expecting it to have a super clear finish, but I guess it was just a cheap off-the-shelf product. After the polish and wax, the paint did look much more revitalised, with less visible contaminant and stains when looking at 1 metre away. It's only when you look up close that there are still contaminants lying around.

Here are before & after pics:

The hatch has A LOT of contaminants, so I'm excited about working the clay bar on that. On the contrary, the bonnet has the most swirls, so I'm excited about using ScratchX on that. I'll slowly do all the panels of the body in the next two weeks to prepare for the VW Nationals, and I'll just do a car wash in the morning of the Nationals.

No pain, no gain.

Front badge "mod"

2007-03-21T19:02:00.000+11:00

Felt bored one day so drawing inspiration from another Mk3, I decided to "mod" my front badge before I get a badgeless front grille. Basically I just resprayed a part of it black with some left over spray paint. It ended up being a more difficult job than expected (I mean c'mon, it's just spraying a small area black!) but it all came out good in the end.

Materials used:

Masking/painter's tape
Sandpaper (100/250/600/1000 grit)
Spray paint
Degreaser and acetone (dependent on your "skill" as a spray painter)
Cotton buds (dependent on your "skill" as a spray painter)
Your fingernails
Patience

Procedure:

Remove front grille badge. It is easily popped off; a flathead is absolutely not necessary.
Mask only the polished/chromed parts of the VW insignia. Leave the dull plastic on the insides and surrounding circle of the insignia.
OK, so I wanted to do this properly. Using sandpaper (starting with the most coarse), sand the surrounding circle of the insignia until scratches look uniform all around. Continue with the higher grit sandpapers until you get a very smooth texture.
Spray away. Try and get all the spots on the insides.
Being the unprofessional spray painter that I am, I tried my best to get all the insides blacked out. That meant a lot of overspray and thick coats on the circular surrounding of the insignia. It looked ugly as shit. I ended up resanding the insignia until all the paint was off, then "properly" respray that part black.
Let it dry before unpeeling the masking off.
Once dry, peel masking. I don't know what happened with mine, but the adhesive on the tape stuck on to the VW insignia, leaving sticky, visibly yellow remnants. Being the adhesive, I carefully used some cotton buds tipped with degreaser to get rid of it. Many tries later, it came out looking clean again, and even made the insignia more shiny than before.
With paint overspray (due to poor masking), use cotton buds tipped with acetone to stripped the paint out. Use liberally until overspray is gone. Also, on the edges of the insignia, you will see a thin indent. Using your finger nails, "cut" along this line to remove any "hidden" overspray. This definitely makes the badge look more "factory-like".
Reattach back on to the grille.
Marvel. :)

So there you have it. Here are the after pics:

Dare to be different.

Cup holder!

2007-03-16T15:49:00.002+11:00

I bought a universal cup holder off eBay user mark1vws. It was installed in seconds and I'm very happy with the result! They say a picture tells a thousand words - how true that is :)

It's basically installed by two screws placed in the top and bottom centre of the wall plate. It holds well and feels very secure. All that was needed was a power drill and a marker to determine where to drill the holes.

The great thing about it is that it's navy blue too, so it matches my interior perfectly! It's also nifty in that I can fold it away when there's a passenger there. It seems fragile though, and a heavy knock to it coming from a stray leg may break it, so I'll have to be wary when I carry passengers. but on the plus side, now I don't have to panic everytime I have to drive with a cup/can wedged in between the seat and handbrake :)

More pics here.

Cheers!

airbox mod done!

2007-03-16T15:49:00.001+11:00

i'm going to have to attribute/blame this mod on vwvortex. it feels like one of those "tex" mods that seem normal within those forums but totally weird to those uneducated to the ways of the watercooled dubber :)

i managed to buy a second-hand airbox off Oliver so i can begin trying out this "swiss cheese" airbox mod that's quite prevalent in vwvortex. basically, you take the bottom half of the airbox out and make holes around it to allow more air in, effectively increasing the air-flow into the intake which should translate to some sort of improvement. i followed vwvortex member Breezy's set of DIY instructions when doing this as in my eyes, i thought this was the most effective/logical - instead of making many holes, he cuts out a whole section of the airbox out, pretty much opening it up. seeing as i haven't written a DIY for a while, i'll write my take on it (since the 2.0L 8V airbox is slightly different to the VR6 that is owned by Breezy.

tools/materials:

plier (adjustable plier may be required)
screw-driver
flathead
selley's supa glue (or equivalent)
60/200/400 grit sandpaper
degreaser
mallet (not required but may help)
permanent marker + ruler
power drill
cutting tool (whatever you fancy; Breezy used a dremel, some other forum members used a sharp knife with a lighter handy, others drilled holes until a whole section can be cut out; i used a jigsaw cos i didn't have anything else in handy :P)
MAF sensor cleaner (e.g. CNC-brand; see below)
high-flow aftermarket panel filter (e.g. K&N; see below)
(optional; you may want to wait it out until your current air filter is to be disposed if you want to get the most out of it, or you can just stick with standard air filters - up to you)

new products:

CNC MAF sensor cleaner (helps remove any impurities that may block the sensor, causing faults)

