GTI front-end swap underway

sportwagen rick

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Location
CA
TDI
2010 SportWagen
I got the bulk of the parts today. (Sorry if you were hoping for pictures of the actual swap :D)

Here's what's left:

Fog light bulbs (probably going with PIAA yellows—I actually live in a place that gets dense fog, so the yellow is functional)

Fog light harness (waiting to hear back from Kufatec on a harness with H8 connectors, rather than HB4 connectors).

Highline CECM (going this route because OEM HIDs are the next step).

Paint—bumper needs to be painted; I'll have the turn signals color matched as well.

There is one other bit of info I need; I need to find out for certain if the washer fluid tank needs to be swapped for a GTI version. On another forum, this swap was done (Golf got a GTD front-end) and this was indicated as being necessary, but I think it may have to do with hooking up the headlight washers (it was a European car) rather than being an issue of physically clearing/fitting.

I do plan on a euro-lip, but not sure I'll do it immediately. I haven't ruled out going with the OSIR Carbon Fiber euro-lip; either way a euro lip will probably be on my Christmas list. ;)
 
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740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2017 Alltrack SE; Totaled 2015 Passat SEL, BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat SE w/ Nav,
You have a pic of what it should look like, a goal you're trying to shoot for?
 

UnclesCamino

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Location
Northern Cambria PA
TDI
2011 Golf TDI 6M 2DR
When you have it apart any chance you could take the two lower grills and set the TDI grill on top of the honeycomb GTI lower grill, I want to see if the GTI one could be make to fit into a standard Golf Lower grill.

Thanks
Rob
 

sportwagen rick

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Location
CA
TDI
2010 SportWagen
When you have it apart any chance you could take the two lower grills and set the TDI grill on top of the honeycomb GTI lower grill, I want to see if the GTI one could be make to fit into a standard Golf Lower grill.

Thanks
Rob
There's a guy on vortex (whitepepper) who had a Golf lower grille fitted into the GTI lower, it took some crafty custom work. They are not the same size or shape. It can be done, but it's not plug and play; technically neither is the upper grille—in order to put a GTI upper grille on a Golf/JSW, and have it fit correctly, you need to trim part of the bumper.
 

tucker74

Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2009
Location
Austin, Tx
TDI
2010 JSW DSG
Outcome?

Do you have any updates on this? My JSW is at the body shop right now due to a guy turning left unprotected right in front of me :mad: Wondering if I could have the body shop just order the GTI front clip, since mine is toast anyway. Please let me know what all parts were replaced not including the fog lights (can do that later myself) -

Tucker
 

UnclesCamino

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Location
Northern Cambria PA
TDI
2011 Golf TDI 6M 2DR
I got my GTI grill installed last week. Yeah had to trim some things to get it to fit but I love it. Anyway I still would like to see if pic if possible of the two lower grills sitting on top of each other. I am worried that the lower GTI grill will be smaller than the TDI grill, thus I would not be able to trim it down to fit.

Thanks
Rob
 

sportwagen rick

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Location
CA
TDI
2010 SportWagen
Do you have any updates on this? My JSW is at the body shop right now due to a guy turning left unprotected right in front of me :mad: Wondering if I could have the body shop just order the GTI front clip, since mine is toast anyway. Please let me know what all parts were replaced not including the fog lights (can do that later myself) -

Tucker
I'm hoping to get the bumper to the painter in the next week or so.

There's a lot more than just the bumper cover; off the top of my head:
bumper cover
headlight washer plugs—left and right
tow hook plug
turn signals—left and right
lower center grille
lower grille fascia
lower outer grille—left and right
fog light housings—left and right
lower spoiler
lower spoiler retainer plate

that's the visible stuff


under the bumper:
need to swap the washer fluid reservoir
and (unconfirmed) the impact bar and crossmember (I'm hoping I'll get time this week to get this confirmed)

aside from this, you will still need to set up the fogs: bulbs, harness, and cecm upgrade (or an aftermarket harness).

note: if you don't buy the fog housing, you'll have huge holes in the bumper where they go.

