205 Roland Garros overhaul

[MJL205 0]

Hello,

Here's the start of an overhaul thread for my March 1991 registered 205 1.4 3-door Roland Garros (with the same TU3S engine and Solex twin-choke carb as the wonderful 205 XS). Sorry it's not a GTI, but hopefully some will find it a useful reference point for an TU3 series 205 and it will also be here for the benefit of the history of my  car as much as anything else.

 

After spending years looking for a decent 205 1.9 GTI, I've come to accept I'm priced out of that market, so with some time off over the last few weeks I decided I'd really try to get my 205 itch scratched with a purchase as close to my wonderful old 205 XS (which I fell in love with before stupidly selling it for buttons about 15 years ago).

This Roland Garros just happened to pop up at the right time, and some of you may have seen the ad on Car & Classics (it was the RG with an incorrect 205 GTI badged plastic tailgate louvre on it which put most buyers off including me at first! Don't worry, that's now off the car!).

I've added a couple of not very impressive pics below but I'll add some better ones soon.

 

The car is very original which is good in that it hasn't been c**ked around with or boy-racered but bad in that it needs a major overhaul pretty much everywhere - especially everything related to the suspension and brakes. It is very solid with only some bodywork tidying up required in a couple of the usual places. There's some lacquer peel on the tailgate and a few of the usual unsightly small dinks & dents which will get sorted once the mechanicals get sorted. The car has 90K miles; only 4 owners before me; was off the road between 2006-2012 (which probably saved it!) and has only done 10,000 miles since 2005 - previous to this the first 2 owners did 80k from new to 2005. No SH exists prior to the lay up in 2006 and neither does the service book which is a shame but the general condition of the car certainly matches the mileage. It's spent its life around Cambridgeshire and now it's come a bit north to Nottingham with me. It's a 4th car so will be a Sunday and summer evening fun car.

 

In the 3 weeks I've had the car so far I've already spent countless hours giving it a deep clean outside and in, which it certainly has never had before. A good clay-barring, polish and wax have bought the paintwork up nicely but I then had to spend a lot of time filling in chips and scratches with a touch-up pencil and as a result I think the bonnet and tailgate will need to get a respray further down the road. I then spent about 5 hours cleaning oil of the bottom half of the engine block and gear box as it was a mess and impossible to see where the leaks were.

 

I'm breaking the overhaul up into 4 main phases:

Current 1st phase is the basic mechanicals and it's currently with my excellent local garage for a new clutch kit; cam-belt; water pump; tensioner; all fluids changed (particularly coolant which was a disgusting colour- in fact, first thing I asked the garage to do was to check the head-gasket hadn't failed as I became convinced there was oil in the coolant but their checks confirmed all was OK on that score); big oil leaks identified around the distributor cap and being taken care of with a new O-ring seal and a reseal of the thermostat and coolant housings between the block and distributor cap; new rocker cover gasket; new HT leads, distributor cap + filters etc. The first of the planned upgrades is also happening now as I've got a set of upgraded gear linkage rods (+ some new standard L-linkage bushes) from Miles @ Pug Racing - thanks Miles.

 

The car will then quickly go into phase 2 as I get the suspension sorted via a refurbished rear axle, Bilstein B4s and an Eibach spring kit with whatever bushes need to be changed, plus new brake lines (via the kit from Miles) and new drums, discs and pads. I don't do my own spannering so all this will cost!

 

[Note: I've put a Wanted ad on the forum for a refurbed rear axle - with no response yet. Can somebody oblige before I'm forced to go down the IM Axles route (who are only a couple of miles from me!)]

Then I need to find someone who can rebuild a Solex carb - again, can anybody oblige?

 

Phase 3 will be getting the RG seats refurbed with new white leather and a couple of new bolsters. My interior is a LOT better than most RG interiors which are always a disaster zone off torn/worn leather but mine will only get shabbier as it seems the original leather was very poor quality.

Phase 4 will be dents out and a bonnet and tailgate respray.

 

Between all these phases I'll be tinkering, fixing, improving and removing & cleaning the interior and exterior trim where I can - I've already ordered and received numerous clips and bit & pieces from my excellent local Peugeot dealer ready to deal with all the numerous cosmetic and trim niggles that you'd expect from a 28 year old 205. The main cosmetic upgrade will be getting some refurbed XS steel wheels on to replace the standard RG alloys you see in the picture (same 13" size) - I've already acquired a set of XS steel from a DTurbo that was being being broken (via eBay) in Swindon - and got myself an original stereo as part of that trip too!

 

I've got myself onto ServiceBox and am appalled by how little is still available from Peugeot, but at least there's lots of sensibly priced used and after-market options via eBay. I also have a Porsche 944 where pretty much everything is still available via your local dealer - but at a (often horrific!) cost.

 

Looking forward to making use of the huge amount of knowledge and help available via this forum - one of the main reasons I decided to get back into 205 ownership.

 

To that end, is there anyone fairly local to me (50 -70 mile radius from Nottingham) who could do the axle & suspension refit for me as I'm struggling to find anyone local who knows 205's. [My local garage are happy to do the work they're doing at the moment but we've agreed not to burden them with the suspension and brakes upgrade. As an example of the frustrations they've faced this week of getting parts and work done they've been sent the wrong clutch 3 times, the wrong distributor cap twice, the wrong rocker gasket and they were given all 4 types of rotor arm available at their supplier and were told to just fit the right one as the supplier couldn't (or couldn't be bothered to) work out which was the right one. Hence, I'd really like to give future jobs to people who know their way around ServiceBox and 205's to save a lot of hassle.

 

Thanks,

Mark