[body_work] My Saved From The Scrapyard 205 Gti Overhaul

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Well I got all brave this morning and have booked it in for an MOT on Thursday morning....fingers crossed.

 

Anyway with the MOT now booked I got on with the bits and bobs needed to finish it, first of all I got the gauges out and tracked it up, as it turned out it was actually pretty close by eye, just a bit of fine tuning required, I set it to just toe in from parallel, will see how it is like that.

 

After that just a few last things to tidy up, put the dash back together, I've been trying to wire in the alarm to control the central locking with no success at all, so that will have to be a head scratcher at a later date. Fitted a new set of wiper blades as the old ones were past it, set the washer jets up to hit the screen. I took it down the road to the petrol station to put some fuel in it, then took it for a couple of miles blast out on a B road, some new fuel seems to have cured the slight misfire which is good.

So here it is in all its "glory" ready for the test (yes the bonnet is a different colour, too cold to spray at the moment)....fingers crossed.

I had a quick add up, and all told it stands me at £340, that is including diesel to go and collect it, and £120 on a set of tidy late 1/2 leather, which is a luxury that could have been done without really. I'm pleased with how it has turned out, although it has to be said I have been able to use a few bits here and there that I had kicking about, so that has kept the cost low.

Edited January 8, 2008 by Tom Fenton

[Astra Dan 0]

Superb stuff, a nice story.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Much respect Tom Must be very satisfying doing it so cheap.

 

Never been much of a fan of colour coding on Cherry Reds but the mirrors look good. I think it's colour coded door handles that spoil the look, so keep em as they are

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Wahoo, it has passed an MOT! Straight through with no advisories!

 

Although I have been thoroughly over the car checking things so was hoping it would.

 

Can you see it shaking in its SMR's in this picture

 

 

Next step is to get it booked in for the VIC check over in Doncaster.

 

GLPoo, don't worry, I won't paint the door handles, I'm sure they'd look gash!! Painting the wing mirrors is something I like to do to 205's as I think it always makes them look smarter.

Edited January 10, 2008 by Tom Fenton

[GLPoomobile 958]

Just noticed your avatar. Did MacGyver help you prep the car? Did he fix all the problems with a chewing gum wrapper, a paracetemol and a length of clothes line?

 

Why does it need to be VIC tested?

 

Oh, and well done on the MOT pass too

[MrG 3]

nice one Tom, mucho respect on the resurection.

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Cheers chaps! McGyver was fully involved in all work required, mainly he used his trusty penknife.

 

It needs a VIC check as it was a write off when I got it, it looks to have had a very light tap on the front n/s corner, the previous owner had put a different bonnet that was vaguely red on, a new headlight on, and then left the rest as it was. I fitted a new wing and bumper, and with a bit of panel beating straightened the headlight panel. Because it has been written off it needs this VIC check in order for me to get a logbook for it, but in order to submit it for the VIC check, it must have a current MOT. So now it has been MOT'd, I can have it VIC checked, get the logbook, and then tax it. Its a genuine car and all the numbers are present correct and original, so I am 99% sure it will pass with no problems. Once the weather warms up a bit I'll then paint the bonnet to match the rest.

[Ryan_B 2 2 Cars]

Cool post and a great little find!

[Astra Dan 0]

Where'd you get your tracking set from? I want one.

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

My dad, who used to run his own garage business. They are useful to have but at over £550 to buy new you need to be tracking a lot of cars to justify them.

 

I rang round for some insurance quotes this afternoon, best one initially was Footman James at £199 premium, £100 excess, however that was with no modifications. Went back to HIC with that price and they will do it at £195 premium, £245 excess, but all the current mods declared. Will most probably be taking up the HIC offer, its fully comp with no NCB (as its tied into my main car policy).

Edited January 11, 2008 by Tom Fenton

[cybernck 400 1 Cars]

^ don't forget to mention 205GTIDrivers.com with HIC!

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Tried it, they were not especially interested in all honesty, all they asked was "Are you a car club member" to which I replied "Yes, PSOOC, 205Gti dri....." before getting cut off with an "OK".

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

I also did a bit more on the car last night, I mentioned before that I'd been trying to sort out the central locking to work with the alarm system, after some internet trawling I managed to find what I needed, a link to the wiring diagram and also how to program the alarm, through a system of opening and shutting doors, turning the ignition on and off, and pressing the buttons! However, all this info was in French!!!!!! Luckily my rusty GSCE French came through and I was able to decipher what was required, so hey presto, the car now locks and unlocks at the touch of a button, Hooray!

[Astra Dan 0]

HIC rule, me and the missus have 2 policies each with them. Keep meaning to change my old Mk3 Astra insurance to my GTI.

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Well at present progress on actually being able to use it on the road has stalled due to waiting for the DVLA to contact me with a date and time for a VIC check in Doncaster.

 

So with not being able to do much else, I decided to get some heaters rigged up and paint the bonnet to match the rest.

 

Flat faded horrible bonnet flatted down

 

Primed

 

Hey presto no longer faded and horrible!

[kyepan 291]

whats the 16v cylinder head next to the bucket from?

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

I'd have thought a user on here would recognise the shape of the cambelt cover and be able to tell me the answer to that one! LOL!

 

Answers on postcard!

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Well the bonnet painting exercise has been reasonably successful, the car is never going to be one for the concours d'elegance, but its certainly not scrapyard worthy now.

Bonnet paint is as it came out of the gun, it will need a polish back in a couple of weeks.

 

 

The DVLA have also just phoned up to say that I can take it for a VIC check on the 22nd of Jan, so fingers crossed it will be all ready to tax and use as of the 1st of Feb.

