2008 CW GTI by Darcness (build log)

12.19.08 - OMFG I'm spent, got the mids in though.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

I'm officially spent. Just worked from 12am until now (5am) on getting the Dayton RS100-4's installed in my door. SO close to drop in, yet so, so far away. Mounting depth, check. Using stock mid mounts, check. Fitting the magnet into the door, FUCK.

What an incredible pain in the ass. :mad0259:

I originally thought, what the hell, if the magnet doesn't fit I'll just make an MDF ring and mount the mid to the door. Easy enough right? WRONG! The door is only flat where the OEM midrange "cup" fits into the hole. Other than that, there's literally millimeters of space and then sharp, massive curves and bends. No way in hell was I getting a mounting ring to sit flush. The midranges would have been pointing straight at my feet if I did it anyway.

Plan B was quickly put into action. I decided to enlarge the hole in the door ever so slightly. It only needs a small amount trimmed all the way around. Since it was much easier to trim from the back side, I removed my outer door skins in the process. Easy enough, except when it's pitch black outside and you're working by yourself. I prevailed though and got the holes enlarged. I still have to clean them up a bit with a jigsaw because all I had at my disposal was tin snips. They worked, but I want a cleaner cut and I want to repaint any bare metal and seal the door back up with a new, larger "cup" for the new mid.

Once the holes were enlarged and I test fit the Daytons, I had to figure out how to mount them to the doors with the stock mounts. This is where I think my best work came into play.

I decided to sacrafice the piece of shit OEM midrange to use it as a mounting platform. I started by removing the midrange and then cutting the OEM midrange basket right up near the ring, like so.





Once all the basket supports are cut I pulled the basket up and split the basket and motor from the speaker cone. Then cut the last two supports holding the wiring harness in place.



I was left with a cone and the surrounding frame like this. Note that a small bit of the basket is still left after cutting. I'll explain why later.



Then, I peeled the cone from the surround carefully so I was left with the mounting plate and the rubber surround from the OEM mid. The Dayton RS100-4 fits perfect in there. The remaining bits of the basket holds it in place so it can't go all the way through.





Since I already made some MDF rings at work for Plan A, I ended up using them to hold the Dayton to the ring I just made from the OEM mid. The screws go through the Dayton drivers, through the rubber surround from the OEM mid, and then into the MDF ring behind. Here's a few pictures of how it went together.











Once all the screws were in (yes I know they don't fucking all match), I have something that looks like this.



The whole assembly is rock solid. The speaker goes in front of the OEM mounting ring, then the bits left from the original basket hold the driver from going through. The MDF then backs it up, making once nice Dayton/OEM/MDF sandwich. Good stuff! :thumbsup:

Next step was simply mounting the contraption I made to the door. I did make sure to check that the new midrange had enough room between the grill and the OEM mounting ring for it's excursion. It's a tight fit, but it works just fine.



After that was done, I went back out to the ride and installed the doors. The drivers side was a MAJOR pain in the ass because the midrange barely fit and I could hardly get the door skin back on because of this. I'll have to enlarge the hole slightly when I open the door back up to do the sealing and painting.

My first impression...

:happyanim:

The Dayton is so far beyond the OEM driver it's not even funny. Finally I have balance between my 3-ways again. I don't have to attenuate my midbass and tweeters down to nearly inaudible levels to blend with the mid. I don't have any distortion even at 100% volume, and the SQ is damn good. I'm still tweaking so it will only get better.

As for the Daytons, they are workhorse 4's. They play almost full range with no break up. Just for kicks I put them down to around a 100Hz crossover and they were putting out almost as much midbass as my 6.5's. Stellar response for a 4" driver. They play high too. I ran them all the way up to 20KHz without a hint of any negative affects such as beaming. Since they will be dedicated midrange though, I'll have no problems playing with crossover points with the kind of flexibility they offer. Certainly hard to beat for a $50 set of drivers.

Final verdict is still out. Over the next couple of days I'm sure I'll be messing with crossovers, slopes, and balancing everything out properly. For now, Dayton RS100-4 are highly recommended if you don't mind a bit of DIY and cutting the door a bit.

