Till Death Do Us Part: Zach Werkheiser’s Beautiful MK2 Jetta Coupe

With fea­tures, you al­ways have two types. First, you have the ones that are built in a short amount of time, lots of money thrown at them but lack any depth once you get past the mod-list. Oth­ers are cre­ated by the av­er­age guy in his garage, learn­ing from each task he works to tackle. They are builds that take more than just months, as some span over years. Every year they push the bar higher than the pre­vi­ous, and slowly their cre­ations be­come a part of their iden­tity and fam­ily. Cars like Zach Werkheiser’s MK2 Volk­swa­gen Jetta Coupe are why we pour through build threads, they give you mo­ti­va­tion and con­fi­dence to go out and pick up a wrench or paint gun to make a build that you can truly call your own.

For Zack, it doesn’t get any bet­ter than the MK2 plat­form when it comes to wa­ter-cooled Volk­swa­gens. So roughly four years ago, he be­gan to scour his lo­cal craigslist, hunt­ing for just the right car to be­gin his build. Fi­nally af­ter a few months of look­ing, Zack found a MK2 that was not only a good fit but had the ex­tra bonus of be­ing a coupe. He took off with trailer in toe and later found a non-run­ning MK2 Coupe sit­ting in his dri­ve­way just beg­ging to be saved.

From the start, Zack set out to build a Coupe that was both fun to drive and a neck-breaker when it was parked. Over the past four years, this Jetta has gone through a com­plete make-over all by Zack’s hands with the help of his dad as they have tack­led every pro­ject to­gether which has been a true high­light for Zack.

“With­out his count­less hours of ded­i­ca­tion along­side me, this car would not be what it is to­day, and the time we spend to­gether wrench­ing on it is truly my fa­vorite part of this car/build.”

The car cur­rently sits with a VR6 swap that rests nicely in a shaved and tucked bay both of which were done by Zack. “The tough­est part so far was find­ing the pa­tience to shave and do all the body­work in the bay this past win­ter and I have ac­quired a huge re­spect for body guys af­ter the ex­pe­ri­ence.”

Help­ing put the un­der-car­riage just off the ground is a set of full-bod­ied Weitec Coilovers that leave the fender arches rest­ing just above a set of BBS RM’s. Zack has had them re­built, fea­tur­ing gold spike bolts, red cen­ter caps and Al­mond Flake paint by Re­newed Fin­ishes. He wasn’t done there though as these have been widened out to 8.5 inches in the front and 9.5 inches in the rear leav­ing this Jetta with a jaw-drop­ping stance.

Builds like Zack’s are what keep guys in the “real world” go­ing as we need these re­minders that it is pos­si­ble to build a stun­ning car even if you aren’t spon­sored or run­ning a shop as your 9-5. These are cars that are more about en­joy­ment rather than at­ten­tion. Even though he has had to painfully watch it be taken home on a trailer on more than one oc­ca­sion, Zack still plugs away, tak­ing his MK2 to new heights each year. It’s a build that in Zack’s eyes will never cease evolv­ing which is ded­i­ca­tion that any en­thu­si­ast loves seeing.

Zack would like to thank firstly his dad as this build wouldn’t be any­where close to what it is to­day with­out his help and also to his mom and girl­friend for al­ways be­ing there to sup­port him along the way.

fonte: Canibeat