16V Turbo VW Cabriolet Build (for the wife)

[juicedz4]

Originally Posted by entropy

What are you going to do in the way of . . . Rock Guards or whatever you call em?

I may do some paint protection film (PPF) at some point.

Otherwise, nothing.

[TheBandit]

Originally Posted by juicedz4

https://youtu.be/NdbweFpqsJ0

DUDE! This thing is looking mint. So glad I can follow the build here and on Instagram. I love the longform here so thanks for posting the photos and adding detail. I know from experience it takes a bit of work, but these threads are great resources for mortals like myself.

[entropy]

Originally Posted by TheBandit

DUDE! This thing is looking mint. So glad I can follow the build here and on Instagram. I love the longform here so thanks for posting the photos and adding detail. I know from experience it takes a bit of work, but these threads are great resources for mortals like myself.

Yes indeed!
What he said!!!

E

[juicedz4]

haha thanks guys. More updates !

Picked up the header and downpipe from Cerakote.

Wrapped the downpipe with DEI Titanium wrap.






Forgot I had to slightly port the header, so I did that quick.





And installed with stainless studs and copper lock nuts.





And then installed the turbo. Im still unsure what, if anything, Im going to do about filtering, so for now I just have the

velocity stack as a placeholder.








Water hard lines and stainless braided oil feed. These were fun to make.














https://youtu.be/fRNR7blgqpg


Dan

[juicedz4]

Been cranking away on the car, as usual havent had time to do an update. So here we go.

Next was the oil drain. I made this a few months ago. The turbo flange is made from two separate pieces of stainless plate welded together in

the middle and smoothed out. The flexible drain flange was removed and silver brazed to the stainless flange. The bottom end was also brazed

to a length of straight tube.











I had to remove the turbo to get the midpipe in (which I forgot to take a pic of). Decided I didnt like the copper coated lock nuts, so I

swapped to ARP with ss nordlocks, much nicer.



This nut is a hoot to install.



Next up was getting the fans wired as I got some of the harness supplies in.



Using Deutsh DT connector with a Raychem right angle shrink boot.



Need to mount the bulkhead next time the car is in the air, i keep forgetting




Then I realized there was a bunch of ARP hardware that I didnt paint. So I went back and did them.








Installed the brake resivoir.




Dan

[juicedz4]

still catching up


I decided that the engine bay needed a different finish to break things up. Welcome carbon fiber.

Picked up some supplies from Composite Envisions to try my hands at CF wrapping, as long term I wanted to do the front splitter anyway.


Grabbed a few yards, of this, plus the necessary resin and black pigment to tint the base layer.






First layer of tinted resin on, fabric cut to size.

This was definitely the worst part. The resin is very thin and didnt stay on the sides well, so the fabric didnt stick as well as I liked and I ended up attempting to tape it to the backside while things set up. one spot was also too thick and bled through. For future projects Ill need to figure out how to deal with this. Id think a little thicker resin would help.



Laid / taped in place.



Bleed through.



First coat of clear top resin.



A few more coats later.



After that I blocked it flat and ended up with a few voids, likely from the first layer not sticking well to the sides.

I didnt want to scrap the piece so I decided to patch them as they were on the side anyway.



Mixed up a little filler and tinted it with the resin tint black.





And then a final coat of resin.



And then wetsanded and buffed it out.





The edges still had some spots you could see the base under, from sanding through etc, so I back taped the top and dusted some trim black paint on the edges. It did the trick even though its still not perfect, Im pretty happy for a first attempt.



Installed









Dan

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Good work.

[juicedz4]

Originally Posted by alwaysFlOoReD

Good work.

Thanks!

Up next tackled sanding and buffing the hood.











And mounted. It may still need some final alignment once the wings are on but its close. Hood shocks work great and have no interference.









And tossed the headlighs in quick for fun.



Dan

[juicedz4]

Then switched back to the trunk area


The rear seat release knob was not going to be sufficient.



I sourced a stainless knob from McMaster 62265K512 with the correct M5 thread. Much better, but then the jamb nut would also not do.



The nut is M10x1 but an ARP M10 nut is huge. I had spare M8 nuts so I drilled ont out, tapped it for M10x1 and trimmed the drive area down by

more than half.



MUCH better







I sanded the brush finsh from the face of the knob and will give the whole thing a nice bead blast finish next time Im able to access the

blaster.





Also installed new plate light housings I had to source from Germany.





Repainted the trunk strut body and replaced the body end bushing (not shown)

And sourced new stainless E clips McMaster 98317A220 some black nylon spacers McMaster 98317A220.






Finally sourced a new striker wedge bumper thing from a Type 2 Bus pn 211829177

It doesnt exactly line up with the cabby striker plate holes but it works perfectly. Im simply going to weld up the one hole and drill a new

one to make it work. Of course Ill need to have the plate nickle plated again, but its like $2.





And thats all the updates.

I have a ton of spring cleaning and maintenance to do on the GTI and Atlas, so the cabby will sit in quarantine for a while. (sound familiar?).



Dan

[entropy]

Originally Posted by juicedz4

I have a ton of spring cleaning and maintenance to do on the GTI and Atlas, so the cabby will sit in quarantine for a while. (sound familiar?).
Dan

Saddly it sounds really Familiar

Thankz for the update!!!

E

Oh and... Let's be careful out there!

[monkey-1]

Attention to detail and the craftsmanship are top notch!

[juicedz4]

Been picking away, although super slowly, on this again lately.

Reworked the striker plate to accept the old bus bumper.

Orig , cross eyed.



welded up



bingo.






Then I turned my attention to the doors. Ive had them in poly for months now but they needed to be blocked out. So I did that inside and out.

The inside required a little filler from people kicking the damn bottoms of the doors getting in / out. sigh.

But now they are ready for the last coat of primer and the final 400grit soft block. Hoping like hell to prime this week.









And the top where I had welded up the seams and holes for the window tracks. They will be painted on top like the early doors.





And blocked the poly on the outside.



Dan