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Cabana

[body_work] 87 Gti Bodywork Overhaul

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Cabana

I bought my 205 way back October, knowing it needed a bit of work but it wasn't until this week that I finally got around to starting it. I knew the rear quarters/sills and both front wings needed attention but wasn't sure just how much work was needed, or what suprises wouldbe lurking behind the bumpers and trim, so the first step was to strip these off the car. Luckily the trims weren't hiding anything particularly bad, apart from the fact that the passanger side trim was stuck on with some weird silicon gloop :(

 

However upon removing the fron bumper I was greeted by this:

 

9.jpg

 

loads of thick black paint, a fair bit of rust and a bleedin big hole just above the towing eye! Poking around with a screwdriver revealed quite a bitmore rust than I was expecting but so far nothing too horrific:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Dav...%20Stuff/11.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Dav...%20Stuff/12.jpg

 

So today was mostly spent cleaning off the black paint, thankfully it wasn't hiding any more rust:

 

18.jpg

 

I cut out all the rotten metal and flatted back the paint, so it currently looks like this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Dav...%20Stuff/21.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Dav...%20Stuff/22.jpg

 

Whilst I was doing this I managed to stick a screwdriver straight through the inner wing, around where the jack sitsand where it joins the headlamp panel, so created quite a bit more work for myself. Hopefully over the next few days I'll be able to finish grinding off anysurface rust, make up some plates to fill in all the holes I've made and splash on a few coats of primer.

 

When I took the bumper off I noticed that the panels that it bolts to on both sides of the car were knackered, one crumbled away almost instantly and the other seemed to be held together withunderseal, so I've started to make up some panels to replace them with, although I won't be doing anything with these until I've finished the headlamp panels.

 

Once I've done this little lot I'll be moving onto the inner wings and wings, before working my way through the rest of the car, I think I may have a busy few months ahead! :P

 

The rest of my photos are here, I'll try and keepthem updated as I go along

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Foltan

I love it when i drive the car into the garage and the tyres go all white except the tread pattern :P

 

I hope that's not sad!! :(

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S13Nick
I love it when i drive the car into the garage and the tyres go all white except the tread pattern :P

 

I hope that's not sad!! :(

 

mate im exactly the same lol

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Tom Fenton

As you're going to the effort to make a job of it, I'd be tempted to fit a complete headlamp panel, certainly to the passengers side. They are not that hard to fit, will make a nice job when done, and also will allow you proper access to do a decent job of repairing the inner wing too. I've fitted a couple of these now, if you have or can borrow a spot welder it makes it even easier when it is time to put the panel back.

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dale205mills

keep us all posted, well done :)

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Cabana

I managed to get a bit more done today, although not as much as I would have liked as a power cut stopped my fun! I ground back the last remaining bits of surface rust on the headlamp panels and on the brace between them before flatting back the paint on the parts I'd missed yesterday. Once I'd done this I made a start on the wings. first off was the passenger wing, there wasn't too much to worry about on this side, just a few small patchess of surface rust around where the arch trim attaches to the wing, which I attacked with a spot blaster and followed up with some rust inhibitor before I flatted back the paint, although I forgot to remove the indicators so I'll need to finish this off tomorrow ;) Theres also a small part on the front leading edge of the arch which I'm considering cutting out and replacing, I'll be taking a closer look tomorrow to make sure I can do a neat job of it before I get too trigger happy with the angle grinder though!

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Dav...%20Stuff/17.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Dav...%20Stuff/24.jpg

 

The drivers side wing was in a much worse state than the passenger side, as with the passenger side there was a few spots of surface rust around where the arch is attached, the main problem was the huge patch of rust on the left of the pic:

 

16.jpg

 

I attempted to clean it up using a spot blaster again but all I achieved in doing this was to blast a hole straight through the wing! :o After this I decided the best course of action was to find clean metal on either side of the rust and cut out everything in between, the downside of this being that I've now got a fairly large hole in the wing:

23.jpg

 

The other major problem at the moment is the holes in the drivers side inner wing, one where the inner wing joins the headlamp panel and one further up where the jack sits:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Dav...%20Stuff/25.jpg

 

The more I think about it the more I think Tom's suggestion above may be the most sensible way of solving it, I'm currently considering removing both the driver's side wing and headlamp panel and replacing them with new panels, as this would allow me a decent amount of access to the inner wing and prevent me from making a bodged patchwork quilt out of my wing!

