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Hi all - thought I'd bite the bullet and start my own (re)build thread as I've now accumulated enough parts & equipment that I've run out of excuses for not touching the car The first part of this will be retrospective as catch up with the small amount of work & preparation that I have done over the last 4 years of ownership , finally catching up with what I got up to this weekend. The inspiration to start my own car was a mates (Oli) Nova (no groans please) that I helped to build in 2007 iirc: This was its completed state, after various iterations of tuning and development, resulting in a very impressive car. Ubiquitous 'Red Top' but this came with a Kent cam and tbs, producing just under 200bhp on a 150k+ mile engine. I've always liked 205s and currently have a little 106 as a daily so I thought I'd stay French and an MI'd 205 sounded like a good stable mate and sufficient competition to Oli's Nova I bought the car in March '08 as a £350 eBay special with no T&T, but as it was local I went to check the car over before bidding and it 'looked' ok to me. The auction was won and the car trailered back home where it got a quick clean up to get rid of the crud that had accumulated while it was off the road. Before: After: The paint work came up really well and there isn't any of the usual lacquer peel the 205 tends to suffer from. The car is pretty standard and genuine other than the TSW Stealth / Escort(?) alloys, but these wouldn't be staying as they look to be quite square and I don't really like them! There were a few bits that looked a little rough, mainly the arch trims and valances as they were held on with self-tappers in places, but nothing that couldn't be sorted easily. The interior has the usual seat collapsed / ripped bolster on both the passenger and driver side, but again - these wouldn't be staying so I wasn't really bothered. Next job was to sort somewhere suitable for the upcoming fun! I fortunately have a single garage, with the house so that was cleaned, painted, new strip lights and an old set of Ikea wardrobes found a new life as my work bench. Before: During: Finished: