[Car_Overhaul] Will1991's Steel Grey Spruce-Up

[will1991 11 1 Cars]

Hi all,

I've been a member on here a while and although my post count is low, the number of hours I've spent on here must quite easily be triple figures by now!

This is going to be a [pretty lightweight] project thread detailing what will be the sprucing up of my 205 GTI. Progress will be slow to start as I'm pretty busy at the moment and it's all pretty new to me, but please bear with!


Why 205 GTI?

For as long as I can remember I've loved the look of the 205 which combined with Group B rally vids on the TV was enough to get me started. Further influences were the 2 505 GTI estates my parents had when I was younger, the aggressive font ends of which I loved, along with the donuts my dad had one doing in an empty car park once. The next came from the Citroen AX I had access to once I'd passed my test. It was a 949cc poverty spec 'Dimension', which became a bit of a playground legend and car of choice for calling shotgun due to its unrivalled (compared to my mates Corsa's, Saxo's, Fiesta's and Polo's) B road pace. The day that car terminally failed its MOT was one of the worst I've lived through, not even the condolences helped.



Throughout my time in the AX I wanted the same thing (lightweight, revvy and agile) but better looking and more powerful - it had to be a 205 GTI. Adrian Flux must have been utterly sick of me by the time I'd finished 6th form without actually buying anything or taking out a policy, given the hours I spent getting quotes on various retro hatches.


Buying my childhood icon

I bought my 1.9 Steel Grey with 53.5K on the clock in April 2012 having spent about 8 months sifting through classifieds and driving up and down the country looking for the right one. I saw this one on the net and within an hour of it going up I was on the phone with a viewing booked on the proviso that the car was not to be sold between now and then (the car was in Kilmarnock so would've made for an expensive disappointment).

With my dad in tow, we made a train ride up to Glasgow from Derby where we were met by the owner and taken back to see a really lovely example of a 205 GTI. A very thorough check ensued and all we could find was that the factory fit vacuum sunroof wasn't working. A test drive later the deal was done and I was now the owner of my childhood icon.



It was totally original (ok, the slam panel has been repainted) including the Clarion stereo. It had a fully stamped history and was accompanied by a thick pile of documentation which revealed it had had a brand new interior from Peugeot in 2007 for the grand total of about £150! It had 3 previous owners and was imported from Jersey by the seller in 2010. His reason for selling was odd in that he'd been caught speeding in his Renault 5 GTT the previous year whilst on holiday in France, which had led to its confiscation, and him boycotting all things French.


Owning the GTI

Not long after its purchase I gave it a full service, had the cambelt changed (it had only done 2k but was 8yrs old), fixed the sunroof (broken T piece), dyed the bumpers and had the beam refurbed by Shenpar, before heading off to ride mountain bikes for 6 weeks in the alps.It returned with 56k on it, which is where it still sits today.



I then came back to the UK to start work. I used the car for about 250miles before deciding I cared too much to abuse it in traffic jams every day, so I bought a 55 plate Subaru Legacy Tourer as a daily. This meant the 205 resided in my parents' garage in which time the parcelshelf was re-dyed, it had a replacement dash due to a very minor imperfection (borderline worth it), a new headlight, a working coin tray, new speedo cable, repro driving light protectors as well as a brand new but as yet unfitted front bumper (due to a very minor scuff). This left the interior looking as I wanted...









It also benefited from a thorough clean, both in and out...

Before:

After:









My dad eventually got fed up of my car sitting in the garage while his S2000 had to sit outside, so I've since had to relocate it to its resting place for the winter and where most works will commence.


Plans

This car really is in excellent condition, I'm genuinely over the moon with it. HOWEVER, some of the stuff on this site is a terrible influence and as such I've got the urge to go further...

• Deep clean of the engine and bay including a few bits painted up/plated without being brutally obvious. Some of the fully repainted blocks etc. on here from the full restos look ace but as this is pretty bloomin' clean anyway I'm going to refrain I think, to help maintain the originality of it.
• Fit new clutch (as well as 1.6 flywheel?)
• Refurb running gear - subframe, top mounts, arb, rear beam etc
• Refurb brakes with new copper lines
• Replace the two SMRs I have with Speedlines
• Fit the brand new OE backbox Farmer sourced for me
• Have injectors cleaned
• Have the dizzy refurbed
• Have the bodywork mopped and polished
• Probably some other bits to tidy as I go

This is how it currently sits, soon to be up on axel stands, while I soak some bits in Deox C...




I'll keep you posted.

Will

Edited November 17, 2013 by will1991

[pugdamo 111 2 Cars]

Stunning car,really like this colour.Good luck with the tidy up,keep the pictures coming.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Beauty! Judging by your user name you're 1 year younger than me? Good lad! Great colour, the interior is crazy. Looking forward to your updates.

[MiniGibbo 142]

Christ that's in good condition as it is..!

[Uberderv 6]

Very nice :-)

[artois7 21]

Number plate change?

 

Looks bloody tidy though!!

[will1991 11 1 Cars]

Thanks for the kind comments.

 

Number plate change?

That was the sellers private plate - it was given an age related one once I bought it.

 

 

 

Today I did a compression test before I stuck it on axel stands. I was going to do this yesterday but found I had a flat battery and I didn't manage to jump it...

 

 

There was nothing to indicate I needed to test, but as it was going to be laid up for a while I thought I'd get one done. Following an overnight charge I got the following results: (Left to Right as you look into the bay, all psi) 215, 210, 215, 208 - which I understand to be pretty healthy?

 

 

Anyway, got it up and removed my old back box, which given that the clamp bolts had rusted solid, was a bit of a pain!

 

I also had a general look around the underside of the car and was duly reminded that the underbody brake lines had been replaced with copper not long before I bought it. Shock and ARB bushes are looking a little perished (although not bad for 23yrs old!) so think I'll renew these.

 

The boot floor is looking pretty good, but there are a couple of areas where the underseal is flaking and behind there's a tiny bit of very light surface rust. Am I going to have to take it all back?

 

 

 

A further underbody musing; this is me looking up into the engine bay towards the gearbox...

 

 

The fact that it's all exposed and oily doesn't seem right to me, can anybody confirm?

 

Will

Edited November 17, 2013 by will1991

[Banjo 1]

Jealous, best colour and low mileage, shame about the sunroof, bloody brits hey!

[welshpug 1,661]

I had the diesel variant of the very same model of AX as a first car

[allye 530 3 Cars]

shame about the sunroof

 

Still don't understand this. I prefer a sunroof all day long.

[pugdamo 111 2 Cars]

 

Still don't understand this. I prefer a sunroof all day long.

I agree,much prefer having a sunroof,i dont like the pop up ones but the vacuum ones are great

[eddie bullit 37]

I've got the same in the garage..by far the best colour imo. Yours is in better nick that mine though at the moment. lovely.

By the way I think the sunroof is an essential for a road car. I love it!

[Banjo 1]

I enjoy the open airiness just not the way in which Peugeot did it, so damn ugly. They should of taken a look at vw's all steel effort and copied it, much the same as loads of other odd French designs like the stupid bumper bolts and rusting trim clips and floppy tilting subframes... Love steel grey tho, definetly the best colour ;-)

[pugdamo 111 2 Cars]

I dont want anything on my car copied from a VW,full length vacuum sunroof with wind deflector,very 80's

[will1991 11 1 Cars]

I wasn't fussed whether the car I bought had a sunroof or not, but having had one I wouldn't be without now!

 

 

I've been really snowed under with work the last few weeks so haven't got an awful lot to report as will probably become apparent..

 

A couple of weeks ago I removed the rad to get a look at how grubby my engine was. It'd scrub up ok in situ but I think I'll whip it out at some point and give it a proper going over...

 

 

I clumsily managed to damage the heat exchanger hose in the process so Baker BM can await my order.

 

 

 

Today I set about removing the beam. I probably made a bigger job of it than was deserved but got it down eventually.

 

 

 

Everything came apart without too much agro other than one of the brackets to do with the beam clamp thing, on which I sheared a bolt - I'll have to get something welded up as a fix I suppose.

 

 

 

A quick call to my brother and we had the beam in the back of the Legacy and home. I don't suspect my dad's going to be too thrilled about me bringing more bits of the car home so I've hidden it - do you think he'll notice?

 

 

 

 

I'm hoping to get the bits I've currently got removed beautified over the next few weeks and make a start on sprucing the boot floor, so the next update should be better on the eye.

 

Will

[Roon 29 1 Cars]

Loving this project! I too have a steel grey and it's such a beautiful colour especially when the trim is nice and black against it!

 

Keep the good work up

[JoshGti 8]

In fairness and jokes at my expense i actually had to look twice before i noticed there was a beam under the bikes in that picture!

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

For the sheared stud, look inside the car and you'll find the other side of it. Most straightforward way to repair is to drill it 5mm then tap an M6 thread. Then screw a button head from the inside pointing out, and lock it against the bottom of the thread, so you end up with a new stud pointing outwards. A stainless steel bolt is a good idea to prevent it seizing up again.

[will1991 11 1 Cars]

Thanks Tom, it's actually just a really bad/misleading photo. It's the lower one attached to the bracket I'm holding that sheared, rather than the one attached to the car.

 

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Ah OK got you. Easier repair then, grind off weld new set screw on.

[markb1234 5]

wondered where this car had went,was owned by my dads next door neighbor.remember seeing it when it still had the jersey plates on it !

[will1991 11 1 Cars]

Wow, there was slim chance of that happening with its limited mainland mileage!

 

Small world.

[markb1234 5]

i see the guy had his private plate on it when u bought it he owned a plant hire company.never seen it moving was always parked up

[will1991 11 1 Cars]

Small update...

 

My beam's now finished! I stripped it of ancient crud before taking it apart, which proved fine other than that the arm plate seals were shot. I'd bought one of Tom's pullers for this but as it had been rebuilt fairly recently I didn't need it - I'd been looking forward to using it!

 

 

 

Bearings were protected from unwanted muck.

 

 

 

I then got the beam colour matched before taking everything back to metal and painting back up. I also had a load of bits plated and my bars powdercoated (not orange as they look in the photo). The result...

 

 

The hubs were rebuilt and rammed full of grease so they should keep going for a while yet. I've also still got some new Peugeot shocks to go on as well as new mounts so it should feel minty fresh once back on the road.

 

 

 

I've also had the brakes off so will be refurbing and refinishing them at some point soon hopefully.

 

Today I borrowed an electric siphon from the local garage (the owner is an absolute hero and said I can borrow whatever I need!) and transferred about 25 litres of Shell's finest into the Subaru. A far superior alternative to a mouthfull of unleaded!

 

 

 

I then dropped the tank and found the metalwork to be in pretty good shape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll start on stripping and smartening the underside now before putting everything back together.

 

Will

[will1991 11 1 Cars]

Right then, update time. The rear is back together and underside done! Woohooo!

 

So, the process involved in sorting out the underside was a messy and very boring one. Levels of enthusiasm started high - as is always the case when I get a chance to use my angle grinder - however that soon wained and as such I don't have many photos of the process due to being completely fed up after any given session. To be honest, it was all pretty good under there with nothing worse than surface rust to be found.

 

You can see in the above post how it started. This is it after my first [of many] evening sesh:

 

 

And after much much more grinding, treating, painting and spraying etc, this:

 

 

 

I originally thought about painting the boot floor body colour, but it seems really quite difficult getting a decent match for Steel Grey in a useable and affordable format. Anyway, I'm really pleased with how it came out in the end.

 

 

I decided that while everything was down I'd replace the 24yr old brake lines with some kunifer alternatives. I spent a good while replicating the originals and making all my curves were nice and smoooooth. I borrowed my friendly local mechanic's FIRST EVER brake flaring kit to do my flaring - it was like a hitman offering his son his first ever gun, a pretty special moment - it was pretty old school but made light work of it. He claimed its proficiency was because it was old.

 

 

 

I also fitted my lovely new HEL braided lines and painted the bracketry to finish off.

 

 

 

 

 

Local friendly mechanic also welded a new stainless bolt onto this bracket as I sheared the original. It's not pretty but it's out of sight so my botherd-ness level is low.

 

 

 

I also painted the heat shields and disc protectors, repainted my spare wheel cage in body colour, had a load of stuff zinc plated and gave my fuel tank a scrub down:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, yesterday I managed to wrestle the fuel tank back in place and fitted all my brake lines and the heat shields I could. It looked like this:

 

 

 

Then today, the beam (with new OE mounts)! I got my dad involved and actually it was fairly painless. Once bolted up I managed to fit my new OE shocks and the results were as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

I then popped my spare wheel back on:

 

 

 

On the whole I'm really pleased with how it's all come out, even if it has taken a while.

 

I'm just waiting on seals to sort the brakes and I'll now be moving up to the business end to start work!

Edited March 2, 2014 by will1991