46 replies to this topic

[illegalr32]

❌ILLEGAL R32 BUILD THREAD❌

 

 

Build navigation menu (blue text has a link of upgrade attached - just click to visit - some links are not working due to forum coding problems, please search by the site provided)

 

Chassis

Anti Roll bars: H&R /  front - 24mm / rear - 26mm  

Coilovers: KW V2 - inox, adjustable damping

Front brakes: Audi TTRS 8J - 4pot callipers + 370x32mm discs + HEL braided brake lines

Rear brakes: OEM callipers + 356x22mm discs

 

Exterior

Wheels: OZ Superleggera III, 3-piece forged, 19" 8.5J ET43

Clean look front grill conversion: Color code Hyper Silver (Isuzu) - 300892

Front bumper lip: Ustil tuning

Side skirt extensions: Maxton design - gloss black

Wind deflectors: Team Heko

Blacked turn signals on mirrors: LED

Tail lights upgrade: Valeo LED candy red

Rear diffuser: IndoNoak Tuning - DTM style

Rear spoiler: BodyCustoms

Rear wiper delete: KillAllWipers

Tinted Windows: 95%

 

Maintenance

Bonnet - repair and respray

Removing rust from rear wheel arches

Rear bumper fix and repaint

 

Latest photos of the car

 

 

 

Edited by illegalr32, 24 May 2020 - 09:34 AM.

[illegalr32]

Introduction

 

Hi there!

 

I am Klemen, 22 yo and I own my dream car which is - obviously - a R32

 

Thought I'd start a build thread just to have everything organized. No better place than a old good forum.

 

I'll skip all the stories about my addiction to R32's or VR6's in general, but it is worth mentioning that I never thought I will own one of these cars. In Slovenia they are like MEGA rare (my list says 3x-mk4's, around 12x mk5's and 1x r36).

 

In march 2019 I have bought myself a mk4 2.8 VR6 because this was the only option for me - financially and also there were no R32's for sale. In May, a guy I barely used to know from meetings put his MK5 R32 for sale. The car was mint and damn I wished I could buy it. Well, few months later, I bought that car (and sold my mk4 later). And to this day I am still mindblown that the car is actually mine.

 

What is worth mentioning - dreams do come true, if you are willing to work hard for them. I pushed myself for almost two years, working 13-14 hrs a day and mostly all weekends to buy a R32 one day. And I don't regret it.

 

We covered that part. Time to skip to real deal.

 

Picked up my Volkswagen Golf 5 .:R32 on October 18th 2019.

Price:  15,000 € 

Odometer:  172.500 km 

Transmission:  DSG with F1 paddle shifters 

Specs:  Full spec -  3 - door, leather seats, roof window, black pearl - LC9Z, the only thing missing are Recaro bucket seats

 

Time to build the car to my wishes, do some maintenance, remove any mistakes from previous owners and then keep it for the rest of my life

 

Fasten your seatbelts lads, the sh%t is about to get real

 

More pictures of the car can be found on my Instagram profile - @illegal.r32

 

Some pictures from first few days of owning it

 

 

 

 

Edited by illegalr32, 17 April 2020 - 07:50 PM.

[Andy]

Looks a stunning example mate and welcome to the forum, Just click under your post to edit and add more to the posts you make

[illegalr32]

Thank you! Have to become more active on forums again! Just figuring out how to upload pictures in full size

[illegalr32]

So I've had my car on the road for only 10 days since owning it (main reason is this is purely my car to enjoy so I am not driving it in winter conditions). We gathered together with two other R32's back in October and I've met most of them for the first time. Second tour was in December because the weather was crazy nice! Awesome company and the tours were super epic! Cannot wait to do some more with the mates

 

 

 

 

Mine R32 next to mk6  R - ex owner's of my R32 new ride

Edited by illegalr32, 13 April 2020 - 08:15 PM.

[illegalr32]

We should move to the build now

 

I have almost finished the car as I could only dream about.

