A dash of polish couldn't hurt the interior, so a four-point Wiechers roll-bar was fitted.
Moving to the rear, he deleted the GLX spoiler. With attention to detail, Matt wrapped the lip spoiler around the trunk and onto the body. "There's a natural lip on the trunk that dips down. We took that and extended it to make it flush around the side of the car. This gives the appearance of a wider stance," he explained. Meticulous bodywork was also required to complete the task, which involved modifying the rear quarter panels. Not quite finished with the project, the rear bumper had its lines deleted as well.
Eventually, it was time to respray the Jetta and Matt opted to keep the factory Tornado red, with the exception of the black roof.
The Mk3 body was as sexy and smooth as a Victoria Secret model but Matt knew the wheels would have the final say. "For me, you can do little Euro things to a car but the wheels make or break it in the end."
After running into complications finding a manufacturer to build custom offsets, Matt finally selected the Stahl S2 wheels, a design he continually went back and forth on.
TunerShop built a custom set of 17x8" front and 17x10" rear wheels with crazy offsets measuring ET21 and ET0 respectively. The wheel centers were then color-matched and wrapped in super-stretched 205/40 front and 215/40 rear Falken tires just in time for his inaugural show at the '08 H2Oi.
"The amount of stretch in the back is just insane," he declared. "215/45s give a nice stretch on a 9" wheel, but I now snicker when people do them. My 215/40s around the 10" Stahls are screaming at me, holding on by their fingernails."
With the wheels mounted, Matt marveled at his creation. "The back is my favorite part of the car. Just look how wide it is. The rear wheels have so much negative camber it almost has a pyramid look. It just kicks it out and makes the whole car come together."
Turn the lights off and the interior shines thanks to LED lights from Baak2basics. "It almost looks like a strip club at night with the lights on and the poles!" he laughed.
Matt couldn't cruise his Jetta without listening to Will Smith's greatest hits, so a Jensen head unit controls upgraded Eclipse speakers and a 12" sub in the trunk.
"In the end, everything was gently molested in some way, shape or form. It's got the best of both worlds. There's go to it, but also show on the inside and out. It definitely gets looks everywhere I go.
"The neat thing is people who aren't into VWs can appreciate the car for what it is. They don't necessarily know the trunk wrap or Euro styling, but they can see the work on the interior and shiny stuff under the motor," Matt concluded. Perhaps that's the Zinn philosophy. This Jetta appeals not only to the purist Dubbers, but to the masses as well. Everybody can appreciate the workmanship put into the vehicle, but also the charismatic owner behind it.