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So I'm finally getting around to starting this project. First post is gonna be intro/background, apologies for the length.
My name is Nick and I'm from Texas. I've always been really into cars because my dad works on them for a living. During my lifetime, he's owned several different VWs and Mercs (my favorite was the MKV R32 that he had a few years ago). Naturally, whenever we have any car issues he takes care of things immediately. I'm really grateful for this because he has always been willing to teach me about cars and has encouraged me to work on my own vehicles.
So first off.. the car.
It's a 2001.5 Passat that has been in the family since '03. This car has seriously been the most reliable car we've ever had. All these years and it has never left us stranded. Started out as my mom's car, then it was my sister's car, and finally it came to me when I first started driving in high school.
Back in the day when it was virtually unmodified:
It was a great first car for me. As I said earlier, my dad is a car guy too so he was the one who first started modifying the car for me. It was always just little things, but those things helped spark my interest. So after he helped me throw in some subs, we found a set of FK springs and lowered the car. I also picked up a set of Detroits and put those on just to change up the look.
Spring 2013
This was definitely one of my favorite looks for the car.. simple and clean, nothing too crazy. It was perfect for me as a daily while I was still in high school.
Being 10+ years old, the car's clear coat started peeling on the roof, hood and deck lid. Rather than having it repainted, my dad suggested wrapping it. My high school self thought this was the coolest idea ever, so I went ahead and did it. Lol.
Summer 2014
Back then I really liked the look. I swapped out the wheels for a cheap set because I wanted black. Also got rid of the FK springs and rode around on a set of Vogtland springs.
Spring 2014
This looked half decent, but more of the clear coat started peeling on the rear quarter panels so I decided to wrap the entire car matte blue but keep the black as well. This was the how it ended up..
Summer 2014
Then I started college at UT Austin in Fall 2014. I brought the car with me and enjoyed driving for most of the year. But a couple of months before my dad had traded in his R32 on a Silverado. That got me wanting a truck and I ended up buying a 2000 Silverado last spring. I stated driving the truck daily in Austin... Why? because I live in Texas and apparently it's completely acceptable to drive a truck every day even though I have no use for it, hahaha.
Anyways, the Passat came back to San Antonio and basically sat. My sister drove it for a while but things weren't going well for the VW. The car had been hit a couple of times so it had some pretty ugly dents on the deck lid and fenders that never got fixed. The wrap was coming up in a few different areas too. Then the tranny started leaking and that cause a slew of problems. My dad towed the Passat out to his work and it stayed there for 6 or 7 months.
Fast forward to March 2016. I had finished up my last few little projects on the truck and had it looking exactly how I wanted, sitting pretty with a fairly aggressive stance. Here's how it looks right now:
Even though I was invested in the truck, I had never stopped thinking about my Passat. I really want to get back to driving a car every day, mainly because it does't use nearly as much gas compared to the truck
. I'd decided that I wanted to tear the car apart and make it look really clean again. I have a very specific image in my head of exactly how I want the Passat to look. Now that I'm back home for the summer, I've finally been able to convince my dad to let me start working on it again!
We brought her home last night.
As you can see, she needs some work. It makes me sad to see the car all ghetto and beat up like this... so I'm really eager to start this project. The first thing I'm going to do is rip off all of the wrap and see how bad the paint is.
I've recently been collecting some of the things that need to be replaced. Got a new deck lid and fenders from wrench-a-part. The color doesn't matter since things will have to be repainted anyways.
I also pulled the door trim off another Passat since I had gotten rid of mine a while back (stupid mistake). Managed to get all of the pieces off without bending them too much.
Also I apologize for the potato quality pictures. I don't have a good camera so this is the best I can do.. But my sister has a badass Sony (used to take the truck pictures that I posted) so I'll have her snap pics whenever she's around.
The most exciting part for me... I had my dad pick up these Votex side skirts off craiglist a few months back when I was still in Austin. The guy lived right up the rode from us and had been holding onto these for a couple of years. They're completely unopened and I got them for a great deal so I'm pumped to get them on, hopefully sometime soon.
So this is where I'm at. I'm hoping to get a lot done this summer but work and summer school will be keeping me busy most of the time. We'll see how much I can actually accomplish by the time school starts again.
I've got a HUGE list of things I want to do to the car. There's a lot of little things but my main goal is to fix the tranny leak and have the car driving/looking decent by the end of summer. Aside from that, the next main goal is to have it bagged by the end of 2016
My parents and friends always question why I want to spend all of my time and money on THIS car, on a Passat... My reasoning is simply that I love the car! I think its a great car to modify because there's a great market of aftermarket parts but nice Passats aren't nearly as common as GTIs and Jettas (at least not where I live). On top of that, this car has been in our family for a long time and I have a weird attachment to it. I don't know if I'll ever be able to get rid of it, lol.
