Antera309's VR6 Cabrio

[antera309 3]

Here's some pics of the standard car just after I bought it:

Paint fade necessitates a full respray, which is OK, 'cos there's gonna be some nice body mods going on this puppy anyway.....

Nasty blue interior will be the first thing to go....

[ Edited ]

[binliner 0]

you've got a lot of work ahead of you look forward to seeing the progress!

[antera309 3]

PHASE 1 - Interior

February 2005 - Complete cream leather interior and dashboard transplant from a 2001 Cabrio.

EVERYTHING inside the car needed to be swapped. Carpets, the lot.

Refitting is the reverse of removal. Yeah, right!!!!

10 Hours of work later, this is what it looks like. From Mingin' to Blingin' !!

Interior swap included a complete Mk3.5 Cabrio dash (these have a different texture to the normal Mk3 dash, difficult to see in these pics) and Mk4-style steering wheel!!

Dash swap was surprisingly straightforward. Once everything had been removed from the front of the dash and the steering wheel was off, it was just two 10mm nuts inside the plenum chamber and a handful of (easily accessible) 8mm bolts from the front of the dash. Removing the wiper motor greatly improves access to the two 10mm nuts, but this is no big deal...

By far the nastiest part of this job was cleaning the carpets - they were so filthy you couldn't even see what colour they used to be.

The only parts that wouldn't fit were the matching cream seatbelts (gutted!). These were fitted with pre-tensioners and there is nowhere to mount these on a 1994 Golf. Seeing as these things contain explosives, I didn't really want to risk "bodging" their installation!!

Donor car was an auto unfortunately, so I've got to get myself a beige gearlever surround from somewhere....

V.R.6. meets P.I.M.P. with heated full cream leather seats!!!

Closer view of new dash. Silver heater controls were a "what the hell" upgrade and match my aluminium gearknob (yet to be fitted in this pic).

I expected problems with the airbags, but had none. Everything plugged together fine and the airbag light went out as normal on restart.

Cool blue illumination on Mk3.5 Cabrio clocks looks great!

Difficult to see in this pic, but all the other switchgear lights up in red.

MFA not working yet - this will be sorted when the VR6 engine and loom goes in.

It's gonna be a challenge to keep the (4 cylinder) tacho reading correctly when the 6-pot engine goes in. I'll probably have to cannibalise a set of VR6 clocks for the tacho electronics... I'm planning to fit some aluminium-effect dial rings at the same time... 140mph speedo should work fine, (up to 140mph )

Next week - BODYWORK!!!

[ Edited Sun Feb 13 2005, 09:31PM ]

[antera309 3]

you've got a lot of work ahead of you ...

You're telling me!! One step at a time, that's what I keep telling myself!

[tommy 0]

well impressed....you dont hang around do you.........

[stu h 0]

thats quite a transformation already!

i've got the same dodgy blue dash you had and i was thinking about swapping it and the rest of the nasty blue plastic over when the weather warms up - was it a git of a job?? the dash is my main concern -i've never done a job quite as big as that before

cheers

[dubloke 4]

nice one dude! been wanting to do a cabby for ages now. think i'd go the 1.8t route myself though as the cabby is heavy enough already without a vr lump going in!

[binliner 0]

Nice job, cream interior looks lurvely... I have enough trouble keeping a black one clean though!

[antera309 3]

i've got the same dodgy blue dash you had and i was thinking about swapping it and the rest of the nasty blue plastic over when the weather warms up - was it a git of a job?? the dash is my main concern -i've never done a job quite as big as that before

The dash swap took me about 2-3 hours and was a lot easier than I expected. It mounts to the chassis with just two 10mm nuts' date=' accessible from within the plenum chamber (where the ECU and wiper motor lives). The wiper motor and linkage has to come out to get to the right-hand nut, but this is not too much of a problem.

Inside the car, it bolts to a metal crossmember with a handful of 8mm bolts, which are easily accessible once all the trim, switches and clocks have been removed from the dash.

Obviously, the steering wheel has to come off too and you need to take care to put all the wires back where they were. Taking photos during disassembly is helpful, just in case you forget where certain wires are supposed to go on reassembly.

