Ok so as some of you may know from a few previous threads, I bought a Gti-6 of a lad I went to college with on the basis that the lower ball joint and front discs needed changing. After doing these I was going to take my 205 gti off the road and begin a project on restoring it to it's former glory to the best I can. Whilst enjoying the 306 as a daily run about.

I tried to have a good look round but couldn't have a proper nose under due to being that low, but the engine sounded sweet and the body looked well looked after except a small mark on the door.

Along with the parts above I wanted to do a couple of other things just to suit my particular taste, so I decided
The exhaust would be put back to standard, (too loud)
The front tints were to be removed,
To raise the height back to standard,
To take the stupid air filter poking out the bumper and put it back in the bay


Well I went to do the front discs, removed the wheels and 2 of the threads on the hub had been cross threaded, so I ran a tap through all of them to clear them up, after posting on here for new wheel bolts, I was told that they were the wrong type (tapered) so I bought 4 brand new ones. Finally got to the brakes and they were in p**s poor condition with the N/S caliper being seized, I managed to clean the sliders up with some emery paper and WD40, re-greased the sliders and gave the caliper a good wire brushing and clean. As I put it back together I hoped the O/S wouldn't be as bad... It was worse, 3 hub wholes had been cross threaded (same reason as before) so out came the tap again, cleaned those up and a couple of days later I started on the pads and discs.

Something wasn't right when I was removing the caliper from the yoke, I couldn't work out why it was so difficult to get the caliper off compared to the other one, then with a good few whacks with a rubber mallet it budged, I then found the folllowing sliders, which were originally seized solid in there, one slider had been made up of some steel rod with a nut and stud welded on, this caused the one hole to wear to an oval. And it had snapped off in the carrier. So I ordered new sliders from Peugeot at £45 then managed to get a S/H pair of calipers off here. I've only used the one yoke from the calipers so far as I didn't want to disturb the lines.

Put the ball joint on too which he supplied but happened to be the wrong size so I had to get the right one, had a quick look round the other wheel bolts, one wheel had a mix between flat type and tapered type, and the other had 4 17mm bolts that were barely hand tight so down to I went again to get some more bolts (expensive way of doing it I know).

DanRM has attached the following image:

I took the car for a drive and the brakes seemed ok, but the knocking was still on the N/S front and I was getting a horrible shake down that side from 50MPH upwards, I wasn't happy driving it so I swapped the insurance back over to the 205 and do a proper job on this first.

I managed to get a brand new squarer type factors back box for £30ish on ebay, so I reversed the car over the pit to swap this over, at least then I won't be annoying the neighbours when I move the cars about. The scorpion back box on there has be welded on, along with 3 different types of pipe eventually getting to the cat where the cat pipe has been cut down and welded on too. I got the disc cutter and went straight up the middle so I can have a go at saving the cat.
The scorpion backbox was held on using fencing wire looped round and twisted until it was high enough, and then held on using some speaker wire on the other mounting

Got the exhaust off from the downpipe down, in 2 sections leaving plenty of space on the backbox end and the cat end in case I can do something with them. I put the cat pipe in the vice and started to cut it carefully at the weld, but doing so I noticed there's a slit along the width of it which I can't make out if it's all the way through. So now a new cat is most likely needed, I've left the lambda soaking in WD40 as this was stuck in good.

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I'm Si btw

Night Blue VW Golf GTD
Bianca LBSC Rallye - Track/Road Slag Project Thread
Sparkling Silver Mini Cooper D - Super Dooper - (The other half's wheels)

And now that leads me to today, I went about dropping the rear beam ready for the one I'll be picking up I started following the FAQ guide on here but then I saw the condition of the rear calipers, these too were in bad shape along with the pipes fitted to them, I thought I'd still go about not disturbing the brake lines, then the ABS sensor snapped when I tried wriggling it free with some molegrips, and the other side the allen key head had been rounded off. I unplugged that side and left it for the time being soaking in oil ready for a pair of grips. And had a look round the rear pipes to see the extent of the rust.

