Front Panel (If You Can Call It That) Replaced

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

I've been helping john-melbourne transform his fish tank/garden pond/ornament back into a 205 and its not finished yet so this will be updated monthly as that's how often we can arrange time off work at the same time.

 

After removing the engine to replace all the seals (cam,both crank,dizzy o ring,driveshaft),clutch,all mounts,cambelt, tensioner and water pump

we decided it was time to tackle the front end.

 

The front panel was from ecp £51 and actually fitted quite well, had to drill out the earth points. Anyway enough waffle on with the pictures..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can tell its been neglected far too long, we've already replaced the hood for a new but 2nd hand one as that was also terrible, its been stood over 2 years in his kitchen and has shrunk a bit so we;ve had a bit of a battle on with the sodding thing to stretch it back, its getting there now lol

 

 

Now let the chopping commence......

 

I'm no pro at this so please refrain from stupid "your weldings s*it" comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is where we are upto as we ran out of time this month...also we're going to re use the old slam panel as its thicker so stronger.

 

 

So there you have it after manning up its quite easy to do and nowhere near as bad as it looks once the rotten panel is removed.

 

Sadly holding all that rot behind the indicators has encouraged the wings to rust thru as well so we are contemplating replacing the wings too as they will need painting anyway if I have to chop and weld and skim with filler.

 

Update in 4 weeks

[nick205 12 5 Cars]

That really motivates me to get on and tackle my car, which needs the same work doing.

 

Did it take much to get the ECP panel lived up and fitting well, I've heard others comment that it has to be adjusted before it would fit.

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Had to ease it on at the lower chassis mounting points as it was a bit narrow but other than that it was just a case of drilling the holes,holding the headlight panels back and tacking in place. Very easy to fit and well worth doing. Ive swamped it in stonechip to protect all the joints too. I was originally going to patch it but after seeing all the rot under the wings at the side of the indicators im glad we took this route,also the wings were a doddle to remove too, nothing to be scared of just cut the seal away at the front and you can just manipulate them off with no damage whatsoever

[Terry1600 14]

ive used two panels on 2 cars like this, one from hadrians panels and one from ecp at half the price, both fitted well but the slam panels are no good.

[farmer 328 1 Cars]

Andy nice job.

 

Be watching your progress with interest.

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Cheers guys, yeah the slam panels are a bit thin infact the whole ecp panel is a bit tinny but as you can see it does fit quite well, just hope that the wings fit as well when we get them.

[Edp 67 3 Cars]

Great job!

[blandy 29]

Done exactly the same on mine using ecp I also fitted there wings which fit ok for the price Allthough they were listed as gti but don't come with the holes for the trim, well mine didn't

[Ams 23 1 Cars]

I used Hadrian wings initially because they came with the repeater holes, NS fitted fine but had to return OS side three times due to terrible quality fitment and eventually gave up. Ended up buying the NS wing from ECP (no repeater hole though) and it was fine. ECP front panel was fine as well though I used an OEM slam panel. I would recommend ECP for ease of return if you experience fitment issues, was a bit of a problem returning stuff with Hadrians contracted delivery drivers as they were arsey with picking stuff upon time.