My MK4 Golf brought back to life

Tintman718

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2011
Location
nyc
TDI
99.5 Golf (5-spd), '10 Golf (6-spd), '12 Touareg
Over the past two years I have transformed my '99.5 Golf. I have replaced damn near every serviceable item. The original paint was in terrible shape with plenty of dents. The custom paint color is called Nimbus Grey from an Audi. Completely debadged. Here is what it looks like now:

Early in my ownership hauling 800 lbs of scrap metal. This was the "good side" of the car:

All stripped down for the respray:

Turning my garage into a paint booth:
First coat of primer:
Painting done:

EDIT: Just reminiscing. Trying to dig up these old pics.










 
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Tintman718

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2011
Location
nyc
TDI
99.5 Golf (5-spd), '10 Golf (6-spd), '12 Touareg
My lovely wife was very helpful in organizing all the little parts for me. These are just some of the parts:

Beginning my 01M-to-02J swap with a beat up donor:

I drove the donor car before pulling the trans. It shifted totally fine. Not good enough for me. Tear down time:

After rebuilding:

01m on the left. My rebuilt 02J on the right just before dropping it in:

My 02J has the early 02A-type shift tower. One of the weakest points is that crappy plastic slider on this arm. I made my own replacement out of steel. It should outlast the car:

Some other nick-nacks during the swap, including GLI front brakes and stainless lines:


Made my own swaybar endlinks with SKF joints.

So what do you do when your coilover spring breaks and the manufacturer is out of stock? Weld it! I did eventually replace it.
 
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Tintman718

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2011
Location
nyc
TDI
99.5 Golf (5-spd), '10 Golf (6-spd), '12 Touareg
Control arm bushings after only 36k miles in new york city:


The final product:
 

Ski in NC

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 7, 2008
Location
Wilmington, NC USA
TDI
2001 Jetta ALH 5sp stock
Nice work. Car looks great!!!

Love that photo... "CRAP METAL"!!

One critique: Welding springs is a no-no. Heat treatment of springs is critical and once welded the heat treatment is lost. It will break. Replace it.
 

BlankThis

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2012
Location
Montreal, QC
TDI
2002 Golf GLS TDI
My mouth dropped. You sir are the definition of a true VW owner.

No matter what the cost.
No matter how long it takes.

I wish I could afford to/have the skills to have my body trued and resprayed.

Beautiful car, the colour is gorgeous!
 

Tintman718

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2011
Location
nyc
TDI
99.5 Golf (5-spd), '10 Golf (6-spd), '12 Touareg
Thank you all for the wonderful comments!

You are very skilled! Did you teach yourself?
I was a mechanic for a short time and now I study Mechanical Engineering. I design and manufacture mechanical parts so servicing them is not a big deal for me. I do it passionately. I originally took my trans to a "reputable" transmission shop for fear that I would have to spend too much money on special tools. The scumbag torched one of my bearings blue and wanted to charge me $500 labor to replace it, on top of the $150 charge to open up the case. I made him dump all the parts in a box and I walked out. In retrospect, my rebuild would have been a lot easier if I was the one that tore it down. I basically started off with a puzzle. Thank goodness for ETKA!

As far as the bodywork is concerned, I had a bit of experience painting a handful bumpers; that's all. The guys at the autobody supply store were very helpful with advise. All told I spent $900 on paint and supplies. That, plus about 200+ hours of labor!
 

vdubdezl

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2007
Location
FL
TDI
06 Jetta TDI 5MT, 05 Honda Odyssey EX-L
great paint work and color choice! It's great to see someone try something out of their comfort zone a bit and it turn out so well. Great job! Love the wheels too!
 

Hyde7278

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2012
Location
Central Mich
TDI
2001 Golf GL
I've always liked that color. Have only seen it on a few TT's that came into the Audi dealer that I worked at. Nice job
 

Combine17

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2010
Location
Ontario - Hamilton
TDI
2001 Golf GTD
so what did you do with the tranny? took it apart..cleaned it and put it back in? im thinking of doing the same thing with mine...any difference ?
 

Corsair

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2003
Location
Weedsport, New York
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS TDI 5M
Kudos! My hat is off to you!

Honestly, I prefer stock look most often, but I REALLY like what you did. That nimbus grey looks great with the black wheels. I admire all the other stuff you did. Really nice!
 

aja8888

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 25, 2007
Location
Texas..RETIRED 12/31/17
TDI
Out of TDI's
Nice job!;)

Question:

I have done a bit of two part paint work in my garage over the years (and this year!). I have always had trouble with ventilation using plastic sheeting to build a booth. What did you do to handle/remove fumes, especially when applying clear coat?

