# 2008 VW GTI CarPC build log



## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

Well, today I started the dreaded job of gutting my brand new CW GTI. I wasn't looking forward to it, but couldn't justify spending the money to have some one else do it. At least when I do it, I know it's done right.

First, a little background. I formerly drove a Buick Regal (99) w/a CarPC setup. After getting my fast, I decided I couldn't stand being with out my 120GB of music, my weather updates, and internet in my vehicle. I already have the PC in a car friendly box I made myself out of MDF. I also already own the amps needed, an Alpine MRP-M500 for the sub (Pioneer 305DVC 12"), and an OLD school PPI Sedona 630IX 6-channel. I use the PPI for my active setup on the front Phoenix Gold RSD 6.5's and Infinity Tweeters. Because I already had all this, this project will take a lot of time, but most likely very little cost out of pocket.

I'm going for a mostly OEM, very clean look. All the wires will be hidden, the LCD (already own an 8" touchscreen) will be molded into the dash where the stock radio was. The sub and amps will installed in a false floor or some other way to hide all the wiring and the PC will be put into a new custom case that should allow me to save some hatch space.

I will be running the front speakers (the 6.5's, and the tweeters) fully active like I did in the Regal. This allows me full time alignment, driver balance for all speakers, and crossover controls for each set of speakers. I also use a 10-band EQ for fine tuning and have a subwoofer volume control. All this is controlled at the touch screen by the PC and gives me complete control of my sound right at my fingertips.

In time, I'll be adding an engine diagnostic cable to allow me to monitor my fast real time and reset/read codes or tune if need be. Also, I want to hack the Sirius receiver and have sat radio on my CarPC as well. Lastly, I want to add GPS capability to the setup. This will come later, for now, I just want my music back!

7.26.08 - Start of project

I started today by tearing apart the door trim, the rear panel (2 door) and taking out the rear seats. I got my 4g power wire ran through the firewall, and back to the hatch. I got my ground done in the hatch and also hooked up my power and ground distro blocks. I ran the remote wire as well. I tip for y'all, which I've read here before. That cigarette lighter plug in the hatch is a SWITCHED 12v power source. Perfect for remote wires or any other switched +12v you may need. If you trace it from the lighter back to the panel where all the wires are, I believe it's easy to identify.

After getting all the amps done, I decided to go ahead and run the PC stuff. I got the VGA cord ran, the USB cord and the 4-port USB hub installed in the center console. I also decided to tie the PC into my ground and power distro blocks and hide all the wire mess under the floor in that foam where the spare tire and tools are.

Finally, I managed to get one of the door panels off just to see how they operate. I ended up running 2 sets of speaker wire to the door sills and up to where the grommet for the door is. Tomorrow I'll most likely end up running the wires into the door, just ran out of daylight today.

I did run a "cheater" wire from my rear stock 6.5 speaker today for the high power inputs on my Alpine amp. I just needed a sub for the time being. Sounds good for now. Once I have the comps installed in the door I'll go ahead and let the PC feed this amp the signal. For now, at least I have some low end.

I'll snap pictures tomorrow and post again with my progress. For now I've got pretty much all the wiring done and had a great day with a bunch accomplished. I will say that I did much better than I thought I would. I only managed to break 2 things. When taking the dead pedal off, I broke the bottom most "L" bracket because I didn't know it was screwed on, under the panel on the left side. It's still solid without the clip so no worries. I also managed to break the plastic cover on the rear seat hinge cover. I had no idea how to get this off without breaking it. The torx screw is directly under it, and has to be removed to get the back seats out. Without removing the seats you can't remove that plastic piece. Hence the conundrum I faced. Oh well, can't see it anyway.

If anyone has any comments, questions, or tips (NEED THESE) please feel free to comment. Like I said, I'll be taking pics and keeping a running work log of my progress as I go. Should be a neat learning experience and will look and sound great when it's done. Stay tuned!


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

*Re: 2008 VW GTI CarPC build log/DIY*

7.26.08

Update on my worklog. Wiring, wiring, and more wiring.

Today I decided to finish up the speaker wiring for the doors. Because I knew this was going to be a major pain based on the quick look I got on the doors yesterday, I prepared for a long day and took plenty of pictures. They turned out MAJORLY blurry for some reason, but they do show well enough for those of you who want to do something similar.

I started out by removing the door panel and the door sills to retrieve the speaker wires I buried in there yesterday.










After getting the skins off, I took out that rubber grommet that goes between the body and the door, right near the top hinge. This grommet spans from one hole in the body, to the hole for the wires in the door. The door side of the grommet is held in by pressure. Just pry it out slowly and it will eventually pop all the way out. The other side of the grommet (that goes into the body molding hole) comes out by a small clip on the top. Just pry on the top part of it gently and it should pop right out.

Once the whole grommet is out, unhook the wiring harness inside. The orange clip (seen in the pic below) needs to be moved down and then the whole plug will come apart. The side that is left in the body molding hole, needs to be removed. Again, this is simply clipped in and can be removed by pushing in on the two clips on the side, and then in towards the interior cabin. After this piece is removed, you can run the speaker wires into that hole, and through the grommet.

Since the stock wiring run goes through a completely sealed, rubber "hose", you can't use this run for the added speaker wires. Instead, what I did, is cut a small slit on the grommet we just removed, very close to the door side. Then, I simply pulled the speaker wires out of this.










