[car_restoration] Black '91 1.6 Gti Restoration

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Since taking the car off the road 18 months or so ago, I've been trying to make my mind up whether to restore or break this car and use the spares for my rally car.

I have 'borrowed' the bumpers, front lights and a few other bits like crank pulley and sump plug during my rally car but its mostly there.

 

It's been really good to me though, it took me to Sweden and back along with being drifted around a frozen lake all week after only a week of ownership and just a quick service. I then used it as a road car for a few months whilst my usual car was off the road without it once letting me down (apart from having to ask people to bump start me when the starter kept sticking )

 

As sad as it might sound I've become quite attached to it and feel as though I owe it one.

 

Here it is in Sweden looking its best:

 

 

You wouldn't believe it started 1st turn of key every day after -25 degC nights:

 

 

So today whilst I still had the use of a trailer after a rally yesterday I decided to blow the tyres up, unseize the brakes and take it over to a sand blasters / bodyshop where one of my mates works.

 

The car itself it very original and I have a wadge of receipts from new for all servicing and work done, parts (inc new rear beam a few years ago - still has the peugeot sticker on the beam tube!), oil changes, etc, I think I even have the original receipt for the car when it was new.

The interior was very tidy with just the drivers cloth seat edge being worn through. The one thing that has amazed me with this 205 is that all the wiring is unmolested and you can even read the numbers on the wires!

 

The main thing that lets it down though is some damage that was done on the lake in Sweden when a BMW estate T-boned me, luckily only damaging the door and a bit of the rear quarter. It was so close to hitting the sill and bending the rear suspensionl. Being on ice probably helped take most of the impact, as you can imagine the BMW wasn't the lightest car to hit me!

The front panel and the passenger inner wing is also looking a bit rusty but we'll see what's what once I've been at the front and underside with the sand blaster.

 

The suspension will all be replaced where necessary, probably with bilstein B6 dampers (challenge spec?). Brakes will be cleaned up and rebuilt for now as the calipers are fairly new (have receipt!).

 

I intend to keep the engine standard for the moment as it was a real flyer (have had 130mph out of it!), although it did start to smoke on idle and on startup before I took it off the road so will see what it looks like when I take the head off.

I am however very tempted to fit a 2.0 turbo or possibly a Gti-6 lump though to make it a bit of a 'sleeper'. The intention is to use it as my daily driver though so can't let myself get carried away!

 

So as it stands, the car has no interior other than the dash, no bumpers, lights and no rad ('borrowed' it as a spare for rally but will be going back now ).

The plan is to sandblast the rusty bits and go from there, making it rust proof and keeping as much original as I can.

I've already been buying a few bits to help encourage me to get on with it such as a new door, valences, fuel filler (original wore through on way to sweden due to FULLY loaded back of car and no bump stops) set of Speedline 1.9 wheels and a pair of very nice comfy 30,000 mile old 309 gti seats.

 

This is how it looked before I removed the bumpers:

 

 

You can just about see the damage on this pic:

 

 

Hopefully now the rally season is over I should be able to get plenty done and have it back on the road sometime in the first half of 2011 (on record now...) so watch this space

 

Thanks for looking

 

Stu

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Well there's been plenty of progress since I began this little (as it started out!) project.

 

First job was to fully strip the shell and get everything that needed it sand blasted.

 

Here's some before and after pics:

 

Front panel before

 

Front panel after

 

 

Small hole in inner wing

 

Shell after sand blasting

 

Edited February 6, 2011 by stuart

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Suspension, beam, various brackets, etc before

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

 

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Surprisingly the shell wasn’t too bad after blasting, apart from behind the rear arches on both sides. Seems to be a favourite area for shells to be going now as the cars are getting on a bit…

 

In the meantime when I haven’t been up at my mates workshop due to working 9-5 shifts at work, I’ve been busy in the garage at home in the evenings (there are some benefits of being single again!)

 

Firstly I stripped down de-greased the engine and decided to paint the block as it was corroding away nicely. I then replaced the cylinder head with a fully rebuilt one (new valve guides, etc) I bought but didn’t need a few years ago, as the valve stem seals had gone on the original head. The new one has also had a slight skim so should hopefully see some improvement from that.

 

Before

 

As it looks now

 

I’m also replacing the water pump, thermostat, cam belt tensioner and belts whilst I’m at it as I want it to be as reliable as possible when finished.

 

Before I can do this though I am getting most of the bolts from the engine zinc plates, along with loads of other bits and pieces as you can see!

 

 

 

 

I’ve seen a few other cars on here with this done and it makes so much difference to the overall finish of the car for not a lot of cost.

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Seeing as I couldn't go any further with the engine, I thought I'd clean up all the parts I'll be re-using. Up to now I've just given them a brush and wipe off with jizer and they've come up pretty well I think!

 

Got a bit carried away with the throttle body!

 

 

 

Also tarted up the drive shafts

 

 

And the front calipers, which are actually fairly new anyway

 

 

Oh, and the exhaust manifold which has been sand blasted and painted with a good few coats of VHT

 

So the next job is to make up some panels to repair the rear arches on both sides, fully de-rust (couldn’t really get in with sand blaster), weld them in and primer them. Then hopefully I can start to make some real progress towards spraying it.

 

After that, the suspension will be re-fitted to get it on it's wheels, it'll be moved back to my garage where the rebuild should hopefully be fairly straightforward and enjoyable, with most parts being either new or restored to as new condition

 

I'll try and update this a bit more regularly from now on, takes waaay too long writing monster updates like this!

 

Thanks for looking

 

Stu

Edited February 6, 2011 by stuart

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Thats a not so little project! Your doing a very thorough and good job. The first picture is the best pic of a 205 I'v seen in quite a while!

 

Look forward to seeing the rest unfold.

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Well there’s been more progress, trying my best to keep this thread updated!

 

The plan to keep it a standard 1.6 is already going out of the window

 

I’ve decided to use 309 running gear as I’ve always liked the stance they have and maybe being a bit wider and stiffer it’ll be more similar to my rally car setup than standard but soft enough for the road (keep me in good practice )

 

So I’ve got hold of a beam tube and bars and will use the disc arms off my rally car (have 306 ones for that now ) which will all be cleaned up and painted before being built up.

Hopefully picking up a pair of 309 front strut assemblies, shafts and bottom arms tomorrow so will be using those at the front. I’m not sure whether to use 1.9 calipers or not though as I’ve already cleaned up and painted the ones that came off this car.

 

Also bought new dampers for it and finished painting the top mounts, etc:

 

They’re Bilstein B4 front struts and I’ve gone for 306 Gti-6 dampers on the back. I’m still undecided on which springs to use though.

I was going to keep it standard height but now I’ve gone for the 309 setup I’m tempted to lower it a little, I just don’t want to compromise comfort too much, as this 205 will be eventually my daily driver and the roads around here are in a right state at the moment!

 

What are Eibach springs like compared to standard? Got them on my bmw and they're not too hard but still a bit crashy...could just be the roads though

 

Been more progress on the shell too…the car is now rust free finally!

 

Behind the back arches there was virtually nothing left so I had to make up some panels to weld in.

 

This is how they were before:

 

And this is how they are now:

 

 

They’ve had a good few coats of primer now and I’ve gone over (hidden ) all the welds and filled any holes with plenty of brushable sealer. It’ll also be thoroughly waxoyled after painting so should hopefully stay rot free for a few years now. The phrase `where there’s runs, there’s no rust’ crops up all the time when me and my mates are working on it

 

The engine bay is also at the same stage:

 

 

 

 

Then we could start on prepping the `good’ side:

 

It turned out that it wasn’t as good as we thought. Luckily my mate (and co-driver) is a refinisher by trade so knows what he’s doing (hopefully).

