[engine_work] White 205 Gti6 Conversion

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

hard to see from your pics but have you heat wrapped your clutch/speedo cables?

 

Speedo cable goes down behind the downpipe heatshield, and is currently cable tied a few inches away from the manifold where it curves down to the sensor. I will see how that goes. It can't be much closer than it was with the 1.9 in it.

 

I do fancy some heat proof material of some kind I can put around the fuel hoses as well as they are fairly close.

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

I like the extra value headlights

Nice welding on the manifold

 

You should ne able to just bend the bit of the slam panel out the way

 

They aren't headlights, they are Tesco value headlight protectors They were 'fitted' when I had painted the bay to stop water collecting where the headlights would be, and decided to leave them until I put the lights back in

 

 

Wish i had a sand blaster like yours, would have saved me loads of hours getting rid of every little bit of rust on my project by hand

 

Have you fitted any BBM Gp N engine mounts ?

 

Blasting is great, but makes such a flippin' mess. I masked the bay out with tarps and sheets, but the grit gets everywhere. Was well worth doing though.

 

I have a rear solid mount, and 306 top engine mount buffers which are an excellent upgrade and really wedge it in up there. I am running a standard gearbox mount. I will upgrade this to a solid one when one comes up seperately.

 

 

I was one of the unlucky ones then! I could never of got away with the standard position. Just have to wait and see I suppose, its not hard to move it though.

 

With regards to dying the bumpers black, from experience with a couple of my cheap run-abouts trying to dye phase 1.5 platics black never goes too well, it doesn't take to well and look quite blotchy. I would say stick to the grey plasticare! Also phase 1.5 lights are retro cool!!! I'v considered changing from phase 2 to them!

 

I just went out to try an inlet manifold on, and I realise it's a rad out job. No way it will go down on to the 2 studs with the rad in there

 

I do like the 1.5 look I admit. I was looking at getting clear repeaters and indicators but left the orange as I think it looks good and breaks it up. I found some ph2 lights and the whole loom so went for it. I doubt I will get round to fitting them anyway, I hate wiring full stop

 

On my front arches, the very edge of them has gone sort of smooth and shiny from years or cleaning etc presumably. I don't think dye would absorb into these so I am not sure how even the grey will take to those.

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Got my inlet manifold back from the powdercoaters today

 

 

 

It doesn't look so dark and grey in natural light

 

It took my a while to pick a colour as there were about 15 shades of silver to choose from But with the black touches to my bay I think it should go nicely.

 

Need to stock up on tins of brake cleaner now to clear the dust from inside it as there is residue from bead blasting inside which I don't want going into my engine.

[joel2005 0]

Chipstick,get a can of satin black aerosol to paint the bumpers and arches It goes on great and leaves no patchiness.

I,ve painted loads of car exterior trim and bumpers with thisover the years and its incredibly durable,I did a renault 5 I had years ago and after 3 years of daily use they still looked like newI,m not kidding you will be amazed by the finish!!!!.

Great work on the rest of your conversion,I,m still amassing the rest of the bits for mine before I get properly started.

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

^ It's probably great but I don't fancy my chances

 

I will stick with retro Grey trim. It's how it came, and as the dash is Grey I am going to have to live with it

 

I'm annoyed with the rain. Booked a day off work to get the last few bits done on this, and the heavens just opened and I got soaked and now I am in a mood

 

I'l take this oppurtunity to grab some lunch and then hope it clears. It's not rained in the day really for weeks

 

Update to come later and hopefully some pics if I can get some. My temporary phone is poor as I broke my other on my gearbox, and my digital camera now eats 2 AA batteries per photo. I've got Paul's luck

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

MOT is booked for next weds. So it's not long now

 

Not a lot of progress really as I was away for the weekend and it has only been dry this evening to get a couple of hours out on it.

 

How she stands currently:

 

 

Radiator to inlet clearance took a while to get right. Was forced against the inlet to start with. I have less than 10mm now, but the engine is in there rock solid so I will see how much it moves when it gets running to see if it is enough.

 

 

Took a fair bit of material off from the couling. Did it by hand with a hacksaw as a jigsaw melted the plastic too easily. Took time, but allowed me to be more precise I think

 

 

Popped my headlights back in, checked all the lights etc worked (didn't to start with - forgot the earth connections!)

 

All I need to do now is pop the rest of the hoses on, fill her up with oil and coolant and then see if she fires into life.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

looking great mate! I could never of got away with my rad in standard position very brave of you to book the MOT before she's fired up

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Well sometimes you need a kick up the arse to make you get on with things. I have the whole weekend to tinker with it, and went with Wednesday so that I had a couple of evenings to sort any niggles. What's the worst that could happen

 

I am going to a classic car show next Saturday, and I am determined to take it there!

[damien 22 1 Cars]

how did you fix the 306 battery box down?

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

how did you fix the 306 battery box down?

 

I did away with the 306 intermediate mounting in the end as it made the battery box sit too high and the bonnt wouldn't close Was annoying after I had spent ages measuring and drilling holes into the 205 battery tray at the strongest points while getting a decent angle to avoid things!

 

In the end I still used the holes that I had already drilled in the 205 battery tray, and then fitted the bolts upside down with nail varnish on the ends and then placed the battery box where I wanted it and it left marks for drilling.

 

It's very sturdy, as I made sure that the battery area itself sat over the tray as best as it could. But it means that the box is very far back and the fuel pump relay is right up against the header tank. Was a bit of a faff having to remove the header tank (again) and fixing the relay to it first, but it fits in snugly. Was lucky too, because the GTi6 throttle body comes backwards at an angle slightly. I did need to cut off the air duct section at the bottom of the battery box for the filter to fit properly.

 

I can get pics of where the holes are in the battery box itself if it helps? Was luck that they met in a flush lower section.

[damien 22 1 Cars]

pics would be a great help

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Well she runs! Few niggles, but very pleased!

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Few last bits sorted out, mainly the slam panel trimming and ensuring everything is tightened and double checked.

 

 

 

 

 

MOT was this morning

 

Failed on a couple of points. one rear caliper was reading 11%, and a track rod has play. Ordered the bits and they will be here tomorrow so will do them and take it back Friday so it's ready for the weekend. Fingers crossed!

 

So there she is, all done just waiting for the retest on Friday and then I can hopefully get Tax on Saturday morning and drive it to a classic car show on Saturday afternoon.

 

 

[Weser 30]

Nice mate congrats!

 

I like the detail on the slam panel!

Looks to be a very high standard conversion.

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

I didn't realise so long had passed since I last updated this!

 

Anyway, I had a track rod and handbrake cable replaced and she flew through the MOT.

 

Been on the road for nearly 4 months now, and hasn't missed a beat. I did lose a gear rod once, but other than that it's performing extremely well

 

Here are some more recent pics from a day out over exmoor. I did 150 miles that afternoon with minimal hold ups, putting the car through the paces it was designed for

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a few more bits I want to sort out, give the car a proper clean and treat the trims and replace some red strips and just generally tidy it up again after the dirty winter.

[halfcake 0]

Thanks Chipstick and others (mainly chipstick ) this has given me so much help and ideas that are going to make this conversion a pleasure to do!

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Christ I haven't updated this since Feb. Much overdue updates required!

[dodsworth_gti 11]

im hopeing to be doing my very first gti6 conversion very soon,i have found this thread very good and informing

 

well done and looks great

[allye 530 3 Cars]

 

 

 

 

How dare you comment on my lack of grill Dan!

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

How dare you comment on my lack of grill Dan!

 

Ah. Well.... It had one a couple of months later. Not anymore though. Are a fair few components missing from it now. It's not been running for a while.

[Russ_T 1]

That engine looks so right in there and you've done a good job. Have to take me out in it sometime, see what it's like going from a tired DTurbo up

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

The following couple of updates date back to March.

 

Had a bit of a marathon cleaning session last weekend. Spent about 8 hours cleaning and dying the trims as they had faded so much that they had almost gone milky and white!

 

Didn't get any before photos :oops: But it was bad.

 

Enlisted the help of my assistant to clean 23 years of grime from the rear lights to freshen them up.

 

 

Nearly £20 for 15 tiny white trim clips Next up was the Plasticare job. One I had been putting off for a while.

 

Dye'd the front bumper with the red strip off to save masking it.

 

 

 

 

 

Replaced the rear badges so I could clean behind and dye the panels easier.

 

 

 

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Got some new goodies.

 

Braided lines:

 

 

Went for aerocatches so I can stop the bonnet flap I have been getting. The bonnet has never shut 100% since I modified the slam panel to get it to clear the inlet from the engine ring shoehorned in. Not only that, but my fan coiling was cracked where it meets and strengthens the slam panel to prevent it flexing when the bonnet it pushed closed. After hours of faffing trying to get the catch to work like it use to before I took it all apart, I gave up and bought the aerocatches.

 

 

Went for the locking version at a tenner extra, curiosity killed the cat and gives me piece of mind if I leave it anywhere for a while.

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

The stock 1.9 front brakes were OK, but really didn't fill me with confidence after a near miss on an entusiastic drive so I decided to pop some GTi6 ones on seeing as I had a set knocking about.

 

 

 

The 1.9 calipers have a 48mm piston and the 306 ones 57mm. The disc size is increased from 247mm to 283mm. Library pic stolen from here

 

 

Coupled with the braided lines, some mintex 1144 pads the brakes are now very impressive. Had the copper lines replaced and a full fluid change.

 

The only problem I did have was that because I am retaining the 15" Speedline alloys, The weights needed to be moved from the inside edge as the calipers are only a few mm away from the rim!

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

I then needed to fit the Aerocatches as I had Combe booked and my bonnet would flap about due to the weak slam panel due to the couling. Because of the weak slam panel, shutting the bonnet was a pain and impossible with the grille in place as I needed to get my hand in to pull the panel up to clamp the catch in to place. Not ideal.

 

 

They weren't fun to fit. Cutting into your bonnet and hoping all your measurements were correct was daunting, but luckily it was spot on. I bought a spare bonnet to cut as I wanted to cover myself incase of an iffy cut