1989 1.6 cherry red refurbishment

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

Ian looking at this pic that bubbling is exactly like mine was - worth getting it investigated and sorted before it turns into the horrible mess that I let mine get into

[ian010778 21]

18 hours ago, Tom Fenton said:

Please tell me those are not dents in the wing tops from that length of wood

Nah, there was already a dent at the top of the left wing and the right is fine.

 

15 hours ago, Telf said:

Ian,

 

I haven't ever welded anything on the car. The rot around the bumper hangers was extensive and required a lot of work to put right-bearing in mind you want the bumper to fit properly after with no odd gaps etc. The boot holes where literally just buzzed out to good metal then the welder built the boot contours back. It looked bloody horrid until they went and smoothed all the weld and metal back. I'm not sure if I've got a picture .

I reckon I'll end up sending the shell off to a local bodyshop to get the boot floor and the rust on the rear wheel arches and front panel sorted once I've stripped it all back. It'll be worth getting someone to do it properly as you say Paul, I don't want any dodgy gaps or anything spoiling it.

[SootySport 23]

WD40 isn’t a good penetrating oil, you need the proper stuff.

[Leslie green 110]

Looks like you have a bit of rot to contend with but it's all fixable 

[ian010778 21]

Righto – after a winter break cataloguing parts removed so far, tidying the garage for the next stage and compiling a long shopping list I’ve been back out on the car this week.

 

Just the front seats and carpet to be removed from the interior now before I get her up on stands and start removing the suspension, exhaust and fuel lines. Getting the wiring loom out through the firewall this morning was a major milestone as the engine bay and the cabin look a lot clearer now

 

The plan for the next stage is to grab a couple of 1.8m long square battens and channel them along their length. They will be used as load spreaders down the length of each sill when jacking her up and getting her onto the stands. The thinking behind this is that the shell will be sitting on stands for a while once the wheels come off and in the long run, once I’ve stripped the underneath, I can fix some cross members to the battens to provide a base for the dolly. Having some substantial battening atop the stands will also give me a bit of extra height when working underneath.

 

Latest pictures are below - visually not a lot of difference but I've made what feels like a lot of progress this week. Still looks like a s*it monster truck at the front though!

 

 

Ian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

Good work. I don't envy you one bit...

 

As I said before make a plan budget wise. When you think you have a figure in mind PM me and let me know what you think it might cost as you appear to be going down a similar road that I've just travelled. I won't say how much I've spent publicy but it's alot more than I expected. To cut costs I've spent the last 6 weeks rebuilding it. It's taken about 150 hours so far.

[Richie-Van-GTi 71 2 Cars]

20 hours ago, Telf said:

Good work. I don't envy you one bit...

 

As I said before make a plan budget wise. When you think you have a figure in mind PM me and let me know what you think it might cost as you appear to be going down a similar road that I've just travelled. I won't say how much I've spent publicy but it's alot more than I expected. To cut costs I've spent the last 6 weeks rebuilding it. It's taken about 150 hours so far.

Whatever you think just double it. I reckon I am about 6k in and not done yet, thankfully it's not being done to sell

[ian010778 21]

Hi all, long time no update but I made some major progress today so here’s what I’ve been up to. Apart from life and all that I have managed to put some time in on the 205, still taking my time but still enjoying it. At my last update I’d just about taken most of the dashboard out but things have moved on a lot now. Also, thanks a lot to everyone who I've been talking to about budget - very useful info' and as always very much appreciated.

 

Firstly, I had to contend with a particularly stubborn seat bolt – not sure how it got so stubborn as back in the day I had the seats out a few times when installing and removing various ICE components. In the end I attempted to drill it out but after a few relatively unsuccessful attempts I picked up a screw extractor kit which didn’t exactly extract the bolt but it did snap the head off (assuming my drilling had weakened it) making way for me to remove the seat.

 

I then moved back to the front end and started work on the suspension. I need to be able to move the shell around on the drive, and to get it to the body shop, once the strip down is complete and I realised that I can’t just sit it on stands as the wheels won’t go back on now until I’m rebuilding. So I purchased a couple of 1800mm fence posts from B&Q, cut a channel and some recesses as appropriate and I’ve fitted them along the sills to firstly spread the load while she’s on stands and secondly to give me a couple of chunky side rails off of which I’ll build a dolly once I’ve got all the underneath components off. So, after getting the car up onto stands, with the mentioned fence posts in place, I now have plenty of room to get underneath. Back to the front suspension…

 

This was surprisingly easy – I took the shocks out with the hubs and driveshafts still attached and they’re now in the garage waiting further strip down/cleaning/new springs along with all the usual bits. The front sub frame came out very easily and I hadn’t realised that the front section of the exhaust was resting on it; so within half an hour I’d removed the front sub frame with steering rack and the entire exhaust system in one go

I then went to a family wedding, got really drunk and had a few weekends off doing other stuff - the garden looks lovely and I had a few nice weekends away with my wife.

 

However, I put a bit of time in this week and the past couple of weekends over which I removed the carpet and sound deadening, the gear lever and handbrake and the rear bumper with valance. Most of the rear bumper bolts have sheared and I'll sort those out later when I'm doing final checks before the body shop; but for the time-being this makes life easier as stuff is coming off and I'm not wasting time fighting with 30 year old rust! This left me with one job today – remove the rear beam….

 

Not as easy as the front end but the entire beam assembly with rear hubs and handbrake cables still attached is now sitting in the garage. Typing this is a bit painful as some of those nuts were really hard despite a soaking in Plus Gas and a long breaker bar and my fingers are hurting! I did make one mistake in that I didn’t dis-connect the rear brake flexi's before dropping the beam but as they’re getting replaced anyway, I cut them just to make things easier today. Here’s some pic’s as I shut up shop this afternoon.

 

 

 

 

Next job is the fuel tank, which I believe is the last big job of the strip down. Once I’ve taken the fuel lines and the brake line out from underneath I can get to work building my dolly in situ’ - I'm planning to use the rubber from the old rear beam and engine mounts when building the dolly as I don't want it to be completely rigid as I believe there's a risk that a rigid dolly may twist the floor over time; so some strategically placed rubber in the joints and under the casters will make sure the floor can rest in a natural position and cope with any little bumps on the drive when the shell's being wheeled around.

 

Having her mobile again will enable me to finish removing some niggly bits like the outer trim, coolant pipe and a few other bits I couldn’t quite get to with her parked next to the house. Then, the shell will be wrapped up tight ready for the winter while I crack on in the garage – probably doing the engine rebuild as this won’t require much outside time. And yes, I know I planned to do this last winter but, life! The main thing is that I don’t want rush things and risk doing a crappy job if I’ve got other stuff going on.

 

I thinks that’s about all for now – good news is that I haven’t found any more surprises under the rear, hopefully the fuel tank removal won’t reveal anything nasty either and I’ll drop another update here once the fuel tank’s out and she’s on the dolly. One final thing though - my 205 was first registered in August 1989 so she's officially 30 now (whats that song about being dirty at 30!).

 

Ian.

[SootySport 23]

Mine will be 30 next January.  Hope you disconnected the filler and breather pipes before you parked it close to the wall or you’ll struggle removing the fuel tank.

Are you planning on sending the body-shell away for paint?

 

 

[ian010778 21]

Hey Sooty,

 

Yeah, the shell's going off to the professionals for the bodywork and respray. Hopefully I've left just enough room to get the fuel tank out!

 

 

Ian.

[ian010778 21]

Aside some cleaning fun (see my other thread) this weekend has been all about the fuel tank.

 

I had some time on Saturday and this morning to essentially undo two hoses, a clip and two nuts but it's still not off the car!

 

Plenty of Plusgas on the nuts and I did manage to get one of them off on Saturday as well as mullering the filler pipe clip until it just gave up and getting the feed and return hoses off at the fuel pump end. However, today was a real pisser.

 

I knew the other nut was not going to yield easily and after a few tries it looked like this. I hammered it, heated it an tried to chisel it around but nothing worked.

 

 

So after a few smokes and a think I got my rotary tool with a cut-off disc on it and carefully cut a couple of flats on the nut. This meant I could get my mole grips on and after a little more persuasion the corrosion cracked. Brilliant (I thought), it's bound snap and I can get the bodyshop to replace the stud... but no, it just wanted to wind down the thread, a quarter of a turn at a time. So after a couple more smokes and a pint of tea I spent what seemed like all morning with the mole grips, adjusting, clamping and winding bit by bit until it eventually came off the thread. Good news is at least I can reuse the stud when it all goes back together.

 

At this point I'm thinking great(!) - all I need to do now is persuade the tank off the studs and unclip it from the two forward mounting clips while wiggling it off the filler pipe but... remember those DIY fence post load spreaders I fitted??? This happened

 

 

Now I did not see that coming! The filler section of the tank is fouling on the wood and there is nowhere near enough wiggle room to bring the tank down. I can't take the wood out without the road wheels on the car and everything but the fuel tank has been removed - I. AM. LIVID!!!

 

The only solution I have is to remove some or all of the end of the post in situ'. I can't get the jigsaw or my manual saw in due to access but fortunately I have a 3/4 inch drill bit for boring through fence posts.

 

And that's my job next Saturday - to very very carefully nibble away at the obstruction without sticking my drill through the tank. Talk about foisted by my own petard; I thought I'd done really well getting those posts in place to make sure I don't put too much weight on the jacking points and to provide the side rails for the dolly - but you live and learn. Off for an afternoon with beers in the sun now.

 

 

Ian.

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

Good work Ian.

 

The fuel tank hose is a pain in the tits. I had similar dramas taking it out and during refit. Have you considered getting a few mates and just lifting the back of the car up then pull the tank out.

 

I found quite a bit of corrosion in the tank area but my car was on 254000 miles so to be expected !

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Those timbers really aren't necessary. Position the stands directly under the jacking points, they are perfectly strong enough to hold the complete car up. Yours is now significantly lighter anyway as you have removed a lot of the major components.

[ian010778 21]

And it's outta there!

 

Had to go out for an emergency haircut this morning but 20 minutes after and the tank was out with no damage done

 

 

I'm really chuffed as this was the last large component to come out. I won't have any time over the next few weeks to do anything on the car so it was really important to get this far before the weather starts to turn.

 

Fortunately no surprises above the tank and I have also removed the pump and sender and rinsed it out ready for storage today.

 

On 8/30/2019 at 8:20 AM, Tom Fenton said:

Those timbers really aren't necessary.

Tom - us bigger lads need all the clearance we can get and the extra 74mm is helping a lot when I'm under the car!

 

On 8/29/2019 at 8:08 PM, Telf said:

Have you considered getting a few mates and just lifting the back of the car up then pull the tank out.

 

Paul - I haven't got any mates lol!

 

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

Are you going to remove the filler pipe? I did because I thought it would be a real area for rot but I was surprised to find none at all. There's also that plastic no return valve thing situated inside the filler neck. I replaced mine. Got the part from Farmer.

[ian010778 21]

Got around to doing some gearbox cleaning recently - engine next!

 

 

[billybluesky 1]

Well done that man , good to see such posiivity, if anyone has just read all this , go back and read the first post lol

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

On 4/15/2020 at 8:43 AM, ian010778 said:

Got around to doing some gearbox cleaning recentl

Ian, if you intend to drive it i wouldnt go mad with cleaning the gearbox, mine is clagged with crap already after 4000miles and a year on the road, engine similar and that was spotless.

 

nice to see you are still working on it

[ian010778 21]

19 hours ago, billybluesky said:

Well done that man , good to see such posiivity, if anyone has just read all this , go back and read the first post lol

Haha, just re-read my first post on the thread - one year and no paintwork, what was I thinking??? The scope certainly has 'evolved'! I was warned, and it did happen

 

It'll be two years in May and I'm only just getting to cleaning and prepping ready for new parts having decided quite early on that a full respray will be required. So much for a simple 'tidy up'.

15 hours ago, Telf said:

Ian, if you intend to drive it i wouldnt go mad with cleaning the gearbox, mine is clagged with crap already after 4000miles and a year on the road, engine similar and that was spotless.

 

nice to see you are still working on it

Cheers Paul - yep, still going after having the winter off. I put my first big parts order in to MrAuto on Friday - should be here this week ready for the weekend

 

I'll be painting the gearbox and engine eventually as I do want that pristine look; even if it just lasts a few months, it'll be worth an extra weekend's work seeing as I've been at it for two years already and I'm still only about half way there (please tell me I'm about half way there!)

 

I reckon I'll only be driving her in the summer anyway and she's going nowhere near my works car park - that place is crud and door ding city! I should be ok to keep on top of keeping her looking reasonable as long as I don't spring any fluid leaks once she's back on the road but I know she'll not look too fresh for too long - I just want the photo's really!

 

Ian.

 

EDIT: I forgot to update after last weekend - I was mainly jetwashing crud from the front end components ready for stripping and painting.

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by ian010778

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

Ian, might be worth vapour blasting the engine? mines pretty clean and hasnt furred back up. Im not sure paint is the best idea

[ian010778 21]

45 minutes ago, Telf said:

Ian, might be worth vapour blasting the engine? mines pretty clean and hasnt furred back up. Im not sure paint is the best idea

What's vapour blasting?

 

I like the painted look and thought as long as I don't scrimp on the prep' work and product (POR-15 Engine Enamel) this would be the way to go for a weekend/summer car. If I don't paint it how do I protect it from surface rust and the like?

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

vapour blasting - its just a high pressure clean - actually im not sure what they used but look at my engine build thread- it came out very clean(3 odd years ago) its been fitted back a year now and is still in good condition. it wasnt cheap i think the entire engine (it was fully stripped) cost about £350. 

 

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

heres the company that did mine:

 

http://www.suffolkblastclean.com/vapour-blasting

 explanation on the site

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

1 hour ago, ian010778 said:

 

EDIT: I forgot to update after last weekend - I was mainly jetwashing crud from the front end components ready for stripping and painting.

i got my subframe powder coated- seems to be holding up pretty well so far-same with the rear axle components, most of the brake parts(calipers etc), also did the windscreen wiper stalks, battery tray, afew other bits- you can see them all in my build thread.

[ian010778 21]

I'll have a think about this Paul as it does look great, on their site and on your threads. Hopefully there might be somewhere in or around Leicester that offers it.

 

Ian.