Drove 1000 miles in the last week - and the car has been fantastic. Only one small thing which happens very occasionally I need to sort, discussed here

During the trip the car reached a bit of a milestone:



...and...



The latest tank of fuel was 32.28mpg at mostly motorway speeds - both tanks measured so far using 99 octane.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

my 405 has an undertray under the spare wheel carrier.

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need a part number? get on here - http://public.servicebox.peugeot.com

Bring on the Trumpets.

Will look into those ideas. The front fences will be pretty easy - will attach using the 2 bolts that hold the bottom of the wheel-arch liner.

Today I thought I'd crack on with 2 jobs, installation of a factory airbox as the K&N installed by a PO causes a massive rise in the premium -I can't work out insurance companies as I told them about it last year and it didn't seem to be a drama. Am stripping the grease, paint and rust off it, metal bits will be zinc primered and satin black painted before installation.

I also thought I'd paint the rusty rear carriers silver to match the nice new calipers, discs and disc shields. I haven't had the wheels off since the MoT in Jan, where the garage replaced discs, pads and calipers, did wheel balance etc.

I couldn't even get the wheels off. I am 6'4" and almost 17 stone, and standing on the wheel brace as a last resort only bent it, but didn't even move the bolt. The other rear wheel was the same. Rather than ruin my other wheel brace as well I will take it back to the garage for them to sort. It is not corrosion seizing - the car is not taken out when salt is spread and it lives in a nice dry garage, and it is less than 2 months ago that the garage had them off the car, and the PO copperslipped the bolts to death. Clearly some monkey has done the bolts up with a rattle gun set to 300+ ft lb instead of the specified 90 ft lb 63 ft lb/80Nm. So I'll have to buy another 306 wheel brace now as the bent one may not do its job when required. At least I found out on a sunny Sat afternoon, not on a dark rainy night on the motorway after a puncture.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

I finally managed to get the first coat of Electrox on just before. Just as I finished I decided to pull out the grommet and there is orange stuff in there (you can just see it in the pics). Looks like I'll need to give that a good clean out, and get something in there to stop any further rust. Anyone else found this?

I'll also get some grommets and put them on all the holes in the rails after I've cleaned them out and pumped them full of wax.

I know Electrox isn't very impact resistant, but the surface has a good key (rust pits or sanded), and it will be covered with some enamel, then some stone chip and then another coat of paint so it will look much the same as it would have originally.

EDIT: The box section on this side has been previously repaired to an average standard probably due to rust caused by jacking damage. This was later cut out and replaced with a new fabricated box section that looked much more original than this one, with correct drain holes in it and with cavity wax blown in for rust protection.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Picked up a Nissens rad and hose from CG Cars on Fri on the way back from Lincolnshire.

Will install as part of the front end strip-down and de-rust over the next few weeks.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Back under the car today and redoing the underside.

Interesting to note the state of the POR-15 I put on a year ago. I followed the instructions on the tin, but I note the tin has changed, and the instructions on the net now emphasise the use of "Prep 'n' Ready" (formerly known as "Metal Ready" ), where previously it was supposedly only necessary for smooth metal.

Exhibit A - note the statements "no need to remove rust before applying!" and "paint directly over rust" :


...and compare this to the results obtained at...

Exhibit B: (I rotary wire brushed the metal down to substantially clean metal before application of POR-15, but with minimal rust still present)


and Exhibit C (you can see me painting this area last year earlier in this thread):


The car spends 95% of its time in a garage, and I did not drive it throughout the winter, although I did take it out once or twice.

To me the use of POR-15 straight onto rust seems to have a similar effect to what I imagine would occur if ordinary enamel paint was used directly on rust. I bet the new tin no longer has the same instructions on it.

Just my personal experience, I'm sure other people are more than happy with it.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Been doing a bit of work cleaning up the engine bay and not nearly finished yet. Also got all new mounts...



Mmmmm lightweight goodness - these should have been on the car from the factory (thanks coskev)...



Got new OE wishbones, springs and front struts. Even though the wishbones are zinc dipped from the factory am painting them black - here they are in Bilt Hamber etch primer. Got Partner bushes for them too...



And got the factory Phase 3 stereo surround for the factory fitted single CD player - it does not fit aftermarket head units, but it does with a little trimming; see here a before and after shot. Note I have to do it again as I cut too much off, but the theory is the same; trim the top and bottom back until it fits over the head unit and leave the sides (which will hold it in). I will cut only to the moulding line having now measured it for my particular head unit. The shapes of the surround and the odd shape of my head unit made it difficult to estimate the first time, and I thought it would be put on first under the bezel around the head unit, but it doesn't: it fits over it. Hence having to do it again:



And here installed in the car (you can just see the excess gap at the bottom), just a bit nicer-looking and better-fitting than the Autoleads one:

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

This weekend I've done some work on the underside, and in between de-rusting and painting bits.

Subframe work in progress:


Subframe new attachment bits (They were plated from new but zinc primed and painted for extra durability):


Airbox:

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Just stripped, de-rusted, cleaned, primed and painted.

I managed to break one of the tabs off the resonator when I removed it though. Don't know my own strength sometimes.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Got front wheel arch liners off and hosed out a lot of mud from front arches. Despite this apart from plenty of surface rust it looks as if it will all be OK after plenty of wire brushing and dremmelling, rust removal gel, Bilt Hamber Electrox and top coat. I've seen better, but I've also seen a lot worse. At least the chassis legs are straight with no holes.

Just now rain stopped play, and now not long after I'm inside after hastily putting power tools etc under cover the sun is now out!

Ah well, time for a break anyway.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

bloody nightmare when some git in garage over tightens them eh!!

nice work, dreading looking under mind at sills and stuff, think mines are same

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TEAM HIGH BOOST SUPERCHARGED RALLYE

My Rallye project thread

Good work and pics Mik

Scary how much surface rust hides under the crap Pug underseal

Just shows what people hide when they slap on a coat of underseal without stripping de-rusting first

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Red GTB1756 powered Fabia VRS daily driver,LBSC Gti6 eater........

Mac1 ZR R1 kit car build in progress.