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Has he got more money than sense or is he just very passionate about his car? Either way this is one well loved mk2! Not content with taking the photos himself, Gareth has also written his own feature:
Gareth's VW blood started off better than most at the age of 19. After nagging his Dad enough he ended up with a Mars red mk2 GTI. It wasn't in the best of condition and after paying the high insurance premium it didn't leave much room for mods. That didn't stop the odd one of two aftermarket bits making an appearance on the old 5dr. After 9 months the car was sold on and this '87 3dr GTI was bought off one of Gareth's ex's brothers. It had already had the nice colour respray, been lowered and had ghastly blue lights all round. Those had to go! The bodywork was in relatively good condition for it's age and it had been given big bumpers by a previous owner. Gareth actually bought it with no wheels so a hunt was on to find a set. It began it's life on a set of mk2 CL 13in steelies on assorted tyres. The wheels just about fitted onto the GTI with a bit of help from the angle grinder on the rear calipers.
 
A couple more wage packets later and things started to change. A set of 14in P slots were put on for £30 so the handling was back like a GTI now. It got a bit lairy over 80mph on those 155/80 tyres. The sounds were then provided by a old Sony MD head-unit running tiny dash speakers, 6x9's and a single 12" sub. The setup was ample, but that was only the start of things to come. A mate of Gareth's had moved away to uni so his GTI was becoming expensive to run and was being part-ex’d it for a diesel car. Just before the swap over Gareth and his mate swapped the mint electric Recaro's out of the mk2 that was leaving into this one and the sum of £100 changed hands. Probably the best buy ever.
 
The mk2 was then taken off the road for 6 months due to company car until Gareth got another (horrible) job. Then things really started to take off. A set of Crystal/Red rear clusters were added along with crystal side/front repeaters and Crystal clear front lights to give the car a modern look. Also a de-badged single headlamp grill was put on to change the look of the front. The 3rd set of wheels were a set of 15" OZ Polaris picked up with 2 yoko’s for £120. Another bargain on Gareth's list. Gareth happens to be a dab hand with a soldering iron so he added white dials and wired up some tiny little neon’s to light them up blue when the side lights were turned on. The whole job looking very professional.
During the end of 2003 the car was looking good. Gareth has a good mate Wez who helped with a lot of the things on the car. He'd fitted a TFT TV screen into the centre console that was hooked up to a PSOne under the seat. It was a nice feature in the car, but was rarely used. He also fitted a set of Alpine component speakers to the doors and mounted the tweeters on the dash. A Momo wheel was also bought and a new Kenwood MASK head-unit replaced the aging Sony MD one. The advantage being was MP3's on CDs as well as more control over the whole system. Then one night a f'ing dear was on the road and as Gareth slowed to pass it, it decided to run into the door. This left a huge dent in there to the point you couldn't open the door from the outside or wind the window down! Luckily it missed the front and rear panels only damaging the door. This was a blessing in disguise as there were a set of later style mk2 doors with ‘leccy windows stored in his nan's garage. At the same time as getting the doors sprayed up he got another wing and had a T4 vent welded in that looks totally awesome. All the bodywork was carried out by SB Auto repairs near where Gareth lives. Their work is 2nd to none and can do anything you want.
 
Over Christmas Gareth decided to try his hand at a mk3 dash swap. The dash was picked up from his local scrappy for only £35 complete with dials, stalks and matrix and it was in excellent condition. The dash was installed over a 6 week period (including Xmas day!) on his mum's drive. "I was out there one night until about 11pm working on it in 2oC temp when my mum dragged me in before I caught pneumonia!" There's nothing like a dedicated dubber! Once his mate Mark had welded in the support bar the dash was bolted in 1 last time and looks at home in the mk2 shell. It certainly gets some good comments off everyone that looks inside. It was getting almost impossible to get the mk3's clocks to work with the old K-jet 8v so the mk2 ones were mounted in the dash and don't look too bad. Everything else is working good as it would in a mk3.
The car then received the wheels it's on now. A set of 17x7 Kahn RSR's. The arches scrubbed really bad so we had to have the lip rolled back. This sorted the scrubbing out until it was 4up. The original lowered springs decided to snap on the back so were replaced with -60mm 16v Raceland ones on the Monroe shocks that came on the car. The current ICE setup was just about run in at this point and sounded spot on. Gareth had built some door pods to house the original 13cm alpines as well as another set in the 17cm version. A pair of Alpines 12" TypeR subs took their place in the boot powered by a Kenwood mono amp. The speakers in the front running off a Kenwood 2ch amp. This setup was getting to the point where it was difficult to breathe at high volumes and was setting off car alarms, just about right then!
The car is currently having a Audi TT engine installed by Designa Dubs that should be running somewhere near 240bhp along with a mk4 20v gearbox and TT clocks. The idea of colour coding the bumpers and G60 arches has been on the cards for sometime now. Just a lack of money that's stopping that one. The 8v engine had been treated to some chrome details like rocker and cambelt cover and is being sold on to recover some costs of the TT conversion as well as having the engine bay colour coded. a set of 280mm G60 front brakes are also going on to make sure he can stop as well as go.
Thanks:
Sean, Jamie & Jake @ SB Auto repairs (01584 856568), Matt & Paul @ Designa Dubs (01256 398998), SMC Car audio in Shrewsbury (01743 232065), Wez, Mark, Lee, Brian, Pos, Mum for using the garage as a part dept, Nan for storing all those random parts, everyone else for their help and Vix for her understanding and continued support.
Dizzie, 12/04/2004
Dizzie@tripwyre.co.uk
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