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DUTCHswift’s Golf R Build Thread

DUTCHswift

Ready to race!
I read through some forum posts and other locations and people seemed to have success with it.

EDIT: Forum Post #34 on Pg. 2 of Adam's Polishes Website and also from their website:

"Adam's Polishes Ceramic Wheel Coating is an extremely durable 9H ceramic wheel coating designed to protect wheels from harsh brake dust and make clean-up even easier! Use it on most wheel finishes including paint, powder coat, chrome, and polished aluminum to help maintain shine longer. This coating may add undesirable amounts of gloss to matte and satin finish wheels."
 

DUTCHswift

Ready to race!
Got everything ceramic coated finally and let everything cure for 48hrs. Yesterday during the big snowstorm we got, I sprayed everything down with the provided ceramic boost and dry fit all the components together. I was also able to get two of them fully bolted and torqued and that's where I stopped for the day. I was going to do a video showing how hydrophobic the surface is but I didn't want to worry about effecting the thread lock with water while it set up. I'll make a video the next time I go to bolt the remaining two wheels together.

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riceburner

Autocross Champion
nice car! dig that splitter and the custom fab work.
 

DUTCHswift

Ready to race!
Worked on a template for Side Skirt Splitters to match the front Splitter this weekend. Sags a little in the picture but only because I didn't have all the fasteners in and it'll be made of 3/8" thick HDPE.

Can't wait to get these on my R.

 
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DUTCHswift

Ready to race!
Sometime around October I decided this wheel setup had run its course. I love them and will always love them, but when you have to worry about loosing clearance to your calipers just by putting new pads on you start to look for other options. This is around the time that I started digging everywhere for a particular set of centers that I knew was going to be really hard to source.

When you're desperate enough for a rare spec on a set of wheels you end up making connections with people who weirdly have what you need in stock. In Europe a lot of older OEM wheels are stored for long periods of time until someone like me shows up and wants to buy them. I wish that was the case here in the US and I'm not entirely sure why it happens.

Luckily after a month or so I made contact with a guy in Russia that had them in his barn... then another guy contacted me (also from Russia) with the same set of centers in the same spec. The smart thing to do would have been to pick the best set and go with that... but I'm not that guy... so I bough both sets. :rofl

It took about a month for everything to show up, but it all finally did in multiple packages (I think it was 3 in the end) from Russia.



So, I'm not entirely sure how long I'll last keeping these a secret, but I do know what the sizes are going to be. I'm going back to tucking b/c I want to have my fenders fixed and I want to go as low as I can... driving. So, here are the sizes I'm going for:

Stock Body (This season):
19"x9"et45 Square (1.5" Lips)

1.5" Wide Body (Hopefully next year):
19"x10.5"et26 Square (3.0" Lips)

These wheels will also be up-sized with 18" centers because I think the face to lip ratio looks so good with a conversion.

Can't wait to have these built. The centers are already in the mail to Nick's B&P to have some work done.
 

DUTCHswift

Ready to race!
New fenders have been ordered and showed up at the shop yesterday. I also had the 17" polished OZ center replacement powder cleared and that should be ready for pickup today. So plan is to go grab fenders and that center this afternoon and finish putting together last years setup.

Next week I'll be stopping by my painter's shop to figure out what it's going to run me to get my new front fenders painted, and my rear quarters fixed. They're missing some paint and are a little deformed from the staceboi fitment I had the last two years. Can't wait to clean that up.

I also have lips and barrels on order for the new wheels, but that's a 4-6 week lead time so those will be done anytime between 4/9 and 4/23. I think I have everything else I need for that wheel build except for the assembly bolts and tires. I'm trying to get OEM bolts, but I may be forced to run newer chrome ones this season if that doesn't pan out.

As for tires, I plan to run the Nitto NT555's in 225/35-19 next year. I've read great things about them and I loved their NeoGen's as I've run those for several years. Plus I'm looking for a lot more grip this year without the camber to take away from that.



I'll make sure to post photos of the 17"-18" Futura's once they're all back together and ready to be sold. Gonna be sad to see them go, but I need to pay myself back for all the cash I'm out on the new setup.
 

DUTCHswift

Ready to race!
what size tires did you run with these? did the front and rear fenders sit on the wheels?

I believe I was running 225/40's on those and yes, the fenders sat on the lips.


Just bought pads/rotors since I'm right around 80k and still on stock pads/rotors. Went with StopTech pads and Adam's Rotors all around:

StopTech Sport Front Brake Pad Set
StopTech Sport Rear Brake Pad Set






Still waiting on lips/barrels from WheelFlip. They said Triangle was finally able to spin/cut them last week and that they should be delivered to WheelFlip today(ish).

The lips will be polished by them and then shipped out to me so I can FINALLY put these wheels together. It's f*cking June and I'm still not ready for the season... :shifty
 

DUTCHswift

Ready to race!
Alright so since I'm such a forum junkie I figured I might as well spill the beans here first.

Way back last year I was ready to start thinking more long term on the R and since the 17" centers on the last set of Futura's weren't going to clear my brakes if I put new pads on, it was time to start looking for another alternative. I scoured the internet and ended up finally finding two full sets of 18" 5x112 original Futura centers which are damn hard to find let me tell you...

I got one of the sets refinished by Nicks B&P down in NJ. They're mirror polished with brushed faces, mirror windows, and black letters. (It's hard to get a good shot of the finish)



So once I had the new wheels in the works I decided it was time to get rid of my treasured full polished Futura's...



...but I couldn't resist the temptation to take this photo just before I let them go...



I also decided that since my setup this year was going to tuck, that my fenders and rear quarters better be crisp and clean. I had two new front fenders rolled flat and seam sealed on the lip, and had the body shop fix my rear quarters and paint everything.







After that I went to Sam's shop to figure out what size lips and barrels I was going to need, along with how tucking was going to go once we got all the parts. This was a 20" Audi wheel just for sh!ts and giggles.



I also decided to get my front bumper fixed at this time due to some overspray and overall beating it's taken. Had Pat do my grilles and GhostKnit lip at the same time to make sure everything was going to be up to par.





Then it was time to do a sanity check and to get some motivation since this process to get ready for the 2018 season has taken so damn long. Test fit the wheels and lowered the car as much as I felt comfortable on wheels that only had 5 bolts each holding them together lol.

The car will go lower than this and the wheels will clear the fenders without a problem.





After the test fit I decided I should take .100" off the inside of the barrels for peace of mind when it comes to clearance to the struts (and because I can...)



Last step was to get some new rotors and pads, because what's the point of going through all of this for the ability to work on the brakes if I don't actually do anything with the brakes? Rotors are drillled and spotted from Adam's Rotors and pads are StopTech Sport Pads.

I'll leave you with this until the next update...



Final specs on the new setup:
OZ Futura (Brushed Faces w/ Mirror Polished Windows & Powder Coated Clear)
- 19 x 9 et45 (225/35-19 Nitto NT555's)
- 1.5" Lips / 7.5" Barrels
- Reverse Mount Faces
- 5X112
 
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