[car_restoration] 1989 205 Gl

[ktm_kate 11]

Hello everyone.

 

I am new so please forgive me if I make mistakes.

 

 

I'd like to introduce you all to 'Polly'. She is a 1989 205 GL. She has been in the family since new and I have owned her for the last 10 years (since I was 16)

 

 

 

I have been restoring/improving her over the last few months, during which time I have found this site quite useful, and I thought the forum users might like to see what I'm doing.

 

I still have a long way to go before I'm finished so I will try to summerise the work I've done so far so I can make it a live diary.

 

This is a DIY restoration at home on the drive. I have a donor car (205 GT) to pinch bits from. So this is going to end up as a restored 'GT' spec car.. more or less.

 

So far:

 

- Strip out to rolling body shell

 

- Body shell profesionaly de-dented and painted

 

- Donor engine removed, cleaned, head re-built

 

- One seat retrimmed (an easy rear one, fronts yet to be tackled)

 

- Donor car front sub frame etc. blasted, painted and installed with new shocks, control arms and rack. (by body shop)

 

- Donor rear beam refirb'ed (professionaly) and new shocks/mounts fitted (by me)

 

 

Next jobs:

 

- Swap old beam for refirbed one.

 

- Check engine bottom end

 

- Bolt it all back together!

 

 

More Pics/details soon.

 

 

 

Feedback welcome,

 

Kate

[Baz 421]

Welcome Kate, Polly sounds like a rather lucky 205! Keep us updated!

[ktm_kate 11]

I guess she is lucky, luckier then the donor car, thats for sure! (I feel a little guilty for killing a 205)

 

 

Here's my marquee, the garage is far too full of bikes to fit a car in, but this works well.

 

 

 

 

And this is the engine, top end done

 

 

 

At this point I should give some praise to the profesionals.

The bodywork and paint were done a few weeks ago by Retropower, they happen to be about a mile down the lane from my house, but its not just location that made them my first choice, I did a lot of research and these guys seemed to be the best.

 

You can read about thier input here:

 

http://www.retropower.co.uk/projects_peugeot_205_repaint.htm

 

The other professional help I had this month was from Coventry Transmissions. They were great and seem to know a lot about 205 beams. Maybe they are known to the forum? I would recomend them if your local.

 

 

Kate

[cRaig 265 1 Cars]

Nice to see a 5 door model getting some proper TLC!, the paintjob looks lovely, looking forward to seeing it back in one piece

[dale205mills 39 7 Cars]

I hope you will be joining psooc as it is not often that we see a five door having work done like that and it would be great to see that car at pugfest this year. Keep up the good work.

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

Welcome along. I like the blue rocker cover, is it painted or powder coated?

[Baz 421]

Nice! Yeah i figured from the username you might have a 2 wheeled toy aswel!

 

Is that a Cav Mk2 Covertible (Calibre? ) i spy there too? Rather rare these days!

[ktm_kate 11]

Hi Dale, a few people have commented that this must be one of a very small number of 5 doors ever to have had a full respray. I'm glad that others are enthusiatic, most people think I'm waisting my time. I'd love to take it to some shows, I just need to finish it first :S

 

Davie, the rocker cover was painted with a rattle can (propper engine paint). It came out ok, but its not perfect. I might use it on the front calipers too.

 

Baz, Well spotted. Yes its a 1986 Mk2 Cav 1.8i. Its my boyfriends daily drive (that's him holding the tent door open) He can be found on mk2cav.com if you're a Cav person.

 

Here are some more pics:

 

Stripped out ready to be taken to Retropower

 

On the way

 

Away with the old paint

 

Coming back with new paint

 

Before

 

After

 

It took a long time to decide on a colour. Since I was having a full respray it seemed silly not to change it to something more special (metalic graphite would have been lovely), but the car has such history that I wanted to keep it red to preserve the 'spirit' of it. So I looked for a metalic red that had the right bright '80s vibe, failed, and ended up settling for the stock red. Now I'm really glad I did, it looks great.

 

Seats. I'm retrimming the GT seats with the stock centers and Alcantra bolsters instead of the old tweed.

 

And heres one last pic for today, this one shows how far back me and the car go...

August 1989 to be exact.

[dale205mills 39 7 Cars]

Haveing a car that is part of your family is well worth doing and you will allways have people say it is a waste of time but every day you look at, will make you feel happy and think to your self I done that.