Edited January 16, 2008 by Tom Fenton

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Well today was a success, passed the VIC, was only there about 15 mins, sent off the paperwork so fingers crossed for the logbook back in time to tax it for the start of February.....

 

Here is it with one of its older brothers!

 

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Well a bit to write here as an update, at the moment I am waiting on the logbook to arrive, I am hoping it may turn up during next week so I can get the car taxed and start using it. Other than that I have started collecting a few parts to sort out a few things I have noticed on it. First off is the rear beam rear mounts, the current ones are showing signs of the rubbers parting from the metal backing plates, so there are a pair of new standard ones on the way. Next up is the cambelt tensioner, I had replaced the cambelt the day before going to the VIC check, as a quick look under the cover revealed a cambelt looking in good order but slack as anything. I fitted a new belt but the tensioner was not in great order, so I'll change that when the new one arrives. I also bought some BBM mounts from a forum user, the top engine mount, and a pair of top mount rubbers. I fitted the top mount when I was changing the cambelt which improved things slightly.

My next acquisition was a bit of an ebay impulse purchase, a set of 309 lower wishbones and driveshafts. I had intended on leaving the car standard 1600 but these came up locally at what I thought was a fair price (£85). I'm waiting for a pair of 1900 uprights to arrive from a forum user, these will be fitted with new wheel bearings and then I'll swap it all over, I'll need to change to 1900 discs so I'll buy these new from the factors when I pick up a wheel bearing (have one in stock already). I've also just bought a BBM lower mount bush from ebay, as the engine can be felt moving about quite a bit ATM when you come on and off the throttle, I'll be having all the shafts out to swap to the 309 stuff, so I'll get the alloy mount off and press the new bush in then.

I've also got a set of tired Spax suspension kicking about and am considering fitting this and lowering the rear by 20mm or so, the jury is still out on that one though.

The final job on the list is to pull the head and do the stem seals, I'm off to the Euro trip in May with the psooc so I'll do this before then, its liveable with at the moment.

[j_turnell 134 3 Cars]

Having driven a few 205's with Spax i would pass on that one, not very well suited to the 205 very crashy imo.

[jackherer 543]

I've also just bought a BBM lower mount bush from ebay

 

I hope it was very cheap

 

Just to make things clear for everyone, Stewart Baker who runs BBM is a member on here (Stew205) and if you buy direct from him and mention that you are a member you get a discount too.

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Well I taxed the car on Friday and as its first proper usage took it down to Warwickshire to see my mate and also to change the head gasket on our 205 Mi16.

 

The Mi16 head gasket change went nicely, we had a second cylinder head skimmed and prepared ready to fit, so it was a case of off with the old, swap over cams and lifters, and then in with the new.

 

The 1.6 did itself proud IMO, just over 350 miles over the weekend, only time it missed a beat was when the main HT lead came off the coil, but that was quickly sorted out. Other than that it did 32mpg and wasn't driven especially gently!

 

The main thing I've noticed though is that everyone wants to pick on you in it! When driving about in my Audi noone bothers, but they see an old 205 with a GTI badge on and they either try to race you, or come right up behind you on the motorway trying to get you to move out of the way. I'm not one for thrashing the living daylights out of it but there were a couple of occasions where it got a good run in 5th to get out of the way of some of these idiots.

 

There are now a few niggles that have come to light to sort out, the speedo makes a funny rubbing noise when it is cold, and the wiring loom via the brown plug of doom needs some work as the oil pressure light only works intermittently when the engine is stopped, and it seems the alternator signal wire has failed too. I'm considering making a new loom for the sensors as I think the standard stuff is all knackered TBH.

 

Over the weekend I also collected an ebay bargain £20 strut brace, fitted it in 10 min on sunday morning, I have to say I am really suprised at the difference it made to an otherwise standard car, I always thought that the blurb the makers give you about more feel stiffer chassis better response etc was BS just to sell them, but it really has tightened up the front of the car no end, I am impressed.

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Just remembered this topic, its been a while since I wrote anything here!

 

Well, the last 7 months have been reasonably good for the once doomed 205, its been to France and back, and barring the odd fault behaved itself really quite well.

 

The standard suspension on the car was well past its best, so when the Gaz group buy coincided with a pay bonus from work I splashed out on the coilover kit for it. I'm really impressed with it TBH, handles well without being too harsh when driving it along normally. When I went to lower the rear end I discovered the beam was past its best, so this got a partial rebuild with an experimental reclaimed rear shaft to sort it out.

 

Not long after that, and in the middle of what little summer we got this year, it started to act up majorly with big intermittent losses of power. After a bit of head scratching and swapping a few components in and out it eventually proved to be the Air flow meter that I'd retracked was u/s. A second hand replacement sorted this out however.

 

The few niggles such as dodgy sensor wiring etc were sorted out a while ago, so now the guessometers all read properly, and it also doesn't do the famous 205 click-click-click-click-start any more either! The BBM lower engine mount bush was pressed into a mount and fitted, at first I was a bit concerned as it was very harsh and transmitted a lot of vibration into the car. However with a couple of thousand miles on it, it has settled down well and is perfectly acceptable now IMO.

 

Aside from that I've enjoyed a few months of 205 1600 ownership, in the past 1600 engines in 205's I've owned have always been ripped out at a moments notice to make way for 1900 or Mi16 engines, so I've never really lived with one, but they really are a cracking engine, the short stroke does compromise the low down shove you get with a 1900, but you can't beat the 1600 singing all the way round to the limiter with gusto. I never did get around to the valve stem seals, so it does occasionally throw out a cloud of cr@p when firing it up, and does like to use a bit of oil, but I'm not too worried as there are big plans afoot for it in the shape of another 1600 engine and a turbocharger!

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Well I'm off for another years MOT with this car in 10min, wish me luck!!