Jon's Gti - Slight audio upgrade

[jonni3]

Hi all, been lurking on here for a while now & thought it was about time I showed my GTI.
It's a 2001 5 door with 132000 miles on the clock, full service history & picked her up in October 2012.
Since owning her I've replaced the gearbox with a fully rebuilt unit, given her a full service & done a few low key mods, front led side lights, chrome light switch, Mangecor H.T leads, Eibach Pro springs & upgraded the audio with a Kenwood KDC-BT52U head unit, Ground Zero front components & Phonocar rear drivers.
I have a couple of Kicker amps to install & need to sort a sub out. Also have a set of 16" BBS RX2's which I'm about to refurb (bargain @ £120 with very good tyres) & a front strut brace to fit.
Having seen the auto-lights & cruise control mods that some have I'm very interested in doing these as well, really like the oem mods.

The Leather interior is pretty mint considering the age & mileage, the body work has a few battle scars that will get sorted & it could do with a respray but it does look gorgeous when given a proper clean.










I love this little car, so comfy & is so much fun to drive, doesn't hang around either
If anyone has the fuse cover & a engine cover going spare & doesn't want silly money for it I'd be very interested.

Jon

[joe2612]

Looks very nice Jon, nice to see a higher milage Gti being well looked after!

[Endi_GTI]

Very nice. Welcome along

[6n2stan]

Looking good, mines on 148,000 on the original 'box! Ticking time bomb

[stefanhenchoz]

Lovely looking motor. Welcome

[jonni3]

Well time to start refurbing the wheels, this is going to be fun ....





looks like the person who had them before hand (brush) painted them in hammerite , still I have some nasty paint stripper & plenty of elbow grease

They look to be in pretty good condition under the black paint with just minimal kurb marks , still deciding on what colour to do these

[Dom_]

Plain silver with a polished/shiny lip always looks the best on RX2's

Edit: Shamless plug, someone please buy them!

[joe2612]

Plain silver with a polished/shiny lip always looks the best on RX2's

+1

[jonni3]

Well after a few ups & downs I finally managed to get the wheels refurbed, tires back on & fitted to the car.
They took a serious amount of work to get up to scratch, I looked like a coal miner after a hard down pit after using the polishing wheel & my fingers are still devoid of finger prints . Still they came up pretty nicely, only one of the rims was able to be split the other three had the splines in the bolts shear even with a good tap from a club hammer & luckily no snapped bolts.

Paint stripping fun ....

Apart at last ....

Curb damage...

Repaired...

Surface of the moon...

All done...








I've fitted the wheels with tuner bolts, the look pretty good I also wanted some red BBS center caps but as they are stupendously expensive I've decided on something a little different....

Also managed to fit a set of Team Heko wind deflectors.

oh, in case your curious I painted the centers in VW Diamond silver.

[6n2stan]

Looking nice!

Get those rear calipers repainted

[joe2612]

Great job on the wheels. Some 40 profile tyres would set those off nicely.

[jonni3]

I keep meaning to paint the rear calipers but some how keep forgetting
Will be getting some 40 profile tires when these need replacing as their 205/45/16 at the mo, I think my next few jobs will be making a sub box & amp rack, sorting out the peeling grab handles, quite fancy some charcoal grey faux suede on them maybe also covering the vent panels & center console & sorting out the dent on the drivers side sill panel (was there when I bought it) .

[joe2612]

I've also looked into charcoal faux suede to trim my doorcards so they match the suede on my seats. Just get charcoal and not grey as grey was too light!

[jonni3]

Just a small update, managed to get hold of another GTi steering wheel with red stitching and after giving it a good clean (stitching was filthy) and leather treatment it came up pretty well & looks great fitted.

Before


After


Also had a go at making my own center caps, just have to redo the wheel center to match the colour now

[jonni3]

Well having finally pieced together the rest of the audio for the GTi it was about time to fit it,

Interior mostly out


Front components form Ground Zero, 10 Gauge wire does not want to fit through the door plug


Sub box mock up, box was designed with Bassbox pro & is 2.2cu ft & tuned to 29Hz
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Amp rack, not 100% on this thinking about recessing it


Boot finished for now.


Ground Zero GZRW12D2


Power cable, got this 0 gauge cabling kit for KnuKonceptz ... In fact all the cabling is from them & Stinger, superb kit


Had plenty of Faux suede left over so decided to give some plastic parts a trim, for some reason it looks purple'ish in direct sunlight but it is charcoal grey (allegedly), still I quite like the contrast & it feels very nice