[GLPoomobile 958]

I applaud anyone willing to do a full restoration on any old car. To some extent it often makes it more interesting to me if it's something a little more, dare I say it, mundane. It makes a nice change from the same old, same old.

 

Typical woman, naming your car If I was to name mine, I'd call it something like "Twat". Or maybe "bitch" or "cu.." (too far? ). But then I don't think of mine as being female, in spite of the many character traits it shares with most women.

[SurGie 54]

I hope you will be joining psooc as it is not often that we see a five door having work done like that and it would be great to see that car at pugfest this year. Keep up the good work.

 

 

Take a look at my 205 1.4 GT thread, thats a five door and is currently having a fair amount of rust work being sorted out. But because it has the XY8 engine im keeping the engine side of things on in it.

 

Some good work thats been done there, looking good.

 

Which reminds me, will you be keeping the doors of your donor car at all, i need a full set for my proper GT, mine are well too rusty ?

 

What year is the GT you have robbed bits from unfortunately ?

 

Cheers.

Edited March 8, 2011 by SurGie

[ktm_kate 11]

'Poomobile, Mundane? I'll take no offence at that, I just hope it's less mundane when I'm finished.

 

I'll take this opportunity to state that I didn't name the car; my Mum named it when we first got it back in the good old '80s and its been 'Polly' for the subsequent 22 years. I considered omitting the name in case it prompted some mickey taking, but all my friends and family know the car by its name so I thought I may as well get it out in the open from the start.

 

SurGie, I've pinched one door from the donor, and one other is badly dented. I have given somone first refusal on the shell already, but if that falls through then I intend to offer it up on here.

 

The poor old donor is a 1990 car 'H790 WYV', its name is 'the donor' ..I hope its not someone's long lost car .

 

 

Its not in the worst shape ever, but its a bit knocked about and has rust in some nasty areas (like the horizontal panal behind the tail lamps which has totaly rottted away)

I'm sure it could have been saved, it had MOT when I got it, but its no minter either and it was an ideal donor being TU3s, 5 door and even red!

 

 

I'll be sure to take a look at your GT thread too.

 

 

Kate

[RossD 43]

Excellent, I'll feel a little less of an outcast now there is another 5 door on the forum!

[SurGie 54]

5 doors for the win, much stronger than the 3 door shells

 

Cool, ill keep my eye out if you do want to break it for people on here, could really do with some wings as well and remember it will be used for the rare 1986 D reg GT Samba engined XY8 engine, so not the usual GTI

[GLPoomobile 958]

Perhaps "mundane" was a poor choice of words. Since it implies "normal" or "run of the mill" that can't be the case here. You don't see many base model 205s on the road these days, let alone ones that get this treatment, so no, it's not mundane. Either way, I like what you are doing and I think you understood what I meant.

[ktm_kate 11]

Fear not 'Poomobile, I am never offended (I think you might have miss-read my reply)

I expect a bit of jibbing for restoring a car thats technicaly worth less then then the fuel in its tank, and I'm glad to find so many people are keen to see the car finished.

 

I'll agree ith your comment, GTi's are very nice and all, but base models are worth saving too!

 

 

Thanks to everyone for the support.

 

Kate

[ktm_kate 11]

Small update from the weekend.

 

New water pump fitted. I tried to take the black plastic bit out so that I could give the housing a propper clean.. I found out that its made of somthing very brittle...

 

 

But thankfully I still have the old 1100 engine out the back of the garage so I pinched the pump housing off that. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the 1100 one was much cleaner. (The 1100 engine is a Saxo lump from about 2001 that I fitted a few years back when the rings went on the first engine)

 

This is the one I broke..

No pick of the other one, but it looked like new compared to this.

 

Newly rebuilt GT beam was fitted with nice new Bilstien dampers ready for the swap.

 

And the carb was taken off the manifold ready to strip down. Time to visit Halfords for a few cans of carb cleaner.

 

I have a rebuild kit and plan to strip it right down clean everything and fit as many of the new bits as I can find homes for.. I have never stripped a car carb before and it looks very differennt from a bike one . I might be using the search button during this bit.

 

 

On a side note, I drove to Telford on Sunday and saw loads of VWs in little convoys (including an unfortunate pack of golfs watching steam rise on the hard sholder). The sun was shining and seeing these show goers gave me a lot of motivation to get the pug ready for the summer show-off season

 

Roll on summer!