 

NOTE

 

First post in this thread serves as a navigation menu (which is going to be refreshed all the time as I add new posts to the thread) for better orientation in this thread and about my car. You can help yourself with:

• searching for data about upgrades on my car,
• want to know where I have purchased any parts (links provided!),
• want to know OEM part numbers for any upgrade (numbers provided!),
• want to know the price rate for any upgrade (I'll deliver that too!),
• want to see how to do some things yourself (including servicing,...),
• ...

For now I am going to add some pictures of the car as it is right now.  I am going to take better ones once I have the chance to drive the car (I am planning to hit the road in July as I am extremly busy now). In the meantime I am going to update the thread with whole car build timeline.

 

I am going to split the build in 4 sub sections:

• subframe,
• extrerior,
• interior,
• engine bay.

Edited by illegalr32, 17 April 2020 - 07:49 PM.

[illegalr32]

I am going to start this from ground up. There were some mods done from the previous owner and I will also include them on build list.

 

Starting with upgraded anti roll bars then. As we all know, R32's are heavy as hell at front! I felt that on my 24v mk4 so I knew the feeling of how bad it is.

 

Lucky me, the previous owner upgraded them with H&R! The car handling is on another level now. It feels like a normal car, in fact even better, wherever you point it, it just goes. Probably the best upgrade you can ever do on you R32! The car also have H&R stabi links.

 

ANTI ROLL BARS

Producer: H&R

Front: 24mm (oem is 22mm)

Rear: 26mm (oem is 19.6 - 21.7mm)

Price: aprox. 500€

Link: exact same kit as mine - ebay

 

Edited by illegalr32, 19 April 2020 - 11:02 AM.

[Andy]

Been looking at up grading my anti roll bars but some say ie 034 motorsports that the rear just needs doing as the oem front one is okay.. Think with the front being a bit more involved and the bolts tend to snap is also a factor

[illegalr32]

Been looking at up grading my anti roll bars but some say ie 034 motorsports that the rear just needs doing as the oem front one is okay.. Think with the front being a bit more involved and the bolts tend to snap is also a factor

I'd say both front&rear are important if you want a top notch ride. Depends on how you drive your car. I wouldn't need upgraded anti roll bars at all because I rarely/never drive like a maniac with my R32. I have too much respect to this car

 

Whatever you go with - H&R / 034 / whiteline - they are all a step up from stock

[Andy]

Like you hardly drive it but when I do on the n roads I push along a bit

[illegalr32]

Another thing pre-installed on this car when I bought it are KW V2 coilovers. These were installed in 2018 by previous owner and are still in perfect condition. Rear is dropped all the way and the front still has a few cm's of thread left.

 

I've had FK's on my mk4 and I can tell you that KW is on another level. Sure it is even price wise, but I am not a guy - buy cheap, buy twice - anymore.

 

SUSPENSION

Producer: KW

Model: V2 - inox, adjustable damping

Front: still some thread left

Rear: dropped all the way

Price: aprox. 1500€

Link: exact same kit as mine - kw official site

 

I decided to leave them on for now and stay static kinda way.

Don't have any pictures of the coilies but they are the same as the ones below.

 

 

[Andy]

I had the kW v1 on my old mk5 gttdi and were excellent

[illegalr32]

Next thing are front brakes. They were basically like new, ATE ceramic all around but I just wanted a little step-up.

 

So I've picked up an Audi TTRS 8J ones. 4-pot brembo callipers with 370mm discs

 

Front brakes

Starting price: 850€ for used callipers/discs/pads + HEL brake lines (pads were ripped, discs are on their last legs)

They are direct fit to mk5/mk6/mk7 platform

 

Producer: Brembo

Model: from Audi TTRS 8J

Callipers: 4-pot

Discs: 100.3367.70 - 370x32mm - cheapest I found them are for 356€. They are hard to get and it seems

                                                      like only Zimmerman and A.B.S are producing them

Pads: ATE 13.0460-4833.2  Price with rabat - 72,44 €

Dust seals: these callipers have 2 different piston sizes

                   I've replaced 3 dust boots. I had to get them from germany from Brembo shop, since nobody

                   here had them

                   44mm - 20.4872.48

                   40mm - 20.4872.46

                   Total price for 3 dust boots - 39,79€

New bleeding nipples: 361635 or 81053669. 4 of them were - 5 €

HEL braided brake lines: kept the old ones, they in red but it is what it is.

