[HulkSmash]

I having an internal struggle deciding on what to do with my back bumper. I have some paint chipping on my front fender so I am sending my car to the shop for that repair ($400). I also got a quote on what it would cost to paint the rear bumper to match the car ($350). I was all set in stone to have it done and then I just came across another R32 picture and I think I fell in love again. Dang it. I know that if I do hold off and do the R32 swap that I will have to redo my exhaust as well, and well that is kind of the reason I was going with the choice to paint the stock. It is more economical. So what opinions can you guys give me? Are those quotes fair priced? I have no experience in body work.

 

[Lumi-GTI]

Those seem like fair quotes to me, and go R32 rear!!

Exhaust shouldn't be a problem especially if you go custom and have a shop do it, it will only be like $100 instead of $600-$1000 for an r32 style catback

 

[Crozarius]

I really dig the r32 rear. You should check out Lumi's build thread. His looks great.

 

[HulkSmash]

Those seem like fair quotes to me, and go R32 rear!!

Exhaust shouldn't be a problem especially if you go custom and have a shop do it, it will only be like $100 instead of $600-$1000 for an r32 style catback

Well I think I'm gonna just have the stock one done for now. I want to put my money into performance not looks right now. i do plan on doing a res delete and a dp very soon though so it will set me up for what ever exhaust path i go with, more than likely custom. Name brands are so expensive! there is a bunch of things I need/want before I go stage 2 in about 4 months. If i decide to go R32 later I will just post my stock painted one for sale on classifieds and maybe make somebodies day.

R32 is way sexier though, I will agree.

Anybody else got an opinion on the quoted pricing?

 

[HulkSmash]

So fellas some bad news, that comes with really good news on the end of it. My wife got rear ended in my car a few days ago. BUT! We got a quote from our local body shop and the damages are 1500$(ish) in that price is included a rear bumper that he quoted 750$(ish). I spoke with him about what actually needed to be replaced and he informed me that only the bottom valance needed to be replaced. I asked if I could order the part instead of him, considering I can find a R32 conversion for at/cheaper than that price. so now I am searching for where to buy and need an answer fast! Insurance has cut the check and it is in the mail. Now all I need to do is order the part. I have found 3 sites that carry it under the price he quoted. All at different prices. One of the three sites I have not heard much about and it is the cheapest. I was wondering if you guys could give me any info on which site to go with.

OEM- much more expensive. I'll most likely go with ECS over these guys.- $720.00
http://www.oemplus.com/bumper-r32-rear-us-p-448.html

ECS - $617.40
http://www.ecstuning.com/Flyer-ECS_MKV_Stage3_BBK/ES11962/

BKS- $550.00 by far the cheapest but I have never heard anything about this site. I dont want to get ripped off.
http://www.bks-tuning.com/OEM-VW-Golf-MK5-R32-rear-bumper

Any advice or a better site/cheaper price to order it from would be greatly appreciated! thanks guys.

HOLY S**t IM EXCITED!!!!;D;D;D;D

 

[HulkSmash]

Those seem like fair quotes to me, and go R32 rear!!

Exhaust shouldn't be a problem especially if you go custom and have a shop do it, it will only be like $100 instead of $600-$1000 for an r32 style catback

I know you did a custom conversion to R32 type rear. What set up do you have on your exhaust. I have to give my wife a complete exact description of what needs to be done at the Muff shop. So I dont want to make any mistakes. 2.5" starting from the cat all the way straight pipe out the back(that would cover the res delete too right?). and i should tell her anything over $150 is a rip off and to take it somewhere else. thanks for any help anybody can give me. I feel like such a noob. It doesnt help that I am not there to make all this happen. I have to rely on my woman........ lol

 

[Lumi-GTI]

I know you did a custom conversion to R32 type rear. What set up do you have on your exhaust. I have to give my wife a complete exact description of what needs to be done at the Muff shop. So I dont want to make any mistakes. 2.5" starting from the cat all the way straight pipe out the back(that would cover the res delete too right?). and i should tell her anything over $150 is a rip off and to take it somewhere else. thanks for any help anybody can give me. I feel like such a noob. It doesnt help that I am not there to make all this happen. I have to rely on my woman........ lol

All the muffler shop will have to do is cut the catback off before the resonator and route some new 2.5 inch pipe to the exhaust cut outs. That way you can still keep the CB to DP mating area if you decide to get an aftermarket DP.

