[car_overhaul] Project Jalopy

[Anthony 1,000]

Fast running out of things that I could do, I finally bit the bullet and booked the car in for an MOT.

 

My work schedule means that there was no way that I was going to be around to drop it off myself anytime in the foreseeable future, so off to my friends it went who was happy to drop it off on my behalf and address anything silly that it failed on. This meant that I got to drive the car properly for the first time since rescuing it from where it had lay abandoned and in pieces, not really having any idea how it was going to drive and how fit for MOT it really was given that there's only so much that you can tell from poking around on the driveway.

 

The good news was that it drove as well as I could have hoped - engine pulled cleanly and felt strong, brakes pulled up without fuss, suspension felt tight and steering responsive - and certainly gives me hope that there won't be too many nasty surprises when the MOT man casts his eye over it. There's a few things picked up whilst driving it that will need attention, including a wishbone bush that's starting to give the tale-tale pulling left and right as you get on and off the throttle, a very slight looseness/play somewhere in the steering, a noisy rear wheel bearing and rear brakes I suspect aren't working quite as they should seeing how they haven't cleaned up the disks particularly well, but hopefully none are issues severe enough to prove an issue on the MOT.

 

The carbs proved faultless too, their soundtrack of troaty induction bark echoing around the otherwise quiet and tranquil Cotswolds and providing all the aural entertainment that you could need. I was surprised at how well setup they seem to be, especially after sitting for so long, and backs up what I've suspected for a long time that many so-called "experts" couldn't turn on the kettle to make tea, let alone setup carbs properly.

 

One thing I had forgotten though was how truely horrific Pirelli P6000's are in the wet. Don't get me wrong - I knew that they were bad having experienced them numerous times before, but the degree of hopelessness caught even me out as I found myself in fits of laughter doing a perfect four-wheel drift across a roundabout at the giddy speeds of... 20mph. How on earth these tyres have proved so popular with manufacturers and the general population over the years I have no idea given that they're both expensive and barely fit for purpose, but for some inexplicable reason they have

[Fox 3]

Fingers crossed for the MOT then!

 

I had a set of P6000's on a 106 GTi (I believe they came as standard?) I remember being asked why I wanted to replace a set of tyres with good tread remaining, your roundabout story just about sums it up! Shocking!

 

A nice project, makes me think about writing up my latest acquisition. I should really stop buying stuff...

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

Good luck for the MOT mate, looked quite tidy when I saw it last even with no seats.

 

I agree with the P6000's had them on a couple of my old cars (not out of choice), like you said 4 wheel drifts at low speed and the rear end swinging round full pelt in the mild damp.

[monkee87 2]

I've had P6000's on one of my old GTi's, and I seriously can't believe how bad they are. They have next to no grip in the wet.. Shocking how crap those tyres are really!

[Anthony 1,000]

Just had a phone call off my friend, and the news hot off the press is that the man from the Ministry.... he says YES!

[feb 47]

That's good to hear Anthony well done!

[Baz 421]

WIN!!

 

 

P6000's with a little bit more mechanical grip behind them aren't so bad IMO, my 855 2.5T AWD has always had them fitted since new, have to be honest no where near as good as the other 850's/V70's i've had with better rubber all round; in fact i could out-drive my dad in the AWD in my old lesser powered 2.0 20v 855 on expensive Conti's! But they're certainly not as terrible as i've experienced on a 205/309/306! Like i've said before though, some tyres seem good on some cars whilst atrocious on others! P6000's are 'interesting' (read: dangerous!) on little hatchbacks though!!

[swordfish210 20]

P6000's are the tyres to have on 80's Jags. Like Baz says, they work OK with a bit of weight over them. I had them on the front of my old Volvo 360 and they were pretty appaling in the wet and dry, i did manage to rip some sizeable chunks out of them after a day at Llandow though

 

Good news on the MOT Anthony, whats next on the list for the car then?

[rallyeash 155]

where did you get the extended gear stick from?

[Anthony 1,000]

Good news on the MOT Anthony, whats next on the list for the car then?

