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TheDadWagon - Building a Cross-Country Capable Sportwagen

thedadwagon

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Grand Rapids, MI
Car(s)
MK7 Golf Sportwagen
Hey GolfMK7 - My name is Victor and based in West Michigan. I picked up a 2017 Golf Sportwagen in April/May of 2020 in order to have a more capable vehicle for "Up North" explorations and traveling back and forth to my cabin in the Manistee National Forest. It was also a way for me to build my skillset of storytelling and developing learning content through film. When I purchased the car, I also started www.thedadwagon.com - I've made a hand-full of videos of my projects and installations.

The updates I've made so far include:
  • Unitronic Stage 2 ECU Tune
  • Unitronic Stage 2 TCU (DSG) Tune
  • Integrated Engineering 3" Downpipe
  • Driverside Air Duct Modification
  • H&R Sport Springs
  • 16" Sparco Terra Wheels (black)
  • 215/60R16 Yokohama Geolandar A/T Tires
  • Rally Armor Mudflaps
  • Racingline Stud Conversion Kit

Here is the photo journey so far:

First Purchased
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Window Tint
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Old Box New Car - After install of unitronic stage 2 and downpipe install
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H&R Sport Spring Installation
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ECS Street Shield Install
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New Rims + Tires + Mudflaps + Stud Conversion
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Thanks for letting me join the community.
 

swcrow

Autocross Champion
Location
Virginia
Car(s)
7.5 GTI
About the only time I’d tell someone to raise that joker! That would look mean with a lift (VW has an OEM kit no kidding) some hella lights/light bar..... totally subscribed
 

thedadwagon

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Grand Rapids, MI
Car(s)
MK7 Golf Sportwagen
Looks Great Victor! You'll have to keep us updated on the GTI bumper swap!
Thanks and will do - so far... I'm actually blown away by the quality. Way beyond what I was expecting for the price - I share the videos here when they're complete.

About the only time, I’d tell someone to raise that joker! That would look mean with a lift (VW has an OEM kit no kidding) some hella lights/light bar..... totally subscribed
:) I really went back and forth on this - I had the forge lift kit in my cart for months before purchased the car, but it then just seemed to me i was trying to make the car way more than I needed it to be. I happy with where its at for now - but who knows - in a few months - maybe you'll see it lifted for a bit.

Welcome to the forum. Car looks great and so does the cabin.

Thanks so much! The car has been a lot of fun, but it doesn't compare to the personal reward of investing in this property - it was a stretch for me and my wife but it's been a great escape during the pandemic. 15 acres on the river and just a little bitty 450 sq ft. cabin.
 

thedadwagon

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Grand Rapids, MI
Car(s)
MK7 Golf Sportwagen
GTI BUMPER CONVERSION - PART 1

So, the front bumper on the pre-facelift MK7 golfs (not gti / R) is pretty lame and soft. Therefore, I wanted to swap it out for a MK7 GTI front bumper. The problem with that was the cost - an OE GTI front bumper runs $2000+ and for a car that's worth only 15K... I can't justify that (although there isn't much about modifying cars that is really justifiable :) ). I did keep coming across these conversion kits for around $450, but I just had to believe they couldn't be any good. Despite that, I decided to purchase one and create a video about it to share my experience with it to either help others avoid making the same decision, or maybe, give this company a chance to surprise them.

Here is part 1
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
Hey man, great Youtube videos and just found this thread. Looking sweet.
 

Corprin

Autocross Champion
Location
Magrathea
Car(s)
A car
Found the thread from your snow play pics.

keep your thread running, gaining ideas for my wife’s ‘19
 

thedadwagon

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Grand Rapids, MI
Car(s)
MK7 Golf Sportwagen
So have a lot of catch up to do on this build - I'll treat each step as separate entry.

WRAP

After installing the GTI front bumper, my next focus was get the bumper matching the rest of the car. I had my heart on trying out a full vehicle wrap for a while and had a friend hook me up with a contact at what I though was a really strange place to go have a vehicle wrap - but the more I thought about it - the more it made sense; FastSigns. FastSigns is a regional marketing/printing company kind of like FedEx Kinkos and they do a ton of full graphic vehicle wraps - think of box trucks, branded vans, etc. I had great recommendations about their installer, so I figured I'd give it a shot. He didn't disappoint.


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Here is the wrap video I made for the youtube channel
 
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