Hi folks,

I bought my 99 T reg Astor grey 6 from a member on here just after Christmas last year and have spent the odd day here and there since tidying up various bits and bobs, so i thought i'd get round to posting some pics and let you know what id been up to.

The car as i collected it, in all its winter glory, 4 owners, 100k miles, recent clutch & Nissens rad, with Full service history.










It drove spot on, had fully working A/c and was (and will remain) completely bog standard.

The next day was a tad sunnier so i broke out the pressure washer and gave it a good clean.





Within the next couple of days i started a new job as a salesman at my local Peugeot dealer so, as anyone knows who sells cars, free time became very scarce indeed, along with all the snow we had in january, it slowed progress a bit.

The plan was to get the car detailed to asses what external work needed doing - i know it need some paintwork on the passanger side - scratches and the rear bumper was scuffed, the wheels all needed refurbing and the two rear tyres were an odd mix.

The front suspension was creaky over speedbumps, and the brakes were warped on the front, along with the cambelt being due soon (on age rather than mileage)

At least my staff parts discount with my new employer would help!!!

Within 2 days of starting at pug my first order went into parts...

Headlamp protectors,
Mudflaps and GTi badges for the front
New drivers sill trim rubber
Hog rings for the side skirts
Touch up Stick
Oil filter, oil, air filter, plugs, fuel filter, wiper blades
4 x orange indicator bulbs (they were all flashing white)

My private plate had come through by then so i fitted all the bulbs and headlamp covers and the plates





Along with some LED bulbs for the number plate lamps



Next up were the front mudflaps (dont flame me for this!!!)



And from normal height (hardly noticable really?)


Next up i decided to remove the warped and s**tty looking plastic trim on the back edge of the drivers door, not sure if im gonna replace them yet or not, so ive done the drivers side for now only.

Drivers side all cleaned up



Passanger side to show you how they curl up. (Drivers side was much worse)


Then i fitted the tailored GTI6 floor mats




And finally, the 306 has always had a slightly compromised driving position for the taller driver, meaning pedals are spot on, but the steering wheels always a touch too far away to be really comfy. My solution was to finally fit the Sparco suede wheel that came from my good mates old escort cossie track car. On a propper MOMO boss, its about 2 inches closer to the driver and is now spot on for me.

Being the non bodger that i am (at times) i made sure the momo kit i ordered came with a propper 2 ohm resistor in it to keep the airbag light behaving as it should without having to take the bulb out LOL!



All i need now is a horn push for the middle (the 306 has a stalk mounted horn like a MK3 escort), so i can fill the hole in the middle of the wheel, and ive already got a Peugeot badge to go on the horn push to keep it looking tidy.

Next up was a detail of the paintwork - keeping it breif i washed, clayed, machine polished, glazed, sealed and waxed to leave this....








You will see the alloys wheels have gone off the car, they are in the process of having their tyres removed so i can get them refurbed and powdercoated over the next few weeks. In the meantime my set of temporary steelies will do to keep it mobile.

When the alloys are back, i'll get round to having the steelies shot blasted and powdercoated gloss black and get the R888's fitted onto them.

Ive got a load of clips, screws, bolts etc etc from work, as the next job is to do each corner of the suspension and brakes, rear beam, underneath etc.

Ive also had the horn push and Peugeot badge arrive for the Sparco wheel. Not 100% sure on the blueness of the badge, so im keeping my eyes open for a black/grey one.



Alloy wheel update.

The keener eyed amongst you will have noticed the wheels on the car when i purchased it, were not neccessarily the neatest in the world. The front two had numerous light kerbing marks on them (nothing too severe) and every alloy had a marked spoke or two. Coupled with that, the insides of the wheels were badly stained after 10 years and 100k without ever being properly treated.

The answer was to get them refurbed, but all over, including the insides and the unseen back part of the spokes.

I did the main part of the refurb on the outer edges and spokes by DA'ing them down and losing the grazed bits.

