Mike M's diary (GTI gone but A4 is here)

[Mike_M]

Thought I would make a diary of my car as its long overdue

Bought September 2005 a 2.5 year old example from VW Caffyns Goring-by-sea after several months of looking for a mint example.

First mods started small like Beetle Sport alloy door pins




Changed the rear wiper to the new Polo/Golf version as it now matches the front aero wipers. It does not touch anything and clears the spoiler nicely





Swapped the GTI badge to the left, like other GTI in the VW range



Took one of the cup holders out and installed a storage compartment instead. I put the cup holder front plate on to make it more discret





Got hold of red door cards from a crashed GTI but sold them on soon after as need the cash



Next a Beetle Sport alu gear knob. My mate is an engineer and laser cut the GTI badge in some alu and then used some black resin to show up the GTI sign, to replace the 6 speed plastic insert. Then it was mated to the original GTI leather boot.



Then there was the red GTI line round the grill.....version 1 Got the 6mm "Stripe" in red from Halfords and put it on the bumper:

Edited January 21, 2013 by Mike_M

[Mike_M]

Pic of the 25th Anni sill protectors:

New tints with colour coded rear badge:

Some brake caliper decals on the front and rear:

Bought some 7.5x16 ET35 Momo Arrows that I refurbed over a few months myself and married them to some TOYO T1R tyres 195/40/16's

Got some cambridge rear lights

and after an hour with a soldering iron to remove the orange tint they looked like this

Decided to make a boot light as no one else had atempted it at the time and it works a treat

Sourced a european set of GTI wing mirrors so that I could make a stubby set on mine and got them sprayed up

[Mike_M]

Red grill trim version 2....top and bottom this time a first on the club

Door de-locked on both sides as its a weak point on VW's

CD Changer stealth.........shuffled a few things in the boot tidy to get this in

Finished the final cutting and then the polish of the MOMO wheels and here is the final result.

From this

to

[BenSilverLupo]

Vey very nice, love the car. Where are the sill protectors from?

[simpo]

Nice progress, nothing over the top and a lot of individual mods.

[Mike_M]

Built my first volt meter in the car and tested the unit with a 9V battery......the blue is much stronger in the flesh

Been installing some LED moodlights in the car too, and here is one in the door handle cup

Found another gauge that I like even more and ordered it. It is a bright red LED version and with a small piece of dark window tint added to the red filter to dim it a bit, it looks great and matches the red theme while being half the size of the previous one I have.

So here it is:

Take two switch blanks and cut a couple of wedges out

and also fitted some alloy TT knee rests

I sold my polished MOMO arrows and gone down a painted route due to the effort it used to take to keep them looking good.

Rear end has been de-wipered for the summer months and the new spec GTI badge and Rabbit added. Same GTI badge on the front but with the red inlay like the "R-GTI"

[Mike_M]

Some nice white LED sidelights from Hong Kong

Fitted the cupra splitter and also I removed the red stripe tape on the upper and lower grill and managed to replace them with some red wing bead that I have had sitting in the garage for a while

Went down the shark fin route and this required some modding of different aerials to work and now sell on request for £43

AFTER colour coding

Looked for a set forages afer having them in my Mk4 Golf and found some and also fitted a Passat rear VW badge and colour coded it as its a smaller version than the original and looks more in keeping to be honest

Edited May 9, 2008 by mike_m

[Mike_M]

Made a carbon fibre/ alloy catch can after I sold my other one

Edited June 21, 2008 by Mike_M

[Mike_M]

Some more red GTI door cards coming soonto complement the seats

[vworks41]

Some nice subtle mods there

[Defcon5]

What a fantastic car. You have done a brilliant job there. Any performace/handling mods?

[jeyesh]

Amazing car with very cool mods

[andyp]

very cool man... any pics of how the catch tank goes? eg where the route of the tubes etc hide away in bay?

[Mike_M]

Cheers for the comments.

I will take a pic tomorrow of the catch tank pipe route. I made an alloy A frame bracket and bolted a black cycle bottle holder to it, for the catch tank to slide into and it works great

[dj_lupz]

love what u have done with this GTI

keep it up

any other plans?

[MattyB]

Loving the voltmeter, looks fantastic.

However aren't people going to always think its twenty past twelve?

[Mike_M]

It does change all the time within a few decimal points as things in the car are used etc but when the engine is on it reads about 14.5V with minor movement in reading.

Got some spacers for the rear but want the rear arches rolled first and just de-wipered the rear again for summer.....also waiting foradelivery from Tigz which are the red versions of my GTI door cards.

[AlexS]

Some very original mods on this, like it alot! Is it lowered at all Mike?

[Tigz™]

waiting foradelivery from Tigz which are the red versions of my GTI door cards.

LOL what, there still not there

waiting foradelivery from Tigz which are the red versions of my GTI door cards.

LOL what, there still not there

[Mike_M]

@Tigz....Nope mate LOL, possibly Monday I guess Will let you know

@Alex....nope but coilovers on there way end of summer I reckon as the car is just a weekennd toy since changing job and walking/cycling to work now.....I hate being able to get almost four fingers in the arch gaps but it was a daily drive car until recently

[henlupo]

NICE WEEKEND TOY MIKE

Edited May 11, 2008 by henlupo

[AlexS]

@Alex....nope but coilovers on there way end of summer I reckon as the car is just a weekennd toy since changing job and walking/cycling to work now.....I hate being able to get almost four fingers in the arch gaps but it was a daily drive car until recently

Cool, hopefully mine may be relegated to weekend toy status soon

Im debating coilovers or a just set of Eibachs, it seems you get what you pay for with the coilovers from what i ve read so KW's or H&Rs would be needed, I guess around £600 before fitted..

[Picola]

Love all the little mods you've done.

[Mike_M]

Few updates over the weekend:

Fitted my 20mm rear spacers and polished her up a bit

Painted the console trims gloss black to match the gloss black details within the car and here is my Beetle Sport gear knob

Colour coded and fitted another Passat rear badge

Edited June 21, 2008 by Mike_M

[Picola]

I was wondering if there were a VW rear badge that was flatter then the Lupos, and got told there wasnt. So is the passet one exactly as you see it in your pics? Or have you altered it in any way?

Love the interior