Next step was to follow the stock wiring run, and pull out the rubber seal where they exit the interior of the door and come out to the surface. It's an oval shaped piece of rubber in the center of the door, pretty hard to miss with all the wires coming out of it. I took a coat hanger and ran it through this hole, to the opening that the grommet I removed earlier covers.










Once that hanger is through both openings, I taped the speaker wires to the hanger. You can see this in the first picture I posted. This allows me to pull the hanger back out, and the speaker wires obviously come with it. Once the wires are out the rubber seal hole, I cut a small slit into the rubber seal, ran the speaker wires through that, and then re-installed the seal:










And the door grommet.










On the door grommet since I ran the wires out of it, I just ran them back ABOVE it before installing it back into place. You can see this in the picture. I also plugged the wiring harness back in that the grommet houses. However, because of the added size of the speaker wires, I couldn't mount the inner part of the harness via the clips. I just left it plugged, but free floating, which shouldn't affect anything at all.

Now you can see I have my wires on the exterior of the door, and going to the places they need to be. One set for the 6.5 and one set for the tweeter.










Next up was the tweeters. I proceeded to remove the small sail panel which was fairly straight forward. There is one Torx bit screw that needs to be removed. Then, the rest of it just clips into place. There are two small plastic clips and one large rubber clip. The large rubber clip will come off with the sail panel. I removed this, and then inserted it BACK into the hole in the door. I tried to re-install the sail panel with it on, it wouldn't go back into the hole this way. Anyway, once the sail was removed, I used a pair of needle nose pliers and removed most of the white glue that was holding the stock tweeter in place. Once I removed most of this, I just used a flat head screw driver and pryed the stock tweeter out and unhooked the wires from it. Here's what I was left with.










The red and black wire is the negative lead, and the unshielded wire is the positive lead just for reference. After test fitting my Inifinity tweeters, I had the pleasant surprise that they actually fit right into place in the stock mounts, with no modifications needed. Bonus!










After getting the tweeter in, and the sail back on, I put the whole thing back together. I was left with a completely stock looking GTI door with an upgraded tweeter and wires ran for the upcoming 6.5" driver install.










That was it for the day...

Here's some quick shots of work I did yesterday.

4g power wire ran from stock power distro block:










PC, sub, and amp in hatch:










Testing the LCD, PC, and all the wiring between the two:










USB hub in center console and aux in cable (for now):










This is where the wires for the USB hub and LCD come under the back seat, under the carpet, and up through the center console.










The only visible wire/mod is the small slit I cut into the carpet to put the cables up into the center console. You can see this on the pic above. It's were the glare shows up on the lower left part of the center console. The black wire is just my aux in cable which will later be removed, and the yellow thing is actually the RCA video input for the LCD. This can be used for an Xbox, Playstation, or whatever else, and then be tucked back up under that console trim piece to stay out of sight until it's needed again. To get the wires into the actual console box I drilled a small hole for the wires to come into it, allowing me to have the hub in there, without any external wires hanging around.

At this point I'm pretty much done with the wiring. I still have to get the LCD installed in the dash, and that is my next priority. In the coming days I'll be ordering a Metra double-din dash kit and modifying it to my liking with the LCD housed inside. Once this is done, the interior work will be done and I can start working on making a nifty setup for the hatch. I'm still undecided on what to do back there, but I at least want to get/make a better case for the PC and fabricate some kind of amp rack for my two amps. I drive around way too aggressively to have stuff being unsecured back there, that's for sure.

Again, I'll keep updating as I go. For tonight, that's all she wrote...


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## UCF52 (Nov 20, 2007)

darcness said:


> I will be running the front speakers (the 6.5's, and the tweeters) fully active like I did in the Regal. This allows me full time alignment, driver balance for all speakers, and crossover controls for each set of speakers. I also use a 10-band EQ for fine tuning and have a subwoofer volume control. All this is controlled at the touch screen by the PC and gives me complete control of my sound right at my fingertips.


Forgive me if I missed it, but what are you using for processing?

Install looks pretty good so far. Keep at it!


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## tcguy85 (Oct 29, 2007)

is it me or is the stock location for the front mids really really far back in the doors? looks like they would be firing right into the sides of the seats.

install looks like its comin along though.


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

7.30.08 

6.5" RSD drivers installed, wiring completed, PPI amp installed.

The stock speakers on the GTI are actually riveted in. I had to dremel all the rivets out, then pop the backs out from inside the door. Not much room to work with as you can see in the pics previous.

After getting the stockers out, I simply drilled small starter holes in the door, and installed my 3/4" MDF baffles over the existing speaker "hole". This was simple and everything fit with ample clearance so I was very happy about that. I finished wiring up the drivers and tweeters and then proceeded to turn my attention towards the hatch.

I grabbed my PPI 630IX from the closet and put it in the hatch. As I used the molex connectors on my previous install, I just wired the new speaker wires (for the drivers and tweeters) with the molex connectors as well and hooked those up. I ran the power, ground, and remote to my distro blocks and hid all the wires down between the back seats and the hatch, and folded everything back up to have a look and listen.