K&N filter (#33-2069 for most Mk3 Golf/vento/jetta)

procedure:

as a cautionary step, unhook the negative terminal of the battery. we will be unhooking sensor plugs and will be removing the airbox + filter temporarily, so we don't want anyone accidently starting the car up.
remove the air filter the way you normally do when servicing it: unclamp the hooks that hold the top half of the airbox. unclamp the intake hose that connects to the MAF unit of the airbox by using the pliers. release the connector attached to the top half of the airbox. remove top half of the airbox and carefully take the air filter out --> give it a thorough shake/superficial clean and leave it in a relatively clean/dustless area.
unhook the two rubber elastic belt-looking things that hold the bottom half of the airbox in place (if it helps, they are facing the alternator). take out the airbox.
remove top half of the airbox from the MAF unit by unscrewing the top screws (x 4).
give the whole now-exposed engine bay area a thorough cleaning, using degreaser for hard to clean spots if required. cloth-dry or air-dry.
let's look at the top airbox now - take out the large tubing that has the rubber seal on top (i.e. that faces the MAF unit). before:

recover the rubber seal, and using supa glue, stick it in the same location to where it normally would be when the tubing is present to push it against the airbox. this is important as without it, there will be a sizable gap that will allow unfiltered air (even water) into the engine. after:
moving on to the bottom half of the airbox - this is the hard part. attempt to take out the velocity stack inside and the J-tube outside of it. these two parts are actually one piece (two longitudinal halves) so the only way to take them out is to break them.

it was extremely difficult to take them out without risking damage as the outside parts were both larger than the hole that separates the two. after half an hour or so, i ended up breaking the tabs inside of both tubes using a flathead so i could stretch and break them out. they're no longer needed anyway, but if you can remove it without breaking it, thumbs up to you. the mallet may come in handy to break those things to get easier access.
now the fun part; the chopping! first off, using Breezy's modded box and mine in the pictures below, work out whereabouts to cut the airbox first. REMEMBER that you need to cut the airbox on the front fender side, i.e. the section furthest away from the engine.

mark out neatly approximately the lines you will cut to make the section. using the power drill, drill multiple holes on the corners. keep in mind that i used the jigsaw, so i needed a starting point in order to wedge the cutting piece into place.
with whatever cutting tool you use, be CAREFUL and proceed on slowly and with much caution. work your way around until the section is off.
using sandpaper, smooth out the cut edges. it's quite important so as to ensure the air flow is as smooth as possible (this has already been disturbed after you cut the airbox, but you might as well make best with what you have).
with that done, you've basically finished the bulk of the airbox mod. clean both halves of the airbox and the exposed engine bay area after taking the airbox out. cloth-dry or air-dry.
while you wait, look for some plastic pieces towards the corner of the fender and headlight area. pull them out and you will reveal a pretty big hole. hopefully, this will be your source of "cold air".

the above picture shows the two (useless) plastic pieces on the right, with the exposed hole in the middle left.
in Breezy's DIY, he removes a mesh component of the MAF unit. looking at my MAF unit, it appears to be noticeably different to what he had:

i took this pic when it was still attached to the airbox, but the mesh appears on the other side. it doesn't look like to be made of ABS plastic, like Breezy's, but looks more like the "fly-screen" type. removing it was not possible by just using minimal force, so i just kept it there. it didn't look as restrictive as what Breezy had though.
clean your MAF sensor using the specialised MAF sensor cleaner. make sure to follow the instructions.
once airbox and engine bay area has dried, place the bottom half of the airbox back into the same location. reattach using the rubber elastic belt thingies.

those are the "after" pictures. check to see how the opened up fender hole meets the cut section of the airbox dead on, and that it is not facing the engine.
replace the air filter back on - either use your current one or have a new one (preferably high-flow one).
reattach the MAF unit to the top airbox using the four screws, and check for gaps. carefully replace the top half of the airbox onto the bottom half of the airbox, and make sure a secure fit is secured. reclamp the intake hose (may need adjustable pliers for this one) and the two airbox clips, and reattach the connector back onto the airbox.
rehook the negative terminal of the battery, and start playing :)

note that this mod produces a deeper and louder air induction noise upon throttle. this is very apparent even with a standard air filter.

now for the obligatory claim - what you do with this guide is up to you. it is merely a guide and in no way am i claiming that this mod is 100% safe for your car. the steps you go through are solely your own responsibility. proceed with this mod in caution. but hey, it's not that bad of a mod :D

happy heavy foot-ing.

side skirts on

2007-03-12T22:53:00.001+11:00

w000t they're finally on. got the dad to help out, and it ended up to be a breeze. the front end caps fit the rears nicely with a few adjustments. ends were screwed in and the bottom parts were also screwed in for secureness. i did a really bodgy job with the paint - they weren't as novice-friendly as the other spraypaint (i actually went for bumper spray rather than generic satin black this time) and locations where i oversprayed are easily seen. but that's not gonna make me re-sand and re-spray it again :P

finally completes the look i want, as much as textured parts are concerned.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c67/rayray086/AEH-11E/CIMG5692.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c67/rayray086/AEH-11E/CIMG5687.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c67/rayray086/AEH-11E/CIMG5686.jpg

GTG @ yarra bay !

2007-03-11T20:51:00.000+11:00

on the 11th of march, some of the boys (and girls) of vwwatercooled had a GTG at yarra bay (near la perouse). the main reason for the meet was to discuss about the VW Nationals coming up soon on Easter Sunday, but it was more of a day to show off how the loved dubs are going and have a good BBQ and lunch. it was a good day, with the sunday weather being forgiving even when the sun was out. i'd say about 10-15 dubs showed up (including the odd audi, some beetles and the corrado). after lunch was just a discussion on how the watercooled VW's will be judged and what categories there will be. points were assigned to particular traits of a car and was briefly finalised when most people agreed. then it was a trip down to the beach for some baking and vortex throwing. ended the day with a tyre change involving 10 people (ok, so it was more like 1 person changing and the other 9 watching), and a parade down the main streets in the VW's until everyone slowly split up and went on their merry way home.

here are some pics!

and the rest of the pics.

VW nationals, here we come.

aftermarket tail lights?

2007-03-02T02:39:00.001+11:00

so, after having done the headlights, im thinking of changing the taillights a bit to match.

i've looked into a lot of aftermarket headlights, and these are the ones that stuck out:

crystal clear + reds: popular aftermarket taillights. made by various brands, including hella. found in most US/UK/europe aftermarket shops, and eBay too. come in either a solid backing or a crystal backing, like that seen here. were originally the taillights i really wanted, but i've got my eyes on something else (possibly cheaper too :) ). second picture is a modification of it - crystal red indicating lights rather than the original clear. this look can be easily achieved by either spray painting, tint, or vinyl overlays (more on this below).

vr6 factory smoked: would be a no-brainer choice due to local availability (stock on all VR6 - come across a fair few wrecks too, so can easily be had for good money). however, i'm not really fond of the whole smoked look. reminds me of ricers with their corollas and integras. plus, my headlights aren't smoked - it just has a similar look due to the black surrounds. imo that's the best looking.

hella all reds + smoked reverse section: expensive option, since i'll be needing to get new taillights (genuine hella reds + modification to the middle strip). however, i just came across a great auto-vinyl/graphics site - empiregfx.com - that stock vinyl overlays for pretty much all the light/reflective parts. i'm most interested in the indicator crystal red overlay, and the smoked reverse overlay. if i apply those two vinyls onto my stock GL taillights, they should give me the same effect. the links following the pic below shows the quality of these vinyls after installation. they're on a jetta though, but you get the point - they use the same kind of vinyls.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c67/rayray086/VW%20Golf/overlay_01.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c67/rayray086/VW%20Golf/overlay_08.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c67/rayray086/VW%20Golf/overlay_04.jpg

also, rapidparts.com supply these kind of headlights too, but the price is ridiculous.

[edit: just got into contact with the owner of empiregfx - he posts to sydney, australia, but he's charging $20 for a pair of vinyls - the two pairs of vinyls for indicator and reverse means $40USD for what you can compare to as stickers... well, it's cheaper than getting totally brand new hellas, and a guy from vwvortex was selling his taillights for 40 pounds, so whatever i do, this will still be the cheapest option, though maybe not the best value. i'll see what the shipping cost is first!]

very nice!

factory side-skirts found and bought!

2007-03-02T01:20:00.000+11:00

alright, quick update.

found a set of side skirts with missing end caps from a guy name Oliver living in bonnyrigg. sounded like a decent guy over the phone and was willing to supply me with some new end caps for a total of $30 (heard ridiculous prices before from others). sounded good so i went by yesterday.

he turned out to be a pleasure to deal with, walking through his current projects and even took me for a spin in one of his cars. he has a Mk3 VR6 that he used as a shell for a 16V ABF engine conversion. he relabelled the car as a 16V GTI and well, it flies in contrast to my 8V 2.slow. i kept mistaking it for a VR6 and i think he was starting to get annoyed by it :P anyway, it's a very fun car to be in, and knowing that it's one of the "simpler" engine conversions, i started to get excited. maybe it's a worthwhile conversion to do later on :) he also has a mk4 GTI with a K04 turbo in it, and a Mk3 1.9 TDI! sounds like a truck when he started it up! but certainly a rareity in australia. he also owns two cabrios, with one having a 2.0L 16V too.

anyway, i showed him a few shortcomings on my car (i.e. the rust spots) and he offered to help out by giving me a tin of white paint and rust deoxidiser. he sold the side skirts for $80 too, so all up it ended up costing $110. good deal knowing that there aren't many side skirts lying around, and even if there are, there will be quite a lot of people seeking them.

plans to come will be to respray the side skirts satin/bumper black like with the bumper tops and side trims, and to attach them on once they're good to go on. he also recommended "sikaflex" to attach the skirts to the rocker panels, so i might try and look for them, rather than use the double sided tape that some recommend.

im getting closer to the look i want :)

suspension + wheel choice

2007-01-30T02:04:00.001+11:00

so, after looking around and searching up reviews and stuff, and considering prices and my budget, i decided to get koni struts and springs. first of all, i managed to find out about GTsuspension down in melbourne. they were doing some pretty good deals on koni products, including free delivery, so i jumped at the opportunity.

at first, i wanted to get the Koni 1130 kit, which was a strut + matched springs combo, but they've all ran out. so then, my option was to either get the koni "special" or "sport" struts, with progressive springs that's rated at 45mm lowering. the specials were slightly cheaper than the sports, so i opted for the specials. i found out later that the specials were actually the reds, whereas the sports were the yellows. prior to this, i've only ever known the different koni struts by their colours. so when i received the package, i was kind of surprised to find reds in my hands. however, it's no big deal, cos before parting my money, i did find out that the reds (specials) were a "closer to factory" spec strut, so when compared to the yellows, they are less harsh. that also meant that their damping and rebound properties weren't as fine tuned to "rough" driving as the yellows were, and their adjustment capabilities are limited to only when they're out of the car. knowing this, i did not mind buying the reds, though knowing that there's a better spec option for $200 more, i would have opted for the yellows.

