24vT mk3

[VIW28 29]

This is only up until last April or so, haven't updated a thread anywhere since. Worst in the world at remembering to take pics then upload them and keep a build thread going :-p

Some of this may seem a bit erratic and random but it is copied and pasted from another forum

I'll get straight into it anyway from the earliest pics I have...

I did it kinda arse about face in that I had the engine and box etc before I had the car lol

Stripped the engine, box and subframe parts of all ancilliaries, rubbed them all down and painted them in my mother in law's garage, much to her dismay lol. This was back in winter 2005/2006. At this time I had no experience of VR6 engines and you will notice throughout this thread that I try to do everything myself where possible, this does have repercussions at times all the same! I am not a mechanic, i'm a tractor and ag machinery salesman. Everything I have done I have tried to learn by taking it apart and seeing how it goes back together. A lot of help, later in the build has come from Matt at UM, and a big thanks to him for that.

New clutch and also all genuine new seals, gaskets, water pump etc etc used throughout. This was back in the winter of 2005/2006

Balanced and lightened flywheel, the guy managed to skim half its weight off, from 8kgs to 4kgs...check out the clutch bolts lol

These are the earliest pictures I have of the actual car, regretfully I took no pictures of it when I bought it. Just got stuck straight in! First thing to do was weld a wee patch underneath were one of the floor grommets had been damaged. Then I re-undersealed the underneath of the car, stripping everything off that I could, bar the back axle.

Next up was a bit of a stripdown on the shell, unfortunately I have little or no photos of that. I pulled the original VR lump out in preparation for the newly built one. After I did this the engine bay was degreased, rust repaired, the whole bay rubbed down and primed. If some of you read the Golf+ feature you will see that I quoted spending the christmas holidays rubbing down high build primer, every word of it is true! High build primer in an engine bay takes some rubbing! After that was completed the rngine bay was painted in original LC5L, Mystic Blue Pearl. This all took place at my friend's bodyshop, Bonar Auto Refinishing, where the car spent 6 months before the engine bay was painted and for 6 months after, to complete the rest of the car. I hung about there that much like a bad smell that I haven't actually left the place since and now work there part time lol!

Car looked a bit sorry for itself...

Next up was to get the rebuilt donkey in there and running to make the car mobile again. The back axle was removed at some point, shot blasted and painted but can't remember at which stage!

Right from here on in it's gonna get a bit random, including the comments, I'll let the pictures talk...

My good friend Andy Bonar who does the painting..

Bootlid on with frenched plate recess.

The whole aim was to have the car ready for our local show, and indeed the biggest VAG show in Ireland. The car as pictured was exactly a week before the show, this is fairly typical for me....last minute! To throw a spanner in the works, I decided to make a bootbuild and fire some sounds in there, car nowhere near finished at this point!

More messing about with the wheels, they were silly low offsets so took quite a bit of fiddling to get to sit right on the car..

Swapped wheels from front to back tonight and added a little camber to the rear..... Believe it or not, the 9" rears are actually tucked on the front!

Have to re-split the wheels to sort the offsets out front to rear and then everything should sit perfect....

Pics are absolutely sh!t quality, need to get a new camera sorted!

Decided to have a go at splitting and rebuilding the Gottis myself today, after a quick text masterclass from Colin Tweed. Got them all done today and covered in windscreen bonder in the process but the offsets should be sorted after I make a trip to Carryduff Tyres to get tyres put on..........AGAIN!!! Lets hope I've them properly sealed....... :roll:

Some snaps....

Haven't stopped splitting and rebuilding wheels for guys since btw!

Got these little babies back today......wasn't sure about them when I first got them back with the German flag airbrushed over the original orange but after seeing them on the wheels and on the car I think they look pretty good?

Tyres now on again after swapping the centres round front to rear at the weekend. Running 195/40's up front on the 8's and 205/40's on the 9" rears. Back seems to tuck well but still a bit of poke on the fronts. Maybe gonna modify one of the strut bolts to give a little more camber....

Front....

Rear....

Haven't updated in a while because of two reasons.... 1 - i've lost my camera! Has anyone seen it?! 2 - I've had no time! Babies, work, building a house, building a car and working part time in a bodyshop means time is thin on the ground lol!

Anyway, yesterday's mission was to get the mk4 Recaro's fitting. Bit of cutting, grinding and welding were on the menu for the day, as well as a bit of sunburn from the mig! Got the fitted ok, door cards removed and heading off to the trimmer in the morning to get covered in the finest of hides. Also left the headcloth in last week to get retrimmed in "Alcantara".

