# Shaved 24v Bay DIY...



## Black Mamba (Feb 18, 2007)

I would like to do a bit of a clean up in there & remove a few things that are useless/unnecessary, also do some wire tuck. I do like to do the work myself and learn along the way, but I havent been able to locate a "DIY" or "Step by Step" type thread on going about this.

Any help would be appreciated.


----------



## give_it_to_dem (Jan 28, 2005)

:thumbup: anyone??


----------



## anthony3vdublove (Sep 14, 2010)

interested also:laugh:


----------



## need_a_VR6 (May 19, 1999)

I've done wire tucks, they suck. Avoid if possible.


----------



## swagger rob (Aug 13, 2009)

There's one in the MK4 forums but it's based on a 1.8t, I used it to delete a few things from my 12v though, some of the stuff still applies. Hope this sort of kind of helps in some sort of way. I can't find the thread right now though

here tis', not sure if youve seen it.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthre...WS-Washer-Power-Steering&highlight=engine+bay


----------



## joeeebmx123 (Feb 6, 2008)

i'm in the process of doing a shaved bay, timing chains and new shifter fork, i originally did a wire tuck, and went off the 1.8t diy on here..most of the stuff is pretty straight forward.


----------



## DUB_MANGv2 (Oct 28, 2008)

can you still street legally drive with a shaved engine bay? i mean with everything missing from the engine and if u were to get pulled over and a cops like wtf wheres everything. i know tuning can delete the cel from it but would it stop a cop from tripping if he knew their were smog and other stuff deleted/?


----------



## need_a_VR6 (May 19, 1999)

I don't know anyone that got pulled over and the cop asked them to open their hood. Usually they're concerned with simple things like, 'son, you know how fast you were just going?'


----------



## hiatussk8rs (Jul 30, 2003)

thats what sucks about living in CALI i got pulled over 3 times where they asked me to pop my hood ... Cali sucks the worst part is i wasnt even speeding it was cause i had tint or modified exhaust lame


----------



## limastock (Feb 17, 2009)

If you need a DIY for a shaved bay you probably shouldnt be doing a shaved bay. Just sayin


----------



## gobunnygo1 (Apr 14, 2009)

limastock said:


> If you need a DIY for a shaved bay you probably shouldnt be doing a shaved bay. Just sayin


what the hell kind of answer was that? STFU and GTFO.


----------



## swagger rob (Aug 13, 2009)

gobunnygo1 said:


> what the hell kind of answer was that? STFU and GTFO.


X2 seriously


----------



## DUB_MANGv2 (Oct 28, 2008)

hey hia8tus, a bit of fyi

by law its your right NOT to pop your hood. like home searches they NEED a warrant or have reasonable clause. i tested this back early last year. got pulled over for window tint which lead to no front plate which lead to me questioning why i was getting hastled, which lead to him tellin me to pop my hood. i said no it has nothing to do with the initial stop so he said get out and sit on the curb while he called back up..... long story short after 20min on the curb and 3 chp's they let me go with a ticket for tint and the no front plate. i was scared **** less the whole time because they kept saying they were going to take my car and impound it because it was lowered and my car had street racing characteristics. (wtf is that). 

did a written declaration after a few extensions it was thrown out. but yea im sure it could of all been avoided but how else would i know my rights


----------



## spitfire481 (Mar 21, 2007)

theres really no step by step processes for shaving a bay. 90% of stuff you figure out while its all apart and you are working on it. the basics are inline filler neck or something of the sort to delete the coolant ball, delete or relocate the washer fluid, relocate the factory PS tank or use an aftermarket can, make new ac lines, delete ac, or work with the oem, un-tape and organize all the factory wiring and start extending what needs to be longer to route the way you want it to. its a time consuming, frustrating process but in the end you will be happy


----------



## 2003gtivr62.8liter (Sep 1, 2009)

This might be a dumb question but, how long should it take to do a decent shave if you are already doing the process of new cams and timing chain? Just curious because I am on a time schedule and would like to know the approx. time.


----------



## GTIVRon (Jul 24, 2009)

Its not something you're going to do in a weekend. It's something you'll be working on over a few days if thats all you're going to be doing, a few weeks if you already have a full time job...


