Red 205 Mi16 - H419 Pwy. Forum Rescue!

[artois7 20]

Hi all,

 

Been itching to start the write up on this car.

 

It belonged to starky5 on here, living down in Truro, Cornwall. He put it through a mi16 conversion seemingly with no expense spared; runs on the button and idles perfectly. Amongst other things he fitted brand new driveshafts, brand new wheel bearings all round and other bits and bobs. Here is a picture of how it looked when he had it (if you ever happen to see this thread, I stalked your instagram to find old pics. Sorry!):

 

 

I found an old conversion post of his showing this dyno print out when he fitted the engine (blue line is the 1.9 performance, red line is the mi16):

 

 

Unfortunately, the rust had been put off and ignored until it was too much to be feasibly repaired, and he decided to move it on from his dad's driveway. His loss; my gain! The car was advertised for £700, so I decided to go and view it with a mind to drop the mi16 conversion into my phase 1 '87 1.6 gti. I got there and tried to haggle a bit due to some interior damage that I wasn't aware of, but you can imagine there was so much interest he wouldn't budge from £700. He did include a boot full of spares for free so the deal was done at £700. There is a receipt for over £300 showing a custom exhaust he had made up for the car among the detailed paperwork, and old posts suggest the rear beam fitted was fully refurbished before he purchased it.

 

With the cost of getting her back, I'm in £800 to her.

 

I got her back home to Swindon and started advertising it for breaking. I had intended on storing the car in my girlfriend's dad's garage and he said I could have it there for two weeks maximum whilst I broke it down. About half an hour after getting it back, he started prodding the rust to find out how seriously gone it was. (he rebuilds classics in his spare time as a hobby, and has just finished an incredible BMW 2002). He then muttered "actually, this won't be too bad to repair...", and thus the idea came about that I would keep both GTIs, and he would repair all the rust for me for free if he could use it on a track day. Done deal! It's been 6 months since that and progress is very slow.

 

Some photos from when she arrived back to her new home:

 

 

 

 

 

So to recap at this point:

 

*Full mi16 conversion

*Red hoses kit

*Rebuilt beam

*Brand new stainless exhaust (think it's Powerflow, can't remember exactly)

*Comprehensive history with pretty much all MOTs

*All locks on one key including glovebox (passenger door didn't match when I bought the car but he sent me the correct lock in the post)

*Refurb'd 1.9 wheels, with Yokohoma tyres (If I recall correctly)

*Shell has had a full respray, but paint work is dulled down

*Boot completely full of spares

Probably a load of other goodies that I can't think of right now.

 

More to come in the next post..

[artois7 20]

So after the idea had been planted in my head to keep the car, I set about stripping it down to identify all the rust areas. I haven't got too many photos, but what I do have from front to back:

 

The inner wings on both sides had rotten through, unfortunately I appear to have lost all the pictures of this.

 

The strut tops on both sides had rusted:

 

 

The shell around the rear windows on both sides had rotten through:

 

 

 

Lots of hidden underneath the sunroof:

 

 

And some rust bubbles

 

 

 

We didn't know how bad it would be when we bought it, as this is how it looked originally:

 

 

The floor pan has already had some quite extensive work:

 

 

The boot floor needs a tiny bit of attention:

 

 

To sum up: rotten inner wings, strut tops, rear quarters, sunroof surround. The car was a fair bit worse in person but unfortunately most of my pictures died at the hands of a chinese micro SD card.

 

More to come in the next post...

Edited November 2, 2015 by artois7

[artois7 20]

I stripped the interior out, and the floor pan was surprisingly solid:

 

 

 

No nasty surprises there at all.

 

The father in law got busy repairing the rear panels and sunroof surround:

 

 

 

Both sides required repair but again, I've lost a lot of the pictures. One side of the rear is finished and the paint just needs to be polished in / cut in to mix with the rest of the paint. The other side is mostly done and in primer, but a small section of welding is left around the rear driver's side window. This will be done this week hopefully.

 

The inner wings have been welded, filled, primered and painted. Again I haven't really got any photos of this, I thought I had more. I only have a picture of one side after the first coat of filler:

 

 

This has been sanded back and painted cherry red. Unfortunately I can't show how rotten the car was as these pictures definitely make it look better than it is.The car is now structurally safe and all the MOT rust has been repaired.

 

All of the mounts for the front bumper had rotten, and the rubber mounts completely deteriorated. All of the bolt holes on the plastic bumper have cracked and broken, so the bumper was mounted by nothing more than the arch trims holding it on. We set about repairing this and got the front end put back together this weekend:

 

This is how all of the bumper holes looked:

 

 

We had no bolts, so Nigel set about fabricating a way we could mount it securely. He managed to recreate a few bolts:

 

 

 

 

May not be the prettiest job, but he managed to make them in just a few minutes, free of charge and are the exact right thickness that the red stripe will still mount over it. Won't be to everyone's taste but it works and we now have the bumper mounted solidly.

 

 

We found the passenger side wing has been either replaced or crashed slightly as the lines didn't match up at all. By unbolting the bottom of the wing, we could prop the wing out to make the line more uniform, which meant the lights would fit correctly.

 

This is about as much work as we have got done to the car. He wanted to prove to me that the paintwork could be restored to the original picture I posted, so he buffed half of the bonnet to prove his point:

 

 

On a completely unrelated note; I investigated why the remote locking wouldn't work. I found this:

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately the sunroof leak seems to have killed off receiver, but given the price of a replacement (if you can find one for sale), I'll be attempting a repair. Anyone encountered this before?

 

And this is as far as we have got with the car. To put it on the road, the following is required:

 

*Refit all arch trim. Need to buy all new clips.

*Replace gearbox oil - a lot fell out when repairing the strut tops.

*Bleed brakes

*Flush coolant system

*Refit interior with sound deadening

*Drop the rear beam, replace mounts

*Finish painting

 

Not a huge amount more work to do, and then it's on with the niggles that will pop up. Shame I've missed the summer, but the car is now solid enough that being on the road during the winter won't be too bad. This will be insured to accompany my daily 3 series, but as my work commute is 5 miles, likelihood is I will be using this a lot more than the BMW. I miss driving a 205! Once this is on the road, I will turn my attention back to repairing my phase 1 1.6 GTI.

 

Any comments, questions etc welcome. The car is known on the forum as far as I'm aware!

 

[jackherer 543]

There is a thread about the central locking receivers somewhere, basically it is lucky the whole car didn't catch light! Don't even think of reconnecting it until you've 100% solved all leaks. Even then it is worth fusing it as it isn't protected sufficiently (or at all?) as standard.

[Pugleyrich 37 1 Cars]

Great thread. I remember when this was for sale - I was so tempted. I was then disappointed when I saw a thread about it being broken. Good to see it getting fixed up now. It will end up being really nice I'm sure

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

Keeping an eye on this, never seen them rust spots on the roof before

Does this mean you have another gti spare? i need some parts

[artois7 20]

Keeping an eye on this, never seen them rust spots on the roof before

Does this mean you have another gti spare? i need some parts

 

It was quite bad - gutted that I lost all the pictures as I'd love to have shown the condition properly.

 

Haven't got one spare. I have a phase 1 GTi that is to be fixed up - it used to be my daily driver until the clutch cable snapped. I then put it in the garage and stripped it down; it never found its way back together again. What parts are you after?

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

genuine front wings, wheel arch trims

[artois7 20]

Can't help you there I'm afraid John.

 

Had a message yesterday to let me know the welding has finished. Needs filler and paint but the shell should be finished this weekend.

 

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

Thanks anyway

 

Who is doing the welding? are they using gasless mig?

[artois7 20]

Pretty sure it's a standard gas mig. Why do you ask?

 

Just had an insurance quote for £549 from Greenlight. She will be on the road in December!

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

Looks very messy even compared to my welding, you would have been better off paying someone to cut out the rusty section and weld in fresh steel nicely, i hope you haven't paid anyone to do it,

[calvinhorse 870]

Looks very messy even compared to my welding

I dunno john....

 

[dcc 855]

Johnnybrokeit mate you can't throw insults about without being a decent fabricator bruv. As above, you couldnt build an instant bbq.

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

here he is again

it wasnt an insult, it was advice.... however you Dan and your buddy calvin know all do well about insults...

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

I didnt say my welding was good at all either did i say i weld for anyone or charge anyone, i simply said it would have been better to cut out the rotten section rather than add weld to it, but then calvin and dan comes along to give crap to everyone as usuall

[artois7 20]

Looks very messy even compared to my welding, you would have been better off paying someone to cut out the rusty section and weld in fresh steel nicely, i hope you haven't paid anyone to do it,

 

This is before grinding the welds back or any sort of prep for paint. The other side was exactly the same and you haven't complained about the quality of the work there.

 

If that is your work that Calvin has posted, then please feel free to keep your opinions to yourself until you've seen the finished product.

[artois7 20]

I didnt say my welding was good at all either did i say i weld for anyone or charge anyone, i simply said it would have been better to cut out the rotten section rather than add weld to it, but then calvin and dan comes along to give crap to everyone as usuall

 

Not sure where this has come from - the rot has been cut back to solid metal and fresh metal welded in. The whole section wasn't gone; simply small parts. No point creating unnecessary work.

 

Edit: The third picture in the second post shows the condition. Two small holes, and you can see where the rust has been cut out.

Edited November 7, 2015 by artois7

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

 

This is before grinding the welds back or any sort of prep for paint. The other side was exactly the same and you haven't complained about the quality of the work there.

 

If that is your work that Calvin has posted, then please feel free to keep your opinions to yourself until you've seen the finished product.

I wasnt critising your work! you said you had a call to say the welding was done,

Implying you had someone else do the welding for you!

I don't see myself as a professional welder neither have i ever told anyone i am, neither am i a fabricator as calvin and dan seem to think they are!

i thought these forums were about advice ect..

Edited November 7, 2015 by johniban

[dcc 855]

Whats that old sayin? "If you've nothing nice to say... then f*** off"

[DAN@ADRIAN FLUX 1]

Pretty sure it's a standard gas mig. Why do you ask?

 

Just had an insurance quote for £549 from Greenlight. She will be on the road in December!

Hi,

Please feel free to also give us a try for insurance if you like. If you wanted to PM some contact details I'd be happy to arrange for one of my quotes team to give you a call back.

Regards,

Dan.

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

I dunno john....

 

 

Wow you have a picture of a slam panel i tacked together in your photobucket.... stalker lever 10

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

Whats that old sayin? "If you've nothing nice to say... then f*** off"

 

Ever tried using that advice Dan??

 

Youve never had anything nice to say about anyone, weve had more than one run in all on your part so why dont you go bother someone else instead of posting s*it on everyones thread...

[artois7 20]

I wasnt critising your work! you said you had a call to say the welding was done,

Implying you had someone else do the welding for you!

I don't see myself as a professional welder neither have i ever told anyone i am, neither am i a fabricator as calvin and dan seem to think they are!

i thought these forums were about advice ect..

 

Certainly seems like you're jumping in with accusations there about patching weld on top of rust. The rust has all been completely cut out, with repair sections welded in. This is the most efficient way to do it as it does not require a complete repair section. The second post has an image showing a before shot, so you can see only a tiny amount required cutting out.

 

For the record - the work is being done by my father in law, completely for free in return for taking it to a track day. Although the picture may not look like it to you, he's very good at what he does and I have absolute confidence in his decision to repair it like this. By the end of today this will be pretty much invisible; apart from the paint being slightly shinier than the rest.

 

Anyway, let's move on and all be friends again! Posts about this car only from now on, please.

 

Hi,

Please feel free to also give us a try for insurance if you like. If you wanted to PM some contact details I'd be happy to arrange for one of my quotes team to give you a call back.

Regards,

Dan.

 

Hi Dan,

 

Back in May I had a quote for £631. You should still have my details on file - I'll PM you now.

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

I had no purpose to offend you mate was just trying to offer advice as i thought you had paid a professional to carry out to repair for you..

 

I wasn't looking for a bitch fight as some people on here is all they do!

 

End of the day you don't want to paint it and end up with more rust bubbling back through, im no profesional welder neither am i than competant, i try to do everything myself rather than pay people as you may know it gets rather expensive paying everyone else todo stuff so i try my best to have a go myself, some reason calvin and dan need to critise me for this, i couldnt care less,

 

Good luck with the car mate but ill no longer be following