[Kzoo]

The introduction:

Hello(!) again. Yup, I bought another one. 3rd time is a charm right? Ok, for those that don't know, I've owned two other R32's over the years. So here is a quick run down.

R32 #920

https://web.vinwiki.com/#/vin/WVWKC71K08W042766

It was great. I loved it. But it was always broken. So I traded it in.

Skip ahead a car or two...

R32 #4113

https://web.vinwiki.com/#/vin/WVWKC71K08W212947

The chronicles of # 4113

I'll start off by saying "Hello, again". Some of you may remember me from my previous MkV R32, #920. For those that don't know, it was the god damned devil. If you care, you can read about it here: http://usr32registry.org/blogs/show/884 https://web.vinwiki.com/#/vin/WVWKC71K08W042766...

www.vwvortex.com

It too was great. After spending over $9k in just over a year to get it where it needed to be, I sold it. Because I'm an idiot and I thought I wanted an S3. SPOILER, I didn't.

Skip ahead a couple cars...

R32 #1230

https://web.vinwiki.com/#/vin/WVWKC71K88W053496

Pics from the sale post. This is as I got it.

The car sold on Cars and Bids this past February: 2008 Volkswagen R32 - 2 Owners, Largely Unmodified, #1,230 of 5,000

I bought it from the winner of the auction. Due to covid protocols he was unable to get it registered for 5 months. So he only put about 1500 miles on it. While it was sitting around waiting to be driven he chose to put some (questionable) new parts on it. Lucky he kept all of the stock parts. I promptly spent the entire next day putting the car back to stock...well, as stock as I could for the time being.

This being my 3rd R32, I actually intend to keep this one. So this is intended to be my car show queen. I've spent a bit of time and money, just this first week, tracking things down and replacing parts. I really wish I could track down/have reprinted the original window sticker. But I can't.

A pic of it next to my Mk6 Golf R.

 

[Kzoo]

The story:
A month or so ago I got the itch to own an R32 again. I noticed that prices are going up, so much so that I'm completely priced out of even poor examples of a Mk4R. I figured that I should probably start looking for a Mk5R (again) before I get priced out of those as well. I found a TR that I was sure I was gonna buy. Long story short, it just wasn't "the one". Not for me anyway. The very next day while perusing Craigslist I found this one. The price was lower than I thought it should have been and it came with records of all kinds of service that had been done. I reached out to the seller and asked a nauseating amount of questions. He was happy to answer them though! Feeling satisfied I went to see the car. It was as described and after a short test drive I decided it was "the one". A few short days later I took possession of my 3rd R32.

The service history:
The second owner did all of his own service on the car. Not great if, like me, you choose to waste $39.99 on a Carfax. Spoiler alert(!) nothing comes up. Luckily I have paper copies for the last couple years of service:
a new oem headliner installed in 18'
Fuel sending unit in 18'
Crank shaft sensor in 19'
A/C high pressure sensor and A/C system recharge in 19'
DSG Fluid and filter in 21'
Rear haldex Fluid and filter in 21'
Brake fluid flush in 21'
Left CV boot replaced in 21'
Left front wheel bearing in 21'
Flex pipe "cut out" and a new one welded in, in 21'.

Claimed service w/o records:
Right front wheel bearing in 21"

Mods from the previous owner(s):
Resonator delete pipe: removed and reinstalled oem resonator
Tinted front side markers: removed and reinstalled oem parts
Tinted mirror blinkers: removed and reinstalled oem parts
Black hole-less grill: removed and reinstalled oem part
Carbon fiber wrapped headlight eye lids: removed
Exterior stickers: removed
Interior stickers: removed
Tiny convex mirrors on side mirrors: removed
ECS front subframe locking collar kit: left as is
Centric Premium Rotors front and rear: left as is
Stoptech Street Pads: left as is