Pull it apart of course - exactly what you expect to do on a freshly MOT'd car

 

I'm sure that makes absolutely no sense to the majority of people, to whom an MOT is one of the last parts of a project, but there was a degree of method behind my madness. Firstly it makes it much easier to do a proper shakedown and fault-find on the freshly built car when there's already an MOT on it and thus you can properly road test it. Secondly, it meant that I was able to properly test all the originally fitted parts, so that I knew what was good and could be kept/sold. Thirdly, when I originally started building the car I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, and thus it was kept largely to the original spec to MOT as that's how I'd have sold it had I not decided to keep it for myself.

 

In terms of what I'm planning to strip and build the car to, it's going to be built with the Skip Brown engine and full suspension setup from my old 205 GTi-S that I had originally intended for my '89 205 GTi as I had been detailing in my Roadspeed Revival project thread, but with further modifications and additions to make it into a great road going 205 which builds on the usability, accessibility and frankly brilliance of the standard car, rather than losing sight of it as many modified 205's do. A 205 GTi Evolution if you like.

 

 

where did you get the extended gear stick from?

It was made a few years back as part of a small batch for a former member James_R, effectively a standard gear lever that's been extended top and bottom.

 

 

 

Works really well and everyone that's driven my previous 205 with it fitted has asked where they can get one made. The key thing with them is the welding - you must get good penetration on the welds, otherwise - as happened with some that were made by other people/companies - they eventually break in use. These were made by a professional welder, and it shows by the fact that as far as I'm aware none of the batch made ever failed, despite atleast one being owned by someone well known for their "forceful" gear changes.

[Alastairh 47]

I have one of those gear sticks in my 205. Quite nice to use, although they showed up how weak the 'uprated' gear rods are on the market. I managed to shear one in half in no time.

 

Al

[SurGie 54]

It would be good if BBM made the bearing for that lower part of the gear stick like the L bracket one.

[Anthony 1,000]

It would be good if BBM made the bearing for that lower part of the gear stick like the L bracket one.

Maybe, but certainly I found that if you replace the bushes in the gearlever (together with the L-bracket) with new OE ones and finish off with new gear linkage rods, just about all the slop and vagueness from a typical 205 gearshift is banished.

[welshpug 1,622]

And costs no more than £2 or so for the 4 top hat bushes

 

I remember doing so on sarty's evo 2 build and it was such a difference from so many 205's I'd sat in before

[Baz 421]

+1, no need for anything else really IMO when they last well for circa 10+ years with normal usage!

[Longun 1]

The good news was that it drove as well as I could have hoped - engine pulled cleanly and felt strong, brakes pulled up without fuss, suspension felt tight and steering responsive - and certainly gives me hope that there won't be too many nasty surprises when the MOT man casts his eye over it.

 

Was that with the replacement rack fitted? It was second hand but only suppose to be a few months old. The rack fitted when you picked it up had play for sure its why I had a replacement in the boot

 

The carbs proved faultless too, their soundtrack of troaty induction bark echoing around the otherwise quiet and tranquil Cotswolds and providing all the aural entertainment that you could need. I was surprised at how well setup they seem to be, especially after sitting for so long, and backs up what I've suspected for a long time that many so-called "experts" couldn't turn on the kettle to make tea, let alone setup carbs properly.

 

Glad to hear it goes well. Wish I could have heard it running one last time before you picked it up. I'd always been impressed with the carbs setup. Not loads of power but a health 130bhp and it pulls strong.

 

One thing I had forgotten though was how truely horrific Pirelli P6000's are in the wet. Don't get me wrong - I knew that they were bad having experienced them numerous times before, but the degree of hopelessness caught even me out as I found myself in fits of laughter doing a perfect four-wheel drift across a roundabout at the giddy speeds of... 20mph. How on earth these tyres have proved so popular with manufacturers and the general population over the years I have no idea given that they're both expensive and barely fit for purpose, but for some inexplicable reason they have

 

Don't blame me for the tyres I gave you 4 F1's too Although rather worn.....