anyway, this turned out to be nothing big, cos im loving the reds and the springs at the moment. i've dialed the rears to be a bit on the hard side, whereas the fronts are "neutral". the car responds extremely well (compared to what i had to deal with when the stock struts and springs were still in, after 123,000km) and corners hard. body roll has been reduced a lot from the lowness, and the car has a better stance now. i would probably prefer it if i had the fronts dialed to the same settings as the rears, but i've already done the alignment so i dont want to mess it up. maybe in half a year or so i'll take it out again and get it a bit harder, but for now, i'll enjoy what i have.

anyway, i ended up undertaking the first "big" job in modifying my car. i changed both the rears and fronts myself with some help from friends and dad. since i saw pedro do his first, i had a fairly good idea on how to do it, and didn't run into problems with the rears. they were a breeze. the fronts however, was a totally different matter. while trying to take a nut out to take apart the factory strut and mounts, i managed to break the top bit of the strut piston, totally screwing up my chance of taking the nut off in the first place. after many WD40 sprays, temporarily fixing the top hex bit with tape, and even angle grinding off the top part, i had no way of taking it out. it's an example of over-torquing a screw - it's been tightened with so much force that it has damaged the thread. i ended up going to tooley for new mounts and ended up using an old nut to hold the mount in.

at tooley, i met with tom, owner of Mk2 and the set of BBS RS in the previous previous blog.
$800 later, i was the new owner of a set of 15" BBS RS wheels. they were f*ckin' dirty as when i got them, but with some off-the-shelf wheel cleaner and wheel wax, i got them looking shiny (well, as shiny as it can get) again. finger was hurting after that, but it's for the love of the BBS :)

shoved them on before i lowered the car off the stands, and i was/am ecstatic about the way it looks. with fairly new 195/55 tyres (roughly ~500km) with plenty of tread, i was happy. these weren't just ordinary tyres - they were goodyear eagle F1's. they grip like geckos in the dry, and i was amazed with how well good tyres can perform. even in the wet, they gripped better than what my previous bridgestone could do in the dry. they are absolutely fun to have a fang in. i know now that one shouldn't skimp on tyres. tyres are ultimately the only things that keep you connected to the ground in a car. i have so much more control in my car now compared to what i had before. i am definitely happy about these mods i carried out.

here's some quick after pics:

but i'm not completely happy yet! ;)

VWWatercooled.org.au cruise to the 'Gong

2007-01-23T10:26:00.000+11:00

ok, this happened some time late january, but i only managed (well, i finally can be fucked) to write about it now. went on my first vwwatercooled cruise ;)

meeting point was at liverpool krispy kremes. we were one of the first few to get there; we roughly stayed at the parking lot for about 1-2 hours waiting for more people to arrive. slowly, more mk3's came, and before we knew, all the Golf generations were being represented. GTI's were present, and so were VR6's, cabrio's, 2 door's, R32's, GL's, CL's, everything. a few Polo's and passat's were there too, along with the odd Seat and transporter van.
soon, when 35 cars were counted up, we all took down cumberland then onto the hume. there were already the turbos spooling it up and racing down ahead of the atmo's. it wasn't more than 10 minutes that we ended up taking our first stop at a truck stopping bay in a petrol station. we were already down by 5+ cars (mostly the late model GTI's) but after having a few photos taken and a quick gathering up, we were off again. down the hume we go, and what a sight. the left lane was just hogged up with modern generation VWs, with the odd gunner taking the right lane to gain up the queue.

the drive down hume then to picton road (plus a few quick stops) led us to mt keira, where we had our first proper stop. a lot of people were there already (being a sunday) and parking was hard to find. we just resorted to parking anywhere that doesn't obstruct traffic (well, sort of).

after a drink, chat and some scenic views, we started to head off to the beach. suburban driving for a large company of cars proved to be pretty hectic, and a few more were lost, though most eventually found their way. it was a f*ckin' hot day; rightly so, the beach was very very busy. parking was as hard as finding free parking at uni, but we ended up going on to the grass and had our whole fleet parked in a line. a (small) bbq was started and some food was shared around, and the rest of the day just ended up being a good chance to meet other veedubbers and having a relaxed day.

next cruise/gtg has been set up for on the 11th (sunday) of march, at la perouse :) more pics then!

what wheels?!

2007-01-19T23:34:00.000+11:00

hiiiiii

time to look for another set of wheels to wear on the Golf. these are the competitors for now, in order of my favourite choice:

BBS RS - i'm selling the BBS RS i have because they don't fit, not because i don't like them anymore (actually, quite far from that) so i'm still looking for another set of these. lucky for me, one guy in hornsby is selling a set (15x7, offset in the 30's - he says he's not sure but it's on the wheel so i'll be checking them if i'm getting that set). they look very standard so im thinking of widening the rears (putting new lips on them, possibly 1-2" ones later down the track), and might colour them:

3-piece 5-spoke: these are hot but they're damn expensive. i was quoted $660/rim by peter from ozwheels who makes these. they look like porsche rims, which it probably lends its fatness from. i would choose these over the BBS if they weren't so f*cking expensive. examples included RH ZW1's, keskin KT1 and KT2's, schmidt modern lines:

1-piece 5-spoke: look similar to the above, with the fat spokes, just without the nuts around the rim. i personally favour the 3-piece look which makes this runner-up to it. these would be cheaper, but i have no idea where to find them. 5 spokes these days in australia are just skinny ones, ones with weird designs, or fat but flat ones. i prefer the rounded ones like the above and below. examples also include the RH ZW1, borbet type T:

BBS 'modern' mesh: made famous by BMWs. i would still stick to BBS-made ones (like the RX, below) because imo they're the only manfacturer that makes them look good. would love to own a set of LM's but they're damn expensive and hard to find:

rota slipstreams: my very very first wheel choice when i was looking for rims for the golf. they're lightweight and comes in various sizes. might be hard to find though, as i dont think there are any distributors here in australia (havent researched that hard yet though). a more modern look for the golf, which im not trying to achieve.

konig rewinds: old-school look, but is it for the golf? the pic below is photoshopped and definitely makes the jolf look bloody awesome, but would i be able to pull it off? i doubt it, but i still love the look of the wheels anyway. might do a photoshop some time. these rewinds are easy to get (ozzy tyres stock them) so that's a strong point.

that seems to be all for now. when i do a photoshop of the above, i'll put it up in the photoshop post below.

edit: scrap that thought. did a photoshop and deleted it before i even finished it. looks shite.

photoshops!