This is how they looked when i had done my bit.





Not pretty but almost mark free. I took the wheels over to Bournes Powder Coating in Birmingham and had a natter to the new owner, Phil.

He purchased the business last year and has made numerous improvements to working practises and quality, and assured me he could get them looking all over, better than new.

They chemically strip the paint off, then sand blast them to remove any corrosion etc etc, then any spot repairs are done to them, before being powder coated.

I chose a shade darker silver than the normal pug colour (hardly noticable tbh) and i collected them this morning.



Heres one of the original colour spare Cyclone wheels, next to one of the freshly refurbed ones.

(note - original silver is on left LOL)



And finally some close ups of the wheels.





Two new Toyo T1R's are on the way and will be fitted and balanced asap.

The wheel arches, suspension and brakes needed attention, mostly from a cleaning/detailing point of view, but also the front brakes need replacing, along with the wishbones and front bushes.

The car was jacked up, wheels removed and this is how they looked









Starting with the rear, i removed the pad carrier and pads, and disc and cleaned them up with the wire wheel in the grinder - despite how they look the pads/discs were less than 3 months old!!

I painted the pad carrier and disc, cleaned all the inner arches and plastics, and fitted all back together. I also de-rusted the disc back plate and painted that as well.

With the front, the caliper/carrier was removed, disc removed, and the bottom arm/wishbone removed.

The wishbones were quality bits but looked crap in flat black so, being a geek, i painted them as well .

Wishbones before/after LOL





Once me and graham refitted the bottom arm, i painted the hub, driveshaft, steering rack and refitted the new Mintex disc. In the meantime i'd cleaned and painted the caliper and carrier, pressure washed the arches, cleaned the plastics etc etc.

Some Afters of the arches and brakes - ignore the rusty looking orange stuff on the discs, its a smear of copperslip, before the wheels went on.





And finaly, some of the freshly refurbed wheels now they have been refitted with the new Toyo's.






The only complication i encountered on the way was the drivers front hub - i reckon some ham fisted baboon had fitted second hand bolts or summat cos the threads on all 4 bolts were flattened almost??

I borrowed a 12x1.25 tap from work, cleaned all the bolt holes up and then "aquired" some new bolts, and a new set of locking bolts and all is good again.

Now, just gotta repeat the same on the passager side, then do the rear beam/boot floor/spare wheel cage and then engine bay.

HID headlights!!

Id been reading about the HID kits on here so took the plunge and ordered some - a 6000k HID conversion kit for the dipped beam part of the GTi's Headlamps.

Normal bulbs in the 306 Phase 3 are H7 for dipped and a seperate H7 for main beam/flash. Because HID's are known for not liking to be flashed on and off, ive left the standard H7's in the main beam for now, although i have ordered some ice white 80w bulbs to liven that up a bit as well.

I ordered some white LED's for the sidelights as well.

I'd read certain reports on the net about these kits being a nightmare to install, but the quality of this kit was ace, no chopping/splicing, litterally just "plug and play".

Within 30 mins i'd done both sides and tidied up the wiring/secured the HID Ballasts to the inner wings.

Even in the daylight, the difference between the yellowey dull old bulbs and the crisp white of the HID's was noticable.

Heres some pics of where ive placed all the gubbins - its only the slimline ballasts really, everything else is contained inside the rear of the headlamp cover.





Heres the LED sidelights.



And some of the headlamps on, also look how yellow the front fogs look!!!





All in all im pleased so far, i'll see how they are when i eventually drive it in the dark.

Well, night time driving is now easier, much better visability - recommend these to anyone!

The car went for its MOT on wednesday this week, and passed with flying colours!!!

As i said earlier i worked for pug (in sales) and i knew the mastertech in the workshop from years back, and i detailed his megane 225 for him last month, in return he agreed to do my cambelt change.

So i ordered the following from parts.

