[Car_Upgrade] 205 Gti6 Bare Shell Build (Pic Heavy)

[rikky 37]

I thought I'd finally start a project thread on the 205 I've been building for the past couple of years. I've had 205's before - a friend bought a Miami blue 1992 GTi brand new and sold it us after a couple of years so I got hold of that (was 2nd owner, now dead; dad drove it home without oil), plus a super low mileage champagne 205 Gentry (now sold).

It all started one night when I decided to sell my 306 GTi6 due to buying a 4th car (406 v6 coupe). However instead of selling it I ended up breaking it for spares and kept a few goodies, namely the healthy engine it had in it, brakes, and anything I could transfer to a 205, and decided to go down the 205 GTi6 conversion route.

I looked around for the right 205, the criteria being rust-free bodyshell and non-sunroof. I didn't see much as you can imagine, but then one night at 1am I saw a genuine 80k-mileage trackday 205 1.6 GTi going for £650 within 10 miles of me, which had done about 10 laps of Oulton Park in the past 10 years and not moved since. It had a Safety Devices cage, TRS harnesses and some decent buckets in it. Oh, and no rust apart from on the wing, which I was going to tear off anyway. I wish I had a photo of my mrs' face when I brought it home, but it was a bit like this:



When I went to collect it, it wouldn't start, despite the owner saying it ran absolutely fine. Trailered it home anyway and stuck it on the drive. The ignition barrel was dodgy so hotwired it and it was fine after that, but the pump was the culprit. Tried my Gentry one and it ran fine after that. Didn't matter anyway as it was being totally stripped to a bare shell and rebuilt into a standard road car, bar engine change.

This is how it looked:

 

 

 

Started gutting the car, sold the SD cage and bucket seats with harnesses for what I paid for the car, and ended got the whole car free in essence

I wanted it "right", meaning paintwork spotless and engine bay nice and tidy. It's going to be used, so not concourse, but what happens when I start removing stuff is that I don't like putting worn or scabby used parts back on, so end up spending way more and taking longer.

Stripped the car as much as possible to keep it rolling but so I could give it a quick blast off with the hot steamer and the bay a good scrub down before anything else.

 

(all that brown is just grinder swarf from cage removal)

 

 

 

 

Passenger side inner wing was the only rusty area so cut the old panelling out and made new ones up, refitted, cleaned up and seam-sealed in place, ready for a good prep and paint session in the bay.

Whilst the welder was out, the exhaust manifold was slit, reangled, re-welded, measured on a workbench to see if it looked suitable and then tested for leaks. I was happy with it, and decided to leave it and see how it faired up when the time came to put the engine in.



I chucked pretty much everything from the engine bay in the bin and bought brand new stuff again because everything looked manky and worn out. I re-angled the pedal box slightly for master cylinder clearance against the GTi6 cam cover to try and get a better chance of it fitting. I had the bay all painted nicely white first of all but wasn't happy with the finish, so did it all again from scratch, but this time in gloss black.

After this I tackled a few things at once over a period of what felt like forever, a combination of slow progress and needing parts. I got a disc rear beam in good order, tidied it up and threw a set of BBM solid mounts on the rear, and rebuilt the brakes all round to accompany the new rear beam.

 

 

 

All the underneath of the car was stripped back to metal and tidied, painted and stone chipped again. With the fuel tank off, I binned the entire car's fuel and brake pipework, and ran a new pipework behind the tank for the brakes, just so I had a headstart when I came to tackle brakes later on in the project. My photos aren't the best but it's really, really tidy under there. I don't want it TOO tidy though or I'll end up not wanting to drive it; it's going to be driven, not looked at underneath.



I rebuilt the full interior, which involved buying some really black late cloth seats (the leather ones I kept buying I was never happy with and decided the cloth ones felt more buckety!), made up a load of new floor sound deadening, new red carpet, interior trim, everything really and fitted the electric window setup using donor parts and spares.

Put all new heater matrix in and reassembled it.

Left seats out for now for access.

I also put a new Walbro proper lift fuel pump in and fitted in into the existing pump housing because the OEM one was playing up after sitting in stale fuel for months.

Next step was to get the engine in and see how it was going to line up, so I decided to tackle the engine looms and made up (using the guide on here) the correct loom. I decided to put my loom going under the expansion tank using a new hole and sourced numerous tidy grommets for the new route. Looks really tidy and standard if I'm honest.



Checked it about 4 times, all soldered and heat-shrunk together, fitted it all to the dash and hoped for the best.

With the engine tidied up, I fitted new timing kit, solid lower pulley, clutch, seals, combined with all new BBM solid mounts, leaving me to trial fit the engine. I've used the 5-speed 1.6 BE3 box off the old engine, rebuilt with new fork bushes, seals, etc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The engine fit absolutely bang on first time, with my DIY re-angled manifold, so was very happy. Only downside was needing to trim my brand new carbon fibre coilpack cover a tiny amount next to the timing casing to just give the master cylinder a bit of breathing space, but it's still retained all the bolts and looks the part.

I also fabricated the alternator mount and tensioner system based on how my old 306 one was using Colin Satchell's mounts, and it's worked out perfectly by using a machined and threaded rod with rod-ends, and a portion of the GTi6 engine mount to mount the alternator with, combined with an S16 top block mount section with the tension eyelet.

Radiator was fouling on the slam panel which I knew would happen anyway. Did a lot of fettling about getting the radiator cowling right, and cut the lip on the underside of the slam panel as usual to clear the inlet a touch. Same with the circular cutout for the pipework going to the throttle body. Very happy so far with it and how it's come along.

Next up was buying all the BBM hoses for the conversion and thermostat adapter, amongst many other bits whilst working in the engine bay - including all new suspension, 1.9 hubs and shafts, rebuilt the steering rack, new everything basically.



Fast forward a couple of months and with it ready to add coolant to and test it's water-tightness, I decided to roll it out of my garage and fire it up for the first time.

... it leaked a tiny bit from the thermostat housing due to my own error, which I fixed easily enough. But it kept fusing when I tried to start it. Which really really wound me up as I'd been super careful with all my looms, earths, tidying all the wiring up and replacing any rotten cabling. Needless to say I was furious and called it a day

My mate came down the next day with some electric testing tools, and we had a full day at it and had all the looms and fusebox back out. The short story is that I'd plugged the heater's 2-pin brown plug from under the dash into the fusebox when I shouldn't, and that's all it was.

Given there was no exhaust fitted, I didn't run the car, but it fired into life and all my gauges worked properly

Ultimately, it was going to be repainted entirely again properly, and I wanted an Auto bonnet in all honesty but couldn't find one cheap enough local.

Then one night at my mum's whilst sat the the table eating tea, a full non-sunroof 205 1.6 Auto XL popped up for £175 (!!!) with bonnet and everything intact. I went and picked it up the next day (Friday) at 9am, whilst acting like I wasn't overly keen on it to try and get them to discount it even more Took it anyway and parked it up at my mates work, pending imminent death. The car ran, had MOT and tax, and seemed fine too which was a bonus as it was moveable.

Next day, we gutted the car in a space of about 6 hours. I took every single thing off that I needed or was sellable to recoup cash. I kept various clips, a full matching lock set, glovebox blank, and the auto bonnet. Most of the car apart from the doors had some rust on it, so it was never going to be for anything other than salvaging bits off.

Allenallen had the doors and some other bits, the two guys from Dimma had the nonsunroof skin, and I sold the beam to Alastair, and scrapped the rest the next day.

 

... and exactly 24 hours later it looked like this:

So now I had my auto bonnet, a few other spares and matching lock set on one key to go with my good stuff back at home. Combined with new wings and stripped down bumpers it should look the part when all built back up.

I started stripping the car back down as it was going to the bodyshop for painting so I figured any labour I do removing trim and parts is money saved ultimately.

The next step is the brakes, and I've bought new rear flexi's, made up new caliper solid lines for the rear, and got some of Miles' extended front hoses. I'll probably throw all this lot on after it's been painted because it's part of the reassembly phase in my mind.

There's still a few things to tackle like new headlights and buying all new clips for the trim refitting, but this can wait until I'm ready to start bolting stuff back on.

And that's all for now folks.. next step is paint, so it's practically stripped right down again ready to be painted and have the bodywork made mint again

 

It's taken a while because I've had about 4 cars inbetween all this, got another dog, and practically built a house.

Edited April 30, 2015 by rikky

[rikky 37]

Well it got picked up today so off for a few weeks for the bodywork sorting out

 

Don't think the neighbours were overly happy about a winch and lowloader ramps clattering around going at 8.30am but nevermind

[Emmy Seize 8]

Nice write-up.

 

Is that black overspray from the engine bay on the dog? ​

[idoari 10]

great work!! i like it! keep it up! ​

[rikky 37]

Cheers, just stockpiling parts at the moment so I can have a good session rebuilding it over a few days and hopefully get it up and running soon. Saw it at the bodyshop yesterday being prepped

[rikky 37]

Also 'reconditioned' my rear badges by cleaning them up, Plasticare on the black, and using some stealthy gunmetal and red vinyl I had left over - very happy with how they look to be honest

 

Red looks a bit pinky but it's a bit deeper than it appears

 

Edited May 22, 2015 by rikky

[aldworth33 45 1 Cars]

This is what I'm doing now just a bit behind, looks good.

[rikky 37]

I am what they call "completely behind" because I've just slacked and slacked, kept buying other cars, messing with the house and other stuff.

[welshpug 1,656]

hope theres a clutch release bearing and clutch shaft bushes in that stockpile

[rikky 37]

as said on my other thread....

 

 

the arm fork prongs are the longer ones though, compared to the other measurements where there were shorter ones. i think that it was too short for the bearing originally wasn't it? mine was a good 6mm longer than the short ones from memory (measurements posted on Drivers forum thread, think i queried it before i reassembled box). i realise the skew of the arm will be out but not taking box back off now, certainly not until it's back from painting. if it dies, atleast i'll know the issue

http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=117011

my understanding is it's the fork length that's the actual issue (if it's not perfectly central, it's still gonna get the RB with longer prongs)

 

This is the full kit from Neat (not randomly pieced together bits). I'm not bothered about taking the box back off if I absolutely have to. Guess I'll see when I've got it running

Edited May 22, 2015 by rikky

[rikky 37]

Small update - I decided to get a template (thanks Farmer / MrFirepro) for the rear interior arch covers / liners, and am in the process of remaking them from new cloth

 

 

But more importantly, the car is pretty much fully painted so it's looking good I can pick it up next week and begin reassembling. Went down today and it's been moved into the corner of the workshop for now until next week, but wings are fitted, hatch and doors all prepped and the majority of the car painted Can't wait to get it back now!

 

 

 

 

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

Nice somewhere local doing it?

Edited June 6, 2015 by allanallen

[rikky 37]

Yeah bodyshop around the corner from me, I've known/used them for years, they did some work on my M3 the other week and fixed a few of my other bent Peugeots

 

I'm not confident enough with painting so given I want it so I'm happy with it, it's something I'm not prepared to try myself yet

Edited June 6, 2015 by rikky

[rikky 37]

It's back from the bodyshop now, and photos don't do it justice as you can imagine. It's had all the dents on every panel including any pin dents or minor imperfections removed, new wings, boot bonnet and doors all repainted inside and out (fully stripped back to bare panels) - basically there's not even bacteria on it

I've been rebuilding it over the past few days, nowhere near complete but looking a bit like a car again. All the trims have been re-dyed black again and wheels will be refurbed in the near future in Goodwood style or black chrome style. Interior's back together mostly but just being held up now by passenger side door wiring loom being knackered and trying to source a replacement

 

 

 

 

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Those seats look great. Its not often you see the late cloth GTI seats in good order. I have them in my laser green 1.6 and they are also really comfy.

[rikky 37]

Cheers, they came up at a really good price and I was about to go and collect them and the chap said he was passing my house at 5am and could drop them off for free which helped

 

Main things now are connecting brakes, sorting exhaust and getting the front and rear screens put in

[timoth123 37 1 Cars]

On one of your first pics, the one of the gearbox. It looks like youve used two different colour clutch fork arm bushes??

