Excuse some of the bad quality pictures.
Well it all started when I was 18 and just browsing for cars on eBay as you do lol and a Passat caught my attention, I found out a few things about them and had a look at some modified examples and decided I had to have one.
I came across this B5.5 TDi sport 6 speed on ebay and decided I wanted it;
So I caught a flight down to Essex the next day to collect it.
It didnt take me long to start modifying it, I started with some Mk5 Golf Gti wheels but decided I didnt like them but I havent got any pictures of it with them on.
I found a set of BBS VZ's on eBay going cheap so I snapped them up and also bought myself a debadged grille and a "TDi Sport Edition" badge
A week or two after buying the car it looked like this;
I then decided I needed to give the interior a bit of a overhaul, so bought myself a set of B5 perforated leather seats and door cards, and a single Din conversion courtesy of Bigray.
I then decided my sounds needed sorted out, so I got myself a Sony headunit and fitted 2 12' subs.
My sister then gave me a lend of her SLR camera so I had a bit of a photoshoot down Newcastle Quayside
After looking back at the pictures though, I decided I had to go lower, at the time I didnt realise how low I would end up going lol.
So coilovers were ordered. And the car was lowered a tad, I didnt want it too low straight away and had them set at their highest untill the springs settled.
The next thing, was I decided I didnt really like the debadged grille anymore, so refitted the original grille but sprayed the chrome slats satin black and the edging in Flare red, to give it a Gti style look.
After the coilovers had had a chance to settle I decided to lower them a tad more, I also didnt want the tyres to catch the arches so to sort this I fitted 215/35/18's all round instead of the 235/40/18's that were on the wheels originally.
After a while I started to get bored again, and I decided I wanted a bonnet bra, I got Autobra to custom make me a red one, which I admit was a little too "in your face" but, whatever haha.
I used it now and again but left it off most of the time. Anyway, I then started to become obsessed with low-ness and decided to wind the coilovers right down, the rubber spring retainers and coilover adjusters were removed from the rear so it was effectively sitting on -120mm lowering springs. The front was then wound down to suit.
It got to the point of being undriveable most places, and I was frequently asked if I was on air, but if it ain't scruffin the rough, it ain't low enough.
I then trial fitted some of my mates' Merc Turbines to the car to see what it would look like, however doing this made me realise how much tuck my car was running and I decided my wheels needed spacing out.
So yeah, next I decided spacing was need and ordered some H&R 60mm hubcentric spacers for the front and rear.
But, ahhhhhh problem....the car wouldnt move on them as the car body sat on top of the wheel.
So arch rolling was needed, I did this using the old "scaffy bar" trick, however I would not recommend anyone to do this if they are after a show car, but it came out OK for what I wanted.
After this, I then painted my wheels and my mirrors red, however I do not have any pictures of the wheels red, they looked OK but I didnt leave them to dry long enough and the finish on the paint went bad, I just have this photoshop;
As I had wrecked the wheels I ended up getting them refurbed in bright silver again, and the car was back to looking like this;
I next decided that the front of the car needed beefing up, so I found a place that did fibreglass versions of the votex kit and I bought one and trial fitted it up against my car using my lower grilles as wedges
;
I started to see sense and got rid of all the red on the passat.
I then decided I wanted a spoiler, and happened to find Bigray sellin his old boot and spoiler, so I ended up buying that too.
I then started getting into all the VIP style cars coming out of Japan and the US, and thought the passat might take well to some elements of that style.
This meant 19's were needed!
I had a hunt around and spotted a set of 19'x9j et35 ABT Sportsline/O.Z. 2 piece split rims for sale on Edition38 that dubbed_up_daz was selling, however they need a bit of work, i.e polishing up and 2 of the wheels needed split rim bolts. I spent a bit of time on them and then trial fitted them to the car;
what they should look like;
However, they were then stored in the garage untill I could afford tyres for them all.
During this time, I started to become unhappy with the car, it was developing lots of niggly faults and I was worried the head gasket was on its way out.I decided the thing had to go and I stripped it of its leather interior, sound system, boot+ spoiler and refitted the standard stuff.
Around the time I was planning on selling it I found another passat in silver on ukpassats that tickled my fancy. It was another B5.5 in reflex silver, that already had FK coilovers and a set of a8 alloys in anthracite. It was a 1.8t 20v and had been remapped to 212bhp.
I still wanted a passat as I had the leather interior, votex splitter, votex spoiler and 2 piece rims all sitting in my garage, so I bought it, and swapped all my bits over onto it (leather etc)
This was what the car looked like when I bought it;
The only thing I wasnt keen on was the dollar bill material on the a,b,c pillars so that is currently being swapped with standard pillars.
Within a week of buying the car, I had it into a bodyshop to get the bodywork colour coded and the votex splitter fitted.
It came out looking like this (excuse bad pics);
I then decided that the split rims HAD to be fitted as they'd been sitting in my garage for months, so a full set of Falkens were ordered, 215/35/19 on a 19x9j rim ;)
and a couple quick pics of them fitted to car without centre caps;
I then ordered some curb feelers for old school kudos
Then more lows were needed;
Private Reg plate - L9 OWR bought ;)
The car then went back into a different bodyshop to get some of the work re-done as I was not 100% happy with it, I also decided to get the front reg recess smoothed and the roof sprayed gloss black while it was in
That's all the pictures I have for now, since the last pics a fresh set of headlights have been fitted to make the front end totally clean, 6k HID's have been fitted, curb feelers fitted, centre caps fitted and Binions casino dice valve caps fitted.
Hope you have enjoyed reading, better quality pics will be added soon.
Thanks,
Scott
