Locke's build thread

Hey all. Going with the build thread to track my mods, pictures, and thoughts. A big shout out to the entire community, you guys are awesome, and thanks for stopping by.

After finishing school, I was finally in the market to buy my first car. At the time I was pretty green behind the ears when it came to cars, but I did my homework and settled on a GTI. It was tough to beat the looks, performance, and functionality all rolled into one.

I ended up buying a new 2014 4 dr Wolfsburg CSG DSG (CBFA) from Boardwalk VW in Redwood City CA in May 2014. I didn't want to mess with the mk7s, being a new chassis and being made in Mexico, and I figured I could get a decent deal on a mk6.

Current Mods:

ENGINE:
-APR stage 1 - 1/2/15 - 8.5K
-Magnaflow CBE - 1/15/15 - 8.5K
-R8 Coilpacks - 1/2/15 - 8.5K
-Unitronic Intake - 2/24/15 - 9.7K
-RevD DV - 2/25/15 - 9.7K
-GFB DV+ - 2/25/15 - 9.7K

SUSPENSION:
-Michelin Pilot Super Sports 225/40 18 - 1/2/15 - 8.5K
-Bilstein PSS10's - 2/6/15 - 9K
-TT strut mounts/ SKF bearings - 2/6/15 - 9K
-SPM 22mm rear sway bar (hard) - 2/6/15 - 9K
-SPM 26mm front sway bar (soft) - 2/25/15 - 9.7K
-TyrolSport subframe collar kit - 2/25/15 - 9.7K
-Autocross setup: Neuspeed Rse05 17x8 wheels w/ BFG Rival 245/40/17 - 5/1/15 - 12.7K

EXTERIOR / INTERIOR:
-Color matched side markers - 1/30/15 - 9K
-GTI seat inserts - 1/2/15
-Fender screw mod - 2/12/15
-OEM R LED Tails - 3/5/15 - 10K
-deAutokey interior and license plate LEDs - 3/28/15
-1/4" OD irrigation tubing in door seals - 5/3/15

Didn't do anything to the car for 6 months, and then the mod bug bit.

The always dangerous voice in my head..."If you're going to buy it eventually, why not now so you can enjoy it more?"


What she currently looks like


Only crappy iPhone photos ahead. Here she is stock


Fully packed. Driving from the Bay Area down to San Diego. Beware of a certain pothole near Bakersfield while driving south on the 5. It claimed one of my stock Dunpops.


First car accident for me. What an unenjoyable learning experience. I was rear ended returning home from work. Came to a dead stop in traffic, got hit by someone doing 45. The car didn't look too bad considering the situation.


Picture in daylight.


Bodyshop estimated 5.5K in damage initially. Once they pulled the bumper off, that number became 10.5K. Replaced: rear exhaust, bumper, a control arm and a panel. Reworked: liftgate, a panel, part of the unibody : (.


Inside the trunk, under the spare

Got the car back on 1/29/15. Thank god. My rental Chevy w/ 135 hp was less than enjoyable. Replaced my damaged OEM catback with the Magnaflow and hot damn does the car sound great. 100% worth it and then some.

Ended up pulling the trigger on Bilstein PSS10's from AWE (they have a 10% sale going, looks like it happens real often). Also purchased TT strut mounts and SKF bearings from Europa Parts- great pricing! Snagged a rear sway bar on sale from SPM, and I was ready to rock some new suspension gear.

Stock ride height


25" FTG on Bilstein PSS10's. After 5 days of settling.


Another shot


Got it all installed at Pure Motorsport. Replaced the following during the install:

2 WHT-002-795
2 N-909-548-02
2 N-910-216-01
5 N-101-277-07 (didn't have time to find a 6th)

Still waiting to get my alignment. Might get the coils adjusted higher to around 25 1/4" FTG, then get the alignment. Part of me feels like an idiot for getting good coils and then dropping the roll center so far, but I'm looking for a blend of performance and looks. Currently have the coils set at a 5 up front and a 4 in the rear, gonna have to play with those numbers as well.

No noise currently w/ the TT mounts/ SKF bearings. Haven't thrown the car around too much yet to really feel the rear sway (set to soft), but steering is definitely sharper. More mods are on the way, buying used on this forum is awesome.

Glad you're ok after the hit... That's the ride height I'll be aiming for, looks great!

Great start! Liking what you have going so far!

Damn, didn't realise that whole back story of the damage from the accident last night! It looks like nothing ever happened. Seems that and 2015 has driven the modding bug hard. Big upgrades in the last few weeks. Good work so far.

Are you going to get wheel spacers?

Thanks for the kind words guys. No current plans to get wheel spacers, I'd rather just invest in a new set of 18x8 et45 wheels to get that nice flush look.
This week I completed the fender screw mod after rubbing during a U turn. I'd recommend doing this before lowering your car- it was much harder to fit a T-20 bit in the tiny gap between my fender and tire.

In other news: when I got my Michelin PSS tires installed last month, the shop scratched each Serron wheel during mounting. Credit to the shop, they admitted fault and I'm currently working with them to get an estimate on the wheel damage. From what I've read, Serrons are machine finished and require CNC machining to repair any damage to the 'chrome' surface. So this repair quote- if accurate- might be pricey. The shop took off my Serrons to get the estimate, and I'm currently running on loner gunmetal 18x8 et45 Voxx Torino wheels. While its a pain in the ass to go through this process, it is interesting to see a different set up on the car.