2007-01-18T20:32:00.000+11:00

i did these a while back (a few weeks ago, before i knew i was gonna sell the BBS RS) and here they are:

gold centres:

black centres:

silver centres:

now, these are really dodgy photoshops, and i've seen some silver BBS RS on white mk3's before, and they look bloody awesome, which is opposite to the above photoshop :P imo, best colour is gold. anyway, less talk, more pictures:

*drool*

wheels [updated]

2007-01-18T18:56:00.001+11:00

*sigh* ok.

visited peter at ozwheels with the RS's. it can't be done. the centrebore, at 70mm, won't accomodate the 100mm PCD. f*ck!

but the good news is, he's willing to buy them off me for a price higher than i bought them for. so now, im back on the market for a new set of rims!

i will make another post with some rims i've got my eye on, but for now, im either looking at old school wheels (another set of BBS RS, or maybe konig rewinds - watanabe look-alikes) or some 3-piece 5-spokes. porsche wheels come to mind.

"joey modded" my headlights

2007-01-16T23:56:00.001+11:00

so you must be wondering, what's "joey modding"?

honestly, i dont really know, but it's the name given to a way of modifying one's headlights. it basically involves spray-painting parts of your headlight (not the lens) to a certain colour to achieve an aftermarket look to it. obviously the parts painted on the headlight does not involve the reflective parts (or else they won't function as headlights anymore) but on the surrounds of the headlights that do not affect the light output. a common colour is black; joey modding headlights to black gives it that "projector" look:

it's usually a subtle change, which i am looking for. it's a very cheap alternative too, as opposed to getting new headlights. for me, the total cost was about $30, and i now have some very nice looking headlights.

there are many ways of doing this, but here was my method after looking at a few how-to's.
(just a disclaimer, that i'm not responsible for what you do to your headlights! i am not responsible for any damage incurred while following the below instructions!)

materials needed:

socket tools (8mm for mk3 headlights)
oven or heat gun
flat head screwdriver (small size may be easier to use)
knife blade
sand paper
paint (try and find one that's resistant to heat; if using black, i used matte)
clear coat (not necessary)
nail polish remover
cotton buds
touch up paint (not necessary)
glad wrap
newspaper
auto sealant (or any silicone sealant, preferably in clear, white or black)

take headlights off. with the mk3, the grille had to be taken off to gain access to the nuts and bolts that held the headlights onto the car. i recommend doing one at a time, just so u can see the comparison and also it's a long process and must be done carefully.
now, you have to separate the lens from the headlights. this step is dependent on the materials used in your headlights. if the lens are glass and have been securely sealed on to the headlights, as was the case with my mk3, u'll need to use some sort of heating device to make the sealant more malleable. i used an oven, and this worked perfect:
preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius. with lens face up on a tray, put the headlights into the oven. leave for a good 90 seconds.
i don't know if a hair dryer works, but that might be worth a try.
for those that have plastic lens, i have no idea what to do for that. hopefully the manufacturer just used clips to secure the lens to the headlights.
for those that used an oven, slice around the edges using a knife blade where the headlight and lens are secured:

keep cutting all the way around, taking out any sealant gunk that you happen to chop out.
using a flat-head, lever the lens from the headlights. this should be fairly easy to separate once you've cut some of the exposed sealant out. if they don't seem to budge, place it in the oven again under 150 degrees celsius for 60 seconds. cut around the edges again if there are any sealant you can see, and try to lever it out. repeat this step as many times as required; remember that this should be done carefully and slowly.
once separated, clean the headlights and the lens from the sealant gunk. i had a shitload on mine and they were a bitch to clean, but it must be done:

again, do this carefully and slowly, and ensure that every bit is taken out. using the knife blade was easier on the lens, while the headlights i just used the flat head to try and take all the shit out. it's recommended to cover the reflective surfaces as to ensure that no gunk gets accidently threw into it.
now the fun part. masking!
mask around the headlights first with masking tape and newspaper.
now, masking the reflective parts... u can use masking tape with newspaper, but it's very very easy to peel off the reflective mirror in big flakes if the tape is too adhesive and/or you're not careful in slowly peeling it off after painting:

i ended up using glad wrap on my second try with the other headlight and there was much less peeling. if you decide to use tape, make sure u "wear it out" first by taping the underside of your shirt a few times first.
Edit - use masking tape. Wear it out A LOT, so it basically has barely any stickiness left to it, but just enough to stick and cover. Both are a f*ckin' bitch to use, but masking tape may be the better alternative when it comes to the result.
Lightly sand the top surface, making sure nothing falls to the masked part. We're just trying to keep it as clean as possible. If it does fall in, just try and blow it out. Paint (until you get a complete cover) then clear coat (ignore the priming process - it lifts the reflective surface and sticks it to the masking tape, resulting in a slur of expletives when you remove the masking):

