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Rob Turbo

[trackday_prep] White Gti Mini-restoration

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bensonmi

good work it sounds like its coming together nicely! how the hell did you find a bird who wants to rebuild an engine you lucky bugger! i can inly just convince mine to come in a 205 :mellow:

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Rob Turbo

Here's a couple of photos of the part assembled engine,

 

th_Photo-0174.jpg

 

th_Photo-0176.jpg

 

Since the photos were taken I've fitted the sump and spun the engine around on the stand, just waiting to get some head bolts and a timing belt kit so I can get the head on, then get working on the exhaust manifold.

 

I straightened the front half of the cage today as well, just need some plates making to bolt it to, but the weather isn't on my side so working outside isn't going to happen for a while! Fingers crossed for a sunny bank holiday weekend :)

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Rob Turbo

Got a timing belt kit and a set of head bolts so got the head on and timed up,

 

th_Photo-0178.jpg

 

th_Photo-0179.jpg

 

th_Photo-0180.jpg

 

th_Photo-0181.jpg

 

I started bolting bits back on, I need to bend the dipstick tube a bit, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the oil pipes on the front of the engine, I'll probably knock something together out of the bits off the 8v engine

 

th_Photo-0182.jpg

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Rob Turbo

Got a bit done on the car today, not much though! I cleaned the floor a bit, moved everything to the boot, then got to work on the seat rail, I welded some angle to one side then trimmed the other side to size, lots of checking inbetween cuts, then welded some angle to the other side, bit of angle in the middle as a support, none of it's welded to the shell yet, need to sort the rear rail still,

 

th_Photo-0183.jpg

 

I've taken measurements from the cage to make the harness bar, printed out some cutting templates to get a good fit where the tubes join, I'll start work on that tomorrow hopefuly.

 

It's also just occoured to me that the topic title isn't really relevant anymore, not exactly a restoration at all anymore!!

Edited by Rob Turbo

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EdCherry

Think your going to find that front bar to high rob, why nut cut the exhaust tunnel down so it sits level with it atleast?

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Rob Turbo

I've had the seat in, just sat on top of the bar and that's why I put it that high, it seemed about right, I'm not having subframes or anything, the seat is going to bolt straight to the bars I'm welding in.

 

I'll put the seat back in tomorrow and put the pedals in as well, I've got the steering column and wheel in for positioning already.

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EdCherry

how about a helmet too?

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Rob Turbo

Trial fitted the seat again today, here it is propped up with a bit of angle,

 

th_Photo-0184.jpg

 

th_Photo-0185.jpg

 

plenty of head room, probably with a helmet too, but my bike helmet is burried somewhere so didn't bother trying it on, although when sat in the seat I can reach the steering wheel comfortably, press all three pedals to the floor without stretching, my knees aren't wedged against the steering wheel and I can jump all over in the seat and not bang my head off anything!! So, I welded the drivers side rear bar in, welded mounting brackets to both front and rear bars and marked where the front bar needs to be so I can clean the paint from around it for welding, probably do that tomorrow.

 

You can also see in the second picture I've fitted the harness bar, I forgot to take photos as I went (again!!), I tacked it in place then welded the front of each bar end to make it good and solid, so it doesn't get pulled out of line or anything when I drag the cage out to finish the welding and paint it.

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Rob Turbo

Cage mounts are sorted now, I cut up an old steel gate post for the main hoop mounting plates, 4mm thick, nuts welded on, welded in, all good! For the front mounting plates I've got some 3mm steel chanel that I've chopped up, it's drilled, will be getting the nuts welded on, then welded into the car tomorrow (after work, got a few hours to do in the morning), then I'll weld the front seat bar in, I was going to do it last weekend but just as I lined it all up it started raining so had to put the welder away!

 

I've bought some seam sealer and primer so should be able to have the shell ready for spraying this weekend, and got some matt black paint for the cage, so should be busy all weekend, if I get all that done I'll get cracking with the various adaptors and fittings I need to make for the engine.

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Paul_13

I like the seat mounts, gets rid of the crap original ones.

 

Any pics of the finished article?

I need to sort something with mine as all the mounts have the dreaded rust on the spot welds. <_<

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Rob Turbo

When I get back from work I'll be taking the seat back out so it doesn't end up with welding burns all over, so I'll get some photos of the drivers side then, still haven't done the passenger side.

