2003 Beetle TDI 5 speed rebuild

This is my 2003 TDI... owned since new (Nov 2002)... it currently has 555,000+ km on it and was restored Nov 2014-June 2015, which included a complete disassembly of the body, removal of all rust and new metal replacement... and custom bare metal paint... the VW hood logo, "Beetle" across hatch, and stripes are all painted and airbrushed, no decals...


Mods include:
1) 17/22 turbo, 2) 216 injectors, 3) Malone Stage 4 tune, 4) limited slip differential, 5) SB stage 3 endurance clutch, 6) rebuilt transmission (manual), 7) Raxle "bullet proof" axles, 8) high performance head gasket with ARP head studs, 9) SS turbo back 2.5" exhaust with SS 2.5" downpipe, 10) SS braided oil line, 11) 3 Bar MAP sensor, 12) Aluminum skid pan, 13) Bernt wiper cowl, 14) Bernt 3 gauge instrument pod (the Bernt products were very difficult to source), 15) NewSouth Boost, EGT, Oil Temp gauges, 16) 18" O.Z. rims with custom paint, 17) Colt Cam Stage 2, 18) Eibach front and rear sway bars, 19) Adjustable Eibach springs, 20) Koni shocks, 21) HID headlights, 22) LED foglamps that use a Philips controller and are used as my DRL's, 23) Stemless tire valves, 24) 4" Gibson Polished SS downturn tailpipe, 25) currently running Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD08R 225/40/18 ...


This started out as a stage 1.5 Malone tune... my VNT 15 blew during the tune test drive, so I replaced it with a VNT 17, which failed after 2000 km (Garrett said it was due to a foreign ingestion, but I think it was faulty from the get go, as it had a supercharger whine when ever I started and shutdown the car - Turbos don't normally sound that way)... I then got a VNT 17/22 and went down the dark path...


As soon as I figure out how to upload pictures, I will... It keeps asking me for a URL instead of letting me browse for the pictures...

Rick's 2003 Beetle

Rick's 2003 Beetle

Rick's 2003 Beetle

Rick's 2003 Beetle

Rick's 2003 Beetle

Rick's 2003 Beetle

Rick's 2003 Beetle

Rick's 2003 Beetle

Rick's 2003 Beetle

All of your hard work shows! Congratulations on an impressive car. Beautiful job.

Fantastic list of mods. Whats the mileage on the block now? Also I really like the paint scheme, but the orange wheels though I'm not sure-- but I thought you might like to see this nice BBS wheel for comparison. Your car must really haul ass, have you got it dyno'd ?
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The block has 554,000 km on it and except for the cam is all stock... I try not to do launches as I fear the rods will go, but it did break the original axle on one launch, which is why I went with the Raxles... It is competitive with a GTI, and will "roll coal" with the best of them...

The rims on it are the original OZ's that I bought back in 2003... they were originally chromed, but they were kind of washed out because the yellow is also a light colour... we tried a set of gorgeous solid polished aluminium rims, but they were washed out also... we were going to go all black, but that was too common... the rims in the picture are much darker than in person... I have attached a photo that is a better likeness.... it is more a red hot metal look....

No dyno yet, still thinking of whether to go with new rods and pistons in the spring... but we are moving on to a boat next year down south, so not sure if I will have much more time...

The rims in your picture are great, and work well because the car is a dark colour... also the car has a very nice stance to it...

http://pics.tdiclub.com/data/6520/thumbs/painted_rim.jpg

Good looking Beetle. What did it look like before? Where was the rust at? My 02 Beetle with 300k miles has started rusting at the lower rockers, right where the rear fenders meet the lower rocker panel of the car. Going to have them replaced soon.

it looked in good shape from a distance, but with 550k on it, the hood was dented from stones and the rockers were rusted inside, and there was some rust between the a pillar and the windshield... VW has caps inside the hollow rockers, but the back caps are about 10 cm inside the rockers, so debris collects inside by the caps and is wet and causes them to rust... we just took the car apart and cut out the rust and put in new metal, and rebuilt the rockers with caps on the end...