leave ample time for drying in between. while you wait for it to dry, clean your lens thoroughly. most likely they're pretty dull and not as clear as what new glass lens should look like. refreshen them up and your power output would even improve:
once the clear coat has dried (give it an hour to be safe), slowly, and i mean REALLY slowly, peel off the masking, whether it's tape or glad wrap. this has to be done extremely carefully to make sure none of the reflective parts have been peeled off.
now for the touch up. from what i did, my masking was pretty dodgy, so there was some slight overspray on some parts of the headlight, and also some parts that weren't sprayed on. to take care of overspray, use nail polish remover and cotton buds:

the key is to use ample amounts of nail polish remover, and constantly change the buds after 2 or 3 swipes. for the missed spots, i used some holts touch up paint that i got from an auto store (peps, supercheap, repco etc) and just roughly went over some parts:

here are some before photos:

and the after:
give it 10-15 minutes to dry, then it's time for the sealing. i used this which i got from bunnings:

imo, it worked great, and gave the headlights a better look since it was black. just follow the instructions on the product and everything should be fine; use copious amounts so condensation build-up shouldn't be a problem with the headlights. try and do this within the space of 5 minutes, then put the lens cover back over the headlights, aligning it properly and forcefully hold it down so there should be no gaps:

after the lens cover was on in the right position, i put another layer of sealant to double make sure there are no air holes. it got messy and was a bitch to clean, but should be fine.

so that's done. give 2-3 hours for the sealant to settle, then clean any excess off. use something heavy (i got my bag and filled it up with weights) and hold the lens down on to the headlights. best to keep it there for 24 hours. remember to always keep the lens cover facing up as seen in step 7. you might scratch the lens cover if otherwise, and i did this to one of my lens cover.

ok, here are the before/after (mostly after) shots:

pics here

Edit - Also, I recommend blow-drying/using acetone wipe down any moisture on the lens. I get a bit of cloudiness in my headlights (not very noticeable, but it's not crystal clear) and I deduce this from a lack of sitting time before/high humidity during the sealing process. Acetone absorbs moisture (thanks Uni science classes).

tid bits done

2007-01-16T23:11:00.000+11:00

hi.

done a few bits for the car over the last month. first off, put on a vwwatercooled.org.au sticker that i got from the meet and greet thing last 3rd of december.

i ordered a new rear VW emblem in black from england ages ago and only got around to putting it in one day. pedro helped out with the removing, which didn't end up needing some heating cos it was a freakin' hot day. with a flat-head and some elbow grease, it gave way. i f*cked up when putting the new badge on so it now sits a bit higher then it normally should. but really, it's not noticeable unless you know it haha.

and here's what i did with the old one :)

ripped the plastic backing out and spray painted it black. i think i might fill the back of it up and have it dangle around under my rear view mirror :D

one of the "bigger" things i did was bogged up the big indent on the front bumper trim, possibly from some minor hit with a car that had that trailer holder thingy. started off with sanding parts of it down, but don't think it was necessary since the trim was textured plastic anyway. after the sanding, fibre glass filler was shoved on and then we waited for it to settle. then on to the fun part: sanding. this process took f*ckin' ages and i'd have to be desperate to fix it myself if i have to do it again. used 80 grit sandpaper to sand down just the filler mountain down to flat-ish again.

imagine that, but 1cm higher in height. isn't much, but it is when you're using sand paper to reduce it down.
200/400 grit was then used to sand down the edges and sorta smooth everything out. 600 grit was then used to really smooth the bog up and prep the trim for primer and paint:

i haven't took an after pic yet, but i will put it on later here

after that, i went on to repaint the ABS plastic trims on the exterior of my car back to black, just to get that "as new" look again. the spoiler, side trims, front and rear bumper tops, rear valence, and the arches i bought were painted back to black. armor-all is what i'll be using now to keep them looking black. pics can be seen below at the end of this post!
while trying to paint the rear bumper tops and valence, i removed the rear bumper so it was easier to do. unfortunately, the side clips have f*cked up and it seems like the bumper's a bit warped, so i can't get it to fit as nicely as new. gaps could be seen on both sides, and im still trying to think up of how to fix it. any ideas would be awesome!

the wheel arches were put on by screws after. it really has that euro look now, but i'm still missing side skirts!!! i've been looking at wreckers and they don't have any. Matt sold a set to pedro, which he got to first :@ still actively looking, cos at the moment, it looks weird and incomplete without the side skirts.

i bought a euro VR6 deep front lip spoiler that was shipped in from tmtuning in the USA as part of a group buy and have fitted it on. it looks bloody awesome now, but just needs a bit of lowering to get that aggressive look. it's a good inch lower than the standard lip that came on my GL.

here are some pics i took at the park after washing the car. this was before the deep front lip was put on though:

more pics here

wheels, tyres, and brakes

2006-12-12T02:07:00.000+11:00

alright, i haven't written up that i've bought a new (well, second-hand) set of rims for $660. BBS RS, 16x7, ET33, 3-piece wheels in 5x114.3.

got these quite a while ago, like about 2 months ago. there's the slightest dish to them (at about an inch) but they look awesome.