Thats all for now. I'll try to post updates as I get things done. Stay tuned for more.
My name is Nick and I'm from Texas. I've always been really into cars because my dad works on them for a living. During my lifetime, he's owned several different VWs and Mercs (my favorite was the MKV R32 that he had a few years ago). Naturally, whenever we have any car issues he takes care of things immediately. I'm really grateful for this because he has always been willing to teach me about cars and has encouraged me to work on my own vehicles.
So first off.. the car.
It's a 2001.5 Passat that has been in the family since '03. This car has seriously been the most reliable car we've ever had. All these years and it has never left us stranded. Started out as my mom's car, then it was my sister's car, and finally it came to me when I first started driving in high school.
Back in the day when it was virtually unmodified:
It was a great first car for me. As I said earlier, my dad is a car guy too so he was the one who first started modifying the car for me. It was always just little things, but those things helped spark my interest. So after he helped me throw in some subs, we found a set of FK springs and lowered the car. I also picked up a set of Detroits and put those on just to change up the look.
Spring 2013
This was definitely one of my favorite looks for the car.. simple and clean, nothing too crazy. It was perfect for me as a daily while I was still in high school.
Being 10+ years old, the car's clear coat started peeling on the roof, hood and deck lid. Rather than having it repainted, my dad suggested wrapping it. My high school self thought this was the coolest idea ever, so I went ahead and did it. Lol.
Summer 2014
Back then I really liked the look. I swapped out the wheels for a cheap set because I wanted black. Also got rid of the FK springs and rode around on a set of Vogtland springs.
Spring 2014
This looked half decent, but more of the clear coat started peeling on the rear quarter panels so I decided to wrap the entire car matte blue but keep the black as well. This was the how it ended up..
Summer 2014
Then I started college at UT Austin in Fall 2014. I brought the car with me and enjoyed driving for most of the year. But a couple of months before my dad had traded in his R32 on a Silverado. That got me wanting a truck and I ended up buying a 2000 Silverado last spring. I stated driving the truck daily in Austin... Why? because I live in Texas and apparently it's completely acceptable to drive a truck every day even though I have no use for it, hahaha.
Anyways, the Passat came back to San Antonio and basically sat. My sister drove it for a while but things weren't going well for the VW. The car had been hit a couple of times so it had some pretty ugly dents on the deck lid and fenders that never got fixed. The wrap was coming up in a few different areas too. Then the tranny started leaking and that cause a slew of problems. My dad towed the Passat out to his work and it stayed there for 6 or 7 months.
Fast forward to March 2016. I had finished up my last few little projects on the truck and had it looking exactly how I wanted, sitting pretty with a fairly aggressive stance. Here's how it looks right now:
Even though I was invested in the truck, I had never stopped thinking about my Passat. I really want to get back to driving a car every day, mainly because it does't use nearly as much gas compared to the truck
. I'd decided that I wanted to tear the car apart and make it look really clean again. I have a very specific image in my head of exactly how I want the Passat to look. Now that I'm back home for the summer, I've finally been able to convince my dad to let me start working on it again!We brought her home last night.
As you can see, she needs some work. It makes me sad to see the car all ghetto and beat up like this... so I'm really eager to start this project. The first thing I'm going to do is rip off all of the wrap and see how bad the paint is.
I've recently been collecting some of the things that need to be replaced. Got a new deck lid and fenders from wrench-a-part. The color doesn't matter since things will have to be repainted anyways.
I also pulled the door trim off another Passat since I had gotten rid of mine a while back (stupid mistake). Managed to get all of the pieces off without bending them too much.
Also I apologize for the potato quality pictures. I don't have a good camera so this is the best I can do.. But my sister has a badass Sony (used to take the truck pictures that I posted) so I'll have her snap pics whenever she's around.
The most exciting part for me... I had my dad pick up these Votex side skirts off craiglist a few months back when I was still in Austin. The guy lived right up the rode from us and had been holding onto these for a couple of years. They're completely unopened and I got them for a great deal so I'm pumped to get them on, hopefully sometime soon.
So this is where I'm at. I'm hoping to get a lot done this summer but work and summer school will be keeping me busy most of the time. We'll see how much I can actually accomplish by the time school starts again.
I've got a HUGE list of things I want to do to the car. There's a lot of little things but my main goal is to fix the tranny leak and have the car driving/looking decent by the end of summer. Aside from that, the next main goal is to have it bagged by the end of 2016
My parents and friends always question why I want to spend all of my time and money on THIS car, on a Passat... My reasoning is simply that I love the car! I think its a great car to modify because there's a great market of aftermarket parts but nice Passats aren't nearly as common as GTIs and Jettas (at least not where I live). On top of that, this car has been in our family for a long time and I have a weird attachment to it. I don't know if I'll ever be able to get rid of it, lol.
Thats all for now. I'll try to post updates as I get things done. Stay tuned for more.
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