Tech Facts:
Fiber Images carbon-fiber hood, $575; Vento front bumper with rebar, $295; Vento rear bumper, $349; Euro radiator support, $199; Euro VR6 Vento molding, $149; Euro fender flares, $129; Euro plate tub, $99; Euro VR6 lip spoiler, $99; Bonrath three-bar badgeless grille, $149; Votex smoked long foglights, $179; Euro smoked blinkers, $129; smoked Mk IV-look Golf headlights, $495
Additional Info:
It doesn't matter whether you like the smooth top bumpers or the textured top bumpers-Euro is the way VW intended it. There is a variety of ways to get the Euro look across; we went for the OEM-spec Euro style to set our Jetta apart from the crowd. Another added bonus to swapping the U.S.-spec parts out for the Euro-spec counterparts is decreased weight. Most of this weight is spared with the Euro rebar; the radiator support really doesn't save any weight but makes things more simple. Overall, you will save about 60-75 pounds.
Shameless Plugs:
Fiber Images, 661/274-9500, www.fiberimages.comM1 Auto Body, 626/575-1926RPI Equipped, 604/944-0494, www.rpi-equipped.comTuning Zubehor, 800/ZUBEHOR, www.tuningzubehor.com
It all started when a car rearended me on the 405 freeway in sunny Southern California. I had to get the car fixed, but I didn't want to just throw the standard U.S. bumper back on. I was planning on doing a Euro bumper swap anyway, so this incident simply sped up the conversion. With a fistful of cash from the insurance company, what I had managed to save up, and a few nice little old ladies I mugged, I called around for the textured top bumpers. I decided that I would just remodel the whole car the way I wanted to see it. Another excuse I used to justify spending this much on body mods was the fact that I would save weight; we all know that the weight in front of the axle on a VR6 is not your friend, so you do what you can to lighten it up. I also went ahead with the Golf conversion because, in my humble opinion, the Jetta should have come with the Golf front and the Golf with the Jetta front-but I'm just odd. The way I feel about body mods is this: No matter what you do to the car, it should come out clean. Whatever kit you use should accent the car and flow with its lines; the kit should never take attention away from the body of the car.
I contacted RPI in Canada to get my parts. Because of time constraints, I had to look elsewhere for the Vento rear bumper. RPI can get everything for the conversion; they were just waiting for a shipment of parts to arrive. When Dustan from RPI and I figured out that the parts would not arrive on time, he suggested a few shops that would have those parts already in stock. It was very professional and customer oriented to offer that. With some shop numbers in hand, I called Matt at Tuning Zubehor in Southern California for the remainder of my parts. Tuning Zubehor received everything I needed in plenty of time to do the conversion. The company's staff is very informed and knew all the right questions to ask so I didn't forget any necessary items.
Next on the agenda was the finishing piece for my look: a carbon-fiber hood. I gave Fiber Images in Palmdale, California, a call, and within days, my hood was ready. This was an amazing feat for all of these companies, considering that a large portion of each shop's staff was preparing for SEMA, which was just around the corner.