[car_overhaul] Project Jalopy

[Anthony 1,003]

jalopy (plural jalopies)

- An old, dilapidated automobile.

 

A harsh, but ultimately fair, description of my latest acquisition - a 1992 Peugeot 205 1.6 GTi

 

My old track car is for sale.

 

Black 205 1.6 Gti on a J plate. Mileage to follow as I can't remember off hand.

 

Its spares or Repair and is currently SORN with no Tax.

 

Currently half dismantled at the front end so would have to be trailered away. Basically needs the 309 bit below fitted.

 

Included:

 

Stripped - Only one seat (Drivers obviously)

309 Rear Beam - (Fitted)

Billies (Fitted)

Eibach progressive springs (Fitted)

Magnext 4-2-1 and full system (Fitted)

Group N engine mounts (Not fitted)

309 Front Arms and shafts (not fitted)

306 S16 brakes (not fitted)

Dellorto Twin 40's (fitted)

Piper 285 Cam (fitted)

 

Most likely some other things I've forgotten.

 

I'll add some pictures tonight when I get home needless to say its seen better days but will clean up nice. Due to family and work I've just not had the time to rebuild it.

 

Might be optimistic but knowing what the parts could fetch I'm looking for £500.

 

It had been well loved for much of its life, but for the last two and a half years it had lay abandoned and uncared for, left to the mercy of the elements. It was missing most of its front suspension and running gear after having been left halfway through an upgrade to 309 GTi front running gear, and as the months went on, the inside was used more and more as a skip.

 

 

By the time it was advertised for sale and I went over to take a look, it looked very sorry for itself, sat there with two flat tyres and weeds growing all around it. If it were a dog, you can imagine it appearing in an RSPCA advert, looking malnourished, wimpering and looking at you with pleading eyes, begging for some love and attention.

 

Somehow, despite it being in pieces, despite the engine refusing to start, and despite it resembling the aforementioned jalopy, I took a chance and bought it anyway.

[Anthony 1,003]

There was a while when I wondered why I'd bought a car I really didn't need, especially when I was pulling my hair out trying to work out a way to get the car back home after I'd been let down by a couple of friends who'd offered to collect the car using a trailor for me.

 

In the end Doug (d_9) came to the rescue and kindly loaned me his ever trusty Audi tow barge so that I could bring it back using my A-frame. The only problem with that was that to tow a car using an A-frame, it needs to have the suspension and steering properly assembled, which clearly wasn't the case here - so I set to work, and had it finished and connected upto the A-frame just before it got dark.

 

 

Soon enough I was on the road, and the 205 was rolling again for the first time in over two and a half years.

[Anthony 1,003]

The following morning with the car sat on the driveway, the size of the task at hand was all too clear. To put it bluntly, it was an eyesore, looking every bit the abandoned and unloved car that it had become. My first job was to atleast make the car look respectable so as not to piss off the neighbours and so that the scrap men didn't come sniffing around uninvited...

 

 

It didn't look much better under the bonnet, a thick layer of cobwebs covering the engine where it hadn't run for so long.

 

 

Still, undaunted I made a started, working from the inside out, sorting through and cataloging the mountain of spare parts that came with the car, and binning the rubbish and unserviceable parts that littered the car. Two hours and a couple of bin bags later, I was left with a neat pile of parts and an empty car that no longer resembled a skip.

 

 

The exterior was next, and armed with a couple of buckets of hot soapy water and a whole heap of elbow grease I set to work, scrubbing away until slowly but surely, the moss and caked-on grime gave way to surprisingly good paintwork underneath. It desperately needed a damned good polish, but already the car was looking infinitely better than it had just a few hours earlier that morning.

 

 

I completed making the car look presentable by fitting a cheap carpet and seats that I'd picked up a few weeks earlier for it and spent a little time cleaning up and making good. The car still needs much of the dash and interior trim refitting, but atleast at a glance it looks respectable again.

[Anthony 1,003]

The following day elbow grease was once again in demand, this time making good the flat paintwork.

 

A picture paints a thousand words...

 

 

Quite an improvement compared to how it had looked just a couple of days earlier eh?

[KRISKARRERA 2 1 Cars]

Impressive. Surprised how well you've managed to restore the paintwork.