[DaveW 6]

Go to the pound shop for carb cleaner, usualy get a few tins for the price of one up halfords, the haynes 'workshop' manual has diagrams of the old carbs in it.

[GeorgeXS 32]

I have a rebuild kit and plan to strip it right down clean everything and fit as many of the new bits as I can find homes for.. I have never stripped a car carb before and it looks very differennt from a bike one . I might be using the search button during this bit.

 

 

On a side note, I drove to Telford on Sunday and saw loads of VWs in little convoys (including an unfortunate pack of golfs watching steam rise on the hard sholder). The sun was shining and seeing these show goers gave me a lot of motivation to get the pug ready for the summer show-off season

 

Roll on summer!

 

The carbs pretty straight forward to strip, theres a specific haynes section on that carb floating round the internet somewhere which is pretty useful

I saw this pack of VW's as well on the way back from a weekend mountain biking in wales!

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Are you going to put the lower valance off the donor car onto yours? Would make it look great! Carb isn't too hard, the solex was the first carb I rebuilt.

[ktm_kate 11]

Thanks for all the positive input on the carb, it feels like I'm working outside my comfort zone a lot on this project.. But thats half the fun I s'pose.

 

Hi Allye. Yep, valance off the donor and GTi rear valance are waiting in the spare room. Both were painted at the same time as the bodyshell.

 

 

Note to other base model upgrade-ers; If you fit a GTi/XS front valance its worth getting a matching towing eye too. The GTi valance will cover the base model one and there will be an odd hole without it.

[Richie 32]

Cool project, i have a soft spot for the gl's are i've had 2. Got my last one for £300 on ebay with 20k on the clock. I was considering having it painted as i became a bit attached but the cambelt went and decided to scrap it and get my gti on the road.

 

Anyways i digress, nice project look forward to seeing completed pictures. It looks just like my first car. I miss the squidgy seats of my gl's, really comfy.

Edited March 17, 2011 by Richie

[VND 1]

Cool project. I like it a lot.

 

Im a bit "new" to the word of 205s and currently run a 1.1Jnr

 

What kind of spec did GLs get?

[ktm_kate 11]

What kind of spec did GLs get?

 

Quite basic. My GL had an 1124cc carbed TU engine, 4 speed gearbox, manual choke, non-power steering. But it also has dealer fitted central locking, electric front windows and sliding sun roof.

 

I miss the squidgy seats of my gl's, really comfy

 

The seats are great, I've had many complements from passengers over the years. Unfortunatly I'll be swapping to GTi type buckets from the donor, they just look so much better, but I think I need to do something with the old ones.. Computer chair maybe?

[ktm_kate 11]

OK, carb stripped and cleaned, not so different from a bike one once you get your head around the air path being vertical and not horizontal.

I only found homes for about half of the rebuild kit, but since this was a working carb that I only stripped because its off the car (and I want it to look clean and pretty ) I think all should be well. I split the carb, changed the float jet, changed the accelerator pump bellow, removed and checked the jets and then blew the whole thing out with carb cleaner before re-assembling with new gaskets.

 

Only drama was dropping the accelerator pump spring and having to spend 20min on the garage floor with a torch and a magnet stick, thankfully found it in the end.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

 

These are the bits I replaced:

 

These are the other bits:

 

Ignore the darker gasket, that is the old one but I put it there to show the difference between that one and the one I didn't use. There are a lot of o-rings, I didn't see any to so I'm hoping none fell out when I wasn't looking.. The cardboard is suppost to protect me from such things.

 

I think one of those diaphram/brass hook things might have been for up by the linkage, but the bit in there had a plastic arm not a metal one so I left the old one in just in case I was wrong.

 

 

 

 

On a side note, I am having my exhaust altered at the moment. Its a stainless steel 4 branch one off ebay, it fits the euro rallye. I understand that the rallye block will be the same hight as my old 1124cc engine (the TU24 has the same timing belt pn as the TU1 on service box...), so from measuring the two engines I have decided I need to extend the pipes by 18mm.

If anyone can see fault in my logic then please speek now before I waste too much money

 

I know I should have taken the pipe off the 1124 and offered the new minifold to double check, hindsight is an anoying thing.

 

I also know that there are many cheeper ways of getting a 4 branch to fit a TU3S by going mild steel, but I am a girl so I like pretty things , and also I will never be selling the car so stainless isn't a bad investment.