[Car_Overhaul] Miss Miami

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

Hi all,

Here goes on the my 1st proper post, introducing the latest purchase, how it's came about, and what the plans are for it.

I'd been looking out for a GTi for quite a while. I was mainly interested in the later Ph2 cars but wasnt worried whether it was a 1.6, 1.9 or Mi16/GTi6 converted , just wanted somthing in reasonable shape, that hadnt been butchered or chavved out. Although 205 GTi's are relatively common (well, relative to the old, rain soluble Fords that I’m used to) being located in N.Ireland seemed to limit my choice a little. After viewing a few, I did eventually come across a 93 sorrento green 1.9 advertised in Dublin, so after a quick run over the border, a look around and a nights pondering, I rang the guy, agreed a price and went back down with the trailer to get it. I’ll start another thread for ‘Miss Sorrento’ later.

 

So, now that I had got my 1^st GTi, how the hell did I end up with another one? I think it’s mainly down to this ‘bug’ I’ve heard people talk about. I swear, I only went on to look for a steel water pipe, yet found myself watching loads of other parts and 205’s. Then one Saturday night, the inevitable happened and I now had a road trip to Gloucester to plan. It had been advertised as dry stored since 05, solid, but hadn’t been running. The pictures weren’t great but the interior seemed pretty good (which for a cloth interior is impressive) and there was a set of genuine mud flaps on it (which seem to be worth a lot to some folk out there!) I didn’t remember / realize until after, that the words “sold as a restoration project” and “would make good project or rally car” were in there too!

So, a 33 hour / 860 mile non-stop trip via Stockport (had a friend who needed a trailer load of belongings brought over to mainland) and myself and the girlfriend were back home. Our plans for a relaxing trundle through the lake district on the way back up were scuppered by the motorway rush hour traffic. Instead we ended up grabbing a KFC in Kendal, getting slightly lost and doing a few laps of the one way system before getting back on track but having to race to make the boat. A bit of a shame because it really would have been a beautiful drive from what I could see out of the corner of my eye! As for the GTi, I think I got off quite lucky (open to honest opinions here by the way), There’s the usual small car park dents, the passengers door will need fixing and the near side inner wing has just about rotted trough in the usual spot. A few marks around the petrol cap along with a different key for the ignition suggests a theft (or at least attempted theft) at some point but apart from that the little car seems very solid and very complete. It has parts still there that I never seen before, or realized ever existed like the plastic cover for the hole in the gear box, and even a little heat shield on the gear linkage joint closest to the exhaust!

..Right, apologies for the speech, less words, more pictures..

 

 

[Guest Spitfire2k6]

Looks the part mate! Just needs a bit of TLC and she'll be beautiful

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

So, a quick update.

 

Got the car over the pit for a better look and am happy enough to see there's no major rot, just a bit dry and flakey in places. Should get away with a days scraping / wire brushing / rust proofing / painting. I really dont want to have to remove the tank or strip the rear beam at this stage otherwise there's a risk it'll turn into a full strip down etc and just end up sitting beside the other half finished projects. I'm sure some of you know that gut wrenching, no light at the end of the tunnel feeling with different projects in different states of repair / dispair. The plan here was / is to get it roadworthy, get a few summer months driving and tease out any gremlins, then sort them out along with a beam refurb during the winter months.

 

 

 

Also, turns out there's been new brakes all round (rear drums still have the paper stickers on)

 

 

 

As the car had been stored inside for so long it was bone dry inside. It might have to sit outside for a while so I took an hour or two and stripped and cleaned the rear quarter seals and refitted with a good dose of black silicone, then checked sun roof drains were clear and gave it a good hosing while checking anywhere I could for water but all seems good.

 

After that, it was time to see what "non-running" meant. I put the jump leads on, but the immobiliser light didnt even come on, never mind the dash lights. So went to take a look around the small fuse box attached to the slam panel and the main +ve feed came out in my hand. A quick fix and we had ignition. A quick turn of the key and she spluttered and started! Couldnt believe it! She's alive!! ...I was feeling an emotional bond developing!

 

 

The car had been off the road since 05 and I would have sworn the petrol would have been "dead". I was even more surprised after to see the distributor cap it had managed to run on.

 

 

I filled her to the top with water to check for bubbles but all seems ok so far so hopefully head gaskets fine. Also found receipts for valve stem oil seals shortly before coming off the road and there's certainly no signs of smoke, so here's hoping the head can stay put.

The only concern is a rumbling noise, like a dry bearing somewhere. It's hard to make out where exactly it's coming from. I'm hoping it's the water pump which will be replaced along with a new belt and tensioner next... fingers crossed.

[Guest Spitfire2k6]

Well that seemed like an easy fix for a "non-runner" haha! Congratulations, it's almost like winning a lottery!

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

Up date time.

Removed the timing belt and water pump and, sure enough, the water pump sounded noisy just spinning it by hand. So fitted the new pump and belt kit and all seems well. As it turns out, the car’s fitted with the late type eccentric tensioner and 114 tooth belt. I had noticed the black plastic belt cover when I first opened the bonnet but never thought anything more of it. I’d always just assumed (wrongly!) that the late type tensioner belonged to the later Motronic managed 1.9’s. However, after a quick search here, I found there’s a few people have came across this on a 1.6.. you learn something every day eh!

Also, the inner guard pipe looked very scabby but hadn’t shown any signs of leaking, until a gentle tap with a screw driver changed that! I had gotten a ‘new old stock’ one for the other project so it was nicked and put on.

 

I decided the next job would be to give the car the forklift / power wash treatment to clean underneath and in around the engine and box. I find it’s a lot easier to spot fluid leaks at source when everything’s clean and grime free.

As the air flow meter and throttle body would be removed for cleaning anyway, I took them off at this stage to get power washing the engine and box. The radiator wasn’t leaking, but I reckoned efficiency may be down slightly (you could have posted letters through parts of it where the fins were missing! ), so it came out to help the cleaning exercise too!

 

 

 

I didn’t remove the fuel tank, but in hindsight, wish I had as I’ve since decided to renew the fuel and brake lines and will be bringing the tank out afterall.

A few ‘before’ and ‘afters’…

 

 

 

Next I thought I’d tackle the N/S inner wing repair. I’d given both sides a bit of a scrape etc before the power wash and was happy the O/S was still sound.

 

So after a bit of cutting, cleaning, folding, welding, buffing, priming, filling, flattening, priming again, base coating and lacquering, the two inner wings were a bit more presentable! I’m guessing some people will be thinking “Why didn’t you stick some seam sealer on while you were there!?!”… I was 50/50 on the ‘better rust proofed vs more original looking’ thing, and just went without sealer in the end. The car will mostly be kept inside and probably SORN’d in the winter months. That’s not to say it will never see dirt or water, but it won’t be getting the same abuse or neglect as the old daily driver for example.

 

 

Next job I think, will be removing fuel and brake lines and fuel tank. I might as well clean up and paint the area of floor above the fuel tank at this stage while the tanks out too.

 

I'll need to source some new brake and fuel pipe. I've already searched to find out peoples opinions on steel vs copper vs kunifer/cunifer/cupronickel and am debating whether or not to go to the bother of covering them in heatshrink.... decisions decisions!

 

 

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

where did that bit of metal go you made up?

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

where did that bit of metal go you made up?

 

Apologies johniban, the picture of the repair piece is from the oppostie angle as the picture below it. The 2nd picture is standing at the passengers headlight, facing into the engine bay, and the repair piece in it's correct orientation for fitting. I wanted the repair to look as original as possible so bent a 1/2" web downwards to spot weld to the original vertical panel of the inner guard which was still sound. The same with another shorter web to spot to the front panel.

