So I have had the car for over 3 years now, and never done a thread about it at all, I am more of a reader than a poster, but thought I might as well, as its will be coming to an end soon…………………I knew I wanted a mk4 when I first drove my mates 1.4, almost 4 years a go now. So this will be a look back and a build thread…..I waited until I had finished uni before buying….17th July 2006 I came home with this:
First Picture - Day I drove it back from Ruislip.
Flat Black, 2000 Mk4 1.8T 97k AGU engined Golf, tints all round, mint Montreals, but everything else needed work. – I got it cheap at the time!
One of the first things I did was have it serviced, and the cambelt and water pump replaced.
On top of Salisbury plain, after a coat of Clearkote Hand Glaze and Vanilla Moose Wax
I then made a mistake (in my eyes, didnt fit into what i wanted), a kamei grill, only stayed on for a month before I changed my mind:
I will skip ahead a few chapters, as I cannot find any pictures, basically I got a Enfig 2000 aerial, from the group buy on here, and fitted a rear aero wiper, plus w8 light and loom from Shaq. Reiger gear knob from America, Kamei grill removed and black badges added:
Now I am bit of a bargain hunter, and a real impulse buyer, and saw a full miltek system with sports cat down in Yeovil, snapped that up as quick as I could: £220 lighter and a ridiculous 3hour traffic jam on the a303…
Spool up was better, plus a green panel filter added not long after this made a slight difference….
October 2007, I had finally decided that I wanted coilovers, after reading a few posts and talking to Jody at Midlandvw, I stumped up the cash for some Jamex. coilovers, top mounts, bearings, bushes all round…………..i actually forgot my pin number when I was paying for that lot 
:
Not a huge drop (-30mm), but being a country boy, any lower and id be looking at new sumps every month!
I had been thinking about wheels for AGES, and in November 2007 I had decided that Audi TT Competition alloys were it (more because a really good deal appeared which I couldn’t turn down)…………needed a refurb, but the tyres did last me a good year:
Just fitted….24th November 2007
1st December 2007 – Wet and windy, but nice and clean (for 5mins!)
Now nothing much happened for a while, as I go off the boil during the winter, but I do remember I picked up completely (all handles) new Netoptic Trim for the interior, and bought a couple of sets of the console bits, and mixed and matched until I had the perfect set! (sold on the rest). End of 2007 beginning of 2008, the Bora Vents were sorted, including creating an oem loom (all the correct plugs). Whiteline rear ARB was fitted, and front upper and lower strut braces were added. The ARB as expected made the biggest difference, as well as the addition of a Forge 007p.
Feb 2008 - I changed the front badge back to Chrome, and the rear to the smaller colour coded Sharan one (no pictures of this bit)
March 2008 – alloys were refurbed, I had the centre and inlays (?) painted in gunmetal grey, and the spokes repolished, and all relaquered, and found the correct sized centre caps:
1st June 2008 – Ready for a meet at Brean Beach! (sorry a bit blurry…..), luckily I bought the R-Line bra when you could still buy them for £50, calipers painted red just in time for this...
I was itching to start doing more things to it (like bigger brakes), but my coilovers which had been squeaking for at least 12months previous, had started to get on my nerves, and I realized I should really get that sorted first. I had the rears replaced with a brand new set of Jamex shocks, which was stopped the squeaking! Unfortunately it was around this time (September 2008) I then started to have huge problems with hesitation and the like. I changed the MAF and temp sender, which made little to no difference, upgraded all the DV hoses (which admittedly needed doing anyways, that top pipe fell apart in my hands!), I was already on my 2nd Ignition Amplifier so assumed it was ok, so moved on to Coilpacks and Cables. This went on for a few months, looking at parts, testing parts. At that same time, my thermostat failed, being an optimist I changed the temp sender first (my 3rd), found it was actually the thermostat. 24th December 2008 it was replaced!
Feb 2009, I found the cause of the hesitation – ignition amplifier!.....winter still/snow a combination of couldn’t be bothered, and not in the mood meant nothing happened until June. I had a week off so started painting things…….
Satin black mirror covers…
Satin black grill….subtle but I like them!
In the same week 15mm hubcentric rear spacers were fitted, another eBay bargain...the bolts cost more than the spacers themselves!! And a good price for a Newsouth gauge and pod came up on the forum, so I had that.
Also fitted one of those hole less rear parking sensors (works ok I guess, a good indicator, took a few alterations to get it working almost perfect!), a very nice member on here gave me some better side indicator markers, and sold me his single CD dash (which I had been after for ages...thanks Jimmy 
).
27th June 2009 – Smooth Tailgate fitted, a member on the forum was breaking his car, and I pounced on the opportunity of a ready made smoothed tailgate. Including the solenoid, and popper, and even better he fitted and did the wiring for me!
old one off!
What a mess….currently connected through ignition live, I may rewire it to permanent live though….(Reiger gear knob here, bit marmite but I do like it.)
finished and working…<video to be added>
You wouldn’t know from this distance but it’s actually the wrong colour black!
