Boooo

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

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:

1. First off, make sure you're working under shelter and that the paintwork is not hot to touch.
   
   
2. Mask off surrounding paintwork as to avoid any accidental scratches. I just used newspaper but it was a pain to work around.
   
   
3. 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.
   
   
4. 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).
   
   
5. 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).
   
   
6. Similarly, apply the plastic polish.
   
   
7. 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

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

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?

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

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.

:(

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

Dubmissile rocks!

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

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...

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: