[Car_Overhaul] Laser Green 205 1.6 Gti

[speno 239 2 Cars]

Why not leave at my house ;o)

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Sounds OK, will you leave me Porsche to use instead? LOL!

[Anthony 1,003]

Cheers Spen, I do enjoy driving it, its fun to drive, OK its not the quickest thing out there, and you have to work at it, which makes it all the more enjoyable. In honesty I don't just drive it, I drive the wheels off it, thats what the 205 GTI has always been all about!

Hear, hear!

[camgti 56]

Great worte up Tom.

 

Ive just spent the past 2 days reading each page.

 

Sorry to hear about John and the 106. Things happen for one reason or another though.

 

I have an old friend who is leaving his 205 with me when he goes (ill pay his son for it!) and its in the same shale with half the miles. I hole one day I will keep it looking like yours.

 

Even here in OZ they are starting to fetch silly money and they are rare as. I too would be worried about parking it. You could always fit a tracker to it. A tracker wont help grandma having a head on with it when parken because shes having a heart attack.

 

Great job. Gald to see you enjoying it.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

So an update here. First off I've spent far too long thanks to Photo Bucket reviving this thread. But I enjoy reading it myself as its a nice diary of the progress.

 

Hopefully most photos are back to where they should be now.

 

Anyway fast forward from last October. The car stayed in hibernation this year until early June. What with the 206 GT to keep me busy, and my red 205 turbo I had plenty on with cars as it was.

 

So as "found" early June! Nice to be able to tax the car and then go and drive it home!

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Not a huge amount to do to the car these days, which is nice, or so I thought...

 

I had a few jobs in mind I wanted to tackle before Pugfest. My polished cam cover cost me a mark or two, as did my wheels as the centres were not diamond cut, those of you with good memory will remember I baulked at the cost when I first did the work on the car back in 2014.

 

So I had a spare cam cover bead blasted and then lacquered in a matt etch lacquer from Frosts specifically for bare alloy castings. The finish looks good and should protect the surface from corrosion.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

I got hold of another set of wheels and got them refurbished and diamond cut locally for a Yorkshireman acceptable price. However this wasn't as straight forward as it might have been, I had the wheels done a few weeks in advance and they then stayed wrapped in bubble wrap awaiting swapping tyres over. When I unwrapped them a few days before Pugfest to do this I found the rim section was dry lacquer on the majority. The place that did them were in fairness very good about it and sorted them out, but it was looking a close run thing with Pugfest only a couple of days away in the end.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Next up was Cal's wedding. Sarah was going to the wedding in a white 205 from her parents, I asked what the bridesmaids were doing, another 205 had to be done! A grand day out and no mistake.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Anyway, as I was just saying, not much to do, famous last words....

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

On the way home from the wedding the following day all of a sudden the temp gauge started running hot. Its never done this. To save me typing the saga out its documented in this thread-

http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=170906

 

In summary I ended up changing (in order) the thermostat, the expansion tank cap, the coolant sender for the dash, mucho flushing out, the water pump, the rad fan switch, and the thermostat (again) which finally cured it. With all this in the couple of weeks before Pugfest when I really wanted to be cleaning it and not chasing a fault.

 

With it running right, I could go back to my show prep.

 

Bearing in mind the engine and box has never been removed from the car, the sump and the gearbox end cover were looking a little shabby.

 

The gearbox end cover had a light shotblast and then a scrape of gobbo to lose some of the bad pitting. Sprayed in a matt silver engine lacquer it then went in the oven to cure it off whilst the wife was out !

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

The sump got much the same treatment, DA'd off and then painted, although it wouldn't fit in the oven!

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

In between all this I had a day out of the pre Pugfest cleaning days and went and picked this up, non sunroof Graphite grey F reg 1.9, owned by Barry a now retired work colleague for the past 19 years. Largely original and unmessed with, it needs a few bits doing that I'll get around to as and when.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Next up, tyres swapped and the diamond cut wheels on the car

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Some more cleaning, we had to do her MINI first...

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Finally about as ready as it was going to get! I do like this photo.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

So Pugfest time.

 

In addition to the work on the green car it struck me as a good idea to take more than one. Thanks to fellow Yorkshire & Derbyshire Bastards members Calvin and Steve we had a convoy!

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

And so to Prescott. Nice to have all 3 there I must say. The usual BBQ Beer and Lawnmower activities on Saturday afternoon/evening.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Sunday morning got the car into place and started the usual re-cleaning. At this point the spirited drive through Warwickshire and Gloucestershire with our youth chasing me didn't seem such a good plan trying to get rid of the dead flies.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

A nice thing this year was the judges were doing their thing starting at 11am. This meant rather than spend nearly all day rubbing away with a cloth there was a couple of hours to do, and then I could relax and have a wander round the show.

 

I'd love to say I was chilled out and not bothered by the outcome but that would be a bare faced lie! 2015 3rd place show and shine standard, 2016 2nd place show and shine standard, so for 2017 I really did want to bag the top spot.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Chuffed didn't cover it really, seeing as in 2015 I put it in the judging last minute just to see how it did, I'm mega pleased with how the car has come on, even though I still look round other cars and think they are better than mine, I guess we all do that to some extent as you know every last defect on your own car.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

So following Pugfest not an awful lot else to write.

 

Ashover show was next, a good day out as per previous years.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Next up is the Rotherham show early September, Paul and I enjoyed this last year, and I won 3rd place in the post 90 class, so be interested to see if I can improve upon this.

[calvinhorse 870]

A well deserved win at pugfest, this car is absolutely stunning, credit to you mate

[acox99 74 1 Cars]

Where does your gauge usually sit? Mine is rock solid mid way weather it's driven hard or pootled about.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

If you number the "dashes" 0-1-2-3 etc then it used to run between 3 and 4. It now runs on or just above 4. But with the faulty stat it would go right up to nearly red as the water wasn't circulating through the radiator properly.

[acox99 74 1 Cars]

About the same as mine then. I put a higher temp stat in mine as I found it used to run too cold.

[Andya 2]

Loving this thread, the diamond cut wheels look great!

 

Would the Goodyear tyres have been original fitment when new? I want to get a second set of wheels and tyres and want to try to get what would have been fitted as standard or as near as possible?

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Pirelli or Michelin I believe would have been standard. However, I am much more interested in how it drives than what would be the correct tyre, so I went for a choice between the only two "A" wet grip rated tyres in the correct size currently available, which are a Continental or the Goodyear. You can probably still buy a Pirelli P6000 but they are utterly dreadful. The only Michelin in the size is an ECO based tyre, I wanted performance not economy hence the Goodyear. If you look you will find that the choice of new tyres in 14" is not that plentiful any more.

[welshpug 1,661]

I would not be surprised if the Newest iteration of the Michelin Energy grips as well as the MXV did back in the day, a friend did try them on his gti not so long ago wand was pleased with them.

 

Granted, probably not suitable for a modified 205 but quite good on a standard one.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Not a great deal to add here really, little green car went into hibernation in September, I wasn't using it much with the red turbo on the road, and the weather was starting to look iffy anyway.

 

A few small jobs completed, one of which was a long time coming, that being the drivers window mechanism. Put simply it was just worn out, but the effect being that with the window fully up, occasionally it would unwind itself about half a turn. Usually at motorway speed at night, just to keep you on your toes! Bought one off a guy on here and a simple swap over.

Next is the reverse light switch, I'm getting bored at the moment of changing stuff like this, it was new when I did the car 3 years ago as it didn't work previously, the replacement has decided to stick on all the time, so it got unplugged. New one in my possession so I'll change it at some opportune time.

 

Anti freeze was the other job before putting it away, it was on a very weak mix after all the cooling system debacle, so dropped it and refilled with expensive pre mixed CAT extended life coolant. If its ood enough for huge plant machinery its good enough for my 205.

[cybernck 402 1 Cars]

Wow, just gone through the whole thread - spectacular work and end result.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Fast forward to now and another update.

Not an awful lot to write, the car has been away since last September. With new arrival daughter in December 17 I'd always said that I wasn't going to enter the show and shine at Pugfest in 2018 as even as clean as it is, I still spend the best part of a week cleaning it beforehand. Instead I got roped in to judging instead! Interesting being on the "other side" but still a lot of work, especially trying to be fair to all the entries.

So the time came to get the car out in July. I try to make a point of putting them away clean so they come out clean!

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Next up the annual visit to Ashover show. Now this really pissed me off as I had problems last year with the cooling fan, at the MOT it behaved perfectly, on the way into Ashover show which was its usual shambolic long queue, yet again the fan wouldn't cut in on slow speed. Damn annoying as I fitted 2 fan switches last year to my red and green 205's and both have crapped out a year later. Anyway I've a plan to re wire the cooling fan to use 2 relays and maintain the twin speed operation, its no surprise really that a solid state switch struggles with full fan current.

 

Good day out with a few of the Bastards (tm)

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Next job on the list was to sort out the exhaust manifold. Over the last few times I've used the car I've noticed it ticking slightly from the exhaust manifold when its cold. No sign of cracks but the exhaust manifold gaskets that I could see didn't look great. I had some gaskets in stock so feeling organised I ordered 8 off new studs from the local Citroen dealer, the Peugeot dealers local to me have always been pretty unhelpful, usually requiring payment before they would order anything, I've no problem with that per se, but when they refuse to take a card payment over the phone unlike 99% of other companies, it becomes a ballache to have to go in person to the dealer twice, once to pay, once a few days later to collect the bits. In addition the closest one is now probably a 45min-1hr round trip on the other side of Sheffield depending on traffic, the Citroen dealer however is on my way home from work. They couldn't have been more helpful and were interested in the car as well so I think I'll be using them from now. Anyway, Saturday morning I set about the manifold. Straight away I knew how it was going to go when one of the stainless bolts holding the airbox bracket to the manifold immediately picked up seized and sheared off. It looks very much like the manifiold had never been off before! So the nuts and studs were well corroded. I soon found the cause of the blowing as both upper outer studs broke off as soon as I showed them a spanner, it looks from the stud ends like they had been failing through fatigue and a twist with a spanner finished them off.

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

A few of the others put up a fight including one I had to chisel off and another that eventually yielded to a hammered on Irwin nutgrip a size too small. 

With the manifold off the car it was obvious that the gaskets were well past their best.

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

However the fun was still to come, getting the broken studs out of the head. In actual fact this didn't go too badly in the end, just awkward due to poor access and sight of what you are doing. Managed to get a 2mm pilot down the old studs and knock a small torx bit in, luckily they then both wound out of the head OK! No helicoils required, phew!

It all went back together pretty painlessly with the new studs and gaskets, the old nuts were well past their best, so I fitted some new aerotight all metal locknuts which should do the job nicely.

While I was putting the downpipe joint back I noticed the middle exhaust hanger rubber had given up, pretty rubbish really as its probably 4 years old, modern rubber components these days are garbage.

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

While I was under the car I noticed a small drip of coolant from the lower water housing, one of the smaller bore hoses was dripping, the jubilee clip was knackered so I swapped this for a new one, the last job of the day was to replace the reverse light switch which has been sat on top of my roll cab for months after the last one failed short circuit leaving the reverse light on permanently.

That's about it for now, next up is the Rotherham show early September.

 

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

So its modification time on the laser green car! And this time I'm not joking.

First up was the stereo. The original Clarion frankly to modern standards is just crap! Now I've kept it in the car for the 7 years I've had it but to be honest of late I've been getting fed up with not having decent sound quality when I use the car. So it got to the time where something better was required.

I bought a Sony headunit about 2 years ago which is now in my red turbo, I was very impressed with the Bluetooth functionality and sound quality. So With a look on eBay managed to bag a very rare these days bargain off eBay, a very badly listed Sony for £26. The listing didn't show any wiring cage or plastic trim but I was more than pleasantly surprised when it arrived with everything needed. A few quid later and the adaptor loom from Peugeot to ISO arrived and so it was a less than 10 min job to swap them over. 

The head unit I bought was slightly different from my other one in that it allows a choice of many illumination colours, so I was able to set it to a light orange to match the rest of the dash.

Everyone to their own but for me its made the car much nicer to use.

BEFORE THE VULTURES START, NO THE CLARION IS NOT FOR SALE!!!!

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Next up was the rad fan switch. Now if you read back through this thread I'm pretty sure I've changed the damn thing twice. For whatever reason they just don't last well. The final straw being that I changed 2 of them before Pugfest last year, one on this car, one on my red turbo, 12 months later and in synch both have crapped out. Not happy!

So need to do something different, I may be wrong but it has always seemed that switching full fan current through a solid state switch was a bit crap, so I decided to fit some relays. Now on my red car for simplicity I've just bought a single switch and it will just be on and off. However for the green car I decided it would be nicer to retain the original 2 speed arrangement. So a couple of relays, a couple of relay bases, and a new 3 pin JPT plug and we were in business. I had a spare fan loom so stripped it down, with a few mods there turns out there only needs 1 wire adding and a couple re routing.

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

With that done I fitted yet another new switch, hopefully now it is only switching low current to switch the relays it should last a lot longer than the previous ones. The new fan wiring with relays all plugged in, I've left the relay bases tucked behind the passengers headlamp for now until it has all had a good test, then I plan to mount the bases either on the battery tray, or maybe on the inside of the chassis leg. I'm leaning towards the chassis leg just as I think they will be more hidden from view than on the battery tray.

 

Final job today was after changing the fan switch, which I've got down to a fine art now without losing more than a spoonful of coolant, I checked the level to see it well down. Something amiss so I put a pressure test on and immediately could hear a hissing from the thermostat housing area. Moved the air intake pipes and then the air flow meter out of the way and it turns out the hose from the side of the stat housing that goes to the heater matrix had a pin hole near the clip. I was just about able to cut it back and resecure it, but I'll need to source a new one really. I've dropped Stew Baker an email as I know he now does a rubber style hose kit, however I'm not sure if he does the specific phase 2 hose I need, as the kits show the earlier arrangement with the separate housing for the coolant sensor and SAD. The phase 2 cars are a much neater setup with the sensor and SAD bolted directly to the thermostat housing, so the hose is longer and with a 90 deg bend near the end, instead of using the small "question mark" shaped hose of the earlier cars. I'm sure I'm not the only one who will need this hose at some time so hopefully Stew will either already have sorted it, or maybe will be able to sort it from a sample hose.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Just a couple of photos today, annual trip to the local show, a good mate of mine has owned his Escort for 22 years but it hadn’t been on the road for about 18 of those! He’d had a spurt on sorting it out, but the show gave him a reason to get it sorted and a deadline to do so. Great to see it out, and the 205 looked ok too!

 

 

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

Just been reading through this again for some inspiration, great story Tom 

 

Any updates? Did you ever fit any extra security?

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Wow nearly 4 years since I updated it. I’ll have to have a think about an update. 
Security wise it never really gets left anywhere out of my sight is the main thing. Alarm immobiliser and steering wheel disclok.