Possibly the coolest feature on Kenny Wehry's '02 VW gti 1.8t is the roof. It's painted black and the antenna was shaved. But there are plenty of gtis out there with a similar mod, so what makes this car special? "i'm a retired hiphop dj," he explained. "growing up, i used to do a lot of graffiti. I always wanted to do it on the car and one day i met a guy who owned a clothing store with tons of graffiti art. He hooked me up with an artist who free-handed my roof in two different sessions. It wasn't too intricate, but it was exactly what i wanted. The tag says 'xposed,' which is my old dj name."
We never really think of ourselves as artists, but for guys like Kenny Wehry, making something fresh in the mk4 scene requires personal expression. Although his tagging skills are rusty, he kept his ideas and used them when he found the right people. Along with the rest of his modifications, he managed to successfully blend his passion for art into his greater passion for cars.
Surprisingly, his endeavors didn't begin with euros. "i started working on dsms like mitsubishis and eagle talons," he told us. "i did a small build on an awd talon turbo and got into the VW scene because of my friends. I always hung out with VW kids and gradually went in that direction. This gti was my first VW."
As a Veedub virgin, he enlisted the help of some influential people who eventually became close friends. "i bought the mk4 to modify, ut was new to the scene. However, i met a couple of kids like tucker harding (owner of Joosey bodyshop) and discovered we lived two miles from each other. He was in the process of modding a mk4 too, so we built our cars together."
You might remember tucker's '02 VW gti from our h2o coverage (et 1/07). It radiates hardcore euro flavor, with an audi red paint job, smoothed exterior and engine bay, built internals and big turbo.
Another influence on Kenny came from the german squad car club (et 3/07). "i got involved with german squad during the early stages. They're a great gang of people and I always hang out with them at shows." The club is renowned for breaking barriers and has received worldwide recognition because of its high quality dubs.
With some very knowledgeable people behind him, Kenny should have been off to a flying start. "i really didn't know what direction to take," he admitted. "i changed the car a million times in a two year period. My goal was to be different, but there are lots of modified mk4s and we're all running out of ideas. It's hard to come up with something new."
As a result, Kenny cycled through five different bumpers. He's also done his share of wheel swapping. "i still couldn't figure out what direction i wanted, so ended up on the border of euro and 'techy' styling. I got most ideas from other cars and twisted it to make it my own."
The basis is a Jetta front-end conversion. However, Kenny replaced the front and rear valances for rieger pieces, which were molded to the bumpers for a smoother look. He also shaved the side markers and filled the exhaust notch on the rear.
The hood features a custom bser extension, as does the hatch, with smoked tail lights modified to accommodate the hatch extensions. The emblem and handle were also shaved.
Kenny then added rare emphase side skirts, a 20ae roof spoiler, black mirrors and B-pillars, plus a badgeless grille. The lighting wasn't forgotten either, with the headlights replaced by oe hids.
The exterior was almost complete, but needed a suitable set of wheels for his gti. He confessed to being something of a wheel whore, but finally settled on three-piece ssr wheels, which compliment the style perfectly. "nobody really has these wheels since ssr stopped making them in black," he asserted.
The sp1 professors measured 19x8.5" all round, wrapped in cooper tires. Kenny poked the wheels out further using h&r spacers to align them with the fenders.