The plus side to all this is the VW doors. They are built like a tank. The inner door is completely sealed from the outer door and there is no gaping cavities. The resonance is basically non-existent and my RSD's really came life in these doors. Plenty of midbass and they sound nice and tight. I did kind of have a MAJOR screw up though. While screwing in the passenger side woofer, I slipped and the screw driver went right through the cone. You want to talk about upset... I was livid. So in the near future I'll be looking to buy some new woofers unfortunately. For now, I just used some black e-tape and a TINY bit of silicon to sure it up until I can get some new drivers put in. Ghetto, but effective.

Even with the quick fix, the sound is great on the mids. Dynamic and rich, much better than my Regal and it's cavernous doors ever sounded. The highs are a bit muffled for me. I think this is because they are aimed off axis. In the Regal, they were off axis, but no as much as they are now. They seem to be lacking clarity and I'll most likely have to rework the way they are mounted to give them a better on-axis position. 

For now, at least everything is installed speaker wise. In the coming days I'm sure I'll be doing plenty of tuning and trial. Also, I still have to get the hatch organized and the LCD mounted in the dash.

Updates will be forthcoming as well as pics of the above work...


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

tcguy85 said:


> is it me or is the stock location for the front mids really really far back in the doors? looks like they would be firing right into the sides of the seats.
> 
> install looks like its comin along though.


Yea, they are fairly far back. The stock speakers are actually a 3 way setup. However, they sound like utter **** so I had to upgrade. In a way, I was worried about having the 6.5's that far back. However they sound great and one MAJOR plus from my Regal, they aren't blocked by my leg. Without anything to change the sound (pillars, legs, etc.) they actually sound much better.


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## tcguy85 (Oct 29, 2007)

darcness said:


> Yea, they are fairly far back. The stock speakers are actually a 3 way setup. However, they sound like utter **** so I had to upgrade. In a way, I was worried about having the 6.5's that far back. However they sound great and one MAJOR plus from my Regal, they aren't blocked by my leg. Without anything to change the sound (pillars, legs, etc.) they actually sound much better.


alright, sounds good.


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## bass_lover1 (Dec 10, 2005)

Lookin good man.

I saw your post over on the GolfMKV forum a while back, I'm guessing you got the GTI earlier than you had planned?

I'm a bit jealous, I love my B5 Passat to death, but man I want a MkV GTI so bad .


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## Tonyguy (Nov 15, 2007)

darcness said:


> Yea, they are fairly far back. The stock speakers are actually a 3 way setup. However, they sound like utter **** so I had to upgrade. In a way, I was worried about having the 6.5's that far back. However they sound great and one MAJOR plus from my Regal, they aren't blocked by my leg. Without anything to change the sound (pillars, legs, etc.) they actually sound much better.


I was honestly worried about replacing the door speakers in my 08 jetta, but you have brought me some peace. I cant wait to see more.


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

bass_lover1 said:


> Lookin good man.
> 
> I saw your post over on the GolfMKV forum a while back, I'm guessing you got the GTI earlier than you had planned?
> 
> I'm a bit jealous, I love my B5 Passat to death, but man I want a MkV GTI so bad .


I'm not sure of the post you're talking about. Unless I don't remember posting something. 

But yes, I absolutely love the car. Only had it a week and I'm already ordering parts and upgrading the audio system. It's a treat to drive and a treat to work on. 



Tonyguy said:


> I was honestly worried about replacing the door speakers in my 08 jetta, but you have brought me some peace. I cant wait to see more.


Yea, this car is a cake walk to work on really. I think the hatch makes it as such. Just in general the VW seems to be so much studier and solid. Installing the speakers was pretty easy. Running the wires into the door was the hardest part. However, once that was done it was a cake walk. All the wires can be ran on the outside of the door which makes things nice, easy, and neat. Also, simple 3/4" MDF baffles install and fit perfectly. Couldn't ask for anything more.


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## bass_lover1 (Dec 10, 2005)

darcness said:


> I'm not sure of the post you're talking about. Unless I don't remember posting something.
> 
> But yes, I absolutely love the car. Only had it a week and I'm already ordering parts and upgrading the audio system. It's a treat to drive and a treat to work on.


Might have been someone else than, but I remember that someone posted over there saying they drove a regal and was going to be getting a GTI to replace it, I assumed that was you, but maybe not.


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

7.31.08

YES! Fixed the ****ty camera shots by adjusting some settings!

Snapped some more shots of the overall car. Figured I would since it was the first nice sunny day and I haven't posted anything but the poor thing all torn apart.





































Also, here's the wire mess I'm left with behind the rear seats.










Luckily there is PLENTY of space down in there to run and hide all these wires. Once I get the screen in the dash, I'll go ahead and work on cleaning up the hatch. For now it's going to stay a bit messy. Out of sight, out of mind for now.


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## ASCI_Blue (Aug 1, 2008)

Have you decided where you're going to mount the screen yet? I too am working on a Carputer for my GTI as well, you probably know me from Golf MKV too. Hardest part for me is finding a place to mount the damned Eee PC I used. I'm tempted to get rid of the HU and wire directly to an amp.


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

I'm running PC only, no head unit. As much as I hate to loose the Sat radio, I'll be purchasing the parts needed to get it on my CarPC soon enough. I'll take some pictures tonight. I've already got the screen in place, just need to fab up some kind of trim around the screen to clean up the look.










