Meet Ellen the Jetta

[A1an]

Mmmmmmmmm...Fresh Hop.




Car looks nice too.

[ennui_delphian]

Nah. Dunno when I'll be done with it at this pace - there's just too much going on to get a lot of time to work on the car.

Yeah - you need two cars if you want to mess with one. I learned that one the hard way. I might roll down to bugout tho... you going regardless?

Yeah we'll be up. Probably in the 3.5 'brio since the mk2 only has one seat until I finish up the other trophy, and the mk1 has 2011 off.

[rod_knock]

I love odj's 'builds/cleanup' threads. Always so tasteful. Always realistic.

[odj]

very strong start my friend.

thanks!

Mmmmmmmmm...Fresh Hop.




Car looks nice too.

Yeah we'll be up. Probably in the 3.5 'brio since the mk2 only has one seat until I finish up the other trophy, and the mk1 has 2011 off.

lol nice one. If I'm headed up there I'll give ya a shout.

I love odj's 'builds/cleanup' threads. Always so tasteful. Always realistic.

That's awesome, thank you

[odj]

Looks fantastic! I would love to see a shot of the gauges in action!

I'd be happy to shoot some video once everything's put together.

Here's a random shot from Flickr to tide you over:

Actually the coupe is going to be getting caged this summer. Building it as a lemons car for next year. Give me a ring or a PM if you're interested in participating.

oh wicked! I might actually be down for that. I'll take a look at the schedule. I'd love to get more track time

[odj]

I got a little more time this evening to work on a fairly small project.

On a junkyard trip a few years ago, my buddy and I found two of these half-DIN cupholders just sitting on the ground, already removed for us.

I finally got around to using it today

I cut the ash tray out, marked the hole for the cupholder to fit:



Cut it out and test fit.



I decided to flush fit the cupholder, then cut a piece out of a spare console to cover the big gaping hole I'd left over. Cut another hole in teh side and installed the cig lighter socket.

Gotta clean everything up once it dries. It's a good five footer, which is pretty much all it needs to be.

I have no idea if it'll clear the shifter once it's installed. If not I'll scrap it and start again.





Tested out my "new" amp this weekend as well.



And my buddy busted out this big son of a b*tch. Sweet Poison A7000+



No clue why the writing is upside down on this one.

[odj]

I got the floors fully stripped. There was a little bit of tar left here and there, but I got really tired of doing this part of the project and moved on. Here they are soaking in MetalReady in preparation for the Por-15.



After two coats of Por-15:



In between coats I put in one of the new front window seals and trunk seal from FAW-VW China.





And hit the trunk with some RaamMat BXT (orig)



Can't have a project car without Window Cocks.

[08-Jetta]

Haha window cocks are a must.

Your car looks great. You're putting in some nice work.

[odj]

Haha window cocks are a must.

Your car looks great. You're putting in some nice work.

Thanks. I can't wait to drive it again. I'm getting antsy already.

[T.D.B.]

Looking good man. Your work is paying off.

[ph4n70m]

im definitely going to take some pointers from your thread when i get to working on my mk2 1985 jetta. ill enjoy seeing more from your updates.

[odj]

Looking good man. Your work is paying off.

Thanks homie I'll definitely be taking you for a ride to check out the drums and basses in this thing when it's "done".

im definitely going to take some pointers from your thread when i get to working on my mk2 1985 jetta. ill enjoy seeing more from your updates.

Right on. This isn't my first rodeo, so I hope I've learned a few things. Always happy to share, if you have any questions just let me know.

[MOTA BOY]

I like that FAW-VW China seals. Cause ther're new... Can you give me some link of products that can be ordered?

[ekua516]

Im in love with Ellen.. she is a beauty,keep up the good work..

[t_white]

Here's a random shot from Flickr to tide you over:

How did you not show me this when I was at your house?!?! Amazing work Jackson. I kinda want to steal that center console from you if you decide not to use it in the Jetta.

[Evo eX]

watching this

[steveo27]

who did you source your trunk seal through? i need to replace mine

[sin bar]

[odj]

I like that FAW-VW China seals. Cause ther're new... Can you give me some link of products that can be ordered?

who did you source your trunk seal through? i need to replace mine

I got them on a group buy a number of months ago. I emailed the dude to see if he has any more bits - I'll PM you guys if he does.

watching this

Right on

How did you not show me this when I was at your house?!?! Amazing work Jackson. I kinda want to steal that center console from you if you decide not to use it in the Jetta.

Kinda slipped my mind man, the workshop is a major clusterf*ck as you saw, so it kinda makes it hard to remember what I've been working on

Im in love with Ellen.. she is a beauty,keep up the good work..

Thank you, and will do

[odj]

BTW, I got a little work done a week or so ago on the doors. My goal is to seal them up well, essentially treating the door cavity as a giant speaker box.

I'd originally thought of doing a mix of MDF and aluminum flashing in the lower door opening, but I stumbled upon a rather nice piece of material - it's a composite of thin aluminum sheets with some sort of plastic/rubber material in the middle. I want to use this to seal up the lower door opening and put an adapter ring to mount the speaker essentially where the speaker pod thing is on the stock doors.

So, I took a template of the area to fill using blue painter's tape, a marker, and some patience:



And then transferred it to the material i'm using:



I stopped taking pictures at that point, but basically I trimmed the edges with a razor blade, and used a jigsaw to cut out the piece. It fits great and I should have no problems sealing around it with silicone, but I did run into a problem - the door card no longer fits. The lower portion of the door card (where the vinyl is, and the storage cubby things attaches) is meant to fit into that recess in the metal part of the door. Since I'd covered that up, it would no longer fit.

