Congratulations to the members at Mk3Love! We’ve now got over 200 registered members on the forum. I can’t even begin to claim being responsible for this because its you - the Mk3Love user - that is helping spread the word about our site.

Thanks for all of your help in making this site a success. I just finished up a two-day conference on social media marketing hosted by the American Marketing Association and led by Dana VanDen Heuvel and I’m loaded with new ideas about how we can leverage these tools for our benefit. I’m excited to see this site change and grow as we connect with even more enthusiasts from all over the world.

Here’s to our next 200 members. Spread the Love.

This add-on for the forum has taken me a few hours to get everything installed and working correctly, but it looks like I finally got it. Most of the forum add-ons are fairly straight forward to install, but this latest mod was a custom job since I only wanted to add the Google and YouTube feature. The mod I pulled most of the code from had lots of other frivolous features that I didn’t think we needed. So enjoy this new feature and celebrate the fact that I didn’t crash the forum with my coding.

To use this feature, you’ll see the Google Video and YouTube icons right below the message box where you type your post. Just click the icon and then paste in the URL for the video. The coding behind the scenes will stick the proper code into your post to embed the video.

The icons look like this:

You can also just type out the BBcode tags if you are so inclined. For YouTube videos, use [youtube][/youtube] and for Google videos use [GVideo][/GVideo].

Let me know if you experience any problems with the forum. I had to tweak a few things around to get this feature to work.

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.

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!

So, last weekend I made a 430 mile round trip journey to St. Peter, MN to pick up some free Mk3 parts. The drive was nice, the weather was a bit chilly and a I had a great burger and fries for lunch from a local restaurant called Ruttles. Below are a couple photos.

Mk3s are 1337!

With the new (used) hood installed. Now I’ve got my spare so I can eventually get my shaved hood to the painters.

In the past couple of days I’ve also ordered a few new parts for the Vento. Both things came from GoingFast on eBay and include choices from my earlier dilemna of what to get next. I ended up ordering both their smoked Euro turns/dummies and a set of hood lift struts.

I can’t wait for everything to arrive!

Now that I have my car all put back together (complete with Euro Vento bumper), I’m looking towards the future and what to do next. Here are some ideas in a photochop:

Vento VR6 lip, smoked turns/dummies, smoked c-code headlights, resprayed hood and some window tint.

The original.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Yesterday my Vento bumper finally arrived! I was amazed at how fast it got here since Dimitri had only shipped it on Friday. Along with the bumper, Dimitri sent me all of the other parts he had already replaced with my US pieces.

My box of Belgian goodness included:

• Vento textured top bumper
• Vento CL front lip
• Vento bumper grills
• Vento FER dummy lenses
• Vento FER turn signals
• Vento passenger side mirror
• Vento rear plate holder

I’m planning on selling the rear plate holder since I’ve already got one on my car from GoingFast. $90 shipped. Here’s the link to my Vortex FS thread SOLD.

And here’s one shot of the car all put together and sitting in the old garage. If you’re wondering about the hood, it has been sanded down to bare metal and the washer nozzles have been shaved. I plan on getting it painted sometime in the near future. Look for another post soon about the nozzle shaving process.

I need to look at some of my old photos and try to go out and take comparison pictures with the new euro bumper. I still need to get the Vento mirror bolted on, but that will be another day. I think I’m finally growing tired of my ill-fitting mirror blank I bought on Vortex.

I just got an email that made my week! Hell, it made my month!

You may remember my recent post about all the delays with shipping the bumper. This is what just came in from my pal Dimitri:

Goodmorning Mike,

so there is some news for you!
If everything goes well the box will be shipped out TODAY !!!!!!!!!!!
That company told me it would take about 3-5 days
I guess it should be at your adress before the end of next week
I hope this is some GOOD NEWS for a change ! ??
We really want to apollagy that it took that long (redface) but still it costs us 287,02 euro…
But I really want you to get the bumper before the winter !!

About the rear-bumper, we have to find a way for that before anyone sends one.
I had to re-build the box to some smaller one (max 1,50 m!)
Be carefull when you open the box !!!!

That’s it for now , we are going to that right NOW !
I let you know when we’re back

Cheers

Dimitr

I am SO excited! FINALLY! The bumper should be here by the end of next week and I’ll be rolling around with the only Vento bumper in the entire state of Iowa. So say goodbye to my sad-faced car. Soon it will be sporting a sleek new European facelift.

What does that title even mean? lol

Anyways, my wife and I bought a new house about a week ago and I hadn’t added any pictures to the blog yet. Here are a few shots, one with the wife’s Beetle.

And with all of the front railing space, I just had to throw up the Projekt German banner. The wife didn’t like it too much.

Also, my Eurosport bars arrived last week from NGP. I’m still trying to find time to get over to my old garage and get them both installed.

It’s getting colder this week too so I need to bolt them on soon or they’ll end up sitting in the house til spring…