Salaam, shalom, hello! My name is Moe, I'm a Volkswagen tech, live in a well lit desert and I own a Mk2 GTI and E30. First here are some of my old hoopties:
First I got a 1990 G60 Corrado for my 15th birthday. I then blew the head gasket shortly after I got my license. Couldn't afford to get it fixed and had no clue how to fix it. So I was forced by my mom to sell it for $400.
My high school buddy had this Mk3 Jetta that we drove from Vegas to Portland the weekend we were supposed to go to Coachella.

He later gave it to me for free because it wouldn't start. A $100 starter later it became my daily. I never really took care of it because of lack of time and lazyness. (full time student and 3 jobs)
I eventually made it uglier and less reliable.

Then it started burning a lot of oil. I overhauled and painted it then gave it to a friend who moved to San Diego.
I also had a Camaro. You can see it and my legs begging to be ran over during a trans swap on Google Maps.


I then crashed it and fell for the satin black trend.

I later traded it for the love of my life. My GTI.


Which was a complete hack job. It was full of autozone butt connectors, home depot twist thingys and corrosion. He attempted to shave things with masking tape behind body filler. He shaved the handles with just packing body filler in the handle recess. Picked up a 16v. Then went to every Walmart in town to pick up enough paint to paint it.

I drove it like this for a few years at about 400 miles a week. While it was my daily I picked up my first E30 for $500. It didn't have front seats and made a crazy rattling noise when in gear. Later found it it was the tran's input bearing.


Sold the wheels for $500, lowered it, put on some other lame wheels and tried to drift.


Then one track day, a fella in a is300 decided to exit the track without letting the staff know and while I was lead onto the track we both came around the same corner, (lead by cement barriers that we can't see over while in our cars) we had a head on collision. I'm sure I was going about 40 mph. He was going about the same speed. I'm glad I had my helmet on. This guy was actually the person who was in charge of the staff and made up the track rules. Way to practice what you preach.

It was actually worse than it looks. The driver's side strut tower crushed the fuse box. My buddy towed it home with his slammed S13. I was then on a quest for another one. After a few weeks of watching craigslist like a hawk this came up:

He broke the timing belt and bent a few valves. He took of the head and it was sitting like that for a while. I gave him $400 and took it to my workshop.

I then swapped the engine from my blue one into it and made it my new daily. I was then working as a tech at a Porsche/Jaguar/Aston Martin dealership. My GTI felt the pain from being driven so much and started burning oil from the valve seals and losing compression. I begged my service manager to let me give it a overhaul after business hours for a week. He agreed and the work began. We just hired a new Porsche tech that worked on VW's for a decade and he gave me a hand.

I accidently only ordered piston rings for only one piston, and had to wait for the rest. My manager wasn't understanding and he demanded that I get it out of the parking lot. So I did before I can finish it up.

I lived in an apartment complex that promised they had detached garage's available. After we signed the lease, they weren't. So I had to work on it outside at night when there were no complex personal around. This got old fast. But during this, on my way to work, my beloved E30 was no more.



I wasn't sure what to do so I let a tow truck take it to their yard. I went there later in the day and they demanded I pay $1,200 and get it out of their yard. For a $400 car? I told them they can have it and moved on.
I rolled in a old Range while I worked on the Mk2

Of course, the crappy fuse box decided to catch on fire after I got it running. That's what I get for not fixing all of the previous owner's custom wiring.

I couldn't afford the gas in the Range so I got my most expensive and ugliest E30:


Everything was leaking and barely made it home. I then quit my job cause working on $100k cars for $9.00 an hour got old. Then was part of opening a new Volkswagen dealership. We even had two commercials filmed there.


Working there is a dream come true. Whole environment was different, customers were more down to earth and I love working on Volkswagens.

Was making enough money to buy a brand new Mk6, Make the E30 reliable and buy some seven slots that needed some polishing.


and I even finished my complete CE2 Digi1 California swap with complete harness wrapped and somewhat tucked into my GTI up there.

Got it registered, don't have to smog it anymore. Drove it for a few weeks but the 3 year old faded rattlecan job was bugging me. Plus I wasn't happy with Digifant 1 California on the 16v. So I tore it apart, bought a lot of sand paper, paint and ordered a G60 harness, ecm and steering wheel.


Here's how the whips sit now:



Plans for the Mk2:
Neon Genesis Evangelion Unit 02 paint scheme
G60 managment with junkyard turbo
Whole new exhaust
New wheels. Thinking M-Technicas or New New Beetle wheels, the ones with beauty rings?
Small bumpers
Fully functional HVAC system with R134a (old one burnt with the fuse box and dash)
E30:
Replace the hammered hood and mismatched fender
Manual swap
Finish the wheels
Finish my frankenstein front suspension
Thanks for reading and I'll try and take some more photos.
First I got a 1990 G60 Corrado for my 15th birthday. I then blew the head gasket shortly after I got my license. Couldn't afford to get it fixed and had no clue how to fix it. So I was forced by my mom to sell it for $400.
My high school buddy had this Mk3 Jetta that we drove from Vegas to Portland the weekend we were supposed to go to Coachella.

He later gave it to me for free because it wouldn't start. A $100 starter later it became my daily. I never really took care of it because of lack of time and lazyness. (full time student and 3 jobs)
I eventually made it uglier and less reliable.

Then it started burning a lot of oil. I overhauled and painted it then gave it to a friend who moved to San Diego.
I also had a Camaro. You can see it and my legs begging to be ran over during a trans swap on Google Maps.


I then crashed it and fell for the satin black trend.

I later traded it for the love of my life. My GTI.


Which was a complete hack job. It was full of autozone butt connectors, home depot twist thingys and corrosion. He attempted to shave things with masking tape behind body filler. He shaved the handles with just packing body filler in the handle recess. Picked up a 16v. Then went to every Walmart in town to pick up enough paint to paint it.

I drove it like this for a few years at about 400 miles a week. While it was my daily I picked up my first E30 for $500. It didn't have front seats and made a crazy rattling noise when in gear. Later found it it was the tran's input bearing.


Sold the wheels for $500, lowered it, put on some other lame wheels and tried to drift.


Then one track day, a fella in a is300 decided to exit the track without letting the staff know and while I was lead onto the track we both came around the same corner, (lead by cement barriers that we can't see over while in our cars) we had a head on collision. I'm sure I was going about 40 mph. He was going about the same speed. I'm glad I had my helmet on. This guy was actually the person who was in charge of the staff and made up the track rules. Way to practice what you preach.

It was actually worse than it looks. The driver's side strut tower crushed the fuse box. My buddy towed it home with his slammed S13. I was then on a quest for another one. After a few weeks of watching craigslist like a hawk this came up:

He broke the timing belt and bent a few valves. He took of the head and it was sitting like that for a while. I gave him $400 and took it to my workshop.

I then swapped the engine from my blue one into it and made it my new daily. I was then working as a tech at a Porsche/Jaguar/Aston Martin dealership. My GTI felt the pain from being driven so much and started burning oil from the valve seals and losing compression. I begged my service manager to let me give it a overhaul after business hours for a week. He agreed and the work began. We just hired a new Porsche tech that worked on VW's for a decade and he gave me a hand.

I accidently only ordered piston rings for only one piston, and had to wait for the rest. My manager wasn't understanding and he demanded that I get it out of the parking lot. So I did before I can finish it up.

I lived in an apartment complex that promised they had detached garage's available. After we signed the lease, they weren't. So I had to work on it outside at night when there were no complex personal around. This got old fast. But during this, on my way to work, my beloved E30 was no more.



I wasn't sure what to do so I let a tow truck take it to their yard. I went there later in the day and they demanded I pay $1,200 and get it out of their yard. For a $400 car? I told them they can have it and moved on.
I rolled in a old Range while I worked on the Mk2

Of course, the crappy fuse box decided to catch on fire after I got it running. That's what I get for not fixing all of the previous owner's custom wiring.

I couldn't afford the gas in the Range so I got my most expensive and ugliest E30:


Everything was leaking and barely made it home. I then quit my job cause working on $100k cars for $9.00 an hour got old. Then was part of opening a new Volkswagen dealership. We even had two commercials filmed there.


Working there is a dream come true. Whole environment was different, customers were more down to earth and I love working on Volkswagens.

Was making enough money to buy a brand new Mk6, Make the E30 reliable and buy some seven slots that needed some polishing.


and I even finished my complete CE2 Digi1 California swap with complete harness wrapped and somewhat tucked into my GTI up there.

Got it registered, don't have to smog it anymore. Drove it for a few weeks but the 3 year old faded rattlecan job was bugging me. Plus I wasn't happy with Digifant 1 California on the 16v. So I tore it apart, bought a lot of sand paper, paint and ordered a G60 harness, ecm and steering wheel.


Here's how the whips sit now:



Plans for the Mk2:
Neon Genesis Evangelion Unit 02 paint scheme
G60 managment with junkyard turbo
Whole new exhaust
New wheels. Thinking M-Technicas or New New Beetle wheels, the ones with beauty rings?
Small bumpers
Fully functional HVAC system with R134a (old one burnt with the fuse box and dash)
E30:
Replace the hammered hood and mismatched fender
Manual swap
Finish the wheels
Finish my frankenstein front suspension
Thanks for reading and I'll try and take some more photos.
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