[SurGie 54]

That's come out very well indeed. Its weird how the inner rear arches have started to rust.

 

Is it not illegal to dolly toe a car without an MOT or tax ?

[allye 530 3 Cars]

No, if some is in the car having to steer and brake then it has to MOT's, tax's and insured.

 

Bloody hell Anthony, you turned that around very qucik! Lovely car under there somewhere

[Anthony 1,003]

There's actually a fair bit more progress than that Ali which I'll hopefully catch up on later, just I ran out of time last night to finish typing it all up.

 

That's come out very well indeed. Its weird how the inner rear arches have started to rust.

 

Is it not illegal to dolly toe a car without an MOT or tax ?

Whilst I admit that it does look like they have in the pictures, there's no rust at all on the rear arches - what you can see is the remains of the adhesive used to stick the felt on which has picked up dirt and much over the years. It's actually a greeny-brown sort of colour in person, but the camera seems to have made it look rust-coloured with the bright sunshine on it.

 

Indeed, rust wise the car seems to be in good condition for the most part, especially considering that it's a Phase 2 and has been abandoned outside for over two years. All the usual spots are completely rust free, including under the seats, rear footwells, rear quarters, bottom of the B-pillars, wings behind the headlight panels etc. The tailgate is starting to go at the bottom of the glass, I assume because of the way it was parked up facing downhill meant that water pooled there, but either way I've already picked up a replacement from Kev (Batfink). There's also a little rust coming through on the rear of the boot floor, but it still seems solid enough and survived the screwdriver poke-test, so hopefully it'll clean up OK and not need cutting out and welding.

 

As for legalities of A-framing, I don't want this thread to turn into a discussion on the subject, but suffice to say that it's always been a very grey area, not helped by the fact that there's actually two different rules depending what you're using the A-frame for. The lack of MOT and tax isn't an issue, as the towed car ceases to be a car in law*, but instead becomes a trailor.

 

* - unless you're recovering a broken down vehicle, in which case it is still classed as a car AFAIK, and thus logically does need MOT, tax and insurance.

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

Nice work Anthony, may take you up on the 1.6 gti hubs if you still have them

[maturin23 10]

Good work Anthony, although the Mk 1/2 Escort boys would have called that a minter

 

I do think there this is no car the goes from shed to shiner and back again like a black 205 GTI. Mine sits outside parked on a busy road and it takes less than a week from a wash and polish to turn back into pikey-bait.

[feb 47]

Indeed great turn around Anthnony and very quick!

The car has become unrecognisable

[Anthony 1,003]

With the car once again looking presentable, I set about getting it roadworthy and MOT'able again.

 

First port of call was the front end, which was somewhat lacking seeing as I'd only tacked on the bare minimum required to tow the car back home, and hence was lacking calipers, brakelines, driveshafts (just a pair of CV ends in the hubs to hold the bearings together), a droplink and various nuts and bolts needed replacing too.

 

As I was somewhat undecided what to do with the car, I decided to just put the original 1.6 front running gear back on for the MOT, and further down the line I could easily remove that and replace with something else. Most of the bits needed came with the car which made things easy and keeps initial costs to a minimum, although I did end up using a spare set of driveshafts I had rather the fix the knackered ones that came with the car - one had a split CV boot, and the other had come apart and shed needles everywhere.

 

New gearbox oil seals and wishbone clamp bolts were fitted as a matter of course like you'd expect.

 

Ended up fitting a pair of 1.9 front calipers while I was there, as while the 1.6 Bendix calipers were still serviceable, the pads weren't, and given my general dislike of 1.6 calipers I figured that needing to buy new pads was a perfect excuse to fit the more robust and (in my experience atleast) better performing 1.9 Girling calipers. I coupled these with a set of new Ferodo Premier brake pads, and the original 1.6 brakedisks that cleaned up perfectly.

 

 

 

Replaced the NSF brake line that had been snapped off previously, bled the brakes, filled with gearbox oil, and the front end was ready to go - not that I could test it of course, seeing as the engine still didn't run...

[Anthony 1,003]

The biggest gamble that I'd taken with the car was the whole engine setup, as I'd not heard it run and having been sat in cold damp air for over two years, I really didn't know what to expect. I knew that it turned over and had compression from where we'd tried to start it when I initially looked at the car, but that was about it.