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Rob Turbo

Forgot all about taking photos of the seat rails, although you can see the finished (but not welded in) front seat rail laid across the floor.

 

I got most of the welding done today, I got the front cage mounts finished and welded in, then got the door bars cut to size and welded in, here's a photo of the door bars welded, the mounting points for the door bars tacked on and the cage feet fully welded at the bottom and tacked at the top,

 

th_Photo-0186.jpg

 

I've now fully welded the top of the cage mounts and the front mounting points for the door bars, I also welded the front seat rail in, so the only welding left to do now is the passenger side rear seat rail and fully weld the rear door bar mounting points, I'm planning on doing that first thing tomorrow so I can start painting the cage in between welding the last seat rail in and fixing a scooter for the young lad next door!

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Rob Turbo

Got the last seat rail mounted today, then hoovered the floor, cleaned it up a bit, put seam sealer on all the welds, stuck the drain cover thing back down in the passenger side, there isn't one in the drivers side any more, I cut it all out and plated it when I was on a rust killing mission!!

 

th_Photo-0187.jpg

 

th_Photo-0188.jpg

 

I took the cage out, finished welding the door bar mounts on, then rubbed it down and started spraying it matt black (or "sweetie black" as my mate calls it, because he loves the stuff!!) but ran out of paint, the main part of it is almost finished, the front half is patchy and the door bars still have no paint at all. So I'll get some more paint tomorrow on my way home from work so my mate can have his spray booth back (read living room! it's a house he's doing up so it's almost completely empty, apart from a few building supplies and now my roll cage!)

 

Just need to get a sunroof blanking plate of some sort, then empty the shell ready for painting.

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Paul_13

Very smart, what kind of welder did you use, MIG or Arc? What amp you got it set to?

 

I was having trouble trying to weld a bit on my car it was just blowing holes, that was with a MIG welder.

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Rob Turbo

I use a MIG, it's a clarke 151 turbo or something, it's red!! It has a dial with 1, 2 and 3, then a switch for min/max, for the body I set it to 2, max, for the cage and seat rails (thick stuff) I set it to 3, max, to weld the cage mounts and seat rails to the body I ran a weld on the body along side the plate, then joined the two with the higher setting.

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Paul_13

Alright, cheers for the info I shall attempt mine again.

I'm gonna try and use the settings mentioned above as mines somewhat similar.

 

Bit of testing first dont want to end with holes... :)

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Rob Turbo

Here's the cage after it's 2nd coat, after I got it out into the sun last week I noticed it was still a bit patchy, so took it back into the "spray booth" and gave it another couple of coats, 100% covered now, so it's down the shed, being stored until I get the shell painted.

 

th_Photo-0189.jpg

 

I bought the paint for the car, obviously that's why the weather changed and it's started raining, if I didn't bother buying paint it would still be sunny!! I went for "ford frozen white", seems like a nice white, I'm going to have a go at using my dads electric spray gun, he prefers it over the compressor spray guns because there's less over spray and a better finish, apparently! I'll at least try it, if I don't like it I'll drag the compressor out, I know where I'm at with that!

 

th_Photo-0192.jpg

 

Also, bought this today,

 

th_Photo-0190.jpg

 

Got it cheap off a mate of a mate, that had it on an evo IV but the car wouldn't idle properly with it on apparently, so took it off, not sure if I'll use it or sell it on, I have a bailey dump valve that I used on the 8v turbo when it was in the 306, so whichever I don't use will be getting sold!

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Rob Turbo

Had some decent (not great) weather today so I cleaned the car out (moved everything into the boot of the 306!) and decided to try the electric spray gun out, mixed some paint, put it in the gun, nothing came out, tried thinning it a bit more, still nothing, a bit more, still nothing, so I gave up, poured the now water like paint into the "proper" spray gun and emptied it over the inside of the bulkhead and a bit on the floor, also put a patch on the passenger side rear quarter to see the difference in colour (the outside had already been sprayed at some point not long before I got the car, but I wasn't impressed with the quality of the job and it was a brighter white than standard).

