Poyta's GT

[poyta]

The GT has a similar front end to the GTi in that it differs from the standard Golf by featuring a more V style front bar. Differences is that the GT has fins instead of the honeycomb pattern in the grille, doesn't have the GTi red stripe in the centre and its missing the very bottom lip. Now I know its only a tiny little subtle lip but in my opinion without the lip the front just looks all wrong.



So its off the VW spare parts to get the lip and add it on. The part you need to get is 1K08071109B9. Its not cheap at $210.10. You can also get it from ESC tuning where its cheaper but I think with freight it may up at the same. Link below

Home Page > ES#7755 Euro Mk5 Front Lip - Lower - 1K08071109B9

Installation is not completely plug and play. First of all you need to remove the front bar skirt from the car. There's a few screws in front of the wheels and quite a few under the car that need to be unscrewed and then its just a matter of pull really hard and its all snaps out of place. Once removed you have this -



The lip features these small slot protrusions that obviously need to slot into holes in the now removed front bar skirt - problem is that the skirt doesn't have the holes so you will need to cut the holes yourself. Not a big issue really because the plastic is very thin and soft so just position the lip on the skirt, mark where the slots need to be and cut the slots out with a sharp stanley knife.



After that your lip should mate up with the skirt like this.



Then its just a matter of snapping the now combined unit ( skirt+lip ) back on the car and screwing it all back together. The previously screws that held the skirt under the car will now pass through the lip section securing it all together.



This is the results at the end. Like I said its very subtle but I think a huge improvement.

[jazd]

I have been thinking about doing the same, but given that its $200+ and it doesnt fit properly I would probably rather get a whole new Votex valance.

[poyta]

Another thing that the GT misses out on is the side skirts.

I looked into getting some aftermarket ones but they are hideously expensive. The OEM skirts that came on the GTi are actually quite cheap from the spare parts department and because they're the standard matt black grainy finish that matches the rest of the cars matt black grainy front and rear you can save the cost associated with painting the skirts. If you want them painted you need to get skirts from the R32 not the GTi as they are indentical in shape but are smooth and primed ready for paint. I think they are much more expensive though.

Here is a parts diagram of the items required .





Regardless of what the VW spare parts department tells you, they will fit and you do not need parts 8,9 and 10 shown. You only need the actual skirts (11), the adapter sill mouldings (12 ) and maybe the torx head screws (10) if you don't have any.

Part numbers required are -

1 x Right Skirt 1K4853860B9B9 $142.12
2 x Left Skirt 1K4853859B9B9 $129.25 ( no idea why they are different in price )
4 x Adapter Sill Mouldings 1K0853493 $15.35 each
4 x Torx head Screws N10354602 61c each


Installation is pretty simple, you need to remove a screw in the rear wheel arch and front wheel arch ( see items 10 in the parts diagram above ). Look under the car along the chassis and notice where the adapter sill mouldings need to go - you'll see that there are rubber caps there. Just pull them out and it will reveal a slot. Just snap the adapter sill mouldings into those slots.





Peal the double sided tape off the back of the skirts ( yes they come with the tape already in place ) and push them into position on the car. Put the two screws from the wheel arches back and screw the torx head screws under the skirts into the adapter sill mouldings. All done!





You could probably get away without the adapter sill mouldings if you're real tight but they really help to stiffen the skirts up so I'd recommend getting them.

Finished product below . Much improved I think.

[poyta]

I have been thinking about doing the same, but given that its $200+ and it doesnt fit properly I would probably rather get a whole new Votex valance.

If you want them to properly fit you need to get genuine Votex valances. Currently these are about $439US from TM Tuning plus freight + painting so I don't see the how this would be a better option. Even the replica's from Ebay which usually require some mods cost about $300 + painting.

[poyta]

At this point in time I've got about 35,000kms on the tyres and they're practically slicks now. Time to get some new rubber. I found that the price for new tyres was quite high and I couldn't really get anything decent for under $1000 so when I heard about new wheel and tyre combo's selling for just a bit over that amount I thought I may as well upgrade to a set of 18" wheels and tyres.

I wanted to go for a more OEM look so my choices were either the 18" wheels off an R32 ( there are two types ) or a set of 18" GTi wheels.

The GTi from factory came with a set of 17" wheels called Denvers which was carried over onto the Mk6 GTi's. The Mk6's did however have an optional 18" wheel called the Detroit. This was a similar looking wheel to the Denver but the face was machined so it had a shiny face and the insides were black as opposed to the all silver Denvers. Genuine Detroits are quite expensive ( I think they were a $3000 option on the GTi ) although occasionally a few turn up quite cheap on ebay or on forums but I decided to go with a set of replica's.

Now I know a lot of people are against replica wheels but I couldn't resist the cheap price and thought i would take the risk.
I managed to get a set of 4 wheels with brand new Falken 912 tyres delivered to my door from Tempe Tyres in Sydney for $1300.

All arrived on a palette, fully balanced and supplied with VW centre caps and even a set of chrome nuts.





Upon inspection I found them to be absolutely perfect, I could not tell that they were replica's at all. The only potential giveaway is that they're quite heavy compared to the 17" Classix that I had on the GT but then again they are a bigger wheel so this is probably expected. Some people may be critical of the tyres but even the Falken tyres I found to be fantastic - much better grip levels than the standard continental tyres I had previously, very quiet and they seem to wear very well - even now after about 10,000kms on them they still look as good as new. I would expect these to last a lot longer than my previous tyres.

Photos of the fitted wheels below.







By the way - I've still got my 17" BBS Classix in storage so if anyone wants them PM me an offer and they could be yours. You would need to get new tyres for them but the actual wheels are perfect without a single scratch on them.

[Greg Roles]

Looks good mate, but you want to tread carefully, young Robbie got worked for trying to make his TDI a GTI....does look way better than the stock GT though!!

[ForceFed]

Looking good Poyta. Am putting GTI side skirts on mine to match the textured rear bumper also. Hope I don't get "worked". Took your advice and got hold of some H&R springs and slammed it. Now the wheels look quite good.

[jazd]

If you want them to properly fit you need to get genuine Votex valances. Currently these are about $439US from TM Tuning plus freight + painting so I don't see the how this would be a better option. Even the replica's from Ebay which usually require some mods cost about $300 + painting.

Yeah I wasnt suggesting it would be a cheaper.. but its easier to justify the extra cost

I agree it looks a lot better with the side skirts and new rims! BTW did you ask how much for the R32 side skirts?

[poyta]

Looks good mate, but you want to tread carefully, young Robbie got worked for trying to make his TDI a GTI....does look way better than the stock GT though!!

Not really trying to make the GT look like a GTi, its just I prefer a OEM look and the GTi has the best OEM bits really. Once I get my R32 rear bar on which is getting sprayed as we speak it won't look like a GTi anymore. I'm also keeping all my GT TDI badges. Happy to boast that I drive a diesel !!!

[poyta]

Wanted to replace the stock steering wheel. As you can see from the photo above the GT's wheel isn't too bad, its leather, has the mulifunction controls and its even got a nice chrome plate with GT stamped on it. However... I had the opportunity to get a dirt cheap GTi/R32 steering wheel from a forum member in the states for about $200 delivered to my door so I bought it.



Installation was pretty straightforward, I only changed over the Multifunction switches because my buttons were a lot newer than the GTi wheel and of course because I don't want to be worked I replaced the GTi badge with my GT badge.