R-line bodykit for 130TDI

[Halo3000]

Hi Just wondering, has anyone pruchased or found out how to install a R-line body kit on a non R-line tiguan?

We have the 2015 130TDI,

Thanks !

Chris

[tigger73]

Are you just looking for the arch extensions or do you want all the lower body panels too?

The arch extensions is do-able, however the full body-coloured lower panels is expensive as you have to buy the parts and have them painted.

[Halo3000]

Are you just looking for the arch extensions or do you want all the lower body panels too?

The arch extensions is do-able, however the full body-coloured lower panels is expensive as you have to buy the parts and have them painted.

Hi tigger73, thanks for the reply,

At the moment we have a white Tiguan with black bumper as all non rlines have, we would be after the rline white colour body kit, do you know where you can buy them and have them installed ? Do you know how expensive?

[tigger73]

OK so the problem with the white car is that the grey lower plastics stick out rather than blending in on some other colours (grey/black look OK with the dark grey plastics).

You can go down the path of getting the parts from VW spares (likely they will come unpainted) and then you'll need a crash repairer to paint the parts and fit them to your car. A few people have looked into this before but it is an expensive thing to try and retro-fit. From memory it was ~$2k for the unpainted plastics plus painting and fitting. So you'd be looking at $4-5k for the job.

The other thing that I've done previously is to plasti-dip the lower plastics. It's cheap and gives you a reasonable result for under $50. Autobarn has it on special at the moment for $20 a can: Plasti Dip White Rubber Coating 311G 2 cans should do it pretty easy.

It's easy to DIY and any overspray just wipes off (it's a very forgiving product). Though it's not maybe the best permanent solution as you'll likely have to touch it up from time to time. Mine lasted a couple of years and still looked decent at the end.

I'd seriously recommend going down this route first before spending a lot of $ on purchasing the body panels. If you don't like it you can just peel the stuff off.

The other alternative is to try and find an R-line at a wreckers and get the body panels off this. Realistically I think this is the only way to do it economically. Otherwise you may as well sell your car and upgrade to the newer 140TDI R-line rather than tipping a ton of cash into an older model.

[Halo3000]

Thanks Tigger your a legend, do you have any photos of the spray paint $50 job ? Il try and find a wreckers but will probably give the $50 a go

[tigger73]

Here's some pics of the plasti-dip. Obviously this is going to be slightly different on a white car. The plasti-dip does have a matt finish to it:




Blacked out the reverse lights.... before the plasti-dip came back off. Also plasti-dipped straight over the reverse park sensors without an issue.




This is a pic with half the car done - front splitter is still in the stock grey.

You can see the contrast in this shot between the stock grey (on the front splitter) vs. the rest of the car.

[Halo3000]

Thanks Tigger that looks great, how would I go colour matching the white ? Or do you paint over the plastic dip with OEM white paint ?

[tigger73]

The plasti-dip comes in a range of pre-made colours: Plasti-dip paint selection - Autobarn

You would just have to use the white and hope it was a reasonable match. There's also a glossifier which goes on top and gives it a more gloss finish rather than the matt finish of the standard colours. I didn't use it but probably could/should have - particularly if it is going to be a more permanent thing rather than temporary solution..

I'm not saying this is going to be a perfect result but it's going to me a major improvement over the 2 tone with grey unpainted plastic that you have currently. In terms of $ vs. improvement this will get you 90% there. To get the full painted finish matching the body panels is a big job.

The problem you have with paint is that if you paint over the textured finish you end up with an orange peel effect in the paint and it looks pretty average - actually it's not that much better result than what you'd get with plasti-dip so I wouldn't bother. So what you'd need to do is fill the textured finish in the plastic trims first and sand back before painting. This will be a lot better, however you won't be able to do this on the car and the plastic trims will have to all come off - which then leads to possibility of breaking stuff when it comes off (it's designed to go on and not come off) and the labour involved in doing this. Time = $.

So then the alternative is to purchase brand new plastic trims with a smooth finish (rather than textured) suitable for painting and this will give the best result but also at potentially the highest cost. If you're going to paint the wheel arches (which given that you're going to all the effort to do everything else) then you'll need to fill and sand these as you can't get them untextured.

Don't worry I've been down this path and looked into all the options. I seriously think that plasti-dip is your friend as long as the white is a reasonable match to the body colour I think you'd be pretty happy for the $ invested. Even if you decided after 6 months to bite the bullet and paint them I think the plasti-dip at least lets you try it out a nd see if you're going to like it cheaply.

[danger17]

A Sydney-based wrecker has a white rear bumper and tail lights listed on eBay. It might be worth checking what else they can help you with.

[Halo3000]

Danger17 thank you so much I'm going to give them a call tomorrow otherwise we will paint the existing like you have detailed with the plastic dip 👍👍

Also I was looking to remove the EGR and block off the intercooler thingo, the mechanic said while he's in there he can tune it also, what's your thoughts ? Has anyone on here done this to the 130tdi ?