I havent got around to putting them on yet cos they need tyres, and redrilling. redrilling? what's that? well, first off, mk3 golfs like mine use a 4x100 lug pattern for wheels. hey, that means you can't fit those wheels onto your car? well, no. didn't you know that when you got them? of course i knew. but i asked around, and found out that i could redrill these rims into the golf's PCD. it's actually quite common for them to be done like this as BBS RS rims are discontinued now and so there are very limited sets around, so redrilling or fitting adaptors are the only solutions. fitting adaptors are a no go for me as they're illegal (along with spacers) to use in australia, so that has left me with redrilling.

the process involves filling/welding in the lug holes, then redrilling the new PCD. so basically, the 5 holes in my current RS's will be filled up, then drilled into the PCD I want.
i went to peter at ozwheels to ask about the redrilling (i was recommended to go to him cos the previous owner had his new polished lips made and put on there before he sold it to me). first problem i encountered was that the the hub was not flat backed, meaning that it would be incredibly hard to convert to a different number of holes for the PCD:

it would be impossible to drill 4 holes into my wheels cos that would mean some of the holes would fall into part of the cavity, which would lead to an imbalance when trying to get the wheels to sit on the hub. u could make it flat-backed, but that would mean you would need to fill all the cavities which would mean some extensive welding, which may compromise the structure and also the finish of the wheel. plus, it'll cost a shitload, so no way.

my solution was to upgrade my brakes and hubs to VR6-spec - 5x100 lug pattern. parts were easy to get, as fortunately, Matt from Camden GTI was wrecking a few VR6's. bought both rear and front set for $350 in total:

this way, i can redrill the wheels from 5x114.3 to 5x100, so i won't need to fill the cavities. basically, it'll be very similar to what they are now, except the holes are just slightly more closer to the centrebore hole.

being 16" and 7" wide, i'd be needing some low profile tyres to get them running legally on my car. in stock form, the golf GL came in 14" wheels with 185/60 tyres mounted. to run legal tyres on them would mean that I'll need to maintain the overall rolling diameter (i.e. the diameter of the whole wheel including the tyres). this is important as if the overall rolling diameter isn't maintained, then the speedo won't function as normal and the mileage won't either. e.g. if i put on the same 185/60 tyres onto a 16" rim, then the overall diameter would be 3-4" larger than normal. that would mean the wheel would spin slower when driving at the same speed, so the speedo would show, e.g. 55km/h when you're actually travelling at 60km/h.
because of that, and since the RS's are 7" wide, i'll be needing 205/45R16 tyres to maintain the same overall diameter. being a 45 aspect ratio tyre, they'll be considered performance/low-profile tyres, and would cost me at least $120/tyre. decent ones would be nearly $200/tyre. not cool :(

gonna get the RS redrilled after the new years when ozwheels moves to their new workshop.

Boris' VW picnic

2006-12-04T12:09:00.000+11:00

went to a VW meet yesterday, at deepwater reserve, milperra. was a fairly great day, meeting some people and cars that i've never seen before (corrado being the stand-out... i've only ever seen pics of them and not in real life, so i can say now that pics don't do the car justice. looks MUCH better in the flesh). i got there at 9-ish, and was like, the 10th car there. i was also pretty much the first watercooled car to get there too, so i stood out real bad, especially with my shocker of a stocker. but people there didn't judge you on the car you have, so it was all good.

about half an hour later, 4 other watercooled cars from the kingsgrove shell meet came and made me less lonely :P there was a manual 1.8T passat (looks standard), E-designated mk1 GTI (late model, rare to find), mk2 GTI, and a mk3 VR6. we ended up sticking together pretty much the whole day (until 2-ish) and met some other watercoolers that ended up parking in the car park. we saw a few new beetles, two mk3's that were owned probably by the organisers (a VR6 and a GL/CL that had foggies), another GL early model mk3 with rims out in the parking lot (didn't know who the owner was), an audi TT, costa's orange mk1 with BBS RA's, matt's seat 16V toledo and of course, carpoid's (forgot his name haha) corrado supercharged G60.

here are a few pics:

some more pics on my photobucket.

power windows

2006-11-27T14:21:00.000+11:00

i don't remember if i had written down anything about my power windows, but anyway, the rear driver's side window busted up and won't wouldn't wind down. did a bit of searching and reading in vw golf-dedicated forums like vwvortex and vwwatercooled and talking to matt from camden GTI showed me that power window failures are very common in both mk3 and mk4 golfs (maybe mk5s too? but may be still too new to know). the regulators are the things that fail as the factory standard ones come in plastic, which make it prone to breaking. these are inexpensive to replace, however, if the motor plans to fail, then costs in the hundreds would settle in for another power window motor.

pedro (oh yeah, he got a golf too :) GL-spec, 94/95 model - same as mine) found some cheap power window regulators on ebay for $70 each which inc. postage. my power windows just required a new regulator cos you could still hear the clicking sounds the motor makes when you try to use the power windows.

forgot which day it was, probably thursday? anyway, decided to fix it up. took off the door trims (so fuckin easy now, after knowing what to do and having done it before) and tried to take the regulator out. had some pretty decent instructions from a website that i'll post separately here later. taking the screws out that connected the regulator onto the door frame was easy too, but removing the screws holding the clamp together that attaches on to the window was friggin hard to get to. the window was scrolled all the way up so i couldnt access the screws - and since the power windows weren't working, i couldnt pull them down either. i feddled with it for another hour, trying to yank it down, pulling on the cables and everything, until i got the idea to hook the batteries up again and tried to see if i can pull the windows down while holding the "down" button. dunno what i did while feddling with it, but it decided to work, and it worked fine! no hitches at all, and scrolled up and down at the same speed as the other ones.

so i bought a new regulator for no use... hm, will keep it until it decides to "fail" again.

