The story of a 2-3 week MK3 build for VITS
Well I'm not a very active member on the forums. But some might remember my red colour concept. I recently bought an e46 330ci (sort of impulsively) and shortly after I realised that yeah it's a great car and stuff, luxurious, all the little features, but it's just not for me and for the money, more fun could be had. So I decided I'd like to pursue what has been a goal of mine for quite a long time, which is to build a MK3 VR6 turbo (NOT BUILT YET, DON'T GET TOO EXCITED). Yes, I know everyone says they'll build a VRT but inspired by some of the yanks as well as mk1turbo79, a LOT of research and some good company who can help with the build, I'm sure it can be done. So bye bye goes the E46 (still up for sale).
In the mean while, I've acknowledged that I'll need a cheap runabout daily driver. Given the price of MK3s, I started looking into them. Which is when Tim remembered that Lawrence is selling Stu's old (matte black) VR6 Cabriolet. He hadn't advertised it for sale, but Tim called him up and we went and had a look. For the price, it was an easy decision. Picked it up a few days later with some more bits and pieces such as panels, vento bonnet and grill etc, and drove it home. Tim and I decided we were going to have it roadworthy and registered for VITS, and we'd keep it a secret and surprise everyone when we rocked up. Ideas quickly came to mind. Painting it a different colour, building my RS' that had been listed for sale but nobody had been interested. VITS was soon approaching so there was no time to muck around. Tim works full time, I work 3.5 days a week (and I'm supposed to be at Uni the rest of the time).
I took it in for a roadworthy as soon as I could book it in. Luckily, it didn't need anything expensive, but it did need a few little frustrating pieces which resulted in pointless trips to wreckers and eventually a bit of hard wiring due to a weird airbag/abs light harness. These needed to be fixed in a week before I would have to pay another $160 for another roady. As I was booting it down burwood highway on the way home, roof down and a smile on my face, Woody (Water Boy) spotted me and had a good laugh. I quickly spoke to him and told him that it's a secret and not to tell anybody! This worked out really well as Woody ended up helping me get this thing ready. He borrowed some spare wheels with roadworthy tyres from Dylan (without telling him who they were for). Fixed up a few more bits and pieces. I took it back for the airbag light code to be cleared but it wouldn't go away. A week had already passed and I had to angrily take it home and figure out what the issue was. I took the airbag off and it was unplugged. ARRGH!
I booked it back in for a roadworthy. It was booked in for Friday, exactly a week before we were leaving for VITS. Thursday night I was doing some finishing touches and getting started on sanding the car back for paint. I went to give it a bit of a test drive at about 11pm and the battery was dead. That's odd, not sure what could have drained it in a few days. So we rolled it out of the driveway, Tim took it down the street for a roll start and it didn't work. I told him to just wait up and I'll bring out the jumper leads, but he was adamant on rolling it down the bigger hill in the next street. Didn't work. So we jump started it, no problems. Took the leads off and it died. Yep, it's the alternator. We pushed it up the hill (some wanker riding his bike saw us struggling, pulled into his house next to us and just went inside, no help). Eventually, there was a half 240 grit sanded green and matte black golf, unregistered in the driveway a week before VITS. Registration appointments are pretty hard to reschedule and mine was booked for the Monday. The roadworthy was booked for 8am the next day. It was sinking in that this thing wasn't getting to VITS.
I woke up on Friday morning, called the mechanic to say it was going to be late if it would make it at all. I tested the alternator with a multimeter. It was definately the problem, so I parked my colour concept on the lawn next to the cabby and got to work after a quick look at some DIY on Vortex. Both front ends off, put the good alternator in the cabby and took it down for the roadworthy in the afternoon. I pleaded with the mechanic to slot me in, and he reluctantly did. Roady was passed a couple hours later and I was feeling like a boss. Time for a few beers.
Back up on Saturday morning. Over the weekend, Tim and I painted the car. I had decided on roll on chalkboard paint after being inspired by another yellow MK3 which has been done the same. We wetsanded 240 grit all over the car and rolled on 5 coats of chalkboard paint. It's called Rustoleum tintable chalkboard paint and I picked it up from Masters. Considering it was about $150 in total for all paint and materials, I was pretty happy with how it turned out.
Wheels had been dropped to the powdercoaters and picked up again. Hexes polished, bolts polished. Original specs were 16x7/8 et. 45. With 2.5 inch lips on the 7s, they've been turned into 16x8/9 et 45/24. I had some adapters machined locally at 15 and 25mm. Final specs are 16x8 et. 20 front, 16x9 et. 9 rear. I just realised I haven't really got any close up photos of them but they turned out pretty damn good if I can say so myself.
I drove down to the rego appointment on Monday half masked up with different coloured bumpers and not completed coats of paint. The rest of the week was spent after work finishing the painting off in the dark, assembling wheels, taking the sump off and having Jarred weld a 6mm bash plate on, installing coilovers and fitting the wheels up. By Friday I was putting together the last details. I packed the car, put the roof down and went to pick up my girlfriend was a huge grin. We met with a few others, drove up to the accommodation and had a mad weekend at VITS. More detail of the weekend is up on the VITS thread in the events section.
I'd highly recommend coming to these shows, introducing yourselves to some of the guys on here. There are some awesome people around, friends all around Australia. And we all know a few more MK3s would go down well 
Some photos:
'95 Golf VR6 Colour Concept
Reply With Quote
Volkswagen Fan
Bookmarks