2009 GTI build thread...In english sorry! Mein Deutsch sprachen ist nicht so gut!

Well I dont drive it yet...this is my build thread so im hoping shortly that statement will be true. I recently picked up the MKV airlift slam kit with manual management from ECS tuning...awesome price and should be pretty easy for a first time air noob to install at home. I had a kid last week so time is critical and I just couldnt justify spending gobs of money on the suspension setup as I just bought my wheels recently and they were not cheap!. So when I saw the pricing for the manual air lift kits and saw how nice everyone was saying their stuff was I figured why the hell not...I may regret not saving up and doing it big the first time but this is how I learn..

This is all taking place at Spangdahlem Germany im stationed here with the Air force have been in 6 years so far and 3 years of it has been here in Germany. I recently got approved for an extension giving me until 2014 to live here...I could not be happier..thats 7 years of my life in Germany.

So here is the rundown. I will post pics of the install and everything as it goes along right now its all just a bunch of dreams sitting in my basement.

Car is a 2009 united grey GTI
Stage 2+ APR flash and ebay catless downpipe.
Minor exterior mods include badgless grill smoked mirrors and sidemarkers. Working on finding a place to do my hood notch fill for a decent price...nothing extreme bodywise yet...maybe in time.

My wheels are my pride and joy...I saw them on RBwheels last year and had to get them...They are Work Equip M1's (mesh). I just found out they are in the 2010 Ultimate wheel and tire guide listed in the rare section :eek:

They are 18x9 in the front et 38 and 18x10 rear et 32. Tires will be 205/40/18 and 215/40/18 respectively yoko s-drives.

I have to drive 1hr to belgium to get a guy to mount these...Germany is not as stretch friendly I thought for being the *creators of stretch* What they consider stretch and we consider stretch are two very different things But since Im not bound to the TUV I can get by it..

Here is a few pics of the wheels and some of the airlift setup...

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*switches*

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pardon the dust...and the emblem (thanks dr. fraser) ..well its hard to explain just know its a hop grenade and that I love beer...I mean really love beer..I brew my own and its the only way I can legally bring my two loves *cars and beer* together without being dishonorably discharged from the Air force.

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Now for the nasty part..I know that my car is extremely dirty it had snowed that weekend when I test fit these wheels and im ashamed but its the only shot that I have showing the fitment and why I know this is going to rock when it all comes together...

Front fitment

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Rear fitment...again i apologize for the salty dusty car... :banghead:

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So Im planning on doing the install after the parents leave town from visting the baby...I could really use any advice and/or help on it since there is basically nobody in this area familiar with air ride installs unless I drive to bullock style and pay an arm and a leg.

Basically any tips that someone might not think about for their first install I would really appreciate it..

Yes thats me! Im just trying to meet more people since I will be here in Germany till 2014! And your English is MUCH better than my German I am learning but so far I can only count and order food...

and an update

tires are mounted...dude in Belgium looked like he did this everyday..no cheetah or brake fluid needed

215/40/18 on 18x10...w/ yoko s-drives.
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and the 205/40/18 on 18x9 again yoko s-drives (to those that said they dont stretch

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and here is the group shot...you can see if you look closely I still have two wheels to paint the inner barrel black...it just looks wrong silver.

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Making some progress. Talked to Notabora for a bit and got a lot of really good information / ideas. He has made up my mind that I will be going to a 8 valve setup and a better switch box eventually but for now Im going to stick to what my kit offers just due to the time I have being on leave to work on it and I want this thing done now....Yes I will regret it in the future after doing all of this work just to tear into and change it again but to me that is more than half the fun.

Anyways found a spot that will not be damaging to the car if I reverse it for installing the switches. Under the arm rest on the Mkv there is a spot to hold credit cards and what not. I have NEVER used it so Im not going to miss not having that tiny space of storage. Here is a pic of what im talking about. Im going to have to jimmy some sort of material to hold it in place because I will not be screwing this in...like I said as less permanent as possible for this

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pulled the rear seats to gain easy access to the carpet....Just trying to make everything as easy as possible when it comes to install day..HOPEFULLY this weekend. I dont have a strut spreader tool but I'll do everything I can to get it out!

When I pulled the center console apart there was duct tape on the spring for the arm rest...WTF VW! Just kidding I just thought it was funny that there is already duct tape installed on the car....Makes me miss my Mk1.

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I also assembled the tank got teflon paste on all of the threads. I used the power of zeus and a thousand monkies to tighten these things on so if there are any leaks im going to be pissed.

On a side note my job in the Air force is aircraft fuel systems repair and finding and fixing fuel leaks on fighter jets is my bread and butter...I dare this car to leak some air

When I run the air lines under the carpet and up into the arm rest I will probably be routing the individual tubes through a slightly larger piece of fuel hose to protect it. No chaffing allowed. There may be a bit of bulkyness to the carpet in the back seat but fak it..

I have a question for you guys that have mounted the tanks standing upright in a wooden frame. How are you securing the tank so that it doesnt move at all? I dont really want to use self tapping bolts into the car so Im just trying to figure out how this is normally done.
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So here she is dirty from the garage and still rolling on winter steel.

No notch yet and for some reason I followed the directions and left the orange bumpstop and dustshield on the back. Gonna cut those off here shortly to bring it down.

hood notch still not done one thing at a time

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you can kind of see the gauges chilling out on the dash...I was working at my friends house in his garage and I had to pack up and get out of there it was just to much traveling back and forth thats why the interior is not finished yet.

Dont mind the shoes..

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still got way more to go before I tuck 16's haha

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Well thats it for now.

Brought the rear down some more...no more bumpstops Amazing how much those were getting in the way.

I also got my frame in my hatch layed out so the carpet should be layed in tomorrow. The tank is sitting higher than I wanted but to keep my spare tire I have to sacrifice some. Dorbritz sent me some perfect matching carpet that I'm going to use to bring up onto the tank to hide some of it. The compresser is sitting behind the tank and I have it mounted ontop of some carpeted wood and some of that cheap rubber matting that you lay inside of silverware drawers. Underneath of that I am laying out some roofing asphalt tape that i picked up from a German hardware store..Same deal as the peel & seal stuff....No smell to it at all we shall see when it heats up back there...

Anywhere here are some pics..

These are just quick shots sorry for the quality.

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These damn tires are holding me up...

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And the business...Im going to redo some of these electrical connections...Not happy with the job I did. Still going to work out a way to keep the tank from moving forwards/backwards. But I think im just going to run some zipties or safetywire into the wooden frame to keep it planted. The way I cut the wood there is no way that tank is moving side to side that stuff is in there tiiiight.

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Just got off of a 12 hour shift 6pm to 6am it was a foggy morning so I decided to snap a few pics on the side of the road.

I hope you enjoy...please give criticism on photos if you can Im trying to finally learn my D60..This is all with my kit lens and tripod nothing fancy and no post processing..I shot in RAW so if you have any ideas on what to do to make them snap a bit more than by all means rip into me.

Anyway here are the pics :beer:

dont say it..the notch will make this thing so much cleaner...Its coming just gotta save up a bit (spending way to much lately!)

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The grill smiley is just primer..yeah you read it right primer...I was going to paint it grey but the primer looked so good I left it

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I really need a level on my tripod I realize how crooked some of these are...the ground was not very flat either in my defense...

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Da butte

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Thanks DrFraserCrane for the vinyl stickers these things came out perfect..the matte black version looks wayyyy better IMO.

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This one got really washed out but I was exhausted and couldnt go on anymore...but you can see the residue from where the fender had some tire for lunch..Omnomnom

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Alright so there she is as of now...I have a lot of work to do to make it all the way I want it..Im thinking -2 camber in the rears to make it sit a bit lower..Perhaps a tinnnnny pull but nothing major and the fronts just need to be rolled and maybe a tad of fender liner cutting.

Questions/concerns/comments...I dont want to hear them I'm tired and I put a lot of work into this car so far so keep your negative crap out [Blockierte Grafik: http://media.firevortex.net/icons/custom/green/fv-green-ugly.gif]