205 Trio, long term hillclimb project

[kee 21]

Evening all, been a while since I've been in the car fettling game but I'm back into it and picked up a very very basic 205 trio. Found on Facebook marketplace and still with MOT so snapped it up. Bodywork is tatty but it's covered only 57k miles since 1991, being own by an old boy in sefton for the last 30 years and garaged. Looks solid enough almost everywhere. 

 

Long term plans is to get it hillclimbing with a 1.9xu and all the associated improvements. For now it'll be strip down, probably remove the engine and box - 954cc TU - then get the loose dirt off the whole thing and sort out the rust. Then it'll be onto rebuild from that point, and collecting all the bits. No doubt I'll have questions, owned a Rallye in the past but never done this to a 205 (I did practically fully rebuild a MK1 fiesta though). 

 

 

[kee 21]

Finally actually started doing some work on it this weekend too. I had thought about sorting the suspension out, it's awful to drive as is, and pottering around with the little TU. A spot of mayo in the filler cap hints at head gasket, though probably just condensation as it's not done many miles when it was driven. 

Any excuse, time to start stripping it apart. 

 

Of course the bumper brackets under the wing crumbled in my hands. I don't really know why I need these for what I'll be doing, but undoing that nut on the wing is proving to be a pain! Inner wing side sheared off too

[Leslie green 85]

Nice little car that looks like it has the green seatbelts too , cut the nuts for the bumpers or you will bust the bumpers once they spin round .

[kee 21]

It's got all but the drivers green seatbelt. But I won't be needing that eventually. 

Little bit of work done this morning, attacked the bumper nuts with a Dremel and got them off. One of the front bolts managed to snap too, rusty rusty. But the front panel looks ok, mostly little patches of surface rust which I'll clean up and paint over.