Project Cabrio VR6

[Rheinland Technik]

Spoke to our interior shop that we use today and talked about the colors and concept that we have imagined for the car. Heading over to speak with the top manufacturer about a custom top for the car here in a few minutes.

[Rheinland Technik]

Waiting for a euro rear bumper reinforcement to arrive and some new tie rods for the steering rack. I will be removing the original hood and pulling the front fenders off today so that I can remove the passenger side door and plug the antenna hole on the drivers fender.

[Rheinland Technik]

Picked up a very nice black canvas top, complete with frame and door seals, along with a set of rear seat belts for $50 today at the salvage yard. It will make it's way to the Cabrio one day. Tomorrow, I hope to remove the firewall from the Cabrio along with the steering column to get it ready for the new parts. I will also work on removing the original top from the car and any contents of parts for the car so it is completely stripped and ready for paint.

[Rheinland Technik]

Textured top front bumper came in yesterday along with flares and mouldings. This weekend is a non-Project car weekend, as we have work to do for higher authority.

[Rheinland Technik]

Good news for the project moving forward today. I got word that the title has arrived and will be transfered into a NC title in a matter of a couple of days. I have been waiting three months for getting the replacement title resolved as it was stolen from the previous owner. I will be tearing it down more this week and getting it ready for the RHD and suspension to go in. I also have a buddy that will be coming by to pressure wash it a final time with his "Hotsy" pressure washer to remove all of the grime and wax under the hood so that fresh paint will look nice and smooth in the engine bay. I will be going to the salvage yard on Saturday with the intent to pick up a few pieces that I have been wanting to get, hopefully I can get them, as they are a nice set of window regulators that I could use.

[Rheinland Technik]

Finally stripped the crossmember out of the donor and removed the RHD steering rack from it. Will work this weekend on cleaning it up and getting the new tie rods and boots installed.

[Rheinland Technik]

Unless I can get some decent coilovers, I will be ordering this:

[Rheinland Technik]

Yesterday was a no go on working on the Cabrio, as work ruled that out. So today, in the time that I wasn't helping do some mods on a Mk2 VR6, I managed to remove the frontwall and brake unit from the car, along with the steering column. I also removed the passenger side door, which is being replaced with a dent free unit and I pulled the front fenders so futher cleaning can be performed and filling the antenna hole can be done with greater ease. This will also make the color change much easier. I will need to strip the doors down to bare shells and remove the old top, but that will happen just before the body shop.

[mk2driver]

i dont believe the rear tie bar will work in a cabrio.

[Rheinland Technik]

No it will not fit and will not be used, which is an option anyway.

[DaddyOfPayton]

No it will not fit and will not be used, which is an option anyway.

As far as a sway bar, I run the O-Bar unit on my cabrio (mounts inside the rear beam) and I like it. As others have stated, there is no need for a rear stress bar on a Cabrio

[Rheinland Technik]

Removed the hood and rear bumper rebar today. I have a new hood and a Euro rear rebar to go back on the Cabrio. Waiting on a guy to come pick up the old hood, he is replacing his Jetta front end on his Golf. Working on spraying simple green on the fender wells to clean them up.

[Rheinland Technik]

When it comes time to put the Cabrio together, it will requires som fabrication under the dash, as I intend to retain the cruise control from the '99 Mk3 Jetta donor. Since the RHD did not come with it, a bracket or two will have to be fabbed to connect the gas pedal to the cruise control vacuum bellow and mod the bellow to mount to the column support. This afternoon will involve more cleaning and most likely be cleaning out the parts that I plan on reusing from the trunk and interior compartment and putting them up in the storage room with all of the new parts. I will also try blocking off the air inlet opening on the right side of the car and cutting the new opening out on the left side. Luckily, the RHD uses a factory made panel that will transfer over to the Cabrio and will only required sealing it in place with seam sealer. I will start tearing the donor Jetta down here soon so that I can start prepping parts for the install and new parts to replace the old. I have a new set of a-arms with ball joints and bushing so I can start some of the assembly of things and if I get the crossmember cleaned and painted, it can be ready to install the swaybar when it is ordered. This will also allow me to install the steering rack and have it ready as well.

There is a lot of back story on the car that I haven't mentioned as of yet, but it will be an interesting one once it is ready to reveal things. I have the color scheme fully planned out along with the top color and interior materials and placement. I have to step it up a little here soon and get my presentation completed to send out to a few vendors that I have been in contact with so that they will commit to the project. As soon as I get the presentation complete and commitments confirmed, I will post the concept drawings here for all to see.

[Rheinland Technik]

Took the daily out today and got it inspected, then went to the salvage yard and picked up a few parts. I ended up getting three of the four needed window regulators, just need a manual drivers door regulator to complete the set. I also picked up a rear seat to use which will eventually get covered when he interior is done. Then it was off to Nuclear Invasion.

[86vwgti8v]

Now that I know who this is, I will follow it a little closer.

Interesting project man!. can't wait to see it done!

[Rheinland Technik]

Finally, after a long wait, the title and paperwork has arrived for the Cabrio. Things have been a little on hold because of that, but now, it is ready to move a step forward. Headlights, tail lights and front signals/fogs are on order and I may order the wheels this week so that they are here and waiting for when it is ready to roll again. For the time being, the stock VR6 wheels and tires will be used for moving it around. This evening will be a non-Cabrio work day, as I have to do some work for my parents on their house.

