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Roguededguy's White MK4 Jetta Build

40K views 185 replies 11 participants last post by  roguededguy 
#1 · (Edited)
Backstory

In April 2003, I traded my 120,000 mile 1995 Passat in for a brand new campanella white 2004 Jetta GL with 36 miles on the odometer. The car came with all GLS options except alloys and remained stock until 2009.

My pictures of the car start after the first 4 mods so I'll lump them together.

First Round of Mods


  1. First mod as always was a K&N. I have never owned a car without one.
  2. EVO super stubby antennae. This one came about when I used to work at Perrin Performance and got it for free.
  3. Hyper black PIAA Super Rozzas fell into my lap, literally. They were laying in the warehouse and Jeff said I could have them if they fit my car. Bald front tires (Kumho Ecsta MX) and lots of curb damage, but I bought new front tires and am currently working out the curb damage by hand. They are 18x8 in front and 19x8 in back.
  4. H&R Sport lowering springs at a %60 employee discount brought me 1.5 inches closer to the ground.

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Begone Orange Bumper Markers

I had to do something about the orange bumper markers, so I hit them with nightshades.

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Second Modding Rally


  1. H&R rear 25mm swaybar (%40 employee discount).
  2. Black vinyl over chrome trim. This idea came from the Alta (Division of Perrin) JC Cooper Mini sitting around the shop. They took black vinyl and covered the chrome strips.
  3. Attacked the sidemarkers with Nite-Shades.
View attachment 7546

More Performance Mods and More Black

Next came a couple performance mods as I would soon be hauling around a baby. I sold my 3 JL Audio 10" subs for some spare cash and got some oomph with it.


  1. Polyurethane dogbone mount, but don't remember where it came from.
  2. ABD big bore intake
  3. Assaulted my airbox with a power drill.
  4. Tried tinting my tails to look like the GLIs.
  5. Put PIAA Extreme whites in my headlights since a stock one went out.
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Replace Coolant Temp Sensor

As it says, I just put it here for completeness. Easy, took me 20 minutes, and no more CEL.

New Tail lights

Since I wasn't satisfied with the outcome of my tail light tint, I bought a set of Depo crystal smoked taillights, and got my windows tinted with 35% (to protect the baby from the sun).

View attachment 7550

Stainless Brake Lines

Had to change my brake fluid so I did this as well. Awesome mod, simple to do (with a Mityvac) and worth every penny they cost.

Spark Plugs

Couldn't stand the pinging anymore when going up hills at too low of RPMs so I swapped my spark plugs with NGK Laser Platinums. AWESOME PLUG. Best I've tried in 14 years of VWing. Able to get up hills at lower RPMs and with no pinging.

Kind of a pain, but I did it without removing my intake.

Rear Ended

This was actually a blessing in disguise. A few years back, I didn't have a garage door opener and I slammed the door on my back bumper. The scratch polished out, but the chrome had a huge gouge in it. I got hit from behind (don't tailgate you stupid a**holes... things jump out from the sides of the road without warning) so it got replaced...sort of. The body shop put the vinyl on as directed, but replaced my molding with the paintable kind instead of chrome. Hopefully that will be sorted out this month, HOORAY for lifetime warranties.

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The HID Fiasco and New GLI Headlights

One of my PIAA Extreme Whites went out last December so I had to do something quick. I'm embarassed to say I bought a drop-in HID kit to replace it. I didn't do any research prior to buying it, and while it's a great quality kit, the reflector housings scattered the beam everywhere.

I was going to do a projector retrofit, and still probably will, but I got scared and just ordered a set of stock GLI headlights from ECS with Ziza ion yellow fogs, and Sylvania Xtravision bulbs. Might still build the retrofit to sell if anybody interested.

I must say the Euroswitch is a must have for a MK4. Disabling the DRLs can be done by the switch. No wire hacking required. I only wish I had gotten the chrome accented one.

