My MKV build thread/timeline

[20rabbit08]

I finally got the rear bumper on. But the colormatch wasn't as good as I was hoping so it went back into the bodyshop today. I should be able to pick it up tomorrow, just in time for a gtg I've been looking forward too.

here's a shot of the new rear bumper before I sent it back to get resprayed

[20rabbit08]

here's one of the new mkvi steering wheel the wife put in.

[20rabbit08]

Love the colour.

This is beautiful

Thank you man!!

[20rabbit08]

As I hinted to earlier, I contacted Drew Dorbritz in the spring to see if I had any options for mounting the autopilot controller. I wanted something like Rich's (silverbullet) but didn't want to copy off his. Drew and I came up with the idea of molded into the sunglass holder. I know Plush Automotive and a few others had done it already but they were all covered in cloth. I wanted a real factory look to it since the whole build idea was to keep the car clean. Drew came through perfectly!! you'd swear the controller looks factory. The mold is dead on, even the color was matched exactly with the surround. I highly recommend Drew for almost anything you need. In fact I believe after doing mine, he's now selling them with that mold so if you like it, look him up at dorbritzdesigns.com . Here's a couple shots of the finished work





At the same time I put blue film behind the screen on the autopilot to match the interior lighting better

last major thing I did before Waterfest was the seats. I had them upholstered through my work at a dealership. Went from the gray cloth to black leather/suede to match the trunk setup. Unfortunately I don't have many great pictures of it but here's one so you can get the idea

[NeilP]

Love the colour.

This is beautiful

[20rabbit08]

here's the first shots with the image wheels on, I still had to play with the camber at this point but I was so happy with the way they turned out.





found out real quickly though I had a problem. i couldn't keep air in the front passenger side wheel. After taking apart and resealing the wheel, I still had the issue. I then sent it out to MemoryFab to straighten the wheel and fix a small crack in the barrel. Got it back from them and it still leaked. Knowing MemoryFab and their work, there's no way it was the wheel any longer so I bought a new tire. Turns out there was a small tear in the bead when the tire was originally mounted. You couldn't see it until the tire was being stretched on the wheel. Put that on, problem solved



during that headache I was able to get the rear camber where I wanted it. No tuck, no poke, but rather dead flush with the fender. It took a while to get it right but I so glad I did. It's just something different that I don't see alot of people doing

[20rabbit08]

here are some photo's from the redo of the trunk. I had a single compressor with a sunk in tank with a wood false floor



I wanted to switch it up for this year and try my hands on hardlines. I picked up the lines from grainer and all the fittings and misc. from Open Road Tuning. I also knew I wanted to have the traps exposed so I searched for a brand that was polishable. Without any luck, I found some chrome ones by AVS. Honestly I'm not to crazy about them performance size but like the look. I also added a second compressor just because I got one on the cheap . I've got to give it up to Laura (my wife) we talked about how we wanted the hardlines to look and she really took off with them. She did all the polishing, bent most of the lines and really set it up. All I did was lay the suede down and she handled the rest.

















and the final look

[20rabbit08]

Time flys when your having fun I guess, haha. The rs's are gone. I traded them for a set of Image type 71. Over the winter the wife and I rebuilt them. Colormatched the faces, repolished the lips and got some gold bolts to through on them.









At the same time i had my my air tank and coolant bottle sprayed for a more uniform look.

[20rabbit08]

A friend reminded me that I didn't have a build thread here so here goes. I won't lie, I did copy most of it from another thread I had so the timeline might sound alittle off.

I've wanted to do this for a while but just haven't had the time to start a good build thread so I figured what better time then now. I'm planning on doing a couple things this winter so I'd like to keep a good time line instead of just looking back at some old pics.
I bought my 2008 Rabbit used from my job (i work as a parts manager at a ford dealership) in February 09. Picked it up with 22,000 miles. It appeared that the previous owner never washed, waxed, or vacuumed it. In fact I had a guy at work clean it before I took it home so my wife wouldn't be disgusted by it and shoot the whole thing down right then.

I'll start off with the first picture i took a couple days after purchase. I went to town cleaning it that weekend and this is what I had to show for it. Unfortunately I think it's the only picture I have of it stock



This is from spring 09. I got a set of 18x8.5 kestin kt-2 from TNKD and lowered the car with ST coilovers (still the best riding coils i've ever had). The front's were down to about 8-10 threads, the rears were about the same







this one I lowered the rear all the way, but leaving the collars in. I liked the way it sat here, not too much rake but still alittle



Next step was a big one. I ran into a sale thread from Mel (I think her screen name was JtiGirl) She was parting out her rabbit. Most of you know the car, sage green 2-door rabbit with shaved engine bay. I traded her my stock front end and hatch for her shaved goodness. This is a couple shots of my car 2 weeks after we completed the swap. The passat is my brothers. At the same time, I picked up a gti lower rear valance and had a local body shop shave and paint the upper half. Also swapped out the ST's for a set of Fk coilovers just for a little lower ride. Honestly it wasn't worth it. They did sit it down better but the trade off was a lot rougher ride.









The car stayed around the same for the next of the summer 09. I added some smaller things like a wood truck, couple euro goodies inside but nothing major.
The next phase took place winter/spring of 2010. I've always loved bbs rs's. Even though some feel their played out, I think its a look that will never get old. Plus I've wanted to see what cream wheels would look like on a sage green rabbit. Cordoza was selling his so I picked them up. Also I was using the car as my daily and was getting tired of driving the wife and kids in it rubbing and banging around so I went air. I went with am airlift xl kit front and rear with digital controls. It made a world of difference. Back came the nice ride along with the ability to raise it for when the family goes for a drive with me. These next couple of shots are courtesy of PSU from Dubs on the Boards and unknown photographers from H2o. I had it in the Euromedian's booth. thanks again Danny and Ty for the feature and the spot to park at H2o