If nate couldn't hide some things, he'd find a cover to hide the untidiness; hence the latemodel corrado thermostat cover.
All that smoothness without performance modifications wouldn't be righteous, so an obx header, fk exhaust and custom intake were installed to gain a little extra power. And rest assured, more upgrades are on the way
The transmission components received similar shaving, getting sandblasted, ground and powdercoated. While the transmission was out, nate rebuilt it with a new clutch, lightened flywheel, smaller corrado shifter weight, mounts and bolts. Even the side-mount arms were shaved.
Once all the work on the tranny was done, it was powdercoated in superchrome. The axles were also powdercoated, and the starter motor was color-matched to the body.
The abs module was cluttering the engine bay, so the control box was tossed. Nate then ditched the original brake booster, slave and master cylinders for g60 parts that don't require abs. As for the booster reservoir, a smaller corrado part was sourced.
The remaining brake components were showing age, so the lines, rotors, wheel Bearings and anything else on the front-end were replaced.
Next came the suspension: nate removed the front subframe mounts and installed new polyurethane parts all around. The subframe, control arms and steering components were then powdercoated, making the jetta even more perfect, while vogtland coilovers gave the jetta its slammed stance.
With all the detail underneath, you might wonder why the exterior remains fairly stock, except for a golf cl front lip. But like the power upgrades, nate has more plans in store for the outside, particularly custom fenders and a full respray.
For now, the real drama comes from the wheels. "i knew the bay was going to be the focus, so i went with 15" wheels to keep the car as low as possible," nate revealed. "i wanted a wheel that wasn't a dime a dozen."
After two months of searching, nate uncovered a set of gotti wheels that were conventionally used on porsche racecars in the '80s. "they were sold online as 15x8" front and 15x9" rear, which would have been perfect. However, they were actually 9" and 11" wide when i got them and turned out to be way too big for the car. So i took them apart and swapped the barrels around, which made them 15x10" all round." Nate also refurbished the wheels to look brand new, and used 25mm adapters to fit the vw hubs.
Finding tires wasn't an easy discovery either, but nate came across a set of 215/45-15 toyo t1r tires that barely stretched over the 10" wide rims.
Although nate's jetta remains under construction, he's reached a level many of us only dream about because we don't have the skills or time to get there. And let's not forget, he's spent less than $7000 to buy and create this mk3 masterpiece. Imagine that.