[car_upgrade] My Graphite Grey 1.6 > Gti6 Rebuild Project

[matty_gti 20]

Well after going through everyones project threads and sorting out all my pictures I thought I would start my own project thread seeing as everyone is doing a great job keeping these 205's on the road and up to date.

 

The story began 8 years ago when I was 16. Being excited that I could drive in a few months I went with my dad to a car auction. After spending several hours watching cars go through I finally found one I wanted so I made a few bids and won it!. My dad went mad and thought 'what on earth is your mother going to say!' (seeing as I was 16 and a half). Once we had paid for it my dad started to drive it home and said 'O well done Matt this is a really nice car to drive' and that was something coming from my dad as he was use to Porsche's, BMW's and Range Rovers.

 

The car I bought for £400 was a 1.1 205 Trio...and it all started from there.

 

I spent the few months until I passed my test playing about and 'modding' it to this...(please bare in mind this was when I was 16!)

 

 

 

After driving for 6 months and loving every moment in the car I wondered whether Peugeot made a faster or GTI model 205 and thank god they did!.

 

I scouted the internet for a few weeks and with my parents knowing this said not to buy one. They went to Cornwall for a week and said again before leaving not to buy another car. Being me, they came back and found the project I'm working on now. I bought a 1989 Graphite Grey 1.6 GTI with 87,000 genuine miles on the clock with a full service history. The service history even had the original receipt from Peugeot when it was bought brand new. The new owner had it for aout 5 years and was then bought by an elderly gent. He they sold it to son who then owned it for a further few years before putting it on eBay. I went to see it and made and offer and a deal was done for the sum of £250.

 

I got it straight back home as it had several months MOT and several months tax which i got refunded for £100.

 

This is how she stood wen I got her home. Not in great condition but nothing that a bit of TLC wouldn't sort.

 

 

 

 

Well that's the first post of many so keep watching....

Edited February 5, 2012 by matty_gti

[matty_gti 20]

Soon after getting the new car home I started working on her, that weekend in fact.

 

First thing was to replace the cracked from bumper and headlight, refurb the trim pieces and a general tidy. The heater matrix was leaking along with the rear wheel cylinders so these were all replaced. Still being young I thought it would look cool to have de-locked doors and smooth wings so I set to it. I removed the locks and side repeaters and started filling them with mesh and fibre glass which actually didn't do a that bad job. I then experimented with a few sets of wheels. I painted all the trim pieces and thought the actual body work was letting it down so after arranging to have her sprayed I removed all the exterior bits I could to keep costs down. Still being new to cars I found this to be really cool stripping a car 'ready for paint'.

 

Just a few of these pictures were taken on my mobile so are pretty poor but they do get alot better...

 

 

 

 

 

 

After getting her re-painted I started putting all the trim back on and finally found a set of wheels I liked. I also had tinted windows fitted and I fitted smoked smoked rear lenses along with some carbon fibre rear quarter badges. Focusing on the brakes I gave these a good clean and painted them red then fitted EBC green stuff pads razor brake discs to the front. After all this was done I finally had her MOT'd and road worthy...for about 3 months.

 

 

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

At what point did you overcome your lowered suspension phobia?

 

 

[dcc 855]

Oh dear lord! This reminds me of the marmite relationship with sartys TSW's

[gsidave 3]

Looking at the size of those wheels make you realise that 205 don't suit any bigger than 15 inch wheels. Looking forward to more progress through the years photos.

[matty_gti 20]

At what point did you overcome your lowered suspension phobia?

 

About 3 months after driving it! . I hit a massive pot hole that shattered the aluminium around the head and block causing the engine to fall and sit on the subframe so dad to the rescue, towed me home where I parked her up and left her for about 3 years.

 

Bearing in my mind I was 17 and had no idea about cars except that 'cool cars go in max power' but this all changed VERY quickly .

 

While my project car was sat sitting sorry for its self with the engine collapsed in one corner of the drive I bought another graphite grey 1.6 to use as spares as the initial plan was just to do an engine replacement which slowly started to happen but I then realised how knackard the engine was so this was pulled apart to learn on. I did learn alot about these cars while do that so the best way to learn is get stuck in!.

 

It was a 1986 phase 1 1.6 8v that ran like &*%$, well you get the idea.

 

 

 

After having it taken away I then bought another graphite grey 1.6 8v (can see a patter emerging here) that had just failed it MOT but with enough of an MOT to drive home...

 

 

 

I did the work needed, which was a brake line, a couple of bushes and the rear fog light. I had it MOT'd which it passed, to bring it back home and put it on eBay (I spend alot of time buying and selling on there! ) It sold to someone in Wales that didn't even see it. They just turned up, paid me, stick the trade plates on and off they went leaving me with a small profit. I was well chuffed at this point.

 

After scrapping the doner GTI and getting the other one sold I went back to driving my 1.1 Trio for about 6 months.

 

I started hunting for another GTI after moaing about having no power and found this lovely example,

 

 

A 1.6 8v that covered 90k with next to no service history. All I needed to do was replace the wishbones and thats when the learning started, all self taught. I then found some speedlines on eBay and fitted them along with some French style number plates.

 

 

I then found this one that cost about £400. Needed a bit of tinkering to get running right but again it all helped with the learning curve. I then drove it for a few months before selling it to a guy who rolled it the next day.

 

 

After wanting more power and having 3 205's on the drive I found this 1.9 Turbo Technics and after again bidding on ebay I made the few hour drive and brought her home.

 

 

 

As you can tell the 205 bug was well and truly caught!.

Edited February 6, 2012 by matty_gti

[qwerty 9]

Nice write up here mate

 

bet you could of killed when the red one got rolled, look really smart

 

cant wait to see more

[cybernck 402 1 Cars]

I remember when you first joined up and posted pics of the 205 with 17's on .

[matty_gti 20]

Nice write up here mate

 

bet you could of killed when the red one got rolled, look really smart

 

cant wait to see more

 

Yeah it was a bit annoying as I did tell him to be careful as he went from a 1.1 fiesta to that!, worst point is when the police came round my house and told my mum that 'your son has rolled a red Peugeot 205 and left the seen'!. My mum instantly got upset then said, 'wait a minute, he sold that car yesterday'. And that was that.

 

I remember when you first joined up and posted pics of the 205 with 17's on .

 

That was a few years ago now when I thought it was cool!.

 

Bit of an update...

 

Well the car sat on my drive for around 3 years before I really started to work on her again. I decided to buy an engine crane from machine mart (used it countless amount of times now) and get stuck in. I'll let some pictures do the talking,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will try and add some more tonight.

[Josh_Quant 27]

i just love how many you actually had

 

you just got the 1 now??

[matty_gti 20]

Yeah just the one 205 at the moment. I think the most I've had on my drive at any one time was four as I went through about eight 205's in 4 years. Now I've got a 306 gti6 as my daily driver.

[matty_gti 20]

Some more of the engine bay stripping...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[matty_gti 20]

I then turned my attention to plating all the nuts, bolts and brackets etc and also cleaning and painting the brake servo and pedal box.

 

 

 

 

 

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I really enjoy your updates. Get your arse into gear and get loads of pictures up! We all love Pictures.

 

That TT looks very nice

[Hroche 2]

good works

[matty_gti 20]

I really enjoy your updates. Get your arse into gear and get loads of pictures up! We all love Pictures.

 

That TT looks very nice

 

I would but photobucket is being a right pain!, but I've finally managed to get some uploaded!. I've also got a few pictures to come showing me breaking up the TT.

 

Time for some painting!...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To start with...I need to have some 1.9 hubs powder coated

 

 

Edited February 26, 2012 by matty_gti

[matty_gti 20]

With the bay finally painted it was time for some goodies to go back on!. I have had every nut, bolt and bracket either plated or powder coated along with all the larger items such as the sub-frame, ARB rear beam etc. Either that or they have been cleaned, prepped and then painted!.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After fitting the subframe with a new and painted sterring rack, new TRE's, new ARB bushes I then turned my attention to fitting my new 309 wishbones that I had fitted with Peugeot OE bushes as I wanted them to last. I then sorted the front shocks so I painted them and had the springs and the top mount assemblys powder coated.

[matty_gti 20]

More pictures to follow

[matty_gti 20]

A long over due update...picture time!

 

 

 

 

Fitting OE bushes to my 309 wishbones

 

 

Painting and powder coating

 

 

 

[matty_gti 20]

Gave the shocks a few coats of paint after painting the lowered springs (lowered around 35mm). Then more painting,

 

 

 

 

After I fitted all this last year the car then sat in the corner of the drive for around 18 months until last year where I pushed her over to the other side of the drive to get stuck in!. First off was to put the car on axel stands and strip everything out from the inside and remove the rear beam and bumper.

 

 

 

 

More to follow after photobucket behaves!

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

That engine bay is looking awesome. Did you buy any stickers when I did the group buy?

[matty_gti 20]

A few of the underneath before I started...

 

 

 

 

 

[matty_gti 20]

That engine bay is looking awesome. Did you buy any stickers when I did the group buy?

 

I knew the bay was missing something!

 

Next task was removing the beam. This was a bik awkward due to its weight but got it off easily enough, it's only 3 bolts after all. Then off came the full tank which only had about 1 litre of full in that made it light!.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plan for the beam was to be stripped and all parts blasted and powder coated with all new bearing and seals etc but before that the under side needed a freshen up!.

 

After taking off the beam and full tank I could see what muck and rust was before me which didn't look to bad until I got the drill and wire bruses out!. This really was a horrible job that took around 3 days to tackle but what a differance....which you will see in my next update .

 

Comments and questions welcome.

[cybernck 402 1 Cars]

Nice one! Keep us updated.

[matty_gti 20]

Update!.

 

Right I needed a plan, and that was to first strip it all out...

 

 

 

 

The black 306 on axel stands in the first picture I had recently bought as a bargain on autotrader. The plan for that was to fix it up and sell it on but after poking my finger through a rusty hole on the underside I decided to break it selling everything apart from the engine as it was fitted with cams and the brake calipers as these would be used for the 205. I stripped the whole lot and had the shell crushed.

 

 

Keep watching