Post #396
For some reason, I was awake at 5am today and didn't go back to sleep (not been sleeping very well) so by 8am, I was bored. Decided that as the sun was shining, today was dashboard and other bits removal day.
By 8am, I was outside, getting the Rallye down onto axle stands and off the rollover jig. All good.
I know from breaking a 306 and from others experience that taking the dash out of a 306 isn't the nicest or easiest of jobs. Put simply, it's a pain in the ar$e.
So, armed with a guide from the 306 forum found
here if anyone wants to read....), I got busy.
Generally, the guide was accurate, aside from a few extra electrical connections I needed to undo before the dash was free. This one in the pic below (white connection, bottom right of the picture) is a famous pain, it's the brake light switch connector but these aside, the dash came out relatively easily and by 10am, I was having a celebratory cup of tea!
So, dash out and we look like this:
The sound deadening panel, which I knew had been cut, turns out to have been cut far more than I realised. All up the passenger side of the footwell, and along the bulkhead. Odd really. Unless someone was trying to remove it and gave up, I'm not sure why it's been cut this way. Still, I've another to go back in.
I then removed the airbox assembly. Now, I know in the cars history, it suffered a heater matrix failure and there is evidence of this all over, with rusty water stains throughout the airbox. It's also clearly been apart, as some of the clips holding the top and bottom halves together are broken. It's also full of blast media.
I'm not happy at all with it so parts man is on the case for a new one.
With that out of the way, I could dismantle the pedal assembly remove and extra layer of sound deadening and then remove the main bulkhead layer of it, leaving me looking like this.
Now, I'd been a bit worried about what I'd find with the small bit of rot in the bulkhead. With everything removed, it's much bigger.
Not realmissue, as I've a repair section cut from a donor car...
Interestingly, it's section made of three layers spot welded together. Be interesting to see how the repair happens with this section...
As everything was removed, I took the opportunity to remove the throttle and lift up reverse cables just to make life easier come paint time.
I found some original unfaded Rallye red!
And I might have had a little helper along the way!
Not much else to do now to prep for the welding!
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Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto
China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy
Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now
Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile