[Car_Overhaul] Laser Green 205 1.6 Gti

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

So a couple more pictures to add. I have been taking my time with this to do a nice job not rushing it. Just a couple of hours at a time.

 

So first off, finish removing all the old rear panel. You can't really see, but at the edges it is sandwiched in between the boot floor and the panels that come from around the rear lights. This took some careful unpicking.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

First try of the new rear panel in place

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

I was planning to unpick the towing eye and change it for the spare from my scrapyard rear panel. However a bit of careful hammering and I have managed to straighten it. Why on earth the previous repairer did not do this, but instead allowed the rear bumper to go on misshappen, I cannot imagine.

Poor picture but its straight.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Finally trial fit the closing piece. You cannot really see from the photo, but this closing piece would have also been spot welded on last at the factory. It is also the reason I could not fit my silver scrapyard donor rear panel in one piece.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Final shot, you can see the closing piece better here.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Next job will be to grind up all the areas on the car I need to weld to. I also need to grind up underneath all the boot floor.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Do I spy red drums?

 

Doing an amazing and thorough job, as anyone would expect from you!

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Yes red drums, done at the same time as the front calipers by the 79 year old previous owner to "match the trim insert and smarten them up a bit" (his words).

 

They will be going. Although I have to say they don't look shocking, he has done a good job of painting them.

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Any news Tom?

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

2 years on, wow.

For various reasons I lost all enthusiasm for this, I think it was about the same time that my red turbo went sick and I lost enthusiasm for 205's in general. In the meantime a few things have successfully distracted me including,

 

Buying myself a 535d and generally having the obligatory honeymoon period when every other car is of no interest whatsoever

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

My mate Ricks spaceframe turbo Mini coming to stay, for a complete from scratch wiring loom

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

A newer Shogun to replace my old one, however it would have been too simple to buy a decent one at proper money so instead I bought a no tax/test project

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Winning the odd trophy either driving this

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

or navigating for Allan in the road rally 205.

/tomfenton/1A9AEEC0-B6DA-47FB-B207-CA6118E84711-358-000000C6B4900978_zps9d74bc4a.jpg][/url]

 

Plus the odd trackday

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Anyway you get the general idea I am sure.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

So after much procrastination I decided it was time to pull my finger out and get cracking. So over the last couple of months I've done the following list

• Front seats removed to go to trimmers. Repaired and new bolsters fitted, not 100% as new, but pretty good, and in keeping with the car I feel
• Radiator was leaking, so new rad fitted, new rad hoses, stainless jubillee clips, rad fan and cowl all tarted up nice
• Cambelt had done 3000 miles but was 9 years old, so new cambelt, tensioner, water pump fitted
• Decided that it would be a shame to silt up a new rad, so block flushed, new heater matrix fitted
• Discovered the handbrake mount was cracked! I have a feeling this was done by Ruth's sons who used to use the car occasionally, as I can't see a 40 yr old librarian lady or a 75 yr old retired gent yanking the handbrake to do handbrake turns in it. Weld repaired and linished back so you can't tell
• Finished repairing the return lip at the trailing edge of the boot floor, this was mega fiddly but will allow me to spot weld on the rear panel as per original
• Remove rear beam and fuel tank, set about stripping back the underseal from the rear underside
• Rear beam tube end castings shotblasted, centre tube prepped, painted in specially mixed paint satin finish to try and replicate the original Peugeot beam tube colour
  

So that brings it more or less up to date. I reckon I've another 10 hours of scraping and wire brushing etc to do until the rear underside is ready for painting. My plan is to kurust any bits of surface rust to neutralise, acid etch prime for good adhesion, epoxy prime for protection, then stonechip, then finally paint in base coat body colour, but not lacquer it. So it will be dull body colour underneath, as I think full gloss laser green will be a bit much.

I am hoping to do the rear paint etc, and also replace the front suspension and subframe as I have 90% of the parts completed, and have it ready to use on the road by April/May 2014 for the summer. Then winter 2014 if all goes to plan I'll pull the engine and box to smarten those up, and tidy up the engine bay.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Some pictures in no particular order

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

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[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

[mrfirepro 127 1 Cars]

Tom,

 

How did you get the radiator cover looking that good, I've cleaned mine to within a inch of it's life and it still looks rubbish.

 

Also what paint did you use on the beam?

Edited December 10, 2013 by mrfirepro

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

 

How did you get the radiator cover looking that good, I've cleaned mine to within a inch of it's life and it still looks rubbish.

Scrub it well with water as hot as you can take, then use Armor All "Son of a Gun" semi-matt rubber/plastic treatment.

 

Also what paint did you use on the beam?

I had a couple of aerosols custom mixed matched to an old beam tube I took to the paint factors. 50% gloss to match the satin finish. I think its a pretty good replication of the standard finish.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Some more nice history on this car came through today. Ruth who owned it from 1992 till 1999 contacted me a few months ago to ask about the car, she had been telling her grandson about the car and he wanted to see it, could I take it round? I explained it was currently dismantled but I would be happy to go round in it next year when it is back on the road again. Whilst we were talking on the phone she mentioned that she had found some more old tax discs and also a notebook she had started recording things in when she bought it. Today they arrived in the post to me. What is nice is that it includes the very first tax disc, from the date of registration, 22/3/91. I was only thinking the other day that when the tax disc is abolished it could be fun to display an old disc instead.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

The notebook is also interesting, especially the price of petrol, 42p a litre in 1992, the car came from Brighouse auctions and she put £5 of petrol in it to get home to Rotherham, a trip of roughly 40 miles!

[Anthony 1,003]

Ah, the halcyon days of 42p/litre...

 

Nice of the previous owner to get in touch though and post you stuff like that - most would have just binned it.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

I have known Ruth for about 10 years though, I first met her as at the time her daughter was living with a friend of mine, who volunteered me to change the head gasket on her 206GT, the car that replaced this 205 in 1999. So it isn't like I'm just some random unknown. When i found out it was Ruth's old car and hence I knew the history, I couldn't not buy it.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

So another long overdue update. Best laid plans for "on the road" for April/May have passed, but I'm hopeful for a July return to the road!

 

So after much procrastination I welded the new rear panel into place. Its fair to say I was putting this off as you only get one go to do it right. As it happens I was quite pleased with how it went, I have a spot welder so could weld it in as per original along with the closing piece.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

With that done I turned my attention to the underside. What started off as a repair to the rear panel, evolved through a tidy up of the boot floor, ending up with the beam, tank, fuel and brake lines removed, and clean and re finish the entire floor pan and a clean up of the rear wheel arches. At this stage I didn't want to take the engine and box out, so the front end and bulkhead I will do another time. At some time previously, someone had blathered the entire underside with bitumen/tar type black underseal. This was good in some respects in that it meant that the floorpans were rust free. But it didn't half take some getting off, in the end the best way seemed to be to spray it with duck oil, let that soak in to soften it up, then scrape it off.

 

Floorpan cleaned back, the original underseal was in good order so I left it alone.

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Wheel arch before

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Wheel arch after

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Underside in grey Gravi Tex coating

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Then with laser green base coat. I decided lacquering it underneath would be a bit much so thats as far as I am going

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

In a break from scraping underseal I built the beam for it. I've been slowly preparing all the components over nearly 12 months so it was nice to assemble them all together.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

So to bring it up to date, here is where its at as of now.

 

Boot floor painted, quite pleased that the join to the rear panel looks pretty factory like

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

New brake and fuel pipe clips fitted

Pic MIA

New hard fuel pipes clipped up

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

One thing I didn't like, as its a 1.6 car there is only 1 brake line. On the other side the holes for the clips are there but not used. So I blocked them up with rubber grommets.

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

So next up will be, in rough order, brake lines to run, then the tank and filler neck can go back, then the beam on. Then exhaust and heatshields can go back, I have yet to clean up and paint the heatshields. Then I will paint the back of the rear panel and the inside of the boot floor. The rear valance is also a bit of a mess and needs prepping and painting.

So still plenty to be done!

[Edp 67 3 Cars]

Looks fantastic work Tom. Nice to see another being restored to its former glory.

 

It's always nice to have documented history with these cars too and having the first tax disc is a nice touch.

[acox99 74 1 Cars]

Looking really smart. Credit to you. There are a lot of lazer green cars being done to a very high standard at the moment.

[calvinhorse 870]

Unbelievable car tom, the history is fantastic!

 

Absolutely love it!

 

Surely the first £20k 205??

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Cheers Cal, although I don't think its quite that tidy although I'm obviously critical of it, plus its the "poor relation" being a 1.6 not a 1.9!

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Woo, some more plated stuff arrived today, just in time as I need the brackets for the fuel pipe clamp at the front and the rear brake lines as well.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

[acox99 74 1 Cars]

How much was that lot roughly to be plated?

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Roughly £20, I get it done through a guy my dad knows, so I don't see a bill, my dad is 100 miles away so holds a few quid of mine and we divvy up now and again.

[eddie bullit 37]

Looking really good..I'm looking forward to seeing the finished article.

[acox99 74 1 Cars]

When painting the underside of a car that has base coat and lacquer I usually mix the base and lacquer in there usual ratios and then bung them together. Gives it a bit of depth and makes it harder and more durable, also it cleans up better if your into keeping underside and wheel arches clean.