me and my mk3

[anthony--t]

I guess this is like a build thread but lots of mods had already been done to my car when I bought it. So I wanted to make a thread to ask for any opinions about things and show you fellas any further mods I have done and will be doing.

Some of you may be familiar with my car already, was previously owned by The_Hawk if your not it's a black 96 vr6, leather interior, coilovers, sports exhaust, MK4 16" oem wheels and all that good stuff.

I don't have any photos of how it was when I bought it but it hasnt changed heaps


---------- Post added at 05:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:55 PM ----------

My headunit mod:
My car came with an awesome little jvc unit with bluetooth and all that so I didnt want to buy a new one but the blue lighting contrasting the green interior of the mk3 annoyed me. The solution? Post-it notes!

ghetto but effective



how it looks now


---------- Post added at 05:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:03 PM ----------

I have painted bumpers but due to what I believe is a previous front end accident I had a textured front. I think it was DIY painted at some point so i stripped it back and got some plastic adhesion and close-ish metallic paint on to it. Turned out ok, not 100% happy with it but it'll do for now



---------- Post added at 05:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:06 PM ----------

Got a present in the mail today


some close ups





Was hoping someone could tell me why there's two bulbs in the indicator (oem fit and the one attached to the white and black wires)
and why there's a little hole?

I'll install them this weekend.

I think that brings me up to date with mods so far repainting my wheels white very soon also
and have some other bits and pieces on the way from various countries thanks to eBay

[Golf-Sam]

Was hoping someone could tell me why there's two bulbs in the indicator (oem fit and the one attached to the white and black wires)
and why there's a little hole?

I'll install them this weekend.

I think that brings me up to date with mods so far repainting my wheels white very soon also
and have some other bits and pieces on the way from various countries thanks to eBay

looks really clean mate.. im guessing that the extra bulb is to make it easier to spot you blinking from an angle .. because the main light is shielded .. to make the cluster look pretty .. just guessing ..

[anthony--t]

looks really clean mate.. im guessing that the extra bulb is to make it easier to spot you blinking from an angle .. because the main light is shielded .. to make the cluster look pretty .. just guessing ..

Thanks Golf-Sam. Yeah I was thinking maybe for better vision of blinker / backup type thing if main indicator bulb blows. I guess I'll try to wire it in somehow and get both bulbs going when I put them in.

Has anyone got any thoughts about the little hole? I assume it's supposed to act as a ventalation so no fog builds in the indicator or something? But somehow I think it will cause more harm then good and am contemplating filling it with silicone, opinions?

---------- Post added at 10:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:09 PM ----------

After some research I have discovered the little orange bulb in the indicator is known as a sidelight. I think the U.S. spec models have them. It's similar to a day light or just general running light that both stay lit when not indicating. Not sure if I'll try wire it in somehow or not.

[HaydEn]

Interesting mod for the head unit.

[anthony--t]

Interesting mod for the head unit.

Thanks, I dont have the skill or equipment to solder in new little green led lights, those things are tiny! The post-it note filter didn't work on the red lights though but this doesn't worry me as they're only little. The pictures are crappy iPhone quality, it's actually a pretty close green to the other lights.

[anthony--t]

Did a wheel refurb and refinish on the weekend. Probably not to everyone's taste but it's my car and I like it



New cluster came in the mail today. Going to have to get use to reading the little numbers or miles.


Also installed the lights and got a mk2 style gear knob over the weekend.

[HaydEn]

Haha. Good way of 'masking' off your tyres.

[anthony--t]

Haha. Good way of 'masking' off your tyres.

Haha yeah all the gaff tape and stuff I had wasn't sticking very well and I had heard of using cards. I didnt think it would work very well but it did a very good job for most overspray.

[Pmk]

Loooking good so far. The Hawk will be happy shes's still in good hands !

[anthony--t]

Loooking good so far. The Hawk will be happy shes's still in good hands !

Thanks, I appreciate it. I'm having a lot of fun driving it and changing a few things to make it mine. I probably won't be able to shake the fact that it was Hawk's old car but oh well. Hopefully he likes what I've done, if not it's not his anymore anyway

[The_Hawk]

I love watching cars evolve and like you said, it's yours now so you're the only one who needs to be happy with it. That said, I'm loving the mods, would you believe I was thinking about doing the wheels in white myself... one of those many little things I just hadn't gotten to yet... like the front bumper, the fogs... As for the radio mod, genius

That cluster looks like it's from an Auto (extra lights down the right side). You might be able to pull that bit off and use the front cover from the old cluster to hide that (although it does mean hacking up two working clusters?).
While it's out you can think about punching up the stock lighting with some LED's or doing the MCM Shift Light which is nice and subtle

Just happy to see you enjoying it!

[anthony--t]

I love watching cars evolve and like you said, it's yours now so you're the only one who needs to be happy with it. That said, I'm loving the mods, would you believe I was thinking about doing the wheels in white myself... one of those many little things I just hadn't gotten to yet... like the front bumper, the fogs... As for the radio mod, genius

That cluster looks like it's from an Auto (extra lights down the right side). You might be able to pull that bit off and use the front cover from the old cluster to hide that (although it does mean hacking up two working clusters?).
While it's out you can think about punching up the stock lighting with some LED's or doing the MCM Shift Light which is nice and subtle

Just happy to see you enjoying it!

Haha that's funny that you were thinking of doing the wheels white and thanks, I was happy with how the radio worked out.

Yeah the new cluster is from an auto but all the warning lights are different and I don't really want to stuff around with the clusters as they're pretty expensive. The old one works fine except I ruined the clock trying to reverse the lcd
So when a silver face with orange needle cluster showed up with low fuel lights etc I thought I'd grab it because I have heard it's a good idea to have a spare cluster if you own a mk3 anyway as apparently they fail a lot.

I'll just live with the auto section it doesn't annoy me too much (even though it's only been in for a day) and I have considered mods such as shift light but yeah clusters are too expensive for me to be messing with them at the moment haha maybe one day I'll experiment with it.

---------- Post added at 12:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:33 AM ----------

Now that I think about it, a shift light would be pretty cool in that auto section. Just have the whole right side of the cluster light up haha. I might look into it

[The_Hawk]

The casing comes off so you can screw with that without touching the electronic bits, one of the mods it to replace the stock bulbs which light up the cluster faces with brighter (or different coloured) LED's. Essentially you drill a few holes then add in a little wiring and some hot glue. You could have an extra LED for the shift light and it would all be hidden in the top of the cluster. Could even put in a relay and make the stock lighting over the rev counter change colours at the shift point if you wanted to get all fancy

[anthony--t]

Yeah I have blue bulbs that fit the top one but they weren't very bright and don't like them as they don't fit with the rest of the lights. I've seen the mod page some guy made about it but I would only do green or white. I removed the green filter on the old cluster and the stock bulbs shine through in a warm white kind of way, similar to headlights or interior lights, looked ok. I will probably rehouse it eventually to get rid of the automatic screen but I'm thinking relays for shift lights is a little too advanced and unnecessary for me. Great ideas though that I'll keep in mind for further down the track

[coons88]

I'd say the extra bulbs in the indicators are the day time running lights for American cars

Car's looking cool man