[car_overhaul] Sorrento Surgery

[Anthony 1,003]

With my white 205 GTi (Roadspeed Revival) sold and the black 205 GTi (Project Jalopy) mostly finished and on the road, I was happy with the fleet as it stood - I had the 306 HDi as a daily hack, the 205 GTi as a fun do-everything classic, and the Eunos (MX5) for summer sideways gayness.

 

I don't "do" New Years Resolutions as such, but surely one that would be near top of the list if I did would be to stop buying delapidated cars that don't work! With that in mind, I really should have ignored this advert that appeared in the For Sale section a week before Xmas...

 

I'm selling my 1991 (H) 205 GTI, after a bit of stupidity doing a head gasket change in the dark and somehow losing one of the head bolt spacers without realising, there is now a nice hole into the water pump housing. Of course the water pump bolts then sheared off when I tried to undo them to survey the damage.

 

This is unfortunately the end of the road for me, as I have had to move on to a more practical daily driver due to work, and dont have space to keep this as an ongoing project.

 

The car will have to be collected from Bracknell, Berks, and will need trailier/towing.

 

So, the nitty gritty:

 

I'm looking for £350, open to offers.

 

Shell has 145,000 miles on the clock

Tax until end of Feb 2012

MOT until end of Apr 2012

 

The Bad:

 

• Engine block holed into water pump housing
  
• 2 water pump bolts sheared off in the block
  
• Rear beam needs a rebuild (ns bearing has MOT-fail-worthy play)
  
• OSR handbrake seizes on - think the caliper needs replacing as the cable seems fine.
  
• Passenger door has filler where the lock should be due to a break-in. I have a spare door that I never fitted (free to take away), and no other damage was caused.
  
• Paintwork on the roof and OS wing has seen better days.
  
• NS driveshaft has a split gaiter.
  
• Gearbox (1.9) noisy but still goes ok.
  
• 3 Wheels have a bit of kerbing around the edge.

 

The Good:

 

• Shell has no major rust
  
• All electricals in good working order
  
• All plastic trim in good condition (grey w/ red trim strips)
  
• Green carpet in good conditon
  
• Drivers seat in reasonable condition, bolster leather in good condition although the foam under it is worn as expected.
  
• All other seats all in good condition
  
• 4x Speedline wheels on the car - all with good tread (2 are nearly brand new), 2x SMR spares - both in reasonable condition but need new tyres.
  
• Auto bonnet (a couple of welds have come loose and were rattling, hence the expanding foam in the pic).
  
• Shortened inlet manifold
  
• Standard MI16 exhaust manifold in good condition, with wedge plate.
  
• Converted loom
  
• BBM silicone hoses
  
• BBM grp N engine mountings (~6 months old)
  
• Battery installed in boot
  
• OEM IR remote central locking (not via alarm)
  
• Most of a tank of petrol

 

In the last 12 months the car has had:

• New front wheel bearings (hubs in good condition - no ovalling)
  
• All metal brake lines replaced with copper
  
• New radiator
  
• New starter motor
  
• New OS wishbone
  
• Poly wishbone bushes
  
• 4 new tyres - still have plenty of tread, 2 have only had a month or so use.
  
• New NSR brake caliper and handbrake cable
  
• New brake discs all round
  
• New exhaust front section

 

I'm hoping someone can put this to good use, all it really needs is a new engine and beam and it's away.

I also have a tonne of parts to root through, as I dont really need them!

 

Yes that's right - another non-working (if not quite delapidated) car!

 

Somehow the catious "you really don't need any more cars!" thoughts lost out to the hopelessly optimistic "that's not bad for the money and shouldn't be too difficult to fix, enjoy for a few months and easily make your money back" school of thought, and so a deal was struck with Andy and I was the proud owner of yet another car to lower the tone of the neighbourhood with.

 

 

 

Paul_13 kindly gave me a hand towing it back (which once again, is much appreciated!) and so begins another chapter...

[Anthony 1,003]

Immediate plans for the car are to get it running and driveable again, as I'd made my life rather more difficult that it otherwise needed to have been last year with the amount of time that the white and black 205's had been immobile and in pieces on the driveway for months at a time.

 

The main issue was the non-running engine after the botched head gasket swap, owing to two issues - firstly the headbolt that had been screwed into the waterpump housing, and secondly, the snapped bolts on the waterpump. Given that everything else should be OK as Andy had done most of the work for the head gasket swap already and the head was in place with the new gasket already fitted, I started with hoisting the engine out...

 

 

And removing the waterpump to see how bad the damage was, unfortunately snapping a third bolt in the process...

 

 

The damage to the block thankfully was minimal, with a neat pretty much perfectly round hole and, most importantly, no cracking or other damage that would spread over time. There was two ways to fix the problem, either TIG welding it up, or repairing it with a suitable epoxy. The epoxy option might sound like a bodge, and I spose it is in a way, but it's a method that I've successfully employed before that outlasted the engine and I've little doubt it will on this engine too - especially when I've got proper access to do the repair properly, rather than doing it with the engine still in the car as I had done previously.

 

Previously I'd basically just cleaned up the hole and area around it and blobbed the epoxy in and over the hole, filling it and creating a nice plug over the top. With this, I did it a slightly more time consuming way, but one that should prove even stronger and longer lasting.

 

I started with properly cleaning and degreasing the hole and the areas around it, as oil and grease is the one thing pretty much guaranteed to ruin an epoxy based repair. In fact, that's pretty much true of anything involving adhesive or threadlock - clean and degrease it properly otherwise it will likely fail.

 

With the area clean, I first plugged the hole with epoxy so it was flush top and bottom, and left that to set overnight. Next, I cut two oversize square pieces to go above and below the hole, and stuck these in place with epoxy, effectively sandwiching the repair plugging the hole and sealing it from direct exposure to the elements or to the pressurised cooling system. Lastly, once that had cured, I added another layer of epoxy top and bottom to cover the pieces and seal the repair.

 

Once cured, the repair was rock solid and about twice as thick as the original casting, and I honestly believe will outlast the engine - after all, each individual layer in its own right should be enough to seal the hole, so all five together should very much belt and braces.

 

That just left the waterpump bolts to drill out which I did, running an M7x1 tap down to clean them out. The bottom most bolt is unfortunately a bit on the wonk, but still perfectly sufficient to hold the securely pump in place.

 

 

You can just about make out the patch inside the waterpump housing about the size of a postage stamp. The hole for comparison is about 9mm in diameter, pretty much in the middle of that patch going vertically upwards. I haven't got any better pictures unfortunately as unbeknown to me at the time I'd knocked the focus control on the camera to manual so they're all blurred.

 

Finally, I doubled checked the rest of the work and torqued down the headbolts fully, refitted the cam cover, waterpump, cambelt and tensioned the belt (using new torsion bolts of the later 13mm hex head design). I'll fit a new cambelt etc in due course, but for now I want to double check that it all runs and is leak free.

[Anthony 1,003]

With the block and waterpump sorted, I dropped the engine back in the car to check that it ran and that there were no leaks.

 

This was the first chance I really got to see how well it had been converted as half the engine had been sat in the boot when I had picked it up, and the answer in truth was not very well. It wasn't terrible, but there was various areas that I was unhappy with and will end up redoing if I keep the engine and car.

 

 

The lack of cambelt covers isn't something that I'm particularly fond of given the obvious risks of getting something flicked up into the belt, and the risk the exposed belt brings to the fuel pipe and throttle cable that are both in close proximity and unsupported. Speaking of fuel pipes, both were badly perished and an engine bay fire waiting to happen, and the return could be routed far better than it currently is (as could the vacuum feed for the servo).

 

Needs a longer throttle cable too, as it's been done using an 8v one that's too short to fit comfortably.

 

 

All that of course was slightly academic, as having refitted the engine and started it, there was a somewhat more pressing issue - it was only running on three cylinders! A compression test quickly revealed the reason, with cylinder #3 showing no compression - 200, 0, 200, 200psi

 

Thinking back to when we'd collected the car, Andy had gone to push it and it moved a few inches and stopped with a distinct metalic DONK! noise. Evidentially the car had been in gear and with no cambelt on it, had just turned the bottom end over and the noise was piston meeting valves. Annoying, but it is what it is.

 

Slightly more positive though was that for the brief time that it ran (idling spot on I should add - good old Motronic!) there had been no leaks and other than the lack of cylinder 3, the engine sounded quiet with no knocks or rattles.

[Anthony 1,003]

Knowing that the engine ran and that there was no compression on cylinder #3, it was off with the cylinder head to find out what was wrong. Less than an hour later, the head was off...

 

 

... and the problem obvious - I've bought a Mi14 engine!

 

 

Both inlet valves on #3 had been dinged, evident by the two clean spots on the piston valve cutouts and of course that the valves weren't quite closed - at a glance they looked fine, but holding a light underneath showed the lack of seal and thus the reason for a big fat ziltch on the compression tester.

 

The piston was undamaged and the rest of the head and valves looked fine, so should just need a couple of valves replacing and putting back together again to see what other suprises this car has in store for me.

[Anthony 1,003]

Still in the mood for pulling things apart after removing the head, I set about the interior.

 

Firstly removed the seats and carpet for cleaning, and the underlay to see what horrors lay beneath, which I'm pleased to say was none! The floor pan was in very good condition with no damp underlay and no rust.

 

 

The car had the battery mounted in the boot when I bought it, but I wanted to put it back in the engine bay, so with the carpets removed this was a good opportunity to do just that. All fairly straight forward with just a single main power feed running front to back, and then an earth in the boot and in the engine bay.

 

While pulling that through the bulkhead, I found the remains of an old car alarm that Andy had bypassed when it had packed up one day, so I removed the remaining wiring to tidy it up and prevent any possible issues in the future. As is the case with most "professionally fitted" alarms that I see, this was a complete shower of s**t and everything was attached with scotchlock connectors.

 

Some old car stereo amplifier wiring I removed while I was there - the ends had been cut off anyway so it was of no use to anyone.

 

Last but not least, I removed the Mi16 wiring loom so that I could check it over and redo the bits that I didn't like while the cylinder head was off. The ECU had been properly mounted under the dash and the wiring routed nicely routed, which makes a refreshing change to being under the carpet or the wiring left flapping around chaffing the steering column.

 

Oh, and as a nice bonus I found the best part of a fiver in loose change under the seats and carpet

[Anthony 1,003]

The carpet wasn't actually too dirty, but while it was out I took the opportunity to properly clean it

 

 

I employed my tried and tested way of hanging the carpet in the shower and cleaning it with hot water, cleaner and a brush to give it a good scrubbing. Despite the carpet appearing pretty clean, plenty of dirty brown water ran from the carpet initially together with an impressive amount of ingrained dirt.

 

Left it to dry for a couple of days and refitted it to the car, together with the center console that I'd cleaned at the same time, both of which came up pretty well I reckon!

 

 

The seats will follow shortly - they're being given a good clean and then treated with Gliptone Liquid Leather, and the drivers seat I need to sort out a couple of bits where the stitching has come away. They look pretty good for the most part though and should come up nicely I reckon.

[Anthony 1,003]

I had removed the engine loom to Mi16 engine loom to check it over and tidy it up, as it was looking a bit tired in places and I didn't particularly like the way that it had been converted.

 

 

To its credit it did work, but some of the sensor wiring was falling apart and the way it had been converted made it both messy with wiring everywhere and increased the risk of long term problems with the use of unsealed connectors on the link-loom that typically cause poor connections and promote corrosion and degradation of the wiring itself.

 

Ignoring Phase 1 GTi's for a moment which are wired slightly differently, in my eyes a properly converted Mi16 wiring loom should be largely indestiguishable from a OE wiring loom, and should be nicely self-contained with all the wiring running back to the two underdash brown multiplugs - everything that you need is there, and I thus cannot understand at all why people doing conversions start hacking into the lighting loom or running back to the fusebox.

 

There's no need at all, and that applies to any wiring loom, not just Mi16's.

 

 

I started off by removing the nasty unsealed wiring connectors and stripping the loom back to allow me to run everything back to the brown multiplugs with a short, direct run and to remove all the redundant wiring such as the oil level gauge and the old sensor wiring. With this done and the wiring cut back far enough to find clean uncorroded copper, I remade the various connections needed for the Mi16 loom to work and ran new direct wiring and plugs for the sensors and starter.

 

Finished off by covering everything back up and applying some heat reflecting tape to protect the loom where it runs nearest the exhaust manifold as, like most, the old loom had began to melt despite being properly clipped back.

 

 

Et volia - it's not a completely redone loom by any means, but should prove reliable and much tidier than before.

[Anthony 1,003]

Next up was fixing the head so that I could get that back on and hopefully the engine running again.

 

Was all nice and straight forward thankfully, which makes a refreshing change. All of the cam bearing bolts came out without rounding, the cams and lifters appeared good, and it was only the two inlet valves on #3 that were bent

 

 

A couple of replacement valves were quickly lapped in and all appeared good - I'd been a bit worried that the bent valve might have damaged the seat, but the lapping revealled a nice uniform grey colour the entire way round the seat and a matching line the entire way around the valve.

 

 

Head was then reassembled and fitted back onto the block using a new head gasket and the headbolts torqued down in sequence. I personally don't follow the Peugeot recommended method, and instead torque the bolts in stages first to 25lbft, then 50lbft, and finally 75lbft as was always recommended by Dave Baker and a few others. I'm sure that there's people that will disagree, but that's always worked for me over the years.

 

Cambelt back on, wiring loom refitted, manifold on, exhaust bolted back in place and finally the breathers and cooling system plumbed back in, and it's ready to start. After cranking it over a few times to get some oil circulated, it fired up first turn of the key and most importantly on four cylinders this time!

 

Did a quick compression test, and it revealed a healthy 200psi across all four cylinders.

 

The top end was a bit rattly while the hydraulic tappets sorted themselves out, but otherwise it idled smoothly with no leaks or anything else untoward. I left it ticking over whilst I tidied away tools and finished bleeding the cooling system, and after a couple of minutes the tappets had quieten down and everything looked good bar a slight whine from the cambelt that was a little over-tensioned.

[Anthony 1,003]

Finished off the last couple of bits and took the car for a test drive.

 

Owing to the engine being a non-runner when I bought it, I hadn't previously driven the car and I didn't quite know what to expect - the seller had claimed that it drove well other than the rear beam, but experience has taught me to pretty much ignore anything anyone says about how a car drives as most people seem to think that sloppy, inprecise handling with a whole multitude of accompnying knocks and bangs is perfectly normal for a 205 GTi. It really isn't.

 

Turns out that my pessimism was well placed as - to put it bluntly - the car drives dreadfully.

 

Turning to the positives for a moment, the engine all seems to be OK - idles fine, pulls well, stable coolant and oil temperatures, reasonable oil pressure, and no obvious leaks. Performance is slightly hard to gauge as Mi16's always feel a bit underwhelming on 1.9 GTi gearboxes, but certainly there's plenty of urge on-cam and the speedo climbs at an acceptable rate of knots.

 

Gearbox seemed to be OK as well, which was surprising as the seller had said that it was quite noisey but there's no obvious evidence of that - perhaps it just needed an oil change, as the oil that came out clearly hadn't been changed recently going by the colour of it? Time will tell I'm sure. The gear change is the usual stirring soup affair, but all the gears engage cleanly and without grinding and graunching.

 

Unfortunately, that's about where the positives end.

 

Being kind about the handling it is at best vague and uninspiring, and certainly a country mile from the sort of precision and sharpness that these cars were praised for when they were new. Even driving around quite gingerly you weren't entirely sure what it was going to do, as one corner it would turn in quite eagerly and the next it just didn't want to know, and even considering driving at any kind of spirited pace seemed distinctly ill-advised.

 

The fact that the steering wheel is way off center when travelling straight ahead suggests that the tracking is probably way off and a good place to start, compounded by the fact that when I later checked the rack wasn't centralised either which can give all sorts of odd effects. A 205 wishbone on one side and a 309 on the other won't exactly help matters much either...

 

It gets worse when you move onto the brakes as frankly they're dangerous. I knew that the OSR caliper had a habit of binding slightly after the handbrake had been applied which I still need to look into, but there's either a big imbalance in the front brakes or something badly amiss with the suspension, as braking normally the car pulls heavily to the nearside and it changes lanes with any significant brake application.

 

Wheel balancing (or worse) is way out too, with significant vibration as you approach 65-70 and quickly worsens. I'm not just talking a little feedback through the wheel as you get if a wheel is a few grams out, but the sort of vibration that made me question whether I had forgotten to do the wheel bolts up.

 

The thing that utterly perplexes me is how on earth this car was being daily driven up until a couple of months ago when it was taken off the road to fix the head gasket and the balls-up that then followed. I can accept that things have a habit of slowly deteriorating and thus if you're using the car daily it isn't always apparent how bad things have got, but anyone driving this must surely have realised that it wasn't at all right and desperately needed attention?

 

Had I realised that it was this bad I very much doubt that I would have bought it, but this is always a risk when you buy a car that you've not driven and you're relying on the sellers honesty and judgement. Still, it is what it is and I'll get to the bottom of the handling and braking ills in due course - for now though it's been banished round the back of the house on the metaphorical naughty step.

[Anthony 1,003]

That basically brings things up to date with how stands at the moment.

 

Things that I need to look into and address next:

 

1. Rebuild/replace the rear beam.
   
2. Fit a replacement matching pair of wishbones
   
3. Centralise rack and set the tracking
   
4. Look into binding issue with O/S/R handbrake
   
5. Check front brake caliper pistons and sliders are free
   
6. Swap wheels for a known good and balanced set

That little lot should hopefully fix most of the current ills and improve driveability tenfold.

[Leet205 48]

A good read as always, looking forward to the next installment.

[jackherer 543]

While pulling that through the bulkhead, I found the remains of an old car alarm that Andy had bypassed when it had packed up one day, so I removed the remaining wiring to tidy it up and prevent any possible issues in the future. As is the case with most "professionally fitted" alarms that I see, this was a complete shower of s**t and everything was attached with scotchlock connectors.

 

Scotchlock connectors sounds like one of the better "professionally fitted" alarms to me. I recently removed an immobiliser fitted by a 'pro' with a certificate and the main live feeds were hooked onto bare wires from the ignition barrel. By that I mean they hadn't even gone to the effort of twisting the wires together, they were just bent back once then taped over!

[BenC 6]

You seem to be moving through this very quickly! Looks like you've saved another 205 from the scrapheap!

[gsidave 3]

Looking at what you have done, are doing makes me realise the task ahead of me with mine. Do the engine wiring looms come out that easy ? As mines poor at best. And also has the dreaded there but not used 80s alarm.

[Anthony 1,003]

Scotchlock connectors sounds like one of the better "professionally fitted" alarms to me. I recently removed an immobiliser fitted by a 'pro' with a certificate and the main live feeds were hooked onto bare wires from the ignition barrel. By that I mean they hadn't even gone to the effort of twisting the wires together, they were just bent back once then taped over!

The depressing thing is of course you're right - this isn't the worse one I've seen by a long shot, but it's still representative of the dreadful standard that most are fitted to by so called "professionals"

 

If anyone wants a laugh have a look for the installation criteria for a CAT1 or CAT2 system to be "approved" and then compare it to what the fitters actually do and then still have the audacity to sign off to say it's been done properly

 

Looking at what you have done, are doing makes me realise the task ahead of me with mine. Do the engine wiring looms come out that easy ? As mines poor at best. And also has the dreaded there but not used 80s alarm.

Just crack on one part at a time and you'll soon make good progress

 

Depends on the wiring loom how easy it is to remove. If it's the original 8v one that's never been out, then it's a bit of a pain as you need to partly remove the main dashboard section (and all that entails) to get it out as the loom runs over the top of the steering column and strengthening/bracing, but the chances are if the loom has been out before then it'll be run under the dash and it's a doddle to remove. Engine bay side is easy enough, although it's easier with the inlet manifold removed.

 

Alarms are usually easy enough to remove as the cowboys that fitted them usually did so in the laziest possible fashion, so most of the connections will be easily accessible. If you get stuck, usually just look for black wires and follow them - I'm not going to go into too much detail for obvious reasons though.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

Wurth do a excellent Alloy repair paste, comes in a nice tube and sets so hard it can be machined, I've patched up a couple a couple of water pump holes with no leaks at all.

Just need a door lock now

[jackherer 543]

If anyone wants a laugh have a look for the installation criteria for a CAT1 or CAT2 system to be "approved" and then compare it to what the fitters actually do and then still have the audacity to sign off to say it's been done properly

 

When I replaced the one mentioned above I didn't want it to look too different to the one it replaced so it could effectively carry on using the same certificate. This led me to read a copy of the Thatcham installation requirements and what you say is right, I've never seen a professional install that followed it much if at all. One element I recall is a requirement to remove a good length (1000mm or more IIRC) of the wire being interrupted by the immobiliser to make it harder for a thief to rejoin it which I have never come across in 20+ immobilisers I've removed.

 

The other thing that concerns me about immobilisers is the extremely thin wire used, they rate it as fine for the current to the starter solenoid but in 205s I'm sure this contributes to the widespread clicking starter issues.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

I have only found 1 install to those spec's, was a few years ago but was surprised, even on a Friend car's with a bill for over £850.00 on a Clifford Alarm the install was nothing short of cr*p, as anyone with some knowledge knows that most 205's can be started within seconds of getting in no matter who the alarm is installed

[Anthony 1,003]

Well, it's safe to say that the more I do on this car, the more I'm convinced that I've been stitched up a treat and that I am wasting my time trying to make this into a nice standard example

 

Trying to get to the bottom of the handling woes, I started by centering the steering rack properly (the often missed out critical first step!) and checking the tracking to see if it was out, and as I suspect it was - massively - running in excess of 1.5 degrees toe out! To give you an idea how far out that is, as standard 205's run in the region of about 0.15-0.2 degrees toe in...

 

Trying to centralise the wheel and get the tracking back in spec gave the first clue that something was distinctly untoward as I ran out of adjustment on the offside trackrod and still needed probably another 2-3 turns of so to get the wheel to point straight ahead. I temporarily compensated by just winding the nearside track rod out a bit more to get the tracking value correct so that I could drive the car (with the wheel sat off-center), but clearly that's the wrong way to go about things and the underlying problem needed addressing.

 

With the excessive toe-out banished and the front wheels once again tracked correctly, the car drove fractionally better but still things weren't at all right - it felt noticeably different between turning left and right, and was pulling fairly noticeably to one side.

 

The mismatched wishbones seemed like an obvious cause, but standing back from the car the curious thing was that despite one side having a 205 wishbone and one a 309, the camber appeared to be very similar - perhaps even more on the side with the 205 wishbone, which clearly wasn't right. Other tale-tale signs of past incident included a badly domed strut top on the side with the replacement wishbone, so off with the struts, replace the dampers with a known good/straight set, and straighten out the domed strut top.

 

 

Once you've managed to get the strut out, which often needs a little pursausion given how splayed out the studs on the top mount are, it's fairly easy to straighten the strut top - nothing more technical than a piece of 2x4 offcut and a club hammer to knock it back straight. It doesn't need much more than a few fairly gentle hits to knock it back straight again, which really does show how weak it is and why that is one part that's strengthened on rally prepped 205 shells.

 

I swapped the top mounts, bearings (both of which were still quite good) and springs over to a spare set of dampers, and once fitted back in place, turned my attention to the wishbones and replacing the current mismatched set. I picked up a pair of 205 GTi wishbones from Will (iamjackiechan) from the 205 that he's breaking with OK balljoints and a set of newish looking Powerflex bushes fitted.

 

 

Removing the existing wishbones confirmed my suspicions that it did have one 205 and one 309 wishbone, and sure enough, with the new wishbones fitted and the car back on the ground, both front wheels were now showing correct camber (or rather, lack thereof). I now had justenough adjustment on the TRE to get the tracking right and the steering wheel straight ahead too, although there was still a considerable difference in the amount of thread showing on either side which isn't desirable and points at something not being quite right.

 

Not quite right summed up how the car drove too - it was a massive improvement over how it was before, now atleast feeling like I was in full control of the car (which speaks volumes of how bad it was previously!) although it still fell far, far short of how a 205 should drive. I know that the beam isn't brilliant by any means, but my gut feeling is that whatever is wrong is related to the front - even with a poor beam there should be plenty of feel in the steering, should be some bite and willing in the corners, and there was neither.

 

What isn't yet clear is exactly what. The rack itself appears fine and both track rods are straight and the same length, so doesn't look like that's the cause of the mis-matched threads, hubs both look OK, and the subframe doesn't appear bent in the usual places and measures up the same as a spare I've got. Easiest way to prove it is to swap anything suspect out, but I have my nagging doubts that this is just a turd of a 205 that's never going to be "right"...

[Anthony 1,003]

Oh, and on the subject of not being right, the brakes are still a liability and there's clearly something wrong there too - there's plenty of initial bite, but asking anything more just causes the car to swerve across the road in a distinctly offputting fashion.

 

Not immediately clear what's wrong there either given that both front brakes (which obviously do the bulk of the braking) appear to be good - disks and pads are both nearly new, and pistons and sliders move freely on both calipers. I've not looked into it beyond that yet though as I ran out of light and the bitter cold wasn't exactly helping with the flu-like bug I've managed to pick up, so I called it a night.

 

Well, almost - I fixed the sticking handbrake quickly to see if that was behind the braking woes (it wasn't) and to make the car easier to move around once I remove the Mi16 engine that I've provisionally sold with an aim to putting it back to a standard 1.9 8v. Turns out that the cable that apparently "seemed fine" was almost completely seized where the inner cable had completely unravelled and rusted - obviously anything but "fine" merely just glancing at it - and with another cable fitted, the handbrake works nicely again.

 

*sigh*

[sensualt101 31 1 Cars]

dont give up mate! i am sure it is upsetting to feel that you have been sold a pup but you are well on the road to saving another 205 gti so i applaud you

 

it will all be worthwhile in the end and another of our favourite kind of cars will have been saved! i am sure when you have finished it will bring you a profit too!

[Carbs4me 45]

Looks like a nice 205! whats the white thing on the door? just out od curiosity!

[Anthony 1,003]

Looks like a nice 205! whats the white thing on the door? just out od curiosity!

Filler, precision applied with what I'm guessing to be a spade

 

Someone tried to break into the car at some point previously, and that was applied I'm assuming to cover the resulting damage. It's unsightly, but does the job and it was always Andy's intention to replace the door at some point.

 

I've sourced a replacement door, just need to pick it up when it has been removed.

[Leon 24]

The er... the carpet looks nice

 

Positive mental attitude....

[dcc 855]

To be fair Ant, you're doing the right thing, like you said, "Fix it or Strip it" - It WOULD have been a death trap to sell on, just a matter of time.