Also got the FMIC mounted, just awaiting the much needed pipe work and silicone connectors. Once that is piped and the in-line fuel pump is fitted the car should run.

In between jobs yesterday I also fitted one of the two MOST expensive bolts I have ever purchased..... H&R Triple C camber adjusting bolts. These will give me the much needed extra clearance round the front wheel arches however, after fitting one side, I'm still going to have to raise it slightly (I know, it's swearing) otherwise I'll have a mangled wing the first tight bend I fire into!

Here's the pics anyway....

All go down at the Low Road yesterday...!

The mk4 Recaros which I got for a steal... wonder why lol!

Some butchering of the floor required...

Front mount mounted. Also smoothed off the square recess behind the number plate to clean the bumper up a bit. Need to move the intercooler a fraction just to get it right in the middle. More welding lol!

This is when I fabbed up the intercooler pipework....

......and properly tig welded up afterwards. (I didn't do that bit )

'scuse the clear silicone pipe for the dump valve, was just to tide me over until I got the black stuff!

It was then ready to fire up and it did, well kind of.....

One bent valve! To this day I don't know how it happened, the piston only clipped it but was enough to bend it and cause it to lose compression! This again, in a repeat of the previous year was three days before that same show lol!

Fitted a 280mm Momo team steering wheel

The first outdoor shots...

Camber.....yeah? No?.....

Rear screen missing as I refitted a new one without the spoiler.

Pics from here on in are a bit sparse but you will see that I managed to get the Recaros retrimmed, a false floor made and the half cage in.

Couple from edition 38 and VW Action at Santa Pod that year. E38 is where Golf+ spied the car and contacted me about a feature as a result.

Some dodgy looking characters in that last pic!

Two or three wee vids, quarter mileing is not my strong point as some would tell you...lol

Some nice arty farty pics

I then had then car featured in Golf+ in March 2010 which was nice to have the recognition for all my work

Some of the shots from the shoot..

After this, I decided to put some silly suspension in, courtesy of Rayvern Hydraulics..

Just a wee update for preparation for Ultimate Dubs....

Got this little mod to install....

Because of this....

and this...

Wing-less is in lol....!

Made the air tank an integral part of the rear strut brace..

This led to extreme lowerage on 15's lol

Took this pic late on Friday night before we left for Ultimate dubs.... thought it quite "arty" lol Suspension was not finished until the night before we left for Ultimate Dubs last year, in true last minute fashion!

And this is how she sat at UD's, first day the air had been seen in it...

Then made some good press after that...

http://supermade.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/good-afternoon-2/

Wee pic from our Dubshed show which some of you are attending this year

Did a few shows after this, some nice pics floating about but can't be assed hoking for them

It was that time of the year again though when it was time to get ready for our club show at Castlewellan Forest Park, Co Down....and guess what.....I actually was ready this time lol! But, true to form, it was not plain sailing! On the way to the show I lost third gear coming off a roundabout. The joys of LSD in an O2A!

Anyhow, got that sorted out ok, stripped the box down and replaced the gears. Another first for me but it's a good feeling completing a challenge successfully!

I was then asked to do a feature for one of these online blog type American sites called Just Stance, where I was judged for the car's stance out of 50. I scored 41 which sounded good It's actually worth a wee read if you didn't see it in the mag. Here's a couple of shots from that shoot and a link to the feature;

http://www.juststance.com/featured/fe6-home-made/

Few more shows over the summer months then it was VW Action and E38 time again

Changed the colour of the roll cage to body colour and the wheel centres to gold. Not my favourite stage if i'm honest. Was never to sure about the gold centres..

Changed the Air filter on James' advice to prevent swirling in the maf housing..

Sold the Gottis and bought these

Just out of the boxes, kid at christmas comes to mind

Home and in the surgery...

Wee trial fit for the crack, seeing as though I couldn't get them split last night...

Rediculous 11" wide rears were never gonna work so I managed to get the dishes swapped from 4" to 2.5" to bring the width down to 9.5".

....and a wee trial fit of the fronts. They are sitting perfect so are going to need no fettling which is as I expected 8)

Centres of the rears getting left up to Smiths today for some machining and to see if they can make me an 8mm 10 point socket

Wee update on the wheels situation...

Thanks to Mark (sparky1 off here), we did a swap with dishes that suited us both very well. Got one of the wheels mocked up and have decided on a paint code for the centres so hopefuly have the built up for Christmas

Bit more sensible looking now lol...

Dishes are now polished, boxed up and ready to be sent from London today. Looking forward to getting the wheel s built up again and finished

Thanks to MJ for what appears to be a good job on the polishing

Not much else to update but last night I had a spare couple of hours so removed the 5mm hub spacers I had fitted to try and gain less poke with the ACS's...

