🔧 BUILD blue-sun's GTI Thread

General Information

Staring a new thread for my GTI.

As I posted in the IllDub thread, last week I traded in my 2017 Jetta GLI 6 speed for a new 2021 GTI SE in Cornflower Blue with the DSG transmission.

When I purchased the GLI, I had originally wanted a GTI but they were generally more expensive than the Jetta GLI's and the interior space (rear legroom - we have 11 yr old twins) was just a little bit bigger, so that's what I went with.

I've been watching the payoff amount for the last 6 months and the trade in/retail values on the GLI to see if it would be worth upgrading. Plus, once a month the wife and I would switch cars so I can take the dog to the groomers in her Edge ST (toss the dogs old crate in the hatch of the Edge is much easier than having her up front with me while I shift - I have done it but it's not ideal) and she started complaining about how much she hates driving stick in traffic, etc. I hated how the MK6 GLI had shitty headlights (no HID from the factory even through all the other lights were OEM LED's) and the lack of a LSD made driving in the snow horrible, even with snow tires.

Now, I knew that back in 2019 they did a limited run of cornflower blue GTI "Rabbit" editions, but that was for 2019 only. About 2-3 months ago, we were driving on 55S and I happen to see a cornflower blue GTI and commented about how sharp that color was in person but thought nothing of it, just assumed it was a rabbit edition (I don't know if it was a rabbit or a 2021 version).

I saw that new GLI's had trim levels like the GTI's have had and initially I was looking at those online and saw VW had some really good deals on them. So I started surfing on cars.com and autotrader.com to see what inventory was like locally. I wanted a grey with the black appearance package or a red with the black appearance package in DSG but could not really find one in stock locally. This led me to going straight to local VW dealers websites and low and behold, I saw a cornflower blue GTI in inventory at one of the dealers. I hopped back on cars.com and started searching for all cornflower blue GTI's in Chicagoland and saw there were only 5. 3 or 4 were DSG and 1 was manual. This was over Ester weekend. Monday morning I start calling dealers, 1 was already sold. This left 4 in the area on cars.com. One of the dealer site had it marked as "sale pending", so this left 3. One of the dealers happened to be the same dealership (City VW Evanston - formerly of the Autobahn VW group) where I bought my GLI. So Tuesday morning I called them and the same salesguy (Mario Grbavac - he gave me a good deal on both cars, go see him!) who I bought my GLI from was still working there and we negotiated a sale price and they matched the Carvana/Vroom estimates on my GLI, so after work I drove to Evanston and did the trade.

He had all the sales paperwork ready for me, I was done signing his papers in under 3 minutes from walking in the door, I just had to wait for the Finance manager, as one tends to do.

No major mods, but I can never leave a car alone.

Already got tints installed, Llumar Ceramic tints all around.
50% on the windshield
35% on the rest of the windows
Smoked Transparent Vinyl over the triangle windows by the mirrors (done by my tint guy)

I had some of that same smoked vinyl that I previously used on part of the tails and mirrors caps on the GLI but I ran out. I ordered some more, or what I thought was more but it was the wrong color, it was light smoke and very light for what I wanted. But I didn't let it go to waste, so I put it on the rear bumper reflectors which darkened it up just enough.

Some Yellow Lamin-x foglight film has been ordered and will be arriving this week and a Euro Auto DRL switch so I can run the foglights independently.
Also ordered some DSG flappy paddle extensions off eBay (blue aluminum ones)
Tentatively have an appointment with lo.run from ILLdub to have him do a gloss black vinyl on the rear of the roof this weekend.

Other mods planned -
Badgeskins for the front and rear VW emblems
OBDeleven or VAGCOM to disable the soundkator.
Some kind of CBE or Downpipe so I can have more of the DSG cracks and pops.

Posting on a PC, will reply from mobile with pics.

1688754732706.png

Jimy Bilmo

CSVT OG Member
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Aug 16, 2005
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I think I have detailed well over 50 early 00's WRX/STi's when I used to detail out of P&L Motorsports original shop. I've literally spent THOUSANDS of hours looking at the paint of these cars.

Both these cars are sold and known as "black"

02-03 WRX's are actually navy blue with pearls. - Soniu
04-05 WRX/STI's are actually dark green with pearls

KPvjaoPL-V-lm6tOi8O-(edit).jpg


2004_subaru_impreza-wrx-sti_33023403-F5C9-4D90-82FA-1EF76E2A331B-1.jpeg
k, mine is gray

manganese gray metallic
 

Jimy Bilmo

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Aug 16, 2005
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That's what I was afraid of. I don't have a paint depth gauge, which I can't justify for my daily driver that I don't polish that much. Probably why I'm not super comfortable with wetsanding.

I'll be in touch once it gets warmer out.
Was it one of the wife's cars, I thought I recalled you having some upper bumper scuffs before on something.
 

blue-sun

TCG Elite Member
Nov 10, 2020
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Just did a wipe down of the bumper with Wolfsgang Uber SiO2 Rinseless wash.

The instructions on the Track Armour site:

Quick Application Tips​

  • Apply to clean and dry surface (waxed if possible)
So, the only waxes I have on hand are both Meguiar's. I have a bottle of Hybrid Ceramic Wax and a bottle of Ultimate Wax.

Since the car is ceramic coated, I opted to do 2 quick coats of the Hybrid Ceramic Wax.

I'm going to let it cure for a few hours, then at lunchtime I'll apply a layer, since today is a "pick up the kids from jazz band" day.

I know they recommend only leaving it on the car for 1 day, I will be risking it and leaving it on for about 2 weeks. We're going on vacation in 2.5 weeks, so right before we leave I'll peel it off and see how it went.

How long can I keep my TrackArmour film on for?​

We recommend using our film one track day at a time.
 

blue-sun

TCG Elite Member
Nov 10, 2020
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Car has a strange vibrating/buzzing noise coming from back somewhere (I think the rear pass side, because I hear it behind me, to my right and down) at ~2000 RPM until about ~2600 RPM, regardless of gear. Started after I went back to stock springs. Scheduled an appointment at dealer in 2 weeks to have them look at it.
 

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