 

After checking the cambelt for obvious perishing/damage, giving the dizzy cap and HT leads a quick wipe, and checking the fluids, I connected up a freshly charged battery and gave it a try.

 

Whirr... whirr... whirr... whirr...

Whirr... whirr... whirr... whirr...

Whirr... whirr... whirr... whirr...

 

No attempt to fire whatsoever, which was somewhat disheartening even if it was expected. It sounded like it had compression, and it had a decent spark, so that suggested something fuel related. The fuel pump was running and there was half a tank of petrol, which while probably a bit stale from sitting for so long, should have been fine to atleast get some hint of life.

 

At this point I remembered a comment that Joe had made previously about how it had always taken him ages to get the engine started from cold even before he'd taken it off the road, and wondered if the current lack of life and his struggles to get it running in the morning even when it was in regular use was simply down to the lack of choke as they weren't connected up. It couldn't really be that simple could it?

 

Sure enough, after wedging the choke levers both half open, it coughed into life first turn of the key, settling into a low but steady idle after tickling the throttle for a couple of seconds. It's alive!

 

Oil pressure looked reasonable and other than the cambelt tensioner being a little rattly, the engine sounded fine, and no smoke or leaks either. I finished bleeding the cooling system while I let it warm up, and naturally, couldn't resist giving it a few blips of the throttle to let the carbs find their voice.

 

A quick video taken later that day, although for some bizarre reason my phone makes engines sound like a bag of spanners at tickover... clicky

 

You've got to love the hardiness of 8v's really - covered in cobwebs, stale fuel in the tank and not run in over two years, and it still started (once I'd worked out the choke!) and ran straight away. If only everything in life was as dependable as a trusty 8v XU.

 

With the engine now running, fluids topped up and suspension, brakes, and drivetrain fitted, for the first time since 2008 the car driving again under its own power.

[Anthony 1,003]

Continued working towards getting the car ready for an MOT, checking the electrics over.

 

As expected really, they had suffered from lack of use and being exposed to the elements for over two years. Various bulbs didn't work initially, although all but two were just bad connections that were quickly and easily sorted with a quick squirt of WD40 and reseating the wiring connector. Otherwise, just a blown numberplate bulb and a missing sidelight bulb and holder needed sorting, which was much less that I had been expecting.

 

Wipers on the other hand proved to be somewhat more problematic. Wiper blades had fallen apart as you'd expect and replacing them was a given, but with a new set finished there was next to no life at all - the wipers barely moved when turned on, and there was no response whatsoever from pulling the stalk back to do a wash-wipe.

 

The lack of movement from the wipers was down to both wiper linkages being corroded and nearly impossible to turn even when they had been removed from the car. Stripping them down, cleaning them up and regreasing got them moving again freely enough, but that's only a short term fix to pass the MOT and they will need replacing - annoyingly I gave my spare set of perfect linkages to a friend a couple of months back, but easy enough to get another set.

 

Lack of wash-wipe turned out to be a combination just about every possible cause. The stalk had failed hence the nothing happening when you pulled back, and with that replaced with a known good spare, the wipers moved but there was nothing from the washer pump. Turned out to be a snapped wire on the wiring connector for the pump, the pump itself being dead, and then with all that replaced, the washer jets were both blocked up.

 

Eventually though, it's all working as it should and that's another job ticked off on the MOT to-do list and another step closer to being back on the road

[miamichris 9]

Great work and a good read too Anthony, its always nice to see one get saved!

[Masekwm 2]

I can't believe how well that came up!

[Anthony 1,003]

I sometimes ponder which group of people are the most inept at their jobs, and whilst there are many potential candidates in with a shot of the title, my vote goes to car alarm installers.

 

If you're competent with car electrics, fitting a car alarm properly is fairly straightforward, but I've yet to come across a single "professional" car alarm installer that can seemingly manage this task despite supposidly being their job. Indeed, often if you want a lesson in exactly how not to install a car alarm, look at the way that most "professionals" do it and you'll no doubt find examples of just about every faux-pas going.

