KollinWithaK
Autocross Champion
Hi all, some of you may know me/my old car. I used to drive a 2013 2.5 Golf named Lola and loved it. Back in April I had the opportunity to sell my 2.5 and upgrade to a 2012 Golf R, and so I did. I sold Lola to the same guy I bought the R from, so I drove up to Iowa where the R was, swapped cars, and drove back down to the Space Coast in Florida, all in one weekend.
I was beginning to go pretty deep into my 2.5 when this opportunity popped up. Was starting to research going turbo and swapping to a 6-speed, and then the R popped up. It was a 2012 with just over 82k on it, and was bonestock other than a Neuspeed Intake, a GFB DV+, and a rear wiper delete. Two previous owners. Was glad I was able to get this deal worked out. Was pretty amazed to see a near bone stock, well cared for Mk6 R like this.
Here is my old 2.5 when we did the trade off, did it in an old Harley Davidson parking lot.
Here is the R from the side after we traded.
Like I said, the trade was back in April, but I just started modding the car (albeit lightly). Figured I'd hop back into the forums and start keeping track of stuff again.
The first thing I did with the car was get the windows tinted to the same level as my last Mk6. It's far too hot in Florida to not have window tint, it's like driving around in a heated fishbowl. This is 15% all around, 50% on the windshield (yes, I know the laws) and a 35% sun visor strip.
After that, I went ahead and swapped out the shift knobs. One of the previous owners and put in a knock-off Audi R8 shift knob which is metal. It would get extremely hot during the day and this would make the car difficult to drive since you didn't want to touch the shift knob because of how hot it got. :laugh:
I swapped it out with a full carbon fiber shift knob from EuroImpulse, you can follow the link here if you're interested in that. I don't have any pictures of it yet. Granted, the top and bottom of this shift knob are still metal and will get unbelievably hot, the CF middle stays much cooler and is easier to handle. Install was easy, and I'd recommend EuroImpulse if you're looking to purchase something from them.
Another thing that I've done to the car is the OEM to Euro LED taillight swap. The OEM taillights on any Mk6 are arguably the worst part (visually) of the car, and I was very excited to get a set of sequential taillights. Wiring on these was a bit annoying, as most reviews would say. The difficult part being going from the trunk to the hatch, as shown by this picture below. You have to run wiring in order for the full sequence of the taillights to work.
Aside from the wiring, these taillights have better fitment than my old eBay taillights on my last Mk6.
Some other small things I've done that you can see are blacked out emblems, and a paint matched vinyl circle to go behind the rear emblem. I painted the emblems myself, and the vinyl that I used can be found here.
I also had the car professionally paint corrected and ceramic coated. The paint needed A LOT of work, and it ended up being a near 14 hour long detail, all in one day. If you're in the Space Coast area and need a detailer, I'd highly recommend Maldo's Detailing. Great guy, and a fellow VW owner.
And that's all I've got for now. I'll follow the same format update that I did for my last car. I tend to buy parts in batches, and I imagine the R will probably be fairly similar. I also have some leftover parts from my 2.5, including a Unibrace XB and a 3-piece carbon fiber lip.
Bonus pics of Reba next to a Cornflower Blue Rabbit that I found in Tampa while on my way to Summervibes.
EDIT: Sorry for the poor photo formatting, I forgot I need to resize images before I upload them to imgur and host them here. I'll keep that in mind moving forward.
I was beginning to go pretty deep into my 2.5 when this opportunity popped up. Was starting to research going turbo and swapping to a 6-speed, and then the R popped up. It was a 2012 with just over 82k on it, and was bonestock other than a Neuspeed Intake, a GFB DV+, and a rear wiper delete. Two previous owners. Was glad I was able to get this deal worked out. Was pretty amazed to see a near bone stock, well cared for Mk6 R like this.
Here is my old 2.5 when we did the trade off, did it in an old Harley Davidson parking lot.
Here is the R from the side after we traded.
Like I said, the trade was back in April, but I just started modding the car (albeit lightly). Figured I'd hop back into the forums and start keeping track of stuff again.
The first thing I did with the car was get the windows tinted to the same level as my last Mk6. It's far too hot in Florida to not have window tint, it's like driving around in a heated fishbowl. This is 15% all around, 50% on the windshield (yes, I know the laws) and a 35% sun visor strip.
After that, I went ahead and swapped out the shift knobs. One of the previous owners and put in a knock-off Audi R8 shift knob which is metal. It would get extremely hot during the day and this would make the car difficult to drive since you didn't want to touch the shift knob because of how hot it got. :laugh:
I swapped it out with a full carbon fiber shift knob from EuroImpulse, you can follow the link here if you're interested in that. I don't have any pictures of it yet. Granted, the top and bottom of this shift knob are still metal and will get unbelievably hot, the CF middle stays much cooler and is easier to handle. Install was easy, and I'd recommend EuroImpulse if you're looking to purchase something from them.
Another thing that I've done to the car is the OEM to Euro LED taillight swap. The OEM taillights on any Mk6 are arguably the worst part (visually) of the car, and I was very excited to get a set of sequential taillights. Wiring on these was a bit annoying, as most reviews would say. The difficult part being going from the trunk to the hatch, as shown by this picture below. You have to run wiring in order for the full sequence of the taillights to work.
Aside from the wiring, these taillights have better fitment than my old eBay taillights on my last Mk6.
Some other small things I've done that you can see are blacked out emblems, and a paint matched vinyl circle to go behind the rear emblem. I painted the emblems myself, and the vinyl that I used can be found here.
I also had the car professionally paint corrected and ceramic coated. The paint needed A LOT of work, and it ended up being a near 14 hour long detail, all in one day. If you're in the Space Coast area and need a detailer, I'd highly recommend Maldo's Detailing. Great guy, and a fellow VW owner.
And that's all I've got for now. I'll follow the same format update that I did for my last car. I tend to buy parts in batches, and I imagine the R will probably be fairly similar. I also have some leftover parts from my 2.5, including a Unibrace XB and a 3-piece carbon fiber lip.
Bonus pics of Reba next to a Cornflower Blue Rabbit that I found in Tampa while on my way to Summervibes.
EDIT: Sorry for the poor photo formatting, I forgot I need to resize images before I upload them to imgur and host them here. I'll keep that in mind moving forward.
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