Find OEM Parts:
oem front license plate holder: eBay-$40
oem hatch cargo cover (anthracite): FB marketplace-$105
oem .:R rubber floor mat set: service department-$85
oem VW logo discs for the key fob restoration: service department- $17
oem lower air grills: service department- $104
oem rear cup holder cover (anthracite): FB marketplace-$22
oem various missing or incorrect screws: service department-$5
oem Valeo US Spec darkened tail lights: service department- $485
oem dash cubby (anthracite): Black Forrest Industries- $108
oem hole-less grill: service department- $690
oem steering wheel (this one is pretty scuffed up): eBay- $150
oem locking lug bolts and key set (correct for the Mk5R): eBay- $40
oem left window switch cover (anthracite): ECS- $40
oem dash shelf kit: ECS- $73 (not installed)
oem rear reading light assembly: VWPARTSNOWONLINE.COM- $40
oem Valeo Euro Spec LED tail lights: FB marketplace- $350
oem passenger wheel house: service department- $53
oem driver door trim "strip": service departmetn- $62
oem VW design brochure: eBay- $3
oem Gorilla Gear cargo mat: eBay- $68
oem Gorilla Gear storage blocks: eBay- $35
oem R36 dead pedal: FB marketplace- $115 (awaiting arrival)
oem under seat drawers (anthracite): waiting on a friend...
oem .:R32 front license plate: waiting on a friend...
oem set of Omanyt wheels for show season: not yet ordered

Find Aftermarket Parts:
replacement DSG shifter surround (black): Amazon-$40
ECS adapter harness for euro tails: $70
DeAutokey.com LED light kit: $65
15% CXT tint installed all around: $366
Door Sill Plates: Lockwoodinternational.co.uk $80

Change back:
Mk7 key fobs to the oem Mk5 key fobs

The previous owner liked the look of the Mk7 key fobs. So he went to the trouble of changing them over. The Mk7 key fobs were aesthetically pleasing to look at but were not what the car came with. Luckily he kept those parts as well. I wasted no time changing them back. Unfortunately he lost one of the pins that locks the key blade into place. I had to buy a cheap set of reproduction fobs from amazon just to get the pin.

The car is in desperate need of a proper paint correction before it'll be ready for shows. It appears as though someone parked it under a tree and then tried to clean it off with the grittiest wash mitt that they could find. It's not great. As stated in the first post, this is intended to be my garage queen/show car. I am spending time and money tracking down ANYTHING that is not show ready. When it comes to cars I'm a purist with a sprinkling of oem+ tendencies.

Pictures to come when it isn't raining...

 

[TooOldForThis]

Congratulations! I'm trying to talk myself into my first Mk5 R32.

 

[[email protected]]

I have a blue MkV, number 180. Timing chains done, new DSG and new rear main seal done in Feb 2020. New shocks and brakes 2 months ago.

Located in San Francisco if you're interested.

Congratulations! I'm trying to talk myself into my first Mk5 R32.

 

[[email protected]]

Great story!

You should post this in the VW R32 Owners group on facebook!
www.facebook.com/groups/vwr32

Hello(!) again. Yup, I bought another one. 3rd time is a charm right? Ok, for those that don't know, I've owned two other R32's over the years. So here is a quick run down.

R32 #920

It was great. I loved it. But it was always broken. So I traded it in.

Skip ahead a car or two...

R32 #4113

It too was great. After spending over $9k in just over a year to get it where it needed to be, I sold it. Because I'm an idiot and I thought I wanted an S3. I didn't.

Skip ahead a couple cars...

R32 #1230

Pics from the sale post. This is as I got it.

The car sold on Cars and Bids this past February: 2008 Volkswagen R32 - 2 Owners, Largely Unmodified, #1,230 of 5,000

I bought it from the winner of the auction. Due to covid protocols he was unable to get it registered for 5 months. So he only put about 1500 miles on it. While it was sitting around waiting to be driven he chose to put some (questionable) new parts on it. Lucky he kept all of the stock parts. I promptly spent the entire next day putting the car back to stock...well, as stock as I could for the time being.

This being my 3rd R32, I actually intend to keep this one. So this is intended to be my car show queen. I've spent a bit of time and money, just this first week, tracking things down and replacing parts. I really wish I could track down/have reprinted the original window sticker. But I can't.

A pic of it next to my Mk6 Golf R.

 

[TooOldForThis]

I have a blue MkV, number 180. Timing chains done, new DSG and new rear main seal done in Feb 2020. New shocks and brakes 2 months ago.

Located in San Francisco if you're interested.

Sent you a PM

 

[Kzoo]

I will keep post #2 updated with info as I work through my checklist.
Mostly info for me so I have a clear point of reference for how much I've spent and what I've spent it on.

 

[707Stang]

Welcome back!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kzoo]

Congratulations! I'm trying to talk myself into my first Mk5 R32.

Take one for a test drive, then just try to talk yourself out of one.

 

[Kzoo]

Progress update:

As previously mentioned, I took some aftermarket parts off of the car and replaced them with the oem parts. The previous owner had... let's say, "different taste" than me. For reasons I don't quite understand he spent his money on blacked out, carbon fiber looking, tinted parts rather than finding missing parts or replacing shabby ones. I now have a small pile of parts that I need to see if anyone is interested in.
Yesterday I clay barred the entire car. Today, I started the paint correction. I may have to take this one to a professional...

Nice and stock looking, just the way I like it. Except the wheels but those are a low priority at the moment.

Every time I walk into the garage I laugh aloud at how awesome and ridiculous it is that I own a Mk5 and 6.

Honestly I love sitting between cars and staring at them. It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but I can't be the only one who sits in their garage and just stares at their cars.

Today the replacement shifter plate showed up from amazon. I really wasn't sure how all of this came apart. But after about 5 mins the job was done.

So I went from this super sweet carbon looking stick on cover:

To this scratched oem plate hiding under it:

And finally to this:

The new part is molded matte black plastic so I never have to worry about it scratching or peeling again. It looks totally stock which is fantastic!

 

[thesharkman]

as I did in your MKVI thread, "hahahahahahaa!" I have a few things you might be interested in now:

a) holeless grill =)
b) under seat drawers (proper anthracite color)
c) edition 30, golf ball dsg shifter, new, never used
d) oem front black R32 license plate...hehehe

shoot me an email....LOLOL.

shark -

 

[Kzoo]

A bit of progress:

Today I finally got the rear cargo cover and the rear cup holder cover. Honestly it took an unacceptable amount of time to get the seller to ship them out to me. But that's another story that I won't go into. The cargo cover showed up dirty, caked with random debris and with an apparent cigarette burn on it. So, not great given the price I paid. But these are the risks when buying used parts. Ten minutes with a Dyson and a sticky roller and it was looking tip top again, minus the small burn. It's nice, but it's not "mint condition" nice. So I'll use it for the time being until I can find one that's in mint condition. The cup holder cover was perfect.

Also, last week:
I got 15% CXT tint installed all around. Cost-$366
The OEM tinted tail lights showed up, so those are on now

The previous owner was able to find the misplaced Valet key and sent it to me. So now I have a full set of restored OEM keys.

I'm still waiting for a few things to show up and as well as still waiting on a friend to get back to me about purchasing the last few parts/items that I need from him.

I'm taking this and my Mk6R to a car show on Saturday.

Hopefully the sun will be out and I can get some pictures.

 

[707Stang]

Progress update:

As previously mentioned, I took some aftermarket parts off of the car and replaced them with the oem parts. The previous owner had... let's say, "different taste" than me. For reasons I don't quite understand he spent his money on backed out, carbon fiber looking, tinted parts rather than finding missing parts or replacing shabby ones. I now have a small pile of parts that I need to see if anyone is interested in.
Yesterday I clay barred the entire car. Today, I started the paint correction. I may have to take this one to a professional...

Nice and stock looking, just the way I like it. Except the wheels but those are a low priority at the moment.

Every time I walk into the garage I laugh aloud at how awesome and ridiculous it is that I own a Mk5 and 6.

Honestly I love sitting between cars and staring at them. It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but I can't be the only one who sits in their garage and just stares at their cars.

Today the replacement shifter plate showed up from amazon. I really wasn't sure how all of this came apart. But after about 5 mins the job was done.

So I went from this super sweet carbon looking stick on cover:

To this scratched oem plate hiding under it:

And finally to this:

The new part is molded matte black plastic so I never have to worry about it scratching or peeling again. It looks totally stock which is fantastic!

Regarding the sitting in the garage and looking at the car. It made me smile, I was able to finally get my (other) car home and I grin like a dummy when I pop my head in there…

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kzoo]

Update:

where to start...? I guess I'll just lump this all together.

A couple days ago I was going over the car and noticed that the passenger side wheel housing had been "modified" for reasons I can't quite understand. I also noticed that the driver door trim was broken. Almost no one would have noticed it. However, once I see something that needs attention it cannot be unseen and must be fixed/replaced.

Passenger wheel housing with the old part

Seen here, the gap from the broken trim

I was also able to get the Omanyts back on. So now the car is completely stock/OEM +!
It seems to be raining every time I want to take a picture. So here's a sh!ty pic of the car as it sits today from the garage while it's raining.