 

I had initially held out some hope for the Toad system that the car had in it given that that it seemed to work and there wasn't the usual tale-tale signs of a slap-dash effort where all the cuts have been done by the ignition barrel. My optimism was short lived however when I was starting to refit trim and I spotted my biggest wiring pet hate - scotch-lock connectors. As soon as you see them on a "professional" install, you know that the job is going to be anything other than professional in standard...

 

Sure enough, when I started looking closer at the installation, my suspicions were confirmed - bloody scotch-lock connectors everywhere, a couple of laughably bad solder joints, and insecure enough that it could have been bypassed and hotwired in about 10 seconds. I considered starting again and installing it properly, but in truth I'd rather remove the alarm altogether and replace it with something else, so that's exactly what I did:

 

 

If anyone happens to want a working Toad C5T2 Catagory 1 car alarm system complete with two fobs, give me a shout - I've labelled it up as I removed it and thus won't be too hard to install into another car providing that your competence level is slightly above that of a so called "professional".

 

Also swapped the tailgate over for the replacement that I picked up from Kev (Batfink) a few weeks back, as the one on the car had started to rust underneath the rear window. Ash (RallyeAsh) popped over to collect his beam that I'd fitted 23mm torsion bars to earlier in the week and kindly gave me a hand swapping the tailgate over - it's much easier with two people compared with trying to balance the tailgate and screw the bolts in by yourself.

 

Of course, what should have been a quick and easy job was made far more difficult thanks to someone (not Kev) having cut the wiring for the new tailgate rather than spend a minute unplugging it and removing it complete, thus making a headache for the poor sod that comes to fit it to another car. A little thoughfulness goes a long way!

[GLPoomobile 958]

Same when I swapped the tailgate on my old red 1.6. The replacement tailgate from T16Ryan had been chopped right at the top, with barely any slack in the wiring to do anything with it. I'm afraid to admit that I did have bodge it slightly when joining the wiring up, and it was no where near the standard that I try to strive for now with wiring Also have fun memories of fitting it on my own, with the tailgate balanced on my head whilst bolting it up

 

Will be removing my alarm at some point to fit a new Toad Ai606, and I'll be documenting the evidence as I go through it. Hopefully it will be poor enough to reinforce your point and make for a good old rant thread

[swordfish210 20]

Nice read Anthony and a good job saving the car. I too fitted a tailgate by myself once and ended up with a rather sore head and a bit less blood contained within my skin

[monkee87 2]

I don't want to swap my tailgate now! mine is covered in dents, and I have 2 spare which are better...

[Anthony 1,003]

It was Dino that once said "Pug is a drug" but I for one disagree with that statement.

 

I believe that Pug is actually a disease, one that starts off benign with no symptoms, but almost without you realising, it builds up into a debilitating condition, robbing you of a life that the majority of the population would consider to be normal.

 

It starts when someone buys a 205, and starts looking into how to fix common problems and into ways to modify and improve the car. All perfectly normal at this point, but all too often the warning signs of a more serious condition are there, with excess time spent on the forum and bringing 205's into conversation with people completely uninterested in cars. It quickly gets worse, with people accumilating an ever growing pile of parts and rapidly running out of space to store it all. Denial is typically strong at this stage, with excuses like "I'm buying parts to keep as spares to be able to fix the car when it breaks"

 

Spare parts eventually end up being joined by another 205, this time a "project". Typically, partners or family begin to despair at this point, especially when they find the dishwasher being used as a parts cleaner for an engine block. By this stage, you're usually more adept at using Servicebox than the parts department of your local Peugeot dealer, and chances are that that you've probably got some kind of Peugeot related clothing or artwork/pictures in your house, a house that more often than not starts to have car parts as a permentant fixture.

 

By the time the end is nigh, you've not just lost track of what spares you have, but lost track of what cars you own and where they're all parked. Your garden and driveway look like a scrapyard, and your hands are perma-stained with oil and covered in scars, your knuckles never to be right ever against after slipping with a ratchet one too many times.

 

 

Taking one look at the my lounge suggests that I'm worryingly far down the line and that I have what would probably be described as "a problem". Having two largish scale projects on the go at once - my '92 black 205 that is Project Jalopy and my '89 white 205 that is Roadspeed Revival - and with both cars being in many pieces has resulted in my lounge being ram-jammed with seats, interior trim, a few boxes of random parts, and a refurbed XU10J4R cylinder head (destined for an XU7J4-R build I was/am doing) that I have been meaning to put back together for... hell, I can't remember.