Looks like the 8" fits PERFECT without the original bezel. Happy, happy for me!


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## ASCI_Blue (Aug 1, 2008)

Looks sick. I might steel your idea, what amp did you go with?


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

Check my sig, lists the amps I'm using.


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## ASCI_Blue (Aug 1, 2008)

Very nice. How'd the setup go from pc to amp, pretty easy?


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

It was easy from PC to amp. I just used 3.5mm mini-jack plugs to RCA's. Everything else is pretty much normal car audio stuff. Speaker wires from amps to speakers, power and ground wires for the amps and PC, and remote wires for everything. Think of it like using a head unit, but in this case the head unit is the PC and the LCD is just the interface for the head unit (PC). 

8.2.08

More work, audio and mechanical.

I did get some major work done today. Me and my friend Jon managed to rework many of the wires and even stealth mount my PPI amp under the hatch false floor. I cleaned up all my wiring as well. In the process I took some pictures of the RSD's in the doors that I installed earlier. 

Since I was getting some minor feedback I had to isolate the PC from the power distro block and run the RCA's away from this as well. After this, it seems to have cleared up the feedback to where I can't hear it unless my ear is right next to the speaker. Below are some shots.

RSD's installed in the doors:



















PPI amp hidden under the floor:










Jon fixing up the hatch:



















Hatch as it sits now:










Wires for PC now much neater:










CAI installed:










Later in the day my cousin visiting from across the country called me and wanted to take a look at the new car. I took a ride over to my parents house and had a grand idea. Since I've been wanting to work on my exhaust, I asked my pops to use his car and head up to the auto parts store. 1 straight pipe, 1 coupler, and a few cutting wheels later, we were on our way to deleting my resonator. My cousin did the welding on the pipes and did a fantastic job. He did burn through once and had to put some extra weld on there to seal it up. Other than that, he did a flawless job. Again, some pics for y'all.

John welding up the new exhaust section:



















Exhaust without resonator:










Resonator delete done:










Glad I got so much done today. It was a great day. I was out cruising after getting everything installed and found a group of guys with tuners at a local gas station. One had a Mazdaspeed3 which was my second car of choice after the GTI. Very nice car too, he had his hooked up pretty fat, with over 300hp to the wheels. Got his number and we'll most likely get together some time and go to the track or run the roads a bit.


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## 60ndown (Feb 8, 2007)

4g power wire ran from stock power distro block:











4g power off the stock power distribution? 

you sure thats good?

doesnt everyone run their amps power wires straight from the battery?


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

The stock distro block should be fine. I've seen many a dubber using it for more power than what I'm pushing. My system is modest, so no 1000w beasts to draw massive power. Also, that other red wire that's hooked in with the 4g I added is straight from the battery. 

I've had no problems with it so far. If I do, I'll move it to the battery itself.


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## ALH19 (Dec 22, 2006)

from what it looks like to me, that's not a cold air intake, more like a short ram. Be careful with those, it might actually lose you power, since its in the engine bay and taking in hot air. Do a cold air feed or something. 
PC system looks really good. Good luck with that!


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## ASCI_Blue (Aug 1, 2008)

I've got my power running from stock as well.


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

ALH19 said:


> from what it looks like to me, that's not a cold air intake, more like a short ram. Be careful with those, it might actually lose you power, since its in the engine bay and taking in hot air. Do a cold air feed or something.
> PC system looks really good. Good luck with that!


It is indeed a short ram intake, but Neuspeed calls it a cold air intake. I don't want to go with the full race extension (which they make) because I live in Michigan. Not only are our roads horrible, but I would have to change it back to short ram every winter, then back again for summer. Not worth the time or risk of vapor lock.

As for losing power... I beg to differ. It's made a noticeable (small, but there) difference in low end power and turbo spool time. Since it's getting nice cold air away from the engine, near the headlight, it stays nice and cool. It's a very nice intake and is used by many, many dubbers. I'm sure if there was an issue with it, it would have been discovered by now.


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## ASCI_Blue (Aug 1, 2008)

Neuspeed has been in the business longer than most of us have been on the face of this green planet, if they do something unless it's a fault from the factory it's gonna work.


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

ASCI_Blue said:


> Neuspeed has been in the business longer than most of us have been on the face of this green planet, if they do something unless it's a fault from the factory it's gonna work.


Precisely.


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## bass_lover1 (Dec 10, 2005)

darcness said:


> Precisely.


You lucky MKV owners, your turbo is like 3 ft away from your intake. My 1.8T has the turbo right next to the intake...with an open cone intake, a custom heatshield is required. 

May I recommend doing the same? Or, if you don't feel like doing that, I think someone sells that piece individually. I made mine for 30 bucks FYI.


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

The newer version of the P-flo (which I got) comes with it's own heat shield. It goes right near the back of the engine bay, under the pipe to keep the hot air from the exhaust and block from heating up the air on the way in. 

Also, I'm absolutely loving this car. The sound that the exhaust and the intake make is like pure sex. I've put way too many miles on her since I purchased. Nearly 1200 miles in 2 weeks. I'm going to go broke spending this kind of money on gas, but my, is it fun!


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

8.04.08 

Screen mount fabrication/install.

