stephen8512's Candy White Golf R

[stephen8512]

Finally got some side on pics after the OSIR spoiler install

BEFORE:



AFTER:





excuse the ****house pics...







"R" rear badge logo also removed since taking this photo. Rear is now clean

[stephen8512]

some happy snaps after work today. Wanted to test out my phones camera (nexus 4)















pretty happy I dont have a lip right about now....seeing how low it is already

Front will be coming down a tad more, maybe 1cm or so to make it look right with the rear


AND SO FAR, NO SCRUBBING!!! Maybe its due to the OEM wheels? I know for sure if I were to put on any other wheel/tyre combo I will DEF need guards rolled and/or flared otherwise it will rub


35,000km service coming up. Shall be installing just a few more goodies. Nothing major.

[stephen8512]

Got the car back from Exoticars. Missed driving the thing!



Still need to re-install the audi TTS engine cover.


A bit annoyed though as when I got the car back, the Reverse Camera decided to be a pain in the ass and not work. The camera would still actuate and the image will still appear on the RNS510 unit but it seems the camera wont protrude all the way out? This is all I see

(I also posted it here : Problems with my Reverse Camera - Page 3

[stephen8512]

attempted to get a side shot and an angle shot of the car, which had the front lowered another 0.5cm or so. Sorry about the crap photography. Taken with my phone





Not sure if you can really tell from those photos as the black wheels and tyres seem to blend in together to the arch...need to see it in person

[stephen8512]

Gave the car a full wash and detail today. Vacuum, Snowfoam, clay, 2 bucket wash, polish, wax, re-nanolexed the windows and wheels, leather treatment. Took forever but finally, feels good to have a clean car again. Still need to detail it more. Perhaps I'll get Pierre's assistance? Hahaha

Only thing I need to do is replace the pollen filter and give the air vents a good spraying of Glen20 to kill any bacterial buildup from the A/C. Will do this in the next few weeks or so.



Also got the RVC issue sorted. I bought a replacement part quite cheap compared to retail (which I'm told costs something like $700.00 or something ridiculous from VW) and because I only needed the RVC camera and not the wiring that goes with it, I decided to give it a go myself and replace it.

Taking off the boot trim wasn't an issue as I had to do this before when I removed my rear wiper and put the wiper delete. The VW boot latch/RVC is held on by 3 T20 torx bolts. AFter you undo them, it's just simply a matter of twist to unlock and then pull out. Very easy. Since my RVC came from factory, I didn't have to mess about with wiring and it was a straight replacement, plug and play.

I decided to open up the old one to see what may have been causing the problem. It turns out that a plastic "latch" which is used to pop out the RVC had snapped off. The latch was hooked on to a metal piece which actuates and then protrudes the camera out, but being plastic, it's not unreasonable that it had snapped although I would have thought it would last longer than 2 years.


Here's a photo of the metal thing which actuates when put in Reverse




and heres the photo of the plastic latch which had broken. Photo with the camera fully out



Photo of camera retracted




Design flaw? Hmm, possibly, but these things happen I guess. I suppose I was just one of the unlucky ones.... Anyway, it's fixed and it all works again so I'm happy

[stephen8512]

Updated first post with most up to date mods and wishlist. Wishlist is getting smaller but may to cut back on the spending to save up enough for deposit on an investment property....lets see what happens...

I met up with a mate of mine (RJ) who is also Ron's brother (skriblz on VWGOLF). RJ owns an Evo X and since it's likely his car will be sold by next week, we decided to organise a photoshoot before he hands his keys over to the new owner.

Teaser photograph from photoshoot session yesterday arvo with Ron's GTI and RJ's Evo X.








All photos shot by Joseph Hui (J_HUI)
Flickr: Joseph Hui (J_HUI)'s Photostream

More to come soon...

[stephen8512]

small updates.

- Haldex Gen 4 Competition received. Looking forward to getting this installed. (won't be for a while though....)

- Got me some LAKIN plate holders which mould exactly to the size of my number plates. Since I've had the dealership number plate holes filled for both front and rear bumper some 2 years ago, these plate holders are stuck on with some industrial grade double stick tape. Super strong and it still the overall look of the car looks very clean.

