cheers jv
right...
got my mk3 back in oct 2006 when i swopped it for my 150k+ vauxhall calibra... a relation was trading in for a merc and was going to get a minimum trade in price and the calibra was getting tatty so it was a no brainer
I started driving in 1991 in a mk1 which i loved and always regretted letting go so it was like going back to my roots!
i don't have any pictures of the original state of the golf... it was ok but needed some tlc. it had done 74k and given a good wash came up quite nice.
had to sort out audio first off... so popped in an Alpine 9847R which I picked up cheep from a mate and an Alpine KCA-420i for the iPod... then fitted Rainbow components in the front and standard Rainbow speakers in the rear... together with dynamatting the doors... so at least the sounds were bearable... haven't moved the aerial yet... this is still under debate
in the early part of 2007 I started my cleaning obsession and began to detail my car... i had no plans to mod it at all. wanted it spotless and there were a few paintwork defects which i wanted to try and sort out (more on this later)
so the first thing to change were the wheels... purely by chance when i was having some new rubber feet put on i came across a set of standard mk4 mags and they were a lot tidier so i put the tyres onto them, the newer alloys needed spacers on the rear wheels but as soon as that was sorted the car started to look a bit neater - I have kept the originals to be refurbished at some point for winter wheels
new wheel badges, front and rear VW badges and a grille badge made things a lot tidier... the side skirt covers had been removed at some point, probably due to rust, so I replaced them... then realised that I wasn't getting anywhere with the bumpers - the usual 'my bumper is grey' problem!
so... clawed about on the internet and found this forum
where someone mentioned kiwi boot polish... a bit of that and then some autoglym bumper snot and I was a happy bunny!
this is the car at the end of July 2007
so anyway.. i was finding a problem which was becoming a PITA... every time I used AG bumper snot and washed my car all the bubbles would be wrecked and washing the car would be very difficult... I searched about a bit more and came across car washing advice and started using meguiars products and the two bucket method... this I have stuck to religiously ever since...
i have spent a
fortune on megs products (and now other branded car cleaning products) and this has totally transformed the look of the car... it was about this time that I clayed the car for the first time and then was spending days on each different section of the car... i thought nothing of spending an entire morning or evening cleaning the inside of the boot or a door... obsessive, yes, but I knew the car was capable of coming up trumps. finding things like detailing sprays, decent pet hair removal brushes etc made life so much easier.
by this point was spending more and more time on the golfgtiforum and was learning more and more from being a relative newbie/late starter... i had been totally knocked away by the friendly welcome and advice on here... pat yourselves on the back!
started getting itchy feet on the mod front by this point... first thing that I wanted to change were the lights... the orange indicator covers were beginning to do my head in... so crystal repeaters went in along with some crystal front indicators and crystal dummy fogs (the crystal front indicators have proven to be a bad buy and I am looking for some better quality ones)
October 2007
so now I reached a small crossroads... do i continue or leave as nearly standard.. decided on making subtle mods that won't show too much
had had the car for about a year... serviced and put new dizzy cap and HT leads on... nice and responsive again... flew through MOT even though the rear bushes are totally knackered...
popped mk4 stylee aero wipers on - they are brilliant and will recommend them to anyone... have made the wiper arms look a bit proud though so will need to sort that out?
did some hunting about late november and found some 16" BBS RX II's... they aren't in the best state and need a little bit of a refub
had to clean them up a bit to see what state they were in...
turned out nice again... will probably get the rims polished and keep the centres OEM
about this time I also fitted K&N too... haven't noticed much difference tbh... although I haven't unplugged the other end yet!
