Definately an ongoing work in progress this one, here is my mk3 Golf Gti 8v... "Kermit the Gonto", that I bought in November 2008 for the princely sum of £600...
Changing faces:
As I first bought it (lowered and otherwise completely standard) - Midlands Festival of Transport pic:
Swapped the headlights for quads to get it through the 2009 MOT (adjusters on original lights had broken leaving the bowls loose...) Started that long slippery slope of modifying...
Smooth grille purchased at Dubmania/Retromania 2009, VR6 splitter fitted:
Finally, September 2009 and I get the wheels I really wanted in the first place, Audi Pepperpots:
Wearing some Hella All Green Lights, which are not to everyones taste (now gone for Hella All Blacks)
Jan 2010 we started off with a bit of fun on the car - I had a spare knackered bonnet knocking about, and while I was recovering from an operation last December, me and my mechanic Steve at SB Autos in Stoke on Trent decided to have a bit of fun with it and Rat it out.
Bonnet + Fire (lots) + Battery Acid (lots) + Winter in a bush (Purists look away now) =
Yes, we did set that bonnet on fire. Repeatedly, until we had burned off all the paint and seriously affected the galvanise on it, by holding the bonnet upside down over an incinerator barrel, and pouring water on the underside to try and prevent it warping (too much). The next day Steve poured six dead batteries worth of battery acid over it for good measure, and then it was just tucked up under a bush behind his unit for the winter. He persuaded me to dare to put it on in February and I added my bonnet bra as an ironic statement. Very marmite, but got lots of mad attention (I got filmed by some random person hanging out of their car window as I drove up the M11 one day...)
But then, I got the front end I had wanted from day one...
It needed to go green, and that grille needed to go...
But I still wasn't keen on the Grille, so Early Vento Grille, Anni fogs/indicators, and Joey modded headlights (just the outers of the bowls)
Current rear end set up, but now all de-stickered...
Gratuitous moving shot:
So that's pretty much how it sits right now. Its not perfect, it does a LOT of miles (minimum 20k a year, currently on 177k), and there are a few bits on it that are a bit tired that I am meaning to get around to this year... But I love it to bits, and struggle to find any car that does what it does (keeps plodding on, and gives me 42-45mpg on the motorway - which is where it spends most of its time)....
Big thanks to...Steve at SB Auto's in Stoke on Trent, for keeping it moving somehow, getting it through the MOT yearly, and suprising me with that painted front end whilst I was in Hospital.
My fiancee Tanya, for having the patience of a saint, buying me the Vento front, and enduring the "sell your Corsa and get a dub" chat she always gets off other people...
Alan and Mark at Volksmine for finding me the bits I need.
The guys and gals on my local (Staffordshire) forum (Automotive Connection), and the PeakVAG crew, for all the help and encouragement.
Ebay, for several bargains of the century (Hella all Blacks for £12. Sound).