He seems determined to get it perfect so I leave him to it!

 

After a couple of skims of filler and a bit of rubbing down, primering, guide coat, rubbing, primering, etc it now looks like this (sorry about the stupidly bright lights and camera phone!):

 

Next job is to get the other side, which is far worse, to the same point. Then the sunroof and screen are coming out so the roof can be done. Oh, and the doors, and the boot, and the valences…and the wheels too…

 

Still it’s coming on and considering it’s been done in evenings and weekends I’m pretty surprised and pleased with the progress

(Then again my rally car did take me about 4 years to build! )

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Stu

Edited February 24, 2011 by stuart

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Well it's been too long since an update as usual! Whenever I think about updating the thread I always decide the time would be better off spent on the car so never get around to it.

 

As I'm at work at the moment with nothing else better to do (it is tea time!) I'll do a quick update and then upload some pics later on when I'm home.

 

So, since the last update siginificant progress has been made Not as significant as I'd planned (was supposed to be finished by now!) but there's no point in rushing it as I haven't got a deadline.

 

After a few afternoons up at my mates spray shop rubbing, filling, rubbing, primering, rubbing, a bit more filling, rubbing, primering, stoppering, rubbing (probably missed a few steps but all I seemed to do was rub filler and panel wipe for about a week!) it was ready for paint...almost. Then it was a last guide coat before we wet flatted the whole car ready for the base coat.

 

After the base coat it looked very nice indeed so then it was straight onto the lacquer, about 6 coats in total I think. Luckily this was my mates responsibility so I left him to it whilst I watched, trying my best not to point out any flaws I came accross!

 

As it turned out, the final finish was almost flawless, with only a couple of very minor runs which will flat out fine (plenty of lacquer to work with!).

Considering what it looked like before and that this was supposed to be a quick tidy up job, the paint really has made the shell near concours standard so I couldn't be happier with it

 

So with the rest of the week off, I did plan to have the car almost finished by the end of the week...ambitious? Just a tad...

 

The first day was spent temporarily fitting the rear beam and front suspension to get the car mobile and then it was strapped onto a trailer and taken home.

 

When putting my plans together I hadn't factored in cleaning all the window, trim etc and all the associated problems that came with them.

The first day I spent doing just that, cleaning everything I could find lying around, including the carpet, interior and exterior trim.

 

I then came accross a small hole in the floor that needed plating, painting and sealing which put me back another half a day or so.

 

The first 'progress' job was fitting the windows and door seals to try to make it water tight but the weather was good so I wasn't too fussed about that at the time.

 

Whilst all the interior was out I decided that I'd fit some sound deadening to the inside of the exterior panels to try and reduce the tinnyness. I got a 1m square sheet and have stuck strips on the door skins and rear 1/4 panels, which seems to have made quite a difference.

 

I also spent a few hours waxoyling inside the 1/4 panels, in the doors, sills, chassis legs, etc, basically anywhere I could squirt it, it went!

 

In between these jobs I did anything else I could, such as cut new sound deadening for under the carpet, fit door seals, tailgate trim, 1/4 badges, fit amp wiring, etc (yes I've gone to all the trouble trying to stop rattles and then it's all going to be shaken to pieces again!).

 

It then rained and I found that there were a few leaks...the sunroof was the main cluprit (britax dealer fit jobby) so I have now glued the seal in with sealant to help it butt up to the glass a bit better and so far so good. It was also leaking from the heater inlet so I refitted the rubber seal and scuttle panel and I think that's it (except for the aerial hole, which will only be fitted once polished).

 

The engine keeps having bits added as I find them / remember where they go so is starting to look very nice indeed. It is almost ready to be refitted once the wiring is tidied up and fastened in properly.

 

So that it roughly where it is now, a million miles from where I wanted to be but it is progressing forwards so that's the main thing

 

Pics to follow shortly (With new camera you'll be pleased to hear )

 

Thanks for looking

 

Stu

Edited April 11, 2011 by stuart

[allye 530 3 Cars]

You don't hang about do you! You have me really wanting pictures now!!!