 

I know it's a bad design as it's a water trap, but I've primed, sealed and stone chipped the underside, and put a very fine filling of seam sealer along the top side along with a few heavy coats of primer before the final coats of paint so here's hoping it lasts.

 

Meanwhile, there's been a little more progress, but will try to get a few pics sorted out to help with the up date!..

Edited July 15, 2013 by Davy

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

OK, so feels like only a small amount of progress given the time that’s passed but better put something down while it’s in my head. Having to run through pictures to remind myself what I’ve done!

The front end is all back together with new radiator, hose clips, new horns and everything going back together with a quick clean, and nuts and bolts oiled or greased along the way. The two earth points either side of the radiator were a bit corroded looking so were unscrewed, cleaned up reassembled.

The AFM was tested using the guide on here (tho I think the pin numbers may be numbered the wrong way round?..will check again) and was cleaned along with the throttle body and put back on. I didn’t put the two water pipes back onto the bottom side of the throttle body as I personally don’t see how it would make much difference. Is this some attempt at a heater for cold climates? Even so, I don’t see that it would be that effective as it just seems to meet at a point on the base rather than have water flowing around the body? Strange! Instead I saved a tiny bit of space and ran the header tank pipe straight to the thermostat.

 

I had a bit of bother sourcing the correct dizzy cap (even GSF couldn’t get one), but eventually got one off Ebay after cross referencing the part number.

I got the original steel brake pipes removed without having to bend or distort them too much so was easy enough to shape the new kunifer pipe using the old pipes as patterns. It’s been a while since I’ve made up new pipes so had forgotten how you don’t get to reshape the pipe much before it work hardens. I tried to get one of the pipes shaped “just that little bit better”, but ended up making it worse, getting frustrated, scrapping it and starting again!

 

I shaped them slightly differently at the master cylinder just to what I thought looked a bit tidier. The rear brake pipe originally crossed over the reservoir to the rear, o/s port of the master cylinder but I’ve swapped it to the n/s. I’m not sure why they would have been plumbed like this originally!?... (This is when someone educates me as to why, under no circumstances must you ever pipe the rear to the n/s port, and that Peugeot did this because…)

I had been thinking about putting adhesive lined heat shrink over the pipes but decided against it in the end. I think the kunifer piping will last more than long enough, and although it may dull a little, it won’t corrode like steel. I tried a piece of 6mm adhesive lined heat shrink on an old piece of pipe as a test and found the extra layer made it a lot harder to push into the clips, almost enough to cut through the heat shrink anyway!

One thing bugging me about the new pipes is the longer type male fittings I’ve used. They’re just what came with the piping, but I’m wishing I’d gotten some of the shorter ones to be a bit tidier! Ah well.

 

I’ve only piped down to the compensator for now as the underside would need some tidying first.

Next up were the front calipers. They were a bit sorry looking with a lot of alloy corrosion but all the rubbers seemed crack free and supple enough so I thought I’d strip them and try cleaning them anyway.

First obstacle here were the 5 sided bolts holding the pad carrier to the alloy body, so rather than try to hammer some “close fit” socket on, I decided to take the more chilled out, proper approach and just spend £6 on the right socket and wait a few days for it.

I then went to take the pistons out. The brakes had been binding and I’d had to lever the calipers off the discs so didn’t even try the airline trick for fear of taking down a low flying aircraft, or maybe even injuring myself! Instead I went for the slow and steady (but messy) grease gun method. Even then the pistons were pretty tight to push out and once out, one of them had a few scores on it…Great! I’d remembered that there should have been a pair of calipers ‘stored safely somewhere’ from my straight diesel Junior days so I set off in search for them in the hope that piston diameter might be the same. I actually found them quite quickly and sure enough, from what I could measure, it’s the same caliper, the only difference being the wider pad carrier on the GTi to suit the vented disc (Maybe someone can confirm or correct me?) .

So, out of the four bleed screws, one unscrewed ok (but that caliper had crap rubbers!), one sheared, and two brought the alloy threads out with them. I had plenty of 10mm bleed screws, but decided to source some 8mm ones and try them first as there was still enough alloy to achieve a good 8mm thread. I’ve never tried boring and tapping a caliper for a larger bleed screw and was worried I wouldn’t drill concentric enough to get it to seal or something, but it all seemed to work ok. I tried a gentle pressure test once the calipers were built and soapy water didn’t show any bubbles so here’s hoping.

The other issue I had with the calipers was the sliders. I removed and cleaned them to a shine, removed the rubber o rings from inside the calipers and cleared all six grooves of crime and corrosion and built them up again with rubber grease, but they were a bit too tight for my liking. When stripping the four calipers, I noticed one didn’t have the o-rings for the sliders, so I tried them again without the o-rings and I much prefer the way they feel now (free to slide but not rattling about). I’ve decided to leave the o-rings out for now. Has anyone else found this? Anyone else binned the o-rings too?..or is this another predictable mistake?

I didn’t put too much effort into tarting the caliper bodies up as I’d rather see if they’re going to work first (no point in standing polishing scrap!), so a quick coat of VHT silver on the discs and pad carriers will do for now!

I assembled the pads in the orientation they were taken out. Can anyone confirm if the pads are 'staggered' the correct way?..i.e outside pad lower than inside pad. Whats the reason for this? The only thing I can come up with is that, because the caliper sliders 'carry' the pads, then this stagger counter acts the tendancy for the caliper to twist on the slides when it grips the disc?.. or am I away off overthinking things?

 

 

Back when I’d first prized the calipers off, I stuck the front wheels on quickly with a couple of bolts to check wheel bearings and the drivers one was noisy so have replaced that. I don’t have access to a press so it was a matter of placing the hub on a block of wood and sledge hammering the old one out, cleaning and greasing everything and squeezing it all back together in two stages with the vice.

The old bearing had definitely seen better days.

Next, it was time to get underneath and get the tank out to get at the rear brake line, and to see what scabbyness was hiding behind the tank. Every nut/bolt I went to had the ‘I’m gonna ring off and drive you mad!’ look about it, but some wire brushing, penetrating fluid and patience saw them all eventually screw off! The tank came out easily enough and I got a reminder of what stale petrol smelt like. I’m still surprised it started and ran on it and am looking forward to getting a fresh taste back in and getting it fired up again. On that note, I’ve searched for opinions on which fuel is best so I’ll not open the Super Unleaded vs 95 ron can of worms by asking any more. I think I’ll set it up for one fuel, try it for a while, then re-set ignition etc for the other and try that. The one opinion that does seem common is that any performance difference isn’t as noticeable with the 1.6’s, so maybe it’ll be a MPG along with £/Litre comparison.

The remainder of the rear brake line and the fuel pipes came off easily enough. The original fuel lines aren’t in great shape at all on closer inspection, so I’ve ordered some 8mm kunifer and will renew them too.

I’ve scraped and wire brushed (wire brush head on the electric drill) the area above and around the fuel tank. Although a bit scabby, there were no holed areas so I’m pleased enough about that. I find this sort of work very slow and frustrating, so trying to ease the frustration a bit by tackling one section at a time. Once the tanks back in I’ll tidy up the exhaust tunnel area and any other bit’s where rust has started behind the underseal. I found that an old wood chisel (sharp, but with the corners worn back a slightly) brought the few small areas of underseal off a treat.