Genuine 136 tooth cambelt kit and tensioners
Water Pump
Aux belt
Anti freeze

He did it for me today, also regassed the A/c, coded the new spare key id bought and then recoded the original remote so the remote locking now works and so does the alarm!!! Good lad!

Next jobs are...

The dentmans coming this tuesday to take out the few parking dings from the sides, then its off to the bodyshop for a bit of paintwork. It'll then need a monster detail again, so hopefully soon i'll get some finished pics up of the car when its all done.

Sorry for the long rambling post, and comments welcome.

Matt

________________________________________

1999 Astor Grey GTi-6 OEM+ (now gone...)
2004 Aegean Blue 206 GTi 180 (also gone...)
2006 Skoda Fabia vRS in Sprint Yellow

The plastic door edging trim just peels off - its easier on a warmer day TBH, then clean the adhesive residue off underneath with something like tar and glue remover (i use Autosmart Tardis) The paint underneath is argueably the best paint on the car now LOL!

________________________________________

1999 Astor Grey GTi-6 OEM+ (now gone...)
2004 Aegean Blue 206 GTi 180 (also gone...)
2006 Skoda Fabia vRS in Sprint Yellow

Good stuff, I peeled a corner back earlier and it just came away, the car has been sitting in the sun all morning which helps. Could I use anything else to get the glue off, as I don't have any tar/bug remover? I think I may still have some clay bar/fluid left so might give that a go.

________________________________________

Racing driver, fighter pilot, astronaut, compulsive liar.

I ended up buying some Autoglym Tar Remover. Even using this stuff it was a right ballache to get off, and I started to wish I had never started it I washed and polished the doors afterwards and they came out rather well.



There are some tiny scratches where I literally had to scrub at it to come off, but nothing a detail won't get rid of.

________________________________________

Racing driver, fighter pilot, astronaut, compulsive liar.

If you're still looking for badges let me know, I found a guy on ebay that makes custom gel ones and only cost about £4 posted

________________________________________

Bye bye Sundance Kid

Cheers Josh, i too ran my own detailing business from approx 2003 - 2008 but now only do it as a hobby, i didnt labour the point/photos on here because that would fill up a seperate thread on its own LOL!

You are right, time is short at the moment, hence its taken me 6 months just to do the odd jobs on it so far.

________________________________________

1999 Astor Grey GTi-6 OEM+ (now gone...)
2004 Aegean Blue 206 GTi 180 (also gone...)
2006 Skoda Fabia vRS in Sprint Yellow

Fantastic attention to detail mate keep up the good work! wish i had the time and money to do the same LOL.

Cheers for the positive comments guys. I think if i had more time i'd get more involved in it. Unfortunatly my current job leaves me little or no time to spare tinkering with my toys.

If time was no object, it'd be up on stands with all the running gear removed and an underside resto done properly. Maybe in a few years time?

The engine bay will be done over the winter, its such a shame that even when minted, its quite a "messy" bay with pipes and wiring everywhere, still, im sure i can get it looking better.

My next job is to drill the spot weld off my out of line tailpipe and re weld it so it sits level. Its the odd things like that that annoy me!!!

________________________________________

1999 Astor Grey GTi-6 OEM+ (now gone...)
2004 Aegean Blue 206 GTi 180 (also gone...)
2006 Skoda Fabia vRS in Sprint Yellow

Hi Mate, i paid £30 a wheel this time round, like you in years gone by it was £20 per wheel and like you i had a set on my old car that crazed under the laquer, Phil the new owner assured me it was the way they had previously been doing the powder coating and because the process had changed now, that they shouldnt go like that.

In regards to the prep on the wheels, because mine were not too bad, just minor edge grazing, i used my Sainsburys detail sander (best £9.99 ive ever spent) to DA the worst out and left the edges smooth. Phil did say he does the prep for you, but i'm not sure if thats included in the price or not?

They now have a whole wall of used mixed alloys in all colours, i chose a slightly darker shade of silver metallic (or sparkle) and i think they came out not too far from original. They do all sorts of silver shades, even the funky colours!