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I originally put a vinyl strip on the top of the lens as you can see, but I've since taken it off.

Back in Chrome

Vinyl on the chrome trim has come off as well. After seeing the white Phaetons I had to go back. Plus there was a scuff in the front one, that I couldn't get over. Nobody else could see it, but I don't want to risk a judge finding it.

No More Nite-Shades

I redid my side markers and they actually looked like they weren't even paint. I felt the chrome went better with the clear look, so wiped them down with alcohol and polished the lenses. Looks brand new. Then the fender markers got wrapped in Vinyl, since I don't have bulbs in them anyways. Planning to make clear lenses for them. We have a local plastics place and we used to do this back in the day on MK3s.

Polished Intake Manifold Runners

I started sanding my lips to get the curb damage out and repolish them. I thought to myself, I could polish my intake manifold by hand. So I did. I'm going to have to touch up the right 2 runners, but after countless hours of hand sanding, my hand needed a rest. Pretty good for now though.

View attachment 7551

Next Up

Next up will be finishing the curb damage, painting my interior trim gloss black (in progress) to stop the peeling (don't say eww until you see it), tinting the top of the windshield, making clear bumper lenses, and polishing more aluminum I find in the engine bay.
 
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#3 ·
Thanks, I'll take it, it took many hours of pain. When you look at an aluminum polishing DIY and they say "patience" and "A LOT OF SPARE TIME" they are not kidding. But if you were able to see it up close, the right 2 runners still have some light scuffs. Mother's Mag & Aluminum polish is awesome stuff, but it can't hide everything.
 
#5 ·
Curb Damage Update

I realized that there is just no way I'm ever going to finish polishing all 4 wheels on this car, and with how deep some of the gouges are, I'm just going to paint the wheels.

I'm currently painting my stock hub caps gloss black so I have something to roll around on that looks better with white than the stock gray color. It's a nice color, but I just don't like it with the white. I'm taking my time so I'll not only have them looking perfect, but I'll also be getting practice for the real deal.

Here are the color schemes I'm throwing around:

1. Stick with hyper black (gunmetalish color) and do white lips.
2. Stick with hyper black and do black lips.
3. Go all black. Somebody did this on my same wheels before on a G35 forum so unique points go down, but does look good.
4. Black center with while lips. Starting to get trendy.
5. Black center with fade to white on side of spokes and any of the above lip combos. Seen it done on same wheels but with fade to dark red.
6. Here's a totally original one that may or may not get me flamed: Black centers fade to white 3/4 way down the spokes to the white lips. Saw it on a set of RS8 wheels for sale.

The centers might be able to survive but now that I've sanded the crap out of the rear passenger side wheel's lip, I've got to do something soon about the lips.
 
#6 ·
Project Update:

I've gotten sidetracked and am repainting my stock hubcaps satin black in order to have some style when I take my wheels off to redo them. 3 are done.

I finally got a really nice dremel 4000 so polishing is going to happen like crazy now.

As for the wheels, no more polished lips since that is by far the biggest trend out there for cars right now (even Kias, and Hyundais). I'm going all black I think, I'm still considering a white lip but I'm worried about the maintenance, got a second kid coming in a couple months so time's going to be an issue.

Gloss black painted interior trim is out. I have some scratched up faces and a chip on my driver's vent, and need to do something about it. I looked around BMW forums to see what they do to spruce up their trim tastefully and I'm going with carbon fibre vinyl wrap. So far I've got my center cluster done and it looks great.
 
#7 ·
Here's the interior with carbon fibre instead of scratched and chipped pieces. It took a long time to get the center pieces weave to line up perfectly. The stuff is very high quality and doesn't come cheap. I got it at Tap Plastics. I've also done my grill and am doing the chrome rubs with it. No pictures of the grill yet because I painted my emblem black and the background white and I'm waiting for the paint to dry. Perhaps later today or tomorrow.

View attachment 7985

View attachment 7986

I may get into an accident I like looking at it so much.

