Lazer Green 1.6 Rolling Resto & Recommision

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

I thought that it was apt to start my own thread showing the work in progress and what I have done so far. I have been on this forum many years now, and largely played a background roll. I have had this car for coming up 5 years, its been on the road for 8 months during that time and undercover storage until last may when I brought it out to "just get it running" and back on the road, its escalated but that's my fault, I cant leave things alone!

 

A bit of background, I bought the car on ebay with a broken belt, it was a smart looking up together car with bags of history, it was local and I love the colour and had a hankering for 205's again, I did what was needed used it in the summer, put a clutch in it. Winter arrived and that was it. Come may 2013 and I lost the garage it was in, the in laws decided to inconveniently move and the plan was to get it on the road.

 

I'm lucky that I am a mechanic already so have all the facilities and workshop to hand.

 

 

I knew it was a bit scabby underneath and it needed a tune up and the idle sorting, the SAD plug was on the reverse switch on the gearbox, not my doing. Running sweetly I looked over it, pulled the bumpers off to sort out the scabs, got the screw driver out and poked holes in the inner wings under the seats and behind the rear wheel arches.

 

I intended to try and do local repairs, and I was pretty happy with the outcome, I cut out the rot and made up repair sections, removed and treated any rust on the inner wings, and front panel and stone chipped to give extra protection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was pretty happy with how it was coming along, but the inner wings where letting the engine bay and underside down, and I had to remove the front suspension to make a descent job of painting the wheel arches

 

 

spot blasted inside of bonnet, primed and painted

 

 

Rot holes found in the section behind rear wheel arch, the bumper mounts where still perfect, so I made up repair sections

 

 

 

 

 

Moved back to the front again, pulled the front suspension out, removed and replaced all bushes, blasted, primed and painted every part and re assembled.

 

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/triple_a_motorsport/Jean%

20Claude/3A33917D-2A30-40A3-8EC0-A83D0DBCFF0A_zpsh6bhn82w.jpg

 

 

 

 

as you can see at this stage I originally intended to leave the engine in situ and do it another time, but it was harder working round it......So it came out, I will now detail the complete engine and box before I re install it.

 

 

I cleared out the engine bay, it wasn't rusty, just dirty and lacking paint, I flatted back what was there, primed any areas that needed it, stonechipped chassis legs and bulkhead a bit and the underside and painted with base coat mixed with lacquer an harder to make it hard and durable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that's where im up to, im hoping to make good progress this summer, once the front is back together I will be doing similar to Tom on the underside at the rear, I have made a start but got side tracked! Im building the front end up again now, gradual progress but I will try and do regular updates.

[2052NV 24]

Wow awesome work!

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

Thankyou, here it is as if last night, managed to get some of the bulkhead furniture back in,the rear brake compensator, heat shields and gear lever linkage. I'm trying to retain a bit of it original character, I don't want everything to look new hence the master cylinder and servo unpainted. The new brake pipe and fuel line clips arrived yesterday along with speedo cable and pedal rubbers, so next job is to make up some new brake pipes and refit the subframe, and start building up the front suspension.

 

Before

 

 

After

 

[Weser 30]

Looking good! I love a Laser.

 

Like the Bay Window camper too. Are we going to see a build thread for that

[rallyeash 155]

Good work, Bay window for sale?

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

Haha the bay is a friends, she has everything to do it but it just sits there. She also has a mk2 golf gti and a 69 beetle that are in the process of being done that are way in front if the bay. She won't sell anything.

[Juttie205 123 2 Cars]

very nice and looks great but would have cleaned and painted brake servo before refitting seems to stick out in clean engine bay

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

I didn't want to paint everything, loses the originality of the car, I don't mind patina, the engine won't be painted, and I can't re plate the servo easily, and it would be hard to match the original green plating/ coating

[jord294 87]

Keep up the good work

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

Made the most of the day assembling the front end. It was all painted previously so was a kit of bits. Fitted my anti roll bar drop link entensions, fit perfectly and take the strain out of the drop link and stand it upright like they should be.

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to make a start on brake pipes but a lack on enthusiasm and tube nuts put a stop to that.

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

Just a quick update, brake pipes are in and finished, and the car is now back on its wheels.

 

 

 

The engine bay is as far as I can go for now, lack of funds means I can't get the engine done and in, so for the time being the rear half of the interior has come out to inspect the rear seat wells. As expected I will need to pull the tank out. I did pull the carpet up and look in the footwells and there is no sign of any rust and it's nice and dry so that's a positive. The boot floor is also rot free.

 

 

 

 

But as the weather is good I have popped the screen out to sort out crusty bits I could bee under the rubber. I think it's going to be a nasty area to repair. 2 holes so far and some very thin metal. Should be fun! I will look further today and possibly try and save as much of the area as possible.

 

 

The rest of the screen surround isn't too bad just a couple of scabs. I imagine this is damage from a new screen being fitted as it currently has a non sunroof rubber. I have sourced a descent rubber with the lip that it will be going back with.

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

Little progress was made today due to the weather. But I did have a chance to go to a breakers yard and look at rear window seals. Mine have leaked for a while where they have shrunk and as it appears impossible to get replacements I wanted to find something suitable to modify. I ended up getting a pair of descent Saxo seals for a fiver.

 

The seal is a different profile but I'm not concerned by that. There plenty big enough so I pushed it in the corners, cut, and stuck it back together with super glue. (Works a treat) re-fitted it and put the window back in. There is plenty of pinch on the rubber when the window is shut, and is water tight, all in all a cheap solution to the problem which doesn't look out of place at all.

 

Old rubber

 

 

New one made up

 

 

In the car

 

 

 

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

It's ages since I updated this thread so I thought I had better show a bit of progress. I have a deadline I want to get it done for now, 10th October hot hatch Sunday.

 

While the weather has been good I decided to pop the screen out. I wanted to sort out the rust issues, and change the screen rubber to the correct sunroof rubber. I spot blasted the affected areas, welded a couple of pin holes, filled, primed and painted. I blended it back halfway along the roof and right down the a post. It looks ok. Not perfect by any means but is presentable until I have the funds to do it properly.

 

 

 

 

It was then a case of finish the underside. I removed the tank, beam and rest if the brake pipe, cleaned, primed, seam sealed, light stonechip and today I did the final top coat and painted the rear arches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the products I used, use these on every underside that we do. Great results easy to use and long lasting.

 

 

I took a leaf out of ATK's book and freshened up the sunroof channels just got to do the rear wiper nut.

 

 

Started re fitting the rear bumper today. The rear beam will have to go back how it is for now until I have the money to get it rebuilt. But I'm excited to be at a turning point with it.

Edited August 9, 2014 by acox99

[credowan 15 1 Cars]

Your doing a great job with the car mate it's looking great, hopefully see it at Goodwood or a meet when it's up and running

 

Keep up the amazing work mate

Gary

[m@ttc 30]

Nice work mate, I'm in the process of doing the underside on mine which is taking ages, your shell looks in better condition than mine but I'll get there, so watching your progress with interest.

How have you found your Saxo seals to be?

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

Thanks a lot. The shell wasn't too bad. Not a lot of bad rot. Just scabby in areas. Some if the pictures of other peoples cars made me realise how good it was! It's been off the road 4 years so that helped it a lot.

 

They seem to work well. They look the same on the inside as the rubber has the same texture finish as the plastic. They fit tightly into the corners as I made them to suit the car, they have a good pinch in the window, and they passed the hosepipe test and all the rain from over the weekend. The old seals where shrunk and leaking, I needed to find an alternative as nothing new is available, and after all the work I've done to the car it still had leaky quarter windows. Originality freaks won't like them as the rubber section is different, but they do the job well so I'm happy.

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

Made some descent progress yesterday. Fitted freshly painted rear drum back plates, new wheel cylinders and shoes with new fitting kits, Made up the rear brake pipes, refitted fuel lines, re fitted fuel tank and handbrake cables. I took the decision to refit the beam without painting it as I will remove it to refurbish it next year.

 

 

 

 

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

Slightly annoyed that where it has been on a 2 post ramp the pads have taken paint off the sill on the rear or the car. Next jobs are to fit new rear dampers. Change over the rear beam mounts as they sent the wrong ones initially, fit spare wheel holder, get some new rear hub nuts and start detailing the engine ready to refit, finish off mopping the paintwork. Wet flat and paint the last wheel.

[lewis205cti 12]

Looking amazing mate. One of the best colours too.

[Rolando 10]

is that body sealant and red primer brush on? looks really good!

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

Yes both the sealant and primer are brush on not cheap. You can buy it on eBay. But it's very good stuff, and wurth are a well known brand in the trade. Thankyou for all your great comments.

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

After cleaning the engine and box with degreaser and an further cleaning them with an alloy deoxidiser made by race glaze the engine and box where looking loads better. I bead blasted a the individual alloy pieces and sprayed them with WD40 to keep them from going white with corrosion. The aim wasn't to make it look new. I just wanted it to be presentable as it wasn't a rebuilt engine, I detailed it with new nuts and bolts and gaskets and seals, and blasted and painted the gearbox end cover to finish it off. I must admit it came out better than I thought.

 

 

So today was a big milestone. I refitted the engine back into the car and started reconnecting. I can't quite remember how all the wiring was laid out around the brown plug and how all the wiring sat by the fuse box and the rad temp switch. I bunched them up and kept them out the way.

 

 

So this it what it looks like now. I need to write a list of finishing jobs. But I did put my order in today with BBM for rubber hoses stainless water pipe and gear rods.

[Andy_C 50]

Good progress. Lighter colours show off the hard work way better. When I started on the underside of mine it'll never look as good.

 

What exactly did you do to the Saxo seals? One of mine split yesterday so need an alternative solution.

[Reebmit 51 4 Cars]

Looking really good, well done, I have to admit the Lasers do look good.....

[acox99 71 1 Cars]

Andy_c I cut them just before the corner, pushed the seal into the window appature, cut it using descent snips as they have a metal back bone running through the seal. Then chamfer them at 45 degree angles facing inwards. Fit them back in the car, and cut the forward face to suit. Making sure both 45 degree joins mate up well with no gaps super glue them and hold them until it goes off. If it helps do the seal face first then once it is dry glue the inside edge as it can be a pig to hold. It gives you a bit of give on the rubber if the joins aren't perfect. Or alternatively use a glue/ sealant of your choice.