305 Restoration

[FarmerPug 4]

I was told to do a project thread on my 305 so ill try to do one in this thread.

I have a bit of an obsession with the 305, i bought the first one last may it is a 1985 S5 1.6 Estate, and the one i am currently restoring, this was it before any work began:

Then in august of last year i bought another one a 1986 1.6 Automatic, it was in the CPUK classifieds for the price of £100 which for any car with tax and mot isn’t bad, it also came with over half a tank of petrol and a boot full of spares, and the chap who owned it bought it new and had a full service history and folder full of receipts and past mot certificates.

Its in good condition for a 305 but there are spots of rust here and there, the tailgate leaks, and the rear doors have bits of rust but i keep it indoors and only take it out on nice days so it can wait until the s5 is finished before it gets the same treatment.

The most recent purchase was another 1986 Estate but it is a 1.9 GTX bought off a motorohog auction and delivered here on the back of a lorry:

Its filthy inside but all there the electric windows and central locking still work perfectly, and the velour seats are nicer and harder wearing than the tweed ones offered in the automatic

The S5 is the one i am doing the work on at the moment it looked reasonably tidy when i bought it but it did have quite a bit of hidden rust, the engine also wasnt perfect it cut out at junctions and farted about at slower speeds, and was showing signs of camshaft wear driving it uphill on the motorway took some patience as there wasnt much power, and the suspension was tired so a full strip down and back to bare metal restoration was in order. I started stripping it last august after getting the automatic and now in april 2015 I’m waiting for some sills to come from france before sandblasting and getting started at the welding

After removing the engine and rolling it into the shed to begin stripping:

Rusty bottoms of wings, and the lower valence was completely rotten the black underseal was holding together rust:

rusty scuttle panel, it seems to affect most 305s if leaves have been allowed to rest here:

The interior stripped out:

wings removed:

back suspension removed:

suspension parts sandblasted:

the parts after getting zinc plated:

The first new wing:

I started stripping underseal off in december:

But with most of the underseal under the car i built up a rotisserie to spin the car upside down to strip the underseal off the floor:

This took a few weeks to strip the underseal off the floors:

The car is stripped and ready for the sandblasters i didnt want the car sitting bare after sand blasting waiting for parts so i am getting the parts before sandblasting starts. The first big part was the slam panel, two were purchased from leboncoin although they actually came from belgium

http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac289/406executiveHDI/305/IMG_1053_zpsji0jiqlw.jpg[/img ]

it means no welding needed to this front panel just cut it out and weld in the replacement

The rear wheel arch and lower corner were ruined by rust and any repair would take quite a bit of time so i bought a new 1/4 panel from an eBay seller from italy:

The lower front valence arrived a while back, as did the other wing both are also new old stock, the sills are coming from serie 04 in france just ordered this week, getting the old ones out will also be good as it will let me get any rust inside the sill attended to and avoid any sand getting trapped in the cavity.

As for the engine i initially bought a rotten but mechanically sound van with the diesel engine, then i had ideas about putting a HDi engine into the car but wasnt too keen on the wiring involved and decided to get a turbo XUD, i seen a 405 estate sitting at a dealers in the scrap corner so it has been bought with the plan to use its engine and gearbox in the 305, possibly also power steering:

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Brilliant! About time you did this, I really fancy a 305 van.

[stufarri 98 3 Cars]

Superb, looking forward to following this.

 

I love the old 305s.

[Supersport2 12 1 Cars]

There's a place near Middlesbrough called Premier French car parts. I'm sure he ll have some things for this one. He has a load of old stock, though not much 205.