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.

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

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).

The Guide to Headlight Switches is now available in the Parts Guide section of the site (listed under Resources). The article comes from ventoCL, our 20th registered forum member and a Mk3 owner I’ve followed for quite some time on Vortex. He has a lot of knowledge about European Mk3s and the differences between them and what we got here in the US.

This article illustrates the differences between the US and European market headlight switches and gives pictures of the different switch options available. If you get the chance to thank him, please do.

Thanks for your help, ventoCL.

A few weeks ago I bought a set of Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50 tires in 195/55/15 flavor from TireRack. Up until then, I was driving on Kumho Ecsta ASTs, a supposed “all-season” tire. The fact of the matter was, those all-seasons from Kumho got absolutely no traction in the snow. My car would be sliding all over the place and just spinning tires through the gears.

Today was my first real test run with the new Blizzaks mounted and I love them! We had about 2 inches of snow last night and the roads were still fairly well covered this morning. I was whizzing (read: crawling) past other cars on the interstate with no problem at all. This leads me to believe that there are really only two kinds of tires out there: summer and winter. If a company is claiming their tire is an all-season tire, that basically means it covers all of the seasons if you live in California where they don’t get any snow in the winter.

So if you’re looking for a good set of tires to battle through the winter with, I definitely recommend the Bridgestone Blizzaks.

After much searching and being outbid on several auctions, I finally won a set of Votex load bars for my car! I hadn’t really been planning to buy to buy one so suddenly, but with some birthday money left over combined with a little Christmas shopping money, I spotted the auction on eBay and I couldn’t resist.

These parts are all original Votex pieces and were available from the VW dealer back when Mk3s were in the showroom. According to other enthusiasts on Vortex, the roof rack of choice seems to be either the OEM Votex setup or the aftermarket Thule (Swedish company, pronouced “too-lee”) setup. And actually, the Votex racks were all made by Thule for Volkswagen, so its easy to see why either are a good choice. The Thule design are similar to the Votex, except the Thule carrier bars are wider and stick out on each end past the feet.

Here’s a pic of my friend’s Mk3 Jetta with the Votex load bar setup installed:

The other reason people choose Votex or Thule over other companies like Yakima is because the Votex/Thule accessories are all interchangeable. Thule even makes adapters so that their rack accessories can be fitted to the Votex load bars. My next task is to find and purchase a basket for the load bars, but I’m still not sure which design to choose. Votex has its own design while Thule has 2-3 others. I’ll probably continue looking at what other people have done and then shop around for prices and availability.

Anyways, I can’t wait for the bars to arrive!

Aside from the current situation with my front bumper, I’ve been thinking about what to do next with my car. A fairly affordable yet noticeable improvement comes in the form of tie bars. I’ve always known that I wanted to buy a set (front upper strut bar and lower front tie bar; the effects of a rear strut bar in a Jetta are still debatable), but the struggle involves which brand to go with. It may seem simple to some people, but being the die-hard, complicated VW enthusiast I am, I can’t just pick a part blindly. It has to fit right. It has to look good. It has to perform.

I have done LOTS of research on my own (mostly searching through threads on Vortex for opinions), but I think there is something to be said for the professional opinion of somebody who sells these parts day in and day out and uses them on their own vehicles. That’s why I contacted Nate at NGP. I had already narrowed my choices down to three possible brands (Neuspeed, Eurosport and FK), but I talked to Nate specifically about the Eurosport and FK bars. Neuspeed is almost identical to the Eurosport piece, but I like to try out the road less traveled. It’s more fun that way.

So, talking to Nate about the two bar types, here are some bits from our email conversations:

Thanks for contacting us about the FK strut braces for Mk3. FK has a front upper listed for $99.99.

He couldn’t find any listings for the FK lower tie bar, which seems to be true of other vendors as well.

We do have the front upper and lower in the Eurosport bars, which are a stronger and more rigid design and offer better performance. They are powdercoated black, but we can offer custom colors if you are interested. The front upper is $99.99 and the front lower is $69.99. These are a steel design, and will do much more for your car in terms of handling.

You can check them out, as well as the available FK bar, here.

The positive side to the Eurosport bars is that they are steel and non-adjustable, thus preventing any sort of movement. The FK bars are aluminum and require that you tighten an expansion bolt in the middle, thus leaving room for movement in the bars under pressure. The one thing that made me want to pass on the FK bars was the fact that it was adjustable (I am entirely anti-adjustable when it comes to strut bars. You need a rigid design). However, even with those strong feelings against the design, I was still considering the FK bar because my cup kit is from FK and I really like it. (I’m one of those brand junkies who has to have parts made by the same manufacturer. I can’t just have a slew of random parts bolted on.)

