After the steering wheel I believe I did the Euro tails. Because OEM Euro assemblies are stupid $, I opted for VLand Euro units, and they look almost identical to OEM's. Massive shout out to ZERO815 for his help and guidance. Sorry for the crappy pic.
7
EpicTech's 2017 GTI Build
- Thread starter EpicTech
- Start date
Just just going to say I didn't see these on your thread! Such a great mod!
I added it around 5pm yesterday. Im still working on getting my build thread up to date. Not everything is in here yet.
The next thing I got for the GTI was actually a gift from my wife. I had originally tried a set of different brand, but after a few trips, they had to come out as I just was not happy with them. Around a year ago I bought Corbeau seats, caught them on some kind of blowout sale for 700 bucks at Summit Racing up in Dallas. I saw the ad one Saturday morning, and a few hours later I was there picking up a set. I didnt list them in my build thread as they did not stay in the car. My wife one day while cruising over to her parents house for Sunday dinner, asked me about seats, so I gave her the rundown on what I had tried and did not like them. She asked the proverbial question: "Well what do you like?" - I told her and showed her some pictures and her reply was "holy crap those are expensive." I agreed and not another word was ever heard from her about it. Around a year later she surprised me with that very thing, Recaro Sportster CS seats in black with red alcantara inserts. She ordered them through my middle man who has an account with Vivid Racing. She was very sneaky as I talk to this guy all the time, we are good friends and he is in the car club I am in. He never mentioned them somehow during the 3 month wait it took for them to come in. The wife was sneaky yet again when they did show up, my friend calls me up and says "hey are you on the way up for the meeting?" (For those that dont know, I travel from down here near Houston, to northern Lousiana for these car meetings our club has). I replied, "sure am, whats up?" - He kind of snickers and tells me to swing by his house real quick when I get to town. I get there and as I'm rolling down his street up to his driveway, the wife is grinning, but trying to hide it. I instantly know something is up. My friend greets me and walks me over to the tailgate of his truck.
The seats totally catch me off guard as they look great and I had no idea. The wife passed them off to me as too expensive, so I was planning to get them later on with my bonus from work. We all know these seats are pricey, my set in this color and fabric configuration was a little higher than the standard black/black. I think they were $3100-3200 or so, my friend gave my wife his standard discount/connection price. When I priced these at the time they were 1700 each. Anyway, got them loaded in the car and since I didnt know I was getting them I had to order seat brackets and sliders. It wasn't long before those showed up. Recaro sliders and Planted Technology brackets. That was a bit of a puzzle to get the first side assembled and together, the other side went together easily after figuring out the first side. Note to those that do this: Patience...lol
Passenger seat comes out !
Recaro passenger side goes in, along with a Rennline fire extinguisher kit
Both seats installed !
I already had the Recaro headrest pillows, I have neck and back problems, so on long drives they are a must. After I had the seats installed and I sat in the driver seat, I was amazed at how comfortable they are. Now the price made sense lol.
*I did go through the headache of getting the seat occupancy sensors, heating elements, extra seat harness, airbag canceller plugs, etc, but I am not going through thge install here, there is a lot of chit chat about that already in other threads. I will share that I have not pulled the Recaro upholstery off to install the occupancy sensors, I could not bring myself to do that. I did get a quote from a shop, but the price was ridiculous. Maybe I could do it myself, idk. For now they are tucked up under the seat. For the seat belt sensor and harness, cancellers, that mess is all where it is supposed to be. I do get an airbag light, but only if I don't click the passenger seatbelt in. So I just ride around with that one always in. Kind of annoying, but I will deal with it until I bring myself to rip into the seat upholstery to install the sensor where it should be. Yes, I am annoyed I dont have heated seats now lol. As I said, later on I will tackle that if I can muster up the bravery.
Here is an exterior shot:
Soon after install I did another trip over to Louisiana, which was my first real chance to get an assessment on the Recaro's comfort. I will say with my bad back and neck, these seats are the ticket. Don't settle for less. I drove all the way there without ever getting any cramp or pain like I used to get with the OEM seats.
