My MK3 Cabrio VR6 Project thread

[VR6 NRG]

the shop doing it is called Parts Score www.partsscore.com as Derek said one of the Audi techs along with Jason Amiot that owns the shop are doing the work.

The cabrio will be towed on Monday to the media blaster to have the engine bay blasted as well as a few other small places on the body.

The GTI will start disassembly this weekend. We will bring the VR6 to the dealership and do some general maintenance stuff to it while we wait a few weeks for the Cabrio to be painted.

in the meantime a variety of small parts have been arriving but nothing major.

[DrivesMeCrazy]

Blasted... by media...

[VR6 NRG]

I went up to Cottonwood today to pillage some parts from wrecked M3.5 Cabrio. Henry already got a lot of the interior, but what i came home with i am extremely happy for what i paid for it.

Mk3.5 steering wheel in good shape with airbag, B-pillar pieces in gloss black and rear window struts for my new mk3.5 top


i think ALL of the rubber weather stripping and stuff for around the windows, windshield, and body trim, along with a few other misc. pieces. This was a huge score because all of this stuff is 5 years newer than what is on my car


black carpet. i have the black carpet from the GTI but there is so much dog hair dirt in it, that finding this in very good shape was a huge plus.


This was the biggest piece. My passenger door doesn't have a window regulator or motor which is odd, so instead of getting those pieces, i bought the whole door with those pieces and the glass. no dings or dents. And since the whole car is being painted it being silver is no biggie.


these are the pieces for the "hoop" in the car. they are in better condition than mine and were another extra find.

[jhayesvw]

You bought that ginster huh. that thing has been for sale off and on for a couple years now.

Save as much of it as you can. ginsters are much rarer than green cabrios. His was one of three i knew of in tucson.
My old one, liefs and brandon's 2.0.

That cabrio isnt even painted under the carpet.

Ryan has a mk3 vrt ginster in tucson. There are a few others too. Most are beat up and haggard. Hell there were 3 surf green golfs in tucson when I had mine. I think surf green is less common than ginster.
back to the topic.
looks like you scored some good parts.
and good call derek. I didnt think about it coming as an ABS car.

[VR6 NRG]

it didn't matter to me what color the GTI was, it had the parts i needed and at a good price, the body is pretty beat up and has rust.

and surf green was way more rare than Ginster.

[AZTDiVR6]

Ryan has a mk3 vrt ginster in tucson. There are a few others too. Most are beat up and haggard. Hell there were 3 surf green golfs in tucson when I had mine. I think surf green is less common than ginster.

Oh, well there were 4, and now there are 3 again(or so).
I was just saying he couldve used one of the blacks that are always lurking around, the place is crawling with them.

Looks like it will be a nice build regardless.

[VR6 NRG]

thanks

[VR6 NRG]

"Like" PartsScore for more pics on Facebook.
got some great pics of how the car ended up before it went to the media blaster.
I'm not going for a completely smooth bay but certainly one that has been cleaned up quite a bit.
The beginning stage



Tabs removed

Passenger side all done


Battery bracket and frame rail before



And all done and ready to be sent to the media blaster (where it is now)

[VR6 NRG]

the blasting done.


Thanks a huge amount to Henry VWnutAZ for helping with towing to and fro

[VR6 NRG]

so there has been a change of events plans that have transpired in the last few days.

another donor car opportunity came up that would put the end product in a better place once its finished.
I found this local 1995 VR6 Cabrio here on vortex with a lot newer components that i will be able to use for the swap, plus some aftermarket stuff i would have to buy down the line.

So i put the yellow GTI on craigslist on Sunday morning, and a buyer called me today and it will be sold on Saturday.
So later this week i will go buy this.

1995 MK3 VW Cabrio VR6
2.0L Auto > 2.8 11.5:1 VR6 5-speed
ONLY 30,000 since professional build

Most parts have < 10,000 miles on them.
- detailed service records included.


Highlights:

Turn 2 intake
Techtonics exhaust
Hi-performance cat
ARP head stud kit
BFI motor mounts
Samco Coolant hose kit

Wietec 60/40 kit
VW Motorsport Heavy duty strut mounts and strut bearings
Zimmerman X-drilled rotors and Zimmerman pads
Falken Azenis RT-615K

Vento dash

Many other new parts:
VR6 radiator, 7mm spark plug wires, Low temp thermostat & fan switch, ISV, intake temp sensor, cam position sensor master cylinder, aux. water pump, crankshaft position sensor, slave cylinder, Late-model strut mounts, HD control arm bushings, tie-rod ends.
... and more...

I give up the TDI trans out of the GTI and some black interior pieces, and 5-lug swap but gaining things like coil overs, exhaust, the vent dash, black leather front seats, and a lot less miles, polished manifold and valve cover, and much more.

[rokhopr313]

Great stuff man! Keep it coming

[VR6 NRG]

thanks for the compliment

[boraIV]

I see more updates on FB than here!

[DrivesMeCrazy]

So... is the white car going to get torn down to build the green car?

[VR6 NRG]

Today was a pretty busy day for me.
started off at home in Anthem then drove about 130 miles before returning home.

I started off and went down to see Josh who is doing the body/paint work off of Thomas/I-17. dropped off the passenger door, all of the rubber seals and trim i had, and discussed what kind of work he will be doing on the car. what to shave, what to keep etc...
I also picked up a hood from him that i had to bring back to Darren. the Jetta hood ended up being pretty uneven and didn't sand down very well. darren thank you for doing what you did, i appreciate it.
Darren lives by Exklusiv, so i then headed to see Henry at his work off of Bethany Home and the 51 to pay up for the stuff he helped me with. THANK YOU Henry.