She also got me these : Bit of cosmetic rice from Boldsport :

- "R" seat handle inserts. They are slightly off in terms of fitment and this annoyed me at first as it didnt line up with the mould on the seat handle but i'll get used to it...



installed :




LED amber indicators





I also ordered this : Garage Vary Reife carbon fibre front lip for the Golf R (not my photo but to highlight and illustrate the lip)






Garage Vary is a well known JDM brand with the JDM community.

I wasn't happy with the front lip offerings for the Golf R from Kerscher or Revozsport because personally they don't suit my taste. This is what I was looking for. Nice, simple and clean.
When I saw Tendy's black Rocco at last years Dyno Day with the CF diffuser from Garage Vary, I did a bit of research to see if there was any Golf R products on offer from Garage Vary. Sure enough there was. I managed to find somebody here to import it for me (as dealing with JDM companies on your own can be a headache due to language barrier and such) but I must thank Morph for giving me the contact details to get it direct from Japan at a cheaper price than what I was initially quoted. Only thing is, wait time : 2 months


Other stuff still on the agenda are :

- Installation of OSIR dual pods with DEFI Advance BF EGT and Oil pressure gauges.
- 6 Pot BBK's with 355x32 slotted rotors
- WHEELS!!!! (*sigh*)
- Sound System upgrade with Dynamat (nothing too crazy, namely upgraded front and rear door speakers + those FOCAL tweeters upgrade)
- DSG flash.
- Premium Bluetooth 9W7 upgrade
- CF Steering wheel + DSG gearknob (benched....for now.....)

These probably won't get done any time soon to be honest because I'm currently trying to save money to purchase an investment property. Key word : "trying"......Plus other things have come up which have stopped me from spending, but we shall see how that pans out. I'm still keen to get these done though...


Things which require fixes/maintenance on the R in the very near future:

- New tires. Approx. 5000kms left on the original Dunlop Sportmaxx that came from factory. Looking at Goodyear Assym's or Michelin Pilots
- Pollen filter needs replacing
- Need to get rid of funky A/C smell (common problem apparently?)
- Wanting to give car a full wash and detail, inside and out (potentially a 1-2 day job. Assistance/guidance/knowledge from Pierre? Hahaha )

[stephen8512]

Garage Vary Lip installed! (finally...)

Being so busy at work, really didn't have much time to install this over the past few weeks. Finally got around to it!

As is so often the case with well made JDM parts, there is perfect fitment... and this lip was no different.

I wasn't a fan of the lips that were on offer mainstream (e.g OSIR, kerscher, etc) so I decided to see what the JDM market has to offer. Tendy actually told me about how Garage Vary has parts offerings for the VW Golf R and Scirocco R platforms. After seeing his car, I bit the bullet.

Although the instructions were in Japanese, it's very simple to work out. The front lip has 5 holes and 5 screws which require you to screw the lip to the underside of the bumper to hold it in place. It also came with a very thin strip of double stick tape stuck towards the back of the lip where it's meant to hold the lip in place while you screw in the supplied screws through the 5 holes, but I decided this wasn't enough so I used some strong 3M double stick tape from Bunnings to hold it in place.

The lip fits the curvature of the middle part of the Golf R bumper very nicely. The lip did not need any bending or anything of the sort. It was just a matter of measure, peel, stick, screw, and done. Whole thing took roughly 30 minutes to install.

Unlike the Kerscher/EZ lip, this lip doesnt reduce the distance from the floor to the bumper as it's designed to fit in the middle part of the Golf R bumper where it slightly elevates. Not only that, it now compliments the OSIR Carbon Fibre mirror covers.

Enough rambling....here's the only decent photo I could get with my phone. Thanks again goes to Morph for giving me the contact who sent this over from Japan

[stephen8512]

small update

[stephen8512]

new intake + engine cover finally on (smoothed out TFSI lettering and sanded/painted by Greg at Baileys Smash Repairs).

[stephen8512]

Front and rear rotors (OEM size. 345x30 front, 312x22 rear) and Remsa brake pads arrived along with some Penrite DOT 4 brake fluid. Many thanks to Lucas_R for giving me the contact for the pads!

Didnt want to opt for slotted rotors such as stoptechs or DBA's as I'll most likely be going 2pc slotted rotors anyway when i get my BBKs so these will do for now. Rotors are pretty much shot and are squealing more than a japanese porn video

Will be installing these soon but also going to have a chat with John from VSPORT to see how much slotting these rotors will cost. If its too expensive then i'll scrap the idea.