The seats totally catch me off guard as they look great and I had no idea. The wife passed them off to me as too expensive, so I was planning to get them later on with my bonus from work. We all know these seats are pricey, my set in this color and fabric configuration was a little higher than the standard black/black. I think they were $3100-3200 or so, my friend gave my wife his standard discount/connection price. When I priced these at the time they were 1700 each. Anyway, got them loaded in the car and since I didnt know I was getting them I had to order seat brackets and sliders. It wasn't long before those showed up. Recaro sliders and Planted Technology brackets. That was a bit of a puzzle to get the first side assembled and together, the other side went together easily after figuring out the first side. Note to those that do this: Patience...lol
Passenger seat comes out !
Recaro passenger side goes in, along with a Rennline fire extinguisher kit
Both seats installed !
I already had the Recaro headrest pillows, I have neck and back problems, so on long drives they are a must. After I had the seats installed and I sat in the driver seat, I was amazed at how comfortable they are. Now the price made sense lol.
*I did go through the headache of getting the seat occupancy sensors, heating elements, extra seat harness, airbag canceller plugs, etc, but I am not going through thge install here, there is a lot of chit chat about that already in other threads. I will share that I have not pulled the Recaro upholstery off to install the occupancy sensors, I could not bring myself to do that. I did get a quote from a shop, but the price was ridiculous. Maybe I could do it myself, idk. For now they are tucked up under the seat. For the seat belt sensor and harness, cancellers, that mess is all where it is supposed to be. I do get an airbag light, but only if I don't click the passenger seatbelt in. So I just ride around with that one always in. Kind of annoying, but I will deal with it until I bring myself to rip into the seat upholstery to install the sensor where it should be. Yes, I am annoyed I dont have heated seats now lol. As I said, later on I will tackle that if I can muster up the bravery.
Here is an exterior shot:
Soon after install I did another trip over to Louisiana, which was my first real chance to get an assessment on the Recaro's comfort. I will say with my bad back and neck, these seats are the ticket. Don't settle for less. I drove all the way there without ever getting any cramp or pain like I used to get with the OEM seats.
19birel
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Pittsburgh
- Car(s)
- MK7.5 - MK4 - B8.5
Those seats are gorgeous
Thank you! I get compliments all the time.Those seats are gorgeous
Went to the car meet up thing in Houston yesterday. It's about 70 miles one-way so it was a good chance to finally feel the car out after it several month slumber of new-clutch, new oil pan, new Continental EC Sport 02's, and other things that had went on during that time. The roads are a mix of highway and interstate depending on which way you go. On the way there I went the highway route and utilized a toll road to get to the meet quicker. Im always worried about being late, but I actually ended up being one of the early arrivals. On the way there I noticed the tires do feel and sound different than my previous DWS06. They are quieter at cruising speed, but when I got to the meet the parking lot was full of little pea gravel and I could hear the tires picking them up and pinging around in the wheel wells. I didn't hear that before with the old tires, or at least I don't recall ever hearing that. On the highway these tires track very well and I found myself seeing how tiny of steering input I could make and the car respond. This is just insane because even the tiniest movement on the wheel and the car would respond with the slightest alteration. Holding the wheel still and she just tracks straight ahead. The DWS06 tires had kind of a "hunting" nature about them, where it seemed like they would follow grooves in the road or imperfections would upset the tracking and I would have to make slight corrections to re-center in the lane. These Sport 02's do not do that. They go where you say and hold that.. awesome! These tires will be what stays on the GTI moving forward, unless I need like a Toyo R888 for a track day. On the way home I took the more scenic route down a 2 lane highway with some twisties and a few passing zones. This was quite amusing because I realized pretty quick these tires do what they are told. I didnt push real hard because the wife was with me, but they have a very planted feel and you just kind of know where the car is going to go with "x" amount of input.
The other thing I noticed that I was hoping would go away was the rev-hang. It seems to happen from 2nd to 3rd mostly and on one acceleration spurt coming out of slow sweeper into a straightaway, a gave it the sauce in second and the hang trying to notch in 3rd was enough distraction to make me miss 3rd. Very odd because that was my first ever miss-shift ever in the GTI. It never did it again the rest of the way home, which was about three or four more spirited hits in second. I also did not have any more acceleration break-ups or cut outs like I did a couple weeks ago. The power was there, every time. I still plan to get new coils and plugs here real soon.
At the meet, a friend I met at a Houston cars n coffee a couple years ago showed up, and naturally they had to park what used to be a white MK7 R- now a Lapiz blue MK8 R - next to me.