From there i headed back north to where i work to gather the rest of the interior pieces. The GTI has been stored in a friends garage for the past few weeks and the cabrio interior was also there.
So i went to work to where the GTI was now, removed the front seats from that, then went to his garage where the rest of the Cabrio pieces were. I brought all the cabrio pieces back to work, threw the cabrio seats into the GTI so it could still be driven, then took the GTI front seats and the cabrio rear pieces over to Unique Upholstery in the Scottsdale Airpark area. Unique does a lot of great work for some cars at the dealership and after talking with the owner a few times i felt confident in their work and also time frame to get the work done. Their shop is huge and some of the cars they are working on are pretty damn sick.

We hammered out what i want the seats to look like and i think they should turn out pretty cool when its done.

I have also decided to keep the GTI as the donor car and not go with the other cabrio. so anyone looking for a vr6 cabrio, take up that offer on that car. it's a solid car.

in about 4-5 weeks things should start coming back to Parts Score for reassembly and a few more custom touches.

[VR6 NRG]

thought i would post an update.
the real paint work has begun and we expect for Josh to be done with the car around the 2nd week of next month.

and these boxes arrived late last week to Parts Score...


and after being opened they revealed this





AccuAir full setup with AirLift struts and AccuAir e-level system.
it will be the first air ride install for Parts Score doing the work but they are ready for the task and so excited to do this.

[jhayesvw]

Bags are for ****.

[VR6 NRG]

Bags are for ****.

in this case, yes, yes they are

[VR6 NRG]

i'm really hoping for these

[2ptslo]

keep it coming Brian!! can't wait to see more progress pics!!

[VR6 NRG]

the car should hopefully be done at paint later next week and then back to Parts Score for assembly and install time.

i should have some pics later today of some stuff though.

[VR6 NRG]

just a few updated crappy cell phone pics.
This is the air tank with the first traces of Ipanema brown anywhere on the car...
i had him paint the eXo mounts in gloss black too.



the pics were taken in a small room without much light but i was told when out in the sun the color looks amazing.

[Stilladub]

Really diggin' the color can't wait to see it shot on some body panels.

[VR6 NRG]

Really diggin' the color can't wait to see it shot on some body panels.

me x 2039485309850324958

[Rif Raf]

Looking Sick Brian! Very excited to see you build done and go for a spin in that little Cabbie!

[VR6 NRG]

woah Rif Raf lives!!!! Thanks Chad

some minor picture updates

air tank finally out in the sun. lordy this is a gorgeous color



and the GTI started getting taken apart today


and i was just texted this picture the engine is out. new Euro Enginuity reinforced oil pan and 2.9L clone fully polished manifold will go on tomorrow.

thats all for now

[VR6 NRG]

some other goodies arrived today from Euro Enginuity
2.9L clone manifold that is polished. debating what to do with this 1) finish the polishing and paint the black areas, or paint the whole thing one color.





OEM oil pan with reinforced steel added to it and painted




chrome interior door pulls and JOM hood struts


and some better pics of the tank and gloss black brackets. going to line the inner loops of the brackets with sticky felt to prevent scratching and etching of the paint from any vibration

[VR6 NRG]

well it looks like the 1552 wheels aren't going to be out and available yet so i am going to be borrowing some multi-piece 16x9's to put on the car for the time being.

Josh the painter has told me the car will be finished this upcoming week. that will give us about 5 weeks to put everything back together. That sounds all good, but the car cannot be worked on every day nor every weekend. so it will be a crunch but i have confidence that it will all work out.

latest pics of parts.
manifold is done



I am also slowly collecting a few other basic parts.
Because of the new manifold and oil pan, we will replace those gaskets, clean a bunch of stuff on the motor while it's still out and hope to start assembly next weekend.

The Cabrio had some faint hail damage that wasn't noticeable because of the faded paint and the car being dirty. because of this the body work will take through the end of the coming week. But i have been told all of the welding, smoothing, shaving is complete, and the real work on the body has begun.

[BlckBadged_SwissChee]

Like that color a lot.

[jhayesvw]

in this case, yes, yes they are

looks like youre having fun with this project.
its more involved than the newer cars, but still lots of fun.

[VR6 NRG]

Yeah I wanted to do just a little more than bolt on like I have in the past

[..Derek..]

There has never been a dyno that showed an improvement in power with a 'clone' manifold. That money should have gone to Bilstien based Bagyard struts

Just playin with ya Brian.. but it's true.. - There was one back in the day that showed 2-3hp beyond 6500 which is beyond fuel cut anyway..

[VR6 NRG]

There has never been a dyno that showed an improvement in power with a 'clone' manifold. That money should have gone to Bilstien based Bagyard struts

Just playin with ya Brian.. but it's true.. - There was one back in the day that showed 2-3hp beyond 6500 which is beyond fuel cut anyway..

i mainly got it cause it was already shiny and reduced the amount of time/work needed to make it shiny. i like shiny things. and i figured if the motor is out and maintenance being done, why not put a new shiny manifold on there.

[VR6 NRG]

a pic i was texted today from Unique Upholstery


rears will be done this week.

[VR6inAZ]

I saw Henry's cabrio at Exklusiv the other day. Man that is a good looking build.

Will be nice to have another one around when your is done.