Rob C's Mk2 Jetta

Thought it was about time I got round to sorting out a build thread for my Jetta. Never done one before so please bare with me

I have a varied car history with my first car being a Rover Metro followed by Mk3 Fiesta, Astra, Mk2 Golf GL, Fiesta Xr2, Fiesta Xr2i, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] , [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and now the Jetta!!

Anyway, in October 2010 I was off work for a few weeks ill, and got very very bored, and ended up flicking through the for sale ads on Edition38 just for entertainment value. I already had a Polo 6n 16v that I had spent a fair bit of money on and spent many hours sorting out problems…

Flicking through the ads I came across a Mk2 Golf GTI 8v, in Red, with the Zender kit etc which looked quite nice, a little different, which is what I like... I also found a nice looking Blue Jetta very nearby. Emailed both sellers, and got a reply from the Golf owner, so a week later I went up to have a look, its was nice, but needed more work than I wanted todo, and just didn’t grab me, so walked away.

I was a little sad that I hadn’t heard from the guy with the Jetta, until the following day I had a PM from him!! Arranged to go and have a look a few nights after, as soon as I saw the jetta I LOVED it, took it for a test drive, had a good look around, nearly a years MOT and barely any tax… Well to cut a long story short I left a deposit for Jetta (minus the alloys, not my cuppa tea!!), and went home to break the news that I had bought another car!!

First stop is a few history pictures of the Jetta, this is from when DirtyDubs first got their hands on it (before the previous owner). It was in a bit of a sorry state

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After a lot of hard work and love they got it looking A LOT better and back to its former glory (excuse the poopy wheels, they were the previous owner's choice)

At this stage it had been lowered on -40mm FK Struts and Springs and everything else was pretty original and standard.

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Now this is where I came along and bought the Mighty Jetta (A family member calls it this, and has stuck) I didn’t like the alloys at all, so got it with the standard steels which were better anyway in my opinion. At this stage I had a few things that I wanted to sort out and a few plans of what I wanted todo.

Firstly I replaced the front VW badge with a Black one (Stolen from my 6n before I sold it), replaced the window scrapers and rubbers as they were rusty/shrunk, changed the orange indicators to smoked ones, new gear gator, Oem G60 steering wheel, replaced the black handle inserts with VW metal ones and fitted a new headunit. I hunted around for ages to get hold of a rear VW badge, and didn’t realise how difficult they were to find, eventually found one and sprayed it black (I spent nearly a week doing this as wanted it to be perfect and last). Then was time for a proper clean, polish and wax. This is how it stood at this point. Progress was slow due to money and time so this brings me upto around March 2011 time.

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I was happy with the Jetta at this point, but it needed nice wheels and lowering, so that was my next task… Spent quite a while looking for wheels, and settled on a set of Estorils to stay OEM+, I stripped these down of paint and laquer and started the gruesome task of going through different grades of sandpaper to get a mirror polished finished… I got very bored and a bit frustrated, so back on Edition38 and the hunt continued… Which ended up with me picking up some Banded G60’s (8” wide, ET9 “I think”) from Bracknell, with only storage marks on the rims and pretty much brand new tyres!! Straight on the Jetta they went.

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Ran them for a day or so and then took them off due to slight rubbing and the tracking being out… BUT this just showed me even more how much I needed the Jetta lowering, but the problem was going to be the arches catching even more once lowered.

Then I did a deal with a guy for some old alloys I had and a week or so later had a brand new set of JOM Coilovers in my possession.

Firstly I tackled the rear suspension as I thought it would be the easiest, and it was!! All done and was just waiting for a friend to give me a hand with the fronts… After debating whether to send the Jetta off to get the arches cut etc, a guy of Edition38 offered me the loan of his arch roller so I could get going, which was AMAZING, so off came all the trim and I rolled and pulled all four arches as flat as possible.

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I then got the front suspension fitted and lowered it to where I wanted, fitted the front G60’s and it was brilliant, nearly exactly how I pictured it minus the missing trim and positive camber on the front wheels. Got the camber & tracking done, then sealed all the arches and refitted all the trim. I then used Forever Black to dye all the black trim and this stuff is amazing, I spent a long time doing it but looks brand new!!

Then a few weekends ago I decided to put a new radiator and water hoses in, and thought that while I was there I might as well change the Heater Matrix and related pipes too. As had a small leak from the radiator and barely and heat from the heater… Very very daunting as im an IT guy and have never done anything like this… But was all good in the end and managed to do it on my own with no issues!!

Any way, so this is how the Jetta stands right now!!

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Got a few things left that I want todo:
Get a new rear numberplate tub (as one side has a crack in it )
Maybe a little more camber on the rear and space out a tiny bit
Upgrade speakers
Make boot a bit more presentable

Thanks for reading/looking, and any comments/criticisms welcome

AWESOME love the colour! although im slightly biased as mine is blue too

Awesome work bud looks amazing on the new steels

Thanks for the comments Considering doing the wheels silver now though... hmmm

At last bud good to see it go to a good home i loved that car as standard and i still love it now! top work good to see it on the road not just parked outside the gym you tart!

i love your car! can i have it?lol! good work dude. how hard is it to roll the arches? ive been thinking of doing it to mine, 9j rears and 8j fronts do love a abit of rubber on metal action.

where abouts in west sussex are ya? i just noticed your location.

Dirtydubber wrote:At last bud good to see it go to a good home i loved that car as standard and i still love it now! top work good to see it on the road not just parked outside the gym you tart!

Thanks Still keep meaning to pop over and say "Hi", it only hasn't been outside the Gym much as only just getting back into my routine after being away and then ill!! Haha!!

Robbie1885! wrote:i love your car! can i have it?lol! good work dude. how hard is it to roll the arches? ive been thinking of doing it to mine, 9j rears and 8j fronts do love a abit of rubber on metal action.

Thanks I didn't find it too hard rolling the arches, but the doing the rears is much more scary than the fronts, but all in all not too bad. The fronts were really easy, rolled them to just above 45 degrees and then put a piece of rubber on the lip and on the outside of the arch and used mole grips to get the lip completely flat

Robbie1885! wrote:where abouts in west sussex are ya? i just noticed your location.

I am over near Chichester, you were PM'ing me about a locking wheel bolt remover (if you still need a hand, give me a shout )