 

I'd like to think that I'm an isolated case, but worryingly I know atleast half a dozen people even worse - I remember Alan_M rebuilding an Mi engine and rear beam in his house, a few weeks ago I popped over to see Josh (Lemmingzappa) and found him spray painting in the kitchen with two sets of wheels stacked up in front of the sink and a cylinder head next to the microwave, and as for Baz... well, it has to be seen to be believed.

 

Any newbie 205 owners reading this - sell up and cut all ties before its too late, as that's the top of a very slippery slope that you're currently standing on. 205 ownership, it's an incurable disease.

[SurGie 54]

I have just about got the same level of the 205 gti disease myself and this has got worse since 2008

 

I have two garages full of stuff and an attic half full too, that's just the parts, this dont include all the tools. I think its more like a drug induced disease, one minute you love it all the next you think WTF

 

Although i have a mass amount of parts the bonus is of mine is that they are all organised and in their place, if i dont organise them all it just makes life that much harder when you want to find stuff you need, as well as the fact im a bit of a tidy freak

[tomcolinjones 26]

Nice green centre console you have there Anthony

 

I had a good sort out over christmas and ended up with more parts somehow! Maybe its because 2 of my 'storage' cars went to the scrapyard

i also forget what i actualy have and then end up with at least 2 sets spare i.e gti6 calipers, gti subframes and valances!

 

It suprising how much a good amount of elbow greace brings things up! and tallent obviously...

what are your intentions for this one?

liking the sound of those carbs, tho maybe this could be an ideal shell for your xu7/10j4 motor?

Inspirational work, I'm hoping i can get my next project to come up so well.

good luck

Tom

[feb 47]

My wife totally agrees with you Athony! It is not only 205's but car addicts in general IMHO. At the moment I am trying to make the second bedroom resemble to your living room (although I don't have such a collection of parts I must say) having my tools, jack, summer wheels/tyres and a spare headlight among other things/boxes. I wanted to put a set of shock absorbers in there as well (there wouldn't be any space to walk at that point ) which I bought as spares but I sold them to my wife's relief.

At one point I was washing the summer wheels in the ... bathtub albeit my wife was away so I got away with it

Edited April 3, 2011 by feb

[Anthony 1,003]

Deciding that I really ought to do something about getting some of the ever-growing pile of parts out of the lounge, I decided to start putting the dash and interior trim back together.

 

Before putting the trim back in though, I needed to swap the passenger front seatbelt as it had gone moldy where it had got damp at some point when the car had sat, and the seam sealant on both rear wheel arches where the arch meets the rear quarter panel had cracked and needed fresh stuff applying.

 

 

Not the tidiest job in the world, but it won't be seen once the interior trim has been refitted. You can see the manky passenger side seatbelt - oddly, the drivers one hasn't suffered the same fate and is clean and mould free.

 

I was a bit limited in how much I could actually do, seeing as I still need to refit the headlining but can't currently seeing as the complete headlining that I bought last week is missing the rails that the sunroof cover slides in, and I will need to pull the carpet back out to tackle a few small jobs. Hopefully the Baz parts emporium will come good on the headlining bits that I need later this week

 

Still, I did what I could - all of the rear plastics that don't need to be removed for the headlining have now been refited, together with the rear seatbelts and the majority of the dashboard other than the instrument cowling (that I'm pondering how to strengthen to prevent it cracking in the future) and parts that prevent the carpet from being removed.

 

 

 

I'm quite pleased with how the plastics have come after being washed and treated with some Autoglym stuff, and it's starting to look pretty good inside now. If anything, it's just the seats that let it down a bit and whilst they'll do for now, I'll keep my eyes peeled for a tidy set at senisble money.

 

As an aside, when I removed the clocks to fix the broken trip reset, I discovered that at some point someone's rather amaturishly adjusted the mileage on them. I'm not too worried about the car having been clocked, as all the paperwork and old MOT's dating back to when the car was almost new tally up and it's above average mileage wise anyway at 148k, but certainly makes you think and I reckon that it's far more common than you'd think or like to believe.