17th July I had another week off, so it was headliner retrim time! I knew I wanted to do it, just not had the guts to get on…….the side trims were done in black
Halfway through here, I actually did both of these twice, as I wasn’t happy with the first attempt!
When I came to the headliner I first tried a striped suit cloth, it looked really good on its own, but when it was combined in the car with the other trims it didn’t quite work. Luckily in November 07, I had already replaced my original with a brand new one which I found on ebay for £45, I decided to re-trim that one in black like the side trims…
Its good, but not perfect…….and unfortunately its just annoying me….so I have now picked up a 3rd headliner and about to retrim that one…(next week!)
August 2008 - As you may remember, if you have got this far, I had the Jamex coilovers for almost 3 years, with the 2nd set of rear shocks fitted only 9 months previous - while I was having a G60 flywheel, and VR6 clutch fitted at easter (£50 breaker for the flywheel, £89 for the clutch, £200 fitted), I was told that the one of the rears was leaking. 1 month later they had all gone, and the ride was terrible!! Back on the phone to Midlandvw to see what my options were, and I decided to "upgrade" to Weitec GT Hicons. Have to say i was not disappointed, the ride was firm, but much more comfortable in my opinion, and you can tell where the extra money goes! At the same time I had my dogbone mount poly bushed, vibrations are apparent, but I feel more connected, so i can live with it!
So this is where we are now pretty much up to date, satin black handles and other bits (I have already decided to change them all to matt black, satin is too shiny for inside!)
Button to pop the boot (might get a different one, not sure this A8 one quite fits into the greater scheme) under the handbrake…admittedly a stolen idea, but such a good one!
The spacers really sorted out the stance really nice, just about right….not sure if I need any on the fronts or not yet?
My photo skills are to be desired….
He is bit of a moody cat, wouldn’t sit any closer……
The Future: I have already picked up some abs replica anniversary side skirts from a member (tgorman) back in June; I am going to be having the seats re-trimmed in the next month or so from a local guy, while he is at it he will be putting in the heated seat pads. Loom will be added later. Ill be on the look out for renewing/reviewing all the engine pipes and upgrading them, as well as a FMIC. A full respray is on the cards for March next year, which will include colour coding the valances, possible r-line bumper is in the works, and fitting the skirts, and after that ill be looking at turbos! KO3s hybrid? (then again I am always looking, bargains and impulse shopping is what its about!!)
The car is now on 140k miles and still going strong, I plan to keep going until it dies, then swap the engine. I still love to drive it 3 years on!!
Additions to above: Connect2 Ipod link April 2008, (Dension to replace it, which has been sat on my desk for the past year!), glove box replaced at the same time, Painted gloss black engine covers April 2009, (ill add a picture later), Bright White Interior LEDs all round July 2009, 3 major things I have got which I totally forgot, whiteline adjustable rear ARB, front upper and lower strut braces, and spacers!
Update 21st September 2009 - Interior Shots
I got another headliner, and recovered it in black, not because the previous one wasn't good, but more i wanted to do it better. I would say its now 98% perfect! the pictures speak for themselves, black is back!
Almost finished changing the interior parts to matt black too, i really really like how the sunglasses holder came out, it was originally beige! (thanks ben 
)
and my w8 light came out pretty good too, gonna leave the buttons like that, i like the contrast:
just a daytime shot of the boost guage, you know what they look like...will probably get this covered professionally when i have time\money:
and lastly the passat wingmirror switch, using the guide off vwvortex, this was a piece of cake mod, pretty subtle but looks great in the dark! (shoulda cleaned it before taking pictures 
)
.
Updates 27th September 2009
Finished of the interior trim plastics today, all matt black now, including the interior sensors, also converted them both to white leds 
(alot easier than i expected!, just a bit fiddly)
Today I decided i better put its winter coat of wax on, so took a few pics after:
6th December 2009 Update - new seats
On friday I went up to a trimmer in north london. I had wanted a set
for at least a year, only in the last 6months had i seriously started
planning on getting the money together to do it, I did have a retrimmer
lined up to do them over christmas, until golfedd (
) pointed
me to these on ebay (some of you might have seen them in the ebay
thread). So after a quick chat on the phone on thursday, I had taken a
day off work and gone up. They are so close to what i wanted that it
was too good a deal to pass up, only thing missing was the heated
elements (which I had already pre bought), came to a deal with the guy
to add them while i waited. 2 hours later, he had fitted the seats, and the door cards, and swapped over all the bits i
wanted to keep................ (for those that are interested they are
gen recaros, with extra foam added to the seat for support, and comfort)
big thanks to edd again for taking the pics for me (in the dark and rain ]. im clueless, i quite liked these.
14th December 2009 - Update
My headlights were baaaaaaaaaad, really chipped, almost cloudy. I
had been wanting to do this mod for a while, just to see how it was
done, and if i could do it, just to say thanks to antvw for the lenses
(though i did break one, and have to buy another ), but i persevered - ill let my bad pictures do the talking:
