[trackday_prep] 205 Mi16 Reborn

[malyso 0]

Introduction

 

The car belonged to a mate who had it for a year he'd done about 400 miles a little bit of tinkering but basically never got into doing anything serious with it nor was it looking like he was going to...

 

After a bit of negotiation and many beer tokens later I managed to relieve him of it... so here we go.

 

The plan is to tidy it up a good bit, sort the wiring out as its a real mess and half of the sensors aren't connected. Basically finish what someone already started before my mate bought it and turn it into a good track day flyer all being well..

 

Once the above has been done and if the car performs ok then I'm already thinking of changing onto bike carbs as I have a spare set of ZX9 carbs kicking around. Also removing the side and rear glass and polycarbing it all round.

 

I live in North Yorkshire so if any one wants to have a nosey in feel free. I'll be glad of any advice/ help and the kettle will always be on...lol

 

 

The spec as it stands before any work is as follows.

 

Exterior

 

1989 White 1.6 GTi shell (With pop up sunroof )

1.9 Goodwood alloys

Bonnet on pins

 

Engine

 

Alloy block 1.9 MI16 now installed with MI16 loom (who knows when or how old it is)

Gearbox unknown ( has no lift reverse so could be 1.6 or MI16 i think)

Quick shift and alloy rose jointed gear rods

Twin fan conversion with separate switch in the dash

Green cone filter

Stainless steel exhaust system (make unknown)

Oh and a cobra alarm (which will probably cause me grief)

 

Brakes

 

283mm GTI 6 front disks and calliper conversion

1.9 Rear beam with discs

Rear brake lines re-routed inside car

 

Suspension

 

Koni front shocks and lowered springs

Standard rear shocks (I think)

Momo front strut brace

 

 

Inside

 

Already striped out inside.

Separate OMP 10 point roll cage ready to fit in ( he bought it and never got it fitted)

Momo bucket seats with 3" Luke harnesses

 

 

Here's a few pics, but as it is already in the garage so there not so great sorry.

 

 

 

 

Problems so far are..

 

Oil temp not working.

Low oil sensor not connected (cannot even see any wiring near sensor)

Nice little hole in the lower corner o f the sill where the drivers door hinge is( pic to follow)

Seats not fitted particularly well

Wiring a mess as already mentioned, both inside the dash and in the engine bay

Brake pedal feel not brilliant

Small section of old exhaust blowing which links the back box to mid section..

Radiator looks like it’s been beaten to death...

 

But that said it drove fine when I brought it home, it pulled really well above 4k revs and the oil pressure seemed fine, and it still has a couple months tax & test.... bonus

 

Will be putting up progress pics as I go along..

 

I'm already looking for the following bits if anyone can help..

 

Baffled sump(std unbaffled MI16 fitted)

Oil temp sensor for above sump

Interior heater blower fan (Seized solid)

New radiator

new red bumper trim inserts

406 master cylinder upgrade

 

 

PS

 

Forget to mention if anyone recognises the car please shout up you may know more about its history then I do. It has a Castle Combe sticker on the back so I'm pretty sure its had a blast on track already...

 

Mark

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Sounds like it has the majority of the right bits and the hard work done for you to have some fun in it, some tidying up and then you can hit the circuits.

[GLPoomobile 958]

If it's F*** OKV then I owned it many years ago (pre Mi). A lass on Talk Torque had it last year and IIRC she lived around Swindon. I saw it at Castle Combe last summer. I know she was thinking of selling it not long after that. Certainly seems to have done the rounds.

[malyso 0]

If it's F323 OKV then I owned it many years ago (pre Mi). A lass on Talk Torque had it last year and IIRC she lived around Swindon. I saw it at Castle Combe last summer. I know she was thinking of selling it not long after that. Certainly seems to have done the rounds.

 

 

That fits in with what I know, my mate bought it from a girl on e bay and it has had Talk torque stickers on the bonnet which you can still see faintly ..

 

What was the history of it while you had it, it doesn't seemed to have had such a bad life compared to some I've seen..

[Baz 421]

Kate had it for all of about 3 months...

[GLPoomobile 958]

Right, I'm on my laptop now so I can see the pics correctly and I see the reg is correct, so I'll fill you in with what I can. Not that most of this will be relevant to you now, but it's nice to have some history

 

This was my first 205 GTI. I bought it in about 2000 from a driveway trader in Torquay, for £995 IIRC. It was a completely standard 1.6, albeit needing some attention and not really worthy of the price tag, but I was young and naive and bought it without my dad to hold my hand

 

While I waited for my insurance renewal to come up I spent some time tarting it up. The interior was shocking, a previous owner must have had at least 2 dogs in the back most of the time as the plastics were scratched to hell and caked to dirt and also partially sun bleached. I pulled the lot out and cleaned it thoroughly and painted it with black Foliatec dye. Behind the rear 3/4 panels it was completely packed solid with dog hair I also fitted new rear quarter window seals and boot seal. I'm afraid to admit that as I was young, it was my first GTI and I was a bit influenced by the Fast Car culture, I did do some questionable things such as apply 'Brushed alluminium look' self adhesive trim to the dash, paint some of the trim bits in silver Foliatec spray, and attempt to dye the red carpet sections of the door cards black with the Foliatec spray too Dunno if any of that remains, but I can only appologise if it does

 

I remember it had a leak in to the passenger footwell that I suspect was shrunken seam sealer in the bulkhead.