Make sure you buy or tell them to use 4 inch exhaust tips, they fill out the cut outs perfectly.

And the guy i went did all the work for $100. Granted, he was a friend of my dads, so i brought him over with me to be a bargaining tool so i could get a lower price hah but yeah, anything around $150 should be a good price to do all the work.

 

[HulkSmash]

All the muffler shop will have to do is cut the catback off before the resonator and route some new 2.5 inch pipe to the exhaust cut outs. That way you can still keep the CB to DP mating area if you decide to get an aftermarket DP.

Make sure you buy or tell them to use 4 inch exhaust tips, they fill out the cut outs perfectly.

And the guy i went did all the work for $100. Granted, he was a friend of my dads, so i brought him over with me to be a bargaining tool so i could get a lower price hah but yeah, anything around $150 should be a good price to do all the work.

Thanks for you help man.

Is this how your exhaust is ran? Straight from cat all the way out the back? I think i recall you have a aftermarket muffler. On a scale of 1-10 whats the increase in sound? like volume and tone? I am kind of worried my wife wont like it. I mean its my car but it would help If she did, she drives it alot, especially while I'm gone/be gone. It is going to be a very drastic change right? Removing the resonator and muffler. do you have any recommendations on a site for tips or should I just go with what the shop has????

do you have any recommendations on the sites I have posted about the R32 conversion kit?

 

[Lumi-GTI]

Thanks for you help man.

Is this how your exhaust is ran? Straight from cat all the way out the back? I think i recall you have a aftermarket muffler. On a scale of 1-10 whats the increase in sound? like volume and tone? I am kind of worried my wife wont like it. I mean its my car but it would help If she did, she drives it alot, especially while I'm gone/be gone. It is going to be a very drastic change right? Removing the resonator and muffler. do you have any recommendations on a site for tips or should I just go with what the shop has????

do you have any recommendations on the sites I have posted about the R32 conversion kit?

Well I have a aftermarket 2.5 inch catted and resonated dp and catback with a dynomax race bullet muffler. If you want to do the numbers game, let say the stock system is a 1 at idle and a 3 at WOT and now I'd say it's 3 at idle and 8-9 at wot. The tone is definitely deep and sounds amazing, not high pitched at all. The only thing I have a problem about is that it does tend to get monotonous when going uphill. So I would suggest getting an actual muffler instead of a glasspack. Which will quiet it down a little bit but would still sound great.

But I'd say the biggest difference in sound comes when you swap out the dp. But if you are just doing the cat back then your wife will be fine with the change.

And the site where I got everything was from summitracing.com you can never go wrong with magnaflow mufflers, but I came to like dynomax as well because it's a little cheaper and sounds just as good. An as for exhaust tips you should do 2.5 inlet, 4 outlet. the shorter the tip the better, and if you can find slanted tips go for it.

Well I have no clue what shipping would be to where you live so I would say go with ecs but I wouldn't trust the sketchy site you posted. But if you can't get a lower price than what the body shop guy told you just go with that.

 

[HulkSmash]

Well I have a aftermarket 2.5 inch catted and resonated dp and catback with a dynomax race bullet muffler. If you want to do the numbers game, let say the stock system is a 1 at idle and a 3 at WOT and now I'd say it's 3 at idle and 8-9 at wot. The tone is definitely deep and sounds amazing, not high pitched at all. The only thing I have a problem about is that it does tend to get monotonous when going uphill. So I would suggest getting an actual muffler instead of a glasspack. Which will quiet it down a little bit but would still sound great.

But I'd say the biggest difference in sound comes when you swap out the dp. But if you are just doing the cat back then your wife will be fine with the change.

And the site where I got everything was from summitracing.com you can never go wrong with magnaflow mufflers, but I came to like dynomax as well because it's a little cheaper and sounds just as good. An as for exhaust tips you should do 2.5 inlet, 4 outlet. the shorter the tip the better, and if you can find slanted tips go for it.

Well I have no clue what shipping would be to where you live so I would say go with ecs but I wouldn't trust the sketchy site you posted. But if you can't get a lower price than what the body shop guy told you just go with that.

Yea I googled that BKS-tunning and they seem sketch. I'll go with ECS. I'm tempted to go Ebay but that's hit or miss and I don't want to miss. I'm checking out tips right now on summit. I'll post what I go with.

I think I'm just gonna go straight pipe after the cat for now. Maybe get a muffler later when I get back. I Plan on going stage 2 around November so a DP is defiantly in my near future.