Got the screen mount fabbed up today at work. I ended up using the Metra dash kit for double/single din and just modifying it to my needs. It's all secured and can't move at all. Ended up being much easier, and looking much better than I thought it would. Read below for details.

The pics make the screen look blurry and slightly washed out. In person, it's note at all. The screen is perfectly clear, and I use automated gamma control to auto-dim the screen for certain times of day. Neat program, just looks like **** in pictures. It was night time, and the flash pretty much DESTROYS the pictures from the glare off the screen. I'll get some day time pics tomorrow. For now, here's some night pics and a shot of my desktop and DSP.



















Desktop:










DSP:










On the desktop above, you can see the 5 windows open. Those are my volume control, independent for each speaker. 

On the DSP time alignment comes first, and then goes to each speaker from there. The top row is my tweeters. It includes crossover (4th order high pass @ 2.5Khz), phase reverse for both tweets (@ 180 degrees), and then the volume control. The middle line is for the midbass. It has a 10 band EQ, cascaded crossovers (4th order high pass @ 2KHz, low pass @ 80Hz), then the volume control. The last line is my subwoofer which is crossed over @ 63Hz on my sub amp and then the volume control which is that bottom line of the DSP. I will be moving my EQ to the front of the line, since it was flat at the time of building my DSP I didn't run it to all the speakers yet. Just remembered I need to fix that so I can do some EQ work.

Any other questions just ask away. Like I said, with flash at night the glare kills any pictures. Hopefully you can get a good look at the screen and how it was mounted. In all honesty, the color/texture match of the kit is almost perfect and it only required removing the top and bottom sections and trimming them back to allow the LCD to sit flush. The only part of the dash I modified is the bottom trim piece that goes around the climate controls. I just took a SLIVER off the back of it to smooth the line out. I think it came out great. Just need to come up with something to tone down that electrical tape and maybe clean that up a bit. Or I may just leave it. It already looks good, but I'm a perfectionist tried and true.


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## captainobvious (Mar 11, 2006)

Macro lense FTW

I like the car PC idea, but are you using an kind of media player/cd,dvd disk drive in the front of the car, or are you using only media stored on the carPC?
Also, isn't there a more compact option than the MDF housing that could save you space and look better cosmetically?

Nice work.


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

captainobvious said:


> Macro lense FTW
> 
> I like the car PC idea, but are you using an kind of media player/cd,dvd disk drive in the front of the car, or are you using only media stored on the carPC?
> Also, isn't there a more compact option than the MDF housing that could save you space and look better cosmetically?
> ...


That was macro on my camera, the camera just blows. Especially at night like that.

No media in the front of the car at this time. I'll be adding a usb dvd drive in the glove box soon though. And yes, there is definitely a better way (cosmetically) than using an MDF housing. I will be removing the computer from the MDF and putting it under the false floor of the hatch within the next week. 

I'm about 80% done with the install, the other 20% being the false floor fabrication/build.


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## CarlosGomes (Jul 28, 2008)

Is look awesome so far, but the first pics are down and you´re making me curious... 
Congratulations for the work!


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## daGwagon (Jul 27, 2008)

very cool install but i was just wondering about the specs for the PC (sound card, processor etc.) and what programs you are using. i did a little research but didnt find the answers i was looking for. i have a toshiba laptop w/ a broken screen, if i could get a sound card for it it could prolly work i think. and you might want to check with your local veedub body shop but those outer door skins come off which is good for deadning, if you look where the latch is on the door there should be a black plastic strip, pop that off and there will be screws behind that, then on the inside front of the door by the fender there should be more screws. that should be right but i would ask somebody else before going off of my information 
looks nice though keep up the good work
-Garrett


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

Wow, it's been way too long since I updated this. Lemme see if I can bring it up to speed for anyone who cares.

::updating::


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

*8.17.08 - More CarPC work.*

I did some more work on the CarPC to hide all the components for the PC. I raised up my hatch floor around 1.5 inches and this allowed me to get the PC under there and hidden away. Looks great to me. Only thing left on top of the hatch floor is the sub, which can easily be removed if need be for added storage room.

Here's some shots of that:

Overview:










PC close up:










Hatch floor installed:


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

*10.09.08 - R-Lines and yellow fogs and some audio work.*

Well decided that I couldn't live without NPR and the antenna adapter I had for the USB FM radio wasn't working well at all. I could get NPR near my house, but once I started driving to work, forget about it. 

Since I already bought the double din adapter and it came with the wiring harness I put it to good use. I extended all the wires I needed on the harness (power, ground, ignition, and speakers) and extended the antenna adapter as well. All the wires come out of the dash and then go into the glove box through a small hole I cut out. I then did some modifications to the owners manual holder so that I could still close the glove box with the radio in there. Now I have a head unit for when I'm in the mood for NPR and my PC for all my music.

Here's some shots:

In the box









Wiring running under the dash into the glove box


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

*10.18.08 - Garmin, Garmin, Garmin! (navi woot!)*

Before I get started, yes, I know this is back dated. I've been lazy with doing my build log updates but am getting back on the ball now. It's getting about that time here in Michigan when the ground is about to covered in white and I need to get modding in ASAP. During the winter modding becomes few and far between because of the cold and my lack of a garage. 

