[trackday_prep] White Gti Mini-restoration

[Rob Turbo 3]

Yeah I'll be making the turbo manifold myself, I've got the pipe I need to do it, I'm not aiming for equal length runners or anything, infact my first idea was just to make a log mount type affair, but have since decided to keep the runners seperate until just before the turbo.

 

It's not going to be pretty, and nowhere near as fancy as the likes of dp engineering's manifolds, but I have nowhere near that ammount of money otherwise I'd buy one!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Thought I'd drag this back up now that it looks like I'm going to be getting cracking with it again at last! There's only an update as far as the plans go, nothing to show as of yet but some goodies should be coming shortly.

 

The car is now getting a dimma kit, which will be with me tomorrow, it's an ebay kit so there'll be a report on the quality within the next few days. I'm also going for matt black now, so the ford frozen white that I bought will more than likely be going up for sale if anyone's interested.

 

I'll be fitting either 306 or 406 wishbones, whichever I go for I'll be using 406 hubs, the plan is to get the track right without spacers, so I may need adjustable top mounts as well. I have some 306 hollow driveshafts that I'd like to use, preferably without shortening, I'm not sure how this will work out though, time will tell!

 

For the rear I'll be fitting a 306 beam, I'll be making the mounts myself. I'm going down this route for 2 reasons, first is the same as the wishbones - to get the track right without spacers, secondly because I already have a 306 beam tube and a good few mounts to experiment with!

 

Work will be kicking off soon because my old 306 is getting scrapped this weekend, freeing up some space, I'll be ordering one of them garage tent/gazeebo things to use as a spraybooth/workshop.

 

I can't wait to get cracking again, hopefuly I'll be getting some space back in the sheds/house when the many parts I have go where they belong - in the car!

[Rob Turbo 3]

The dimma kit came today, it seems good and solid, there's the odd bit that's not great but no problems, it's going to need some trimming which is to be expected I would have thought (I've never bought a new body kit before but I assume that's the norm?). I'm not sure what the fit is going to be like yet, I put the kit away, uncovered the 205 to get it ready to move, then realised I should have tried it on but couldn't be arsed to bring it all back up to the car, so I'll wait until friday when I move the 205 to it's new home and try the kit then.

 

306 is ready for a trailer to roll under it, then drop it off it's stilts and away it goes

[Rob Turbo 3]

Time for some photos!

 

First off, yesterday I tried the kit against the car, I'm not sure how well the rear 1/4's will fit until I get the arches chopped out but the wings will need minimal work to fit, I ballanced them on the car and held the bumper up on some blocks and the 306's owner manuals!

 

 

 

Got the tent up this morning, it's bolted down so shouldn't be going anywhere.

 

 

As for the 306 that's getting in the way, my mate collected that for me in his "pikey mobile"!

 

 

Got the 205 into it's new home and there's plenty room to work around it, the front end is on a trolley, the rear beam is still on for now, I'll be removing it and putting the back end on a trolley as well to make it easier to move around. But here's my space!

 

 

 

 

 

I've now started chopping the drivers side arch out but the cutting disks I have don't last 2 minutes, they are "plasma" cutters, clarke I think, I think I got them to try from machine mart a while ago and I won't be bothering again!

 

I'll have another go with a fresh disk tomorrow and hopefuly get the drivers side rear 1/4 trial fitted.

[Rob Turbo 3]

I got the beam off today, bolted the other trolley onto the back, then noticed something odd about the back of the drivers side sill, so stabbed it with a screwdriver, b@stard cowboys made a new bit of sill out of fibreglass, over rust , it's not too much of a problem, the area will be covered by the dimma kit so I don't have to make it perfect, just need to chop the rust out and weld some fresh steel in.

 

As I had a bit of work to finish off under the car I decided to bolt the tipping part of the trolleys on (my dad bought these off mickie quite a while ago), got the car on it's side like so.

 

 

 

Started cleaning the floor with a wire brush angle grinder doobery, just got stuck in and the grinder packs in, started vibrating and smoking , a trip to B&Q later and I have a shiny new one to get cracking. I've already sorted the bad rust on the floor, back seats, boot and engine bay, then finished the rear end up to under the tank and the engine bay, so just had the bit in the middle to tidy up. After the attack with the grinder I painted some rust convertor on, the gear from toolstation, seems a lot like loctite 7500, it's a rust treatment and primer, so brush it on, leave it to work it's magic, then paint/schutz the lot! So far I've got the rust convertor on and I've left it for the night, ready for finishing off tomorrow, I think I've got a few tins of schutz in the shed.

 

 

Once that's sorted I'll chop the sill out and see if I've got any steel left to weld in, if not I'll have to wait until monday, I've got monday and tuesday off work so should be done with the fixing part of bodywork and onto the kit fitting part by the time I'm back at work, going through a bit of a rough patch with the missus (we've split up, not sure how things are going to turn out yet but at least I can see my son anytime I want) so I've been and will be cracking on as much as I can to keep myself occupied!

[Rob Turbo 3]

This is back on hold/cancelled now, the split with the missus is permanent and I only get my son on a saturday now, I've lost all interest in the car, I'm off to get leathered.

[Rob Turbo 3]

Right, it's been a while!

 

The land where 205 has been stored/worked on is being sold, so I have to get all my stuff out. I've got my own place now, no garage though, so for the time being I've put my garage tent up at the end of the garden and put the shell in there, most other bits are being stored in one of the bedrooms!

 

Today was the first time I've even looked at the 205 in a long time, unfortunately I won't be able to get back to work on it properly for a while, I've got a lot of work to do on the house first!

[richpowell 0]

Nice read, i need to replace the front panel on mine, did you find it easy to get the replacement panel to fit square, did you have to cut, chop and tweak it? Or would you reccomend getting the panels in separate bits to aid with fitment?

 

Thanks

[Rob Turbo 3]

I bought the front panel complete then drilled out the spot welds on the bottom part to get it all on properly, so if you can get it in 3 separate parts cheap enough I'd do that, if it's cheaper to get it complete just drill out the spot welds (3 each side IIRC)

[qwerty 9]

Great to see you still got the 205

 

I was the one that picked yr bike up for my mate when you swapped it for the pug,

 

Hope you get time to get bk to it mate

[Rob Turbo 3]

I've got yet another project to add to the list now, so the 205 is being pushed back even further!

 

I now have a rather rotten MX5 that's going to be getting priority, along with the work on the house - daytime/good weather MX5, once it's dark/raining get to work on the house!