Well after a lot of consideration, and reading the forums, on weather to convert my standard gt tdi in to a GTI or an R32 look-a-like, I decided I would do the R32 look-alike, as I know 4 people with gt tdi’s and 3 of them are gti look-a-like’s. I searched the forum’s for anybody else who had done the same to give me an idea, but couldn’t find a guide on how to fit the front bumper, so I will post my version of how to incase anybody else would like to do the same in future.

I was able to source the rear bumper, rear spoiler , and front grill from eBay, and other forums, but the rest I had to buy from the dealer as they were cheaper than eBay etc. here is a list of parts I bought from dealers with part numbers.

Front Bumper (bare bumper cover, no grills ) 1k0807217hgru £ 137.91

Lower grill’s 1k0853665m9b9 and 1k0853666k9b9 £ 7.48 each side

Gti Side skirts 5dr (which I primed) 1k4853859b9b9 and 1k4853860b9b9 £26.31 each side

Strip for side skirts to sit on ( which I pop riveted onto sills) 1k0853543 £ 4.19 each side

Adaptor ( blocks which fit under car for skirts) X 4 1k0853493 £ 2.93 each

Invoice dated 22 June 2008

I was messed around with bump strips for the car and as I got a the set for washer jets ( but without the washer caps) and painted them then realised they were not the ones I wanted, as I wanted just one piece ones, so I couldn’t take them back I went in and showed the guy the jetta right outside the door and said that’s what I want one piece bump strips , Okay he said tomorrow, so I went again and picked them up, and painted them, then when I tried to fit them, they didn’t fit, look exactly the same but locating tabs don’t line up, so I thought I would trim the clips off and bond them in some how , only when they fit flush with the bumper the gaps was wrong, so I went and ordered the washer jet caps, like I should of originally. So I have too many part numbers for these and not sure which ones I have used.

I didn’t copy these guides word for word, but used them as a general idea,

http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/t/53368.aspx Thanks !

I used this for the rear bumper

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3754634 Thanks !

I used this for the rear lights

http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15760 Thanks !

And as you might of seen this is how I fit my front bumper and grill http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/t/214861.aspx 

The only problem I had was the front bumper, both fitting (which was done by myself, but I am used to that as I used to work in a bodyshop and at tleast if I scratched anything it was my fault and it would be me painting them again), and them blasted bump srtip thingy's, which reminds me I still havent fitted the washer jet caps. 

After being given first hand experience from one of my friends with a gti replica he suggested I leave the standard exhaust on ( as I was going to modify it), he said the back of his car is forever covered in soot with it being diesel, so I decided I would take his advice and leave the exhaust standard. Which thinking about now has 2 benifits,   1) I didnt have to remove it and give my self a headache trying to block holes off and create new tailpipes, and  2)  if my exhaust ever fails and needs to be replaced it will be very simple to make up agin the set I have.  As I simply bent up the heat sheild at the rear where the exhaust would exit on an R32, and got some chrome tail pipes and fitted them to a piece of exhaust about 5 inches long, then I simply welded them to my back box, I had to paint the back box inside the pipes as the daylight was visable so I used heat resistant paint and painted around the exhaust, aswell as the inside for a used effect, and even after fitting my rear spoiler, I have covered about 1000 miles since complete and have never noticed soot on the rear tailgate, only the back wheel as normal.

Hope you enjoy my pics I am still undecided what to do about my badge, either put it back to R32 or leave it as I have just made it R TD,     And I know they are Gti wheels , but although R32's are nice and everyone knows what they look like in their mind, I am not keen on the wheels, and have no desire what so ever to sit and clean those wheels spoke by spoke, so I used the Gti wheels just to be different, thats why I have removed the 32 from the badge.

Exhaust fitting 

R32 front      

R TD front   

R TD rear    

 One thing I forgot to mention is that after removing the fog lights, and fitting the new bumper, I now the display tell me both fog lights are defective, so I thought I would try some cheap LED's from China, even though they light up and work great, the defective warning is still on the dash computer on start up, but goes out after a miute or so.

Anyway I was at VW and I spoke to one of the mechanics, who was kind enough to tell me that I will need a resistor fitting as the ECU checks the voltage supply, so I will have to get somebody to do this for as I hate anything to do with electrics.

 I thought by using the non gti support the towing eye didn't align any more?

where abouts is your bodyshop and how much would you charge to paint/ fit a gti bumper to a non gti?

u could get someone with VAG.com to tell the car it doesn't have front fogs fitted. This should stop the defective lamp warning.

Looks good , nice one.

Amazed that Mk5 side skirts are sub £30 a side when the MK4 ones are hideously priced!

P.S 300 posts, this is spartaaaaaaa!

looking great! are you going to stick and RTD badge on the back, as i think it would be a nice personal touch?

Excellent post! Why is the mk4 r32 kit so much more expensive! Its rediculous!

 Think I might try spraying the tail lights to make them darker like shown in the link you posted.

Where did you get the tint spray for this? Ive seen some on ebay but not sure if ithey are any good

robby:

 I thought by using the non gti support the towing eye didn't align any more?

where abouts is your bodyshop and how much would you charge to paint/ fit a gti bumper to a non gti?

I never took much notice of the towing eye, but I have been told that they do not line up, although I hope I dont have to use it.   lol      (although I had thought about it and I would just use the rear and reverse it on a recovery truck).