 

Overall I wouldn't have sold this car if I knew it was a complete dog. Ok being sat for so long didn't help but it was very well looked after prior to that. All the extra's I never got around to fitting would have finished it off quite nice. Love what you've done with it and so happy to see it being used. If you ever decide to sell it please give me a call as if my situation changes I may have it back

 

Extras will be in the post soon, including the original service history and some other paperwork

[Anthony 1,000]

Was that with the replacement rack fitted? It was second hand but only suppose to be a few months old. The rack fitted when you picked it up had play for sure its why I had a replacement in the boot

Nope, it was the original rack

 

Up until I drove it to the MOT I'd completely forgotten about you mentioning a little play in the rack, and certainly it wasn't obvious when the car was stationary. It wasn't that bad when driving, although certainly noticeable, and was picked up as an advisory on the MOT.

 

The car will be getting converted to PAS and a Xsara VTS quickrack installed, so the solution is in hand.

 

Don't blame me for the tyres I gave you 4 F1's too Although rather worn.....

Oh I'm not blaming you for the tyres, don't worry! It was my (sadistic) choice to fit them for the MOT, as I figured that they were a legal matched set with plenty of tread, and about the only set of wheels/tyres that I've got which I wasn't particularly fussed if they got scrubbed or worn unevenly if there was anything amiss with the tracking or suspension geometry. For obvious reasons they won't be staying on the car very long!

 

The set of F1's I gave to Baz in exchange for some of the parts that I needed to finish off the car, so they'll no doubt go out in a blaze of glory sideways on an airfield somewhere I'd imagine.

 

Overall I wouldn't have sold this car if I knew it was a complete dog. Ok being sat for so long didn't help but it was very well looked after prior to that. All the extra's I never got around to fitting would have finished it off quite nice. Love what you've done with it and so happy to see it being used. If you ever decide to sell it please give me a call as if my situation changes I may have it back

Sure, if I ever sell I'll give you first refusal on it, but don't count on that being anytime soon - I'm planning on hopefully enjoying it for some time once it's finished!

 

If I'm ever over you neck of the woods in it I'll pop in and say hello, and your daughter can see that the nice man did fix daddies broken car

[Anthony 1,000]

Dodging the worst of the showers, I made a start stripping the front end of the car.

 

Firstly out came all the suspension and front running gear, which all came apart very easily seeing as I'd not long assembled it and had made sure that everything had received a liberal application of copper grease. With the exception of bolts that need to be threadlocked, ensuring that any fixing that is exposed to the elements has a smear of copper grease prior to reassembly makes your life so much easier in the future as you can pretty much guarantee that if will undo nice and easily, rather than spending significant time with siezed or snapped fixings.

 

 

Engine next, and once the Magnex manifold was removed and pulled clear, the engine came straight out the top with no drama whatsoever - being a humble 8v and with the subframe having already been removed, there's oddles of space to pretty much pull the engine out whichever way you like.

 

 

Removing the upper engine mount casting to gain access to one of the bolts that attaches the inlet manifold to the head, I discovered something curious that I'd not seen before - anything look a bit strange considering that this is a J reg 1.6 GTi engine?

 

 

Yep, it's got the late style 114 tooth cambelt with eccentric tensioner which is odd as I didn't think that they were ever fitted to 1.6 GTi's - certainly I've never seen one and even the last 1.6's on a K-reg that I've seen still used the usual 113 tooth belt and spring-tensioner. I initially thought that it might have been swapped at some point in the cars life, but it also has the late Mi16-style waterpump where the casting forms part of the cambelt cover, and the late single-piece cambelt cover that is only attached by two bolts at the top and the bottom part of the cover fits in like an Mi16 or GTi-6. Very strange. Sadly the engine code and serial number are both missing so I can't check it against the V5 to see if it's the original engine or not.

 

Not as strange as what I discovered when I removed the gearbox however...

 

 

A paddle clutch, which seems a curious addition to a 1.6 GTi given that they're not exactly renowned for having clutch-shreading levels of torque and given that - to the best of my knowledge - it was still a comparitively standard roadgoing car when Joe (Longun) bought it. Sadly, it's worn pretty much to the rivets and started wearing grooves into the clutch cover, so the whole lot is basically fit for scrap only - just baffled as to why on earth it was fitted in the first place really.

[Anthony 1,000]

Going back to what I said about copper grease saving you a whole load of grief in the future, the battery tray proved to be an excellent demonstration of exactly why when I went to remove it to check how rusty the chassis leg was underneath it.

 

Came to undo the first bolt, and as soon as I applied a moderate force, it sheared.

 

Came to undo the second bolt, and it was very stiff and corroded, but did atleast turn a few degrees. Lots of WD40 and slowly working the bolt back and forth, it was coming out and just when I thought that it was going to be OK, it too sheared.

 

Came to undo the third bolt, and it was missing. At this point, I assumed that it had been snapped previously, but actually turned out that it was simply missing and the threads whilst grotty, were intact.

 

Came to undo the final bolt, and was getting fed up by this point, even more so when this bolt too was stiff, corroded and liable to snap. Thankfully, patience and WD40 got this one out intact, but that still only left me one bolt out of four for the battery tray. What should have been a 30 second job was very quickly turning into a pain in the backside.

 

 

An hour of drilling and tapping later, I was once again back to where I should be with a full compliment of bolts holding the battery tray in - it's just an hour that I really shouldn't have had to spend if only whoever had last had the battery tray out had only spent a few seconds applying some anti-sieze to the bolts.

 

On a more positive note, the chassis leg rust that I'd removed the battery tray to check in the first place was thankfully minimal (as per the picture above) and needs little more than a quick rub down and lick of paint. Indeed, poking around the rest of the engine bay shows very little rust in the usual places - a little bit along the seam under the washer bottle, a few small spots around where the jack sits, and a bit of surface rust where the paint has lifted from spilt brake fluid in the back corner. Otherwise, from what I've seen it's all in good order.

[Alastairh 47]

Very good. What is the plan with that 1.6 lump? I know a local man needing one!

[Anthony 1,000]

Very good. What is the plan with that 1.6 lump? I know a local man needing one!

Provisionally a friend of mine is having it I'm afraid. I've got a couple of spare 1.9 8v engines in the garage though if they're of any interest though?

[harryskid 193]

It must be nice to work on an engine bay with all the stuff out of the way. I wish i'd had the time to have gone over mine but as i was paying some one to fit the new motor the opportunity alas was not there. Had to do all the tidying up around things but as its a rally car its not quite so important, though i do like things to look smart. Nice work going on there and an interesting project.

[Anthony 1,000]

Removed the remaining parts from the engine bay today and tackled the grime and rust.

 

I don't know what it is with 205 engine bays, but they seem to get absolutely caked in oil and grime no matter what, and this 205 was no exception. Copious amounts of elbow grease and degreaser later, the engine bay was clean, the thick film of oily gunge banished for... well, until about five minutes after I get it back on the road I'm sure.

 

With a wire wheel on the grinder, I removed all the flakey paint and some of the seam sealer to tackle the areas of rust that I'd found earlier in the week. The area under the brake servo ended up being quite alot larger and more advanced than it had initially appeared and also covered part of the chassis leg and the bulkhead-floorpan seam. Whilst it was all solid still and thanksfully not needing the attention of messrs grinder and welder, I suspect that had it been left another year or two then it would have rotted through, especially as it was starting to crumble underneath the seam sealer where moisture had managed to work its way in.

 

Both inner wings were in very good condition with just some light surface rust in a thin strip where the two panels join, and otherwise it was all pretty solid with no areas of concern on or around the headlight panels like many 205's have these days. Frankly I'm amazed given that the car has a fair number of miles on it (148k) and has been sat outside untouched for so long.

 

With it all ground back and degreased, I applied Epoxy Mastic over the affected areas to treat and protect them, and reapplied fresh seam sealant. I'll leave that to dry overnight, and tomorrow I'll give it a lick of paint and start putting it back together again.

 

 

Doesn't look like much, but that's been the best part of a days work to get it to that point!

[Cameron 16]

Looking good. What seam sealant do you use, and where do you get it from?

[Anthony 1,000]

What seam sealant do you use, and where do you get it from?

Just some U-POL Grey Stripe that I bought to do my other 205 last year - most motorfactors will sell it (or something equivalent)