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Ok so lots of pics as promised! Sorry but most are still with my old camera phone, there were so many more than I thought so this has taken me feckin ages!

Looking back through all of them it really does remind me how far it has come on in the past couple of months though

 

So I’ll start off where I left off in my last update:

 

Auto bonnet stripped back to bare metal:

 

And primered:

 

This has to be the best bargain of the build so far, only cost me £20 and it’s basically brand new but had been painted by a blind guy with a rattle can by the looks of it!

 

Worst of the damage stripped all the way back and panel beaten back into shape-ish:

 

The bad side after filler:

 

 

 

Masked up:

 

Primered:

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Replacement door didn’t turn out to be much better than the dented one in the end but looked better after some filler and primer:

 

 

 

New hinge pins fitted:

 

 

Valences, doors and bonnet primered ready for flatting:

 

 

 

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Roof and Sills neatly sealed up:

 

 

Shell masked up ready for paint in the morning:

 

 

 

Ready to start painting:

 

First bit of colour (if black counts!):

Edited April 12, 2011 by stuart

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Basecoat finished:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Time to hit it with the clear (American Hotrod style):

 

 

 

 

Back on trailer ready for the trip home:

 

 

What else…

 

Carpet before:

 

After:

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Sound deadening:

 

 

New standard replacement speakers, not bad for £23 a pair delivered:

 

 

Now with new camera (Iphone 4) finally!

 

 

Bear in mind this hasnt been flatted or polished in the slightest yet, to say Im happy with the finish is a slight understatement. And this was painted in a truck painters / sand blasting yard:

 

 

 

Yes the screen and sunroof are masking taped in the pics, this was just temporary until they could be properly fitted

 

Engine bay with a few shiny bits fitted:

Edited April 12, 2011 by stuart

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Horns tarted up:

 

New coolant warning sticker – anyone know if / where you can get the others?

 

Rear panel plasticared (needs another coat really) and lights polished:

 

Grille reassembled:

 

Engine as it stands tonight, still needs a few bits finishing off and timing gear fitting:

 

 

The gearbox needs cleaning up and painting yet too but I'll get round to it soon.

 

 

And that is it for now, next job is to get the interior finished so my mum can have the conservatory back.

 

Then it’ll be the wiring, brake and fuel lines, tank, etc that will need refitting and finally the engine once the underside is fully undersealed.

 

I’ve got some time off in 2 weeks time so hope to be somewhere like at the end of that, we shall see…

 

 

Thanks for looking, hope people enjoy following the progress

 

Stu

[gavbrum 18 1 Cars]

where did you get your coolant warning sticker from?

 

Nice restore btw.

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

From Peugeot believe it or not.

 

I think its the only one you can get though, wouldn't mind finding out where you can get the others if anyone knows?

[un numero d'or 38 3 Cars]

You will find all the stickers you need here: http://www.leboncoin.fr/

[Pugrich 4 2 Cars]

where did you get your coolant warning sticker from?

 

Nice restore btw.

 

I`ve got 2 other stickers at home, I ordered them from Peugeot 2 years ago. I can give you the partnumbers tomorrow. I`m still searching after the stickers at the driversdoor where you can reed the tyre pressure!

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

You will find all the stickers you need here: http://www.leboncoin.fr/

 

I'll take your word for it

[ktm_kate 11]

I`ve got 2 other stickers at home, I ordered them from Peugeot 2 years ago. I can give you the partnumbers tomorrow. I`m still searching after the stickers at the driversdoor where you can reed the tyre pressure!