EGT and Oil Pressure gauge to be installed as well

[stephen8512]

Went to a Renault forum dyno day at Port Hacking Automotive on their mainline dyno. Great day out and was a chance to meet some new people and get the car on the rollers to see how much power its now putting out now that I've done pretty much all I can do bolt-on wise without having the need to change internals or get a bigger turbo etc.

In the end, pretty happy with the results and as it stands, plenty enough power for me as a daily.

AFR is missing as it didnt print out for whatever reason, however it remained steady at 11, so pretty content with that.

Many thanks to Ben and staff at Port Hacking Automotive! Was looking forward to having a chat to Parso but he wasn't there today.

[stephen8512]

next (and last bit of mods) to get installed hopefully within 3-6 months. Then hopefully I'll be well and truly finished. (HOPEFULLY!)

- Get new tyres ASAP : Was looking at Michelin Pilot Super Sports, but have heard they are quite a soft compound and will wear quite quick? Might look at the Dunlop Sport Maxx GT's again or Goodyear Assymetric 2's.

- Get a DSG Tune : After a spirited drive this weekend, I think this will compliment the car greatly. It doesnt feel too bad right now as in it's not sluggish or anything of the sort, however, with the DSG tune it'll give it that little bit extra I believe to make it really fun.

- Install my Haldex Gen 4 : Have been sitting around in my house for a while now, and haven't yet installed. Perhaps at next service

- Install Tyrol Sport Rigid Collars : From the group buy. Will probably install this along with the Haldex.

- Install Defi Advance EGT Gauge + Oil Pressure Gauge with the OSIR centre dual pods (gloss black) : Was thinking of the P3 gauge to be honest, however I like the look of the gauges. Oil Temp and Water temp are all on the dash anyways (although might not always be 100% accurate, but at least its there).

- BBK Upgrade : Lots of options out there. Looking at the Brembo 6 pistons with 2 piece slotted rotors. Why Brembo? Personal preference. I like the look of them. It should not affect the brake master cylinder, however will be researching this a bit more. Looking to reduce unsprung weight too with the 2 piece rotors. Some may say overkill for the street, but hey, the car as it stands right now for the streets is probably overkill already.

- Wheels : Yes, yes, lots of people have been asking me when I'm going to get the wheels. I think I may be one of the last Golf R's which has essentially all the bolt on engine mods done, yet still keeping with the stock 19" Talladegas. SSR Professor SP1's 3 piece wheels with some dish, gloss black centres and gold bolts is where my heart is currently, but will also be looking at offerings from BBS, HRE or DPE's if there's anything that I like (which at the moment, there isn't).



Those are the big ticket items left. Everything else is either cosmetic or quite small. Also, I've been thinking a lot of a badgeless front grille with notched bonnet. I think it looks quite clean...but if i want this, I want to notch the bonnet completely by welding it on etc and I dont think I love it THAT much currently to make that commitment .... but again, it does look quite clean and is slowly growing on me and im warming to the idea...

[stephen8512]

So gave the car a well earned wash after something like 8 weeks? Due to the rain and me being busy and not having time to drive it as much as I wanted, it was good to finally give the car a scrub

Snowfoam pre wash + 2 bucket + claybar + quarterly interior leather treatment + half yearly nanolex wheel sealant application

Heres a photo of it after it's had its 2 bucket wash



I also decided to do a little DIY. The Chrome "R" Badge on my grille always looked a tad out of place now that I have got rid of the chrome VW Badge front and rear as well as debadging the rear "R" logo too. So I decided to paint it candy white with the leftover can of Candy White spraypaint I had from VG autopaints a while ago. These guys can take any colour you have and give you a rattle can colour matched perfectly to your car.

I was going to keep the background of it black, but there is a very thin chrome border around the background square, which I was also wanting to paint. It required a little bit of patience masking up but in the end it got done.

Masked up :



I sanded it down as much as I could as I needed to have the primer stick to it otherwise it would peel off overtime.

about 2x thin layers of primer and then I sanded off with 600 and 1500 grit sandpaper. Then, another 3x thin layers of candy white paint.




Result (apologies for the out of focus picture. Phone died) :

[stephen8512]

So it's been just over 3 years since I've had this car and its come a long way since then. Drove away from the dealerships on my actual birthday (December 1) back in 2010. Heres what the odo read on the 1st December 2013.



15,000kms per year...which I think is about average?

Most likely be doing a lot less kms than that though in 2014...