[lifeisphunke]

need more pics...

but still watching

[lowBOOSTvw]

This car isn't done yet, and I'm loving it already.

[Rheinland Technik]

Spent part of the evening cleaning out parts and boxing them up until they are needed for re-assembly. I stripped the rear hatch down and removed the wiring, bumper vents and clips and the balance weight out of the rear of the car. This weekend, I plan to get the car completely stripped of all rubber and trim so that it is ready for the color change. Once it is stripped, I will take pics of it in it's current state.

[lifeisphunke]

pics of balance weights and location??? never heard of such a thing

[Olbrenner]

You haven't seen the heavy balance / vibration weight in the Mk3 cabrio trunk? It is under the cover on the left side under the power top motor if you have that too. It is referred to as a "WTF Bomb" in the Cabrio world. Mk1 Cabriolets didn't come with them. They work in conjunction with the extra motor mount on the Cabrio's to reduce vibration while driving.

[Rheinland Technik]

Removed more parts from the Cabrio today and will spend most all day tomorrow tearing more things apart.

[Rheinland Technik]

Spending the day stripping the Cabrio down. top off, windows and regulators out, rubber trim pieces, plastic clips and so on. A few more bits to go. Body guy on the way down to access the car and schedule it's time for paint. Taking a break from the heat and will be back outside in a few to finish up and put the car on the ground. Will post pics of it this evening.

[Rheinland Technik]

Well, the cabrio is stripped down to virtually nothing, other than a few plastic clips for holding the interior wiring harness in place, which will come off tomorrow evening. The top is off and all glass and regulators are out of the car. I pressure washed the car some more to get any grime off of it and snapped a few pics. My buddy Tom came down with Ken and accessed the car and worked out the trade on labor and hopefully next weekend, the Cabrio will go to the body shop for it's transformation to it's new color.









The car is back on the ground and rolling. Tomorrow, I will remove the last few clips and remove the rear hatch.

[Rheinland Technik]

The left door manual window regulator is sourced, just in case I ditch the electric ones. Also have a glove box on the way to replace the air bag. Working out some part details with a few suppliers and hopefully will have suspension and wheels coming soon. While the car is at the body shop, I will start piecing the new parts together and getting things ready for re-assembly. This weekend will be the cleaning of the rack and pinion and installing new tie rods and boots, along with a fresh coat of paint. There will be many other parts that will get freshened up also, including the brake booster and other frontwall associated parts.

[Rheinland Technik]

Head lights, fog lights and turn signals came in today. Waiting on tail lights. Still have to get a set of fender signal lights.

[DaddyOfPayton]

Still have to get a set of fender signal lights.

I ordered Mk2 repeaters and they fit perfectly, assuming it is a 95 with the rectangular cutout

[Rheinland Technik]

Yes, they are the rectangular units. I have just not acquired them yet. Today, the Cabrio leaves for paint.

[YJSAABMAN]

Not to rain on your parade, as this is an impressive build, but the decision to go to paint before everything has been mocked up and all fabrication/conversion work is done is not a wise one, IMO. I painted the engine bay in my project before doing the engine swap, and the new engine is the car, now, though it doesn't even run yet, and I plan to pull it again and re-do the bay when I paint the whole car. I will never again paint a bay without having everything installed at least as mock-up.

[Rheinland Technik]

Understood. But, I have done this in the past with several cars and had few problems to come up. Luckily, my donor car is fairly complete and it is being used for mock up for any fabrication, other than the RHD parts. Most of the work is straight forward and the only fabrication work will be the intercooler mounting and piping. Since it is a Mk3, everything is a plug and play, even with the RHD. The only real work is stripping it down and re-assembling it. That and the electrical work, as the intent is to use OBD2 and the RHD is basically an OBD1, so I have to modify the harness either way I go. Either make an add-on harness to cover the extra circuits in order to run OBD2 on the OBD1 harness or re-route or extend the OBD2 LHD harness to work in the Cabrio with the RHD layout. The car didn't leave yesterday for the body shop, as we had a schedule issue, so today, it will be on it's way there.

[Rheinland Technik]

The cabrio is gone and now it is time to resolve issues with a Mk2 16V turbo.

[86vwgti8v]

damn man! Doin work!!

[Rheinland Technik]

Body work moving forward. Hope to have some pics soon of the work and progress to post.

[Rheinland Technik]

Body work is mostly completed on the Cabrio, waiting on word from the paint rep about primer and additional paint for covering all that will need to be covered.

[Rheinland Technik]

The windshield is out and in one piece, so we will be able to reuse it, unless it gets damaged while it is out. Spent a little time cleaning the dash support off and added a nice coat of paint to protect the relatively raw steel. I mounted the fuse panel back up to it and installed all of the hardware that I had removed to paint it back on and replaced all of the fuses in the panel with new ones that matched each other. I also started on an extension harness for the ECU. The reason being is the wiper transmission and motor will now set on the right side of the cowl and will interfere with the ECU location since I am using the LHD harness in the car. The plug would require extending it 12-18 inches so that it will reach the ECU when mounted on the left side of the cowl versus the right side. I disassembled a 2.0 ECU and will be soldering and heat shrinking everything to new wire and mating it with a spare plug assembly. It will only be needed for a short time anyway, as when things are finalized, the new Lugtronic ECU will come with an adapter similar to what I am making, but for adapting to Lugtronic.