Hi all,

While the forum was down I flew up to Scotland and bought a 306 Rallye. It is a cherry red T-reg example, with 95,000 miles on the clock. There are a few cosmetic issues, and there is the usual surface rust underneath, but it is straight and the engine is very sweet. It has excellent service history and a lot of documentation from new. However, it will need a cam belt and the bonnet has crazed paint. The interior cloth facings are good, but there are some cracks in the vinyl on the sides of the seats.

I was inspired to buy one as I remembered driving a new 306 GTI-6 back in 1998, and it made a huge impression in terms of the handling, almost as if it was wired into my brain. The Rallye reinforces this impression, and the 550-mile drive home in it was epic.

I am not going to make major mods to it, but I will tidy it up and sort out a few things, so I will be on the lookout for parts.

It needs the bumper plastic welded, filled and painted, or merely replaced if I can find one in cherry red. I will also need a centre console (scratched in attempts to remove the stereo by the look of it).

More to follow but here is a pic taken in southern Scotland on the way home. EDIT: tried to add it but says too big...will try again

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Jobs I am looking at doing:

Strip, rustproof and paint under rear of car and sills. [DONE - but was re-done later when I learned how to do it and decent products to use]

Strip front end and rustproof, paint engine bay, repair or replace bumper. [DONE Got Blaze bumper from Thugpuggin. Sanded back and painted with rattlecans, looks surprisingly good, see p11][Also got NOS unpainted bumper from ebay which I will install when other paintwork gets done][Considering engine-out refurb of engine bay]

Clean up interior (it is sound but there is a lot of dirt). Rug Doctor from my local Tesco will be used here. [Free wet vac from neighbour saved a few quid. DONE]

Replace or tidy up/repaint silver centre console. [DONE]

Cam belt, radiator replacement. [DONE: OE Cam belt, water pump, rad replaced with Nissens alloy version and new hoses]

Change gearbox oil.[DONE several times by now]

Do rear calipers, discs, dust shields. [DONE. Those rear brakes were nasty. Now massive improvement.] EDIT: Front calipers, pads and discs done too. All OE parts.

Replace stereo (Amazon sells Peugeot 306 audio fitting kit so no scratches in new centre console when I get one) with Blaupunkt had unit and new speakers in factory speaker locations - Blaupunkt does a wiring loom that enables original remote stalk to operate. [DONE - stalk not so straightforward though. eventually (2017) got a P3 stalk and different patch lead. Works well now. Used stereo surround from P3 which looks good]

Upper strut brace (had these on other cars before so more rigidity a bonus, but must be alloy to stay with the Rallye lightness theme). Haven't found an alloy 306 brace yet (heard of Sparco alloy brace but not found one yet). [DONE - got a Raceland one which is same design as steel OMP type - good price (£40 delivered to my door), prelim fitting looks good but paint finish not brilliant, and being steel it is heavy. Not fitted yet] UPDATE got KD racing one and in 2013 painted and fitted.

Get seat vinyl replaced on sides of front seats (cracked, need to find upholsterer - or get mint Rallye front seats). Got a full leather P3 interior which needs a few cracks fixed up and recoloured black.

Repair/replace rear wiper motor/relay and get new arm and blade. [Replaced defective wiper motor, new arm and blade from Pug and it all works - DONE]

Momo or leather GTI-6 steering wheel (don't like plastic steering wheels). Source for shunt for airbag light? [DONE - got leather Phase 3 GTI-6 wheel in 2012, much nicer looking than Rallye plastic one although the leather a bit plasticy feeling but OEM. In 2017 got the original Rallye one retrimmed by DesignLS in black leather, for an OEM look but slightly thicker rim. Feels great now]

New gear knob (leather peeling off). [DONE - got new Phase 3 silver top type from Pug]

New door strap (driver's side missing). [was only missing roll pin with strap retracted inside door. New pin £2 from dealer DONE]

Re-paint bonnet and rear hatch - got new rear hach and glass, need to get it installed.

Clean up, retouch and polish paintwork (started already).

Rubber mouldings replaced below windows (corroded at ends leaving bubbles in rubber). [DONE - aval from Pug at around £33 per side]

This list will undoubtedly get longer as time goes by!

I am not mechanically gifted like others here - changing a radiator is close to the limit of my skill - and I really admire all the great work by talented people that goes on here, it is an inspiration. So this 'project' thread might be a bit boring for some!!

First problem I am sorting is the wheel balance Cyclone thing - vibrates at 70mph+, very irritating as others on here have said. I've removed one front wheel today and cleaned up mounting surfaces - a lot of copper grease and a tiny bit of stuff stuck to mounting face - will do other one tomorrow and test drive to see if that sorts it. Took a lot of effort to remove wheel bolts - I am 6'4" and 100kg and I had to jump up and down on the wheel brace to free the bolts, so my my maths that is 250 ft/lb+ to free them - more than the recommendation I'm sure. KF clearly used an airgun on its max setting to tighten after last balalnce. [EDIT: No more wibble-wobble after swapping to C5 steelies.]

Really enjoying this forum - lots of knowledge and very amusing banter!!!

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

I'm on leave his week so spent all of today working on it. Main thing was to start dealing with surface rust underneath - I'm from a warmer climate where they don't use salt on the roads and the scaly underside is a bit of a shock - though it is not at all bad, no holes or anything. Given the minimal underseal etc it has lasted well, although some replaceable bits like the rear calipers and the spare wheel cage are well beyond a wire brush and repaint.

The paint I used was POR-15 and did the sills and jacking points, and any easy-to-find patches of rust. I will use the pit at work to really get stuck into it but for now I've made some progress. [EDIT: POR-15 turned out to be not an unqualified success, see p3].

POR-15 has good write-ups (POR = "Paint Over Rust" and it goes on very easily and covers well. It is extremely difficult to get off your hands though. Why didn't I use gloves? Good point, well brought out. I did but they were too thin and kept breaking. I've got some better ones now. I did the painting with the sill covers still on (as it will take a while to drill all those rivets out), but eventually they are going to have to come off for a proper job. There was quite a lot of mud and stuff under the covers which will have done a great job of trapping moisture next to the metal.

Another job I did was to clean the wheel and hub mounting faces, in an attempt to get rid of the steering wheel shimmy at 70mph. The wheels have been painted a dark grey and I got a top tip off this forum where someone pointed out that the paint on the mounting faces might make the wheels run out-of-true. There was not too much paint, but there was copperslip grease and some solidified waxy substance, so I cleaned all that off. I have only done the front wheels, but the improvement is very noticeable. Still a slight shimmy, but I'll do the rear wheels shortly and report back.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Sills now done...

mik has attached the following image:

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Yes thanks I will get the wheels re-balanced (again!).

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Update on the wheel shimmy - I have now cleaned up the mounting faces on all four wheels, and the hubs as well. All the wheels had copperslip and other stuff on the mounting faces, and two in particular had a lot of stuff on them. Seems to be people not wanting their wheels to seize to the hub with all the salt etc which is understandable, but the shimmy is irritating and the vibration can't be doing the rest of the car any good. I've left a coating of WD40 on both wheels and hubs which should help without interfering with the fit. I also swapped the wheels front to rear.

Test drove just now on a very smooth piece of dual carriageway. Shimmy is all but gone, only the slightest movement that could just be my imagination. No longer irritating to drive at 70 - 75mph. Result!

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Made a start on refurbing the centre console today. I removed it using the excellent removal FAQ on here [http://www.306gti6.com/forum/showthread.php?id=72114&page=last], no problems except for fitting my sausage fingers in the radio aperture when removing the centre bit.

I got paint from Halfords (there is one not faraway - I know there are other choices out there). I decided to keep close to factory so I will use Peugeot Graphite Grey, which from the approximate sticker colour is very close (or even the same as) the factory colour on my Rallye fascia.

First photo shows the disassembled fascia parts...

mik has attached the following image:

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

...scratches filled and rubbed back with 400 wet and dry, steel wool, then 1200 wet and dry (all used wet)...

mik has attached the following image:

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Love the attention to detail. Keep it up.

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

Where did you pick this up from? inverness is it scott madesigns old 1?

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In my garage just now

2003 BMW M3 & 2009 L200 Raging Bull
& Audi Q5 S Line
AX stock rod & Saxo Stock rod
Sold the bike an charged rallye an bought a caravan, midlife crisis or what!

In between fascia paint drying I have had a go at the rear window wiper in an attempt to work out why there is no action from the rear wiper. First step was to dismantle the motor etc from the hatch, but as others on here have found it is not the easiest when it is all corroded together. The arm is broken where it attaches to the splines, and when I finally got it off the alloy centre bit is corroded onto the splines. Various BTDT posts on this forum were very helpful, and I will attack it with the hacksaw tomorrow (broke the end off a pair of pliers just before!).

Still to check relays and wiring, and the demister issue as well (posted here: http://www.306gti6.com/forum/showthread.php?id=137315&page=1#6 - seems to be relay). I'd forgotten how time-consuming little things on old cars can be!!

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Mine was sold new by a dealer in Lancashire so it only spent a couple of years up there!

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

After painting I attacked the rear wiper motor again. As others have related on here the alloy bush from the wiper arm broke off the arm as it had welded itself onto the spindle. Cut that off so left with what is in the pic - noting it took 2 weeks of release fluid and hammers, screwdrivers, swear words etc. The rear washer works, but the wiper doesn't. I was having big probs getting the motor out until I read in a post on here that the serrated ring *unscrews* (and here was me trying to prise it off with a screwdriver - duh!). I keep telling myself it pays to think it through and not go at it hammer and tongs!

No signs of corrosion on the wiper motor (apart from the spindle) or blue relay, need to get a multimeter to test whether there is 12v at the end of the wiring.

mik has attached the following image:

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Cherry Rallye SOLD