1985 gti stage rally car refresh
Been lurking for the last 2 years but never actually got round to starting any work on the 205 project I have until about 6 weeks ago, after searching through the forums for the last 6 weeks for info I thought it would be handy to start a thread for it so that I have all the info in one area if nothing else.
So I bought this in Dec2018 whilst I was away in Norway at my in laws who are Norwegian, I also sold a 1992 mini cooper so in that respect it was a fairly successful 2018 xmas break. The car was a stage rally car from very early in its life as it did the 1989 and 1990 RAC and the original 205 challenge when it was run by Del Dowds in the hands of a guy called Andrew Nevitt. It had however passed through many hands and each time suffered a bit more neglected and abuse till it ended up with the guy I bought it from who had it sat under a sheet for the last 5 years.
I found it via a wanted ad on FB for a 1985 gti, we do historic HRCR rallies in my 1971 mini clubman but after doing a historic event that’s notoriously rough I decided I didn’t want to accelerate the killing of the mini so went looking for something historic compliant but more able to stand up to the abuse. The guy I bought it off had been, in his own words, the end of Scotland to get it (and bear in mind he was in Glasgow to start with) and when he got there the guy he was buying it off had failed to mention to him that it had previously had a very light roll! From what he said he was less than impressed by this as I think he had travelled over 5hrs to get there. Anyway, I did know about the roll, and to be honest, wasn’t that bothered as the pillars etc are good and straight but there is filler on the roof as the roof skin is a mess at a guess, my magnet still sticks to it so it can’t be that bad. The car has an SD roll cage and headlining in, so I cant see the roof skin from inside to understand how bad it is, but have been keeping my eye open for a roof skin local to me. He was told that the engine was freshly rebuilt but was honest with me and said he had no evidence for this other than it looked like new with the block freshly painted and it sounded clean with no horrible noises. It had been used for single venue stage rallying at crail and ingliston by a Robert Prentice but last seen around 2007 and last MOT was Feb 2008. The car is rock solid, not in terms of bodywork/condition, but very much so in terms of suspension! the only give is in the tyre sidewalls so I need to get the Gaz coil overs off it and something more suitable on it. I’ll send the rear beam (which I think is a 1.9 beam as its got discs on it) off to Andy Williams in the new year and then I’ll put it back on with a grp a solid mount kit. The rear has Tarmac bilsteins on it at the minute and 19mm TB The car came with an abortion of seat mounting bars that I chopped out and chopped the std seat rail out also. My brother is a fabrication welder, so we chopped the tunnel and put some boxes into it to allow for the seat rails to be mounted to and allow for the seats to be sat lower. That done the car then sat for about 18months, we had it running and the majority of the elecs were working but a combination of lack of time and money due to spending most of it on my real hobby of racing bikes meant I didn’t have surplus of either for the Peugeot. However about 6 weeks ago I started spending a day a weekend on it doing the FOC bits, namely, chopping out rust and replacing with steel. The car had rot under the front cage feet as well as a couple bits in the footwells that needed attention so I have done the drivers side as well as putting in the required 3mm base plate for the cage feet. And hoping to have the passenger side done over xmas. Add to that the following list – -amending the existing Sd roll cage to install a second -diagonal in the rear cage -add harness bars to SD Cage -Cleaning up all the sump and tank guards and painting them and the underneath in gravitax undersealer -refitting as much interior trim as I need for the road rally regs, Carpet/doorcards/rearseats -Sorting out the rear beam and front struts
So I bought this in Dec2018 whilst I was away in Norway at my in laws who are Norwegian, I also sold a 1992 mini cooper so in that respect it was a fairly successful 2018 xmas break. The car was a stage rally car from very early in its life as it did the 1989 and 1990 RAC and the original 205 challenge when it was run by Del Dowds in the hands of a guy called Andrew Nevitt. It had however passed through many hands and each time suffered a bit more neglected and abuse till it ended up with the guy I bought it from who had it sat under a sheet for the last 5 years.
I found it via a wanted ad on FB for a 1985 gti, we do historic HRCR rallies in my 1971 mini clubman but after doing a historic event that’s notoriously rough I decided I didn’t want to accelerate the killing of the mini so went looking for something historic compliant but more able to stand up to the abuse. The guy I bought it off had been, in his own words, the end of Scotland to get it (and bear in mind he was in Glasgow to start with) and when he got there the guy he was buying it off had failed to mention to him that it had previously had a very light roll! From what he said he was less than impressed by this as I think he had travelled over 5hrs to get there. Anyway, I did know about the roll, and to be honest, wasn’t that bothered as the pillars etc are good and straight but there is filler on the roof as the roof skin is a mess at a guess, my magnet still sticks to it so it can’t be that bad. The car has an SD roll cage and headlining in, so I cant see the roof skin from inside to understand how bad it is, but have been keeping my eye open for a roof skin local to me. He was told that the engine was freshly rebuilt but was honest with me and said he had no evidence for this other than it looked like new with the block freshly painted and it sounded clean with no horrible noises. It had been used for single venue stage rallying at crail and ingliston by a Robert Prentice but last seen around 2007 and last MOT was Feb 2008. The car is rock solid, not in terms of bodywork/condition, but very much so in terms of suspension! the only give is in the tyre sidewalls so I need to get the Gaz coil overs off it and something more suitable on it. I’ll send the rear beam (which I think is a 1.9 beam as its got discs on it) off to Andy Williams in the new year and then I’ll put it back on with a grp a solid mount kit. The rear has Tarmac bilsteins on it at the minute and 19mm TB The car came with an abortion of seat mounting bars that I chopped out and chopped the std seat rail out also. My brother is a fabrication welder, so we chopped the tunnel and put some boxes into it to allow for the seat rails to be mounted to and allow for the seats to be sat lower. That done the car then sat for about 18months, we had it running and the majority of the elecs were working but a combination of lack of time and money due to spending most of it on my real hobby of racing bikes meant I didn’t have surplus of either for the Peugeot. However about 6 weeks ago I started spending a day a weekend on it doing the FOC bits, namely, chopping out rust and replacing with steel. The car had rot under the front cage feet as well as a couple bits in the footwells that needed attention so I have done the drivers side as well as putting in the required 3mm base plate for the cage feet. And hoping to have the passenger side done over xmas. Add to that the following list – -amending the existing Sd roll cage to install a second -diagonal in the rear cage -add harness bars to SD Cage -Cleaning up all the sump and tank guards and painting them and the underneath in gravitax undersealer -refitting as much interior trim as I need for the road rally regs, Carpet/doorcards/rearseats -Sorting out the rear beam and front struts
