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Hello Stance|Works, I'm a new guy. I floated around VWVortex for a while, but kind of got sick of seeing the same thing all the time. My car as the title says is a 1995 VW Jetta GLX. It is a major work in progress, and yes, I know I am not low at all. I'll update this thread as much as I can, hope to hear some feedback as well.
I'll just start from when I got the car, and go up to the most recent pictures I have of it.
Took this picture 20 minutes after I bought the car (September '11), if anyone is wondering, the color is Sequoia Green, and is somewhat uncommon. Oh and I bought the car with 172XXX miles on it.
So I brought the car home, and decided I didn't like the look of the grody headliner, the nasty carpet, and just the general incompleteness of it. So I gutted the interior.
Oh, and the PO decided to paint the trim, but didn't bother to match the color.
Viola, a mostly gutted interior, mind you I did take out the headliner, and all of the trim as well, this is just the only semi-decent picture I have.
With everything out, I got to work.
Yes this is the new, none grody carpet.
And I know the paint may look glossy, but it's satin. The paint is just wet.
I was personally really happy with how it all turned out.
And I did the Mk4 Cabin filter mod, not really a mod is it just drops right in, all it does is prevent outside crap from coming inside the car. Nothing special.
And I got new once piece side skirts, and got rid of the mud flap, since I only had one, it looked dumb. Unfortunately they are not legit ABT side skirts, just replicas. But I still like them.
Oh around this time, I had to do my brakes. Well a simple brake job turned into pads, rotors, a new caliper, a new hub, and four new wheel bearings. Yay.
And I got some smoked side markers and fog lights.
Then the car stayed the same for a while, I drove it around, saving for coil overs, and new wheels, and such, all was well. I picked up a wingless trunk for it (later), and also some Porsche D90's.
And then we had a small problem turn into a huge pain in the ass. And it all started with my car's first ever trip on a tow truck.
STORY TIME!
So originally what had happened was that the oil pump failed. So I brought the car home, pulled the pain off, and put new rod bearings, and a new oil pump in it, put it back together, and started it up, and drove it down the road, and back. I get back, and I see that the car had gotten hot while I drove it, and I hadn't gotten on it or anything. So I look into it a bit, and I see that the Auxiliary Water Pump had failed. So I replaced that as well, started it up, and a bunch of white smoke started pour out the tail pipe, well I thought that was weird, but wanted to see if it ran okay, so I drove it down the road and back again, but this time, it died twice on the way, and also got super incredibly hot again. Uh oh. I get back, and poke around, and sure enough, the head gasket is blown. Great. So I pulled the head off, saw the original gasket that was now swiss cheese, and send the head in to get refinished. Well they send it back immediately saying that the head is warped. Double great. So I pull the motor, and track down another one. At this time, I'd found out that my oil pump had failed because the timing chain guides had gone bad, and fallen apart, and clocked the oil pump. Remember that, it's key. So I ordered a new motor with 146XXX on it, an waited around for it to arrive and what not, and when it arrives I was so excited to have my car back, I immediately put the new motor in and start hooking things up. Since I had this brand new oil pump, I figured I might as well put it in the new motor, so I pull the pan off, and look at a nightmare. There we're more pieces of timing chain guide than my old motor, that and the oil pan looked as if it had been dented, and someone had tried to pound it out. Frustrated, I pulled the motor, AGAIN, and sent it back for a new one. More waiting. So I finally find a new motor, unfortunately it's OBD2, however it did have 82XXX miles on it. So I get to convert it back to OBD1, not a huge problem, just more work. But learning from my previous stupidity, I pulled the pan immediately, and luckily there were no shards of guide rail. But just to be safe, I put my new oil pump in, and did the timing chain guides as well. Upon doing preventive maintenance and an OBD1 conversion, the motor was all set to go back in. This time, we did not encounter any problems, and everything went smooth. It's a miracle. Hooked up all the doodads and thingamajigs, and... IT RUNS! I put the front end back on, and my long headache was over. Mind you the whole process took around 7 weeks, due to my massive amounts of waiting, and frustration. Also due in major part to my still developing mechanic skills. Shocker, I did do all the work myself, kind of proud of that.
Now, to answer a few questions that may be burning in your head, the whole thing set me back $1567.84 and cost me 7 weeks without my car.
Why didn't I do a 24V VR6 swap, it would have cost the same, and have taken roughly the same amount of time. Good question! I know I could have done a complete 24V swap in about the same amount of time, for probably the same amount of money if I just used my same transmission. However, that only really would have been an option if I'd known everything that was wrong with it in the first place. Had I known that I was going to have to put a new oil pump, water pump, motor, rod bearings, timing guides, etc. In it, yes that would have been my choice, but I didn't unfortunately.
So while I was in between motors, I don't remember which one, I was frustrated one day, and decided I was going to put my wingless trunk on. So I did.
That was the way it sat for a couple weeks, but of course nothing is ever 100% copasetic in the VW world. Two days ago, my Accessory Bracket broke. Just straight broke. Which turned into my serpentine belt shredding to bits. So after an adventurous drive home, I went out in search of a replacement bracket, which I found yesterday, and installed. So it was back on the road last night.