----------



## spitfire481 (Mar 21, 2007)

Could take a week, could take months. Depends on what you do and what you know how to do


----------



## 2003gtivr62.8liter (Sep 1, 2009)

Ok thanks for the info. I thought I might me able to do it in a day or so if you were to work on it all day. Looks like I might be doing it on my next vacation next year lol


----------



## koko5869 (Feb 15, 2006)

limastock said:


> If you need a DIY for a shaved bay you probably shouldnt be doing a shaved bay. Just sayin


this is actually a really good answer. 

you just have to be prepared to bite the bullet and dive in . do some reasearch, get some ideas, and go for broke. cutting the first batch of wires its a tough one. you know theres no turning back then.

it depends how well you can follow directions.
*how crazy you want to get* keeping the raintray/removing it. 
how well you can solder
double twice the alloted time


what do you need to know? ask SPECIFIC questions and youll get answers. you cant just say, "how do i shave a bay?" thats like asking "how do i do an AWD R32 swap in my car?" 

im pretty far in the progress of things. 

inline filler neck/overflow setup.
delete the coolant ball.
delete the wiper fluid resv.
delete the evap.
bypass the throttle body coolant lines.
relocate the battery.


----------



## dckeener (Jan 10, 2005)

I can post some pics in a couple days but here is what I've done so far. my bay is in no way shaved or show worthy but as I find time a work on bits and pieces.

All I have tackled so far is the passenger side. I pulled all of the wires back up to the raintray, then seperated the ac and coolant wires and ran the rest through the fender. 

I relocated the washer resevoir behind the bumper so only the cap is visible behind the headlight. This requires you to lengthen the wires and hoses that go to it, and use a funnel to fill. I moved the evap solenoid into the raintray, and used a engine mount brace from a 1.8t since it is smooth with nothing on it.

As far a coolant ball just get an inline filler neck and find a way to get rid of the feed/return lines for it.
On the drivers side you can just relocate the battery to the trunk and get a cone filter to delete the airbox.
After that it is how far you want to take it. Wiring, SAI, filling holes. The possibilities are endless.


----------



## Black Mamba (Feb 18, 2007)

I was simply asking if there was one around, since there is pretty much a DIY/Step by Step on doing pretty much anything else on our cars, so why not about this.

I am perfectly aware that it is a time consuming project and that I wasnt to specific on what I was asking, cause everyone is different in what they ultimately do.


----------



## swagger rob (Aug 13, 2009)

If you shave your bay...your car will make me divide by 0 and implode.


----------



## Black Mamba (Feb 18, 2007)

swagger rob said:


> If you shave your bay...your car will make me divide by 0 and implode.


 LOL :laugh::what:


----------



## swagger rob (Aug 13, 2009)

just sayin' ma'am the car is sick:thumbup::laugh:


----------



## Black Mamba (Feb 18, 2007)

Thx! :thumbup:


----------



## MILESisBROKE (Dec 28, 2009)

how do you delete the coolant ball? is it un-needed or is that where the filler neck comes in?


----------



## swagger rob (Aug 13, 2009)

that's where the filler neck comes in.


----------



## gobunnygo1 (Apr 14, 2009)

any updates to this? pics? anything at all? 

ive recently started just by deleting the windshield washer fluid reservior. :/ baby steps unfortunately as it is my daily. will be deleting the coolant ball as soon as the filler neck and cap come in and relocate the battery. definitely considering contacting Greg(swoops) about hardlines to relocate the powersteering reservoir and the cleaning up other lines. Gregs and Leahs cars were the shiznit out at SOWO last year. definitely gave some inspiration. we need more 24v shaved bays. :thumbup:


----------



## koko5869 (Feb 15, 2006)

a little here and there on my end. 


EDIT: it is also my daily. anddd it was ian and leah's car. greg just did some craziness.


----------



## GTIVRon (Jul 24, 2009)

gobunnygo1 said:


> any updates to this? pics? anything at all?
> 
> ive recently started just by deleting the windshield washer fluid reservior. :/ baby steps unfortunately as it is my daily. will be deleting the coolant ball as soon as the filler neck and cap come in and relocate the battery. definitely considering contacting Greg(swoops) about hardlines to relocate the powersteering reservoir and the cleaning up other lines. Gregs and Leahs cars were the shiznit out at SOWO last year. definitely gave some inspiration. we need more 24v shaved bays. :thumbup:


 Your 24v is back to daily status? Damn, I really need to come out next months meet. Work has been having me miss it so many times, haven't been in like... 5 months? Maybe more. My car is yours' twin if you don't remember. And since last you saw it I have a full TT exhaust with resonator cat, WOTBox, FK dampening adjustable coilovers....


----------



## 29er (Feb 25, 2007)

Deleting/hiding things isn't by definition "shaved," it is simply "cleaned up." Shaving requires getting out the welder and grinder, getting rid of visible seams/holes. Deleting things can be done off a DIY, truly "shaving" is one of those things you should kind of know what your doing before you rip into it (say, you've done things like a shaved trunk or fenders, and have knowledge of automotive wiring). 

