[Car_Upgrade] 205 1.9 Gti Project: Respray & Rebuild!

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

Hello, here's my 205 GTi6 build

 

The plan is to respray it in Miami blue, upgrade some parts, and dump a GTi6 into it somehow - it's currently a pretty much standard 1.6 GTi. Bear with me, this is my first project so I'm sure I'll get a lot of stuff wrong

 

January 2013 I went and bought an F reg 205 1.6 GTi for £750 - 

The project first started in this shed - 

She got stripped to the bones then we lacked in progress and got kicked out into this shed - 

Where she sat for a while whilst trying to sort out a painter. She then went on a road trip - 

Arrived in the painters shed where she got tarted up in a nice shade of miami blue, here's some of the steps it went through, bodywork - 

Primer -

Isolator coat -

Basecoat & lacquer -

We then shipped her back home (a whole 5 miles) into the new home -

 

Whilst it was away getting painted I bought a donor car - 306 Rallye that had a slight shunt to the rear end -

Pulled its heart out and tucked it away for later.

 

That's about as far as I've got, I'll update with the stuff I've been doing recently tomorrow or something, need to go take photos. Basically we put a partition up in the garage and I've got half now so I'm making storage for all my crap so not much is getting done on the car atm but we're nearly done with that so hopefully I can get stuck in this weekend. The plan is to wire wheel the complete underneath then treat it with kurust, paint with red oxide & wax oyl it. Will let you know how I get on. 

[arbor 2]

Nice work, keep the updates coming.

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

So I've been tidying up the boorach, getting there now. Got a lot of stuff up on the trusses,

Got the engine mounted on a stand I bought, engine crane might be slightly overkill..  can move it about easier now which is handy.

The bench area is coming together, just need to put up a unit on the wall for the remainder of crap laying about.

 

Here's how it's looking now -

 

Just need to find a place for that stuff down the drivers side of the car and I can get started. I've wire wheeled the underneath of the boot floor so far, there's a couple bits needing welded but looks okay. I'm pretty sure the rest of the cars floor plan is solid so should see the underneath finished soon.

 

Next up is the rear beam, I've bought a 309 GTi beam from a co-worker, looked like this when I bought it -

I stripped some of it and wire wheeled it all back to bare metal then primed and painted some bits of it. Not a very good pic but you can see half of it so far -

 

I then decided it was getting completely stripped and rebuilt, not sure if this was a good idea or not lol. I've got the arb out, the screws out of the end of the torsion bars but not much else is moving.. need to take another read of the guide.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Dundy53

[pugdamo 111 2 Cars]

looking good,paintwork looks vey nice. I like the man cave aswell,very nice

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

Cheers

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

Been slacking as of late.. working 6 days a week nighshift just can't be bothered doing much when I get home. Anyway, dad is wanting his shed back I think, been trying to speed things up. Sent the rear axle away to Tom Fenton to get rebuilt. Also sent my exhaust manifold and wiring loom to Miles to get modified. Have ordered a new downpipe from him too.

 

While I'm waiting for that to happen I've been taking back all the underseal etc and uncovered some nasty holes which were 'repaired' a few months ago. Here's a pic

 

The plan is to cut it all out in patches neatley and replace it. Most of the underseal is off but there's more to do before I can start welding. Dad has ordered himself a new ramp for the garage so I'm gonna wait until next week for it to arrive so I can get the first shot and finish the underbody.

 

That's about it, hopefully have more photos next update. Here's a pic of the beast that's keeping me occupied till the 205 is on the road.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Dundy53

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

Happy New year!

 

No much progress, collecting parts. ????

 

When the ramp got put in my dad pulled rank and had the first shot, his Porsche was on it for a while. Then it was my turn, I bought a Cherry Red S1 106 Rallye with a 16v conversion to use for the winter, here's a pic of the ramp in action!

Gave the underneath a scrape and wax oyl and the 205 has been sat there since that was done, doing nothing, as usual.. ????

 

Got my 309 axle back from Tom Fenton a while ago, here's a picture of it mid-build -

He had quite a job getting the arms out but the tube was fine, New seals, bearings, shafts etc and it was finished -

I have GAZ shocks for it and solid mounts, looking forward to fitting it. If you see this Tom, thank you very much!

 

Got my wiring loom and reangled manifold back from Miles too, forgot to take pictures but here's a picture of the downpipe I got from him -

Has a lambda sensor bitty welded on, looks awesome. Still need to order other bits like gear linkages etc from him but will get round to it. Cheers Miles ????

 

Got a Xsara vts box from Jord, gonna tidy it up and get it fitted, I'm not sure exactly what all I need to change on it to work with the 205. I have 309 driveshafts, will these fit in a 205 diff/hubs? What clutch do I buy and is there anything else I need? ????

 

Have started working on the front suspension, got my hubs blasted and primed, new bearings fitted. Will sand them down and prime/spray them.

New -30mm springs, top mount kits.

Will be using the Bilstein struts I got with the car.

 

These are the seats I'll be using, think they're out of a Rover 800.

 

Got some more storage in the corner now, the amount of crap I have is ridiculous.

Dad also put up some old worktop he had ????

 

I have now sold the 106 and bought a 205 STDT for work, save a bit of money with the 70 daily miles I'm doing.

There was a lot of moisture inside it when I bought it so I've strippped the seats, carpet, underlay etc out and letting it dry out, will then refit it and check all seals, drains etc. Not too keen on the beige interior but it's staying for now, I want to keep it standard.

 

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[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

Oh and I'm off to America on Wednesday for a couple weeks so won't have an update for a while.

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

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[j_turnell 136 3 Cars]

Nice find. Has the rubber worn through to the strengthening bar? One i picked up a few months back has done this and rusted through.

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

Nope but the fixing holes have cracked a little inside, will try a little silicon and maybe a small washer of some sorts to stop them splitting when I fit it ☺

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

Nearly 8 months on and not much has happened ????

 

I bought a mig welder a while ago to try and patch up a 205 straight diesel I had but ended up scrapping it because it was too far gone, but got a little practice at welding, so attempted to repair the boot floor of the GTi, got there in the end, please excuse my bad welding, it's solid and it'll look pretty when the carpet goes down ???? -

 

Finished cleaning the rest of the floor up with wire wheel on grinder/drill with wire attachments and a dye grinder for the really small spots. I then used kurust, it works pretty well if the rust has been cleaned back properly. Painted it with brush on red oxide then seam sealed it -

Forgot to take a photo before I started putting the top coat on. The rest of the floor was in pretty good condition apart from the exhaust tunnel, had a lot of small rust spots. The paint I used was brush on black Rustoleum btw, it worked pretty well. I then wax oyl'd the whole underneath -

I also did the bottom of the engine bay and front panel, hopefully it will last a bit longer than last time.

 

I used the 1.6 gti brake line setup, only got the long one done and short bit after the t piece to o/s, then got the beam on -

I fitted BBM Gp A mounts, completely forgot about the solid front mounts when I sent the beam to Tom for rebuilding ???? so had a bit of a job getting the new bushes out without scratching the nice shiney beam.

 

Also been working on my calipers, got them stripped down, one of the fronts was seized but thanks to help from a couple guys on here got the piston out at first I was using a hand pump, cut the valve of a bike tube and crimped it into the end of an old flexie -

Wouldn't budge so used the compressor, I was holding the air line onto my bodged brake line and the piston came out like a missile.. not very safe ????

Got the calipers wire wheeled down and used some zinc primer on them, had to wait a wee while for the VHT engine enamel to come -

Got them all painted up, was going to just paint them silver but ended up going with orange, hopefully it will match the indicators/side repeaters ????

I've still got to rebuild them and buy new rear ones, I got rebuild kits and new pistons for the front from brakes international, but they wanted near enough the price of new rear calipers for the rebuild kits and new pistons for rears.

 

Was about to build up the front struts but decided to paint them, bits of over spray and rust spots etc on them..

Will probably get round to it tomorrow after another coat of paint, the top mount kits I bought earlier in the thread I ended up using on my STDT, so bought new bearings and Gp N top mount rubbers from BBM. You can see in the pic I also got new bump stops/gaiters from pug. Those hubs I had blasted and new bearings put in turned out to be 1.6 ones - I didn't know that there were different gti ones ???? anyway, bought some 1.9 gti ones and got them painted up.

 

I was going to modify the car quite a bit when I first started the project, got rallye arches, recaro seats etc but I'd like to keep it more standard now so will have to put all the rivets back in for the GTi trim, going to tidy up my ph1.5 seats and put them back in etc.

 

It's nice to actually see progress after so long ☺

 

Might be going to pick up another GTi tomorrow ????????

[jord294 92]

Nice work!

 

I'm pretty sure if you use the 309 beam and the sl434s, you will be wider than your side trim

[cybernck 402 1 Cars]

Love this project (reminds me of mine ).

 

Any updates?

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

Cheers guys, I've got rallye arches if the wheels sit out passed the trim, I take it that it's the offset that's the problem?

 

No updates really, it's parked in the back of the shed, bought another 205 (which I shouldn't have..) and it's taken ages to get road worthy.

 

Currently waiting on planning permission to build my own shed so should see lots of progress then

Edited November 9, 2017 by Dundy53

[cybernck 402 1 Cars]

When I had a lowered 309 GTI rear beam coupled with 7x15 ET7 wheels (wider and more outboard setup than with SL434s, IIRC), it was definitely too wide for the standard arches.

[j_turnell 136 3 Cars]

I run a 309 beam with 306 abs arms and 7J wheels and the tyre sits inline with the arch, had to trim the return off.

 

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

Think the SL's are 6.75 and ET8 I think, hopefully it'll be alright with the return trimmed

 

Do you know what ET those wheels are James? Looks awesome btw. ????

[wicked 103 3 Cars]

Which ET have those wheels? Note that the extra camber (306 arm) will tilt the tire a bit inside at the top.

I have a 309 beam with 7J, ET18 wheels and it just fits with Pzero Nero tires; the shape of the tire is critical; no way that I can fit square semi's.

Now it only rubs only if loaded and face a big bump in the road.

[j_turnell 136 3 Cars]

They are Gutmann et13 IIRC.

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

Back after a long break, couple months ago we got planning permission to finally build my own garage, its pretty much finished now heres some pics - 

 

 

Painting the inside made a huge difference, kinda wish id painted the floor while it was empty

 

 

Dunlop 2 poster installed, got it pretty cheap off ebay!

 

Delighted with bench area so far, so much easier having stuff organised

 

Trusses handier for big stuff

 

Most important feature; the bottle opener & lid catcher

[Anthony 1,002]

More than a little garage envy here - that looks like a fantastic space!

 

Only thing I would say is how secure is some of that stuff on the rafters?  The 4-branch manifold for example doesn't look like it's going to take much movement from vibration or whatever to fall.

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

Yeah its great, everythings pretty secure, it is a bit sketchy taking stuff down with a car beneath it though

 

Back to the car, the lad who painted it now works down in England spraying for Mclaren, he took a week off work to come up and spray the bonnet, bumpers etc. After showing him my f*ck up that was a scratch in the middle of the rear quarter down to the primer, and him not being 100% happy with the first respray (it was his actual first full respray of a car - I was really happy with it) he decided to respray the whole car again for free. 

 

He's now a next level paint wizard so the car looks amazing, I just hope I can do it justice putting it back together :S

 

 

 

Started putting the interior back in, got most of the rear done & dash back in, gonna build up the doors next - that was the plan for this weekend but it was a heavy one on the drink

 

The engines pretty much ready to go in, painted the block in some satin VHT as it was quite rusty, wasnt keen on painting rocker covers/inlet, might try polishing them a bit. 

 

Quaife diff fitted in my Xsara vts box

 

New push type clutch fork/arm + bushes & new VSS

 

Cant wait to put these on, what a pain the main dust seals were lol

 

Got my Sl434's refurbished by Rimtech in Inverness, theyve done a great job. My original plan was to put the arch/door trims black to match these wheels but I've decided to keep the trim grey to match the interior & keep it period correct. Contemplating getting a set of 1.9 wheels done in grey now..

Edited June 17, 2018 by Dundy53

[eddie bullit 37]

doing a great job. paint finish looks excellent

 

[Robbiedundy 58 4 Cars]

Nearly a year later and not much has changed, the engine is now fitted and pretty much plumbed up, front end is pretty much back together minus lights & bumpers, the back end is pretty much complete aswell. Heres a couple not so recent pictures -

 

Only minor things left to do really like fit trim the doors/trims etc, it's taken that long to build the car that my minds changed heaps of times in the process. I'm at a stage now where it's nearly complete but I'm not happy with the car. Theres things I wish I'd done better like having the underneath/arches stonechipped & painted body colour, the boot floor is a mess & the state of the engine also let's the car down.

 

Contemplating taking it all apart, doing it properly & also putting the standard engine back in