Last weekend I decided it was about time to get the GPS navi going on my front end for the CarPC. It's something I should have done much sooner, but simply didn't have the knowledge or patience to research it all. In comes Garmin Mobile PC and I jump head first into CarPC navigation. Wait, wasn't this supposed to be difficult? 

Turns out, it couldn't really be much easier. I purchased a BU-353 (made by GlobalStat) from Ebay for $36 and some change shipped. Then I downloaded Garmin Mobile PC and installed the newest update (I think it's 5.00.10). I then downloaded Garmin City Navigator NT 2009 North America and installed the map updates using MapSource. Compiling the NA map took a while, but overall the process of installing software was about a 1-2 hour job and was mostly wait time. 

After getting all the software updated and maps installed, I hooked up my GPS receiver and woohoo! Navigation commence! Quite simply, Garmin Mobile PC couldn't be any better than it is. The ONLY gripe I have is the lack of an on screen keyboard. For me it's no biggie because I have a keyboard in the back seat that's always hooked up, but for some, it could be a bad deal. The software runs quickly on my 1.8GHz CPU, the screens are just like the Garmin Nuvi screens, and the maps are spot on. Even the communication between the receiver and GMPC was plug and play, no configuration needed. With all the other confusing Navi software out there, I want to give a big shout out to Garmin for this software. Quite simply, it's brilliant, even for a novice like myself.

Once all the navi stuff was implemented I also decided to clean up my wiring. I didn't get any shots (damnit) of this but I organized all my power wires, ground wires, and signal wires. I zip tied everything going to the PC, the amps, and the speakers separately and cleaned up the excess wires to avoid tangles. When I was installing the USB GPS receiver I realized what kind of mess my **** was and couldn't handle it. Now everything is neat and tied in so I can drive how I like without having to worry about anything shifting around under the hatch floor. This makes it easier to do any future modifications as well. Take it from me, do it right the FIRST time so you don't have to mess around with it later. It's much easier this way. While I was doing all the wire straightening I did manage to run my remote power switch and LED for my PC. This way I can turn on/off the PC and see if it's on via the glove box. I added a USB jack to the glove box as well using a 15ft USB extension cable I ordered for like $6 on Ebay. I plan on putting another USB hub in there and an external DVD burner soon. Having the on/off switch and USB jack in there is much better than digging around under the hatch for them. I did this one too many times... :mad0259: 

So yea, fast forward to now and I've already used the Navi software quite a few times to find fast food, get me to Chilifest (our yearly VW GTG), and get weather updates. I find it amazing that for around $100 total cost (the GMPC software was $60, receiver $36). If you compare setups, I've spent less on my entire CarPC, including my aftermarket speakers and amps, than the cost of most normal nav systems. The big benefit is that I have an all in one video, music, internet, navigation, and windows platform in one unit. With the PC I pretty much have infinite possibilities of what I can do. The navigation makes it that much better in my opinion.  

Almost forgot to add... I can still listen to music while I'm using the Nav software. Since it's running in the background, when I'm on my media screen, it still gives me the audible alerts and turn by turn directions. Pretty nifty benefit. Also, as you can see, the media controls are still accessible even when I'm on my Nav screen. That way if I want to pause the media while I'm charting a course or getting directions I can do that easily as well. :thumbsup: 


*The Pics!*

Disclaimer: The screen pics show tons of glare. While there is some glare on the screen at times, 99% of the time it's still completely readable/usable. My camera just picks up any glare like whoa.

Here's some shots of GMPC in action:




























A couple shots of the receiver:



















The media screen:










A blast from the past:










Glove box shots:

On/off and LED









USB jack


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

*11.28.08 - New bezel for the CarPC monitor.*

Decided to rework the LCD bezel a bit last night at work. I took some thin aluminum from an old PC case and cut it out to work like a bezel around the screen. I sanded, sanded, and sanded it until it was smooth ask silk, then coated it (and my mounting kit) with some plasti-dip to match the colors up. Unfortunately I managed to crack my mounting kit in the process. I patched it up, but it's still visible. Oh well, mounting kit never fit worth **** anyway so I may just pick up a better quality one.

I may end up getting a piece of aluminum milled to the shape I need. I know a local guy who can do it. The piece I made looks good, but it's cut with a jigsaw and isn't perfectly straight on the edges. The milled bit would be perfect and I wouldn't have to worry about all that. :biggrin: 

Anyway, here's how it turned out...


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

*12.08.08 - CarPC interface revamp.*

I took upon myself tonight to make a clean, easy to access interface for my CarPC. My power switch and power LED were located in the glove box for the time being, but made using them a pain in the ass. After seeing how easy it is to remove the ashtray and shifter trim, I decided to take a stab at making a neat looking setup for the power switch and LED in the switch blanks next to the ESP button. 

After getting the console apart, I removed the cable for the switch and LED from the glove box. I ran it under the lower dash trim and into the center console. Super easy to do BTW. Once the ashtray is out, you have almost full access to the area under it. To run the switch and LED I just used an RJ45 network cable. Since it's in a compact sleeve and there is 8 wires it's easy to run and perfect for low voltage loads like LED's and the power switch. 



















After getting the RJ45 cable to the abyss under the ashtray, I drilled a hole for the power switch in one of the blanks. I used a bit of super glue to hold the switch base in place.










