Jetta Timeline in Pictures...

[FourEyes]

Update concerning wheels on page 2

Hello, my name is Braeden. I'm a big time lurker and a fairly small time poster so far. This is my first meaningful thread so please go easy. I'm hesitant to post this in the Mk3 forums because TBH I think I'd get chewed alive for not having some hella-stance-waffled car like everyone else.

I'm making this thread to serve as my timeline for the different thing's I've done with and to my Mk3 Jetta. Updates to this will be very slow and drawn out as I'm working as much as possible and don't have a disposable income. There's not much, and it's nothing spectacular but it's my baby and I adore it.

I bought the 1996 ABA Jetta GL as my first car in October of '09 when I was 16 years old. I WAS searching for a 4 wheel mechanical steering early 90's Prelude (2nd Gen), which when done right doesn't look bad IMO. But I found this for the right price instead. To be honest I'm glad I went with this 'chick car' as my friends used to tease. The community based around these Volkswagens is so much nicer than the one built around Honda's.

The things it had when I purchased it are 148k on the clock, two-tone black paint (I'll get to that later), a random cone filter sitting on the bottom half of the air box, a missing rub strip, broken sunroof motor, extremely dirty interior, leaky tails, ripped shift boot, nearly blown rear struts and a broken trunk that nobody knew how to open. Oh and ZERO rust thanks in part to it never being driven on salt up here.

Immediately after purchasing my Jetta I found these forums and started lurking around. Caught on pretty quick to how things operate around here and after half a year I signed up as 'neon280'.

And here's what she looked like on her good side:




Not long after my purchase I realized that the tires were shot from sitting outside for 3 years. Evident by the couple flats I got:




There's that missing rub strip. Both rub strips on the other side eventually fell off as well.

Replaced the tires with the cheapest I could find and washed it:




Very early modifications... I moved the license plate lower, because I think it makes the front bumper look cleaner. Also disabled the DRL's, removed the antenna and the dummy plates. Can't remember why though...




Next up I put the antenna back on, got Hella smoked sidemarkers, in.pro smoked taillights, and unevenly smoked my dummy plates . Oh and new camera! Still missing the rubstrips:




After fixing my rubstrip problems with 3m double sided mounting tape, I worked up the courage to have at it with the random orbital that the PO threw into the deal. Which means a full polish. Not bad at all for my first time:

Before:






After:







Needless to say I felt awesome that it turned out so well. Still has quite a few deep scratches, but the only way to take care of those is a respray $$$ and in the end its just a daily. I also noticed around this time that half of my car doesn't have the original paint. The front end and the passenger side are a richer black than the drivers side, rear end, and roof. It's only noticeable in direct sunlight, has anybody seen this before

[FourEyes]

Well few months later my rear struts finally blew so I took a chance and dumped some cash into a set of CXRacing coilovers. I never had heard of them before but from the looks of them they are assembled the same as K-Sports, and I found them cheap. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEM. Due to their design, I'm able to adjust my height and ride comfort separately. Which means lower but still comfortable!

These coils:




During the install:





After the install:





Also while it was up in the air I threw on a wheel from a set I snatched from Jason (punkracer). 15x7 et37 Centra Type 11's, spray-bombed black by someone up in Canada for use as their winter wheels. My plan with them is to strip them down and attempt refinish them back to silver on the cheap cheap:




It's going to be a long time before these wheels get on my car. I have motivation issues and not a lot of free time. But it will get done eventually! Beginning to strip one:




When I picked the wheels up from Jason he told me about the cruise up Mt. Baker that was coming up. So I made that my first cruise. Wanderlust 2011 was pretty fun, it started out kinda awkward for me since I didn't know anyone, but ended up being a sweet ride up there. And the weather was beautiful! (I'm missing my dummy plates in the following pics because I got fed up with my poor skills. Took them off to fix) Another thing to note is this is about the time I requested to change my username to 'FourEyes'.

At the H&R Building in Bellingham:




Found out later that I parked next to Joel (rootrider). Your car looked nice! Although the bees certainly liked whatever you wiped down the front end with.

At the top: (Not my photo)




I was parked next to the caddy's: (Also not my photo)




As you can see here I talked with Chad (blue62) for a bit. He's cool.

On the way down again:




Ha I should put that one in TCL's bored ex-girlfriend thread...

One of my favorites:




I finally got around to replacing my antenna assembly with a new antenna grommet, ground strap, and antenna (a black one this time to match with everything else).