                                        Otherwise new - custom made - cost 56€ (any color, any lenght)

Tools, paint and everything I've needed to rebuild them cost me - 170€

 

Total cost so I got these bitches running: aprox 1140€

 

I've made a mistake buying these as they were in pretty bad condition. If I would turn back time I'd go straight for RS3 365mm ones or maybe even 390mm custom setup. I'd cost me roughly the same as this. As I mentioned discs are on it's last legs but I will keep them on for this season. Because of all Corona shit I intend to put my car on the road for only 3 months this year so the discs can wait. This is my secondary car which only get driven here and there in summer. As I intend to buy myself a new daily I might transfer these brakes there. I don't know will see. For now this is my front setup I run on my R32

 

Before we proceed here are some links related to the websites where I check everything related to brakes, OEM numbers, fitting, prices,...

 

Epytec

Killerbrakes

Autodoc

Brembo racing

 

So are you ready to enter a huge mess. Damn it was painful to rebuild these mofos.

 

 

Disc's were cleaned. So much dust in them it is nuts. All of the holes were completely filled. Just why  oh and ripped pads

 

 

So I have rinsed them and started to clean the old paint and dirt off

 

Work in progress...

 

 

I've also cleaned the other parts - bolts, brackets

 

New pads

 

 

New bleeding nipples

 

 

4-pot calliper compared to the OEM one. OEM are pretty big but 1 piston compared to 4

 

 

Ready to be sealed and painted 

 

   

Oh and new dust boots  And HEL brake lines

 

 

And everything painted. I've put some epoxi primer on callipers, I wouldn't have to but I did. Later I used a full dip paint which is made for painting the callipers. It is in spray. Everything assembled. Looks nice.

 

 

It was time to install them. Nothing major here.

OEM ones

 

 

I have also cleaned wheel arches, hubs and repainted dust shields quickly with some high temp. spray paint.

 

 

And the finished product.

 

My advice after doing this. If possible, avoid buying used callipers from ebay etc. At the end, it will cost you more to rebuild everything, than to get a full set from epytec or killerbrakes.

Edited by illegalr32, 22 April 2020 - 09:04 AM.

[Muska]

Great write up and nice job on the refurbishment and upgrade

 

How do you find the performance/pedal feel compared to standard?

[illegalr32]

Great write up and nice job on the refurbishment and upgrade

How do you find the performance/pedal feel compared to standard?

thank you, a lot more to come!

Good question actually. R32 / R in general has bigger brake master cylinder than let's say GTI or TDI from the factory. Hence why the pedal feel is exactly the same as it was before. I think that I'd had to upgrade master cylinder only by stepping up to 8-pot front and dual calliper rear setup.

[Andy]

Brilliant write up and some work into them brakes. Always thought the tdi and r32 master cylinders were the same

[Dangerous Dave]

Nice. Do they fit under the standard 18" wheels?

[illegalr32]

Brilliant write up and some work into them brakes. Always thought the tdi and r32 master cylinders were the same

 

Thank you. I want this thread to serve others in future in case if they want to do the same mods or me, so they have it all writen up

 

Also here are the master cylinder sizes from performance cars

 

- 22,22 mm (Mk.V GTI)
- 23,81 mm (Mk.V R32, Mk.VI GTI, Golf R)
- 25,40 mm (RS3 + TT-RS)
 

Nice. Do they fit under the standard 18" wheels?

 

They do fit size wise (barely), but do not fit without any spacers because the callipers are much wider than OEM.
 

