[trackday_prep] White Gti Mini-restoration

[Rob Turbo 3]

Thought I'd start a new topic in here to document the mini-restoration of my new GTI.

 

I got it off aeinstein in echange for my vfr400, basically a project swap! Here's a photo of it as it was dropped off,

 

 

I knew it had some rust but wasn't 100% sure of exactly how much, so the first step was to find it all and see how bad it is, I found a few holes in the boot floor and under the rear seats as seen here,

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a shot from underneath,

 

 

As you can see in the photos I've removed the beam and tank, finding that both petrol pipes are rotten so that's another thing to add to the to-do list!

 

I've gone over the rust with a wire brush and poked about to see what needs what, then cut out most the bad bits ready to plate, I'm going to have to remove the front seats then get the carpet out to have a good look over the floor, from underneath it looks mostly ok, no holes or bad rust etc. the problem is, I can only work on half of the car at a time because I've only got half a drive, the rest is mud! So the plan is, de-rust the back, underseal it all, then put it back together, get a couple of mates to help push the car around so I can get the front in the air then do the same on the front - de-rust, underseal, replace the fuel pipes then move onto the engine bay.

 

The engine will be coming out so I can work on it easier, while it's out I'll be treating it to a new water pump, timing belt and tensioner, also claen it all up, polish the rocker cover and give it an oil and filter change.

 

I'm hoping to have most of it sorted this week because I've got a week off work, so as per usual I'll be doing more work while on holiday than I do at work! Whatever I don't get done this week will have to be done on weekends, so progress will be slow!

 

More to come soon...

[Rob Turbo 3]

Took the front seats and carpet out and guess what I found,

 

 

 

Yup, more rust and holes, one big one that used to have a bung in but around it has all rusted away, a split near the drivers side seat bolt holes, both the bolts that go through the floor on the drivers side seat snapped and one on the passenger side, looks like I'll need to buy some more steel, I don't have enough to sort all this

 

Ah well, more fun with the angle grinder tomorrow!

[danpug 1]

Looks like you've got your work cut out! With a bit of time and effort it'll get sorted.

[M_R_205 5 1 Cars]

Iv a spare shell (its even white!) i can cut some pannels out for you if you like, our only down the road so i could drop off or you collect, PM me if yo want them, Labour charge is £50 per hour though

 

BTW did i inspire you lol

Edited March 16, 2008 by M_R_205

[Rob Turbo 3]

Iv a spare shell (its even white!) i can cut some pannels out for you if you like, our only down the road so i could drop off or you collect, PM me if yo want them, Labour charge is £50 per hour though

 

BTW did i inspire you lol

 

Did the bolts that hold the seats in come out ok or did they snap? If they came out ok I could do with both sides, the ones that go through the floor in the last photo, enough to cut out the entire rusty split bit if you could?

 

It'll be nowhere near as neat as yours, I don't have the patience, it'll get chopped out, a plate bigger than the hole put over then welded around, painted over and sealed underneath! Strong enough, just not pretty!

[M_R_205 5 1 Cars]

Did the bolts that hold the seats in come out ok or did they snap? If they came out ok I could do with both sides, the ones that go through the floor in the last photo, enough to cut out the entire rusty split bit if you could?

 

It'll be nowhere near as neat as yours, I don't have the patience, it'll get chopped out, a plate bigger than the hole put over then welded around, painted over and sealed underneath! Strong enough, just not pretty!

 

Ill see what i have when i get to the unit, im fairly sure the bolts came out OK il get you a little bit of boot floor too as i need some for another one of my cars lol

[Rob Turbo 3]

Ill see what i have when i get to the unit, im fairly sure the bolts came out OK il get you a little bit of boot floor too as i need some for another one of my cars lol

 

Cheers

 

I've finished working on the car for today, got a bit of welding done which was a pain in the arse, I couldn't get a decent weld! I think the gas is running out but don't know anywhere to get it filled up, I got it when my mate had a pub, but now he doesn't have the pub I can't get it filled, and the new landlord isn't playing Looks like I might have to go back to the little disposeable bottles!

