Bay Area Beetle Build Thread

I have been Thinking about building another tdi for a while now so I have decided on a car that most people would never expect be very fast.
The base will be a 1998 New Beetle. The main objective of the build is to have a fun car that handles very well and has very good throtle response. I have owned many tdis but my first tdi was a new beetle so i have a soft spot for the beetle. Here is a short list of parts we installing. im sure there will be changes along the way and more more added as we progress. I want to thank Kerma Tdi for doing this build with us and we look foward seeing the progress this car gets.

Motor will be the alh 1.9
Kerma Top Secret k3 Turbo
Cylinder head will be ported and possible over sized valves
Bosio Race 520 stage 2 injectors (Kerma TDI)
PD150 intake (may change to the Kerma intake)
Colt cam stage 2 (Kerma tdi)
2" intercooler pipes
Custom intake piping and filter
Front mount intercooler
custom exhaust
Eibach front and Rear Sway bars
Bilstein HD "Yellows" Struts
Cross drilled and slotted Rotors
Vw 5 spoke 17" rims with
245-50-17 toyo proxies
1.25 lowering springs
Alternative Solutions Camber Kit
Alternative Solutions Front Strut Bar
Alternative Solutions Rear Strut Bar
Custom Jdm Race Seat
Projector Headlights
Altezza Rear Tail lights
Aftermarket Bodykit (not sure which style leaning toward AVS)
Custom sound system 12" single alipine sub , Memphis 1000w amp ,
Infinity door speakers, bluetooth deck with color change display
Custom interior panels trim black
To top it off Flat Black Wrap for the beetle when its all done!!!!

Im open to suggestions if anyone would also like to see other things added.

first pic

Headlights and Taillights

Ok so we put in the projector headlights and tail lights. Here are some pictures. The beetle headlights are always challenging putting them in but it was well worth it. Took her for a drive tonight light are brighter than stock but definitely need to be adjusted. The left front head light points straight while the right front head light points a bit too high and to the right. Taillights went in some what smooth but the rear right side had a decent gap when installed. We realized the casting was a bit off and the bumper tab needed to be trimmed on the inside to rotate the taillight to the right. Gap was reduced greatly. I will put in a custom seal on both sides of the tail lights later.
cheers!!!

Progress

Ok so today we modified the Aftermarket seats to mount in the factory location. This was challenging because the beetle seats not only slide and mount to the chassis but also have an adjustable ride hight. We decided to use the factory location for structural reasons and decided to make the ride hight fixed . This involved cutting the factory bracket off the old seats and making a spacer to the drivers preference and boxing in the frame to mount to the adjustable seat sliders. In the end we wrapped the seat brackets with Diamond plate for more of a custom feel.

02j upgrade

So as some of you know the 98 02j manual transmission has a different shifter tower than the later mk4 02j . We wanted to put a better shifter in the car and to do this we would have to change the shifter tower. Instead of changing the shifter tower we put in a tdi 5 speed built for 575ft/lbs. Cryo Treated, Peloquin LSD with a dc stage 4 clutch and new shifter with cables. Thanks to chriskorwan and our great shipping company we received the transmission Next Day Air from New York to California by Southwest air.
We immediately pulled the side trans cover and replaced the 5th gear with a .681 ratio. Next we steam cleaned the 02j and gave it a make over with Fire Red High Temp Engine Enamel.

sounds like this is gonna be a fun project!

and today

Yes its turning out to be an even funner project than we thought . We were looking at the sub frame and wanted to get away from the ugly look the subframe portrays. We decided to strip the subframe and the control arms to bare metal and clear coat them . I really liked the look. I feel as it gives the beetle a little more style while looking tough at the same time. heres a few snaps from the work!

Some Suspension Shots

We took a couple snaps of the suspension. The Struts/Shocks are the Blistein HD "yellows". We have to say the ride is amazing.We would expect a performance shock to be rough but the bilstein is well tuned and graceful. Next we added a 1 inch lowering spring 280lbs . This defiantly made the ride stiffer and not as graceful but the performance was worth the sacrifice. The springs and struts were a definite performance increase. The beetle Seemed to want to dive into the turns and was much more stable .
We decided to add Eibach Front and Rear Sway Bars. This was a Great addition to the combo. The beetle now taunts you into wanting to dive into the corners with out fear. This in conjunction to the 245-50-17 Toyo Proxies has made the experience of the beetle to another level. Some have asked why we chose to go with the bilstien "yellow" strut / spring combo over a coil set up such as the bilstien pss9. I have first hand experience installing , settting up and tuning the pss9 and I have to say the ride is a bit to rough for everyday street driving. The suspension seems to unload a bit too much for my liking under hard acceleration and rough roads.With the bilstein "yellow" set up I feel as its more predictable and controllable. We only got pics of the rear so I will post the front struts tomorrow. We Also took a few pics of the subframe cleared and installed. I think it looks really neat.