205 xl with rallye looks and some extra power

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

Hi guys. Bought myself a 205 xl auto last month. I'm hoping to make the xl look more like euro rallye with some more power than it currently has... (I know another base model trying to be a gti... but I really like it) I always wanted a rallye, even when I had my gtis. Anyway the shell is really clean so I think it's a good base for a car which i can keep for a long time. I drove it home with no problems so when I had some spare time I put it on the ramp to look around underneath. All looked solid enough.

 

I've never posted wit pictures before so not sure if there working. If it does I'll add some more of the work so far 

 

 

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

Here is the car. Not a very good picture but it's a base model so there's not much to look at yet. I set about removing the bumpers so I could paint them and paint the gti valances I bought from speno early in the year. Nice chap and showed me some of his collection. He mentioned the meet the guys up north have each month so would be good to go along some time.

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

It has 30k miles on it so is in pretty good order and the bumpers came off without any problems and the bolts were reusable. All the bumper mountings/front panel etc look good. I removed the lower tailgate panel and this had rubbed some of the paint off so this will need painting also. 

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

Ashman kindly sent me a pallet with 2x 1.6 gti gearboxs and 1x 1.6 gti cylinder head on it which he was selling in the for sale section. I've now collected most of the parts I need to convert the 205 to manual transmission. The cam in the head looks good and the valve clearances are ok. I'll have this checked and may fit this and some better carbs depending on what I do with the engine 

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

I put the bumpers back on at the back end of last week. Also fitted new driving lights, indicators, rear quarter badges and a few decals 

[barneys66 122 1 Cars]

Nice! Looking forward to more updates.. 

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

6 hours ago, barneys66 said:

Nice! Looking forward to more updates.. 

Thanks! I've had some spare time coming upto christmas so progress may be a bit slower after new year but I'll keep chipping away and updating. I'm not in a rush to use it until better weather though and would like to do a bit more work on it before in use it. Hoping to find a gti subframe and suspension, probably 1.9 brakes and see if they will fit under 106 rallye wheels. Maybe fit a gti rear beam or torsion bars and arb (If they'll fit a base model beam) as the current beam is in good working order so seems a shame to get rid of it. Probably a red carpet and phase 1 gti door cards. And some gti style seats that I could get retrimmed like rallye seats. Long term it would be nice to have a gti6 engine or somethimg similar but for now I'm thinking of fitting the gti head that I have (heard the auto block is same as gti but not sure until I remove the head) and maybe some carbs as it's a carb model currently 

[SRDT 175]

The rear crossmember should be the big one like the GTI, at least if it's the original. You just need find the torsion bars and ARB.

As for the pistons inside your XU51C block they are not the same as the GTI but I can't remember if you will have more or less compression with a GTI head.

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

Had some time free on Saturday morning so I thought I'd see if I could shift the torsion bars. Anti roll bar came out with no problem

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

Then I tried to remove torsion bars..I thought they'd be stuck and I would end up soaking them with wd40 and trying again later but to my surprise they pulled straight out with a bolt through the middle of a socket with hardly any resistance. So in no time at all the rear was adjusted. I gave the torsion bar splines a rub with a wire brush and refitted them. I also fitted some lowering springs at the front. I'll be changing the shockers when I get a gti subframe so I can fit the links to the front. 

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

And some with the front lowered too 

[Andy 105 1 Cars]

Looks excellent. Great work.

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

7 hours ago, SRDT said:

The rear crossmember should be the big one like the GTI, at least if it's the original. You just need find the torsion bars and ARB.

As for the pistons inside your XU51C block they are not the same as the GTI but I can't remember if you will have more or less compression with a GTI head.

 I thought it was just the trailing arms that were different. Yeah, I've been searching to see if xu51c pistons were different to GTI pistons. Was hoping it was the same block with a different head to the GTI. Anyways that may be an excuse for a bigger engine in future.  Cheers for the info and merry Christmas 

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

Had a quiet day today so we could finish at dinner time for xmas. I spent a couple of hours removing the rubber trims on the side. A time consuming, boring job but I think it looks better without them. That's it for now until I'm back at work after new year. Can't wait to start using it and I'm enjoying working on it so looking forward to getting back to it. Merry Christmas fellas 

[SootySport 23]

I like the white Rallye look.  For carbs how about a set of bike carbs, they don’t need constant synch adjustments and tune once and forget about them.

 

[fila1223 1]

man... i miss mine white sl201

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

6 hours ago, SootySport said:

I like the white Rallye look.  For carbs how about a set of bike carbs, they don’t need constant synch adjustments and tune once and forget about them.

 

I've been looking into this and I think it's the way I'm going to do it. Will work out fairly cheap by the looks of it 

[calvinhorse 870]

Absolutely love this, keep the updates coming 

[SootySport 23]

16 hours ago, Gsxrmick1984 said:

I've been looking into this and I think it's the way I'm going to do it. Will work out fairly cheap by the looks of it 

DanST Engineering or Bogg Bros make the conversion kits.

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

6 hours ago, SootySport said:

DanST Engineering or Bogg Bros make the conversion kits.

Thanks I haven't heard much about DanST engineering, I have seen their manifolds for sale on ebay. Their only a few mile from where I live so probably worth a visit once I get some carbs sorted. Do you have carbs on yours? Do you prefer it to the gti management? 

[SootySport 23]

16 hours ago, Gsxrmick1984 said:

Thanks I haven't heard much about DanST engineering, I have seen their manifolds for sale on ebay. Their only a few mile from where I live so probably worth a visit once I get some carbs sorted. Do you have carbs on yours? Do you prefer it to the gti management? 

The 205 is standard but I have a Westfield with a C20xe engine on R1 carbs supplied as a kit from DanST,  makes slightly less bhp than the usual Twin Weber’s but so much more driveable.  
I may buy the bike carb kit for the 205 when I’ve finished the resto, depending how good the the OE Fuel injection system is, we’ll see.

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

 Bit of an update on the 205. A mate of mine picked up the 2 gearboxes today. He's gonna check if either is a 1.6 GTI box and repair anything that needs repairing so I should have 2 good boxes back for the weekend. Just need a clutch and I have everything to convert it to manual. When i have some time I'll do this. Might not be too long before I get it done as it's progressing quicker than I thought It would. I removed the drivers side rear window as there was a bit of bubbling behind the seal. I shot blasted it off, rust cured it and had it painted today. I also had the bottom of the tailgate painted where I removed the panel. 

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

Hopefully it will last and not come back through. I might take the other side glass out and just check there's no rust behind there. It looks ok if you pull seal back to look but for the sake of half an hour, might be worth just taking it out and getting rid of any rust that could be lurking as it looks like a common place for rust. Rear panel painted and looking good. Hopefully I'll get a bit of time Saturday when I finishing working to put the badge and decals on. I'll get some pics if I do. I need to get some rallye arches ordered but I do like the flat arch look actually

[Callum 13 1 Cars]

Looking good! I had a 1.1 trio when I was 16 and made it look like a rallye but I had 106 rallye steels on it which look better in my opinion. What's your plan for the interior? 

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

11 minutes ago, Callum said:

Looking good! I had a 1.1 trio when I was 16 and made it look like a rallye but I had 106 rallye steels on it which look better in my opinion. What's your plan for the interior? 

Cheers. My first car was a trio sx when I was 17, fitted an xs engine and made it look like a GTI.. I loved that thing. I'll get some pics of my other 205s and post them at some point. I put in post no. 7 that I'll try get hold of some 106 s1 rallye wheels when some come up. The sl201s where already on but i like them and I've always liked them so I'd probably keep them if I got some 106 rallye wheels. Interior plans were red carpet, phase 1 door cards as they are probably easier to find than rallye door cards and some gti seats retrimmed like rallye seats. I may be able to buy some 309 goodwood seats so might go for them if I can. I once had a chance to buy some to put in my GTI years ago. I went to see them and they were spot on. I set my alarm to wake me up so I could bid on them on eBay cause they finished around 3am... Woke up at 8am, alarm didn't go off and they went for about £100.. Haha.. gutted.