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Building the beast

104K views 525 replies 108 participants last post by  eodtech 
#1 · (Edited)
Well I am finally starting a build thread. I have been putting it off but I guess it is time for one. My kids call the car "the beast" so it was only fitting for the title. Here is what I got. I picked up a 90 jetta coupe about 2 years ago that had a vr swap started on it but wasnt finished. I finished up the swap and drove the car for about a year. Then about that time I deployed to Afghanistan. That is about the time I decided to do a total overhaul on the car and start from scratch. One reason being that the vr that was in the car was getting tired. It had over 200k on it. So I set out to build something a little bit different. An R32 engine and 6 sp trans came up for sale on a local forum that was swapped into an 03 gli. The engine only had 34k miles on it and the guy was throwing in the whole car with it. So I picked that up and had it stored in a storage unit while I did my overseas thing. When I came home on midtour leave I pulled everything out of the donor car. I also pulled the 12v vr out of the coupe and sold it. Once I did that the build was a go. I got the engine and trans mocked up in the bay using some dutchbuild mounts that I had to modify a bit to work right. The plan was to get the car running and drive it and then do all the bodywork at a later time. Then I found a rust hole in the floor where the jack point was and that decided for me to strip the whole car and do a ground up everything replaced or refinished build. So far I have stripped the bay and started shaving it. I have almost all of the holes welded up at this point and am about ready start the bodywork on the bay and get it all in primer. I hope to have the car finished in about a year time frame. We will see how that goes. Anyways, enough of my blabbering. Everybody wants to see pics. So here are a few pics that brings me up to the current status of the build. Enjoy.

The donor with engine still in the bay.


Pulling the engine from the donor car.


The old vr ready to come out.


The empty bay.


Interior pulled out. I will be swapping over to a black interior.


The lovely hole in the floor right above the jack point. :facepalm:


One of the piles of parts waiting to go on.


The R32 engine going in for the first time to get everything mocked up and sitting nicely.


Rear beam cleaned up and painted with the new rotors on.


Everything pulled out of the engine bay. Let the cutting begin.


Frame rails shaved along with part of the bay.


Some of the holes in the firewall welded up.



That is all for now and brings everything up to date. I will try and update this as I go.
 
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#106 ·
Alright so I have been really thinking about something. I am thinking about cutting the rain tray out and making a panel to cover the rain tray area. This will clean up the bay and also cover up the pocket where the wiper and everything is. I am going to make it removable so I can still have access to everything. Hmm. I think I am going to play with this when I get home.
 
#114 ·
Got the knuckles torn apart today. Hubs and bearings are out. As soon as I bead blast the knuckles I'm going to put the new bearings and resplined hubs in.

Left: old hub. Right: new resplined hub. Just a little bit of a difference. Now I can run 4 lug and also fit the larger o2m outer cvs in the hubs.*

 
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