My Golf R journey begins

[GIACUser]

Last edited 12/13/2022

Purchase Day

Purchased a very nice Golf R from forum member SwarlsBarkley. 2013 Rising Blue, mostly stock. Drove it home 75 miles, car ran strong, straight and was a pleasure to drive.

Today I think I will just keep it stock. However I have a boatload of high end new parts just sitting here I could throw on from my MKV GTI project I have since abandoned. Tomorrow I will probably feel different but I have been trying to sell all these parts so I don't go down the over mod route again. Hoping to sell these parts by end of month to protect myself, selling em cheap.


Swarls was the original owner and really did a marvelous job on keeping up with the maint, well done sir.
I purchased the car with 108,091 miles on it. Never thought I would buy a car with that kind of mileage, but after driving it I knew it had been well cared for. After driving it for a week, it just gets better, everything works like a much newer car and there isn't even one rattle or stray noise as you go down the road, so solid. On top of all that the tires were near new and nice Conti Extreme Contacts.

• 111,700 miles - new OEM downpipe/cat, new SS brake lines, new fuel and air filter, new D DV, new N75 Kit, Turbo chk, no play spins freely.
  New Diesel Geek 6 shifter with weight kit.
• 111,600 miles - Oil and Filter ( Molygen )
• 111,600 miles - Removed YCW coils - installed new set VWR suspension kit (much nicer for street)
• 110,766 miles - installed new headlight set (used) but new like clarity
• 110,100 miles - new cam follower
• 110,000 miles - Neuspeed Haldex race controller installed
• 109.465 miles - oil and filter change
• 109,100 miles - New RCD330+ reverse camera, headunit and Rockford Fosgate powered 10in sub
• 108,600 miles - YCW coilovers and 034 rear sway and endlinks
• 108,000 miles - ECS back hatch pop up kit
• 108,000 miles - Stock wheels sent in for refinishing, cleaned calipers and new logos
• 108,200 miles - New windshield and R carpet set
• 108,400 miles - Hawk HPS 5.0 pads installed and new air filter
• 108,400 miles - Turned on APR Stage 1 which came with the car but was on stock tune.
• 107,900 miles - installed stage 2 clutch and single mass flywheel
• 107,700 miles - alignment performed and rear brake pads and rotors changed. Front wheel bearings replaced.
• 106,000 miles - oil was changed, spark plugs were replaced, cabin filter was changed, air filter was cleaned and oiled, and I inspected the cam follower for wear, still looks good.
• 95,000 miles - the front brake pads and rotors were replaced.
• 94,000 miles - the timing belt and water pump were replaced, brake fluid was replaced, front and rear differential fluids were changed, haldex transfer case fluid was changed, and transmission fluid was changed.

Pic from day I picked it up

Early 2022

 

[GIACUser]

First Wash and Pics

Got a chance to give the new car a wash and minor clean up of hood and front fender paint. Given the 108K mi and its 8 years of being on the road I think the car looks exceptional.

I want the car to look pretty close to new so on the list of things that will get done very quickly

• Refinish headlights (new later)
• New windshield
• Wheels - Neuspeed (the OEM ones have some curbing and 8 years of expected wear)

There were a few upgrades that were done that came with the car (Purchased car Sep 2021)

• Full suite of APR tunes (switchable)
• Looks like LED tails
• Neuspeed intake

Things I have done since purchase (Edited Jun 2022)

• New windshield
• OEM wheels professionally refurbished and repainted to OEM color
• New Hawk HPS 5.0 brake pads and cleaned up calipers and new R decals for fronts
• New YCW coilovers (custom valved to Bilstein B8 specs) and lowered car a bit
• Upgraded to RCD330 headunit w/CarPlay, added rearview camera and 10in Rockford sub
• 034 Rear Sway bar with with 034 rear endlinks
• Neuspeed Haldex Race controller
• Refinished headlight lenses
• Trunk pop up kit (best useful mod)

Switched to stage 1 and it made a very nice increase in power. That is where it will stay. Very happy with the wide powerband, you can have a lot of fun with that. All of the mods it came with combined with the changes has made this a very very nice daily driver.

 

[GIACUser]

1st Dream of how I am going to mod it

I have a boatload of parts that are essentially new that may find their way to this car. I have put a give away price on the parts but nobody seems to have interest and I have given end of this month as a deadline to sell the parts. If they don't sell, I will be busy for a looooong time swapping parts.

Edited June 2022 - I ended up selling the MKV with all of the parts on it so none will transfer to this car.