 

It was around this time that someone stole all of my electricity so I spent the rest of the day removing twenty years worth of gunk and grime from inside the wheel arches and under the car and I'll be spending the rest of the night removing that gunk and grime from my hair :D

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Cabana

It's been ages since I've had the chance to do anything lately but hopefully I'll be able to make a start again this week. I'll be ordering a drivers side wing and two headlamp panels shortly, I'm hoping to get away with re-using the passenger side wing but having read some horror stories about removing wings I'm not sure how viable my plan is, so I'll probably end up ordering a passneger side wing as well when I predictably trash my existing one trying to remove it.

 

If I get a few hours spare tomorrow I'm planning on removing the drivers side wing and headlamp panel so I can find out how extensive the rot is on my inner wing, then it's just a case of putting it all back together...it sounds so simple when I say it!

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Cabana

Never let it be said that I don't stick to the timescales I set myself :blush:

 

I finally made some meaningful progress over the weekend. I decided not to remove the passenger side wing, I don't think I'd have the patience to take it off without damaging it! So I spent a few hours making up patches to repair the headlamp panel and welded them in place:

 

1-1.jpg

 

Next up was removing the drivers side headlamp panel so I could get at the inner wing, the result wasn't pretty!

 

2-1.jpg

 

I cut back the inner wing until I found clean metal, luckily the rust wasn't as extensive as I'd feared, although there were quite a lot of small holes and some dodgy welding left from where a previous owner had tried to repair the inner wing, the welding wasn't particularly neat but it seemed strong enough so I'm hoping I can just get away with grinding it back:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Dav...5%20Stuff/3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Dav...5%20Stuff/4.jpg

 

After cutting out the rust (and butchering the wing out of frustration when I cut my hand on it! :D ) I made up some more patches and welded them in place, it still needs a fair bit of tidying up before I paint it but at least it's a lot more solid than previously:

 

5-1.jpg

 

I'll be picking up a new wing and headlamp panel tomorrow so I'm planning on pushing on as much as possible over the next few days and hopefully I'll be able to get some primer on everything by the weekend.

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Smudgey1985

pretty full on job, hows it looking now??

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Cabana

Once again I've managed to completely ignore the schedule I'd set myself :wub:

 

Anyway the front end is beginning to look a bit more car like, I finished tidying up the inner wings and then moved onto fitting the headlamp panel, the panel wasn't a perfect fit but it was nothing some slight persuasion with a hammer couldn't solve.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Dav...%20Stuff/32.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Dav...%20Stuff/33.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Dav...%20Stuff/34.jpg

 

After a lick of paint everything was starting to look a lot better, although the new paint did make me realsie just how much the originl paint had faded, hopefully this won't be too obvious when everything's done (for some reason resizing the pics has made the paint finish look patchy, it's not like this in real life I promise!):

 

35.jpg

36.jpg

 

Then I finally got around to painting and fitting the new wing, I was a bit concerned about how it would fit as I bought a non genuine one (the bank account didn't approve of a genuine peugeot one!) but I have to say I'm quite impressed, the fit is compareable with that of my remaining original wing and the panel seems to be of very good quality:

 

37.jpg

 

After this I moved onto the passenger wing, my original plan was to grind back the rust and weld patches in where necessary but the rust was a bit more extensive than I realised, so frustration got the better of me and I pulled the wing off :wub:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Dav...%20Stuff/38.jpg

 

I've got another new one waiting to go on, I just need to paint it and fit it, which, barring any disasters, should be done by the weekend.

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