On a side note, in case anybody was wonderingI custom made that ipod mount with a $0.53 piece of metal from Home Depot. The part that actually grips the ipod though came with a vent kit that I was using before. It's just stuck on the metal with a 3M double sided tape that came with the kit. The piece of metal is screwed in to the trim screw for the center cluster cage.
 
#8 ·
Nevermind about the emblem pictures, it looks like ass. The idea was nice and would look great if the white matched my car. I used white krylon fusion for the background and I never noticed just how off-white campanella white is until it was too late.

Will update as soon as I solve this hiccup.

Good news is the body shop called and I'm finally getting my chrome rear molding just in time to cover it with the carbon fibre so it will all match again. If you ever need to get warranty work done by a body shop, I recommend going straight to a manager. I waited 2 months dealing with the guy who screwed up in the first place and he was most likely trying to cover his own ass. I went in on Monday talked to the manager, and today (Wednesday) she called and says my part will be here on Friday.
 
#9 ·
Nice jetta, car is well rounded of mods. I think the best idea for the wheels you already said - black with white lip -> WINNER! Just spray them a little water everyday and it will be always looking good and ceramic pads.

I was going to suggest you to get a power machine to help with the polishing but you got that figured out O0 Intake looks pretty good
 
#10 ·
Yeah, I agree it would look the best. Black and polished is getting tired (at least here in Portland everybody has it) and all black doesn't show off the lips very well. My pads still have quite a bit of life in them, but the new ATE ceramics are my planned replacements.

I guess I only use them during the dry months anyways (I jumped the gun a bit this year) so black and white it is (after the rain stops).
 
#12 ·
Progress up to date. Carbon Fibre instead of chrome on grill and mouldings, gloss black lower front grills, and black satin emblem.

View attachment 8072

I got my wheel paint and just finished up the last hubcap, so soon I will be moving on to the wheels. I am going to go with gloss black lips. I've seen a lot of gunmetal and flat black with gloss black lips on higher end car forums and am really liking that look. Another factor against white lips was that after seeing the bright white of my emblem, if I do the lips in white and the white doesn't match my car, it will look stupid. I ended up painting the emblem all black and don't want to repeat that mistake on my wheels.
 
#14 ·
That emblem really looked bad. I didn't even take a picture because I never wanted to remember how awful my car looked for that short amount of time. Plus with the black, I can choose to keep the wheels if I sell the car because they will look good with pretty much any other car color.
 
#16 ·
I redid my rear emblem in satin black with carbon fiber background. The background was faded or at least looked that way against the rest of the black on my car.

Then I decided I'd had enough of not being able to see anything in my trunk when it's not daylight out, so I broke out the soldering iron and added a couple white LED strips in there.

View attachment 8239 View attachment 8240
 
#17 ·
New winter mode


View attachment 10903
Updated mods are:

* GLI retrofits with Morimoto D2s projectors and E46 extended Shrouds
* 55W Morimoto HID kit with 4300K Bulbs
* Wheel covers painted Lamborghini gray and emblems painted to match.
* 10mm H&R spacers front, 15mm H&R spacers rear.
* ECS Tuning clear corners.
* Return to candy canes.

Coming Soon and/or in the works:

* Autotech cross-drilled & slotted rotors
* KYB AGX shocks
* textured Votex rep sideskirts
* Sound deadening like a mutha'
* White lips on the PIAA Super Rozzas
* FK Headlight eyelids
 
#19 ·
Autotech Sport-tuned cross-drilled and slotted rotors are no longer a planned mod, they are a reality. I did 3 of them yesterday and finished up installing the last one this morning. I'm an old-timer so Autotech is one of my old favorite VW tuners. I used to look through their catalogs and mark all the mods I wanted, back before the internet was widespread.

I recommend these for those who want to stop in a hurry for only around $300. They even powdercoat the part where it attaches to the hub black so it won't be rusting there like the stock ones do.
 