All in all i was left with more confidence from bournes than ever before - it looked and felt more professional than before if that makes sense?

________________________________________

1999 Astor Grey GTi-6 OEM+ (now gone...)
2004 Aegean Blue 206 GTi 180 (also gone...)
2006 Skoda Fabia vRS in Sprint Yellow

Ha ha - my sainsburys sander is the bollox - just makes your hands go numb after a while LOL!

They did the wheels within about 3 days, which was in improvement on before.

I think in time i'll get the 4 x steel wheels done as well, i looked at a set of VW G60 steel wheels that he'd done in silver and they looked as good as new.

________________________________________

1999 Astor Grey GTi-6 OEM+ (now gone...)
2004 Aegean Blue 206 GTi 180 (also gone...)
2006 Skoda Fabia vRS in Sprint Yellow

They used to be cheaper still. When i first started using them in the early 90's it was £15 a wheel, and £5 for any item, ie CVH cam covers etc etc. I did all the rear suspension for my old RS Turbo for about £40 back in the day LOL!

The detail sander is just like a mini orbital sander - like a Black n Decker Mouse, but it was on offer in my local sainsburys for less than a tenner, the triangular sanding sheets are on a velcro hook and loop style attachment.

________________________________________

1999 Astor Grey GTi-6 OEM+ (now gone...)
2004 Aegean Blue 206 GTi 180 (also gone...)
2006 Skoda Fabia vRS in Sprint Yellow

Update - the cars gone off for a bit of paintwork, so its time to crack on with getting the car more track friendly - long in advance of our two day trackday at Spa-Francochamps in Belgium next year.

I finally had a day off work today to start messing with the new rear suspension.

Heres the rear beam in all its glory , mind you, i'd look like that if id been suspended underneath a french hatchback for 10 years!








Dont look that bad tbh, its a complete Citroen Xsara VTS rear beam, done approx 80k, looks like its never been apart/lowered/rebuilt, so its the ideal basis to strip down, rebuild and refurbish.

The only bits that will remain are the Main axle tube, torsion bars, and trailing arms.

The discs will be binned, the existing backplates off my 306 will be removed and powder coated, the tube will be repainted yellow and i'll do the torsion bars in red. The trailing arms might be powdercoated gloss black along with the backplates.

All ive done so far is give it a good session under the man sized pressure washer, got all the loose bits of cack and mud off, now its in the garage, just soaked all the nuts and bolts in WD40, which i'll do every night for the next week, before even trying to undo anything.

I'm going to reset the ride height to lower the GTi a max of 30mm over standard, and when it goes back on these Babies will be used....



Bilstein Sprintline B6 rear dampers - the Holy Grail of Pug rear suspension (apparantly)


But that is not all.......


These boxes have found their way into the Evans garage....







It's a little known fact that Compomotive do a range of older style replica rally wheels, folks just order the same old boring MO in anthracite, but i wanted to be different.

The wheels i ordered are an exact replica of the Speedline Magnesium Group A rally wheels, as fitted to the 306 Maxi Kit car, Clio Maxi Kit car, and the 106 Maxi kit car, they even have group A cast into the inner lip.

They make them using normal alloys nowadays so the cost and longevity is better.

In a 7" x 16" size with the correct ET15 offset, they will fill the arches well i hope.







Undecided on tyres just yet but theres no rush to get them.

________________________________________

1999 Astor Grey GTi-6 OEM+ (now gone...)
2004 Aegean Blue 206 GTi 180 (also gone...)
2006 Skoda Fabia vRS in Sprint Yellow

Hopefully soaking it for a week in penetrating oil "might" ease the job somewhat?

Still got the BFOH ready!

________________________________________

1999 Astor Grey GTi-6 OEM+ (now gone...)
2004 Aegean Blue 206 GTi 180 (also gone...)
2006 Skoda Fabia vRS in Sprint Yellow