Car in the shop


Loner wheels


Another shot


Personally I'm not a big fan of dark wheels on a CSG car- I prefer the machine finished silver look. More changes coming real soon. The mod bug has taken full effect.

nice car, love the utility on the gti which is what i'll miss when i move onto a RWD platform.

yeah definitely not feeling the new wheels. tint would look great on csg.

Weird that they took your wheels of just for a quote. Not sure why that is necessary.
As you know, I am having the same issue with my Detroit's where the shop (guess we are not naming names) left some scratches on three of mine. Sending me out a $450 cheque - sorted in a few days. May wait for more damage before getting anything done.
On Friday I went to American Factory Wheels in mission gorge and they said they have to send the wheels out to get fully redone. $145 a wheel. They also said that the shop that damaged your wheels has an account with them and they deal with them all the time and the shop pays them directly because of the account. For other places they recommend getting money off them - like me.
Another place said they do a mobile service for repair for $100 for two or more wheels. Not sure how they can do mobile repair when others say they need to send them off.

Tkulhanc134- right on the money brother. Got the tint done this morning: 3M FX Premium 30 all the way around except the windshield. The shop did a great job on the rear hatch, which I'll confirm again after all the water dries. If you're in San Diego, I'd recommend these guys- shoot me a PM and I'll tell you who it is.

Action shot


Picture on a cloudy afternoon.


The shop owner told me the factory tint is more around 70%- I've heard 85% from some people on here. Huh. The FX premium 30 is 35% VLT and reduces 40% heat. Paid $270 out the door. Its exactly the shade I wanted, so I'm pretty pumped.

Thoughts from researching tint here in CA:

• Legal limit up front is 70%, so basically anything in the front is gonna be 'illegal'. With that in mind, I chose the right shade for me
• Our dark interiors make the tint seem darker
• Cops essentially want to be able to see you in your car- so 35% should be fine. When in doubt, roll down your front windows and/or turn on your interior lights
• IF I get a ticket, this shop will uninstall the front for free, I then go show Big Brother that I don't have any tint, pay a small fine, then they'll reinstall for $30 or something cheap. Awesome

Installed a Unitronic intake last night/ this morning. Spent over an hour trying to remove the PCV hose from the stock stage 2 piping. Ended up prying four golf tees in the circular openings to slowly unclip it. Also threw on black caps for the coolant and wiper fluid housings.

Engine bay.


Car still w/ loaner wheels.

Added the SPM 26mm front sway bar on soft and the TyrolSport collar kit this past Wednesday at Pure Motorsport. Changed the rear 22mm bar to hard. Immediately got an alignment after, and at that point all they can adjust in the front is toe.

I bought each SPM bar for around $100, so I'm hoping they hold up/ don't start squeaking. Other members haven't seemed to have issues with them, so maybe they're just a great deal when on sale (I hope).

I also added a GFB DV+ kit and a RevD DV to kill the harmonic noise from my Uni intake. They definitely did the trick. Many members claim to feel better throttle response with the DV+, but I haven't gotten to push the car hard yet, so we'll see.

For the subframe collar kit, I replaced the bolts that plac listed in post#165 (http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48759&page=9). That guy is a beast.

A little behind on updates. Installed OEM R LED tails. The car just looks so much more aggressive with these lights. Very happy with them.

I also got my repaired OEM Serrons back from Discount Tire. Kudos to them for admitting to fault for the damage and then properly repairing them.

Just took the car to autox here at Qualcomm stadium. Holy sh!t is it fun.

Glad to see you doing more man. It was awesome meeting you a couple meetups back!

Recent recap:
3/3: Hit 10k

3/18: Shout out to xd-data-ii for all of the vagcom work! Did the following: windows up/down on key fob, horn lock noise on MFA, gauge sweep, brake assist level 2 (strong), cleared LED bulb outs, DRL on/off via MFA, emergency braking flashing, coming home lights, mute button, disalbled seat belt warning, mirror adjust in MFA, XDS level 2 (strong), full ESC defeat, remove door chime.

3/28: Installed deAutokey interior LEDs and "less bright" license plate LED. I love the look of these, especially the red footwells. Makes the car look like a submarine at night. The "less bright" license plate LED is already pretty bright, so the standard one must be blinding or something.









4/26: Drove up to Thousand Oaks with 619GTI and George11 for the Last Sunday Cruise to Neuspeed. Saw a ton of impressive cars, really enjoyed the canyon cruise, and picked up some new toys at Neuspeed. Overall, it was an awesome trip. It was fun seeing all the LA dudes' cars in person.



Neuspeed Open House. 30% Discount!


Juuuuuust short of 400mi on one tank after all the driving up to LA and back


5/1: 245/40/17 BFG Rivals installed on 17x8 Neuspeed Rse05 wheels. My new autox setup! I'm still at 25"FTG and I get some rubbing at full lock with this beefy setup. Also, at 70+ mph the back will rub when hitting sizable bumps. Considering bringing the coils up 1/4".







5/2 Immediately went out and got in 12 autox runs in at Qualcomm. Tires and lighter wheels felt good. This was also my first time pushing the car with the full ESC defeat. Had a blast sliding it around on my last run. I think I went with 40psi front and 39 psi back (cold). After checking the sidewall wear this seemed about right.