Thanks, Tony
 

kcunniff

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2013
Location
Southwest Florida
TDI
2005 Golf GLS BEW (5spd)
Kudos! My hat is off to you!

Honestly, I prefer stock look most often, but I REALLY like what you did. That nimbus grey looks great with the black wheels. I admire all the other stuff you did. Really nice!
Agree 100% on all points. Well done!
 

tongsli

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 31, 2000
Location
Baltimore, MD
TDI
2000 Jetta TDI, 2004, Jetta Wagon TDI PD
Over the past two years I have transformed my '99.5 Golf. I have replaced damn near every serviceable item. The original paint was in terrible shape with plenty of dents. The custom paint color is called Nimbus Grey from an Audi. Completely debadged. Here is what it looks like now:


Early in my ownership hauling 800 lbs of scrap metal. This was the "good side" of the car:

All stripped down for the respray:

Turning my garage into a paint booth:



First coat of primer:

Painting done:


awesome
 

Tintman718

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2011
Location
nyc
TDI
99.5 Golf (5-spd), '10 Golf (6-spd), '12 Touareg
so what did you do with the tranny? took it apart..cleaned it and put it back in? im thinking of doing the same thing with mine...any difference ?
The trans had 200k highway miles. Cleaned & inspected first. I replaced a total of 3 worn bearings. All of the gears and cogs looked great and the synchros were well within wear specs. Other than that I scrubbed and painted it, then installed all new seals along with a complete clutch assembly.

Kudos! My hat is off to you!

Honestly, I prefer stock look most often, but I REALLY like what you did. That nimbus grey looks great with the black wheels. I admire all the other stuff you did. Really nice!
Thanks a lot. I know you don't see much of this on TDIclub.

Nice job!;)
Question:
I have done a bit of two part paint work in my garage over the years (and this year!). I have always had trouble with ventilation using plastic sheeting to build a booth. What did you do to handle/remove fumes, especially when applying clear coat?
Thanks, Tony
Tony, I just took it like a man. No seriously, I probably took a few years off my life since I had no ventilation system at all. The problem with plastic sheeting is that any pressure differential will either pull the plastic inward or outward. If I were to do it over again I would do cross-flow ventilation. Something simple with a square-housing fan and air filter mounted in a cardboard box might help. Honestly, you need quite a bit of flow if you want to eliminate the fumes. Have you ever seen a nice paint booth? The entire ceiling is covered in filters. It's very difficult to mimic that unfortunately.
 

aja8888

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 25, 2007
Location
Texas..RETIRED 12/31/17
TDI
Out of TDI's
Tony, I just took it like a man. No seriously, I probably took a few years off my life since I had no ventilation system at all. The problem with plastic sheeting is that any pressure differential will either pull the plastic inward or outward. If I were to do it over again I would do cross-flow ventilation. Something simple with a square-housing fan and air filter mounted in a cardboard box might help. Honestly, you need quite a bit of flow if you want to eliminate the fumes. Have you ever seen a nice paint booth? The entire ceiling is covered in filters. It's very difficult to mimic that unfortunately.
Thanks for the reply and really nice looking job!

I repainted a fender and nose piece the same way this summer. I did have a 3M organic vapor mask on and that was minimal protection for the isocyanates in the clear hardener. But the clear really makes a cloud. I ended up opening the garage door a few inches. Next time I will do what you say with a a box filter and fan as I had thought in that direction myself.
 

duwem

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Location
Wi
TDI
2002 Golf GLS TDI 5 Speed
Looks great. Part number of SKF heim joints?
 

JB05

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 20, 2005
Location
Il.USA
TDI
Golf,2005,anthracite blue
I did a search on the photo sharing gallery, but these pics were not there. I too would like to see them.
 

brandonkraemer

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Location
Cincinnati, Ohio
TDI
2003 TDI 1.9L 5spd ALH VE mkIV Jetta Wagon
I'm thinking this was the car I remembered seeing on here with the Nimbus Grey finish and orange accents for calipers, which looked awesome, or was that someone else's project?
 

Tintman718

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2011
Location
nyc
TDI
99.5 Golf (5-spd), '10 Golf (6-spd), '12 Touareg
Long gone but not forgotten. I've bought about 80 VW's since this baby and honestly I miss her the most.
 
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