Haha, you're determined. Nice job.:thumbup:

very nice me like

Holy shit, never updated this... WTF am I doing. Dropping the ball over here.

BRB, copy paste time.

12.21.08 - Midrange mounting change.

I didn't like how the MDF was making a cylinder behind the driver so I had to make a new backer. Took some old Xbox game cases that my buddy left at my house and made some rings out of those for the backing. Works much better and it's like 1/16" thick, so no worries about back waves reflecting. And trust me, if you open your doors up and try to install some larger 4" midranges you'll see why I did it the way I did.

I also cleaned up the holes in the door a bit to make things easier to get back together. I just used my reinforced dremel cutting discs and will be putting some paint on the bare metal from the cutting. I'll also be adding some sort of backing behind the hole to seal everything back up and then use some silicone to make sure it's air tight. Just need to figure out how much depth I need so I'll have to remove my outer door skins again to check.

Tomorrow will be DP install day.

So excited! :happyanim:

Also I'll try to get some work done on sealing the doors back up. Hopefully my pops has some silicone because I forgot to grab some from work. :mad0259:

looks very nice man.. much better than my thread.

whers the pix of my car being torn up! lol

They'll be here. As you can see, I try to be very descriptive and what not on my posts here. I have to download the pics, upload them to my photobucket, and then craft a nifty write up.

12.27.08 - DP install.

Well I got my DP for Christmas as you saw in an earlier update. Decided not to wait until spring and just get it put on while the weather was warmer right after Christmas. My cousin was over and gave me a hand with the install. It went pretty well, no major issues at all really.

I got the DP from Ebay. The seller was AutoGrimmig. HIGHLY recommended pipe and seller. This guy was great from start to finish and sells a quality product.

Tools needed:

16mm open ended wrench
16mm deep well socket and ratchet
13mm open ended wrench or deep well socket/ratchet (either will work)
O2 wrench (see note)
PB Blaster or equivalent
10mm deep well socket/ratchet (for the v-band, your size may differ)
High temp exhaust sealant (wurth exhaust paste or exhaust epoxy)

NOTE: You don't NEED an O2 wrench to get the sensors out. I didn't have one. However, it's HIGHLY recommended. It's a MAJOR pain in the ass to get a wrench down in the top O2 sensor to get it it out.

Process:

I decided to do this when my car was warm. Not HOT, just still warm enough to be hot enough to the touch that it won't burn you, but so you can definitely feel it. The first thing to do is remove the engine cover and/or intake to get at the turbo easier. Once this is done, it's pretty easy access most of the bolts from the top and bottom, as well as access to the top O2 sensor for removal. I took the O2 sensors (top and bottom) out at this point just to get them out of the way. The bottom O2 sensor is right near where the aftermarket DP has the v-band flanges. About half way back on the OEM DP. It's in plain site and easy to find.

After everything up top is out of the way and the O2's were out, I went under the car and took out the half shaft heat shield, the exhaust support plate near the slip fit clamp, and the black hanger bracket. All these are 13mm nuts/bolts.

At this point, it's a good time to spray the heck out of the studs/nuts with PB blaster and let it sit for at least 10-15 minutes. Mine came out without any kind of spray bath, but my car has 8k miles on it so the nuts and studs haven't had a chance to seize up yet.

Next up was removing the 4 nuts off the turbo/DP studs. To the best of my knowledge we took off the rear 2 nuts (16mm) with the ratchet and socket with ease. The top rear was removed from the top, then the bottom rear was removed from underneath. The rear bottom was removed from the bottom, with a 16mm wrench. The front bottom was a bit of a bitch to get to, but I used the socket/ratchet and had my cousin watch from underneath while I got it lined up from the top and then removed it.

After that's done, I loosened the slip fitting at the catback/DP junction and pulled the stock DP backwards, then once it cleared and dropped down, out the front.

After that it was a straight forward, rinse and repeat procedure to get the catless DP in. I've read were people say to hook up the v-band before putting the new DP in, but I didn't. I just installed the turbo/DP section first, then hooked up the v-band and reattached the slip fitting.

