Pensioner 1.6GTI Refurb.

[SootySport 23]

As the title says I'm a youn

As the title says I'm a young 66 old and about to embark on my latest and probably my last car build. My first experience of building cars was with my dad back in the early '60's. We built an Anglia race car for the club racing scene at Silverstone, as we lived right on the track, it was handy for testing around the old Silverstone layout.   Had my first race at the grand old age of 13 and came last, no surprise but I improved over later years.

Other  refurbs some years later after moving to SE Essex include a Jaguar XJRS 6.0L, That was a biggy and hard to keep track of all the parts, took me a year just to rebuild the engine, my finest moment was starting it up and it ran sweetly as it should. Another Jaguar build was actually a Daimler Sovereign ser3, unusual colour scheme being  in bright red and blue leather interior.  Again mainly an engine build of the 4.2 straight 6 lump, the rest of the work was a light restoration of the trim, refreshing the suspension and brakes and a bit of paintwork. I've done nut and bolt restorations on a Triumph Spitfire 1500 and 3xTriumph Herald convertables. 

Then came a break in my car building career due to work, divorce and renovating my latest house. Step forward 3 years and house finished and looking pretty damn good I looked for a different sort of car to rebuild. At a trackday I blagged a passenger ride in a Caterham, I was hooked!  and I knew I just had to have one   but they are expensive for what they are, so started exploring other 7 type cars for a running car that I could rebuild to my tastes.  2 weeks later I found a 1998 Westfield SEIW with a Vauxhall redtop engine which as usual for me, the spanners had to come out and I set about making it my own. It's a car but not as we know it, there was forever a little tweeks and parts to buy to make it better.  You could call the  project  a 'Triggers Broom Edition' the bodywork and chassis are the only original parts I haven't changed. I still have it and do regular trackdays in the summer. 

 

Anyway back to the GTI.

 The GTI  is a Jan 1991 Red 1.6GTI so I guess it's a 1990 MY. 

I've had the GTI about 4 months now, it's MOT'd and running ok.  Been using it weekly around the town and no major problems, save the SAD not working as it should. It's all original and no rot, that I've found yet. I've started buying parts to fit later but first I'll be cleaning the underside.  Space on my driveway is a bit limited and I'm waiting for my daughter to move out as she's buying a flat so I can then make a start on the Pug. Hopefully there will be some progress in the coming weeks, keep you posted,

Edited May 14, 2018 by SootySport

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

Looks a tidy little car from the picture!

The number plate Particularily caught my attention as I used to own a red 1600 gti registration H759 GLR! 

[SootySport 23]

On ‎5‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 6:50 AM, allanallen said:

Looks a tidy little car from the picture!

The number plate Particularily caught my attention as I used to own a red 1600 gti registration H759 GLR! 

I guess it's one of a batch of Pre reg imports by Peugeot UK.

[SootySport 23]

At last I’ve made a start, took a while to lift the rear end up high enough to work underneath.  Had a good look for rot and rust under the boot floor and so far looks pretty good save a hole about the size of a £2 coin.  It’s above where rear small heat shield would be.

Exhaust and fuel tank will be coming out next so I can clean and seal the floor in one go. Will steam clean the floor before any other work carried out.

Looking at the rear beam, I’m not sure it is a pucker GTI version as the torsion bars and tube are painted red and the bars are 19mm in diameter, is this the wrong beam?  The number 205 is hand painted on the tube which makes me think it came from a breakers yard.

 

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Gti torsion bars are 18.9mm. Base model 18.1mm.

[MrAndy 10]

Hi,

 

Your car looks very nice as it is. Once you get the underside tidying done there's good thing going on

 

-A-

[SootySport 23]

On 1/17/2019 at 10:53 AM, MrAndy said:

Hi,

 

Your car looks very nice as it is. Once you get the underside tidying done there's good thing going on

 

-A-

Still a lot to do pal.

[SootySport 23]

Dropped the rear beam today, the beam mountings were undone easily but all the other fittings took ages as they were a bit rusty, a bit of heat and lots of spraying of penetrating oil eventually freed the off.  

The bump stops were the only cause of concern, one fell off in a pile rust and the other bump stop mounting has rusted away. Seems new mounting plates need to be fabricated and fitted, unless someone has has a better idea, I can’t weld to save my life. 

 

[SootySport 23]

Fuel tank now out, going to give it a thorough clean.  Time to clean under the floor when I can borrow a steam cleaner, over a £100 for a days rental so hoping someone near me can lend me one. 

Floor looks rust free so far and not as much build up of dirt as I thought, lucky so far.

Rear axle was collected by TNT today and is off to Axles by Stef for a refurb.

Edited May 7, 2019 by SootySport

[SootySport 23]

Cleaned the fuel pump and tank today. What was a brown crusty tank turns out to be nice shiny black plastic.

Washed the filters and checked the piping is sound. The plug connector is not original, it has two loose spade terminals pushed onto the pump connector. Anyone know the name of the original plug! and I’ll find one.

[SootySport 23]

Collecting parts for the rear of the car, new brake parts made by my local car parts shop for £16 and a pair of Mini bumps stops, just right for my application.

[SootySport 23]

Rear underfloor brackets were cleaned and de-rusted using citric acid mixed into a bucket of water. It works very well if left a few days, the parts rinsed well with water and a light wire brushing.   De-greased them and painted with  Simoniz Tough Black, it stands up well to stone chips, been using it for years on my Westfield suspension parts and the next best thing to powder coating.

[SootySport 23]

Had to get a man in to weld up the rear bump stop mounts.  At least I can get on with sealing the floor and fitting the rear suspension.

Before and after photos-

 

[SootySport 23]

At last, floor cleaned front to back and painted with Hammerite Underbody Seal.  Sprayed the cavities with Dinitrol ML which is very thin and seeps into the narrowest of gaps, so hopefully good for corrosion protection fo the next 30 years.

Rear beam was was rebuilt by ‘Axles By Stef’ and fitted along with Bilstein B4 shocks, new brake pipes,flexis and drums. Fuel tank fitted along with new piping.

All the underbody parts and drum backplates painted & fitted.

Next job will be stripping out the engine bay, I wonder how long that will take.

Edited October 29, 2019 by SootySport

[SootySport 23]

Time for an overdue update.  Rear of the car mechanicals finished and all straight forward. Front suspension, drive shafts and brakes, renewed, re-furbed, repainted And fitted.  One calliper bleed screw sheared off. I tried drilling it out and re-tapping but it was never going to seal properly so bought A used calliper which caused another problem, the pad carrier was from the opposite side and I was befuddled by the Pentagon pattern bolt head.  A quick question on this forum pointed me to the sockets to buy and were cheap.  The correct pad carrier was fitted and pads slotted in nicely. 

[SootySport 23]

SAD valve tested for opening and closing and all ok. New pipe sourced as the old one was not OE and kinked causing lack of air flow. Heater valve cleaned up inside and out, that was working ok before I started all this work. New Bosch fuel pUmp sourced and fitted in the caged.  Took ages to work out how the pump comes out but in the end it was simple,  just remove the three pipe clips and wiresand pull hard on the bottom of the pump, filter end.  To help re-assembly a smear of red rubber grease around the pump body made pushing it into the rubber sleeve easy.  I used the smaller fuel pipe clips instead of the crimp on clips which were to awkward to fit. Marked up the flow pipe and 12v connection to make sure I have them the right way round.
Next tasks are to refit the SAD and pump, connect up all the loom plugs in the engine bay and fill all the fluids. Could be ready for a an engine Start early next week.

 

[Leslie green 110]

Nice work soon be back on the road again 

[SootySport 23]

Engine starts and runs ok but cooling fan not not working, 12v not getting to it.  I’m delving into the fan wiring but doesn’t correspond to the Haynes wiring diagram.

[SootySport 23]

Sorted the fan wiring and it was just corroded loom plugs/loose wires etc. so fan works ok now when hot.  I then had a go at adjusting idle speed and the revs were all over the place, followed the Haynes procedure to no avail and found out the butterfly adjustment screw was seized in the throttle housing. No amount of penetrating oil would release it, so easiest option was take the throttle housing round to the local machine shop and they red-drilled  and Rethreaded the adjuster.  That only cost me a few £‘s with a contribution to their tea club, just need to re-fit and go through the set up procedure for the umpteenth time, fingers crossed.

[SootySport 23]

The last few weeks were spent fixing the lights, wipers and washers,  all simple fixes, bulbs changed, new rear washer motor and washer jets/pipes cleaned and unblocked.  The front wipers were seized and proved to be the wiper spindles had rusted and seized in their plastic housings.  I managed to drift the spindles out of their housings and polished them up, refitted them with a good coating of white grease which should stop further water ingress.  All back together now and working ok. 

[SootySport 23]

Another go at at setting the cold start and idle speed, failed.  So airflow meter and pipe work out again.   Loom plug to the SAD valve was not seated properly as I had it upside down, this is what happens when you try to do something when it’s dark, been there before.  Might as well test the loop resistance of the valve and voltage on the loom plug, all good so airflow meter and all the other bits re-fitted.   Idle set up again soon, possibly the 20th. time I’ve done this.

Overall not a lot more to do,  a thorough clean of paintwork, interior/exterior trim,  alignment and MOT left on the list. 

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

good work! keep going it will be ready for summer!
 

[SootySport 23]

Well, it drives ok, just about, brake discs need cleaning as they are binding a bit and wheels not very parallel.

[SootySport 23]

Been a good day today,  had alignment checked and adjusted then went for an MOT, it passed, just an advisory on one of the numberplate lights not working but I’ve already fixed that.   Had a bit of a panic when the front washers didn’t work during the test, I forgot to connect up the pipe to the connector under the corner of the bonnet but the mot man fixed for me.

Next to do is a big clean up, a wash and polish.

[Leslie green 110]

Good result now you are ready for the road again  

Edited March 4, 2021 by Leslie green