First Round of mod parts from my abandoned MKV project

• Neuspeed RSe5 silver 18x8 wheels with 225/40 Mich Pilot Sport 2
• Full set of Brembo 18z brakes F/R (red) w/RS3 MC
• Eibach R1 coilovers

Not from the MKV project ( really need a backup cam and ability to have GPS )

• RCD330 radio
• Rear emblem back up cam

Always open to comments and suggestions, lot to learn about this new to me model.

Pic of setup going on to the Golf R

 

[GIACUser]

Reality kicks in and 1st dream of modding goes poof

Cancel the above parts transfer, I believe that project is sold. Whew, it would have put me on that track again with tons of modding,

So the plan for this new Golf R is to just keep it Stage 1 power and just work on restoration or replacement of parts and finish. With some few modest enhancements.

Project #1
Upgrade to CarPlay and add a rear camera.

Ordered - RCD330 headunit and camera. (495.00 total) I will install.
Car seemed so dated without GPS and rear view camera. This will update me to those features and of course more.

Project #2
Paint correction and headlight refinish

The car is 8 years old and while it was probably washed regularly it had a fairly heavy layer of stuff that can only be removed by something like aggressive claying of the paint. I have done some areas of the paint and it has come out quite nicely.

Although the car is 8 years old the body is remarkably straight, I have not found any dips or dents. The paint had a number of small chips on hood mostly and a few on door edge. There is one 4 in scratch on one of the fenders. Most of these imperfections are only noticeable when you are up close cleaning the car. I have ordered some of the touchup pens (primer, rising blue and clear) and will be going around the car and trying to fix all of the little stuff. It takes a bit of work but it can come out pretty good without spending larger dollars for a repaint of the hood. I will do a separate thread on this so folks can see it it is worth it or not.

I watched the reviews on the headlight refinish kits and decided to go with the Sylvania kit. Will post results which will not be perfects as these lenses have some of that deep fracturing that you can refinish out but they will still look quite good. New headlamps will come in the future but they are about 1400 a pair for OEM!!

Project #3
Refinish and Repair the oem wheels.

Until I can find a set of silver 19in Pretorias (oem on MK7 R) I am just going to repair and repaint these. I think my preferred stance setup ( down the road ) is just going to be Bilstein B8 sports and some H&R sport springs on the Pretorias. So lightly lowered on the 19's is the look I am after and I loved the B8's on my MKV.

The wheels have kissed curbs and have a number of edge scrapes. I will have to sand, fill etc. to get edge shapes back and then generally clean, sand wheels. They will get painted silver with a clear coat. They should look close to new when done. This can be done with rattle cans but I want to use the 2X type that has a catalyst for the paint (just before you use it there is a mech on the bottom of can to release catalyst into paint. I will put up a thread on how this comes out but I will just be using a youtube vid for my guide.

 

[GIACUser]

Engine Bay Cleanup

The engine bay was full of 8 years worth road dirt. I cleaned it up today. Did the usual easy clean.

• Engine slightly warm / cover air intake.
• Spray and brush degreaser
• Pressure wash off
• Put a light coat of tire dressing on all, do not wipe, just let dry (still wet in pic)

The engine bay looks really good for an 8yr old car with over 100K mi on it.

 

[riceburner]

beautiful car! i remember seeing it for sale and considering trying to sweet-talk my wife into letting me get it. haha. hard to beat a blue 6R.

Also you remind me of me with those posts... i'm not gonna mod it... yeah thats why i got this moddable car... to NOT mod it... ah F*** it all in!!

Nice job on the engine cleanup, i did the same to my FSI jetta recently but instead, used a steamcleaner which worked a treat on the minor seepage here and there. i go for the matte look so i used engine cleaner and followed up with some 303 or something like that later on.

 

[Royalion VI]

Purchased a very nice Golf R from forum member SwarlsBarkley. 2013 Rising Blue, mostly stock. Drove it home 75 miles, car ran strong, straight and was a pleasure to drive.

Today I think I will just keep it stock. However I have a boatload of high end new parts just sitting here I could throw on from my MKV GTI project I have since abandoned. Tomorrow I will probably feel different but I have been trying to sell all these parts so I don't go down the over mod route again. Hoping to sell these parts by end of month to protect myself, selling em cheap.

Nice car, congratulations.
Did you have to smog? How did it go with the new smog laws?

 

[GIACUser]

Nice car, congratulations.
Did you have to smog? How did it go with the new smog laws?

Thanks! I am very happy with the purchase, car is much nicer than I expected.
It came with a current smog test, but it won't be any problem to smog it. All equip is OEM including downpipe. AND.... APR Stage 1 is smog legal tune in California on this car. APR got it approved by Caifornia Air Resources Board.

 

[GIACUser]

beautiful car! i remember seeing it for sale and considering trying to sweet-talk my wife into letting me get it. haha. hard to beat a blue 6R.

Also you remind me of me with those posts... i'm not gonna mod it... yeah thats why i got this moddable car... to NOT mod it... ah F*** it all in!!

Nice job on the engine cleanup, i did the same to my FSI jetta recently but instead, used a steamcleaner which worked a treat on the minor seepage here and there. i go for the matte look so i used engine cleaner and followed up with some 303 or something like that later on.

Hey thanks.
I know " I not going to mod it this time " Right.... I just sold my huge basket of mods so that will help slow me down. I really hope I can keep the mods to a minimum and just concentrate on restoring the car to a like new condition and do small enhancements. Right...

I got carried away on the tire spray, went back and knocked it down with a fresh towel, looks much better.

 

[GIACUser]

So, I have not driven a stick since 2006 so I have been taking it on little drives to get back my skills. Boy the gearing in this is pretty short. I mostly don't need 1st gear unless I am starting from a stop going uphill. It runs through the gears so quick if you get on it that you are pretty busy shifting. A few more drives and I won't have to think about shifting. I have driven stick on a lot of cars so I am no stranger but I personally miss the DSG, sooo much faster.

 

[GIACUser]

Adding one more small project to the first round of restoration and modest enhancements (#4)

Project #1
Upgrade to CarPlay and add a rear camera.

Project #2
Paint correct scratch and rock chips and headlight refinish

Project #3
Refinish and Repair the oem wheels.

Project #4
Trunk Lid enhancements

• Put in ECS pop up struts
• Put in a switch to allow hatch to be opened from inside.

This will cause hatch to pop up to full open with a click of key fob or full open when you hit switch mounted in front of shifter.

 

[GIACUser]

Took the car out for a short drive to practice a few sprints to work on my shifting at WOT.

I have never driven a car with an APR tune. All of my other tunes incorporated a progressive throttle and you hit full open at about 3/4 pedal depth. I had been driving it that way. Today I pressed to the floor and found that there was indeed much more performance to be had. Nice surprise.

Shifting is getting much better, I think I am ready for a good hard canyon run now.

 

[GIACUser]

As mentioned the car came with APR tunes and I am running the Stage 1 tune.

I just discovered that APR actually submitted and got approved by CARB (California Air Resource Board) the APR stage 1 tune. Which means the concern about running an aftermarket tune, at least for me is not an issue. 100% Calif emissions legal with Neuspeed intake (also CARB legal) and an APR Stage 1 tune.

Everybody running APR tunes probably already knew this, but all new platform to me.

APR CARB #
EO G-14-012

 

[GIACUser]

Headlight Refinish

So as products come in I am tackling the projects in that order. Today I got the Sylvania headlight refinish kit. Headlights had a lot of UV damage and for me, really make the car look worn. New headlights are about 1300 for a pair of OEM, which I may eventually buy but for now I just want the car to look fresh. I am happy with the outcome, however it won't last more than a year or two even though the car will mostly be in the garage.

Project #1
Upgrade to CarPlay and add a rear camera.

Project #2
Paint correct scratch and rock chips and headlight refinish - done

Project #3
Refinish and Repair the oem wheels.

Project #4
Trunk Lid enhancements



Here are a few pics. The process is 4 steps.

1. Spray on something to help dissolve coating
2. Sand with progressively finer sandpaper
3. Polish with supplied polish
4. Apply UV coating and let cure for 6 hours.

Note - The camera didn't capture how bad they really were before the process AND I think the final photos make them look just a little better than they do in person but for 19.99 and a bit of elbow grease I am happy.

Here is a picture after 18 hrs or so with the UV coating fully cured. Looks pretty good.

 

[GIACUser]

Are Diesel Geek Shifters a thumbs up ?

Took the car out for a short drive to practice a few sprints to work on my shifting at WOT.

I have never driven a car with an APR tune. All of my other tunes incorporated a progressive throttle and you hit full open at about 3/4 pedal depth. I had been driving it that way. Today I pressed to the floor and found that there was indeed much more performance to be had. Nice surprise.

Shifting is getting much better, I think I am ready for a good hard canyon run now.

Been reading about Diesel Geek short shifter and Super Pin. If the reviews are good I will add it to the list. My shifter is.... ok.... but for spirited driving it would be nice to have a shifter that helps you hit the right gear and minimizes movement to do so.