Even though I crazy hours of bodywork in mine, I still don't consider it fully shaved. I did it keeping in mind that the car is a daily driver, and everything (including wiring) needs to be reliable and serviceable. Because of that, I didn't fab up any huge "plates" to block off areas like the frame rail and front inner fenders. I was able to do mine without any welding whatsoever. I got away with using a panel-boding adhesive. No, you can not just throw body filler at it, the strut towers and such do flex under suspension loading, any filler thicker than a glaze coat WILL crack. 

I did mine with the motor still in the car, but it would have been much easier to do it out of the car. 

It's back to a work-in-progress though. I had originally painted the bay myself but the durability in a car that gets driven every day and tinkered with all the time, simply wasn't cutting it. I have it coated in bedliner right now, but it is only a rough coat. I'm in the process of making custom brackets for things I've un-deleted (coolant ball) and other changes due to moving from a supercharger to a one-off N/A setup. Once any new fabrication/installation is completed, I'll re-coat it. 

One of the brackets I made this weekend was a Aluminum 6061 (for weight reasons) piece to hold a coolant ball. Why a coolant ball in a shaved bay? Because an inline filler neck in the upper rad hose on these cars is a BAD idea. I had huge issues keeping the temps in check. Reason being, is your pressure cap (coolant ball cap, or the cap on the filler neck) MUST be the highest point in the system to function properly. 
Using a fill funnel to "burp" the system is a temporary fix. If you actually drive the car and get it hot, it will begin to purge coolant that sits higher up from the cap. This includes much of the heater core. Filler necks work on older hot-rods due to the flat-hood design, and radiator tops that sit higher than the cylinder heads, and heater core. It may work on a 2.0 or something that doesn't produce so much heat (24v cooling systems are already pretty stressed in stock form), or a show-car, but it's just a bad idea if you actually enjoy driving/rely on your car. 
To each is own though, I did survive with mine for a year, but it was a miserable year of constantly refilling/burping the cooling system. 
I did draw up a way to relocate the filler neck so it would be the highest point in the system, but it would require re-plubming the cooling system in a way that would be "ugly," thus defeating the entire purpose. 

I'm now running a coolant ball for a 2.0l Mk3. It is intended to mount on the right side of the bay, rather than the left like the stock ones for our cars. I mounted it just to the left of the square "hole" in the firewall for the wire channel. A lot of excess coolant lines have been eliminated, and the strut towers remain bare and smooth, so I don't mind it. 

edit: Older photo. Still supercharged, pre-bedliner, pre-wrapped wiring, pre-modified fuel system, pre-coolant ball reinstallation, etc. You get the idea with the bodywork though...


----------



## koko5869 (Feb 15, 2006)

those were just some of the progress. as its a dd and i live in nepa, the winter is the no work time. and you have to start somewhere. it will be an unfinished project until i figure out a way to get time to pull the motor. 

do you find it a problem with the bedliner? seems like it would hold a lot of dirt, cant just be wiped down, etc. seems like itd defeat the purpose? 

ive been running the coolant like this for i think 2 years and dont have a problem with anything. i just make sure to check on it once a month and thats all. but thats just general maintenance anyways.


----------



## 29er (Feb 25, 2007)

Well the first "bedliner" coating I did was the DupliColor spray stuff. Bad idea. Like you said, it did trap the dirt and such. It also cracked, flaked, was not flexible at all, etc. Was worse in every way than the paint that I had on there before it, which I was unhappy with the durability. Ended up stripping it all off. 

I currently have a roll-on system in there right now, just one rough coat. Dirt and oil simply roll right off it with a quick spray and wipe. Some people don't like the look, but I think it works with the kinda race/functional look I'm going for now, especially once I do the final coat. I had used the same stuff to coat the floors in the mk3 that I owned briefly, it is definitely durable. The car will hopefully see track time in the near future, so functionality matters.


----------



## spitfire481 (Mar 21, 2007)

ive been running an inline neck with 21psi cap for over 2 years and never had an issue. even sitting in traffic on 95 coming home from waterfest (95 degrees outside) with the ac on for hours


----------



## 29er (Feb 25, 2007)

Mine seemed okay for a while. It would be fine for a few weeks of driving and then the temp gauge would start to climb in traffic. This was due to gradual coolant loss when the cap opened, it would bleed out coolant "above" the cap to reduce pressure, thus each time reducing overall cooling capacity. When I actually monitored the temp with vag-com, I didn't like the results. 