Changing the rest of the trim is another 3 hours or so. Centre console, kick panels, B-pillar trim, sill trims and door cards all need to be replaced too.

[ Edited Mon Feb 14 2005, 11:45AM ']

[stu h 0]

cheers for that, doesn't sound too bad a job -guessed at about a days work for everything. am gonna start hoarding bits til i've got everything i think.

will have to keep an eye open for a 3.5 cabrio dash too, a bit posher

[badboyV6 4]

Well done m8- what a difference!!! Definitely worth the effort!!!

[binliner 0]

I've got a black bare dash if anyone wants it

[stu h 0]

he he was that aimed at me? u big shameless whore u -just kidding

money is tight at the mo, getting suspension sorted is a priority and i wont be spending the whole day outside when its this cold! out of interest how much would you sell for? wouldn't know where to start pricewise. pm if you want.

cheers

[antera309 3]

Just picked up this today. Obviously, it will be debadged when fitted to the car:

Number plate will be moved to the rear bumper. Luckily, new Mk3 rear bumpers can be bought now with the number recess ready made:

http://www.ra-design.co.uk/shop/upload/mk3rear1.jpeg

Better looking than the Mk3.5 rear bumper, I reckon.

With a nice set of aftermarket tail lamps, this lot should tidy the rear up no end!

[ Edited Tue Feb 15 2005, 08:18PM ]

[six appeal 53]

nice work mate, keep up the good work.

[vdubgirl 3]

Flippin heck thats gonna be one heck of a motor when you've finished well done keep us all updated :-)

[mark@vagworx 0]

Looking good

[MSV83 0]

looking good mate - does the cabrio dash come with red lights and the clocks part blue as wanna do this to mine

cheers

[antera309 3]

looking good mate - does the cabrio dash come with red lights and the clocks part blue as wanna do this to mine

Only the later-model golf Cabrios with the Mk4 front (1999-2002) have the blue clocks with all the red switchgear. These also have the mk4-type steering wheel and a different-textured dash.

Earlier cabrios (1994-1997) have the green lighting, same as any other mk3.

Finding one of these later model cabrios available at a breaker's yard is tricky though. Parts off them are in high demand and there's not many about.

[antera309 3]

Gonna try grafting some Mk5 Golf door mirrors onto the cabrio next week. I expect this will be tricky, but will allow me to shave the side repeaters off the wings, as the Mk5 mirrors have indicators built-in.

[MSV83 0]

cheers mate! where did u get ur dash and bits from

[antera309 3]

cheers mate! where did u get ur dash and bits from

Strictly Dubs in Chelmsford. They're a new second-hand parts supplier and tuning workshop specialising in everything Golf. They scour auctions and breakers around the country for "best of breed" VW bits and have some pretty crazy tuning projects going on too.

Owned by a guy called Simon, a total VW nutta!! Very friendly, helpful & knowledgeable - highly recommended.

[antera309 3]

Had a lot of questions about where to connect up the wiring loom for heated seats. It's actually very straightforward, once you know where the plugs are.

This pic shows the location of the plugs that you need to use:

Steering wheel is removed for clarity. You do NOT have to take your steering wheel off, so don't worry. You do, however, need to take off all the black plastic trim from the front of the dash and remove the instrument cluster (just 2 screws and a single multiplug, adjust your steering wheel right to the bottom and the cluster will come out without any problems).

Now, see the blue, green & yellow plastic behind the dash (circled)? This is a block of 6 multiplug connectors, all different colours. The two top ones are the ones you use for the heated seats loom. The blue plug from the seats loom goes into the blue multiplug (this is for the switch illumination), the green plug goes into the green multiplug (this is the ignition live).

The final plug is the brown one (this is ground connection). This plugs into a brown, circular multiplug attached to the right-hand A-pillar, behind the dash. There are lots of plugs on this, you can use any one of them.

Hope this helps!

[ Edited Tue Feb 22 2005, 12:34PM ]

[DundeeDub 0]

Cheers for that, have been interested to find out where it is

[MarkVRsix 0]

The interior looks awesome, massive improvement over the blue one %-6

Can't wait to see it come on further

Mark