So.... I cut a big @55 hole in there, and I guess I'll use some fiberglass to recreate it. We'll see. The door cards are in mediocre condition to begin with, so I don't feel terribly bad cutting them up. I'll hopefully have some time to work on it this weekend, and will take some pics of progress and such.

[odj]

Fixed a burnt fuse holder (4th speed fan switch, so says the intarwebs), pulled the old cheesy amp power wires and leaking grommet, removed as much of the rest of the factory sound deadening schmutz as possilble, and laid down some RaamMat BXT2.



It was hot as ish. Been too busy to get to it otherwise.

That said, I'm hoping to have a week to work on it coming up soon

[ennui_delphian]

You coming up to mk1 madness sir?

[MOTA BOY]

Got the PM, almost forgot about that seals!

[odj]

You coming up to mk1 madness sir?

I was planning on it, but at this point I doubt it. Too much going on right now

Got the PM, almost forgot about that seals!

No problem, hope you can get a set for yourself.

[ennui_delphian]

I was planning on it, but at this point I doubt it. Too much going on right now

Don't be a girl. I'll have a crap ton of crap for sale and you know you'll always get special deals

[odj]

Hope you had fun, Kris. Did you meet my buddy Danny up there?

...

All of the RaamMat has been laid down as of this past weekend (on floors and firewall bulkhead) and Ensolite over top. Man this stuff really cut down echoes in the car!





The Ensolite conforms to floor contours pretty damn well, and sticks like a champ with the glue Raam provides. I have a few wrinkles, but I'm going to have another layer of padding over top of them, so I'm not worried.



Thanks to Justin for all the help with that!

I really wanted to switch back to the earlier hatch plinth, but I see why my buddy Tim (PO) converted to the later style cover. Old busted KMFDM sticker and some surface rust. Yuck.



Most of the clips for the rear plinth cover thing were pretty borked up, so I replaced them with these rubber compression grommets from Home Despot. There's a threaded insert in the end, and as you screw down they compress around the back to create an anchor and seal as well.



Here's how they sit installed



That's it for now. I'm kinda held up at the moment waiting for the replacement antenna. After that I'll button up the firewall and install the dash.

[evol_mk3]

You should get a new KMFDM sticker, that'd be sweet.

[VDub2625]

I'm liking this sound deadening. how much more would you say it weighs than stock? Also don't forget the OEm carpet padding, or at least some replacement (maybe from wall to wall). It's required to make the carpet fit right!

[odj]

You should get a new KMFDM sticker, that'd be sweet.

TBH, I really don't know much about KMFDM. I'll probably strip and repaint that area at some point - I need to get the stock trunk button surround to work with the early stuff.

I'm liking this sound deadening. how much more would you say it weighs than stock? Also don't forget the OEm carpet padding, or at least some replacement (maybe from wall to wall). It's required to make the carpet fit right!

Oh, that's a good question. I really don't think much over what was there. You have to remember I took off the factory stuff which is almost comparable in weight to the RaamMat (the Ensolite weighs next to nothing). I'd say in just the floors, maybe 5lb increase in weight. A little more in the doors since I'm adding something where there was nothing.

I've got some padding I'm thinking of using over top of this stuff, just wonder if it's going to be too thick. It was cheap as all get out (and thankfully closed cell unlike the factory stuff) so if it doesn't work I'll rethink it. I'll post more on that later when I get to that part.

[odj]

Took the day off today, feeling like crap. Got bored sitting still and decided to do a little work in the shop.

Here's part of my parts hoard. Rapid Parts 8v valve cover.



DJ Auto smoked aero headlights. These replace the pitted US sealed-beam lights with H4 european beam pattern lights.



Osram H4's (thanks, Justin)



These are "euro" style headlamp so they have a hole providing for a parking light of sorts. I didn't feel like hooking that up or just leaving the bulb holder in there, so I put a small piece of electrical tape on some silver duct tape (sticky sides together) and placed that over the hole for the parking light.



Voila!



Then I prepped and added a bead of clear silicone around the sealed edges (these are apparently prone to leaking between the glass and metal).



So yeah, here they are all ready for install

[ennui_delphian]

GIMMEDISNAO!

Were there any plans for simplifying the bay some? They may have been written in the post already, but I only read the posts with pictures in them

[datenstrom]

TBH, I really don't know much about KMFDM. I'll probably strip and repaint that area at some point - I need to get the stock trunk button surround to work with the early stuff.

@KMFDM

Let me see if I still have the original parts for the trunk in one of the many boxes of car parts I haven't unpacked yet...

Also, here are a couple of other stickers she had on her when I got her. Unbelievably, I did not put them on her.

[odj]

GIMMEDISNAO!

Were there any plans for simplifying the bay some? They may have been written in the post already, but I only read the posts with pictures in them

Eh, I may or may not switch over to an ABA serp setup later, and may or may not install the Jegs slim fan rad shroud or ABA dual fan shroud.

Other than that, nah. I am going to get my buddy Matt to fix the AC.

@KMFDM

Let me see if I still have the original parts for the trunk in one of the many boxes of car parts I haven't unpacked yet...

I don't get the Does that mean you like them... or don't like them? I really do not know if I have heard any KMFDM before or not.

Cool man, I appreciate it.

[ennui_delphian]

I don't get the Does that mean you like them... or don't like them? I really do not know if I have heard any KMFDM before or not.

Cool man, I appreciate it.

Bang head = headbang?



Best kmfdm song out there, I used to be into a lot of industrial/techno/elctronica before the stupid Dubstep crap started up.

[odj]

Bang head = headbang?



Best kmfdm song out there, I used to be into a lot of industrial/techno/elctronica before the stupid Dubstep crap started up.

Ha! Yeah I know that one.

If you're into industrial and the like, you should talk to Tim (datenstrom).

There's a lot more to current electronic music than just Dubstep btw