Nate responded:

Generally speaking I’d say you’d be plenty happy with the Eurosport bars at the end of the day. I’ve used them on my Mk1 and Mk2 projects, and will be adding them to my new Mk3 car when I get around to suspension work. They are a good value, look good, really help the chassis and we’ve never had any trouble with them at all. The only thing I ever say is “measure twice drill once” since you don’t want to have the holes not line up correctly. Let me know if you have questions on the install.

The aluminum [FK] bars can be ok, but to be honest the strength on the less expensive bars leaves a little to be desired. Ever since I went from aluminum to steel on my old Mk1 I’ve been pretty much set on those. The exception being some of the high-end aluminum bars like the old Eibach and Forge motorsport…which aren’t around anymore so the steel is the way to go. Although the FK cup kits are a great value for the money with performance and ride, the strut bars can’t quite match up to the Eurosport models.

This basically sold me on the Eurosport bars. I ended up calling in the order late on Tuesday afternoon and they should be shipping from Eurosport directly to me. I expect to have the bars sometime next week. The NGP team was a great help in making this decision and I can honestly say I’ve never had such in-depth customer service as I received from Nate. Props go out to NGP and I look forward to buying more parts from them in the future.

www.ngpracing.com

It seems like I’m some sort of international Volkswagen man of mystery lately. First I was shipping bumpers and mirrors to Belgium and now I’m sending wheel adapters to Australia. That’s right, I’ve taken on another overseas project to help out a fellow enthusiast in the land down under. I’ve been talking with Raymond Chan of the rayray’s garage blog for several months now. He is one of the guys out there that helped inspire me to get my own blog onto its feet. He’s driving a 1995 Golf 2.0L, similar to my car, and recently contacted me regarding some future plans for his car.

Ray picked up a slick set of Work Equips, but the bolt pattern wasn’t right for his car. Standard issue bolt patterns for 2.0Ls are 4×100, but Raymond is going to be swapping to the 5×100 VR6 pattern. Still, the Equips won’t fit the VR6 pattern, which is where I came into play. One of the most common things in the Volkswagen world when it comes to fitting wheels is the usage of wheel adapters. I had never been exposed to them while driving Toyotas, Chevrolets, or even Hondas, but in the VW scene they are almost the norm when bolting on the perfect set of wheels.

A-DAPT-IT USA is an Indiana-based business that manufactures wheel pattern adapters out of 6061-T6 billet aircraft aluminum. The parts came well recommended by the Vortex masses and sell for a great price, but unfortunately for Raymond, they don’t ship outside the United States. Upon hearing this, Raymond contacted me about purchasing the parts and shipping them over. Naturally, I obliged, and this past Saturday I took the box of adapters down to the post office and sent them on their way to Australia. I can’t wait to see the new wheels fitted on his car with the adapters.

I’ve got more I could tell about, but I think that’s enough for today. Keep it real Mk3ers.

Dubmodder has always been a cool site in my book but now they are making users pay to have access. There is still a “demo” version of the site but it features only a few colors and even fewer options in terms of parts.

I guess it’s all about business but after being a free site for such a long time I hate to see them go to a “pay only” version. The reason they are/were so popular was because it was an easy way for people to mod cars without photochop skills. If it had been a pay-version site from the beginning I don’t think they would have had nearly as much success.

I realize they are only asking for $12/year but to me it’s just the principles behind it.

Here are the questions I pose to Dubmodder:

• Instead of charging for use, why not just sell more advertising to cover costs?
• How do you expect people to participate in your monthly Dubmodder contests with Performance VW if they have to pay to use your site?
• Could you use a “Donate to support Dubmodder” campaign instead of charging users?
• If you are going to charge users, could the software be accessed by paying a one-time fee and not a yearly charge?

I’ve thought about creating my own Mk3-modding program or software before, so maybe this is the push I needed to start learning Flash and to begin developing…

These guys rock. Here’s why:

• They make solid, quality products.
• They’re based in Germany.
• They print a huge catalog of parts to drool over.
• They have their own FK Girls…also to drool over.

I got my cup kit from FK and I couldn’t be happier. My front bumper air ducts also came from FK and seem to be of utmost quality. I just need a euro bumper so I can install them.

FK does make some strange parts like chrome tail lights and cheesy shift knobs and floor mats, but a lot of that stuff is popular in Europe. I won’t hold it against them.

Look, a coilover!