Hope this helps
 
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sportwagen rick

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Location
CA
TDI
2010 SportWagen
I got my GTI grill installed last week. Yeah had to trim some things to get it to fit but I love it. Anyway I still would like to see if pic if possible of the two lower grills sitting on top of each other. I am worried that the lower GTI grill will be smaller than the TDI grill, thus I would not be able to trim it down to fit.

Thanks
Rob
It won't be as simple as trimming it to fit; they are different shapes and sizes. A guy on Vortex had a lower center Golf grille fitted to his GTI—he ended up having a body guy custom build it by cutting and molding the two pieces to create a new custom piece that fit—also I think it required trimming some behind the grille.
 

Mark_Seis_JSW

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 21, 2010
Location
Houston
TDI
MKVI JSW
Guy on vortex is whitepepper and Dorbritz designs did the work for him. Let me know if you need to get a hold of them.
 

Biffster

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2010
Location
Gadsden, AL
TDI
2010 JSW TDI
Can you keep a running tally of the total price of your JSW when finished?

I'd like to see how close you get to the cost of a BMW 335d without the actual benefits of ownership :D
 

UberVW_TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2009
Location
Austin, TX
TDI
2010 Golf Variant TDI
I agree a BMW 335d or an Audi A4 with the 3.0L turbo diesel currently in the 2011 Touareg....with a manual transmission......I'd be in big trouble, or at least my wallet would be!
 
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sportwagen rick

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Location
CA
TDI
2010 SportWagen
Sorry, it's been a long time with no update... I got distracted and busy, and I decided to add a retrofit of OEM Xenons to the project.

With that said, my bumper will be back from paint this week, and the HIDs next week; pics soon.
 

ARBY

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2004
Location
Royal Oak, MI
TDI
2011 Golf Sportwagen - really want a F-150.
Curious, what was the PN of the CECM that came with your wagon? Where did you source the highline one?

Thx
 

sportwagen rick

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Location
CA
TDI
2010 SportWagen
Haven't installed the cecm yet; not until everything goes on. I'm the part number aenea used: 5K0-937-087-G-Z5Y

The white GTI I posted has 18" BBS CO wheels.
 

Prophet

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 27, 2006
If you don't mind me asking, what is the cost breakdown thus far for your conversion? I've started looking into a similar project.

-P.
 

sportwagen rick

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Location
CA
TDI
2010 SportWagen
If you don't mind me asking, what is the cost breakdown thus far for your conversion? I've started looking into a similar project.

-P.
Edit: it's going to cost you a lot more than just the bumper parts, if you want it done completely right; you'll need custom fenders—see my next post for details.

I've priced everything out, using the 27% off discount pricing that's available online, and the bumper swap parts would run you about $1100-$1200, not including shipping costs or paint. This is also taking into consideration that you have OEM fogs already, in which case you'd only need an adapter because the GTI bulbs are different—if you don't have OEM fogs, you'd need to account for one the methods for adding them; relay harness or OEM harness and CECM upgrade.
 
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sportwagen rick

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Location
CA
TDI
2010 SportWagen
Well, after all this time, I'm sad to say I'm pulling the plug on this project.
As it turns out, the fender lines don't match up. The Sportwagen fenders will bolt up just fine, but the flat body line that follows the wheel opening is a different width on the Sportwagen than on the GTI/Golf. The GTI/Golf is about 2" wide, the Sportwagen about 1 3/8". It's a small but noticeable difference. See the pic below (which is not my car; it belongs to a vortex member in Canada, who's done the swap:

The solution—custom fenders. :rolleyes:
OEM Plus did it for a customer putting the Golf R bumper on a Sportwagen. I can't bring myself to go to that level to get it right, and I know I couldn't live with the mismatch.
The irritating part is that I didn't learn this until I had all the parts and the bumper coming back from paint.
So, it looks like I'll be selling everything, picking up the Sportwagen fogs and probably a Votex kit, like I originally planned.
Hope this thread helps others make an informed decision.
:cheers:
 

jtelford

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2010
Location
St. Louis
TDI
2010 JSW TDI, black, 6MT
Ouch- I am really sorry. You've put a lot of effort into this project, and I've been following it (although I've no intention of doing it myself).
I hope you find something that works for you. Whatever it is will be done up right- if 7/8" of an inch kills this deal, you must be a stickler for detail.
 

