side skirts on

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 !

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?

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!

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

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! ;)