NE Dustoff show took place just a few weeks ago on April 27. Mk3Love’s very own Tom Whitaker (thewhitsnpt) was there staffing the show and representing his local club, Ocean State Dubs.

Tom is a moderator on the forum here and was charged with running the gate at the show. Mk3Love sent a shirt and a pile of decals over to Rhode Island in hopes of recruiting some new community members. Tom was asked to pick his favorite Mk3 at the show to be the recipient of a free SplashBox shirt and several Mk3Love stickers.

Our giveaway was not part of NE Dustoff’s official judging; it was something we did on our own. Though it was cold and rainy the day of the show, Tom still found a Mk3 worthy of the Mk3Love Moderator’s Choice prize.

Tom had a great time hanging out with everyone at the show and was thankful that so many braved the weather. Next year they’re hoping for more sun and you can bet that Mk3Love will be at this show, historically one of the first of the season.

Mk3Love is proud to announce our first site vendor, Black Forest Industries. BFI offers a complete tuning solution for Mk3s, including engine parts, suspension, lighting, wheels and hard-to-find exterior parts. Their facilities in Cary, NC, include a showroom stocked with the items from their store as well as a shop for installation of everything they sell.

The crew at Black Forest Industries has kicked off the partnership by supplying a $50 BFI gift certificate for the May Dubmodder contest Mk3Love is sponsoring. You’ll see the BFI banner at the top of the site and will continue to see more of them going forward.

Please stop by their store, review some of their parts and make them feel welcome here at Mk3Love.

It is our goal at Mk3Love to support and grow the Mk3 enthusiast scene. One way we are doing that this month is by sponsoring Dubmodder’s monthly contest. If you’ve not heard of Dubmodder before, they are an interactive car customizer built for several models in the VW lineup, including the Mk3.

The winning entry for the contest will be awarded a $50 gift card to Black Forest Industries, a supplier for great Mk3 products like performance motor mounts, and a Mk3Love shirt.

Official contest rules are listed here, but the short version says:

1. Login to your Dubmodder Membership account (or get registered for just $12USD/year)
2. Create your best Dubmodded car image
3. Post your work in the Dubmodder Contests forum with your Dubmodder username

Dubmodder got started back in 2002 and is maintained by Slipstream Web Development. I’ve written about Dubmodder a few times in the past, like when they announced they were moving to a pay-only version for the full-scale tool. I later wrote about caving in and purchasing the year-long subscription, eventually understanding the economics and business model behind it.

This contest only runs until May 31, 2008, so head on over and get started. Entries are already being submitted.

Yesterday I got my Votex basket and load bars installed on the car and went out for a quick photoshoot.

See more from this shoot in my photo set on Flickr. Also, don’t forget to join our Flickr group and add your own.

As for my Mk3, I’ve still got a few parts laying around that need to go on soon:

• in.pro smoked ecodes
• Euroswitch
• upper glovebox
• Mk3.5 Cabrio sunvisors
• Samco hose kit
• BFI Stage .5 mount mounts
• Thule 555 fairing

Stay tuned with what’s happening on my car by watching my build thread in the forum.

On February 21, 2008, Ronal Wheels, Inc., USA announced that they will be closing down their Ronal Aftermarket Wheel Sales location in Huntington Beach, CA after 29 years in the business.

However, this does not mean that Ronal is going out of business. Instead, Ronal will concentrate on its profitable, and growing OEM wheels segment. Ronal produced over 13 million wheels in 2007 and is expected to be over 16 million wheels in 2008.

What this means for the aftermarket industry is that remaining Ronal inventory is being sold to official distributors at heavily discounted prices. For example, Black Forest Industries purchased the last few sets of Ronal R10 Turbo wheels, a popular choice in the Mk3 community.

If you’re looking for a new set of Ronal wheels, check with your local distributor and get them while they last. Otherwise before long you’ll only be able to find them at garage sales and forum classifieds.

Source: Ronal USA

Not everyone can claim that they have owned a Mk3 GTI as their first car – certainly not in Germany, where most first cars usually play in the league of 45 and 60hp cars. The owner of this fine example can claim it, though – which brings us to our first Mk3Love Feature Car.

Read More »

Word is in from Missile Command that Al Woods’ DubMissile has released a Mk3 shirt design sure to go over well with enthusiasts. DubMissile is a design shop that specializes in VW-related apparel and gear.

Each shirt is designed by Al himself and comes with a front print, a small DubMissile coat of arms print on the lower right back and a slick woven neck label. Each tee will also have a swing tag with a free random pin badge.

It seems that several companies are starting to offer Mk3-related merchandise these days, but Al and DubMissile have a unique look you won’t find anywhere else.

To purchase one of these shirts, stop by the DubMissile site and click through Al’s PayPal store.

Cost is around £15 GBP ($30 USD) + £2.50 GBP for shipping in Europe ($9 USD for shipping to the States).

Now you can find out what it means with Mk3Love’s new CEL Search tool. Just click the link in the nav above or visit http://www.mk3love.com/cel and you’ll be well on your way to a smoother running Mk3.

Once you get to the CEL Search form, just punch in the P-code or diagnostic trouble code (DTC) that your car is throwing and Mk3Love will go right to work, searching our database of trouble codes and descriptions.

You can also do a search by keyword, like “catalyst,” shown below. Mk3Love will pull up all trouble codes associated with “catalyst” and display them along with the corresponding P-code and DTC.

Thanks go out to Scott Phillips for doing the code work for the application and to Jonathan Rowny for providing the list of trouble codes and descriptions.

The next time you pull a CEL, turn to Mk3Love to help you decipher the code.

As we continue to build out the functions and features available on Mk3Love, I’ve been looking for a good search feature that would search the entire site. The forum search is ok if you are searching for forum topics or threads, but what if you are looking for a blog post, a DIY article or a parts review?

Now, with the help of Google Custom Search, I’ve been able to install a custom search engine for the site that will search all of our content, and only our content. The search bar has been integrated into the navigation for the site so you have easy access to it from wherever you are.

Search results are displayed within the Mk3Love template along with relevant Google Ads. Your keywords are highlighted in the results to help you understand where Google is scanning.

As a side note and a reminder, pages may take a few days to be indexed in our search results, similar to the way it takes some time for pages to be indexed by Google.

If you have other questions about how the search works or how to use it, please add a comment to this article. Otherwise, start searching!

The Mk3Love SplashBox shirts are finally available! I just received my shipment on Friday and the shirts look great.

Colors available include black, deep royal, deep navy, charcoal heather, ice grey and natural. To order a shirt, click the shirt graphic on the side or the Merchandise link up in the nav. Prices are $23 shipped in the US and Canada and $30 shipped internationally.

Represent Mk3Love at your next GTG or show with one of these slick shirts.