I dont have a body shop I used to work in one, about 8 years ago, now I just paint for a friend who deals in commercials, at his place when he needs something done quickly, when his usual painter is busy,

I am near Durham if you are local, it is not a lot of work to change the front, just need to be patient, I had it fitted in about 3 hours ( taking my time, and taking photos), if somebody local to you was to paint and fit the bumper I would imagine you would be looking at paying around 150 quid.

gjv0001:

u could get someone with VAG.com to tell the car it doesn't have front fogs fitted. This should stop the defective lamp warning.

Yeah thanks I had thought about it, but I think (hope) my electician friend will be able to fix this for me cheaper than somebody with vagcom, this way if needed I can always fit the original bumper back on with fogs, or get some LED's.

chris_golfse:

looking great! are you going to stick and RTD badge on the back, as i think it would be a nice personal touch?

No sorry, I dont like badges, I only put the R td on as it looks funny without a badge, when I bought the car I took it home and the wife went in to put the kettle on and came out and said I thought there was a Golf 2.0 tdi badge on the back, I said there was. lol

Before I worked in a bodyshop I worked in car sales cleaning/valeting, and my pet hate is polish and dirt inside the letters on badges, like the letter O or D.

TDI_Tim:

 Think I might try spraying the tail lights to make them darker like shown in the link you posted.

Where did you get the tint spray for this? Ive seen some on ebay but not sure if ithey are any good

With the lights, I took them out as I had to remove them, when I painted the rear bumper. I used smoke sparay which was bought at a model shop for cars painting the windows, I think it is by Tamiyo or something like that, the tin is only small, but cost 4.75, which is cheaper than on ebay and is enough for what you need. I would say there is enough left to do either the indicators or the 3rd brake light.

As I had them out already and had the spray gun out, once I had them tinted how I wanted them, I removed the masking, and laquered them with spare laquer from painting, then I just lightly rubbed them down to get out any bits, and make them flat like glass, and wizzed them over quickly with the machine polisher. 

I have since painted some for a friend and I just mixed up some laquer and added a touch of solid black, and used this as a tint, I didnt laquer his after but they look quite good, standing back and comparing its hard to tell the difference, it only when you get up close,

Dont rub the lights with wet and dry or anything like that, just clean them with panel wipe before you mask them, and lightly again just before you paint, to get rid of any greases from your fingers.

 can i ask what size are the tailpipes and where from ??   

regards stuarty

ps  car is looking mint

 Cheers - i'm now deciding on a genuine bumper with modding or 1 of the replicas which are supposed to fit straight on (almost)?

Had the same trouble with the washer covers I was given the gt/gti ones but couldn't take them back cos I had painted them...Any way got the right ones which are quite abit different from the normal gti ones, ended up getting rid cos the grill was taking ages to come so got my money back from dealer and got the gti front end with the money,  The grill ended up coming into the dealer 6 months later????thats just stupid.

Nice conversion by the way have you done any thing inside?  I was watching a GT tdi 140 on ebay a couple of days ago and that had the full conversion even down to the speedo cluster and upgraded R recaro's,  It went for £9500.

Darren  

Quality Post will be using this to convert mine

mortygttdi:

Nice conversion by the way have you done any thing inside?  I was watching a GT tdi 140 on ebay a couple of days ago and that had the full conversion even down to the speedo cluster and upgraded R recaro's,  It went for £9500.

Darren  

No nothing done inside yet, just waiting at the moment, as I have a friend who maybe able to get me the big recaro style leather, should know soon.  Yeah I saw the same car, i thought it was going to go really cheap, until the last minute, i thought because it was cat D, it was putting people off, but obviously not.

Great Job! This has pretty much persuaded me to do the R32 look (when I buy a MK5 GT TDI) too. I'm pleasantly surprised by the main dealer prices! Perhaps it's because not alot of people have done this yet unlike the MK4 (shhhhh hide this post )

Do you mind me asking what sort of price you paid for the Exhaust and rear bumper off ebay? And how much were they from the dealer?

golfo?

 I've just bought the lower rear bumper section from VW - cost approx £40 + £4 for the tiowing eye cover (which is seperate?)

X-4FFY:

Great Job! This has pretty much persuaded me to do the R32 look (when I buy a MK5 GT TDI) too. I'm pleasantly surprised by the main dealer prices! Perhaps it's because not alot of people have done this yet unlike the MK4 (shhhhh hide this post )

Do you mind me asking what sort of price you paid for the Exhaust and rear bumper off ebay? And how much were they from the dealer?

 

Sorry for late reply !

Not sure how much the rear bumper section,is I think the complete lower half is around 180-190, and I thought the black lower around the exhaust was about 90 quidish, but the previous poster has said he paid 40, so not sure.

Regarding the exhaust, I just have the standard GT Tdi exhaust which I was going to modify, but was talked out of it by friends with GTi versions of the GT tdi, as the have problems with soot on the rear.

So I just bought the tailpipes from ebay, sold as a pair, I will list the seller if you like, not the listing as the always expire when somebody wants them.  I just went to a scrapyyard for a piece of exhaust the biggest I could find (lying on the floor, but I think it was from a van for the bore), then I just welded it straight to the backbox, and fit the tailpipe.

Atleast when my exhaust fails, I just have to buy the gt tdi, and simply refit my extensions.

Edit.  Here is the link I promised for the chrome tailpipes.      http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Speed-with-Design