R36 Wagon Long Weekend DIY

**owen010101** · 19-07-2017, 11:08 PM

Hi All,

I thought I'd share my long weekends project with you as I had a play around with a few things that I've had on my growing list. I had a little break from work so kept my self busy. A few late nights were had though..

I've had the car for 7 or so months now and the only changes I had made were LED lighting throughout from the guys at Bling Auto Works in Clayton South VIC. Those guys were legends.

1) Exhaust
I went down to the Muffler Man in Prahran. After reading up on another thread. I told them I was looking for a little more noise. They cut out my middle suitcase and replaced it with a "J-pipe". It only took them 45 minutes and seemed to have quite a bit of experience with this setup. Basically resulted in me grinning from ear to ear

I will try and get a good video for you to upload. There is some drone in certain driving situations but I say the pros far out way the cons for now.

2) Blacked out the chrome trim (used 3 coats of black and 3 coats of glossifier plasti dip)
- window surrounds
- tailgate
- doors
- front grill upper thin strips and nose insert
What do you think!?

Taping up was a never ending story as I didn't want to get over any spray besides where I needed it.

3) Smoked lights
I also tried smoking the tail lights, front indicators and mirror indicators using plasti dip smoke.
I removed the tail light dip as I didn't like it.

4) Anthracite Grey Plasti Dip rear VW emblem, roof rails and front grill.
After going to the effort of taping and spraying all this up I again decided against it and removed it. I had a big hair fall in the grill which caused a hole when I pulled it off and so I cracked the ****s. I was also out of enough plasti dip to finish the job from scratch again.
Removing the grill was easier than expected but putting those parking sensors back on was a bitch. The wires are so short!

5) Air Intake added (Pod filter, pipe, clamps, heat shield and mounting bracket) and Engine Bay Degreased
It looks cool and sounds cool under throttle but not sure if the engine seems happy with it. It runs a lot smoother with the original intake setup so I have returned back to it. Any ideas?

6) Front licence plate holder delete
It already had two holes from previous owner drilling to far though. Just added two black caps I had for now. Might try and get some colour matching bumper plugs. Any idea which colour to order?

7) Additional foot well Red LED light bars
I ran the wires from the cigarette lighter in the back seats so tucked all the wires away through the centre console and then double sided taped the lights in. Forgot to get a photo of this. I will get one soon.

Clay bar, Scratch X, Polish and Wax.
Wanted to be sure all plasti dip residue was removed.

Didn't get finished;
- I had a rubber front lip to install but my double sided tape was useless. It says to use screw but don't really want to do that. Any ideas?
- Off car wheel and break clean/detail
- Painted brake callipers (thinking red) anyone had any luck with this?

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**stellio78** · 20-07-2017, 09:01 AM

Nice job, looks tidy

**Domatron** · 20-07-2017, 09:34 AM

Hey mate.

Looks really good with the all black. I also started doing the same thing this weekend with my wagon. I only got as far as doing the rear badge and emblem though because I wasnt very happy with the finish. I found that the plastidip sprayed like ****. It strayed all blotchy and uneven. Took about 6 or 7 coats of black to get full coverage. I also put 3 coats of clear over. How did you find spraying?

And can I ask how much the exhaust mod cost you?

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**owen010101** · 20-07-2017, 09:37 AM

Hey,

Yer the trick is to place the cans in warm/hot water for 10-15 mins before spraying and then shake pretty well then you will get a nice even finish without too many coats.

$170 for exhaust.

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**Domatron** · 20-07-2017, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by owen010101

Hey,

Yer the trick is to place the cans in warm/hot water for 10-15 mins before spraying and then shake pretty well then you will get a nice even finish without too many coats.

$170 for exhaust.

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I definitely gave them a good shake! My wife asked if I was practicing for when she went on holiday 🤣🤣

I'll give the hot water a go this weekend...

Thanks

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**owen010101** · 20-07-2017, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by Domatron

I definitely gave them a good shake! My wife asked if I was practicing for when she went on holiday 🤣🤣

I'll give the hot water a go this weekend...

Thanks

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**tinto** · 20-07-2017, 10:58 PM

That much black has taken you from R model to comfortline in 3 days.

This model of Passat was never a particularly pretty car (I owned one), but the R models stood out and looked visibly different with the brushed silver up front.
If anything I'd be using satin dip to pull the chrome parts (around windows and roof rails) back a bit to match the front but the black has overcooked it IMO.

Agreed with warming up dip in a bucket of water. Goes from spittle to smooth with a bit of heat.