 

I was under the impression that you either have to use both yellow or both white depending on the length of the actual fork??

 

Great work by the way!!!

Edited June 27, 2015 by timoth123

[rikky 37]

Yeah, you are "meant to", but all the kits supplied (eg, Neat Car Parts) are wrong from factory. I've got a spare clutch release bearing anyway should it cause an issue. Mine is the longer fork though, so hopefully it'll still be ok regardless. We'll see I suppose!

 

Just dropped my Speedlines off this morning to be refurbished and brought back to life. Rest of the car is built up and looks immaculate, can't wait to have it out and about now

[welshpug 1,656]

yes, you are correct, and yes he has been reminded of it

 

doesn't matter whch fork, itll be pushing on the bearing on the piss either way.

Edited June 27, 2015 by welshpug

[rikky 37]

One thing I forgot is that on the rad fans it's got "205" written on it from the breakers yard. This is evidently visible with the front bumper on, and I cannot live with it. So all the front end is coming apart again just so I can paint the backs of the fans

[rikky 37]

I've bought new Denji driving lamps which I'll be fitting soon, got my bonnet cable to sort out and finally got a door loom so that's all back in place. Just need to sort the main pillar weatherstrip seals out and refit them somehow

 

Also, had my wheels refurbed by my mate (Ashton Powder Coating), they're titanium silver which is a minor amount darker than standard so they look just off-silver enough to be different, but they are fairly sparkly which you can't really see until the light hits them. I would never have had this finish done but after seeing the samples at his place it was the only way to go

 

 

(LED inspection lamp deliberately held to them to illustrate the sparkle - not this obvious in person!)

 

 

More updates to follow once I fix my garage door as the car's currently stuck in the garage!

Edited July 8, 2015 by rikky

[welshpug 1,656]

they look cool, how much did they charge?

[rikky 37]

£40 a wheel in that finish if you supply bare rims Very happy with them. He did my inlet manifold too in black

[rikky 37]

Well spent the last few days sorting a few last bits out like the interior trim, door seals and weatherstrips, and a few other minor niggles.

Going to take it to the workshop at weekend and sort the exhaust out, investigate the sticky bonnet catch and sort my 306 twin-horns out

Few other minor things to do - not too happy with the front ride height, looks a bit on stilts, 60mm gap at the front and rear between the top of the tyre and the bottom of the arch trim - which at the rear doesn't look bad, but at the front it's a bit high for me. Will investigate it..

Also fitted my Denji driving lamps temporarily, which seem to fit perfect, so pretty happy with how it's all come together

[rikky 37]

Well this weekend was mostly successful, being that I got the car on the trailer down to my mates workshop to get the screens both fitted, and the exhaust finally sorted out (cut about a 4" section from the downpipe, refitted the flange at the end and welded up - also welded a lambda boss in).

Had chance to get it running properly and can happily confirm everything's running fine it seems! Gauges all seem to work, the RPM hits maximum as I start it but settles to the right RPM afterwards (did the tacho-solder mod instead of the coilpack one)

Only thing I noticed is the oil pressure sensor threaded T piece leaking a bit so will try to resolve that

Also, on the standard gti6 setup, pulling the brown thermostat switch out triggers the fans at full speed. On mine, it's not doing anything, but the temperature didn't get remotely warm anyway.

With that in mind, I'm running the diesel twin-fan setup with the proper relays etc. Anyone know if it should still trigger it? I know the fans work as I tested them before fitting them. Just didn't want to let it get hot before them kicking in and relying on the temperature gauge for the first time.

The only downside to the weekend is I smashed my freshly fitted and painted front bumper to bits on the edge of the trailer after a little incident with the winch. So need to get a new one and get it painted up

Happy though overall that it runs and drives! Quite juddery at low rpm in first but I think it's more of a solid-mount vibration rather than clutch issue.

Bit unsure about the rear centre section heatshield that runs under the fuel tank. Does that bolt to the bracket that wraps around the beam? (The one I vividly remember throwing in the bin!)

Pics..