Fitted new rear wheel bearings, new rear genuine discs and pads..

Next should see a wheel update hopefully!

Right guys, I know I said I would try and keep this up to date but stuff that lol..

Anyhow, start with the wheels, at least to try and keep the order of events the same :roll:

Centres painted

Mocked up

All four built

Then sudden realisation....oops :oops:

Wheels ended up as 10's instead of 9.5's as planned, slight miscalculation. The 10's would actually have worked with coilovers but they fouled on the airbag

All worked out well though as Walter C was after a set of wider barrels and he had the ones I needed So split the back wheels again one Wednesday night before the Dubshed video flyer shoot, collected four barrels from John (J-Gti) in Dublin on the Thursday, to whom I must say a big thanks to for travelling 3 hours to go and get them off Walter for me! I left them in at the powdercoaters that same day, collected them on the Friday and had them built that night in time for getting tyres on. The new format left me with 9's which was a lot more manageable, plus I could use my old tyres from the Gottis 8)

So fitted up the nice new adapters from Adaptec in the States, custom made to my requirements in 15mm and 18mm form with studs instead of stud holes

And the results turned out to be very pleasing

Few from the day of the video shoot for Dubshed with I Love Bass

So in the quest for reliability as previously mentioned in the thread, I set about renewing some fuel pumps

Out with the old in tank pump..

In with the new, thanks to Motoglass..

Also replaced the in line Walbro pump with a superior Bosch 044 (albeit quite noisy at the minute)

Bosch vs Walbro

Also treated myself to a nice new Short Runner Intake couresty of United Motorsport. Really nicely made and engineered

Just realised I actually don't have any pics of it fitted lol :roll:

Next up was to try and do something with the power steering reservoir as I moved the battery into the boot and tray was ditched to make way for the boost pipe therefore it no longer had anything to secure to.

I drew the drawing roughly on Publisher then Matt at UM drew it up in DXF format for the laser cutters

Two days later...

Again, I have no pics of it fitted yet lol

Last little purchase was this...

AEM Air Fuel Ratio Wideband Gauge, just to keep an eye on things in the fuelling end Have this fitted in a new panel in the centre console but forgot to take a pic of it when I had it finished :roll:

[VIW28 29]

Since April last year I have changed or added the following, no pics but will do in due course;

Fitted wideband

Fitted UM SRI

Changed air filter again lol

Changed mk4 Recaros to Pole Position Recaros with seat backs matching wheel centres

Painted cage same colour as wheel centres

Replaced door cards with retrimmed jobbies again

New front bumper with no plate recess but with swage line

Machined one rear disc down 5mm to given more wheel clearance on one side due to mk3 offset axle

That was up to Septemer last year.

I then sold my complete 12v setup and have the following list waiting for me to put together.

Bought a 2001 4 motion with BDE lump, broke it and kept all running gear for mk3

ECU immo defeat

Stripped down lump

Stripped 02M

Looms sent off to be mated to UM

ABS removed

Seam sealer removed from engine bay

All studs ground off and holes welded over in engine bay

Precision Billet 6766 0.96AR T4, 4" inlet, 3" v-band exhaust, 3" outlet

Precision 39mm Wastegate

Forge 007P recirc

ARP head studs, mains studs, rod bolts

Pauter rods

Wossner 8.5:1 pistons

R36 big end bearings

New mains bearings

Block honed, surfaced and painted

Crank polished

Valve stem oil seals done in head

All new oem seals gaskets and bolts

Pro Maf

870cc injectors

UM tune

Pagparts, machined and ceramic coated exhaust manifold

AEM Tru Boost boost controller

Twin 10" slimline fans and Fiat Bravo rad

Quaife LSD

TDI gearset

Spec stage 3+ clutch and aluminium SMF

034 Motorsport FP34 surge tank with Bosch 044 pump

VF front and rear mounts, BFI gearbox mount

3" exhaust

load of stainless bends + a couple of v-band sets sitting for fabrication of boost pipes and downpipe

[michael5556 247]

epic. Where did you get the piping from for the boost pipes? Is it just exhaust pipe?

[Daverse 175]

great read! just wondering, those boost pipes all metal throughout? I always thought you should have a bit of silicone hoses to allow flex when the engine moves e.t.c.

[nivag27 5]

Amazing looks stunning dude

[spadam 7]

Love this build wish i had the money and space to create something inspiraing

[craggsy 91]

Cool write up.

I also have stainless boost pipes in mine, look so much better

[VIW28 29]

Cheers guys, thanks for the encouragement.