 

Shell wise I removed all the trim and bumpers and sprayed them with the left over Foliatec black dye, which worked well but flaked eventually. The trim was minging and grey and wax stained though. I also fitted a really gash smooth boot panel that I 'glued' on with fibreglass filler and sprayed a shade of white that never matched 100%. Also tinted the lights red (sorry everyone, I am ashamed ) and fitted horrible smoked oval side repeaters. Fitted new driving lights up front and clear indicators. Fixed some rust around the B pillars (hidden by window seals) and painted the pillars black. Refitted all the trim with new metal clips (the ones that rust and disintegrate) and plastic lugs, new bumper bolts and rubbers etc, and fitted chrome inserts rather than red. Oh, also smoothed and painted the rear 3/4 badges black with no decals/lettering, smoothed and painted the handles white (that flaked) and smoothed and painted the mirrors white with black edge (still have those mirrors in my parts collection

 

Mechanically I had to replace the metal coolant pipe, and drilled out the corroded bolts that hold it in and never replaced them ( ), got a new cambelt put on as it was so loose it was slapping the cam cover at idle, fitted a K&N induction kit and full Magnex system with tubular manifold, and a Pug Performance ECU. Come MOT it wouldn't start due to a knackered Ignition king lead so I stuck some Silicone Blue leads on. It failed on a few things, one of which being a bent steering rack, so that was replaced (reckon it had taken a front end knock as the NS wing looked like it may been replaced, but possibly the OS one too ). Beam needed a partial rebuild and the front calipers needed attention too.

 

Oh, also had a Toad A1601 alarm fitted inc total closure.

 

I had fun in it for a while, then got hold of a BX 16v for £150 and set about stealing it's heart, but not long after I made a dramatic lifestyle change. Moved up to Edinburgh and was sleeping on a mates sofa while looking for work. I took the pug but obviously it put paid to my plans of doing the Mi conversion. Just before I moved up there I also had a run in with a van and managed to dent the front OS wing in

 

About 6 months after moving to Edinburgh I decided it was time to get rid. A recurring problem was annoying me, which I thought was rather serious at the time but in hindsight was probably a simple duff ECU Temp sensor (my knowledge has increased a hundred fold since then!). I honestly though the car was worthless and would fail the MOT (idiot) so I stripped it of as much as possible as sold it as a rolling shell for £50!!!!!

 

The guy who bought it had a few 205s and plenty of spares. I used to see him occasionally around Edinburgh and he had fixed it back up with little hassle and to be fair it looked quite clean.

 

When I moved down to London just over 3 years ago I joined this forum as the 205 bug was calling me back from my Civic (the GLPoomobile) and I asked if anyone knew of F323, and one member who I cannot remember said that he'd seen it about Edinburgh and that it had been MId, looked pretty tidy, and he also managed to dig out a photo of it on a rolling road session.

 

Forward to Castle Combe action day last year. I had been randomly invited along by Dr Sarty just a few days before. We'd been there about half an hour and were wandering over to the track along with Ben (Bonzai) and low and behold, there's F323 sitting at the noise check area!! I'd been interested in tracking it down and there it was, some 400 odd miles from where I sold it. Talk about random

 

I managed to find out from Kate (on here) that it belonged to another Kate (from the Talk Torque site), so she phoned her and found out where she was and I hooked up later that afternoon. Had a wee nosey around the car (was a bit disappointed TBH, looked a bit rough with surface rust along the sills etc). Kate had bought it not long before from eBay, from the Edinburgh area for about £1200. She'd had a fair bit done to get it track ready just prior to that and IIRC the CC action day was it's first outing. I know she was talking about selling it on Talk Torque not long after for financial reasons.

 

Got some piccies of the day here:

(EDIT, when I can get back in to Photobucket I'll link them up )

 

 

Sorry for such a massive write up! Once I start typing I just can't keep things brief I'm afraid But better to have too much info than not enough, I believe.

Edited March 24, 2008 by GLPoomobile

[GLPoomobile 958]

Thought I had more pics than this but sadly not:

 

[malyso 0]

Thanks

 

No thats what I call a good honest reply.... Its good to hear about the history of old cars and I hope I can trace its path to me through Kate as i'm interested to hear about the conversion who ever did it. I'm also pleased to say very little remains of your early mods to the vehicle other than the rear badges which are still plain gloss black. It has obviously been put back to its former glory at some point....

 

I've contacted a girl on Talk torque who i'm pretty sure is the right one so will keep an update on here if i find out anymore..

[taylorspug 7]

The brake problem will almost certainly be cured by the master cylinder upgrade you have mentioned.

 

Dont worry about the oil level sensor, it isnt used on MI converted 205s.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Turns out I did have some more pics from CC afterall

 

 

[GLPoomobile 958]

[malyso 0]

Thanks for the pics, it slowly taking shape, will put some more pics up soon of the progress..