And last but certainly not least(as it was a PITA to do): I sourced new turn signals that weren't leaky or cracked, shaved all the lettering off the turns and dummies, and polished them back to near OEM perfection:





There's not a lot that I've done, but I pride myself in the little things I do. Like fixing the sunroof motor or getting a leather stitched shift boot. This is how she sits now, 2 years and 40k miles later. Maintainance so far has been a timing belt, water pump, theromostat, coolant bubble, coolant temp sensor, AC pressure switch, and the upper coolant hose.
Questions, comments, and constructive criticizm are always welcome:

[FourEyes]

If mod's feel like this should be moved to the Mk3 forums, go ahead. I won't mind

[boostedbastid]

good job, but lower it

[PnwAviationNut]

and rust the hood

[blue62]

Car is looking good dood, can't wait to see the Centras on it

[Naters10]

looks clean im in bellingham, so im sure ill see you around sometime keep up the good work

[FourEyes]

Yeah I know, it definitely needs to go lower! I'd just like to come up with the cash so I can roll my fenders the correct way. Probably at Meister Auto Werks. And then when I finally get the Centra's done it will be even lower.

looks clean im in bellingham, so im sure ill see you around sometime keep up the good work

Thanks! I'm pretty sure I followed you for a few lights till we got to the H&R building for Wanderlust, before you left. Car looked clean and mean.

[Naters10]

Yeah I know, it definitely needs to go lower! I'd just like to come up with the cash so I can roll my fenders the correct way. Probably at Meister Auto Werks. And then when I finally get the Centra's done it will be even lower.




Thanks! I'm pretty sure I followed you for a few lights till we got to the H&R building for Wanderlust, before you left. Car looked clean and mean.

Yeah probably! I didn't go to the top. had to work:/ but thanks

[LieutenantShinySides]

Looking good

[cabriosnap]

car is looking good man. i would start searching for a trunk lid w/ spoiler and get some skirt's on it. how are those wheel's coming for you? i can see type 11's looking pretty good with a little more tuck

and rust the hood

^^^^please don't do this^^^^

[MKIIIRobby]

Looks good! Nice and clean! Keep it up!

[FourEyes]

car is looking good man. i would start searching for a trunk lid w/ spoiler and get some skirt's on it. how are those wheel's coming for you? i can see type 11's looking pretty good with a little more tuck




^^^^please don't do this^^^^

No rusted hood for me!

Also the wheels are coming slow as ever. Have one of them almost ready for paint. It's going to be a long time till they see my car. With Washington's rain and no garage space... But yeah I'm planning on tucking them a bit. I don't see flush looking well at all, especially since it's only a 7 inch and I'm not going to see any stretch on those without running skinny tires.

Thanks guys!

[FourEyes]

Seriously considering just getting the curbage polished out and then paying to get them stripped and powdercoated. Probably by Meister Auto Werks at the same time I come up with the money to roll my fenders. Although I still have to get a quote once I figure out what I want to do.

If i go through with this I'd like some people's opinions:

Should i stick with the original silver? Or should i try something else like gunmetal, white, or black? Maybe even gold? Idk! Lol

Also what about the lip? It's going to be nice and shiny by the time all the curbage is out. Should I powdercoat the lip as well or keep it polished?

Going to be tucking them on 195/45/r15's

These wheels:



And some curbage:


Any ideas?

[blue62]

IMO, do the wheels whatever color you want that you think looks good. I think black or gold might look sweet on the car though no matter what you do there's always at least one person to hate what you do so might as well make a statement with it lol. Personally I'm getting ready to do some purple long beaches for the gf's car

[gettajetta13]

IMO, do the wheels whatever color you want that you think looks good. I think black or gold might look sweet on the car though no matter what you do there's always at least one person to hate what you do so might as well make a statement with it lol. Personally I'm getting ready to do some purple long beaches for the gf's car

^ dont do it you'll finish the car and she'll break up with you! i think a weird color choice on a basic wheel makes it look like your trying to hard.. imo i would just do a standard brushed aluminum look or they have wheel paint that matches pretty close to an oem wheels color at schucks

[FourEyes]

Looks like i need to start playing around in photoshop. I'm too undecided.

Tapatalkin'

[86gti2fast]

Good start, looks like you're headed in the right direction

[blue62]

^ dont do it you'll finish the car and she'll break up with you! i think a weird color choice on a basic wheel makes it look like your trying to hard.. imo i would just do a standard brushed aluminum look or they have wheel paint that matches pretty close to an oem wheels color at schucks

Haha if she did I'd just swap the crappy 15's back on . Only doing purple because she loves purple and loves the long beach wheels plus she wants to be different. I said go for it because I'm a huge fan of going outside the lines

[MR. TACOMPTON]

Looks good so far. Do your thang.

[FourEyes]

Spent some time in Photoshop at work today, and here's what I came up with. I'm really liking the gold so far but thought I should post them all up just for the heck of it. I also took the liberty of lowering it a little more.


White:



Silver:



Gunmetal:



Black:




And my favorite looking so far would be gold. I think it looks classy, plus it would probably hide brake dust better than white or silver...


I'm also playing with the idea of getting some random machine shop to whip me up some generic flat caps which would be painted the same as the wheels.

What do you all think?

