Project: Mk3 Golf 1.8t with full dash swap

[coons88]

Well two things I will highlight first, unfortunately this car is NZ so not part of your scene per say, but part of the down under scene for sure!

Secondly, strap yourself in because this thread is about to deliver from start to finish..


Before I get into I'll do some shameless whoring and show off the old whip - a few of the parts were donated before I sold it to go onto the new beast.





Right, so this is my project I completed earlier this year. I 'accidentally' bought a 1.8t for a bit of a bargin, so then I thought well **** I need to do something with it now! I'm a Mk3 fan boy, and the requirement was a 3 door shell with sunroof. Very hard to find! I ended up buying a tired old VR6 of my mate which became my base.
I bought the car around the middle of last year and I planned to start the build in November. In the intrum I was just gathering all my parts...
That was all well and good until one night the car did it's crack pipe and dropped all it's water. The coolant light used to flash anyway so I just always ignored it, nek minnit, overheated seized VR6. At first I was pretty bummed because I had a buyer lined up for the motor/box for $1500. Anyway long story short there I somehow managed to swing a sale with some random guy who still bought the package for $1500! **** couldn't complain there haha. I guess the gear box was what was really worth the money though, not the engine.

So anyway fast forward to November. I had collected pretty much everything I needed and it was time to get this show on the road! The plan was to bang it out in 4 months and have it on the road by the end of Feb in time to make a pretty big show me and a few others organise annually called SO - check it out and like us on FB - SO 2012 | Facebook
In reality it went a wee bit over and it was finished mid March, still pretty impressive though. I'll make the show next year..

Before I bust into then I better breifly outline what the plan was:
- Full respray in Candy White, along with face lifted trim spec
- 1.8t, full Mk4 dash and loom swap
- Fully retrimmed interior, new head liner (black), trim all the pillars as well (black), retrimmed Mk3 Recaro seats
- Sitting squat on H&R coil overs and BBS Pininfirna wheels (to begin with anyway)
- and a crap load more!

The platform


The power plant. It has a KO3s fitted also


The dash and associated bits

[coons88]

Let's go then!







The car loaded with the engine temporarily bolted into it's new home as it all get's transported to my mate Johns who was doing the fabrication work





Meanwhile I got going on some minor bits and pieces I could still do at home



Mk4 under bonnet washer jets





Back in the 'John's chop shop' work plowed on







Running a Mk4 ABS pump





Had to modify the tunnel a bit to make the full center console fit in, but the end result is superb. OEM+!

[coons88]

Audi door handles







With that fab up was finished and it was transported once again to another mate who's a painter, onto the painful task of paint prep













First of the colour laid! By this stage to give you an idea of dates we are around mid December

[coons88]

Inside and engine bay finished, outside still in primer awaiting final block work



A week or so later (a couple of days after Christmas) it was into the booth for paint







Transported back to his garage later that day, oosh it was good to see it out in the sun for the first time!
It stayed there for another week or so as we did some finishing work on it









Early Jan it was on the move again back to my mate John's workshop (who did the fabrication) where most of the install work was carried out

Glass in



Loom, brake lines, ABS pump in



Rebar, pedal box, heater box all in



The donk in! Turning the key was only a day or so later. At this stage we're getting into late Jan



Suspension and brakes in and test fitting the wheels. Starting to put the trim/lights/bumpers on



Mmmm I was starting to get pretty excited at this point!



Perfect!



The alignment was out to what on the front hence the poke. Engine bay coming along



The interior stayed looking like this for quite a while as I pottered away on the wiring. Had to merge the Mk3 loom into the Mk4 loom at the B pillar. Also had to figure out the best way to wire in the Mk3 sunroof, the mirrors, the fuel pump, the windows, and the central locking



The setup I went with on the windows; I used a Mk4 window control module which drives the Mk3 motor as a slave. So it plugs in as per normal, and as far as the car is concerned it is just running a normal Mk4 window. We even programmed in the auto roll up feature from the keyfob . Oh, which reminds me - the OEM keyfob all works as per usual. I refitted the Mk3 locks and vacuum system, and I tapped the pump into the Mk4 CCM. Works a treat

[coons88]

This shot summed up the wiring situation pretty well! John and I studying Bentley manuals at the top there



Exterior really starting to come together now



Meanwhile, not too much going on here



I de-crubbered the dash bits and repainted it in saturn black. It's like new again



Pretty much finished in here now. There was actually quite some issues fitting in the head lights it was so cramped! Had to take them back out and modify the casing a wee bit



The IC fitted in



It came back on a tow truck to my house where I drove it for the first time from the road into my garage. Insignificant, but enough to but a big grin on my face. Noisy as feck too, still no exhaust. Would have been mid to late Feb by now



Starting to come together inside now..





Got my mate Doug around and we head a headliner day/night. Redid the headlinder along with wrapping all the pillars. I used that really nice stippled material like you find in the new Mk5/6's etc



Interior fit out really coming together now









It was pretty much finished in here now, the seats were still away at the trimmers at this stage. It took me another week or so before I finally cracked how to make the Mk3 switch operate the windows properly. I also scored a Bora sports cluster



85psi to pop these suckers



Took it for it's first test drive to the tyre shop to get the wheels on and an alignment. Super happy with the final wheel and tyre fitment. Early to mid March here



I modified the Mk3 mirror and installed some W8 style dome lights in it, makes a super nice atmosphere at night. I pulled open the Mk3 window switches and sunroof switch and swapped the LED's to red too

[coons88]

And here it was, unveiled so to speak at a club meet we had at the end of March. We all went on a bit of a drive out west, bloody good fun to get it out on the road There was a bit of a hold up on the seats and I didn't get them back until a couple of days before this! Oh man that new leather smell, so lush!! That meant I ouldn't legally get it reregistered etc until I had them too, so it was a mad dash during the last week.





Did I mention I added heating elements to the seats!? Details....









The Dub life.. wax on wax off





Interior finally finished, my R32 trim kit arrived after a massive debacle there..



Oh dear, "I declare this project finished" Nek minnit.......



The heater box was not working, I realised this was because the loom was a climatronic loom. I initially decided to just rewire it to power the manual HVAC controls, but I had a climatronic box offered to me so I thought, **** why not! I took the chance to replace the air vents too with the classier Bora vents
Everything is fully functional too; the Mk4 telescopic steering column, the ash tray, the glove box, the air bags, the warning lights, the MFA display, etc etc etc



And here she sits now, taken at an event I was at over the weekend. I'm still waiting on some black hoses to replace the ugly blue ones. Once those are replaced it will look stealth as



So how is she? F'ing awesome! I got my ECU chipped my Stealth Racing in the UK (super good guys to deal with!). It rips! But it's also really good to drive around normally. The gear box ratio's (Mk3 GTI 02A) along with wheel/tyre size have worked out really well, sits at 2.5k at 100kmph. Super economical, can comfortably drop it in the 5's (L/100km).
Totally loving it!


What's next? Well I want to split and refurb my SSR Reverse Mesh wheels that I had on my old ride. I want to rebuild them to 8.5 and 9".



I thought the door cards looked pretty mint, but then I put the seats in and they don't look so mint anymore lol. So I think I will look at getting them retrimmed too later in the year. A few other minor bits and pieces I want to do too, but all in time!

Hope you enjoyed the show!

[whiteVR6]

Epic thread
Pity not many mk3 projects like this in Aus

[noone]

Nice work dude, great to see the passion that went into this toy

[Stiggy_21]

thats a sweet conversion, congrats!!
to bad your not in Aus

[gecko2k]

sweet dude! Lookin' good!

[ffoff]

hell yeah this is sick! may I ask what intercooler you used? seems to be a perfect fit there.

[walshydub]

Very impressive work. MK4 dash looks great.

[nacnud]

I have been for a ride in this car and it is truly awesome. Massive grin on your face from the turbo and inside it feels so OEM and just right!

Sam, your car is the reason I want a 1.8t now haha!

[coons88]

hell yeah this is sick! may I ask what intercooler you used? seems to be a perfect fit there.

The intercooler is IFD or something? Is that a brand haha? It's 3 letters something along those lines anyway..
It's only a perfect fit because I carefully measured and cut the bumper support to fit it in there. There is pretty much no way you can fit a IC in there without cutting that support panel.

I was driving a friends Mk3 VR the other day, amazing how dated it all seems after getting used to the Mk4 stuff now. To be honest I think the Mk4 dash fits and looks better then the Mk3 dash even!

[GoLfMan]

holy hell mate! That is a top notch job, no corners cut there!

You kiwi's are sure showing up us Aussies for sweet projects at the moment.

When I come over this summer coming to see the olds, I want to see all of these cars!