 

I have a set of engine bay stickers and tyre pressure sticker ready for my 5 door project (I got a 1.6 GTi tyre sticker to match my wheels ). I got them off French ebay earlier this year:

 

http://cgi.ebay.fr/AUTOCOLLANTS-6-MOTEUR-PEUGEOT-205-GTI-1-6-115-cv-/120589315930?pt=JG_FR_Auto_Pi%C3%A8ces&hash=item1c13aeef5a

 

This guy has loads of pug stickers and, although the advert says 'post to france only', he will post to the UK if you ask nicely first. I used Bable fish translator and asked in French, or something close to French at least.

 

The stickers look great and you even get a colour code stencil for that total factory look

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

I have a set of engine bay stickers and tyre pressure sticker ready for my 5 door project (I got a 1.6 GTi tyre sticker to match my wheels ). I got them off French ebay earlier this year:

 

http://cgi.ebay.fr/AUTOCOLLANTS-6-MOTEUR-PEUGEOT-205-GTI-1-6-115-cv-/120589315930?pt=JG_FR_Auto_Pi%C3%A8ces&hash=item1c13aeef5a

 

This guy has loads of pug stickers and, although the advert says 'post to france only', he will post to the UK if you ask nicely first. I used Bable fish translator and asked in French, or something close to French at least.

 

The stickers look great and you even get a colour code stencil for that total factory look

 

Thanks for that will give it a try

 

I noticed the number plates that you had redone too, considering getting some made up too but need to spend money on getting the car on the road really! Already have the original rear plate but its starting to bubble a bit...

 

 

By the way, a bit more progress was made over weekend.

 

 

The floor should now hopefully be leak free, went over all the clips for fuel / brake lines with silicon sealer. Also fitted a new aerial from Peugeot so apart from the door locks and handle holes the car should now be watertight. That miight be a big ask for a 205 but I've tried my best! Can't see any light from underneath now anyway so fingers crossed...

 

Once the sealer had gone off I put all the new sound deadening, carpet, centre console and rear seats in and it's starting to feel like a car again

 

Also cleaned up and painted the fuel pipes and fitted a replacement filler pipe (no holding a rag over the hole when filling up now! ). Tank was cleaned up and new fuel pump was fitted (bought for rally car but only used once and then swapped to the webers). All that will go on once I've fully shultzed the underside.

 

Got my 309 beam tube back from sand blasting so removed the old bearings and gave that and some other brackets, etc a coat of primer last night.

 

Built up the rear bumper too so that should be going on as soon as the centre bumper brackets is painted (got new ns/os ones from peugeot, old ones had corroded away!)

 

Engine is coming on. Painted up the crank pulley & bolt so can finish timing it up now.

I did decide to take the gearbox off though as the clutch arm has quite a bit of play in it so will be changing the bushes in that. Also the release bearing isn't the best so tempted to do the clutch and bearing together as it's going to be a daily driver so don't want it letting me down.

 

So next jobs are to get the 309 beam built up, remove the existing beam / front subframe, shultz the underside, then refit 309 beam, engine and then finally fit all the front suspension, bumper, then it'll be all the tidying up jobs (the ones that take ages!).

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Stu

[ktm_kate 11]

I noticed the number plates that you had redone too, considering getting some made up too but need to spend money on getting the car on the road really! Already have the original rear plate but its starting to bubble a bit...

 

Yeah, £40 is a lot to pay for a pair of plates and a sticker, but both my plates had big cracks across them so I had a good excuse

[stuart 31 3 Cars]

Well progress has been a bit slow lately, was hoping to have it on the road by now! No point rushing though, I want this car to be right.

 

Few pics since last update first, better late than never…

 

Fuel pipes before:

 

After a good sand down and a few coats of hammerite smooth they look a million times better:

 

Shame you’ll never see them but I’m determined not to put any rusty parts on this car!

 

Rear bumper built up ready to go on as soon as my mate gets his ass in gear and flats and polishes the car!

 

 

Interior coming together and so far so dry (crap pic though sorry, it was still summer then!):

 

 

Since the last update though I’ve removed the beam / front suspension again ready for fitting the 309 beam and engine etc.

 

Whilst all this was off I gave it all a last coat of body Shultz: