Hey guys! I've been on the B5 forum for a little over 2 years now and figured I should share what I've been working on. I bought my Passat on September 07, 2013. Being the 4th owner of it, there were a few things that needed changing and fixing on the car. I purchased the car in fair condition with some cuts and bruises. None the less, it seemed like a good starting platform.
don't drive to work and i wanted to sell my MK4 Jetta VR6 before digging into the new project so I didn't actually start work on the car till December of 2013..I don't really have any goals with this car besides #1. paying for it (auto loan) as soon as possible (which took me a little over a year and got me to near perfect credit score rating as intended!) & #2. Doing things as cost effectively as possible without sparing quality.
Here's a snap shot of my "as is" purchase
2000 Passat estate 30v V6. 5 speed, 106k miles.
- 18x9 Lorinser RSK-3 wheels with 225/40 Falken 512s
- 12mm H&R spacers in the rear
- Raceland coilovers (should be listed as a con..not pro)
- All new lower control arms with freshly rebuilt CPP adjustable upper control arms
- New tie rod ends
- Newer axles
- APR snub mount
- Sony CD/MP3/iPOD/USB deck
- Newer windshield
- Depo headlights with OEM Audi S4 projector retrofit and DDM 35w ballasts and 5k bulbs
- New orange sidemarkers/corner lights from '98 model
- Window regulators replaced in both front doors
- Newer rear brakes
- OEM all-weather floor mats and Weathertech floor liner for the rear hatch area
-Suitecase delete w/ magnaflow muffler
-100k maintenance…..
-water pump
-timing belt
Here she is after getting her home.
Tan leather interior w/ faux woodgrain in pretty good condition.
And a shot with my Jetta…ah the drive way looked so good!
And all three of the projects together.
Before I get started…I was a little bummed coming from the MK4 forum. With the MK4 Jetta/Golf platforms so popular there was on over abundance of DIY's and information. With that in mind, I've been creating my own DIY's and library of B5 information as I learn. All of my created DIY's, as well as other DIY's I have found useful can be found here.
My DIY's
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...9#post90071009
First things first.
I'm not into big stickers and crazy crap hanging from my rear view. But.. I have started a collection, one for each VW I've owned.
- Green leaf air freshener (not a pot leaf) came with the very first car i bought at 18 yrs old: 1986 jetta GL 1.8, small bumper, loved that thing.
- Small bracelet with tow hook tag on it: 1996 Jetta GL 2.0
- Orange tree air freshener: 1997 Jetta GL 2.0
- Long beaded neckless: 2001 Jetta GLX VR6
- And now the new addition for the Passat…The indian looking pouch, my old GF got for me in a street market in Paris.
To kick things off I swap out the antenna for a stubby and sealed the parameters.
A few days after driving it home I found a full OEM ski rack on CL for $20. I took a ferry on my lunch and bought it on a whim..turns out it was for a sedan (I knew nothing at this point). So I sold all of it (save for the snowboard attachments) for enough cash to pay for the correct set for my estate, which I had found on CL too. The new full Votex set came with keys, bars, and basket. at this point I now had everything for the roof that I wanted, and all at the tune of $20 + my ferry ticket!
A few days after that I found a Votex dog partition on CL for a good deal and bought that too since I have a black dog. So this keeps the monster contained, and the car came with a tan rubber cargo liner as well so the trunk is pretty outfitted.
Next I changed my oil for the first time and wrote a DIY for it..as can be seen here.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...-Passat-30v-V6
After that i fixed the little crack in my windshield so it wouldn't grow. It looked like this to begin with..kind of hard to see but you can see the crack has a few legs coming off it.
I bought this repair kit from Harbor Freight. (you can also find one at O'Reily's)
Put it to use.
And ended up with this. From the inside you can hardly see the crack. it worked great. (2 years later and the crack hasn't spread)
Then I decided to clean up the rear hatch. I deleted the rear wiper, plugged and sealed the hole, dipped the plate frame black so it wasn't as flashy (the frame came with the car..not on there by choice really), dipped the "VW" emblem to simplify things, and added 3m adhesive foam tape to the rear side of the plate so it has a nice solid sound and no rattle when the hatch is being closed. The PO had already de badged all other adhered emblems on the trunk. Sorry…no pics but it wasn't anything impressive.
Next I had to suit the car for winter so I bought these MKV "classix" wheels locally for $120. A week later I found low pro 205/40/17 blizzak ws60's in mint condition and got them delivered to my work for only $220. Then had Dave Meister put everything together for me before I took a christmas trip to leavenworth with my ,then GF, and pup. Heres what the car looked like so far.
Once I got home from the trip I sold some of my Jetta parts and still had the notchless bra left that I had made. Since no one bought it I decided to recycle it.
From the Jetta hood.
To the Passat.
Underside fitment of the bra
Finished the evening with breakfast for dinner….on the roof.
I also noticed the rear driver side window pin was broken when I bought the car so I made this DIY for y'all and this is how I fixed it.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...ix-replacement
Heres a mid fix pic of the work
Then I got sidetracked for a few. My family dog passed. I walked into a tattoo shop asking if they could tattoo my dogs name on my finger. They said "no prob…its $70 min and we can do it in two weeks". That was not the answer I was looking for. So I walked out and purchased my own tattoo machines and proceeded to give myself the tattoo that night. Ooops thats too easy…this was the next weekend…
Word quickly got around and my buddies formed a line.
Then I took a day off….only to work on the girls car. sigh…so we ordered these guys. for her 2004.5 volvo s40.
Installed the springs and had these adapters machined for us…so we test fitted them. 5x108 to 5x5 and of course center bore rearranging.
Her wheels aren't done but we thought we'd get a general idea of the fitment…aprox 1" poke…wide much?..gotta scale it down.
So now we gotta get tires and such to finish her car…mean while, my window pin broke again so i fixed that. This time i said screw the plastic window pin and replaced it with a standard capped nut and bolt..worked like a charm
Then I bought and ordered a few toys for projects to come.
Next I decided to address the major rips in the driver seat of the car. I bought the car with the seat in terrible condition looking like this…
Bought this one from a yard. it came out of a b5.5 Passat sedan.
So i decided to make my own DIY for the fairly simple swap of b5.5 seats into b5.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...ring-required)
And ended up with a final installed seat now looking like this
While replacing the seat I noticed one of the rail slide covers was cracked..so that got plastic welded.
before:
after:
I was in the garage the following weekend working on a helmet for an art show…
Once I finished it I decided to work on some Votex mud flaps I had. They were from a previous mk4 Golf. The early flaps are nice, soft, and flexible for being low. So I "debadged" them, if you will, cleaned them up. and adjusted them to fit the Passat.
These are the rear flaps off a mk4 golf I started with. The white "VW" emblems had fallen off somewhere along the way.
Using a combination of a plastic welder/ angle grinder/ sand paper I was able to get them to a cleaner look. Heres a pic in progress. The one on the right was just melted. The left one had just started sanding on.
A shot before I hit them with Plastidip
Next day in the garage was spent on some of my wheels. I like my Lorinsers but the previous owner did a **** maintenance job so I had to give them some love as can be seen in this thread.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...wheel-revival)
if you don't care to click the link here is the quick version.
AND TODAY WE ARE 6 MONTHS IN OWNERSHIP MARK!
(added mileage is aprox 4k on the clock. = avg 23 miles per day it sees the road..pretty good i think)
A few days later I found a cheap Momo hub on CL. The seller also happened to have a "Hella" branded steering wheel that suited the car well so I picked them both up for an amazing deal.
out with the old..
in with the new..
The seller had this in a mk2 Jetta, supposedly owned and imported by a soldier from Germany. It was also stated the wheel originally came off an Alfa Romeo over there…not sure if it was stock for the Alfa or not. So I rode it with the Momo hub and airbag light on for a little bit, knowing that i would soon upgrade.
Then I found a nice town home with an attached garage (for me), and a walk in closet (for her). So I packed up all my things and we boogied.
Down stairs of the new joint…I'm happy with it.
Good thing I had the wagon for the move. one car load dedicated to wheels.
We got settled into the new house….my tools all in place…her closet organi….wait…sorta organized..and it was time to get ready for summer.
First summer owning the wagon so I had some choices to make….
Went with the Miro's, don't care that they are fake splits…I own real splits too…these i just happen to love the look of.
And got the ride height dialed for summer…until i broke of some reflectors switching lanes on the freeway and decided a few threads up never hurt anybody.
Took the next weekend to lay more ink.
Shortly after that I got a text from a nice gent in Vancouver WA. He wanted to make a trade.
So i traded him the wheels I recently refurb'd...
for some of these..
and we both had a great day.
By this time its now the beginning of may..summer is arriving and its time to travel and take a break from the car.
So the following weekend my brother and I and our girls went to Austin Texas for a great 3 day modern Woodstock called Psychfest..great food, great people, great music, great time..
camped with a ton of friendly people at Carson Creek Ranch for the festival.
Went to Barton Springs to get away from the heat. Natural swimming hole in Austin thats really cool.
Had to visit the Cathedral of Junk created by Vince Hanneman in his own back yard..any gear head would appreciate his work of art..cool dude to talk to..he said he's been building for 25 years.
Top story of the Cathedral
Also went to the Longhorn Caverns in Longhorn Cavern state park there in Texas.
The Caverns used to be used as a speakeasy during the prohibition.
Also went to The Salt Lick..another Great BBQ spot you have to hit in Austin area…get great food and you bring your own beer cooler in the restaurant..
Then we made it back to the Festival for the last night of music and and…and adult juice…oh and rallied this lil rental golf there to ha.
Austin City before we left on Cinco De Mayo.
Just about now i had my guest bedroom setup into my new study/art studio/project lab.
And lets not forget the reason I am here. A top my desk sits one of my fathers many Boeing patents. He has worked on the many aircrafts aside from the 787 Dreamliner. Most of his engineering and patents help create machines to essentially weave a one piece commercial airline fuselage.. This is one of many patents he has.. i was given this one for christmas last year. In his spare time my father has helped us kids create skateboard presses to fab composite skateboard decks, built a shifter cart in a few hours with a frame and engine from an RM80, and installed his own ecothermal HVAC unit for his house.. My pops is the man.
Any way.. here's the first little project to come from the new project lab.. wrapped the recently purchased steering wheel in some perforated leather so it would be more comfortable & match not only the other faux woodgrain..but now the exterior front hood bra and other little things i had yet to create with the same material.
Yes I know my work is subpar at best. I had the extra material, never tried it before, and had a lil free time so I decided to see what i could create.
After that I few to Utah with the rest of the Fam to see my little sister get married. Ventured up to Park City too for some fun.
Never a break…A day or so later I was driving and my driver side mirror just decided to fall off on me. luckily it was just the mirror glass coming unglued and I was able to catch it.
So i fixed it with some epoxy and made a DIY for it for the hell of it.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...7#post85633277
and done on this guy for the day..reinstalled..I know..exciting stuff!
The next weekend I found myself at Home Depot grabbing some things for the house. I remembered seeing the garage door lip so i thought i would give it a shot. its cheap and if I scrape it off in a few days driving then oh well.
so bought supplies and went from this.
to this
And Here's the DIY I made for the job.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...2#post85715712
I went on vacations for the next 4 weekends so I didn't get much done.
1. Whidbey Island WA.
2. dirt biking in Moses Lake WA sand dunes for fathers day trip
3. Whistler Canada for my birthday
4. Mason Lake WA for the fourth of July.
Goofing off in Whistler.
So i did some playing and now its time for some work and the rear hatch was bugging me long enough.
Bought all the supplies, put my trusty dent hammers to use, then started in with the body work.
All damages on the rear were done by previous owner :(
the bumper.
the plan.
might as well shave the emblem.
progress.
emblem after second coat of fiber. no glaze putty or filler yet.
getting rid of the bod lines
just bout ready for primer.
First primer.
Ready for paint/wrap (which will be the last thing done on the car.)
I had also bought more things I don't need when I picked up the body repair supplies. Picked up a Jetta hood and bumper for a good price. figured I'd shave and sell them to pay for body work supplies just purchased and hopefully paint for the Passat hatch/bumper.
picked these up 10am saturday morn. then had everything gutted/welded/sanded/first coat on by noon.
the jetta hood
welded hood.
first coat on the hood.
the trunk lid.
Finished trunk lid…you get the idea...
Took a day off of working to say goodbye to a project with a smile and a tear..then headed to the river for some fun in the sun.
Then bought some new tires for the fronts, a plastic welder for the next project, and cargo straps..I don't know..I just wanted them ok.
That weekend the gang went to the race track for a car show and some 1/4 miles. Pups came too!