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California Roundie Revival - an unusual perspective


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looking so good! great progress. The body work is going to be deadly, but just keep pushing forward it will all pay off in the end.

Love the cross hairs I was looking into putting them on mine if I didn't do the projector route. Does the black bracket pictured attach to the original holes?

Thanks man. To be honest, I kind of just ordered the crosshairs. They're supposed to be for a MK2 Volkswagen, so the black plate is for that. I took my headlights off a few weeks ago and don't really remember how they mount up, I just know that they're both 7" headlights and that I'm going to make them fit haha I can't really tell you much more at the moment. I'll have to check out the original headlights next time I go up to work on my car and see what I'm working with.

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Alright, so today was cool. Since I bought the 2002, I've been searching for a specific set of seats which come in later model MK4 GTI's. I think they only came in GTI's from 2004-2005, but I could be wrong. A guy in Sacramento had a nice set for sale, and he agreed to meet me in San Jose, which is about 3 hours north of me. So to San Jose I went this morning, and picked them up. Very happy with them, I just love them for some reason. They're going to require custom work to make them fit, and I'm going to have to chop up the rear seat a bit to make them sit flush on the back, but once they're done I think they'll look really good. Super comfortable too:

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And I forgot to post this a few days ago, but I had to take my buddy down to LAX last week, and I wanted to utilize my time down in the LA area since anytime I need ANYTHING car related I either have to order online or drive at least 3 hours either direction from me. My area sucks when it comes to used car parts :(. Anyways, I checked the night before and found a guy in the LA area selling a bunch of '02 stuff, and he happened to have a driver's side door in good condition, so I picked that up after I dropped my friend off at the airport. My current driver's side door has about 1/4" of body filler lining the entire thing and the bottom corners are rusted out so I wanted one in better condition. This one is in much better shape with no filler and solid corners. Pretty stoked I got this, it will provide peace of mind and a relaxed soul for me in the future:

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I also forgot to mention that I got scammed on those BBS' a few posts up. Getting refunded though so all is good, just kind of a bummer.

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Made a small amount of progress today. Spent most of the day figuring out how I want to mount the front seats. The way the GTI seats are mounted is completely different than the 2002. Here is a picture of how the bottom looks, it has a triangular configuration where the front is bolted in the middle and the rear has a wheel on each side which sits in a slider:

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One feature that I really like about these seats is that they pop up and forward when you want to let people in the backseat. I wanted to keep this function, here is a picture of how it sits normally and the second picture is when it's popped up:

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So I decided that I'm not going to use the mounting system on the GTI seats. I want to use the sliders from the 2002 seats since they are pretty simple, so I'm going to just weld up some brackets for the sliders to bolt to on the seats and the floor. I won't be able to use the original mounting location for the seats since it will cause the GTI seat to sit too high.

I decided to just start cutting haha both "legs" from the GTI seats off:

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I also removed a bunch of unneeded stuff from the bottom of the seats, but didn't take any pictures. I also removed the original seat mounts in the car, some might cringe when they see this haha I'm basically just ruining this car and scaring all purists away:

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I'm going to finish up the driver's seat tomorrow, I need to go get some hardware and metal so I can make brackets and mounts and what not.

Also, I received these in the mail. After a lot of thought and consideration, I decided to use MK1 rabbit fenders as flares rather than try to shape my own. I love the way they look on Heist's '02, and feel they were the best option for me:

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That's it for today. More tomorrow!

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Well I finally decided on a set of wheels, at least for now. They were cheap, had the specs that I'm looking for, and I actually really like how they look. A lot of people dislike these wheels, and I agree that the car deserves classier wheels. But for the time being these will help me dial in the fitment and I can always upgrade down the road sometime. I will probably rock these for a while though, I love the look.

15x8 et0 powdercoated black, they're a bit dusty from the cardboard boxes. Getting 194/45/15 tires mounted tomorrow:

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yeah they are tapered, so they just require a generic set of "tuner" lugs. Just ordered a set, since my OEM nuts are ball seat. Thank you for bringing that to my attention though, although I would've eventually realized that I need conical seat nuts, at least now I have them ordered and that's over-with.

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Progress!

Got tires mounted today. 195/45/15 Federals. Cheap but whatever, I'm not building this car for performance haha $300 out the door:

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A couple comparison shots with the original wheels:

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Very mild stretch. That's how I want it though, I love the way it looks. Not a huge fan of excessive stretch personally:

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Random mock up picture. I had to space the wheels out with some washers just so the lugs nut would tighten all the way. I will probably throw on some 10-15mm spacers all around just to dial in the fitment once the fenders are welded up and ready to go. This picture doesn't really mean anything, I was just excited haha:

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Started getting back on the seats. I'll just explain as I go. Picked up some 1" square tubing and got to work. Here is a piece clamped on ready to weld:

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Welded on. I went pretty thick to make sure it was sturdy:

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Then I made this little guy:

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For this:

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I originally had a different setup for this mounting spot but after I finished I realized it wasn't going to work. Kind of hard to explain in the pictures but I just ended up welding a bolt to the big round bar for the slider to mount onto:

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For this:

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Each slider required a different mount for the rear section, which is why one side has the bolt sticking out and the other has that weird little piece that I created (the bolt isn't pictured in the first picture because I messed up the first time around, I'm rambling). Painted everything up so it looks clean and now I have a GTI seat that is adapted to 2002 sliders :). Tomorrow I need to make mounts in the car for the seat to bolt on to:

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More progress tomorrow! This project is really fun.

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I debating getting diamond racing wheels or not. Should I go for the circle holed ones or the "ovalish" ones that you got? Also did you get the street legal ones or the racing ones?

I'm assuming the street legal ones since I bought them from a guy who also sells XXR, Drag, Rota, etc.

Pick whichever ones you like. I will warn you they are pretty damn heavy

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  • 2 weeks later...

After nearly a week of not being able to work on the car, I got back on it today. A few friends and I made a new concrete box at our skatepark and I fucked up my fingertips/hands pretty bad haha I know that sounds pathetic. My hands were pretty much useless for the last 5 days. Anyways...

Tackled the passenger seat today and got it 95% done. Started off by lining everything up and welding in reinforcement plates over the floorboards where the mounts will go. Here is a picture of the front two welded up:

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The two outer mounts done:

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All 4 mounts done:

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And now both front GTI seats are all mounted up and ready to go! Pictures are kinda shitty and the headrests aren't pictured so the seats look kinda funky. The reason I said they are 95% done is because I still need to fab up a little stopper for the passenger side slider stopper thing, which basically locks the seat to prevent it from sliding back and forth.

The seats are super dirty by the way:

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