Blue Belle's Build Thread

[writeb]

Hi all, Blue Belle is my 2012 Night Blue Metallic V6 3.6 liter Premium SEL Volkswagen Passat.

Despite some relatively minor annoyances (1,2), I've been enjoying driving it a lot and enjoying tinkering with it. I took a bunch of inspiration from a variety of folks, so instead of crashing their parade, decided to create our own build thread.

Mods I've done so far:

External
Rear lip spoiler
Aspherical Mirrors
HID low beams
Bosch Park Pilot install
Chrome strip lower front grille area
Chrome VW license plate holders

Internal
Tint 50%/35%
Trunk LED lights
retractable sun shade (from B6)
Trunk grocery handle

VCDS Mods
Rain sensing wipers
Rain sensing close
Factory car horn alarm feature enabled
Convenience remote sunroof close

On Tap:
R-line (stainless) Pedals
Highline RVC install
Lane change 3 to 4 blinkers

Someday:
LED tail and headlights
Lowering springs or coilovers
------------
Bone stock and after visiting the tinting shop!

[writeb]

Aspherical Mirrors

So, one of the first things I did after getting tint was to get Aspherical Mirrors installed to deal with my inability to completely eliminate the blind spot. Removing them was a bear (broke the passenger side mirror). I suspect some suction cup based removal would be the ideal. There's a lot of force on the mirror otherwise in removing it.

Tip: the replacement mirrors come with metal arms attached to them. You don't need them and will need to remove them. I used a precision slotted screw driver to depress the retaining tabs.

The mirrors themselves just mount to a flat pivot head in the mirror housing. They pop right off with the right leverage. Otherwise you'll crack them.



Grocery Handle
Well, it's certainly not a high profile install, but it's very handy and wife approved. Get off my back.
The grocery bag handle is VW Part # 1K5-867-615-A
I forgot to order the 2 speed nuts (#906.987.01) and screws (#106.663.02) for it, and wasn't inclined to wait another week or so. Dropped by the Home depot and got the parts there. These work perfectly: Crown Bolt #8-32 screws and matching #8-32 speed nuts.

[writeb]

HID Install

I didn't have the moxy to tinker with the headlights myself, so I jumped at a groupon for a local install from a seller with excellent Yelp reviews and a lifetime warranty. Like coffemade documented in his install, they too had to dremel out the bulb holder to properly adapt the bulbs for the install. Overall, it was a super fast install and I slightly regret not hovering harder to see what they were doing so I could do it in the future.

6000k light kit pre-install


Cutoff is "meh." definitely looking foward to some proper projectors with LEDs:


Once they warm up, light is fairly white with some blue. But thankfully nothing over the top:

[writeb]

Looky here! OEM Stainless Steel pedal kit that should work. Will update this thread once/if I successfully have them installed. At first out the box glance, dead pedal looks a bit small, but I suspect it should fit perfectly:




Below is another peek at 35% rear 50% front tint since it's hard to see and find examples on the web:

[coffeemade]

Nice build thread, great documentation. Somehow I missed this one but I am adding your build to the official build thread. Oh and Meh cutoff is the same whether it is your stock lights or HID drop ins. Nice so far you are the only Blue modded, I know I saw another one on vortex with the R wheels, but now I can't find it.

[DZD]

Looks good - can you show a pic of the grocery hooks in place/use? Thanks.

[hhead]

[QUOTE=writeb;77991672]Looky here! OEM Stainless Steel pedal kit that should work. Will update this thread once/if I successfully have them installed. At first out the box glance, dead pedal looks a bit small, but I suspect it should fit perfectly:




Get those pedals in yet?

[writeb]

Thanks for the feedback, thread add, and checking in.

Sorry for the delays! Life has been crazy busy lately. Will check back in when the madness subsides.

Pedals not in yet. They're in a box crammed in my trunk with about 5 other projects!

Documented Park Pilot install in the main thread here. For now I just have some fake carbon fiber tape as a cosmetic mount patch for the LED display until I get time to throw another batch of kydex into the oven and stink up the place.

Would take a pic of the trunk handle, but trunk is crammed Overall, it just looks and works just like the regular install. Nice and firm. No problems to date. I have an extra trunk handle and am trying to scope out where I want to drill some new holes in to install it.