The other thing I noticed that I was hoping would go away was the rev-hang. It seems to happen from 2nd to 3rd mostly and on one acceleration spurt coming out of slow sweeper into a straightaway, a gave it the sauce in second and the hang trying to notch in 3rd was enough distraction to make me miss 3rd. Very odd because that was my first ever miss-shift ever in the GTI. It never did it again the rest of the way home, which was about three or four more spirited hits in second. I also did not have any more acceleration break-ups or cut outs like I did a couple weeks ago. The power was there, every time. I still plan to get new coils and plugs here real soon.
At the meet, a friend I met at a Houston cars n coffee a couple years ago showed up, and naturally they had to park what used to be a white MK7 R- now a Lapiz blue MK8 R - next to me.
Ok so as far as build/mods goes the rest of what I have done is very recent, and was basically done all at once. I will talk about the headlights first I guess and my GTI after nearly seven years of abuse, mine were looking pretty shot. The assemblies developed hairline cracks some three years ago, and as time went on, they only got worse. About a year ago, the cracks progressed and finally lost their seal from keeping moisture out. I effectively stopped driving the car pretty much as every time I looked at the car, it pained me to see the headlights looking in such sad shape. I had been looking for replacements for a long time, and originally got a set from another member. They did not work with my car though. I had hoped to find replacements sooner but at nearly 1400 per side, I was in a bad spot to order new ones, plus I had a complex about paying that much for headlight assemblies. I ended up getting a set from Zero, and honestly was over the moon about it because these are clear side marker versions. So I now have euro tails and headlights lol. Here is a crappy pic of my passenger side old assembly when I pulled it out for the swap.
-That really is a terrible pic, sorry. I will swap that pic for a better one as soon as I can.
Here is the new assemblies I got from Zero
I sat on these for a while because I was also planning to replace my front bumper, which like the headlights, had seen lots of abuse. I wanted to fix the front end all at once because I was annoyed with basically the whole front end just looking beat to death. I had the logic of thinking that if I got to pull the bumper, I might as well replace it in the process. I ordered a replacement OEM bumper after tossing around several options that I could have done. I decided on doing a non-GTI bumper later on, and just keep the car OEM for now. Those of you that dont know, the bumpers when you order one come folded. When mine came in a let it sit in the sun for several days.
Afterwards I took it to a paint & body shop for paintwork. I have paint equipment but the wife was impressed with me potentially covering the inside of the garage with silver paint. I also wanted a good paint job on it as I don't trust myself just yet lol. The bumper came out pretty good, I was very pleased. With headlights ready to go in, a fresh bumper, a sneaky CF grille purchase that the wife didnt know about, and some Blue laminX headlight tint, the GTI went up on jack stands and I put everything together.
-That really is a terrible pic, sorry. I will swap that pic for a better one as soon as I can.
Here is the new assemblies I got from Zero
I sat on these for a while because I was also planning to replace my front bumper, which like the headlights, had seen lots of abuse. I wanted to fix the front end all at once because I was annoyed with basically the whole front end just looking beat to death. I had the logic of thinking that if I got to pull the bumper, I might as well replace it in the process. I ordered a replacement OEM bumper after tossing around several options that I could have done. I decided on doing a non-GTI bumper later on, and just keep the car OEM for now. Those of you that dont know, the bumpers when you order one come folded. When mine came in a let it sit in the sun for several days.
Afterwards I took it to a paint & body shop for paintwork. I have paint equipment but the wife was impressed with me potentially covering the inside of the garage with silver paint. I also wanted a good paint job on it as I don't trust myself just yet lol. The bumper came out pretty good, I was very pleased. With headlights ready to go in, a fresh bumper, a sneaky CF grille purchase that the wife didnt know about, and some Blue laminX headlight tint, the GTI went up on jack stands and I put everything together.
This weekend I plan to use my overpriced Canon DSLR and get an updated "hero" shot of how my GTI looks today. Spoiler alert, I am not happy with the little cheap ebay splitter. The thought behind the cheap one is its going to get scraped up anyway. IDK I'm ok with it for now, but I really want something better. I am toying with the thought of installing rivet nuts and doing a car show or track day spoiler/splitter that I can quick detach/install when needed. I also have a tow point license plate mount but for some reason I can't get it to center up correctly, so for now the plate is on the lower center grille. I HATE front plates but every time I try to run without it, I get pulled over.