We are living in the information age. You can do anything you want within the law with proper knowledge and resources. For car enthusiasts and tuners, there’s no limit to modifying their cars. Deutsche Auto Parts recently featured a Volkswagen MK4 R32 that might just trigger a petition to ‘seize build’ by MK4 R32 purists.
Going off the beaten path is an exciting experience. Unfortunately, not every car can stand what mother nature has to offer in the wild. Off-road vehicles don’t come cheap either, and getting one just to go off-roading once in a while is a luxury few people can afford.
Patrick Thurston owns a pair of VW R32 MK4s. One literally stands out more than the other – it’s lifted for off-roading.
“The lifted MK4 R32, a.k.a The Country, started life as a salvage title. I bought it mainly for the parts for future builds,” Thurston said.
It’s not the first time Thurston has lifted a VW Golf. He’s done it to a couple of Volkswagen MK2s in the past. His friends challenged him to jack up the salvage title MK4, and as fate would have it, the rest was history.
The car was in a desolate condition when he got it. It had water damage, and the interior needed a ton of work. “It didn’t belong on the road,” he says.
It wasn’t an instant success/ruin. He’s gone through four different front suspensions, two different rears, and broken a lot of stuff, but eventually, it ran fine.
Even though he’s gone through a great deal of time and effort to get it running, he admits the build is a ruin. But at the end of the day, the car had a salvage title and would have faced the crusher anyway.
Getting it to run wasn’t as simple as throwing Jeep Springs and cup spacers. He had to do a lot of research to get it to ride right.
We recommend watching the video below for the full breakdown of the build. Thurston gives a detailed explanation of the build process. It could save you a few bucks in case you are looking to custom build on a similar platform.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
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