[trackday_prep] Cherry 1.9 - Track Project

[Silky 33 1 Cars]

I'd been wanting to get back into 205's for a while, my first was back in 2002 and was a lovely Sorrento 1.9 which I stupidly sold. I wanted something I could do some work on as I didn't have the money straight away to buy one already done, this would also take the fun out of it.

 

So back in June 2009 myself and Ian (Floodys) went halves on a 205 that his mate had, Ian wanted the Mi16 engine and I wanted the rest, he was also going to give me the 1.9 engine coming out of his 205 so I at least had an engine.

 

Here's a few pics of it at his mates yard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ian had the car for a couple of weeks while he stripped out the Mi16 engine and all the associated loom, it was then delivered to me with half the loom in place and the other half hanging out, it wasn't a task I was looking forward to but got on with it as soon as I could.

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This is how it looked when it arrived at mine after spending the two weeks with Ian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My plan of attack was to get the wiring sorted and the dashboard back in, this took a while as I'd not had a 205 apart before so struggled with a few connections, but a few helpful people on here gave me some pointers and not before too long it was looking like a dash again.

 

While the dash was being sorted I stripped the interior completely, the car started life as a 1.6 but Ian's mate had uprated everything to 1.9 spec so the cloth interior was letting it down a little, and alot of it was missing. With everything out I could get a good look at the floor and see what was what, though by doing this a few things became aware and initially worried me.

 

Firstly was this crease in the floor, I thought it might be damage but it turned out to be someone had tried to jack it up in the wrong place at some point in it's life, so I rubbed it all back, rust proofed and then primed and painted, it made it look alot better.

 

 

 

Secondly was some repairs to the bottom of the B pillars

 

 

They were both like this, I got them checked out properly and was told that they were good enough repairs to not worry about too much, however I still gave them a rub down and primed/painted as with the other repair.

 

Happy that the floor was ok I put back in the sound-proofing and started to put the interior back together. I didn't want to stay with the original cloth so hunted around for the parts I wanted, mainly grey carpet and P2 leathers. I managed to find all the parts I wanted on the forum. So Grey Carpet, P2 Black centre console with Grey Carpet, P2 309 GTI doorcards with red check pattern and P2 half leathers started to go in

 

 

 

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I also bought a P2 black steering wheel and centre badge plus a few little bits like A pillar trims, speaker covers and a parcel shelf.

 

 

 

 

Once this had been sorted I was onto the engine, Ian's 1.9 was dropped straight in and I was onto the loom, he popped round to lend a hand as it'd been in his car long enough he knew exactly what was what. After a short while it was up and running, a few teething problems were overcome and it was soon moving under its own power. It was then tidied up and off for an MOT. Before xmas it was on the road legally, and I was soon using it to get to the shops and back and for a trip to Suffolk to visit my mum.

 

Not before too long though the engine was playing up, it had a problem in Ian's car with running on 3 and being erratic. Between Ian, Alex (Boombang) and Grahame (Grez) they had all spent lots of time on this engine previously to cure the problem but no one had, so the decision was taken to take the engine out and replace it along with all the loom. This work would be done at the start of 2010

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At the start of 2010, as I was about to go ahead with the engine swap, myself and the lads got talking about a trip to the Ring, we'd been before back in 2008 and wanted to have another trip. With this in mind I thought long and hard about what I wanted, ideally it would be a cage/buckets etc but this would take time, effort and money. The trip was booked for May so it only really gave me 4 months in which time to put another engine in, a different loom, brakes, suspension, cage, buckets, harnesses etc etc etc. It was a decision that had to be made there and then and I went for it. Early 2010 saw me put all my interior that I had aquired up for sale, it would go towards buying new parts for the track project.

 

A few pics before it started to come apart

 

 

 

 

 

 

It all came apart pretty quickly and the interior was sold on via the forum to Dave (Easypug).

 

Everything that could be taken out was and all the engine and loom was taken out too

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Another 1.9 engine and loom was found, the engine was dropped in straight away and I started to put it all back together. The engine had come from another member and had recently had a new cambelt/waterpump/tensioner before it was sold to me, so it was one job I didn't have to do.

 

The biggest headache was the wiring, I couldn't remember where it all went and really struggled with it, up to the point where I put it all for sale with the intention of buying something already done which I could take to Germany with me. I was running out of time and didn't have too many options. Luckily Anthony gave me a great run down of where the wires went and Ian once again popped over to help with my mistakes. It was literally 15 minutes or so within him turning up to having it running. I was very pleased and quickly got on with all the other jobs I had.

 

Alex came over and helped me with a list of jobs

 

New wheel bearings

Gaz coilovers

GTI6 brakes

Braided lines

New fluid and brake bleed

Gear Oil and engine oil changes

 

Plus many other bits and pieces, it was a real effort over a very wet weekend to get it all sorted.

 

It was at the point where it now needed a cage and some buckets, though I couldn't do this myself.

 

April 17th the car was taken to Alex's and we (he) made a start on fitting the cage. It took alot longer than I expected, we worked on it all of that saturday plus all of Sat 24th April to get it in. I had not done anything like that before so was literally passing tools to him and tidying bits as we went along, he did all the work, I just offered assistance.

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Test Fit !

 

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Alex continued with it

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It was then in by Sat 24th evening

 

 

Alex then moved onto the seat rails for the buckets, this is the most up to date of the work so far

 

 

I will continue to add to this over the coming weeks

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Alex has been hard at it the last couple of Saturday's, I've been there to help him out as much as I could.

 

The current situation is this, cage is in and the drivers seat and harness is in.

The passenger seat needs to be finished along with the passenger door bar and the passenger harness.

 

Though before all that is done I need to get the gearbox swapped this week as the syncro on 3rd and 4th is going and is making a slight crunching noise....gonna be a busy few evenings this week.

 

Managed to get hold of some Safety Devices roll cage protectors so have them on the door bars at the moment

 

 

 

 

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Also had the windscreen replaced for a brand new one, old one had a nasty crack in it

 

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Last few pics as it stands, could do with a day spent on it tidying it up, but am happy with it for now