[illegalr32]

I also wanted to upgrade rear brakes. 310mm stock just didn't do the justice for me. Originally I've planned to go crazy and do my own system. I've bought Alfa Romeo 4-pot callipers (Brembo) and rebuilt them compeltely. The plan was to use 4-pot calliper (with custom CNC made adapter) on 356mm disc with additional OEM calliper for handbrake. I've had everything organized, but the things went into the direction that I was scared off at the end. The problem are my wheels, which are 3-piece (I'll cover them in future post). They just wouldn't fit so extreme rear setup. I had 3 options remaining: to go wild on rear camber or to go make car wider at the back or to sell my wheels and get other ones. I didn't like any of these 3 options so no dual rear calliper setup for now

 

At the end I just went with 356mm discs at the back with OEM calliper setup.

 

How I did it? Well a lot of research. I've written everything down for you if you are interested in this kind of upgrade.

 

Rear brakes

 

Callipers: OEM

Discs: 356x22mm Zimmermann 4H0 615 601 F - 125,93€  (you can also use Audi RS7 wave discs but are around 5x more expensive)

Pads: OEM - 1K0 698 451 E - used the old ATE ones - perfect condition

Adapters for callipers and discs: Epytec 114 - Click here to buy - 138,63€

Dust seals: I've replaced both, using TRW kit - SJ 1236 - 7,09€

Calliper brake lines: The old ones were so rusty so I've destroyed both sides while taking callipers off.

                                Only OEM exist! Metzger - 1K0 611 763 E (left) / 1K0 611 764 L (right) - 37,5€

Brake oil: I always use ATE DOT4. I have used 2L, just to flush the whole system completely - 15€

 

Total cost for rear brake upgrade was 325€
 

This is what I've started with

 

 

Callipers needed to be repainted anyway

 

 

These are the short lines I've destroyed

 

 

So dirty and rusty

 

 

Rebuild material

 

 

Cleaned the hubs with adapter test fit

 

 

Better now

 

 

The whole rear brake setup

 

 

You also need discs centering rings (because the hole is bigger on A6 discs). Don't worry, you get them together with Epytec adapters

 

 

Fits perfectly!

 

 

Adapters are soild and well made. Fits perfectly

 

 

Quick note if you are going to do these. Fit the adapters on the calliper carrier first and then bolt everything up to the car.

 

 

Yep this is excellent

 

 

How it looks from behind

 

 

Next two pictures are from my dual calliper idea

 

 

And this is the final look at the end

 

Edited by illegalr32, 22 April 2020 - 09:00 AM.

[illegalr32]

Maintenance

 

Removing rust from wheel arches

 

This post is going to be from the maintenance field. As I was rebuilding brakes, I also wanted to clean wheel arches. As you might know, all golf's are pretty vulnerable at the front with getting rusty in lower under-fender section. On my car that wasn't the case. No rust at front at all.

 

What suprised me were rear wheel arches, which were "protected" last year in the previous ownership. I know who made the protection and I will just say I didn't expect so bad of a work from anyone. The dude protected them but was so lazy that he didn't remove the mud flaps. Under mud flaps the real suprise was awaiting for me.

 

So both sides were pretty rusty (superficially)  but still not so rusty that skirts would have to be changed or anything like that. Rusty enough to bother me as I hate things not being as they must be.

 

 

First thing to do was to get rid off any rust.

 

 

Then my friend got me some Wurth rust killer. I put a good coat on the surface where the rust was and waited overnight.

 

 

As the rust was gone, I proceeded and put two separate layers of Epoxi 2K primer on there.

 

 

And for the nice finished touch I've painted the whole lower section with black color. Looks so much better now. This surely helped atleast a little bit as I won't ever drive this car over winter again.

 

 

Cleaned everything and put it all together. Chassis is now done

[barrym381]

Good job with the brakes and you know that rust will always return

[illegalr32]

Good job with the brakes and you know that rust will always return

Thank you. Ye I know I will have to sort things out when they get nastier over the years but there is still plenty of time

[illegalr32]

We should move further down the road. Now we are stepping into the exterior upgrades. And it is a lot to cover here. So I will reveal one upgrade per day. You are more then welcome to come back and give it a read. Means a lot

 

I have bought the car with some Veeman VFS-27R wheels on it, but I didn't quite like them. I just wanted something classic with a lip of course.