Once the blank was done, I headed back to the car and wired everything up and put the dash panels back in place. 










The power switch was originally silver, so it needed a quick coat or two of plasti-dip.



















Next up was the LED. It took me a minute to figure out how I wanted to set it up, but I was inspired by the red ambient lighting that's already installed on the upper panel. Instead of using red, I went with blue though. I think it contrasts the red nicely and matches almost perfect with the blue of the gauges. I just took the blank and cut a small (2-3mm) hole in it. I then took the LED and glued it to the back of the blank so it could shine through the hole. It ended up coming out great and looks very similar to the red LED's, but obviously in a blue hue. Not too bright, but enough to see when the PC is on in the day or night.



















Overall I think it came out great. It blends in seamlessly with the OEM bits and is out of the way so it can't get hit accidentally. Those blank switch panels are perfect and retarded easy to get to. It seems the more I work on this car, the more I love how tailor made it is for modding. Even my CarPC stuff seems to fit so well and I'm always finding ways to add a bit more but keeping it OEM looking at the same time, as to avoid going over the top. Definitely love this car. :thumbup:


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

*12.13.08 - Going insane again, 3-way time.*

As the title eludes, I've decided to go 3-way active in the GTI. I just couldn't take the midbass and most of the midrange being at my ass cheek anymore. I tried to hold out, but the thought of a well tuned 3-way + sub system sparked my interest. After buying a new sound card yesterday I knew the time had come to make it happen.

I purchased an Audigy 2 ZS from Ebay for around $25 shipped. Then I went to Creative Labs website and snagged the home theater cable which converts the cards three 3.5mm outputs to 8 analog RCA outputs. I got the cable for $25 shipped as well. So around $50 later and I've got a great source unit (sound card) and more resources for my Kx DSP. I chose the A2ZS mainly because it has high quality DAC's and works with Kx Project drivers so I can retain my current DSP.

Yesterday after ordering everything I need, I popped my doors off, removed my lower door panel and ran wires from my PPI Sedona 6 channel amplifier to the midrange speaker spot in the doors. I now have my tweeters on channel 1 of the amp, my midrange on channel 2 of the amp, and my midbass on channel 3. It's pushing about 30w RMS of power to each speaker, but that's rated at 12v. It's more likely underrated and I'm sure it's pushing closer to 40-50w RMS to each speaker. I'm still working on the balance between the 3 sets of speakers and adjusting the gains on the amp accordingly. Of course the tweeters are seeing too much power compared to the midrange and midbass, but the amp doesn't have staggered outputs and I need all 6 channels so there isn't much I can do.

After getting the wiring done, I snipped the stock harness for the OEM midrange with enough wire to splice the speaker wire I just ran onto the OEM harness lead. I then put the door back on, and hooked up the OEM midrange which I'll be using with the 3-way until I can find a drop in mid that I want to use. I know it's not ideal, but for now I can polish up my tuning skills for 3-way and then drop in a nice aftermarket driver once I find what I want.

Here's my current audio equipment:

SB Live! (soon to be Audigy 2 ZS)
PPI Sedona 630IX 6-channel
Alpine MRP-M500 mono 
Phoenix Gold RSD 6.5" midbass drivers
OEM VW midrange 4" drivers
Infinity 105t 1" tweeters
Kicker L5 Solo 12" subwoofer

Crossover points and various other bits:

Sub ---> 75Hz 80Hz ---> Midbass <--- 300Hz 325Hz ---> Midrange <--- 3KHz 3250KHz ---> Tweeter

I do underlap a bit to keep competition between the various drivers from causing conflict at the crossover regions. I haven't messed with Phase yet, and don't really think I'll need to. At most I may try adding a 180 shift to the midbass drivers or to the midrange/tweeter combo. With the tweeters and midrange being so close together it shouldn't be an issue though. I'm going to be adding time alignment once I get the Audigy card, just don't have the resources on the SB Live! to do properly. A 10 band EQ is also present on my DSP, but I've yet to mess with that. I always do all time alignment and driver balancing before going back to the EQ and making any adjustments there. For now, it remains flat.

It'll take time and a small bit of my sanity will once again be lost forever, but in the end I'm sure it will be worth it.


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

*Some various pictars.*

Since my primary build log is over on golfmkv.com and you guys didn't see the car itself progress with the audio setup, here's some shots of the car and what I've done.



























































































I'm back in winter mode now, so the black wheels are back on. I've got color matched side markers and made some BBS center caps for the BBS (bronze) wheels as well. No pictures though because they won't be back on until next spring/summer. It looks just like those last pictures by the water, except with caps on the wheels, the color matched corners, and the Jetta grill swap (with the bars instead of honeycomb).


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

Nice job. 

I have a question. I just did a Compustar remote start on a customer's '09 GTI. It only had about 900 miles on it at the time. Now, he can't remember how his parking light/headlight/DRL's worked, and is sure it's because of the remote start. What we noticed was that the lights on the inside of headlights (by the grille) don't do anything. No matter what we did we couldn't figure out how to make them come on. We have parking lights and HID headlights, but those don't come on with the fogs, high beams, lows, or anything. Even when the parking light switch is on, the parking brake is off and the car is running, they don't come on. I know it has nothing to do with the alarm (the way it is wired for parking lights, when the alarm is not being used the circuit is complete just like stock), and that it is more than likely the problem most installers have at one time or another...the customer is an ENGINEER! 