DanRM has attached the following image:

I went to pull the one pipe out of one of the clips, being careful thinking i'll snap the clip, it wasn't the clip that snapped but the pipe did into 3 pieces, leaving a little still in the clip. Seeing the other pipes crumbling between my fingers and seeing the state of the compensator fittings, the thought finally came into my mind, F**k this pile of w**k and I got the side cutters out and cut the lot, there was no chance after seeing the state of the pipes that I'd be happy to drive this car until I had new pipes put on. So I will be popping round the corner tomorrow to see if the guy who did the old chaps landrover brake pipes would show me how to do mine.

I cut the pipes as close to the compensator as possible planning to knock a socket on the fittings to loosen them

DanRM has attached the following image:

Yeah I'm pretty sure there will be the sensors on the new beam as he said everything except the dampers IIRC.


But I've been brought up to save what I can, so I was planning on taking the sensors off and keeping them as spares, I'm slowly building up as much as I can whilst I can

DanRM has attached the following image:

Fair play to you for persevering, not sure if i'd have continued with the horrors or just scrapped it. Seems your 'mate' was in fact a complete and utter f**knugget.

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I'm Si btw

Night Blue VW Golf GTD
Bianca LBSC Rallye - Track/Road Slag Project Thread
Sparkling Silver Mini Cooper D - Super Dooper - (The other half's wheels)

So yesterday I started grinding the rust off whilst the beam was off and give it a good clean up underneath.



I was going to do the whole floor but it didn't seem that bad so I cleaned up the loose stuff



Then one coat of Red Oxide, going to give it another tomorrow I think.

Wow, that is pretty impressive, how bad was the rust under the fuel tank? - if you took that off

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Richies Project Rallye

Electrical work carried out in Portsmouth

- Top Tip!!!

Good work

If your running a aftermarket exhaust you might aswell leave heatshield off

As the back boxes are nowhere near the size of standard one, looks better without it fitted too imo

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

Mac1 ZR R1 kit car build in progress.

Yeah I might end up leaving it off in that case as the one I've got is a slightly smaller box type one. Plus I had to cut one of the studs to get it off so I'll have to drill and self tap it.

Anyway the last couple of days I've been spraying and painting, I gave it another coat of red oxide



But theres a patch about 7" long where it doesn't want to stick that well so I might grind it off again and degrease it again when/if it starts to flake off.

I took the chrome finish off the exhaust shield as it didn't look too nice once dried, this time I primed it then used a chrome look radiator paint which I'm much happier with (minus the run)



I decided after that I'll colour the underside black, So 1 can of Rustoleum Gloss black later...



Off down to B&Q this afternoon to buy a couple more cans, I think 3 will do it in total.

I then went back onto the front where I replaced the wishbone bushes, put the standard height struts on along with the 2nd ball joint and new drop links and seal the exhaust joints. I then decided to replace the rear pads and discs, one tyre (soon to be 3) and gave the car a good clean off. Took it to the the MOT station expecting it to fail even with all the work done, the bloke was quite impressed with it and it passed with only one advisory on the handbrake. So I left the station with a massive grin on my face.

I've driven it around the last two weeks and the only problems I have still are a wobble at around 60mph getting worse the faster I go, and a bit of smoke coming from the back of the engine. So I assume the gasket may be seeping somewhere. And I'm having the wheels balanced next week.

Well this is how it stands after a day of cleaning, I'm planning on getting it machine polished to get rid of the swirling and scratches and then the stone chips touched in. But I'm pretty pleased with the end result.

This is one from the day I bought it



And here are a few from today

fair play for getting her fixed up

had a bit of welding on mine a few weeks ago

might want to check under your Side Skirts for rust
either that or never ever take them off and see how bad they can get


you probably have learned this but never try and remove ABS sensors soo easy to snap them, just unplug them

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TEAM HIGH BOOST SUPERCHARGED RALLYE

My Rallye project thread