Almost Dead 205 Back 2 Life

[fog1 (one) 4 1 Cars]

Hi everyone.

I decided that i want to post a topic of my cars restoration project.

 

I bought the car in 2010 10 march.

It was in very bad condition. The engine was completely taken apart and was in the trunk of the car.
The car had big rust problems. And had front springs cut down half way and the rear beam was completely dead and the car was sitting almost on the ground.
The previous owner had done loads of bad things to the car.
The original seats and wheels where gone as well.

 

So I decided to buy the car and wanted to restore it to it`s orogonal condition.

That's how it looked like when i started to work on it.

First i decided i need to start with the engine. So i bought a complete 1,9l engine.

And after short time i first installed it in the car.

As you can see the front end of the car is nothing but rust.

 

Shortly after the engine was started for the first time i understood that the engine had oil problems.

So the engine went straight back to it`s seller.

 

And working on the car i understood that i need to weld new front end.

So i stripped all the car and found more and more rust

Taht was just the rust at the front end.

The rust was also at the side skirts and rear of the car.

 

After long period of welding.

The car needed to be primed and painted.

The car from factory had electric windows and central locking. Before me someone had changed the doors and had cut the wires.
Since then the car had manual windows, but i knew that i will put the electric windows back in.

 

I toed the car to the painters garage. And he did a complete respray. Except for the engine bay.

The car had two colors. but i didn`t like that.

I wanted it to be just red.

I didn`t like the red paint that it had. It seemed to me that is too light and looked a bit pink or orange.

So i found the red tone that i liked.

It was the paint from volkswagen. Tornado red.

 

In the time when the car was painted i started to work on the engine.

I send the engine to my friend who is a big 205 gti fan and also a good engine builder.

He helped me with the engine rebuild.

The engine is standard 1,6 with a head with big valves.

I had problems with the electrics in the engine compartment. I didn`t know which wires go where.

And the engine didn`t run when i hooked up the wires. And there where some empty wires as well.

So i got an electric to help me.

He had to work pretty hard to fix some bad wires and get the car working.

 

Sometimes i thought that this project will never end cause i always could find something broken, or something i had to redo.

 

It was 2 years already since i started working on the car and finaly it started to look like one

 

All this time my car had no exhaust. So i had to custom build a new one.

Starting from the downpipe all the way back we welded a stainless steel exhaust 60mm in diameter with the back box from magnaflow.

 

My plan is to finish the car till summer. Get the original recaro seats, and drive as much as i can.

 

Sorry for my english. I hope it was interesting for you guys to read

John

[pugpete1108 62 1 Cars]

nice little project, had a fair bit of rust to deal with too.

 

its the 205 way though, when you think its fixed something else breaks

[fog1 (one) 4 1 Cars]

Yes that is true. And the sad part is that some parts are almoast imposible to find in my country. Cause the 205GTi seems to be the rearest car here. In good condition there are maximum 5.

[jamie_1992 66 1 Cars]

very nice will be worth all that hard work once its done

[calvinhorse 870]

Great work, welldone

[farmer 328 1 Cars]

Where do you source your parts about ?

[fog1 (one) 4 1 Cars]

Thank you.

 

Parts that can be bought new i usualy get in few days. But to find some interior or body parts are hard. Now I`m searching bonnet hinges i can`t seem to find anywhere. I hope somebody can help me to find them.

Edited February 27, 2013 by fog1 (one)

[DamirGTI 342]

This incredibly reminds me on my 205 GTi "journey" , on my first red 205 GTi 1.6 Ph1 (was 22 birthday gift from myself to myself )

 

It was also an boy racer's car , molested , in very bad state as an base for a project , so much rust and so much stuff for fixing up/getting it back to the standard look .. and took me also some 2 or 3 years to "pile it all together" !

 

Never regret for buying it thou , was an really hard job to sort it out but well worth .. cos , when i tried driving it for the first time , none of the issues didn't bother me as the car was so much fun to drive ! something special .

 

10 years after it's still my daily car , aside from other two GTi's ...

 

D

[Kezzer30 40 1 Cars]

Terrific work my friend , great save we need more people like yourself to help save a few more

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Amazing work my friend! How long till it is the norm that cars in this state start getting repaired in the UK!?

[Juttie205 123 2 Cars]

Repairing is the way forward none of this reshelling stuff.

[fog1 (one) 4 1 Cars]

Big thanks to all of you

Nice to hear good words

[Juttie205 123 2 Cars]

Nice to see another 205 saved.

[mikeygulley 19 1 Cars]

Looks fantastic!

[boldy205 75]

good work, thats a lot of welding!

[sensualt101 31 1 Cars]

i really admire those who restore rather than re shell so hats off to you and i am sure it will be worth all that hard work when complete