The bumper and fender repair along with the exhaust will happen as soon as the insurance check/parts come in. Check is already in the mail, so I need to get on the hop with ordering the parts.

I have a lot of maintenance to do before then. I've owned my car for almost 2 years and until now have done nothing but regular oil changes. New Coils and Plugs are going in sometime this week(due to a CEL, Miss fire cyl 4). I'm sure I need to do a Cam follower and a hand full of other things. But I dont really know what else. Probably will do Sea foam soon after I get back.

Any advice on any other preventative/regular maintenance I should be looking at/taking care of before I go stage 2? Or maybe a thread on here I can check out and get the answers myself.

Thanks again for all the help. I can't wait to get back and handle all this myself, and start my Build thread of course!!!

 

[HulkSmash]

I think I am going to go with these(cheap, short, slant, and available in weld on):
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/imm-577577/overview/

the only other ones that meet all that criteria are these but they are a bit too rounded I think:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/mpe-35136/overview/

Wucha think?

 

[kootenaydub]

first one looks like the 42DD tips, me gusta

 

[HulkSmash]

Well went ahead and bought them. $49.98 shipping included! Feel like I got a steal. After I bought them I checked out those "dynomax race bullet muffler" had I known they were so cheap I would have bought one as well and got the free shipping. But I didn't want to break the bank so I guess I lucked out. I'll save that for later, when the wife gets tired of how loud it is .

Thanks Lumi for all of your help. I just bought my wife a Cannon T3i for xmas so I'll get her to take lots of pictures of the progress and send em to me and maybe I'll be able to start the Build Thread from out here. Just wish I was home to do the work myself.

Thanks for all the input guys I'll keep you posted on the progress!

 

[HulkSmash]

Out of the body shop, see build thread for more info!!!

http://myfastgti.com/volkswagen/threads/26625-HulkSmash-Build-Thread

 

[Probound]

Sorry to hear about that hulk! What a bummer!
But look at the bright side, �� You have that R32 look NOW!

I'm just about to get an R32 Euro Rear Bumper from EBay for about $450 SHIPPED!
I've heard good things about the company and it's the exact look I'm going for.
Here is what I'm set on. Plus the price is GREAT!
http://m.ebay.com/itm/121163170285?cmd=VIDESC

Already have my DP in and I bought 4" R32 TIPS from some guy on another GTI forum.

My only concern right now is should I straight pipe it 3" or get a muffler?
I've listened to TONS of vids and GHL mufflers and EUROJET sound best
but I can't find them anywhere for just the mufflers!

Any suggestions?!

 

[HulkSmash]

Sorry to hear about that hulk! What a bummer!
But look at the bright side, �� You have that R32 look NOW!

I'm just about to get an R32 Euro Rear Bumper from EBay for about $450 SHIPPED!
I've heard good things about the company and it's the exact look I'm going for.
Here is what I'm set on. Plus the price is GREAT!
http://m.ebay.com/itm/121163170285?cmd=VIDESC

Already have my DP in and I bought 4" R32 TIPS from some guy on another GTI forum.

My only concern right now is should I straight pipe it 3" or get a muffler?
I've listened to TONS of vids and GHL mufflers and EUROJET sound best
but I can't find them anywhere for just the mufflers!

Any suggestions?!

Well I do not have a DP, but if you check out my build thread there is video clips of it comming out of the shop.

I had them run 2.5" from the cat back (removing reso/muff). They split it much sooner than I thought they would, pretty much right after the cat and ran dual pipes from there all the way out the back to 2 4" magnaflo tips. I haven't heard it with my own ears, but my wife loves it and from the videos so do I.

The way they ran the pipe may have kinda screwed me if I ever want to put a muffler on it, depending on how much space between the Cat and Y-pipe there is. So lets just hope that I like the tone/volume and never want to change it. Cept for a DP that I hope to acquire in the next 6 or so months!

Hope that helps some. I cant really give you anything else since I haven't heard it, or really had it another way other than stock. That is a steal of a deal on the eBay find. But why are you going Euro? You are in Cali right? I think a regular cali plate is going to look silly in that long narrow spot. Great price though and free shipping. I went through ECS tuning just for the lower and that was $617 plus $150 for shipping (OUCH!). And then $350 for primer and paint. So $450 for upper and lower with free shipping is quite the steal.

Buying off eBay always sketches me out though. Best of luck!