Jay


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## Cryptic1911 (Dec 10, 2008)

those are the FTP (flash to pass) lights. they come on when you pull the high beam stalk back towards you, but only in a flash. his car is working like it did from the factory


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

Thank you. He tried pushing the stalk forward to turn the highs on, but not pulling it back for FTP.

Sorry for the hijack.

Jay


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

Actually that's still wrong.

In the US spec GTI's the FTP lights are non-functional. They can be "programmed" to come on, but from the factory they aren't enabled.

They are made for Euro spec GTI's that don't have day time running lights on by default. They come on when you pull the cruise control back on a Euro spec GTI to save your HID's from a quick on/off operation which causes shortened life.

On the US spec GTI your daytime running lights are on until you turn on your headlights. The daytime running lights use the HID bulb, so in reality if your US spec GTI is running your HID's are always on. No need to light the FTP light when you pull the stalk back, it simply raises your projector lens (same thing the high beams do).

There's only 2 ways around this and 1 is unconfirmed because it takes 2 people to do and I've yet to test it. 

First way is to get a VAG-COM and disable the daytime running lights, which is done by putting the GTI into Euro spec mode. This will then use the FTP lights exactly as any other Euro spec car would.

Second is something I've yet to check. In theory, you should be able to make the FTP lights come on by having the car in neutral while running, then pulling the e-brake which turns off the daytime running lights. Then try pulling back on the cruise stalk. As I said, not tested, but might just work.


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

Cryptic1911 said:


> those are the FTP (flash to pass) lights. they come on when you pull the high beam stalk back towards you, but only in a flash. his car is working like it did from the factory


Close. The inner halogen lights are indeed flash to pass lights however they are disabled in the US and unless enable by VAG-COM or a dealer they will NEVER come on. You can also pregram the car to run DRLs as well as have flash to pass active. 

Pulling up the e-brake won't help since the FTP isn't enabled. Basically you can set FTP to work with or without DRLs and you can also set your fogs as your DRLs.

darcness - If I ma make a couple of suggestions, there is enough room to get those HU wires into the glove box without running them underneath. It's a lot easier of you pull the entire radio mounting cage though. That requires removing the HVAC controls which is really easy. 

Second, if you want it hidden, there is a buttload of space in the dash to mount the navi antenna and not hurt the signal strength. You could also get the OEM navi antenna and just swap antennas.


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

quality_sound said:


> Close. The inner halogen lights are indeed flash to pass lights however they are disabled in the US and unless enable by VAG-COM or a dealer they will NEVER come on.


I said that already you noob.


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

*12.14.08 - Amp mount and sub swap.*

I've been wanting to mount my amp on the back of the smaller fold down on the back seat for some time. Got a chance to go over my buddies and work in the garage so I got that done. 

Also ended up grabbing the L5 out of my Regal which my fiance is driving and give her my Pioneer 305. I'm going to give the L5 a shot and see how I like it. I realize it's not an SQ sub by any means, but I'll enjoy the louder bass for a bit, likely tire of it, and end up putting my Pioneer back in. The main reason was just to see if it still works because she never pushes it by any means. Sure enough, it's still kicking and plenty loud enough.


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

darcness said:


> I said that already you noob.



yeah, I saw that after I posted. :blush:


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

quality_sound said:


> darcness - If I ma make a couple of suggestions, there is enough room to get those HU wires into the glove box without running them underneath. It's a lot easier of you pull the entire radio mounting cage though. That requires removing the HVAC controls which is really easy.


I just did that on Friday. I took my harness and ran all wires, shrink wrapped them, and hid them up under the dash/center panels into the glove box. Just took me a minute to realize how easy it was done.



quality_sound said:


> Second, if you want it hidden, there is a buttload of space in the dash to mount the navi antenna and not hurt the signal strength. You could also get the OEM navi antenna and just swap antennas.


I'm not worried about hiding the receiver. Mainly because it's USB and my PC is in the hatch. I don't want to use my USB hub in the center console or my only USB port in the glove box and lose the ability to plug something in easily from the drivers seat. For now, I could hide it some where in the back there though.


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## nina101 (Dec 15, 2008)

lets all see what happens


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

nina101 said:


> lets all see what happens


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## CRAM V (Feb 12, 2007)

CW FTW! Loving the black huffs! Thinking of getting mine powdercoated this winter while I've got my winter setup on.d


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## darcness (Mar 13, 2008)

CRAM V said:


> CW FTW! Loving the black huffs! Thinking of getting mine powdercoated this winter while I've got my winter setup on.d


Those are actually Denvers. I wasn't about to pay for Huffs when I knew I was adding some aftermarket wheels.

You did see my pictures with the bronze BBS RC's right? 16lbs per corner is good stuff. My Denvers are the winter wheels, I much prefer the RC's. They are sitting in my den right now, taunting me.


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## matt62485 (Jun 7, 2008)

lookin good man. bronze wheels FTW. im rockin some bronze p45f in bronze on my tC (yea im baller with BBS) lol. cars coming along nice. im debating painting my girls wheels on her jetta 1.8t black, her car is red, so no bronze there  booo


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