"painting plastics"

2006-11-27T13:40:00.000+11:00

Beginning
First take off pieces that you are painting; if they can't come out, then it will really be a pain - you'll have to mask off adjacent parts on your car. If your dash or other plastic parts are slightly pliable or soft, then use vinyl paint. Take the pieces and wash them with soap and water. Also, it’s recommended to use dish soap detergent. This stuff is powerful and will strip away wax and grease, and other stuff that may require removing prior to new paint.

Sanding

Next, gently sand the parts with 600 grit aluminum-oxide sandpaper to roughen the surface up a bit. Be gentle - no need to use lots of force. If the parts have been coated with Armor-All or any products like that, then this step is especially important. Another option, and one that most bodyshops swear by, are using ScotchBrite pads. You'll need the dark-reddish brown ones (inscribe with an "autobody grade"). Use these to scuff up the surfaces real well - you can find these at autoparts/hardware stores in the paint sections or by the sandpapers.

Cleaning
Next, you'll have to clean the parts of fingergrease and dust, etc. Ideally you should go and buy a liquid solvent designed to remove grease and dirt. This is used by bodyshops - you can buy from paint supply places, and better hardware/autoparts stores. However, for smaller parts, isopropyl alcohol should suffice - just wipe the parts down with the alcohol real well and let the parts air dry. This step should take place both before and after sanding.

Adhesion
Spraying paint directly onto plastic is sometimes not good enough - the paint may not "stick on" to the plastic part and as a result may not even set. Plastic, like many other surfaces, require a primering process to ensure your painted plastic parts will stay that way for a long time, and help the paint adhere to the surface. Don’t use a grey, autobody primer; use a plastic primer which usually sprays on clear. In a well ventilated and preferably warm environment (20-25 degrees C), spray on adhesion promoter following directions on can (steps may vary - some say spray on the adhesion then spray a coat of paint while it's still wet, others say wait until it dries).

Types of paints

Remember, there are different types of paint. Some are enamel-based, others are laquer-based, others are latex-based. You want to use the same type of paint, coupled with the same type of clearcoat and not mix and match different paint types, or you can get very poor results. Soft or vinyl-like surfaces need a flexible latex paint or dye; automotive paint will not work well on these applications. They tend to chip and flake off. Harder plastics commonly used in car interiors, such as ABS plastic, can be painted with standard auto-based paint and clearcoat.

A paint "system" is always a trouble-free way to go. This is a family of paint products all designed to work with each other. Usually it includes latex or auto base paints, plastic and regular primers, clearcoats etc all together. SEM is a popular example of a paint system. Ask questions. Try to find a autoparts place that has a dedicated paint counter, ask them questions and you will get good advice for your customizing projects.

For all interior painting a FLEXIBLE clearcoat should be used if possible. This has a flex agent in it and will help keep the paint from flaking. This is especially important for hard plastic areas that are subjected to slight bending/pressure (soft plastic/vinyl should never be painted with auto base paint).

In conclusion, if you have used a product such as “Armor-All” on your interior parts, a product called a "fisheye remover" may need to be added to the paint and be necessary to prevent the paint from "fisheye-ing" or "orange peeling". If you’ve ever painted something and had it bubble up, that is what I am talking about. The pores of the paint cannot breathe due to the oily Armor-All product. Addition of fisheye remover can prevent this.

Painting
Once dry, position parts for maximum spray. Sometimes you might want to prop them up on top of something to make sure you get good coverage. You should follow instructions on the paint that you're using, but these would be the general instructions on painting plastics (and painting other surfaces): Apply a thin coat on all the parts from a good distance. Don't spray too close to the parts and use short, overlapping strokes from side to side. Over-application will result in runny, uneven coating. The key is to apply lots of light coats, slowly building up the paint, not trying to coat everything in one or 2 coats.

Before you apply the final coat, use a florescent work light, or make sure the parts are under strong light - you'd be surprised upon closer inspection the areas that you may have inadvertently missed, and corners that need more paint, etc. Sometimes, to get a good coat around corners, it may be necessary to turn parts over once dry and do a coat around the edges with the part upside down.

Once parts have dried for at least an hour or two, or overnight, apply clearcoat to non-vinyl painted parts. Clearcoat will help protect the paint from scratches/scuffs, etc. Clearcoat, unless specially designed, isn't usually meant for vinyl painted-parts. However, you could apply some Armor-All to shine up the vinyl parts after they have been dry for a few days.

Also, it may be of benefit to buy a "tacking cloth" - it's a sticky cloth used to wipe down the parts in between coats to remove dust and lint that settles on the paint. Get it from paint shops, in the hardware/autoparts paint section.

Conclusion
Take your time and don't rush and try and paint everything in a day!

These steps have been tried and used with great success by many; they should work well with all applications on plastic. It's important to keep in mind what sort of environment your plastics will be exposed to after painting, and constant maintenance will be required to keep them looking tops.

-Adapted from prophet_ca, http://www.neons.org/

new location

2006-11-23T16:13:00.000+11:00

hello

this will be where i'll write all my car-related stuff from now on, as msn live space is just too much of a bitch (and slow) to use. it's been a while since i last wrote due to the exams, but quite a bit has happened over the past month.

So, the last entry i wrote on msn live space was on the topic of the VR6 wheel arches i bought a while ago - had them resprayed in satin black to get the new black plastic feel again. i think i might redo them again haha. gonna sand down parts of it first, and try and get the scratched part looking smooth again. i found instructions on DIY interior/exterior plastic touch-ups during exams so i'll most likely will be following it. I'll put it up in the next post.