Note: I put the exhaust paste around the 2 flanges of the DP parts (where the v-band goes) before installing and tightening the v-band. I also made sure not to tighten the v-band too much. Mine was a fairly small nut/bolt so I tightened it down until the exhaust paste started to squeeze out between the 2 flanges and the clamp.

I don't have any pictures of the process unfortunately. I forgot to grab my camera and didn't even think about it until I was already done. The whole process took around 4 hours. Most of this was just removing and replacing the bits to get to the turbo (ie. engine cover, intake, brackets). The actually wrenching on the DP was more like a 1 hour deal max.

1.03.09 - UPDATES!

Just for reference, I'm not chipped. Also, my resonator is deleted. Catback is stock other than the res. delete. I did throw a CEL at around 50-60 miles due to the catless setup and not being tuned. I'll live with it until I go Stage II this spring/summer.

After driving around on the DP for about a week, I'm amazed at the difference it made. Not only does my exhaust have a very nice growl at lower RPM's, it has the nice raspy, but still deep sound at 4.5k and up. It honestly sounds very close to an R32 with that hearty, yet raspy sound. Drone is minimal, even at 80mph on the e-way. Power is... well... WOW. The power response is so linear now. I ran the trial of APR stage I and after that wore off, I realized how shitty the stock torque curve is. Instead of really wishing for more power between shifts, the DP really opens things up and lets the turbo spool that much faster. It almost feels like being chipped, even on the stock tune. I get power from 1-6 and no lag or loss of on throttle response all the way through the RPM range on medium/hard runs. I would say getting the DP without a tune is similar to being Stage .5 in a way. Not as much as APR's Stage I was, but still similar.

Now I can't wait to Stage II! :happyanim:

I haven't had a chance to get under the car and check for leaks, but I will soon. So far, so good. It's a must do mod for the deals you can get on catless ATP or ATP rep pipes. The sound alone is worth it, but the performance, even on stock tunes, is FOR SURE noticeable. I can honestly say it's one of the best, if not the best mod I've done to date.

Me and my cousin (acting like his ADD self) and giving the OEM DP the thumbs down:

1.13.09 - Hatch tail light mod.

Well I was spurred on by the DIY that was recently posted here on mkv about adding bulbs to the middle, or hatch tail lights. Since they technically don't function as tail lights, and rather only come on as reverse lights, I thought it would be a cool mod to try. Besides that, only MKV folks will even notice. That's one of my main reasons for doing it. I'll see how many folks notice at meets and GTG's this coming summer season. Should be a trip.

Anyway, this mod cost me a total of zero dollars. I already had all the parts and tools I needed at home or at work so I didn't spend a dime.

I'll detail the process as best I as I can. I didn't run the wires in the interior yet so that won't be included in the DIY yet. Once I do that part I'll update with some more pics.

Parts/Tools needed:

10mm open ended wrench
Drill bit (slightly larger than a wedge bulb)
Silicone sealant
Shrink tube
Cable ties
Wedge bulbs (quantity 4)
Wire
Solder and soldering iron
Phillips screw driver

The process:

First thing is first, you have to get the tail light out of the vehicle. To do this you pop off the two squarish trim bits on the hatch behind the tail lights. Once those are off, unplug the reverse light bulbs and then twist the bulbs and they pop out. There's two 10mm nuts on the back of the tail lights, remove those, and then pull the tail light out.

And, voila:



After the tails are out, you have to remove the 3 phillips screws in the back that hold on the silver reflector for the reverse bulb. Once that's off you need to mark where you want the holes for the bulbs. A good idea is to put the tail light back in and try to follow the lines from the outer tails. Also, make sure you mark them symmetrically on both tails or you will be able to tell the difference once they are installed.

Once you have the tails marked, make sure to drill upside down and go slow. If you drill down the little shavings will go into the tail light and are a MAJOR pain in the ass to get out. By going slow it actually makes the shavings stay in one long string instead of breaking apart leaving a chance of getting in the housing.

Here's how it looks with the holes drilled:



Now it's time to work with the bulb. I used regular wedge bulbs because they are easy to wire and cost next to nothing. I started by taking a regular bulb and then bending the wires up a bit and threading through that. You don't need to attach too much wire, just enough on both lights so you can solder them together and add a plug for easy removal and bulb replacement.