 

I had some Hydrate 80 (a rust converter by Bilt Hamber) left over from when I done the underside of the Mondeo a while back. I’m not sure how effective any of these products are as I’ve no long term experience, but there seemed to be good opinions out there so I’ll give it a go.

It goes on a bit like thick milk, and you can notice a colour change on any rusty patches so something is reacting somewhere I guess.

 

 

In the pictures it may look like the panel webs that run into a point at either side of the tank are in bad shape, but that’s only me gently bending / parting them to get rust cleaned out and treated. I might put some seam sealer between them before squeezing them back together and priming and painting the whole area. I might also spray clear (well, semi-clear) wax on the underside too so need to make my mind up before the tank goes in!

As with a lot of projects out there, Miss Miami’s quick freshen up is taking a bit longer than estimated. So much for her maiden voyage up the coast over the July holidays (the weather would’ve been perfect too! ). But we’re getting there, and still hoping for run in the sun in the next month or so!...

 

[ALEX 98 1 Cars]

looks good.

I found the hardest part was waiting for parts. There's loads you can do in the mean time though.

If there's a Powder coaters near by send all your stuff over to him in one go, its hell of a lot cheaper than if you send him stuff as you build.

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

looks good.

I found the hardest part was waiting for parts. There's loads you can do in the mean time though.

If there's a Powder coaters near by send all your stuff over to him in one go, its hell of a lot cheaper than if you send him stuff as you build.

 

Cheers ALEX,

 

I think I have most parts gathered up now, It's getting the time is my main issue.

I'm trying to avoid pulling the car completely apart right now. The plan has always been to get it MOT'd and get a few months summer driving to see how it performs, then pull the rear beam apart and refurbish it over the winter months along with anything else. The wee car's generally in quite good condition too so dont think it warrants a full restoration just yet.

 

Had a quick look at your own resto. Thats somthing else! Well done.

 

When you rebuilt your calipers, did you have any issues with the sliders being too tight? Did you replace the slider O-rings? I spent ages cleaning the grooves, making sure all grime and corrosion was cleaned out, then rebuilt them with rubber grease, but found they were still very tight. On one of the old calipers I'd stripped I noticed that the O-rings werent present, so I tried rebuilding them again without the slider O-rings and I'm much happier with the way they feel now.

 

Edited July 22, 2013 by Davy

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

So, a few warm hours spent hiding in the pit and a small amount of progress made. I know this may sound nuts, but I cannot describe the relief of being able to crawl into a cold, dark hole on a sunny day, only having to brave the surface for food or a toilet break!.. The heat was unreal!..

Excuse making / complaining aside we now have a decent attempt at rust proofing the underside (from the rear beam forward anyway). So, following on from last time...

 

Bilt Hamber 'Hydrate 80' fully dried colour and ready for primer.

 

Area above and around fuel tank primed.

 

Repeated the poke, scrape, wire brush cycle for the foot well and exhaust tunnel areas before putting more Hydrate 80 on rusted areas.

It's surprising just how many little areas where the underseal can be hiding the dreaded rust. Basiclally anywhere thats been chipped or scraped (we'll not get started about monkeys with trolley jacks!) or anywhere there's a hole in the body work for a pipe clip etc will be hiding somthing, so really needs going over with a fine tooth comb.

 

Back with the brush coat of primer.

 

I had originally intended to only paint the exhaust tunnel area and the areas where the damaged underseal had been removed and leave as much of the original underseal as possible. This left it looking a bit patchy, so, as I was grey primered to the arm pit and my hand and paint brush had 'become one' by now anyway, I just continued on and filled in the rest!.. and then came back the next day for more up side down painting fun with some grey gloss.

 

Our 'old paint shelf' surprisingly didnt have any miami blue among it, so it was narrowed down to light grey (somthing similar to the shade the exhaust tunnel and fuel tank areas originally were). It's not original looking anymore, but it's a lot tidier and should look ok once the bits and pieces are screwed back in place.

 

The hawk eyes among you will have noticed the pipe clips vanishing between the Hydrate 80 and primer coats. This was after the rust paranoia went up a gear and I surfaced from the cool pit, up into 'the oven' to strip the seats and carpet and remove them... To be honest I had concerns that the underlay may have gotten damp anyway, so there was already an excuse for lifting the carpet, but we'll cover that next time...

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

So, following on from last time...

 

Seats and carpet out!..

 

 

I had been contemplating lifting the carpet since I'd got the car as there were some tell tale water marks on the rear side panels at the back of the rear quarter windows, and also a neatly folded towel laying in the rear drivers foot well. Also the metal bung below the rear passengers seat was missing (possibly removed at a time to let water out?!)

Although the car had been inside for so long, it did get one heavy shower of rain before I managed to get it undercover, plus after the good heavy powerwashing, I noticed I'd managed to blast the steering column grommet inwards off the bulkhead, so was worried how much water had went in there.

As it turned out, it wasnt that bad at all. I propped the bulk head insulation back on small wooden blocks and dried it with a hair drier, and the couple of damp patches on the floor underlay were bone dry again after a weekend in the recent sunshine.

The underlay definately shows signs of past water leak issues tho!... And I now wonder if this was a factor in why it had been mysteriously SORN'd just after having so much work done and being serviced (the engine oil was still clear and golden!)

 

 

..Anyway, hopefully the water will stay out now with the work done around the rear window seals etc. Before I put anything back in, I'll get it pushed outside and give it a drowning with the hose for some peace of mind!..

Waterleak testing will have to wait for a day or two tho because, with all the underfoor painting going on, I've went and done something I wasnt wanting to do...

 

 

..There was absolutely no play in the trailing arms before and they moved up and down freely with no creaks or groans. I know this doesnt mean that all's in perfect condition in there, but I was adiment that I'd get it on the road for a few months and worry about a beam check over the winter... but as the tank and brake lines were all out by now, and the rest of the floor was looking so good all painted, I thaught it was daft not to slacken six nuts and drop the beam!

This allowed me to remove the two flexi brake pipe brackets and fuel tank strap support bracket as well. As one of the three studs had been stripped and the bracket tacked back the the body, and with the other two looking like they'd be no better, I decided I'd drill them out from inside the car and weld in three 6mm bolts...(no pic of new studs tho!)

 

 

Also removed the rear bump stops.

Was dreading removing the bolts, but with some gentle working, and a little fluid, they came out ok. They will definately be going back in with new and well greased bolts tho!

 

 

So!.. onto the poke, scrape, poke, scrape, wire brush cycle!... This was frustrating as hell and with all the nooks and crannies the boot floor easliy took twice as long as the foot wells etc. Again, everywhere there was a hole or an edge or a chip, or where two panels came together, then there would be rust behind the underseal!... and... to top it all off, there was just enough in one back corner to rot through and require a patch. I initially thaught I was going to be able to be smug, and boast about my lovely, solid boot floor, but it wasnt to be!... Room for one more in the holey floor club?!

 

Section needed.

 

..and I'll skip the ugly welding and go straight to the 'buffed and painted' pic. The welding was sound enough,but I find with very thin panels, you have to 'dap' with the welder to stop it melting through, and this never looks as nice as a good continous run. The new section is attached to the underside of the existing floor so still allows for buffing of welds up top and a quick smoothing of filler to tidy it up.

 

 

So, we are now patched up and have a couple of coats of rust converter applied ready for primer.

 

I will be putting the rear beam back in as is, but like I've said above, I'll strive for a strip down and refurbish before too long. I was considering nicking the new Eibach springs from the other car and lowering the rear beam now, but I'll leave this until beam refurb time too. This will let me get a feel for what standard vs lowered is like and keep me encouraged to get the beam back out!