PlaneJob

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2003
Location
Wylie, TX
TDI
2010 JSW TDI
good call pulling the plug. I wouldn't have wanted to live with that either.

Do you think the Engineers did that on purpose to limit the number of Jolfs and Gettas, or GTIgens.
 

sportwagen rick

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Location
CA
TDI
2010 SportWagen
good call pulling the plug. I wouldn't have wanted to live with that either.

Do you think the Engineers did that on purpose to limit the number of Jolfs and Gettas, or GTIgens.
The fender opening seems to have been part of the mkvi refresh, but adding it the sportwagen would have also meant stamping new rear quarter panels to have the rear wheel well match the front; so instead they made a hybrid fender to match the lights and new bumper shape, while still matching the mkv body lines, with a bumper to accommodate both, all likely in the name of saving money.

Can't you have the bumper matched to the fenders ?

Instead of fenders to bumper ?
Probably possible, but still seems pretty involved, and I'd wonder of the bumper's structural integrity if you started cutting and blending pieces. OEMPlus took on the task and decided to blend the fenders; they admitted scraping an attempt to make a real mkvi fender work, and questioned modifying the bumper as a solution, but perhaps that had something to do with working with an expensive and hard to source R bumper.

Either way, it would just be easier to go with a votex kit. I really prefer the GTI fog lights and lower grille, but not that much.
 

babaso

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Location
Miami
TDI
2013 CW TDI JSW
... you'll need custom fenders—see my next post for details.
Just curious as to why you would need custom fenders? Assuming you could get them sourced for a reasonable price, couldn't you just get the fenders from a GTI? This way everything would line up in the front and the only difference would be that it doesn't match the rear wheel arch.

Am I missing something?
 

Chockomon

Veteran Member
Joined
May 30, 2011
Location
Jersey City, NJ
TDI
2010 Golf TDI
Just curious as to why you would need custom fenders? Assuming you could get them sourced for a reasonable price, couldn't you just get the fenders from a GTI? This way everything would line up in the front and the only difference would be that it doesn't match the rear wheel arch.

Am I missing something?
The issue is that the GTI/Golf fenders don't mate up at the A piller. There's a gap there that needs to be filled
 

babaso

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Location
Miami
TDI
2013 CW TDI JSW
The issue is that the GTI/Golf fenders don't mate up at the A piller. There's a gap there that needs to be filled
Wow...never would have guessed that one. Is it that:

1. The GTI fenders don't match up to the A pillars of the Golf and JSW

or

2. The GTI and Golf use the same fenders which don't match up to the JSW A pillar?

Thanks for the info!
 

nikhsub1

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2010
Location
Los Angeles
TDI
2015 Golf R
Well, after all this time, I'm sad to say I'm pulling the plug on this project.
As it turns out, the fender lines don't match up. The Sportwagen fenders will bolt up just fine, but the flat body line that follows the wheel opening is a different width on the Sportwagen than on the GTI/Golf. The GTI/Golf is about 2" wide, the Sportwagen about 1 3/8". It's a small but noticeable difference. See the pic below (which is not my car; it belongs to a vortex member in Canada, who's done the swap:

The solution—custom fenders. :rolleyes:
OEM Plus did it for a customer putting the Golf R bumper on a Sportwagen. I can't bring myself to go to that level to get it right, and I know I couldn't live with the mismatch.
The irritating part is that I didn't learn this until I had all the parts and the bumper coming back from paint.
So, it looks like I'll be selling everything, picking up the Sportwagen fogs and probably a Votex kit, like I originally planned.
Hope this thread helps others make an informed decision.
:cheers:
This does not bother me one bit... but, if I were going to line it up I would mod the bumper and NOT the fenders, just me.
 
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