 

So I've came ahead of some super nice and quite rare OZ Superleggera III. So I've decided to buy them.

 

Wheels

Model: OZ Superleggera III 3-piece forged

Rim Width: 8.5 J

Rim offset: ET43

Price: 1500€

 

Wheels still have OEM seal and are in pretty good contition. They have some small chips from stones but nothing major so no rebuild needed.

 

Tires

Toyo Proxes 225/35 R19

Price: used them from my Veemans

 

I am also running 11mm spacers at front, to clear Audi TTRS brakes.

Also running 47mm wheel bolts all around (this wheels have some thick middle part - true sign of a quality).

 

The car on the second day od my ownership. On Veeman wheels

 

 

Oldies vs. newbies

 

 

Tires fitted

 

 

I like them a lot to be honest!

 

Edited by illegalr32, 25 April 2020 - 05:11 PM.

[Andy]

Looks stunning

[illegalr32]

Next thing was to eliminate the mistakes on the exterior that prevoius owners made and because things like that bother me.

 

Bonnet repair & repaint

 

First thing was the bonnet. Some stone chips and also some hail marks (rest of the car is ok). I have a very good friend of mine who is car painter and my partner in crime in automotive world. We share the same passion for cars which is awesome.

 

So he sorted the bonnet out first for me. Completely brushed, marks eliminated, brushed, primered, brushed again, painted, lacquired, brushed again and polished completely. An amazing work! The end result is insane and the bonnet doesn't have a single mark on it.

 

You can see a lot of marks that are hardly seen in normal

 

 

In primer. The bonnet was in primer for 2 months, just to make sure the primer sits well into the surface.

 

 

Painted

 

 

Removing final dents and marks

 

 

Ooops is it matt

 

 

No worries the lack is being brushed

 

 

Adding final touch

 

 

And the end result. Mindblown

 

 

 

Edited by illegalr32, 27 April 2020 - 05:27 PM.

[Andy]

Stunning finish

[iooroiidvd]

Wow

[Muska]

Coming along great, I love to read the write up when people really care for their car 

[illegalr32]

Stunning finish

 

It is

 

Wow

 

It's a moment when I show up got em' sayin' "WOW"

 

Coming along great, I love to read the write up when people really care for their car 

 

Thank you!
 

[illegalr32]

Another thing that bothered me was the front grill. A lot of holes for registration plate and I just didn't like it. I preffer clean look (like the US grills). So we decided to sort things out.

 

Clean look front grill conversion

 

Because Carbotek Performance didn't have any clean grills in stock (Carbotek grills here-OEM), I have decided to let my friend (the painter ) sort this out for me. It was the pain in the ass to be honest.

Taking it apart. Must be carefull because tabs breaks easily just by giving them a mad look

 

First, the old paint had to come off. I believe these grills are metallised! As soon as we hit it with the brusher it destroyed pads immediatelly! So we brushed it as much as possible without getting the metallised material off. Also 2K primer didn't work as it rubbed off! He used some type of wash primer

 

 

As you can see it was bad

 

 

You can see bottom left around the hole so this is some strange material

 

 

Holes were filled with some kind of two component super glue which dries extremly fast and can be brushed later without destroying it

 

 

No more holes

 

 

Next thing was the paint. OEM grills have a weird paint which isn't completely gloss and isn't completely matt. It is something in between. I have decided to go full gloss because I like it shiny.

 

Color code if interested: Hyper Silver (Isuzu) - 300892

 

 

We were most afraid of paint peeling off when I would wash the car with pressure washer. After first wash, everything is completely OK so this is a win!

 

 

Next thing that was previouly done but again, badly were the magnets on the inside of the grill. I pull them off, cleaned them and glued them on again with some strong glass glue.

 

I have used MagSign magnets, which previous owner gave me (avaiable here)

 

 

The car stripped

 

 

And grill fitted back. Looks sooo much better now

 

 

Another front end update coming tomorrow

Edited by illegalr32, 27 April 2020 - 05:34 PM.