 

Here's a couple of photos of the welding so far,

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow I'm gonna crack on with the bit under the rear seats on the passenger side and more of the boot, then pull the petrol pipes off and do a bit more on the floor, then I can get the back of the car cleaned and sealed ready for the tank and beam to go back on. Problem is, I've started getting bored of it already

[welshpug 1,661]

Get an account with BOC dude, about £45 for the bottle per year and £45 ish to fill it up, the gas will last you aaages (my mate uses his regularly for work and the bottle lasts him about a year, bottle is about 4 foot tall and 8 in diameter, they do smaller IIRC)

[Rob Turbo 3]

Been trying to do a bit more welding today and I've had about enough of it, it's virtually impossible to get a weld at all, never mind a good one, I've dug out a small bottle of argon that I got with the welder and it's still no good, to get anything to happen at all I have to have the power turned right up and do it in very short bursts, basically just tap the trigger, it has to be just right or it will either blow a hole in the metal or just leave a tiny ball of weld sitting on top, if I turn the power down even a tiny bit I just get bubbles of weld.

[Rob Turbo 3]

Well after a bit of fiddling with the settings, new tip and a different extension lead and I'm away again! Only 2 more holes to plate under the rear seat on the passenger side then the floor behind the drivers seat to finish, I pulled the fuel pipes off so I should have it all welded tomorrow.

 

Unfortunately M_R_205 has told me that the seat bolts have snapped in his donor shell so that's that idea out the window! I've covered the remains of the snapped bolts with gt85 and left it to soak for the night, will do it again tomorrow as well, then drill them and try an easy out on them, then go to a scrappy with my mates battery powered angle grinder when the easy out snaps!

 

No more photos yet, once it starts getting dark my phone stops taking photos that can be seen, they just go blury so I'll get some tomorrow.

[Rob Turbo 3]

Got all the welding finished today, seam sealed most of it but I have to move things around in the car to get to the rest so I have to wait for the bits I've done to dry, jetwashed the car, just a quick going over but did underneath so it's ready to underseal tomorrow, when I was jet washing it I found out that the plastics have been sprayed black, most of the paint is washing off!

 

For the seat bolt holes I got a couple of captive nuts out of the 309 and chopped a seat runner up off my old 306 seats, welded the 2 nuts onto the runner over the holes then welded the seat runner to a bit of sheet metal, then measured distances to the old ones, chopped them out, then welded the new bit in,

 

 

And here's a photo of how it is now, after a quick wash!

 

 

Tomorrows jobs are, underseal the back end, refit the tank, make some new fuel pipes up then start fitting the beam, should be able to turn it around and start the front end by the weekend!!

[Roman 0]

respect.. you do all this work inside in this f... weather when you come in my age you start ask yourself "why my back sooo pain believe me i know...

[Rob Turbo 3]

Despite the cold windy wet weather I got the rear or the car undersealed, I got it all sealed from the very back up to just past the hand brake cable holes in the tunnel and just past the start of the actual floor after the rear seats because it was too low to get the gun in, so that will have to wait until I get the tank and beam back on, then I can get it on ramps which will make access easier.

 

 

Then whilst waiting for that to dry I got a couple of bits painted inside the car, should be ready to put back together soon!

 

 

 

The underseal is dry now so I can clip the brake pipe back in place and get the tank on, not sure if I'll be doing it today tho, bit too cold and windy at the minute!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Didn't get much at all done today!

 

I got the handbrake cables out of the holes in the floor, this was a right pain in the arse, they were well stuck in! Then I clipped the brake pipe back into the clips under the car, I was originally going to replace it but once I got under the car I found that it had already been replaced with copper so no need for me to do it again, although the union was well rounded so I cut it off and I'll be fitting a new one before the tank goes back on. As I was cleaning up all the brake fittings and brackets I snapped a union in the T piece so I'll be needing a new one, hopefuly speedo will be open tomorrow and have one in stock.

 

I seam sealed the rest of the welded bits that will be covered by carpet so I can get them painted then get the carpet back in, then I will be able to move bits around the car so I can seam seal/paint the rest of the boot.

 

Before I could fit the brake pipe union and get the tank on it started raining, then snowing, so I packed in until it stopped, which it didn't, so I went up the shed and roughly made the fuel pipes, I'll finish them off when I'm fitting them, I was thinking about making a jig so I can make replacement fuel pipes if there's any call for them?

 

Here's a photo of the rough pipes,

 

 

Hopefuly the weather will dry up tomorrow so I can get the tank on and start putting the beam back on, if not, I'll just paint the newly seam sealed bits then get the interior back in once the paint dries. It'll be nice to see it back on it's wheels though!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Not a huge update but I got the rest of the bits that will be under the carpet/rear seat painted today, should be dry tomorrow ready to start putting the interior back together.

 

I got a couple of bits in the post last week, first a re-plated timing belt cover (was advertised on the forum but was on ebay), no good at the minute but will go towards phase 2 - front end!! Also got an injector to use as a 5th injector, not sure which car I'll be using it on, either on the 306 and up the boost a bit or on the 205 and turbo the 1.6 engine bodge style!!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Got the interior back in, well, the carpet and front seats! Got the tank on, the fuel pipes and the beam on, fired it up with just the down pipe on to make sure it was all good after being sat for a week, good job I have good neighbors! Just got the rear brakes to plumb in then I need some handbrake cables, does anyone know if base model 309 cables will fit? It's good to see it looking more like a car again, makes me want to crack on and finish it!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Rear end is almost complete, just need handbrake cables fitting and it's done! Problem is, best price I can find for handbrake cables is £10 a side + post, and I'm skint! I've taken one odd the 309 to see if that will fit but haven't had time to try it yet, if it does fit I'll get the other one off and fit that.

 

After a quick poke around at the front I've got a feeling there's going to be a couple of holes in the chassis legs, there seems to be quite a bit of rust down there, I'm hoping it's just a bit scabby, not holey!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Turns out that 309 handbrake cables are too long, surprise surprise!! I went to speedo and ordered a pair for £18 which will be in on monday. I decided I'd just put the wheels on and turn the car around without the handbrake, start on the front end then put the handbrake cables on at a later date, so I went to fit the exhaust, the old downpipe needed removing first though, which resulted in both bolts that hold the downpipe on snapping, I found a couple more but I need to remove the cup thing on one side so I can swap the bolt, which is proving to be a right pain, then it started raining, so I'm no further forward, other than deciding what I'm going to do

 

I also got the bracket I needed for the rear seat out of the 309 today, but there's no point putting the rear seats in just yet, there will be plenty time for things like that once it's ready for a test!

 

I hate this bloody weather, I need a garage!!!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Well it looks like game over for this 205, I got it turned around and started taking bits off the front and it's mainly rust, all nicely hidden behind the front bumper, I could sort it but I've lost interest now. The wiring is a complete mess as well, snapped wires and bits taped up, oil everywhere, quite a few hoses have swolen up around the end so now that they've been off and all the crap has fallen off there's not a chance of them fitting again, there's probably going to be a new topic in the for sale section soon

[M_R_205 5 1 Cars]

Dont give up hope dude just dig your claws in a bit more, replacing some wiring and a few hoses aint to dificult, you can get a whole new front panel for not a lot of money and just weld it in...

[Rob Turbo 3]

Where can I get a front panel from? Had a look on service box and its £128 for both sides, which I really can't afford, there's hardly any good metal to weld to as well so just plating it is out of the question.

 

The wiring isn't really a problem and I'm sure I could sort the hoses but at the end of the day it's a 19 year old car, I'm at work monday to friday so only have weekends to work on it, it would be different if I didn't have work to do, and I can't sell it as a whole for anything more than peanuts so it's gonna have to be broken.

[M_R_205 5 1 Cars]

http://www.nicedeals.co.uk/product_info.ph...aefd129b995e84b

 

Whole thing, £40 cant go wrong,

 

 

EDIT, i know what you mean about working all week, i get tuesday and sunday afternoon to work on mine, if i didnt work it would be done in a couple weeks

Edited March 30, 2008 by M_R_205

[Rob Turbo 3]

Ah, cheers!

 

If I can get somewhere else to put the car I think I might just strip it all down to a bare shell, remove all the rusty bits, replace all the not quite right bits and in a year or 2 I'll have a minter, on the other hand, if I have to do it all on the drive I'll at least sort the front and get it tested and use it for a while!

[M_R_205 5 1 Cars]

Im in a similar dilema, im being evicted from my unit tomorrow and iv still no where to put the 3 cars and 2 engines sat in there lol!!

 

i was ment to have the blue one finnished and sold by the time i got evicted so i could have some cash and a home (the drive ) for one of the cars in the unit,

 

Im just going to dump them all on a mates drive, i dont think he will complain, and if he does i wont be there to hear

[Peetypug 5]

http://www.nicedeals.co.uk/product_info.ph...aefd129b995e84b

 

thats a great looking site

 

Im just going to dump them all on a mates drive, i dont think he will complain, and if he does i wont be there to hear

 

you also wont hear his wife/GF asking why there's a load of old cars on the drive

i've got one, it belongs to me and i tell you what my ears dont half ache sometimes

 

women they just dont understand the love a man has for his 205/s

 

rob keep the faith it'll be worth it in the end

Edited March 30, 2008 by sorrentopete