 

[kyepan 291]

proper tlc! well done.

[NFS 32]

Looks good mate wish I had a pit to work in. Good luck mate

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

Cheers for the kind comments!

 

The wee car has the odd mark or two around the bodywork and I havnt tried a test polish on the roof yet, to see if it's a case of 'dull lacquer' or 'no lacquer', so it'll not be a show winner. But as long as it's half respectable looking, and has a good bill of health then I'll be happy driving it and hopefully wont be worrying every year about what the MOT guy is going to find!

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

So, another week or two has passed and, despite another unexpected discovery, we're making progress over all.

 

since last time...

Boot floor has been primed and glossed.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100222540@N03/9539112016/

 

But there's only so many places you can reach with a brush, so the cavity wax came out. It's Bilt Hamber's S-50 I had left from a previous time. It may be wonderful stuff, but I'm not sure how well the nozels work for spraying a 360 degree mist inside a cavity. I first tried inserting the 1/2 metre lance fully into the cavity then spraying while slowly retracting it, but the lance just seemed to lie in one corner of the cavity and flooding that corner, while other areas would be missed.

I found it better to fully insert the lance, start spraying, and wiggle the can about a bit while slowly retracting it. Then repeat this, but after rotating the can / lance roughly 45 degrees to try to ensure decent coverage.

I used one and a half 750ml cans to do all under floor cavities, including up into the front chassis legs and inside the sills from access holes at the front wheels, rear wheels, and inside the car.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100222540@N03/9539126506/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100222540@N03/9536335467/

 

Then made up two more brake pipes.. (compensator to t piece & t piece to drivers side flexi)

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100222540@N03/9536329829/

 

And then, after a couple of attempts, got the fuel tank back in (had to reshape part of the new brake pipe very slightly were it runs along the side of the tank, just so that it wasn’t touching the body or the tank.. it’s a neat fit in there!). (Also, on the topic of starting to put things back together, I had previously spent a few minutes going round all the studs and trap nuts with a tap or die to clean threads!)

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100222540@N03/9539125678/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100222540@N03/9536328845/

 

I thought it would then be time to get the rear beam put back in, but this wasn’t to be. While there was a bit of space in the wheel arches to work, I decided I’d quickly clean and paint the wheel arch to quarter panel seams, but while cleaning I discovered the seam had let go a little on the passengers side!.. ‘ugh sh1t!’

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100222540@N03/9539119600/

 

So, inner quarter panel trims off and…

Drivers side was fine

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100222540@N03/9539122616/

 

But sure enough, the passengers side had been letting water and muck through and needed fixing. For the seam to only have been parted for about 3”, it was surprising just how much crap had gathered inside the rear quarter panel.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100222540@N03/9539122006/

 

So, after a good wire brushing and wipe with some thinners on a rag, it was ready to be re-glued. There were a few packs of two pack plastic repair to hand so used that. We’d discovered in the past that despite being aimed at plastic repair, it was generally very good at sticking anything to… anything! (including metals).

 

Passengers side reglued, primed and painted…

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100222540@N03/9539120220/

 

And done the drivers side too for good measure.. (problems with a few pictures.. will add to next update!)

 

At the same time, the underside of the seams were cleaned, primed, seam sealed and painted so hopefully that’s the end of water problems there and sill / quarter panel corrosion held back for a day or two.

 

So!.. Back to the beam, and a quick strip, clean and rebuild of the brakes before it went back in. Although the cars been sitting for a long time and the brakes had some surface rust, it was pretty clear they hadn’t seen many miles, and a quick rub freshened the drum and the linings up and WD40 got the handbrake levers swinging freely.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100222540@N03/9536327797/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100222540@N03/9536326595/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100222540@N03/9539127886/

 

The cylinders looked like they’d possibly been replaced along with the drums and shoes, and the self adjusters were nice and free, so all was good to back together. The only slight bother I had was with the self adjusters where I had to tweak the self adjuster blades slightly so they sat gently against the ratchet wheel.

 

It was great to finally have the car back on all four wheels but with the interior and half the body trim scattered around the place, Miss Miami still needed a bit more attention yet!

 

I wanted to stay focused on finishing underneath so tackled the new fuel pipes next.

The old pipes had gotten a bit of a twist on the way out, but were good enough to use as a basic pattern, so done most of the shaping on the floor before offering the new pipes up to the car and gently bending here and there to get them looking half tidy. I found it far trickier than expected to bend two pipes so that they’re a constant offset from each other. But they turned out ok in the end.

 

While it was satisfying to get the new pipes made and fitted, it wasn’t without a bit of frustration!.. The lack of a small pipe bender, along with the stubborn determination to recreate the tight bends in the pipes has resulted in what feels like two broken thumbs!.. I then nearly freaked when I went to slide the compression fitting nut (which had slid back down the feed pipe during shaping) and discovered that with it being such a neat fit on the pipe, and with a couple of bends having ‘ovelled’ the pipe ever so slightly, then it was the ultimate b?*tard to get slid back to the end!.... In reality it probably didn’t require much effort to ‘twist and slide’ the nut back up the pipe, but you have to consider the ‘thumb situation’ I was dealing with!

 

So, with a fresh taste of fuel in the tank it was time to test the new pipe work and connections!... So hooked up the battery, and after a few turns of the key (still with a sore thumb!) she’d filled the filter, threw back a shot of the good stuff and ‘roared’ into life once more!... (As it turns out, an exhaust manifold exiting downwards into a pit makes quite a noise! ... and scared the swallows out of their nests for an hour or two!)..

..oh, and just to note: I did have a small fire extingwisher to hand... not that I was doubting my connections or anything!

 

That’s about it for now.

I don’t have any pics of new fuel pipes so will start the next up date with that.

 

I think the next steps will be leak testing, and if all’s dry inside, then I’ve some sound deadening to stick on before the interior goes in!..

Edited August 19, 2013 by Davy

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

Ok, a few pictures that should have been in the last up date..

 

Quarter panel to wheel arch seam fixed, primed and glossed. (drivers side was also done for good measure)

 

 

New brake pipes, fuel pipes and exhaust wire brushed and painted. I wasn’t going to bother touching the exhaust as I view it as kind of a consumable item that will rust no matter what I do with it. In the end I gave in and went over it with the wire brush head in the drill, followed by two aerosols worth of VHT silver. I’m amazed at how well it came up although I’ve no experience of these high temp paints so we’ll see how it lasts. Just for reference, it’s a bosal centre pipe (without the split) mated to an Arvin back box via the olive type joint.

 

 

 

One from the rear… I’m a bit ashamed of this pic to be honest as the beam just degrades the whole thing, and I can sense the more experienced among us tutting and shaking their heads. Be rest assured tho, the beam will be back out in the not too distant future for a strip down and shot blasting etc.

 

 

Next it was time to push a slightly less ‘GTi looking’ 205 outside for leak testing…

 

Comical looking little things with the rear bumper removed! (note the 'go faster' dent in the bootlid!)

 

 

As about half the trim had already been removed by now, I decided I might as well take a few minutes to slip the other bits off as this would help with both polishing the car, and treating the trim with Plasticare (..two birds, one stone and all that!)

 

So out with the hose for some torrential rain simulations... and I discovered that the passengers rear quarter was determined to give me grief despite my earlier siliconing efforts. To be fair the silicone had worked fine and the water wasn’t coming in between rubber and bodywork anymore, but instead seemed to ‘just form’ on the top of the rubber, inside the car at the front and rear corners, before running over onto the floor. It only happened when spraying heavily across the top edge. Eventually found this..

 

 

 

A small drop of superglue fixed it. But it also showed that if power washed for example, water could get in past the first outer rib of the rubber and run along to the split on the inner rib, so this made me wonder if the water was getting in between the ribs at the top and running to the bottom, filling it up and forcing it’s way in past the inner rib at the rear corner as well.

I couldnt really see any way of stopping it getting in between the inner and outer ribs, so decided to make a few small nicks in the rubber along the bottom edge to act as drains (being careful not to pierce through the rubber tho!)..

 

 

So, window back in and all seems fine now (And I'm glad I didnt just assume all was fixed, and put the interior back in). The only other area was inside the doors where, if water was directed toward the mirrors, it would run down the window runners and gather inside the door. I’m guessing this small amount is to be expected tho?.. and as it’s not making it’s way inside the car or even onto the inner door skin then it should be ok?

 

Next it was time for a polish.

As there’s a few marks here and there, and since the passengers side has seen a replacement wing and a slightly off shade paint job at a time, then there’s only so much a polish was going to do, but it still made for a good improvement. I’ll maybe look into treating it to a respray somewhere down the line, but for now we’ll just have to live with ‘half respectable’..

 

So onto the sound deadening.

I hadn’t intended to try any extra sound proofing on this car before getting it on the road as I would have liked to have driven it for a while, then applied sound deadening and have been able to properly appreciate any improvement. But, as the majority of the interior had already been made ‘exterior’ by now, I thought I might as well just go ahead do it.. (sure, I’ll maybe get to sit in a non sound deadened 205 for comparison some time).

 

I’d already looked into the sound deadening options with the other project 205, Miss Sorrento (who’s taken a bit of a back seat for now). Back then I read about people using bitumen type flashing tape as a much cheaper alternative to likes of Silent Coat and Dynamat sheets. So, after trawling through different websites and forums trying to gauge the pro’s and cons and effectiveness etc, eventually just went for the cheap flashing tape!..

I started with the floor on Miss Sorrento, and quickly noticed that the bitumen on the flashing tape softened really easily with a hair dryer. This raised a few concerns when I thought about putting it on the insides of doors and quarter panels, especially since sorrento green is such a dark colour and would ‘hold the heat’!.. I had all sorts of visions of warm sunshine softening flashing tape, and it sliding down and blocking drain holes etc etc etc, so decided I wouldn’t take the risk and would try some ‘proper’ sound deadening instead….

So!.. Back to the ICE orientated websites for more trawling, and I decided I would try some 2mm thick Silent Coat, so went for the Volume Pack consisting of 20 37cm x 26cm sheets (total 2m²) for £40. When it arrived the first thing I noticed was how heavy it seemed (far heavier than the £25, 225mm x 10m rolls of flashing tape!).. So I got the bathroom scales out and….

 

..£25 worth of flashing tape.

 

 

 

..vs £40 worth of Silent Coat. (thats Kg by the way)

 

 

 

I don’t know what anyone else thinks, but I took that as ‘false economy’ going for flashing tape…Leason learned!

 

It turns out that the silent coat was also so much nicer to work with, and with a bit of hair dryer heat, was really sticky too! The funky looking creased pattern on the foil actually serves a purpose as it allows the sheets to stretch a little and form much better into any pockets or grooves, unlike the flashing tape which would be wrinkle-tastic by the time you’d shaped it.

 

So, back to Miss Miami, and another 20 sheets of silent coat.

Trying to prioritize places to be deadened and choosing a sensible ‘percentage coverage’ was the next task. I’ll not cover my whole train of thought or decision making (we’d be here all day and it’s really a whole other topic in itself!).. so here’s a few pics…

 

..door skin..

 

 

 

..average picture above, but just to show spacing of panels inside door and give an idea of percentage area covered (roughly 50%..?)..

 

..Foot wells, rear seat well, lower quarter panel and wheel arch coverage.. (may look a bit scant on the front foot wells but I found, with the body / floor reinforcing, these areas weren’t as ‘tinny’ as other areas)

 

 

 

Upper quarter panel coverage..

 

 

 

It’s a bit awkward to get the triangular piece up, into the rear quarter (especially with speakers still in and you’re working with one hand) so after a heat with the hair dryer, I only peeled back the top edge of the backing paper and held it in one hand, silver side to palm and one finger on the sticky side. This stopped it from getting accidently stuck and ending up in a crinkled mess half way up inside the quarter! Once positioned and stuck, it was just a matter of reaching in behind, to bring the rest of the paper off (making sure it came off in one piece) then rub it into place.

 

 

 

I actually really enjoyed the sound deadening exercise and the difference is impressive already just by tapping different panels. Like I said above, the hardest part was trying to decide how much apply and where. I deliberately left the boot floor as I just don’t know if I want it to be seen if anyone ever looks (I know, I’m a strange one!) There’ll be a good sound proofing matt to go in and, if I ever do decide to stick a few sheets on it, then it will be easy to get at.

 

Also used the remaining S50 to treat the bottoms of the doors and rear quarters before the interior goes back in!

 

 

I think that’s enough of a write up for now (hope it’s not too tedious a read!)

 

I’ve also tried some plasticare mixing and trim dyeing, but need to sort pics out first.

 

Excited that things seem to be coming together a bit now!

Edited August 29, 2013 by Davy

[2052NV 24]

Ive found that high temp paint in a can, is actually really durable! Did my engine block and gearbox and so far its been a year with the engine in and out once and the gear box in and out twice and still no flaking etc and ive been spraying brake clean all over it and its still mint. I highly recommend it

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

Ive found that high temp paint in a can, is actually really durable! Did my engine block and gearbox and so far its been a year with the engine in and out once and the gear box in and out twice and still no flaking etc and ive been spraying brake clean all over it and its still mint. I highly recommend it

 

Ah, thats reassuring!

 

In that case, I'll do the whole car with it!... No more faded roof or laquer peel for me!

[Kezzer30 40 1 Cars]

Absolutely top work bud keep it up

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

Cheers Kezzer, (Glad to see your up and running again!) ..

 

Meanwhile it’s been a bit of a jumbled mess with the progress since last time. I’ve found myself sort of jumping from one thing to another and back to the first thing… not the most efficient way of getting things done.

 

But since last time..

 

Some experimenting with mixing grey and black Plasticare to try to replicate the dark grey of the Ph2 plastics..

 

There’s a few good threads on here showing the transformation of faded trim using Plasticare, but only a couple were the black to grey mixture was mentioned.

Anthony had used 95% black (I think) and reckoned it was a good match (looked good in the photo too) but it was also suggested that maybe it would be safer to start with a lower % black and top it up to ‘suit ones self’. So I decided to get mixing, and as I had most of the plastics stripped I could use the back side of some part of the trim as a base line to aim for (the theory being it would not have faded)..

 

 

To get started I just used a tea spoon to mix a ½ black, a 1/3 black, a 2/3 black… and after applying these three testers, I added one more tea spoon of black to the 2/3 black to turn it to ¾ black and tried that on too. Just as an extra reference a dab of black only and grey only were also applied.

 

 

It was quite hard to take a photo to show the comparison properly but it initially looked like the ¾ black (segment 8) was pretty close..

 

When it dried out tho, it all looked a bit lighter..

 

 

So the next evening at the shed, I mixed another small test sample of about 85-90% black (was using a proper ½ tea spoon this time to conserve the Plasticare!).. Unfortunately d!ckhead here never took a close up pic of this (not like me!) but in the picture below you just about see the small patches I tried on the passengers front trim, and on the door trim beside it.

 

 

When it dried out it looked really good, so I continued and done the rest…

 

Bumpers and trim with 3 coats. (I reckon the sunlight makes it look more grey than it actually is in this picture tho!)

 

 

 

Then a few pictures of trim back on the car. Again light conditions (or maybe just the photographer) made it hard enough to get realistic photographs, but the following give a pretty good feeling of what it’s like in the flesh.. (note: the rear panel and mirrors etc still need doing!)

 

 

 

 

 

Over all I’m really pleased with the Plasticare. The only downside is that you can see slight patchyness on some of the trim that had been really badly faded, and that had seemed to have losed it’s texture a little (even after a good wash and scrub). Earlier in the project I’d tried the heat gun method on a small piece of badly faded trim and it worked well and brought the texture back on that, so I now wish I had perhaps heat gunned to whole lot and then Plasticared after.

 

 

Next it was back to some under bonnet issues that needed looking at.

I’d no experience of how the car was running before I bought it so I really needed to do a lap of the different components and test them all. This forum has been great for information like this so thanks to all who have taken time to share.

 

So, starting with the easiest..

 

Coolant Temp Sensor:

This seems fine with 2.8KOhm with engine cold, to 280Ohm when the fan comes on.

 

 

Distrubutor and Vacuum Advance:

Theres an Autofive receipt for the new vac unit just before the car went off the road and all seems fine with the suck test. While searching on here I’d read stories of 1.9 distributors being fitted to 1.6’s (and vise versa), but from what I gather, this one (Bosch Number ending in 086) is correct for the later 1.6’s.

There was an oil leak that seemed to be coming from between distributor and head so replaced the O-ring seal in there. Before the distributor was removed I marked the position with two dimples. I’ll have to find a quiet spot with a decent hill to set the ignition timing (as per the ‘until pinking occurs, then back a bit’ method), but the two dimples will let me get it back together now and then I can also measure the stagger between dimples if the timing does need adjusted.

 

 

 

 

Throttle Position Sensor:

All seems fine with zero Ohms between 2 and 18 at fully closed / infinity elsewhere, and then infinity between 3 and 18 until zero Ohms at throttle wide open. There’s no ‘click’ at the throttle wide open point like there is when you move off throttle closed but the multimeter readings show it’s working.

 

SAD:

I had done the pinch test (both cold and warm) before and it seemed to be working ok, but while the distributor and AFM were off, I pulled the SAD off too to test it by wiring it to the battery and watching the disc position inside…

So, disc position when cold (ambient temperature – approx 17^oC)…

 

 

Then wired it to the battery and hole closed over within a four or five minutes..

 

 

I couldn’t see any light but could still blow through it very slightly when fully closed but I’m assuming this very slight by pass is normal!..?

My only concern is that it’s not opening enough when cold and I’ll maybe have cold idle problems. This shouldn’t effect warm idle or stop me setting everything else up tho so I’ve put it back on for now.

 

I’ve also checked all pipe work for cracks or leaks as well and all seems ok.

 

 

Air Flow Meter: (Bosch number ending in 056 – correct for 1.6)

Tested as per the guide on here and I ‘think’ all seems fine. The two resistances between pins 8 & 9, and 8 & 5 fell within range, but I wasn’t sure the ‘flap readings’ were as should be. I was expecting a smooth transition between a fully closed value and a fully open value but found that it would reach it’s maximum 1200 Ohms at about ½ travel, and then maintain this value right until the last few degrees of travel where it would then fall to around 600 Ohms.

 

I searched again on here but couldn’t find any confirmation if this was normal or not. It didn’t sound like the erratic ‘all over the place’ behavior of a worn track, but decided to take the plastic cover off for a check anyway…

 

 

The cover didnt look like it’s ever been off or tampered with, the insides were super clean, and the track looked to be in good shape. Looking really closely I notice there’s what looks like a small ridge at the very end of the track, so I’ve (rightly or wrongly) assumed this is what causes the 600 Ohm reading during the last few degrees of flap travel?

 

So, given all of the above, I’m assuming that the AFM is working as should be although I’d still like to confirm if max resistance at ‘half flap travel’ is correct.

 

I’ve since read about method of testing them with a voltage applied and checking for a smooth voltage variation with flap travel, so may look into that more and try another quick test.

 

 

 

So, getting back to getting other stuff done so that it can actually go on a road test, attentions were turned back to the interior.

 

Carpet how it was removed…

 

 

Carpet vacuum cleaned (after beating a load dirt out first!)..

 

 

I had originally just intended to give it a good vacuuming, and then clean any spots of grime with a decent cleaner on a cloth as it really didn’t look overly dirty, but since it was out, and the sun was shining, I decided I’d try washing it!...

 

 

The results were amazing, and the photo’s genuinely don’t do it justice! I’m now glad I didn’t just throw it back in all the for the sake of a little warm water, washing powder, a gentle scrub and a rinse...

 

..one final one of it fitted!

 

 

 

 

Before the door trims went back on I wanted to close the cut outs on the inner skin with the foam door liners I’d stripped from the old daily driver (Mk2 Mondeo). The foam was only about ¼” thick but it seemed to put a fair bit of pressure on the back of the door trim once they were fitted so I ditched that, hunted about some more, and found some much thinner, white foam. I don’t know if it’ll make any difference to sound etc, but thought it was worth doing while I was there.

 

 

 

The rear quarter panel trims are in for now, although I’ve a feeling they’ll be out again before too long to sort rattles and squeaks!.. You can tell just by looking at them and holding them that they’re going to squeak and rattle like crazy. I’ll have to source a handful of new clips too for when that time comes!

 

Next the back seats got a vacuuming and went in. They came up really well and look like they’ve never been sat in.

 

The front seats got a vacuuming and I was so close to putting them back in until I decided to strip and repair the drivers seat bolster and slight material wear!.. It didn’t look bad at all by the usual 205 standards, but given how fragile the 1.6 cloth interior feels (I swear there’s tougher bog roll out there!) I decided to try to fix it now before it got any worse.

 

 

That’s more or less where things are at now. I’m covering new ground here with these seat repairs but hopefully I’ll not make a balls up of anything!

 

[jord294 92]

excellent work mate!

 

it's a credit to you

[BusEngineer 7]

This is a great read, keep up the good work

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

Thanks again for the kind comments, glad it's worth reading!

With the leaves changing colour and dark nights creeping in, it’s pretty clear the schedules slipped a bit! It feels like Miss Miami is being a bit of a Madam and it could be a maiden voyage in a foot of snow at this rate, but if that’s the case then so be it!.. to hell with the BBQ, we’ll pack a snow shovel instead!

 

 

I’d stripped the seat last time, and there hasn’t been much progress there.

Rather than bin the split bolster, I thought there was nothing to lose by trying a bit of expanding foam sprayed in. (May seem a bit crude, but just wanted to see what would happen!)

 

 

It bonded to the existing foam well, and was quite easily trimmed with a sharp kitchen knife but you could still feel the repair through the thin fabric.

 

Picture of roughly trimmed foam (no pic of final trimming! )

 

 

I ended up cheating a little and stealing the base sponge from Miss Sorrento’s seat (which had already been stripped).. To be fair, I’ve a genuine excuse.. I reckon the repair shouldnt be as noticable through the tougher 1.9 leather, so take the good sponge for Miss Miami’s finer cloth!.. Plus, I can keep my ear out for any old GTi seats or spare bolsters that anyone might have lying around!

Mother dear has kindly offered to sort the covers out, so we’re just sourcing some backing material to slip in behind the slightly worn / almost see through areas.

 

 

So back to the outside, and deciding what to do with the passengers door.

There was an annoying dent, but more worringly a bad blister too.

 

 

 

Neither would stop the car from going on the road, but the rust thing would be niggling away in my mind, so out with the little blast gun.

 

 

Dad had gotten this a while back and it’s great for any small patches like this. (you’d be a long time completing a whole shell tho! )

 

Blasted..

 

 

Also cleaned out the quarter to sill sealer and blasted along there as there were a few tiny blisters starting to creep beneath the paint..

 

Rust spot blasted and sanded.. (a little pitted, but not holed, and rust free)

 

 

 

Bottom half sanded, primed, isoponed and flattened, ready for a final prime before base coat. (Also stone chipped the replacement wing to give the orange peel look of an OE wing)..

 

 

 

 

The final coat of primer went on fine, so was then time to get some ‘Bleu Miami’. The paint supplier could mix their paints into aerosols, so I took the lazy option with that. The tough bit was picking the correct shade of Miami (I knew the 1990 limited editions were a lighter shade than the Ph2 cars but after reading on here, it appeared there could be a lot more than just 2 shades!.. ).

 

Sure enough.. (I should have asked what each ‘+ xx’ stood for on the other shades)

 

 

Knowing that the passengers side has already seen a slightly off shade paint job and that taking a front or rear valence with me for reference would be no use, I just had to judge / guess the shade. As it turned out, the shade I picked was the ‘standard’ shade (the one with no ‘+ xx’). The guy reckoned that could make sense as anyone doing a repair in the past, and just going out and sourcing Miami Blue, would more than likely just be given the base shade.

 

Anyway, the paint went on ok and all seemed well… until 15 minutes later, when I was reminded why I f?@king hate this type of work!.. (I’ve respect for anyone who does this for a living!)

 

 

Those aren’t runs in the paint, but a reaction to what I think must be either the base coat or lacquer from the previous paint job (it doesn’t coincide with the areas that I’d isoponed etc).

 

I didn’t freak out too much and eventually went back and wet sanded the whole lot again. I've have since re-primed, given it a quick flatten, and also gathered up some water based Miami to try, using the spray gun. While prepping for this 2^nd attempt I’ve also taped along the top edge of the whole sill and stone chipped the sill as some of the texture had been lost during a previous repair. Hopefully the next update will have a few pics of a nice glossy passengers side!.. (he says confidently! )

 

On a lighter note, when I was masking and papering the car up (back when the experience was a little less stressful.. almost enjoyable actually!) I noticed the old Belfast Telegraph I was using was from 1994! (yip! nothing goes to waste round our place!) The pictures of some of the fashions were.. interesting, but some of the classifieds even more so!..

 

1994!.. What a year!.. When 1.1 Metros were worth two 1.9 GTi’s?!.. (a GTX Renault 5 would surely be a rare thing to have now tho!?)

 

 

 

Among the painting woes I did manage some progress with a couple more issues.

 

The fog and reverse lights hadn’t been working, and it was little wonder going by the state of the connectors and terminals. It’s a bit of a pathetic set up really with the open back type connections positioned so low and being exposed to the elements like that, so as I sat and cleaned and scraped at what was left of the terminals, I knew that even if they did work, it wasn’t really going to be much of a job and would probably let me down again at some point (most likely at the MOT centre...). Even after cleaning the connections and getting them to work, I discovered the bulbs could still wobble about a bit and lose connection within the holder from time to time!... Patience was running out by now, but rather than trail them out and turn them into missles, I managed to keep calm enough to study and figure out a fix.

 

When cleaning the terminals, and thinking about how to seal them from the elements, I’d remembered that there should be some old Rubbolite marker lights somewhere that had been stripped off a scrap lorry trailer. I thought the rubber could be used to cover the exposed connector… then I thought “why not try to fit the sturdy, metal bulb holder as well!”…

 

So, terminals removed and diameter filed out very slightly to accept the bulb holder.

 

 

..(note: reflector was cleaned after testing the mod was going to work!)

 

I had to open a new box just to swap the rubber for one with the tail still on (these are normally always cut off to suit heavier, two core cable)

 

Finished mod. (shame the French wiring wasn’t a little heavier to be tight in the rubber.. hence the small cable tie)

 

 

 

Also set about bleeding the brakes.

With the work done on front and rear brakes, and new brakes pipes all round, the only part not checked was the master cylinder. So for the sake of two nuts and a circlip, it was taken it off and opened it up to check the bore and seals.

 

All seemed ok, so put it back together and refitted it. With Dad at the pedal and me underneath opening and closing bleed screws, we got the rears bled easily, but something wasn’t working with the fronts. No sign of fluid and not even any slight pulses with the finger over the bleed screw. We thought it could be due to the rears being bled and not being able to get a decent pump of the pedal, so we got an old home made bleed kit out to try pumping fluid upwards from bleed screws to reservoir.

 

Simple fluid pump using an old window washer pump.

 

We still couldn’t get any fluid through, so, master cylinder off again and this time we noticed that sometimes when pushed in, it wouldn’t return fully out, so stripped it again and despite everything looking good, we reckoned perhaps the seals had hardened / swollen over time and this could be causing the front piston to stick forwards.

I priced new seals, but for a few extra pounds ended up getting a new cylinder. There’s a lovely pedal now and braking on all four wheels.

 

Thats really all for now. If all goes well with this paint (I’m nervous even typing that! ) then it’s just a seat and a few bits of trim to go on and we’ll be off in search of a long steep lane somewhere to set ignition timing!..

 

 

[Davy 18 1 Cars]

Ok, should really have up dated more often with smaller chunks of progress / frustration, but here goes… (hang in there folks,this is a biggy!)

 

 

I’d gotten some water based Miami Blue in the hope it wouldn’t react with the old paint in the same way the aerosols did. It didn’t, but instead (thanks to me impatiently trying to spray it on a cold, damp night in bad lighting) it was left running out over the edge of the sill like some kind of slow motion waterfall! .. It didn’t help that I hadn’t the spray gun set up correctly either (had it spraying far too heavily in too narrow a band). So, another night wasted thanks to impatience / lack of experience.

 

The following evening (a Tuesday I think) I got it flattened down again and re-taped and stone chipped the sill again. Fridays forecast showed warm and sunny all day so I ‘patiently’ waited until then to take another go.

 

 

The results were much better and got a few light coats on (leaving 10 minutes or so between coats). I also had a little blow heater propped up and a hair dryer on stand by if I wanted to quicken the drying, but I was a bit reluctant to risk blowing any dust about, so got away without using either.

 

The next day was another warm one so put a few good layers of single pack lacquer on without any runs. I noticed it would go on in much heavier coats and still dry quick enough to avoid any runs. If anything it’s still very slightly ‘orange peely’ but would probably polish out. I’m going to leave it for now tho as it blends it ok with the reast of the passengers side.

 

 

Really happy with the stone chipped effect on the sill and base of the wing!.. Was worth doing.

 

Some may wonder why I didn’t just go water based at the start (I’m now wondering why myself!). I guess it was mainly the ‘fear of the unknown’ that drove me towards the aerosols. I’ll treat the whole painting exercise as an experience, and it’s shown that when you consider the time and money wasted re-doing things, you would probably just be better off getting a pro to do it once!..

 

 

 

Back to the seat, and although it hasn’t turned out perfect, there’s been a fair attempt at fixing it. I reckon there’s only so much we could’ve done with the bolster fabric as it had worn a bit thin and seems to have lost the slight elasticity it would have had.

We did manage to stitch the two small holes up, and then reinforce the material with some ‘iron on’ self adhesive material.

 

 

There were other issues too that needed sorted..

 

The velcro and the material webs that pull the cheque material into the sponge were all detached, so new webs were made and sewed on and the velcro reglued to the sponge..

 

 

 

 

The piece of fabric that holds the base cheque material backwards wasn’t ripped but seemed very brittle and fragile so found something sturdier to reinforce that with…(I'm not really the sporting type anyway! )

 

 

..the 'sports bag' material was firmly stitched to the chequed material and is taking all the strain, so the old fragile material is only there to cover the new material.

 

Seats back in..

 

cloth reinforced and hole stitched up, but still a bit wrinkley!

 

 

Base bolster came up well with only slight thinning visable..

 

Taking time to make new webs and re-glue velcro helped create nice definition in the base and back sections..

 

 

 

Like I said, it’s not concours (and the photos make them look really bad!), but at least I’m confident enough to sit in it without it disintegrating beneath me!... I had cringe worthy images of proudly parking it in public only to get out and walk away with shreds of seat material hanging of the arse of my jeans!

 

So, seat went in and off we went to set the ignition timing.

 

I had the original position marked with two dimples so was able to adjust as necessary measuring the stagger in the dimples each time.

With advancing until pinking, then back a few mm it’s still more advanced than it’s original setting. I hope I’ve judged the whole thing well enough.

 

The test drive also saw the end of a stiff / twitchy speedo cable!..(stole a replacement from the other project as a quick fix!)

 

 

..After the test drive, it was a case of trying to guess the mixture setting and set the tick over accordingly. I’ve no access to a CO meter so I searched through different threads to see if there was a base / common setting on different cars that might work. Two things I read were that ‘hunting’ at idle was a sign of mixture set far too rich, and there was a mention somewhere else of eight turns out from fully closed (+/- a couple of turns) being a sensible base setting.

I set it at ‘8 turns out’ and set the tick over to 900 rpm.

With being away from petrol engines for so long, and with the rich, ‘fumey’ smell still lingering at tick over, I was still paranoid emissions were up the left. There’s also a ‘ticky / tappiness’ to the engine (almost like the old push rod engined fiestas! ), and again I’m not experienced enough to know what’s normal / acceptable with these XU’s. It sounded like it could either be tappets or injectors, so with the theory that dirty injectors, or badly a worn cam would mess with emissions, I decided to try to check both.

 

The injectors came out eventually with some carefull working (I’ve been lucky enough to have been following ‘skyquakes’ cherry red restoration and learned from his injector removal experience!..Thanks Mike! )

 

 

Once out tho, there wasn’t really that much I could do with them. I tried to remove the tiny filters but abandoned that for fear of deforming the o-ring seal area (3.0 bar petrol leak over hot spark plugs anyone?! )… In the end I left them soaking in injector cleaner overnight, then rigged each one up to a battery for a quick blow out. This could all have been a wasted effort, but it didn’t take long to do. The one thing it showed tho, is that injectors do ‘tick’ quite loudly (I guess it’s to be expected from a solenoid that’s opening and closing quickly?)

 

 

The cam cover came off next to check valve clearances.

 

 

All the inlets were near upper limit of 0.010” while the exhausts were all near their lower limit of 0.014”. Despite the cam looking to be in really good shape, I still contemplated getting the height gauge out to measure the ‘lift’ on each lobe… However, it was at this point caught myself on and realized I was spending time checking things looking for problems that probably weren’t even there!... I thought “sod it!.. If it fails then it’s only pride and a few quid lost, and at least I’ll see how far out the emissions are!”

 

..so the next morning (Friday) I bit the bullet, and managed to get a cancellation for 2.50pm Saturday… (no turning back now!). For those that don’t know, we’ve a different set up for MOT’s over here. Our test centres are part of the DVLNI and are solely for testing vehicles (no work done or adjustments made). You arrive, and you / the tester takes your car through the different tests / inspections and you come out the other end with either a ‘certificate + smile’ or ‘fail sheet + damaged pride’.

 

So!..

 

…3.15pm Saturday...

 

 

I was relieved to say the least. The only gutting thing was, in my nervousness, I forgot to ask what the feckin CO reading was!... IDIOT!..

 

Still, an excellent feeling that one hurdle had been cleared the tester seemed pleased with the work done underneath!.. next up, insurance and tax.

 

Both Greenlight and Adrian Flux came in about the same, but with a few points still lingering on my license we were looking over £300 for a limited mileage policy with high excesses. In the end I discovered E.A Davies, a local company (I think they only take on N.Ireland customers) who would do a limited mileage policy, with a very low total excess for just over £170. For any N.I folk reading, I’d recommend them for a quote at least!

 

We all know how to tax a car, but just need to mention how frustrating it feels to be taxing a little 1.6 that’s just a few cc’s into the £225 tax band! ... Roll on the 2.0 16v conversion, just so I can feel I’m getting my money’s worth!!

 

During the few days it took to sort insurance and tax, there were a couple of ‘essential mods’ carried out!

 

Seat tilt mechanism removed

 

 

Tilt mechanism adds about 1 1/4" to seat height.

 

This really improved the sitting position (for me anyway). I’m not the ‘sitting on the floor, seat tilted back type’ but just didn’t like the feeling of being jacked up in the air with the head skimming the roof trim!

When refitting the sliders to the seat I put about ¼” spacer between runner and seat frame at the front bolts. This helped tilt the base backwards slightly into what feels a more comfortable position, but it also really helped when screwing the seat into the car again as the access to the front screws is tight.

 

Also had to bend the seat belt clasp bracket 90 degrees and sandwich it between seat base and runner.

 

 

 

So, next essential mod ..

 

 

Took a few minutes to rustle up two small brackets to relocate fuse box and to steady the repositioned air flow meter. (Also, the K&N intake pipe was sourced 2^nd hand so had to make up a shortened air filter mount.)

 

 

 

I’ve been away from petrols for a long time now, and I’ve missed the smile factor from a little induction note!.. :D ...(bear in mind the 'mighty ST Mondeo' has a 2.2 Transit engine!.. hence sounds like a transit! )

 

 

SO!.. MOT’d, taxed, insured and a weekends worth of sunshine later…

 

I'll say it with a few pictures!..(excuse the goons in the pics! )

 

 

....and another bend!

 

..and even made it onto Portstewart Strand!..

 

 

 

..So, a few 1^st impressions:

It’s not quick (well, not by todays standards), the standard suspension set up is a little roley poley, the gearing is ridiculous if you have to do any motorway driving, and it’s like steering a bus with 3.7 turns lock to lock and no PAS, but we’re getting used to it already and have been smiling / laughing away to ourselves during the few trips we’ve done.

One thing I’m absolutely certain of is that the sound deadening has worked well. While we hadn’t experienced it beforehand, we both ‘just know’ it’s really quiet (it’s as quiet to sit in as the girlfriends standard focus and maybe even my own mondeo!). I’d like to get a sail in a none deadened one just for reference now.

 

Right!.. enough chat, off to get a few more miles done!

 

As we head off tho, just a massive thanks to '205GTIDrivers' for all the help so far!