Search the Community

Might not be enough detail to say for sure but I'm wondering what you think. Obviously there's more rust to take back but it feels fairly solid where the rust in the corners are (Passed the screwdriver jab test) As you can probably guess a lot of it moves if i press down on it where it's bad. I personally think it can be saved it's not that bad...best methods for restoring it? just cut out and weld bits in?! Anyway here are some pictures cheers

Hello all, thought i'd share with you the progress i have made with my 205. I got this car from my brother who had owned it for the past 10 years. it was his daily until he had 2 kids! I used to love him taking me out in it when i was about 12, so was chuffed to finally get my hands on it and (attempt!) to restore it back to road/showworthy condition. The car itself is a 1.9 8v completely standard from 1991. The paintwork was fubar'd, few car park dents and minor rust creeping in. It really didn't look very tidy when i picked it up. I was lucky enough to find dry storage for it in my GF's dad's lorry shed. Here i had all the tools and space to begin work sanding back the horrible paintwork!

Hello, firstly I have searched to no avail, does anyone have recomendations for a good body shop for replacing wheel arches and sills actually forgot to mention this is for my MX5 not the pug! Preferably in the West Midlands. after this weekends clean I fear mine will need sorting sooner rather than later. Thanks for your help in advance. Roddie

Can anyone reccomend a body shop in the Bath/Bristol area? I don't mind paying a little more for a really good job. It's time to sort out a little bit of rust:

Dear All, My VIN has been obscured by some patches of rust, which have blotted out several characters of the number. Obviously, I want to remove and treat this rust as best possible (before my respray) and stop it getting any worse. However, I can't just strip/grind the rust away without it looking like I have deliberately tampered with the VIN. What are my options here? Will I have to take it to a main dealer and have a repair properly recorded? I don't even know if it's a requirement to have that number on the vehicle, as the identity plate clearly shows the same number. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Mike

My car failed its MOT today and one of the things was corrosion around the rear right jacking point. After a bit of poking and a quick go with the wire wheel on the grinder it turns out the rear few inches of the sill was complete rust. I've cut out the offending rusted part, which is a good 15cm of the sill from the back, and some of the structure behind it including the thicker bit for the jacking point. I've now got to decide what to do next. Could I fabricate some metal to replace the parts I've cut out, or do I replace the whole sill? While I have got a welder, I'm very out of practice and don't want to do more than necessary. How easy is it to remove the whole sill cleanly so a new one can be refitted? Do mobile bodywork welders exist, who can come out and do such jobs?

Thought I'd show the work I have been helping a friend of a friend with over the past few weeks, I was asked to help as I know how 205's go together, and Anton likes the welding side of things, but hates working on pugs, he's a VW man at heart. Antons current collection is Clyde, 2.0 8 valve high comp cammed Red mk2 Scirocco, which is about the 160 bhp mark. A VW T4 transporter Synchro 2.5 TDI. A Porshe Carrera 4. A Sylva Striker RT kitcar (x2!...) And last week he picked up a Saab 9-3 Hot Aero Estate, 250 bhp variant, for £500, its bloody quick, and very tidy, and only has 100k on the clock. He's built a few vw's, mk3 running gear under a mk2 golf, the ubiquitous 20vT into something or other, resurrected a few bent Sciroccos and M3's. onto the puglet as Anton affectionately calls this 88 Silver 1.9 gti, its a car he has been given TWICE, and sold to friends for £400 both times IIRC the most recent victim is Adam, who asked Anton to get it up to scratch mechanically, and weld up where necessary... end of the first day... we poked holes in it, thought "oh feck" then started at the front and removed the rusty bits after snapping pretty much every stud and bolt there was...

Hi everyone. I decided that i want to post a topic of my cars restoration project. I bought the car in 2010 10 march. It was in very bad condition. The engine was completely taken apart and was in the trunk of the car. The car had big rust problems. And had front springs cut down half way and the rear beam was completely dead and the car was sitting almost on the ground. The previous owner had done loads of bad things to the car. The original seats and wheels where gone as well. So I decided to buy the car and wanted to restore it to it`s orogonal condition. That's how it looked like when i started to work on it. First i decided i need to start with the engine. So i bought a complete 1,9l engine. And after short time i first installed it in the car. As you can see the front end of the car is nothing but rust. Shortly after the engine was started for the first time i understood that the engine had oil problems. So the engine went straight back to it`s seller. And working on the car i understood that i need to weld new front end. So i stripped all the car and found more and more rust Taht was just the rust at the front end. The rust was also at the side skirts and rear of the car. After long period of welding. The car needed to be primed and painted. The car from factory had electric windows and central locking. Before me someone had changed the doors and had cut the wires. Since then the car had manual windows, but i knew that i will put the electric windows back in. I toed the car to the painters garage. And he did a complete respray. Except for the engine bay. The car had two colors. but i didn`t like that. I wanted it to be just red. I didn`t like the red paint that it had. It seemed to me that is too light and looked a bit pink or orange. So i found the red tone that i liked. It was the paint from volkswagen. Tornado red. In the time when the car was painted i started to work on the engine. I send the engine to my friend who is a big 205 gti fan and also a good engine builder. He helped me with the engine rebuild. The engine is standard 1,6 with a head with big valves. I had problems with the electrics in the engine compartment. I didn`t know which wires go where. And the engine didn`t run when i hooked up the wires. And there where some empty wires as well. So i got an electric to help me. He had to work pretty hard to fix some bad wires and get the car working. Sometimes i thought that this project will never end cause i always could find something broken, or something i had to redo. It was 2 years already since i started working on the car and finaly it started to look like one All this time my car had no exhaust. So i had to custom build a new one. Starting from the downpipe all the way back we welded a stainless steel exhaust 60mm in diameter with the back box from magnaflow. My plan is to finish the car till summer. Get the original recaro seats, and drive as much as i can. Sorry for my english. I hope it was interesting for you guys to read John

Hi every one. can any one suggest the best way to tacle the rust i have uncovered. thanks