A Day In The Life Of A 205 Owner

[Reebmit 51 4 Cars]

What a day yesterday! the things we do to fuel our passion of 205’s, had to saw up my daily driver today just to get a cage from Giles home! Below is a pic of how my car looked like in the beginning :

Started day with the removal of back seats and had a quick measure up of an existing cage, no probs should fit in there easily…..how many times have you heard that before! Couldn’t use my wifes Cmax as it was going to have an MOT .

 

Woke daughter up at 8 as she wanted to get out of the house and have a day out. Headed off on the 180 mile round trip to Giles house at about 9am, weather was utterly dire but hey music on, heater purring away and having a good natter with the eldest about things in general.

 

Finally arrived just before 11 and met Giles to have a good chat all things 205. On went the kettle and a nice hot cuppa followed….. he has just got a really nice prepped shell ready for a new build, should be great once done, look forward to seeing it. Time eventually came to fit the cage into the car for the trip back……ha ha that’s where the fun really began, 40 mins later we decided it would not fit without some modifications.

 

So this is where the main problem lay, easy, get a saw :

 

 

Had to be a saw as this section of centre console goes all the way to the front and we were not going to spend hours on a rebuild! Please bear in mind that it was very windy and tipping it down with rain……we were getting very very wet but it was one of those school day moments and was very funny….you know that very childish way in which it was all just so wrong chopping parts of the car up!! While trying to fit the cage we almost popped the rear screen out many many times, one of the legs kept hitting it and I am so glad it didn’t as the trip back would have been bad to say the least.

 

 

 

The seat motor decided to pack up at this point after 5 years! So no choice but to rip the side of the leather and padding upwards. Still the cage would not fit in! next phase try and shut the door, still too tight, so simple, I grabbed the door panel wrenched it off completely ha ha………perfect the door shut. There you have it it fits, so after fitting the other remaining bars and a box of plates, nuts and bolts we set off home

 

 

So thanks Giles for enabling me to trash my car, get soaked through, burn a chunk of cash just for the sake of a few black tubes!............... joking apart couldn’t be happier, cage is now in garage, car is repaired and back together, clothes are now dry and it was a fare price for a very nice cage, greatly appreciated, we must do it again sometime!

 

 

One thing I must say at this point about the 75 is that the car may look tidy but mechanically needs lot doing to it. I have run it for 5 years and am not spending anymore for next MOT, this means it’ll get weighed in after selling a few spares etc…in a few months time, so that’s the only reason we chopped it up but soooo…. funny and well worth it.

Look Giles, good as new now, the rebuild followed by finished article, amazing what you can do with masking tape. In the flesh you can’t actually see any of the joins as they are behind seat swabs, we judged that so well….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 31, 2013 by Reebmit

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

Brilliant! A sacraficial rover

Edited December 31, 2013 by allanallen

[Reebmit 51 4 Cars]

Ha ha yeah, its actually a well built Rover as it is all BMW, but this made it hard to dismantle quickly!!!! my wife said don't let the 75 forum know! they will be up in arms!!!!! ha ha

[speno 239 2 Cars]

Did it double the price of 'said' rover when the cage was in ;o)

 

 

Last cage I sold the guy had some right problems fitting it in his car to take home

[Reebmit 51 4 Cars]

Proably yes.....be worth £150 for scrap!!! ha ha

 

Yeah, I drove that far and wasn't going home without the cage, would have tied it to the roof if I had to or I suppose I could have tied my daughter to the roof and put the cage in where she was sitting!!!!!

[speno 239 2 Cars]

Dedication there )

 

On another note , A rover in front of me the other day had a sticker on the back saying ' you have just been rovertaken' this made me chuckle

[welshpug 1,666]

would have been far easier to take the 205 you know

[Reebmit 51 4 Cars]

would have been far easier to take the 205 you know

Ha ha now where were you when we needed you....thinking outside the box!!!!

[Reebmit 51 4 Cars]

Dedication there )

 

On another note , A rover in front of me the other day had a sticker on the back saying ' you have just been rovertaken' this made me chuckle

That's funny Spencer, even made the wife laugh!

 

The engine in mine is chipped and has a tunit box on, cannot recommend that BMW diesel enough (2 litre 4 pot), bags and bags of torque with around 160 hp and 50+ mpg on a run!!. I have to be honest I was going to have a measure up and see whether it would fit in a 205, now that would make a good motor, probably be 75+ mpg and be seriously quick too with all that torque. The trouble with a conversion like that is all the electronics you would need to shift over to make it work. Not ruling it out though......

Edited December 31, 2013 by Reebmit

[GilesW 41]

Lol. Was a very funny morning. Although I was getting a little concerned as more and more was getting ripped off you car!

Have to say I'm sure many of us have been in the 'bloody will get it home one way or another' situation before, but definitely 110% commitment from you Tim.

 

I too was amazed by the robustness of the rover.

Had a hot shower after you left to try and warm back up!!

 

Glad you got back alright. And very nice to meet you and have a natter.

I'll keep an eye on you build(s) thread.

Edited December 31, 2013 by GilesW

[Reebmit 51 4 Cars]

Lol. Was a very funny morning. Although I was getting a little concerned as more and more was getting ripped off you car!

Have to say I'm sure many of us have been in the 'bloody will get it home one way or another' situation before, but definitely 110% commitment from you Tim.

 

I too was amazed by the robustness of the rover.

Had a hot shower after you left to try and warm back up!!

 

Glad you got back alright. And very nice to meet you and have a natter.

I'll keep an eye on you build(s) thread.

Hi Giles, yeah was soo.... funny, I will put a few project posts on over the coming months and maybe we will catch up at a Pugfest or something, maybe I could saw up your new 205 when its finished!!!