If you've been keeping up with Project EuroTrash, you'd know the outside of our $200 find has been killing us. The paint was faded and oxidized and had been neglected for the past few years. The moldings had seen better days, with pieces falling off because of broken clips or missing rivets. We figured it was time to breathe some life back into this aging machine.
We could have painted the car, but the problem was a decent paint job with bodywork would run about $2,000, and that would still leave the crappy moldings. So that idea was scratched and some polish was purchased instead.
After years of neglect, the roof, hood, and trunk no longer shined, and the only time the paint looked good was when it was wet. We picked up some of Mothers' Clay Bar and Showtime quick detail. With the bottle of detailer in one hand and the clay bar in the other, we started polishing. After claying the car, we whipped out the orbital buffer and Zymol polish and went to town. When we were all done, we were amazed by the difference in the finish. Sure, it still wasn't a show car and the paint didn't magically appear new, but it was damn shiny and the haze was gone.
There's a small clip inside...
There's a small clip inside the front fender flares that you need to remove before the flares will sit flush with the body.
Next on the list was to scrap the old plastics and slap on new ones. We'd already stripped the car before polishing, but there were still some parts we needed to attend to. Since we were replacing most of the old moldings, we figured it would only be fair if we also replaced the taillights and painted some of the old parts that were going back on. We used VHT OEM bumper trim paint and painted the rear plate tub and the side skirts. The skirts came out damn near a perfect color match, and the rear plate tub was now black again, as opposed to faded gray.
One of the biggest problems we had with the car before its makeover was that the front bumper kept falling off due to broken clips and a slightly bent rebar. Luckily, we solved this problem when we ordered the parts from New German Performance, and our new front bumper arrived with a spanking new rebar. We also ordered the rear bumper, side moldings, G60 flares, and the Mk3 VR6 lip from NGP. The only problem we ran into was when we needed to swap the new rebar brackets on the front bumper with our old ones to cure a fitting issue since the OEM brackets gave us more adjustment to play with.
We also installed the G60 flares, but this required a bit of trimming. You need to trim the clip in the center of the front flares to get them to sit evenly on the fenders.
Once the OEM brackets were...
Once the OEM brackets were bolted to the new rebar, we reassembled everything -- making sure to torque the subframe bolts.
Fitting a Mk3 European VR6 lip to the front bumper took us a few hours to get right. The first thing you need to do is trim the clips away from the spoiler, until you get it to fit into the slots on the bumper. Once that problem is cured, you are nearly there. However, you have to deal with the fact that the Mk3 front bumper has com-pletely different lines and is wider than the one you're dealing with. Therefore, we had to make it bend around the Mk2 bumper properly. We started at the sides and worked toward the center using a heat gun to align the sides of the bumper with the spoiler and gently heat the plastic. Once it became flexible enough, we wrapped it around the corner of the bumper and held it until the plastic cooled. With the sides aligned and all the bends taken care of, we needed to trim the center where the spoiler was overlapping. We then secured the spoiler with self-tapping screws on the inside.
 Bust out your rivet gun to...  Bust out your rivet gun to fix the flares to the body. |  We needed a replacement rebar,...  We needed a replacement rebar, so we had to unbolt the subframe to remove the brackets as well. |  The rear flares simply slide...  The rear flares simply slide on and rivet in place. |
 The European VR6 lip gives...  The European VR6 lip gives the car an aggressive look, and it seems to complete the lower bumper where the 16v lip looks as if it's lacking something. | | |