 

th_Photo-0193.jpg

 

While I was doing that, my dad had a play with the electric gun, putting thinners through it, and got it working, the spray pattern is too small for my liking, so I'll be sticking with the compressor!

 

When I was mixing the paint in the boot I knocked the paint tin and ended up with a puddle of paint in the boot, I started cleaning it up, then decided to brush it around instead, I'm not bothered about the finish so if it dries with no hardner I'll leave it as it is!

 

th_Photo-0194.jpg

 

I'm liking the colour though, nice bright white!

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Rob Turbo

Got the shell completely stripped now, still got the paint puddle to clean up in the boot though, and some bits of glue/foam to remove from around the doors where the weather strip was stuck on, then rub down the lips in the paint where it was masked off for it's last respray and left an edge, then it should just be a case of waiting for a nice day to spray it!

 

th_Photo-0195.jpg

 

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Also, this was delivered yesterday,

 

th_Photo-0202.jpg

 

So yesterday and today after work I've been down the shed playing with oily bits!

 

First, this came out,

 

th_Photo-0206.jpg

 

I swapped the crown wheel onto the quaife, then dropped it in,

 

th_Photo-0208.jpg

 

Then took the engine off the stand, fitted the crankshaft oil seal, flywheel and paddle clutch,

 

th_Photo-0209.jpg

 

I was going to fit the gearbox, but my girlfriend brought her daughter up to see me so I just dropped the engine onto a trolley and strapped it down, I'll start where I left off tomorrow, namely fitting the gearbox, sitting the engine at the correct angle, putting the battery tray on the gearbox and making some brackets to hold the turbo in place for making the manifold.

 

I've still got the odd little bit to make for the engine, if this weather keeps up I'll probably have them bits and bobs sorted in no time!

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Paul_13

When you welded the back seat rail in, did you strengthen the bodywork with a sheet metal? If so what size?

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Rob Turbo

The sill end has a square of 3mm thick plate, just bigger than the box section, the exhaust tunnel side is just welded straight to the floor, the drivers side is thicker than the passenger side because I repaired the area when I was fixing holes in the floor, I probably should have strengthened the passenger side as well but it's a bit late for that!!

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Paul_13

Cheers for the reply, sorry only just seen it.

Going to be going to the metal shop at the weekend to buy come plate and have a bash.

 

I just saw the photo of your roll cage when it arrived, how the f*ck did the royal mail manage that?

 

All the postmen i've seen are scrawny barstewards! :rolleyes:

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Rob Turbo

I think it must have been reversed into or something, done a proper job on it! It's all straightened and welded up now, hopefuly I'll never need to test it's integrity though ;)

 

Only made a small ammount of progress, I've got my oil feed sorted, just need the adaptor to fit it to the turbo, I did order one but the wrong one came, I think it was down to a typo on the online catalogue, in which case I'm stuck and need to find somewhere else that can supply the part I need (an4 to m12x1.5 if anyone can help?) The exhaust housing is currently swinging around on a couple of brackets I made so I can get it in the right place so I can make the manifold, it's been like that for about a week, I might get cracking with the manifold tomorrow, all depends on the weather, I need to drag the welder across a field to get to the engine so rain kinda spoils the plan!

 

Couple of photos from last week, I used the "regular" T25 exhaust housing from a small turbo escort cosworth, which will be used on this engine, with a core and compressor housing from a spare 406 turbo that I had kicking about, I didn't bolt the core to the exhaust housing, just slotted it in, so this is roughly where it will all end up,

 

th_Photo-0218.jpg

 

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th_Photo-0220.jpg

 

th_Photo-0221.jpg

 

I've now got my BakerBM gti6 thermostat adaptor so I can get the turbo properly in position and build the manifold.

 

I've got quite a bit on my hands at the minute though, my 306 is out of mot, should have been in for a test today but ended up being cancelled due to a lack of a cat which I was hoping for yesterday, looks like it will be here monday, never mind! That and my girlfriend has just been getting a house, which I've been enlisted to decorate :ph34r: Ah well, sometime in the next few years I'll have a 205 back on the road!!!

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Paul_13

Blimey turboing it aswell lol, I'm having enough problems trying to get my 6 started :ph34r:

 

Be good to see the final product

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cybernck

Maybe I missed it, but are you going to build the turbo manifold all by yourself?

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