What have you bought for your Mk8?

[JoeGTI]

Silver shows it up better. Dunno what they charge, I’d be curious myself. But to do that job properly is fairly labour intensive so it can’t be too cheap. My concern as I said is how it holds up. That’s a lot of gloss black on the front… stone chips will love it.

[king monkey]

You’re right. That looks a lot better against the Reflex. Really nice idea. The gloss black front end on my R never caused a problem but I’d be worried about the quality of the job as you say.

[VW_Golf_nut]

On my Mk8 R I got all the Gloss Black trim on front and rear bumpers covered in PPF, quite an expensive task 

Think I will leave mine as the textured plastic, won't harm my OCD then!

[Carl_45]

I think it looks good, thanks for sharing. I’m not sure about getting it done though. My thoughts are like yours regarding stone chips 😬. There also the thought of a lot of time drying the front grill after washing to avoid water spots on all the horizontal pieces.

Maybe it’s a job for when the car is a little older as a midlife spruce up. For the time being I think I’ll stick to the bumper and trim gel.

[JoeGTI]

I think it looks good, thanks for sharing. I’m not sure about getting it done though. My thoughts are like yours regarding stone chips 😬. There also the thought of a lot of time drying the front grill after washing to avoid water spots on all the horizontal pieces.

Maybe it’s a job for when the car is a little older as a midlife spruce up. For the time being I think I’ll stick to the bumper and trim gel.

Yeah I’m inclined to agree. That gloss / piano black finish will scratch if you look sideways at it. The gloss black parts of the wheels are bad for it so can you imagine trying to keep on top of the front end… you’d see new marks every time you wash it.

I find trim gel / restorer pretty effective. Being using Autopia tyre/trim gel recently and it’s very effective and long lasting.

[king monkey]

For anyone who’s interested (and I promise I don’t work for them!) Eugene at EZMods is currently working on some vinyl door sill protectors. Presume he’ll have all variations of performance Golf ones including 45.

[king monkey]

Its really pretty straightforward.

Remove the fuse for the horn (fuse box under the bonnet) and take your time.

Pop off the airbag (there are 3 spring release clips at the back of the wheel) and once off, just unplug it and leave it to one side. Don't worry, it doesn't cause any dashboard errors once its re-connected.

The silver/red plastic trim is only clipped on but takes some gentle persuasion to prise off. Start at one corner, tug gently with your fingers (around the haptic buttons on one side) and once you have that side freed, the rest is easier.

Once the trim is off, you'll see the Torx screws you will need to undo to remove the existing paddles. You also need to unplug them. The new paddles are a direct swap, same torx screw, same plugs.

Put everything back in reverse order!

It's well worthwhile doing, makes the wheel look so much better and the paddles are really nice in the hand to use.

Exactly as Joe has said there.

The only point I’d add because it confused me at first.

The airbag springs, there’s a round peg and a straight bar going through, you use a terminal screwdriver to leaver the bar towards the centre of the steering wheel. I used my phone camera on “selfie” to see what I was doing. There’s also, three not two as volkswizard said.

Also, if you unluck the steering wheel reach adjuster, pulled fully out and fully downwards will give you maximum space.

Lastly, as joe also said, on a fast twisty road (I’ve been out today) the difference is massive, so much nicer to use through the gears.  Oh… and if you’ve it tried, “special” mode on a twist road is fantastic!! I am thinking of OBD11 to disable the sound imitation thing though.

Out of interest, how long did the job take you?

[Carl_45]

About 45 mins I’d say. But I was really taking my time and being gentle with the trim.

Once it’s apart you’ll understand what everyone (volkswizard mainly) says about the way the cars are designed to put together on a production line it went back together in 5 mins tops.

I meant to say before, the tip on the you tube video about starting the screws off the steering wheel was genius. If you look at the new paddles the fixing whole is unthreaded because the screw “cuts” the plastic as it’s going in, so if you screw in and back out in your hand it’s so much simpler to screw in again when in place on the wheel.

[Exonian]

For anyone who’s interested (and I promise I don’t work for them!) Eugene at EZMods is currently working on some vinyl door sill protectors. Presume he’ll have all variations of performance Golf ones including 45.

Are you sure you’ve not been moonlighting Michele? 

After seeing your pics of the other (CS45) decals you commissioned from them I had a quick nose at their website. I see they currently offer mk8 sill protectors but they show a mk7.5 sill in the photos which is different to a mk7 (seems odd being as it’s basically the same chassis and shared panels) so be wary if anyone is purchasing direct from their website.
I’m a fan of vinyl sill protectors as some of the other metal and plastic aftermarket ones I’ve tried have trapped water between the sill and underside of the door on mk7’s. Decent vinyl ones are effective if less glamorous.


Going back to the glossy black bumper grilles, sills and diffusers, again, they look nice and arguably more expensive as the matte black/grey looks a bit plasticky BUT if your car is a daily driver used on rural roads then the matte is far more practical and durable. My old Ed40 canards looked as bad for tiny swirl marks as those gloss B pillar trims all Golfs have had for generations end up looking after a short time. And that car was treated like a Princess, hardly used, always garaged and only ever cleaned very symathetically as regards to swirl prevention. Admittedly for someone less fussy they’d not notice from a few feet away after the first specs of dust inevitably land on the car but us car people care about small things like that. My mk8 Clubby is used daily, lives outdoors (cleaned weekly at the minimum if weather permits though) and I’m very glad it has matte lower plastic sections. I’ve just learned to be less of a fanny about it.

[king monkey]

For anyone who’s interested (and I promise I don’t work for them!) Eugene at EZMods is currently working on some vinyl door sill protectors. Presume he’ll have all variations of performance Golf ones including 45.

Are you sure you’ve not been moonlighting Michele? 

After seeing your pics of the other (CS45) decals you commissioned from them I had a quick nose at their website. I see they currently offer mk8 sill protectors but they show a mk7.5 sill in the photos which is different to a mk7 (seems odd being as it’s basically the same chassis and shared panels) so be wary if anyone is purchasing direct from their website.
I’m a fan of vinyl sill protectors as some of the other metal and plastic aftermarket ones I’ve tried have trapped water between the sill and underside of the door on mk7’s. Decent vinyl ones are effective if less glamorous.

You got me! I get 1p commission for every 1000 orders they get. I’ll pay that car off in no time Andy! The photos of the vinyl sill protectors are for illustrative purposes only I presume as I know he’s working on them. Im also a big fan of the vinyl protectors as they’re bullet proof.