1985 gti stage rally car refresh

[28hodge 22]

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

 

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

Great to know the history of the car and admirable you’re resurrecting it. Must admit the rust would petrify me, I’d be hunting a fresh shell! 
 

keep the updates coming 

[28hodge 22]

It looks worse than it is in terms of rust, the rear quarters inside behind the rear door cards are pretty clean and it’s only rusted around bits where fixings have been put onto the shell for the footplate and 2nd floor skins etc.

When welding the floor it all welds really nice the metal that is there is really good. When welding the mini it’s a lot trickier so this is pretty good for me. 

[Myles 5]

Hey Kurt , if you are looking for parts a lot closer to you than Scotland try my mate at Newton Motorsport near Preston 

Lee has full cars , fully prepared shells , standard shells and heaps of spares standard  and completion , pm me if you want!

Hope to see you out on an event sometime soon!!! 

[28hodge 22]

Myles I’ll fire you a pm for details, I’m in need of a roof skin as much as anything

[28hodge 22]

Get these fitted this weekend with some luck and the Gaz suspension off and sold. They are grp n with the tarmac insert and std springs which will do for now whilst I continue cutting out rot and replacing with fresh steel. Spent all of yesterday cutting out the passenger floor under the cage foot and replacing with fresh metal.

 

will need to put another 3mm plate under the cage foot and then refit the cage leg.
 

next big issue is the external skin of the b pillar which is pretty rotten at the base where it meets the rear quarter panel. If I could find a half decent shell I’d buy it for cuts and the roof skin. If not I’ll see how I get on fabricating the external skin of the b pillar but it may be one for my brother as he is a fabrication welder. 

[28hodge 22]

Been making steady progress managed to investigate the b pillar properly and its not as bad as I first feared, the steel is good and solid half an inch above where the corrosion is which is right at the base when the b pillar meets the rear quarter, and its only the external skin of the b pillar and not the structural internal element.

 

 

Id be happy enough patching this and then covering back up with paint and the b pillar trim, seen some people use blackboard film but also seen some kits on ebay. Are these any good or am I better getting black paint and putting plenty of layers onto it? Difficult to understand what the original application/covering is/was?

 

I have also landed lucky with a guy that has a half dozen 205’s, though some are in a hell of a state, but he has a full 3door shell that’s in good order with a good roof and b pillars in good shape. Doors are junk as is the bonnet, but I may be able to get a good set of doors and bonnets off one of his other shells. The rest of the shell is god and solid, so I am sorting out collecting then and then I’ll fully attack my shell and swap the roof, mines had a light roll and the roof is a bit rippled and full of filler.

 

Suspension on the front is swapped over and on the grp n Bilstein struts, the ride height is way up compared to previous, it really exaggerates how low the rear is now so the beam off and some dummy shocks to make up to set it to the ride height stated in the grp n/challenge build manual is next up as well. Hoping the torsion bars aren’t too seized in place and don’t put up too much of a struggle though I am not holding my breath!

 

 

The floor on the passenger side is worse than I thought so has taken a bit more cutting out and fabricating than I thought it was going to, and as a result I ran out of welding gas to complete it last weekend so need to get that finished off and sprayed in primer so that I can get the cage mounting points marked up and drilled through and then bolt the cage back in fully.

 

I insured the car at the start of Jan as it was only £79 for the year and there’s nothing more motivating than paying for something that I’m am not using so I am hoping to have it all done and going this side of march.

 

I have another incentive which is a targa rally that my motorclub is running in May, I may not enter but help organize etc and use the 205 for that as a shakedown prior to the hrcr road rallies hopefully coming online from May onwards also.

 

also I tracked down a couple guys that used to own it an rally it and a guy that used to service in it at events and they sent me some pics through of it when it was in a better state than now!

 

 

Edited January 9, 2021 by 28hodge

[28hodge 22]

Got a couple hours today so had a look at the b pillar. Managed to clean it back and build it up with a very smaller filler patch and weld. 
 

went from this 

 

to this

 

also managed to finish patching and welding the passenger side floor. Need to weld the 3mm plate for the cage foot in and refit the cage.

 

once I’ve done that I’ll Jack the car up and sit it on some 2ft blocks and clean the underside off. I’ve got some white gravitax to coat it and the inner arches with. 
 

I need to start buying some bushes and things and start rebuilding the corners with fresh parts, all the welding and grinding etc gets dull quick!

[barneys66 124 1 Cars]

Good work and keep us posted on the targa rally.

 

Who did you get to insure a caged car for £79 - that's a bargain!?

[28hodge 22]

18 hours ago, barneys66 said:

Good work and keep us posted on the targa rally.

 

Who did you get to insure a caged car for £79 - that's a bargain!?

Its workmanlike and functional, if i also wanted it to look pretty I'd have to get the finger sander out and in all honesty given what the cars life is going to be spent doing, making it look pretty, whilst nice, seems kind of like time spent that could be better spent elsewhere.

 

One day I might do what it actually needs which is to strip it and put it onto a spit to sort the shell out but it can have a few years of abuse on the lanes first.

 

The insurance was a lucky find, i did a confused comparison the cheapest was with a company called onecall insurance but they were having a special off as well so i think from memory i got 40% off. that said the next cheapest was only £130ish from memory. thats with the following declarations - 

-roll cage

- upholstery changes - bucket seats and harnesses

- spot lights

- Suspension alterations for performance

 

hopefully get the cage feet base plates welded in this weekend and the mounting plates for the 6 point harnesses. I am leaving the welding in and alteration of the rear roll cage to allow the use of a harness bar to my brother, he's a fabrication welder so it makes sense to let him do it, though in truth welding the thicker roll cage steel is far easier than the thin shell.

 

 

[28hodge 22]

Cage foot welded in and holes marked for the bolts, nearly gave myself a belter of a black eye getting the cage out after marking the holes, it got a little snagged so I gave it a tug and it all came free with a bit more of a rush than I thought. And stopped about 5mm short of my face.

 

 

i also had to weld up up a number of small holes and cut out a couple other small areas and patch back, car floor has taken quite a kicking but it’s been a rally car since 1988 at lease so in truth it’s pretty staggering that’s it’s still here.

 

ive been reading as many posts as I can regarding roof skin swaps, only really problem is that some of the linked photobucket accounts are no longer used so if anyone has some pics of a roof swap feel free to pm me, be appreciated as the more info and first hand photos/advice the better.

 

ive ordered some stripping discs and some new smaller wire wheel cups and will clean the floors both inside and out, see what else that uncovers and mend then get it sprayed up and gravitax the underneath and start thinking about mot issues, hoping to have it mot’d for March. Currently I know it needs the following as a minimum.

 

side lights, no bulbs or build holders and no apparent wiring for the passenger side

reversing light, looks like the switch in the gbox has a pin missing so will get one ordered

need to weld in the harness mounts for the passenger harness, I cut out all the old mount points as they were both sh*t and in the way for the seat rails that we put in.

sort out the ignition and main switch, it’s got an odd issue where until it’s warm the master switch won’t stop it and neither will the toggle switch it has which is marked “ignition” once warm both seem to work. It’s also worth noting I hate electrics so this may need a mate to help who wires commercial aircraft

rear beam, it needs rebuilt but I’ll see if it’ll pass an mot though I’d rather rebuild and refit with a grp A mount kit first.

ball joints and wishbone buses etc need checked though I think I am going to get a set of rose joint arm from Jeff Skitt.

 

thatll get it mot’d and I’m hoping the roof will pass the mot without needing reskinned first though I’m not sure, the mot tester is a mate of my dad’s though and used to seeing motorsport cars so may let it go if I let him know it’ll be getting swapped.

 

I’d like to think I’m nearly done with the welder, but I’m pretty sure I’m not, front panel and headlight panels will need doing yet.

[28hodge 22]

These turned up today, I may be very sad but I can’t stop looking at them, workmanship is top quality. Come with fresh bushes rod ends and drop pins. Reasonably excited to actually put some nice new parts on it rather than just cutting out rust and welding in fresh metal.

 

 

[28hodge 22]

Taaaa darrrrr

 

 

[28hodge 22]

Have sorted finally a rolling shell to cannibalise for the roof, also need a rear quarter off it as the rear drivers quarter has taken a bartering on mine and has lots of filler in it.

 

struggling at the minute to break the brazed joints without trashing either panel, I need to keep the rear quarters intact and obviously the roof also, any advice on how to split the brazed joints. 

 

 

I tried to v this one out with a poly strip disc which has worked but I still can’t split the joint without trashing the rear quarter. Can I heat them and sweat them off or will I just warp the steel?

[28hodge 22]

not had loads of time and as the other 205 i have is in the garage at home and this one is away elsewhere ive not had the same time to get much done on it.

 

However i did get the roof all trimmed and ready to mark the spot weld positions so i can grind them back and weld it on.