Boost pipes are all stainless in my old setup and will be in my new setup. I used as few joins with silicone as I could manage but yes there are some in there, just out of sight.

The piping I use is mostly 316 dairy/food grade Stainless which I source from a dairy supplies company. Always tig welded after i make them up for neatness and strength

Here's another wee pipe I made up this week to relocate maf and air filter on a Supercharged mk3 12v VR. Guy wanted it out of the puddles lol;

[bungy 2]

I have been watching this for some time and love the whole build. It does help loads to have people like Matt and James about.

[VIW28 29]

Dead right Bungy, be lost without them and would have been, several times at the Pod especially lol

[VIW28 29]

Been a while since I updated this. Funds and time have been on the down-low lol. Hope to have this up and running by the start of next month.

Off to engine shop today

[Earwig 89]

Awesome car mate. Very impressed ! Can't wait to see it at some point !

[VIW28 29]

Thanks matey!

[VR6BOY 2]

Well Gethin long time no speak still chipping away at the mk3 i see

[Dirtysanchez 0]

Amazing car! Hopefully mine will be up to this standard one day! One question though, how do you secure the false floor? I'm in the process of doing mine and can't work out the best way to do it.

[VIW28 29]

Well Gethin long time no speak still chipping away at the mk3 i see

Yes indeed Aaron! How you keeping? How are those mad projects of yours coming along?!

[VIW28 29]

Amazing car! Hopefully mine will be up to this standard one day! One question though' date=' how do you secure the false floor? I'm in the process of doing mine and can't work out the best way to do it.

[/quote']

Thanks! The frame work for the floor is just stuck down with double sided tape believe it or not! The weight of the floor on top of it along with the snug fit keeps it all secure

[bungy 2]

What did you do to quieter down your fuel pump in the end? I've removed mine until I can find a decent cure for the noise and incorporate a swirl pot.

[VIW28 29]

I ended up with a butchered OE swirl pot and an HRC pump inside it. Wasn't ideal though as I couldnt really run with less tan 1/4 tank of fuel. Have gone for an 034 Motorsport FP34 surge tank this time round although in hindsight I think I should have gone for the Integrated Engineering dual pump surge tank instead to eliminate any potential fuel starvation issues when I turn the boost up down the line.

[redders 0]

i odore this, so many cool touches

[VIW28 29]

Thanks bud!

[Dirtysanchez 0]

Amazing car! Hopefully mine will be up to this standard one day! One question though' date=' how do you secure the false floor? I'm in the process of doing mine and can't work out the best way to do it.

[/quote']

Thanks! The frame work for the floor is just stuck down with double sided tape believe it or not! The weight of the floor on top of it along with the snug fit keeps it all secure

Ah I see! Nice idea, I'll give that a go

[VIW28 29]

So, been a busy week or two...

Engine bay finished and painted, engine back from machine shop.

Next job is to remove the child's suspension ( ) and put the replacement Koni coilovers in then remove subframe and wishbones, strip out bushes and send up to Canavans for powder coating.

After that then will be to re-pipe the braking system minus the ABS.

Just waiting for gearbox rebuid and diff install to be finished, exhaust manifold, injectors and Promaf to be sent over then get everything mounted up and get fabricating boost pipes, coolant pipes and downpipe.

Some pics of recent progress...

Some engine parts cleaned and scotchbrited..

And painted with my own fair hands..

So after sitting in this very spot for 5 months, 3 weeks...

It finally moved...

Back into where I'm sure would seem like home if it were human lol...

It has driven Derek insane but despite that we deciided to give it a good lashing with this black etch primer in case anything were to get scored it wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb...

And the finished result yesterday morning. Thanks to Derek, Scott and Andy for hands to the pump

[VIW28 29]

Either patience or no sense Gareth! Lol

Not much to update. Painted block last night, nice and shiny I used gloss black engine enamel I bought off eBay, seems to be a fair bit glossier than the hammerite I used on the previous engine.

Was going to assemble the short engine last night but the engine shop has lost one of the oil spray jets. :(

Also stripped down wishbones, subframe and front crossmember for powder coating and polybushing when I get them back. Off to Canavans today for the powdercoating

[VIW28 29]

So, been working on some more stuff.

New mains bearings..

Crank in and installed with ARP mains studs..

Pistons and rods assembled..

And after a mundane evening, ring gaps all filed to 0.5mm for the middle ring and 0.019" for the top ring. Pretty monotonous job!

Also got all my powdercoated subframes and stuff back from Canavans. This is THe best powder coating I have ever seen and cannot recommend these guys enough! Work and speed of turnaround is second to none! Once I had them back I was able to fit the Powerflex polybushes