#20 ·
I started sound proofing the Jetta.

First thing I did was spray a whole can of 3m Rubberized undercoat on the passenger side plastic wheel well. I have to say though, I didn't notice much of a difference at all. I drove in all conditions too: sun, snow, rain, rough, and smooth. I think I'm going to skip out doing any of the others.

What made an amazing difference in road noise reduction was lining the trunk with Frost King foam duct insulation and covering that with a layer of Reflectrix. The beauty of Frost King and Reflectrix is that they weigh very little, and are very cheap at Home Depot or Lowes. I was about to dump a small fortune into Second Skin Deamplifier Pro, Overkill and Luxury Liner but I'm glad I didn't. I've only spent 45 minutes and about $30 and my car is so much quieter already.

I also moved my ballasts from the ghetto-looking mounted to the back of the turn signal cover position to the more professional and more importantly hidden behind the bumper support positions. I was even able to put my battery cover back on.

Today I replaced my Ziza yellow fogs with PIAA Ion Yellow and all I can say is WOW, you realy do get what you pay for. Those Ziza's were crap in comparison but they also were about 3/4 the price. Between those and the 55W HIDs, I've got a lot of light in front of me and can handle any conditions.

Now if only I could find a hood insulator. 2004 cars didn't come with them and most of my noise is coming from the swiss-cheesed airbox.
 
#21 ·
I'm trying something new. I put Frost King duct insulation on my airbox. I haven't had a chance to drive it yet, but should make for my intake air staying colder longer, but more importantly seals up those holes I drilled on the cold side of it to quiet it down.
 
#22 ·
Summer Update Pics
Land vehicle Vehicle Car Alloy wheel Volkswagen
Land vehicle Vehicle Car Volkswagen Grille
Land vehicle Vehicle Car Alloy wheel Rim


Retrofits have eyelids now (I don't care what you say, I really like the way they look on my car, maybe it's just the retrofits).
Painted PIAA Super Rozzas all graphite.

Next up, black calipers, new rear tires 225/35-19, side skirts, the rare interior VW factory carbon fiber trim kit.
 
#23 ·
Instaled the front KYB AGX adjustables last weekend. The ride is incredible. Unfortunately I think I want a tiny bit more low up front, so after all that work, I may change out my H&R sport springs for Eibach Sportlines.

I'm not one to cheap out on suspension for a German car, and I'm old school from back when watercooled VW were lowered for function, not fashion so no I'm not going to put some cheapo coils on, especially when I love the feel of my new shocks. If I decide I want coils, they will be H&R and fully adjustable. However I'm beginning to think I'm going to finish up with this car since it's just a daily and spend money instead on a new autocrosser.

Thinking e36 BMW 3-series, mk3 Vr6 GTI, mk2 2.0 16V, a 16V rocco, 944, or 914.
 
#25 ·
Yes, but I love this car and will most likely never stop dumping money into it, even when a new autocrosser joins the family. Anyways I still have a few things to finish up. Side skirts are on the way, just ordered Bonrath lowered spring caps for the front to bring it down another 1/2in, Continental DWS tires, new paintjob in the next couple years, Techtonics full exhaust coated black, etc.

Anyways, I still have to figure out how to get the wife to approve another car that I will be spending lots of time under the hood, and also figure out how it will be stored.
 
#26 ·
Spring caps never arrived. FU TMTuning. But fortunately the Polo bushings came and dropped me almost another inch in the front. Beauty, eh. 1 inch drop for less than $40.

Also picked up a set of fat 5's and come sun, they will replace the PIAAs. I love those wheels and spent 500+ hours sanding them, but I bought a set of 16" La Castanellas (2002 GLX wheels) for winter and love the comfort, improved handling, and better acceleration (lots lighter) of the 16"s. So I think the 17's will be a good balance of comfort and hotness, not performance though.

The bad is that the fatties weigh 3 lbs more per piece than my PIAAs and I have a nearly stock 2.0.
 
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