Running the A/C actually helped cool it down. 

The tipping point was when my low-speed fans died. The car literally couldn't sit still for more than a few seconds without the temp gauge climbing, and this was in the dead of winter. With a fully functioning stock-style system, you can drive the hell out of the car/sit in traffic for a long time with no cooling fans whatsoever, and the temp gauge won't climb.


----------



## give_it_to_dem (Jan 28, 2005)

:thumbup:


----------



## adkins (May 9, 2010)

thought i would share. as far as the hard lines go you can 16x1.5 to -6 and 14x1.5 to -6 for the power streering. pretty good friends with swoops and has helped me with a lot of random questions. but my car has evap, sec 02, sai, abs, coolant bottle, and washer bottle all deleted. ac is also gone. i know the bay is a little dirty but i do drive the car on a pretty regular basis.


----------



## jettaglis (Nov 9, 2006)

i love it in white, looks really good :thumbup:


----------



## koko5869 (Feb 15, 2006)

Very nice sir


----------



## Eddie2170 (Sep 30, 2009)

jettaglis said:


> i love it in white, looks really good :thumbup:





koko5869 said:


> Very nice sir


 completely agreed, gorgeous bay :thumbup: 

why are there so few 24v bays compared to other motors?


----------



## spitfire481 (Mar 21, 2007)

because there are more 1.8t's in general


----------



## Eddie2170 (Sep 30, 2009)

spitfire481 said:


> because there are more 1.8t's in general


 i figured that was a given, but honestly how many shaved bay 24v's are around? it just seems to me to be a really low % of us have shaved bays compared to everyone else, or is it just me?


----------



## jaso028 (Aug 12, 2007)

because our big ass motors hide majority of the stuff! lol


----------



## JaxCorrado93 (Mar 28, 2010)

jaso028 said:


> because our big ass motors hide majority of the stuff! lol


 True! 

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4697685-The-4-day-bay...... 

try that, if the link doesn't work, just look up the the 4 day bay, its in the corrado section.


----------



## Swoops (Nov 16, 2004)

24v werent a popular motor choice at all. thats why there are so few. 

my old bay:


----------



## adkins (May 9, 2010)

Swoops said:


> 24v werent a popular motor choice at all. thats why there are so few.
> 
> my old bay:


heard you were doing a 2.0t longitudinal setup. that true?!


----------



## Eddie2170 (Sep 30, 2009)

i'm in love with that bay :heart:


----------



## jaso028 (Aug 12, 2007)

I bet you are Eddie!


----------



## limastock (Feb 17, 2009)

Swoops said:


> 24v werent a popular motor choice at all. thats why there are so few.
> 
> my old bay:


lol, loving the camo coolant lines


----------



## koko5869 (Feb 15, 2006)

that non-abs setup makes me happy.


----------



## Swoops (Nov 16, 2004)

hahaha Mike, you're a jerk haha.

thanks everybody!


----------



## spitfire481 (Mar 21, 2007)

stop posting last years crap, i wanna see new pics


----------



## Swoops (Nov 16, 2004)

spitfire481 said:


> stop posting last years crap, i wanna see new pics


hahaha no new photos, i really havent gotten much work done, doing sidework to pay for the car has been brutal


----------



## spitfire481 (Mar 21, 2007)

its not gonna be at show&go then?


----------



## Eddie2170 (Sep 30, 2009)

jaso028 said:


> I bet you are Eddie!



since i just dropped a ton of cash on her, she'll never be worth selling, so in time my goal is go all out, the works, and iv got plenty of time


----------



## Swoops (Nov 16, 2004)

spitfire481 said:


> its not gonna be at show&go then?


nope. aiming for SOWO.


----------



## adkins (May 9, 2010)

Swoops said:


> hahaha no new photos, i really havent gotten much work done, doing sidework to pay for the car has been brutal


 Fly me out and give me food and a place to stay and I'll work on the car since I really just sit at home during the day. It would be like a week. No problems. Haha.


----------



## 03_uni-B (Sep 6, 2005)

bringing this back as there is some good information in here.

i am just curious as to what to do with what looks like a vac line off the coolant ball 










and what to do with the line going towards the engine where everyone has put there inline filler necks










i plan on putting an overflow on the outside of the drivers frame like koko has just a different tank


----------



## spitfire481 (Mar 21, 2007)

thats a coolant return hose, not a vacuum line


----------



## 03_uni-B (Sep 6, 2005)

what should i do with it? it returns to a t fitting. can i just delete it? 
and what do i do with the small line coming from the main line from the radiator?


----------