[e1z1r1a]

Gold looks nice

[RowdyS4]

I re did the Huff's on my S4 and they were pretty rashed up.. I sanded them down and then put a metal filler in/on the rash it worked out really well for me. Once it dries and you sand it down and primer you can't even tell it was rashed. It was like 5 bucks at o'reilly's you should check it out.

[FourEyes]

^^^ I was actually quite serious about trying this for the deeper gashes.. however I'm worried about if it will hold up during the powder coating process. Or if powder will adhere to it at all.

The best option would be to fill them using a welder, but i don't have access to that or a grinder. Not to mention I've never welded in my life.

Tapatalkin'

[FourEyes]

I SPEND TOO MUCH MONEY.

LED's from Super Bright LEDs came today. I also have brand new DJ Auto smoked E-codes on the way, with the pigtails and brackets, 4 brand new wheel bearings, a counterweight shift knob, and OSRAM Nightbreakers for said E-codes all in the mail heading my way.

My bank is f**ked.


OH well. On to the LED's. I should take a moment to say that the reverse lights and the LED's pictured are NOT PLUG AND PLAY, I had to reverse the polarity of the circuit in order to make them work. On to the pictures....




Comparison!




And here's how bright they are in the dark.




Also put some on the inside...




And one more picture to secure my place as a p0st wh0re. Don't worry, the tow hook will be gone within a few days, I'm re-polishing the passenger dummy plate and threw it on for ****z and giggles.

[16volt]

I approve this thread.

Nice job, keep chipping away at it. Looks good.

[FourEyes]

I approve this thread.

Nice job, keep chipping away at it. Looks good.

Approval is good. Thanks!

I literally just placed another order for LEDs. This time license plate lights... because of how ugly they look against the reverse lights oh and a LED festoon bulb to finish off the last interior light.

I even made sure all the lights on the the interior were "Natural white" and the ones on the exterior were "cool white". It'll be one of those little known facts that people will only notice once in a blue moon. But it makes me happy.

[Swoosh0217]

Keep at the good work. I personally like the first photoshop of the white wheels. Keep us up to date.

[FourEyes]

^^ I really don't know which I want to do. It's a toss up between white and gold right now, and at the moment I'm swinging more towards white. They could both look pretty ill.



UPDATE

Received my Angry Counterweight shift knob in the mail today. So I went to work on shortening and installing: (please disregard the mess. I cleaned everything after I took these pics. )








I personally love it! It makes shifting a tad bit easier, and it's very solid feeling. Not to mention I think it looks better than my aged OEM shift knob. The one thing I might change however, is shortening it a half an inch more. We'll see though.

[FourEyes]

Alright it's official.

I decided to go with WHITE because I've always wanted white wheels and I think I'd be disappointed if I didn't go with it. The wheels are with MEISTER for stripping, curbage repair and powder.

In other news I've been doing random schit to my car recently... fake amber turns, bosch wipers, replaced my rear emblem, and deleted my passenger side mirror. I'm still on the fence about the last one, but here's a couple pics:

[Mr. Yellow]

Alright it's official.

I decided to go with WHITE because I've always wanted white wheels and I think I'd be disappointed if I didn't go with it. The wheels are with MEISTER for stripping, curbage repair and powder.

In other news I've been doing random schit to my car recently... fake amber turns, bosch wipers, replaced my rear emblem, and deleted my passenger side mirror. I'm still on the fence about the last one, but here's a couple pics:

Looking good, I like it. As for the mirror delete, I personally not a fan of it, because IMHO it look like it throws the lines of the car off. As for the LED's for the plate light, remember to drill holes in the TOP of the lamp housing to let the heat build up out. LED's do not like heat build up, as it shortens their life dramatically, while incandescent lamps really don't care about it.

[FourEyes]

Thanks for the tip bro.

As far as the mirror delete goes, I'm STILL on the fence about it. Some days I like it and some days I don't. But it'll probably be like this until I can find a warm place to work on my car... It's too damn cold out!

Tapatalkin'

[sixteenvalve]

Looking good, I like it. As for the mirror delete, I personally not a fan of it, because IMHO it look like it throws the lines of the car off. As for the LED's for the plate light, remember to drill holes in the TOP of the lamp housing to let the heat build up out. LED's do not like heat build up, as it shortens their life dramatically, while incandescent lamps really don't care about it.

LED's produce next to no heat, that is why they are more efficient...

[MahTrek=]]

Car is looking great, How did you do the amber turns and mirror delete?

[FourEyes]

For the amber turns I used orange metalcast spraypaint. Prepped the surface with 600 grit sandpaper and then spray painted using light coats. And then finished it off with a medium coat to get it glossy.

For the mirror delete... I removed the mirror, made a template out of cardboard, and used that to cut the piece out of the bottom of some RubberMade bucket I found. Then I sprayed it with some krylon flat black and used 3m tape to mount it.


I love ghetto DIY mods...