Silver B4, in SoCal

Digital Corpus · Feb 17, 2010

I'm thinking about various places to take some really good photos of my car. Until then, here is a recent snap I took after I got it washed. I have a front end cover I usually have on it, but more pics will come later when I find the time and other transportation to drive me and my car on the freeway to take some photos while there is snow on our mountains.

The side markers aren't the cheap clear corners. I'm using the fluted clear plastic from them. I'm also trying different finishes between silver and chrome, which should be finalized over my next weekend, to see how it works with the car and then I'll silicone everything back together. Have to do an LED conversion of my OE taillights which I'm eagerly getting ready for.

VWWV · Feb 17, 2010

VERY nice! I don't understand what you are saying about "silver and chrome" finishes? Also, what tire size do you have on there? Nice wide stance.

Digital Corpus · Feb 17, 2010

The reflectors are obviously chromed. They are OE though so the chrome has faded/fogged up. Tried a chrome paint, but the reflection is still somewhat diffuse even after some burnishing so it has more of a silver look like the car instead of a chrome look like the headlights.

I have regular 14's on there. Not a VW OE wheel though and that fine since they weigh in at about 9 lbs each. I may bump up to 10 lb 16" in the future, but finding a higher quality tire while keeping the same radius is difficult.

Mirrors and the bumper frame around the grill and headlights needs to be repainted with all the little pits and dings it has gotten over time. Have to take car of 2 other minor dings from the previous owner on the driver side rear bumper and body too.

alcrash · Mar 14, 2010

How, where did you get the front grill without the emblem?

AndrewM · Mar 16, 2010

The more important question is, what is the car parked next to you? I've been trying to figure it out for some time now.

Digital Corpus · Mar 18, 2010

The badgeless grill is made my JOM. I picked it up on ebay from them for about 15 bucks cheaper than their site iirc.

'89 honda Civic is the other car. Sold to another member of the family when I bought my B4.

I still need to take proper pictures of this car. Too bad I have a broken fog light

Digital Corpus · Mar 30, 2010

alcrash said:
How, where did you get the front grill without the emblem?

More specifically, since it is still up as a regular for sale item on ebay:
Badge-less grill

surfbus · Aug 30, 2010

DC nice clean looking car, can you post some pictures of your interior mods ?

I'm thinking of buying a shift boot from the site linked in your sig. Mine is torn up, i really appreciate you sharing the sites with the forum.

I was specifically flirting the idea of buying the black leather boot and e-brake, the ones with red sew seam accents for my Tornado Red TDI B4. I think they would spice up my interior without going over the top, a little GTI style.

Digital Corpus · Sep 1, 2010

I'm still cleaning things up inside. The soft touch paint has been peeling so I stripped it down and repainted with a gloss plastic paint. I was thinking the gloss would be too shiny, but with the texture of the plastic from underneath, it's just fine. I have a few misc things I need to finish cleaning and restoring before posting photos though.

john.jackson9213 · Sep 8, 2010

What is "the soft touch paint"?

Looking for something to "recoat/repaint" my interior plastic on the door handle and arm rest. Any ideas?

Thanks

JJ

P.S. Finally got the MPG I expected on a 468 mile trip from Portland to Red Bluff, ca. on I-5. Drove about 55 all the way. Result = 48.8 mpg. Way too slow, so I dropped the hammer the rest of the way home. Will fill it up later today and see what speed costs.

Digital Corpus said:
I'm still cleaning things up inside. The soft touch paint has been peeling so I stripped it down and repainted with a gloss plastic paint. I was thinking the gloss would be too shiny, but with the texture of the plastic from underneath, it's just fine. I have a few misc things I need to finish cleaning and restoring before posting photos though.

Digital Corpus · Sep 8, 2010

The soft touch paint is the crap that wears poorly with age that is on the interior handles & knobs that kind feels like rubber.

I had to strip all of the soft touch paint off first before I repainted what I have. To do that, I used Easy Off Oven Cleaner. It's active ingredient is lye, also known as caustic soda or chemically as sodium hydroxide. You need to wear gloves else it'll eat your skin

. It will not damage the plastic, but strips paint of most kinds with relative ease. To repaint, I just picked up some plastic paint from Home Depot. They only had gloss, no semi-gloss, but I don't mind the look for what it's worth.

Define drop the hammer? Can you give us some more info as to how many miles were at one speed and how many were at 55?
Driving 55 requires 2 different things: 1) a different mindset and approach to driving, 2) suitable traffic conditions, which ae hard to come by.

john.jackson9213 · Sep 9, 2010

Thanks for the "how to" on the soft touch paint. Much better than what I was planning to do.

By "drop the hammer" I ment run with the flow of traffic on I-5 all the way home. Speed was between 70 and 90. Engine rpm was generally 2500 to 2800. 749 miles and 39.365 mpg or 9.5 mpg less than at 55

473 miles at an indicated 55, rpm was below 2000, say 1800. Makes me want to do a longer 5th gear when I get the clutch replaced soon.

Digital Corpus said:
The soft touch paint is the crap that wears poorly with age that is on the interior handles & knobs that kind feels like rubber.

I had to strip all of the soft touch paint off first before I repainted what I have. To do that, I used Easy Off Oven Cleaner. It's active ingredient is lye, also known as caustic soda or chemically as sodium hydroxide. You need to wear gloves else it'll eat your skin . It will not damage the plastic, but strips paint of most kinds with relative ease. To repaint, I just picked up some plastic paint from Home Depot. They only had gloss, no semi-gloss, but I don't mind the look for what it's worth.

Define drop the hammer? Can you give us some more info as to how many miles were at one speed and how many were at 55?
Driving 55 requires 2 different things: 1) a different mindset and approach to driving, 2) suitable traffic conditions, which ae hard to come by.

Digital Corpus · Apr 3, 2011

So per a request of which I may post about later if a new thread isn't made by the project creator, I have 3 new photos to add up here of my B4. Unfortunately due to some hardware problems, I have lost my Photoshop PSDs so I only have this one jpeg to tease with until I redo the work after I wake up

Thanks to the powers of Photoshop I did not need to wash my car and I only needed 1 light source even though the composite shows 2

Digital Corpus · Apr 3, 2011

Here are the other two

NBnext · Apr 11, 2011

Very Nice!

Digital Corpus · Apr 11, 2011

Thanks!

Digital Corpus · Sep 9, 2011

Took a couple photos of my newly painted and rust-free valve cover. I had some blue left over too:

aslspiderman · Sep 30, 2011

I love a nice clean motor. I'm curious, would that intake manifold and egr work on my 98 AHU?

Digital Corpus · Sep 30, 2011

That area is clean, but the whole engine needs for TLC with degreaser and water.

Yes and no. It's not a stock fit. I no longer have an EGR cooler and a different EGR, 038131501AF or 038131501AN, would work better as they don't have a anti-shutter valve you'd have to lock open. The absence of a ASV reduces it's length by about an inch so the deformation in the silicone adapter wouldn't be present with that valve as well. EGR valves are expensive

Digital Corpus · Oct 4, 2012

It's been over a year since I've posted photos of my TDI, but I've been taking a lot recently. Have a look over in the TDI Driving Challenge Thread and this little ditty where I've been swapping out regular bulbs with CCFLs

Silver B4, in SoCal

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