The "Anthracite" dash cubby that I found on BFI's website showed up... Only the drawer is the correct color. The trim is titan black. They're still trying to figure out how to handle the problem since a lot of parts that were specifically "anthracite" have been consolidated to a part number that includes both anthracite and titan black. So, for the parts that this affects, there is no guarantee that you'll get anthracite.

I found an original VW Design brochure. It came from France.

And while doing some wheel/caliper cleaning I discovered that the front calipers appear to be a bit burned.

It doesn't look that bad in the picture. But it is. Apparently the car has a track day or two under it's belt...


Wheel house: $53
Door trim "strip": $62
VW design brochure: $3

 

[Kzoo]

10-17-21

I found a lightly used oem set of 17' Goal wheels with a new set of Michelin Ice-X tires on them. I'm excited about finding these in such good condition because they're such a basic wheel no one took care of them. I would have preferred silver like I had for my last R32, but beggars can't be choosers so gun metal (or anthracite) will have to do. Unfortunately, these don't have the TPMS in them. So I've gotta get a set of those and then pay to have them put in.

Goals with Ice-x: $650

My Golf R ended up being my daily driver so these ended up on that.

 

[Mr. Watson]

Hey man! Been meaning to respond to this thread for a while now, love the progress! I nearly bought your R from Justin but as soon as I scheduled a pick-up date with him you swooped in and bought it from me. Glad it went to a great home!

 

[Kzoo]

Hey man! Been meaning to respond to this thread for a while now, love the progress! I nearly bought your R from Justin but as soon as I scheduled a pick-up date with him you swooped in and bought it from me. Glad it went to a great home!

You must be the gentleman from Chicago? He mentioned another buyer that wanted to fly in and drive it home.

For what it's worth, it would have been a very annoying 4hr drive home for you for multiple reasons:
1) The Enkei's that were on it were not balance properly so there was a constant vibration at highway speeds.
2) The car had a resonator delete pipe installed that just made a terrible noise in the cabin at highway speeds.
3) The splash guard was missing the 3 rear bolts so it made a flapping noise most of the time. Luckily my wife was following me. She let me know that it was flapping around. I thought that something was severely broken due to the noise it was making.
4) I also HAD to stop at the nearest Shell station in Ann Arbor to throw away the 3(!) air fresheners that were in the car.

Honestly, I felt bad paying the guy. He took a bath on this car! Given the auction price of $12,600, the $4k+ that he spend in service, the wheels and tires that he put on it plus the various other parts that he put on the car. He must have had somewhere north of $19k into the car in just the couple months that he owned it. Then he sold to me for $14,800 because I took both sets of wheels. Admittedly, I've spent more than I had planned getting the car to where I want it in just a month or so of ownership. But the end is near! Hopefully I'll have this squared away for less than $600.

Have you found an R32 that meets your needs yet?

 

[Mr. Watson]

Yeah that’s me!

Seemed like a solid deal at the time especially with all the service he did.

Not yet. Found a beautiful one in Omaha, NE with only 51k on it but couldn’t make the logistics work, then test drove one locally around here with 96k but it needs at minimum a new front bumper, paint correction, some interior touch up and that’s just what I was able to identify. Decided to pass on it for now and invest in something more solid whenever it comes up but the market seems to be slowing at the moment.

Currently still on the hunt for a prime example at a reasonable price!

 

[TooOldForThis]

Yeah that’s me!

Seemed like a solid deal at the time especially with all the service he did.

Not yet. Found a beautiful one in Omaha, NE with only 51k on it but couldn’t make the logistics work, then test drove one locally around here with 96k but it needs at minimum a new front bumper, paint correction, some interior touch up and that’s just what I was able to identify. Decided to pass on it for now and invest in something more solid whenever it comes up but the market seems to be slowing at the moment.

Currently still on the hunt for a prime example at a reasonable price!

I saw the one in Omaha but he said someone had already put a deposit on it and was waiting to hear from the bank. I guess he got financing because I never heard back.

 

[Mr. Watson]

I saw the one in Omaha but he said someone had already put a deposit on it and was waiting to hear from the bank. I guess he got financing because I never heard back.

The candy white one on FB marketplace? Best one I've seen in years. It looked like it could have been Certified Pre-owned today in 2021. Still kicking myself I couldn't make it work.

There was another blue one in Omaha with 69k on it that just sold as well. Guess Nebraska is a big fan of the MKV R32's!