If you've read this far, thanks! Stay tuned for updates if you wish. Still to come are many many things. coilovers, exhaust, a respray (the paint has lots of chips/deep scratches), and much more!
I'll just start from when I got the car, and go up to the most recent pictures I have of it.
Took this picture 20 minutes after I bought the car (September '11), if anyone is wondering, the color is Sequoia Green, and is somewhat uncommon. Oh and I bought the car with 172XXX miles on it.
So I brought the car home, and decided I didn't like the look of the grody headliner, the nasty carpet, and just the general incompleteness of it. So I gutted the interior.
Oh, and the PO decided to paint the trim, but didn't bother to match the color.
Viola, a mostly gutted interior, mind you I did take out the headliner, and all of the trim as well, this is just the only semi-decent picture I have.
With everything out, I got to work.
Yes this is the new, none grody carpet.
And I know the paint may look glossy, but it's satin. The paint is just wet.
I was personally really happy with how it all turned out.
And I did the Mk4 Cabin filter mod, not really a mod is it just drops right in, all it does is prevent outside crap from coming inside the car. Nothing special.
And I got new once piece side skirts, and got rid of the mud flap, since I only had one, it looked dumb. Unfortunately they are not legit ABT side skirts, just replicas. But I still like them.
Oh around this time, I had to do my brakes. Well a simple brake job turned into pads, rotors, a new caliper, a new hub, and four new wheel bearings. Yay.
And I got some smoked side markers and fog lights.
Then the car stayed the same for a while, I drove it around, saving for coil overs, and new wheels, and such, all was well. I picked up a wingless trunk for it (later), and also some Porsche D90's.
And then we had a small problem turn into a huge pain in the ass. And it all started with my car's first ever trip on a tow truck.
STORY TIME!
So originally what had happened was that the oil pump failed. So I brought the car home, pulled the pain off, and put new rod bearings, and a new oil pump in it, put it back together, and started it up, and drove it down the road, and back. I get back, and I see that the car had gotten hot while I drove it, and I hadn't gotten on it or anything. So I look into it a bit, and I see that the Auxiliary Water Pump had failed. So I replaced that as well, started it up, and a bunch of white smoke started pour out the tail pipe, well I thought that was weird, but wanted to see if it ran okay, so I drove it down the road and back again, but this time, it died twice on the way, and also got super incredibly hot again. Uh oh. I get back, and poke around, and sure enough, the head gasket is blown. Great. So I pulled the head off, saw the original gasket that was now swiss cheese, and send the head in to get refinished. Well they send it back immediately saying that the head is warped. Double great. So I pull the motor, and track down another one. At this time, I'd found out that my oil pump had failed because the timing chain guides had gone bad, and fallen apart, and clocked the oil pump. Remember that, it's key. So I ordered a new motor with 146XXX on it, an waited around for it to arrive and what not, and when it arrives I was so excited to have my car back, I immediately put the new motor in and start hooking things up. Since I had this brand new oil pump, I figured I might as well put it in the new motor, so I pull the pan off, and look at a nightmare. There we're more pieces of timing chain guide than my old motor, that and the oil pan looked as if it had been dented, and someone had tried to pound it out. Frustrated, I pulled the motor, AGAIN, and sent it back for a new one. More waiting. So I finally find a new motor, unfortunately it's OBD2, however it did have 82XXX miles on it. So I get to convert it back to OBD1, not a huge problem, just more work. But learning from my previous stupidity, I pulled the pan immediately, and luckily there were no shards of guide rail. But just to be safe, I put my new oil pump in, and did the timing chain guides as well. Upon doing preventive maintenance and an OBD1 conversion, the motor was all set to go back in. This time, we did not encounter any problems, and everything went smooth. It's a miracle. Hooked up all the doodads and thingamajigs, and... IT RUNS! I put the front end back on, and my long headache was over. Mind you the whole process took around 7 weeks, due to my massive amounts of waiting, and frustration. Also due in major part to my still developing mechanic skills. Shocker, I did do all the work myself, kind of proud of that.
Now, to answer a few questions that may be burning in your head, the whole thing set me back $1567.84 and cost me 7 weeks without my car.
Why didn't I do a 24V VR6 swap, it would have cost the same, and have taken roughly the same amount of time. Good question! I know I could have done a complete 24V swap in about the same amount of time, for probably the same amount of money if I just used my same transmission. However, that only really would have been an option if I'd known everything that was wrong with it in the first place. Had I known that I was going to have to put a new oil pump, water pump, motor, rod bearings, timing guides, etc. In it, yes that would have been my choice, but I didn't unfortunately.
So while I was in between motors, I don't remember which one, I was frustrated one day, and decided I was going to put my wingless trunk on. So I did.
That was the way it sat for a couple weeks, but of course nothing is ever 100% copasetic in the VW world. Two days ago, my Accessory Bracket broke. Just straight broke. Which turned into my serpentine belt shredding to bits. So after an adventurous drive home, I went out in search of a replacement bracket, which I found yesterday, and installed. So it was back on the road last night.
If you've read this far, thanks! Stay tuned for updates if you wish. Still to come are many many things. coilovers, exhaust, a respray (the paint has lots of chips/deep scratches), and much more!
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