Then I took my trusty solder iron and soldered the wires to keep everything held in place and secure.





The next step is secure the bulbs in the tail housing. I placed the bulb in the hole I drilled and then put silicon around it, making sure to cover the wiring to avoid any shorts or exposure of bare wire/solder. The silicone also keeps out any moisture or dirt.

Some pictars:







After the silicone dried enough I tied the two bulbs together into 1 wire so I could hook up the plug. I used shrink wrap after soldering the wires together to keep it clean. I also used cable ties to attach the wiring to the post for the bolt to keep everything secure. I left about 6 inches of wire after the solder joint and attached the plug. I don't have a picture of the plug, but I just used an old tamiya R/C plug I had laying around. You can use any plug you wish as long as it's protected and holds securely.



Next was testing phase. I used a 12v power supply at work to test them out. You can also use a computer power supply to test them out. The second picture was after the first one was done in my den at home.





The next step I don't have any pictures of, but you'll see what I'm talking about. When you go to put the silver reflector piece back on, it will hit the bulb/silicone. You'll have to take a razor knife, drill bit, or snips and trim it so it sits flush with the housing.

After that you're basically done. As long as the silicone is dry, the tails are ready to go back in the car. The install process is the same as the removal, but be careful. On the outside bulb if too much silicone or the bulb sticks out too far it can hit on the sheet metal behind it. If this happens either drill a hole in the sheet metal, or get the bulb to sit farther into the housing.

For now mine are just ran down the side of the hatch and through the holes where the rubber grommets and wiring goes from the hatch door to the car. That's as far as I could sanely get in near zero temperatures. I wanted to see how they would look so I took an old battery charger I had and lopped off the cigarette lighter plug. I plugged it into the rear cigarette lighter outlet and then hooked it up to the wire I ran for the lights. Good chance for a photo op. :headbang:





As you can see it sort of looks like the outside lights are a bit brighter. In person though, they look pretty much identical. No resistors needed. I was happy about that. :happyanim:

darcness said:

I haven't damaged any parts that I'm aware of. :iono:

The only thing I've modified is the foam under the hatch. I would hardly call that damage.

The bezel could be a bit cleaner yes, but I've had multiple people ask me if it was OEM so I'm not too worried about it. Maybe next summer I'll mold my own bezel that is 100% factory fit.

No one needs a CarPC. It's just a viable alternative to factory navigation units or aftermarket head units with screens. It's about the same amount of money as a decent head unit with a screen and much, much cheaper than the factory navigation systems. Not to mention it has no limitations attached such as video not working while driving, physical media discs, or worrying about formats or firmware bullshit.

I for sure don't need it. But wouldn't you love to have 100GB+ of music in your car at all times with ZERO need for physical media? Plus navigation, internet, and movies to sweeten the pot?

I guess it's just not for everyone. You either get it, or you don't. :wink:

Click to expand...

actually... lol i have a pioneer touch screen with my 120 gb ipod controlable from the hu. I was thinking about putting in a mac mini in over the summer. not too big of a fan of that windows crap.

on a side note, you have done some interesting things to your car and have posted diy's on pretty much everything. that's an assload of work.. :thumbsup:

p.s. i love your bbs's.

Thanks for the compliments man. I seriously appreciate all the nice words from everyone.

Also the reason why I try to post DIY's for everything I do is so other people have something to follow. The more people I can help with DIY projects the more everyone can save money and enjoy doing their own mods. I really enjoy getting into stuff like this. It keeps my brain busy and keeps me sharp. Plus it's just plain fun. :thumbsup:

Hmm, it's tempting to do that to my taillights, but at the same time I don't know if I want to drill into them. Looks great though!

g60_corrado_91 said:

Hmm, it's tempting to do that to my taillights, but at the same time I don't know if I want to drill into them. Looks great though!

Click to expand...

It's not really a big deal to drill into them. The reverse light isn't sealed at all from the back. In fact, nothing is sealed on the inside. The seal is on the outside. It's just some sealant foam that seals against the hatch when you tighten down the nuts that hold the tail light in. Plus the silicone will seal it up regardless. There's no way moisture or dirt will get in there.