My 205 Restoration.

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

Hello all, thought i'd share with you the progress i have made with my 205. I got this car from my brother who had owned it for the past 10 years. it was his daily until he had 2 kids! I used to love him taking me out in it when i was about 12, so was chuffed to finally get my hands on it and (attempt!) to restore it back to road/showworthy condition. The car itself is a 1.9 8v completely standard from 1991. The paintwork was fubar'd, few car park dents and minor rust creeping in. It really didn't look very tidy when i picked it up.

I was lucky enough to find dry storage for it in my GF's dad's lorry shed. Here i had all the tools and space to begin work sanding back the horrible paintwork!

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

Well, i'm not 100% sure on how to use this forum yet, and to post pics of my progress, but here goes.

I decided the 205 needed an original colour respray. There was no way i could afford to get this done by a professional sprayer, so, since i had a dry heated shed with a 150ltr compressor, i thought i'd give it ago myself! I picked up a cheap Sealey HVLP spray gun from ebay, 3ltrs of Peugeot graphite grey metallic Basecoat from Auto Paint St Helens (very good!), and a couple of litres of Hi-build primer.

 

I've never done anything like this before so it was all a massive learning curve, but very enjoyable. I started to sand back the knackered paint and locate any small dents ready to be filled. There wasn't much rust on the outside, tiny bit on the rear drivers arch. With the help of my buddy Hywel ( he's on 106owners) we quickly removed all plastic door and arch trim, bumpers, these were a b*tch to get off as all the bolts sheared! Removing the front bumper revealed a nice patch of surface rust under the n/s headlight.

I went to my local auto shop and picked up 500ml bottle of Jenolite rust remover... ( any one used this before?) which was quite expensive, but boy did it work effectively!

 

I wire wheeled the worst of the loose rust off, cleaned it off then applied a generous wipe-over with this stuff. The tin says wait 15mins then reapply. I couldn't believe how well it worked, quickly bringing the orange rust back to a black metal ready for paint!

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

Well, i'm not 100% sure on how to use this forum yet, and to post pics of my progress, but here goes.

I decided the 205 needed an original colour respray. There was no way i could afford to get this done by a professional sprayer, so, since i had a dry heated shed with a 150ltr compressor, i thought i'd give it ago myself! I picked up a cheap Sealey HVLP spray gun from ebay, 3ltrs of Peugeot graphite grey metallic Basecoat from Auto Paint St Helens (very good!), and a couple of litres of Hi-build primer.

 

I've never done anything like this before so it was all a massive learning curve, but very enjoyable. I started to sand back the knackered paint and locate any small dents ready to be filled.

I used a draper expert random orbit sander with 160 grit discs to remove the deeply crazed lacquer and topcoat. There wasn't much rust on the outside, tiny bit on the rear drivers arch. With the help of my buddy Hywel ( he's on 106owners) we quickly removed all plastic door and arch trim, bumpers, these were a b*tch to get off as all the bolts sheared! Removing the front bumper revealed a nice patch of surface rust under the n/s headlight.

 

To be fair to a 22 year old car, the metalwork cold have been alot worse. I found a few small dings, which i set upon with Isopon filler.

The plastic bumpers which would have once been a deep grey, had seriously faded and looked almost blue! I knew i'd have to sort these out as they really let a cars looks down. It is also missing a Peugeot badge on the back.

I went to my local auto shop and picked up 500ml bottle of Jenolite rust remover... ( any one used this before?) which was quite expensive, but boy did it work effectively!

I wire wheeled the worst of the loose rust off, cleaned it off then applied a generous wipe-over with this stuff. The tin says wait 15mins then reapply. I couldn't believe how well it worked, quickly bringing the orange rust back to a black metal ready for paint!

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

Right, all bar the masking, the Pug's surface was nearly ready to paint. I couldn't go about that just yet though as I was working flat out and knew i needed a window of about a week minimum to prime, flat, colour, lacquer etc... Luckily I had 2 weeks off work coming up! But in the meantime, i set about buying a few nice touches for the car when it's done.

 

I'm still looking for some decent suspension for the front, any one got any Gaz for sale let me know. The bosch battery i got from Eurocar parts on ebay... couldn't believe it £35.99, free shipping with a 4 year warranty on it!! And i've always loved the look of french pressed plates and think it will really set the car off.

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

2 weeks off work!!! Right, i had a spray gun, a space heater ( good job as it was -4 outside in the daytime!) rolls and rolls of masking tape, and a decent quality respirator mask.

I began the slow process of masking.

 

I quite enjoy masking, it is time consuming as you have to get it right, but just take your time and re-do any bits your not happy with.

 

 

Rear windows out:

[205turbo 32 2 Cars]

 

did you not dent the roof sanding it like that?

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

Haha no, it does look like it though. All my weight was above the pillars. More pics coming.

[firstcar_205gti 2 1 Cars]

hope the respray goes well for you mate , something id quite like to give a go

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

I decided i was happy with the masking, and after de-greasing the body, started to thin some High build. I've never sprayed before and stupidly didn't spray a test panel first? I kind of set the gun up as I went.. and well heres the result after a couple of coats...

 

 

I was pleased with how well it was going on, laying down nice and flat!...At this point when the paint is wet do you realise just how many insect and other things are actually floating about!

Ahh well, it was to be expected from a diy job, no runs yet at least.

More primer.

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

Cheers mate, definately give it a go if you have a decent sized shed! I kind of learned how the paint wanted to be sprayed as i went along, nice and steady and let the gun do the work. Also prep work is key.

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

I read that alot of people find the roof the most awkward place to spray, but i found i could get the paint down alot better on the roof than anywhere else for some reason?.. The hardest place for me was along the tops of the sills as it was difficult getting so low whilst maintaining a steady movement.

 

For any one whose never sprayed before, and especially if your on a tight budget, don't be put off and don't go spending megabucks on a Devilbliss gun just cos you think you have to. (unless you really want to of course).

What i'm trying to say is that very reasonable to decent results can be achieved without breaking the bank. The Sealey gold gun i used was £29.99 from the 'bay.

 

I applied 3 coats of primer before leaving it to dry. This was last week in the freezing cold weather so it took a while before it was dry enough to start flatting back.

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

Oh, also whilst the primer was drying i started refurbing the plastic trim which was seriously sun faded... I just gently rubbed each piece down with a sanding block, careful not to go to hard and remove the mottled effect. I used halford's black trim paint. Made such a difference!

 

And how about this for a quirky feature: whilst masking the rear windows from inside the car, i opened the little ashtray and found this of all things!!

Look at the sell by date! Someone put that in there about 4 years after the car rolled out the factory! Still smelled like wine gums

More pics coming soon folks. Josh.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

I'd remove the side repeater, Sunroof trim or the paint will start to peel off in no time around here, It's quicker than masking it off too, Same for the door locks and handles, Ariel etc

 

Also make sure it's not damp when spraying the final coat or you could end up with mirco blisters appearing in no time at all when the damp comes thru

 

Nice bag of sweets

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I have to agree with the above, seems a shame not to take off things like the sunroof, key barrels and repeaters.

 

Looks as though you're doing a cracking job though, I've just rollered a entire van and it came out great!

[speno 239 2 Cars]

Fair play to having a crack at it but like the other comments take the bits off instead of masking it up , would take one hour to take off the plastic trim etc

preparation is everything

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

Cheers for your helpful comments guys, but unfortunately I have already sprayed the car with it masked like that. But i've learned how to do alot of things differently next time i try spraying so any more advice welcome! More pics coming soon of the colour.

Josh.

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Don't fancy your chances of the body trims keeping the paint on em for long, I did mine with halfrauds stuff and the jetwasher took almost all of it straight off first time i washed it

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

I flatted the primer back using 1000 grit wet and dry, using plenty of water and taking care around edges as the sand paper soon cuts through the paint. Time for the Graphite Grey!

I noticed with the primer it was going on quite thick, probably too think for a thinner Basecoat paint. So i reduced the amount of flow on the gun, and upped the pressure slightly.

 

If anyone is after a decent quality respirator mask for a very reasonable price, Ebay have Gerson ones for about 17 quid. Very good fit and I couldn't smell any paint. It says it can even deal with the most nastiest stuff, like 2 pack paint.

Credit here to Auto paint Saint Helens, they have a decent website and I couldn't fault the paint. They said to mix the metallic Basecoat 50:50 with basecoat thinners, but I mixed it 60:40 paint to thinner as I was afraid of getting runs.

First coat goes on:

 

After one coat, you really get a feel for the gun, and how the basecoat lays down. I found it hard to do a 50% overlap of strokes, without making obvious stripes in the paint, you can make them out slightly on the bonnet.

 

 

The metallic flake looked epic when the paint was wet! Really nice colour.

 

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

Don't fancy your chances of the body trims keeping the paint on em for long, I did mine with halfrauds stuff and the jetwasher took almost all of it straight off first time i washed it

Oh dear! I'd best do it by hand then.

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

I put another coat on, then let it dry for a couple of hours. It was going on very good! Mucchhh better than i expected, there was bugger all orange peel, and no runs. The only thing that bothered me was the slight streakyness on the bonnet. I decided to put another 2 coats on without flatting it all back, as it was going on ok, and so far no insects or other sh*te had found its way into my paint!

 

 

 

 

 

Picked up these aswell:

 

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

Hey all, thought I'd update you to where I am now with the pug..... The colour went on really well, much better than i expected... There was slight orange peel, but this didn't bother me that much, because it still looked like a fresh paint job!!

 

Miraculously , I had managed to not get any runs!... or sags ...

 

I sprayed the first coat of lacquer way to heavy... ... and got serious runs on the boot though!.... Absolutely gutted, but not to worry, the rest was still ok.

It was just a case of masking the rest of the car off and re-doing the boot.

 

 

A picture of the boot mid-sand after the runs...

[firstcar_205gti 2 1 Cars]

atleast it was just the boot mate, looks like you got a good result though. you can respray my 205 when i get 1 again lol

[Joshgti91 4 1 Cars]

Luckily I had enough paint to completely respray the boot, and as the last coat went tacky, it was time for more clear.

 

It went on a treat 2nd time round, and gave it 4 more coats. Looking back it coulda done with more clear, but im happy with it for now!!

 

Pictures of a nearly finished 205 ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Started putting the bumpers and side trim back on.. also the once missing Peugeot badge! The bumpers are not secure, need to get some new bolts and rear brackets as they were all rotten.

French plates!...and an 8v sticker I just had too...

 

 

 

[NFS 32]

Hi mate, i spray paint quite a lot and tbh the paint aint going to last very long around the edge you have masked off, dont jetwash it!

 

anyway fair play for trying it yourself, however in hind sight you should have tested and got used to your gun first, it would have made everything easier for you like the run in the boot.

 

im looking forward to seeing what the finished resaults is like after the compound,

 

and my final note, any face mask that is not clean air fed is not up to the job when i come to 2k paint, you may not be able to smell paint but the most harmful thing in the paint is isocyanates you cannot smell them and currently there are no filter that can filter it out no matter what fee-bay says! trust me! isocyanates poisoning is something you can do without.

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Are you going to flat the lacquer?