As promised, in my hello post in the General section , here is my Project thread.

I've owned four 306's previously: two P1 Cherry 1.4 XL's, a P3 Moonstone 1.4 Meridian and a P1 XSi so I'm no stranger to 306's having fixed a failed heater matrix, replaced a gearbox, complete front end including suspension on the XSi, an electric window upgrade, full interior swap and numerous other smaller jobs. Sadly the 306 love had to come to an end with the arrival of the kids so I've been through the people carrier stage and currently driving a Merc Vito for troop transport duties.

I've been hankering after a project for a while and wanted to return to a 306 so started looking for a Rallye. I viewed a couple but finding one that was complete with its interior wasn't easy.
I'd been keeping an eye on an eBay listing that kept reappearing and finally arranged to go and see it. Acknowledging it was getting on for 20 years old so would inevitably need something, it all looked ok for the asking price so I snapped it up and drove it home a week later. It drove pretty well on the way home, temperatures etc all fine and nothing fell off or made too much noise.

A photo from the eBay listing


The seller had advised that there was an occasional knock from the o/s front that might be suspension related or could be the typical engine mount/chassis fracture. I can't say I noticed anything on the drive home but I've since had a look at the chassis where the engine mounts and someone's already repaired it.


I have found that the o/s front wheel shows some play when held at 3 and 9 o'clock and rocked (nothing if held at 12 and 6). I discovered this after jacking it up to remove the arch liner in order to clean this lot out

and this



Now looks like this



I also replaced the fan resistor whilst there as it was onbly blowing on max speed


Work has been focussed on cleaning at the moment. It's suffering badly from lacquer peel and the roof has been completely stripped of the clear coat. I wanted to get it cleaned and sealed/protected before the weather really turns. It's been washed (numerous times) and I've used fall out remover and clay followed by a compound, polish and wax. Never cleaned a car to this extent before but I'm hoping it'll stabilise things for now.


Headlights and tail lights have also been out to clean behind them and I've made a start on the door shuts and seals. The n/s headlight pretty much fell out as all of the tabs were broken along with the lens and black plastic back; that's been replaced with an identical dual-optic Valeo unit from a scraped cabby. The hockey stick was also beyond repair so ordered a new one along with a bag of clips.

Other little jobs so far include a new roll pin in the o/s check strap as that was missing and I've been trying to remove the Phase 3 Clarion stereo with no luck despite using what I believe to be the correct removal pins. I've also replaced the batteries in the key fob as the central locking wasn't working. I had suspected the wiring between door and 'A' pillar but pleased it was such a simple fix.

The rub strips weren't looking too bad but the scuttle plastics were looking a bit tired.


I bought some Wurth plastic dye and set-to. I'm quite happy with the results. I didn't get an after shot of the scuttle plastics but here's a before and after of the rub strips.

Before


After



That's about it for now. Plans are to check that the chassis is sound, there's a bit of rust in the usual place behind the ecu but a cursory glance underneath suggests it's not too bad. I'll be removing the sill covers to make sure there's nothing lurking there and I'll be checking the typical 'jacked on the chassis stiffener' place (o/s looks like it might've had a repair). Once the chassis good I'll be looking to refresh the beam and front suspension including powdercoat/paint subframe & wishbones + replace balljoints etc. Could be a bit of a wait for updates as I'm trying to resist doing anything major until the spring.

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Not too much happening since the deep clean as I've been getting the Vito ready for it's MOT. Put the winter wheels/tyres on, not because it's particularly cold yet but the front summer tyres we're getting a bit low. New set of wipers and dryed out the condensation in the o/s headlight. Thought I'd have a go at the glow plug relay as I've had the coil light come back on for 30secs once moving. One of the shunts in the relay had burnt out as the (now replaced) glow plugs were in such a poor state. Tried soldering in a good shunt from another faulty relay. Failed there as I've now got coil and EML light on. Trip to GSF in the morning for a new one prior to MOT (£80 instead of £145 from dealer).

Anyway, back to the French metal.
Roll pin fitted to check strap (fitted right?)


Removed drivers mirror as cap is stone chipped an black needs a going over with the Wurth stuff.
Before:


During:



A couple of questions if I may?
Finally got the stereo out (went in via top glove box hole). Is this a.unit that's easily de-coded?


Phase 2 hatch? Should it have rubber trim?


Is my knob the right colour?


A, B, C etc pillar trim. Should it be grey and not black?

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Work continues...

Wing mirrors both had a clean and a going over with the plastic dye. Drivers side has had the cap rubbed back and repainted.


Door cards have had a quick clean and look a bit better. Pics make them look worse than they actually are.
Before


After


Winders also got a session with the plastic dye. Probably the worst bit of plastic on the car.
Before

After


Been doing a bit of digging underneath and it's looking alright, I think.
It's had a repair near the o/s chassis stiffener but looks to be a tidy repair.



This bit's pushed in a bit.


'P' bush screw welded in to sub-frame?


Front arch-liners have been out for a clean and to see what lurks beneath.
Looking ok on the o/s.


Other side is good but you never want to see this...


All connected to this


And earthed here (removed in this photo)


I'm guessing it's the remnants of an old alarm. removing it all did mean taking out the battery tray and air pipes but I got a good look at the n/s chassis rail. picture makes it look worse again.


Going back to buying this Rallye, I'd seen one, again on eBay, earlier in the year advertised a bit closer In Worthing. It disappeared before I could get to go and see so forgot about it and moved on. It turns out that the guy I bought this one from knew the seller in Worthing and had bought this Rallye outside of eBay. I had to travel a bit further to get it but it's mine now. Anyway, the owner said that some work had been done to the ECU by Alientech in Italy. I did a bit of research online to see if I could find out what Alientech do to these ECU's. I discovered that Azzono Tuning in Lancing (very close to Worthing) had some ties with Alientech. I messaged Azzonzo Tuning via their Facebook page and got this response


Not sure what difference it makes but it is throwing up the EML after about 20mins driving.

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Thanks for that. I'm guessing the knob and stereo/surround have been replaced with P3 items at some point. I'll keep a lookout for a black top.

Good to know the interior and boot lid are probably correct.

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Time for an update as the tidy-up continues and mechanical work gets underway.

I removed the interior, everything but the dash, and hired a rug doctor to clean the seats and carpet.


The interior is in pretty good condition with only some minor wear to the drivers seat bolster...


...and a broken weld on tilt mechanism that had previously been repaired with with metal putty


I removed the backrest fabric from the seat and had a new section of vinyl put in and the local garage welded the tilt mechanism for £5!


Most of the interior is now back in the car & I've had the knob re-leathered and the silver top replaced with the correct black version




The steering wheel has also been replaced with a good used one as the one that came in the car was past its best.


Whilst the interior was out I tidied-up some surface corrosion in various places:
Rear wheel arches


Passenger front seatbelt anchor area (odd place)


And in the rear 1/4 wells. Guessing this is 20 years of condensation? I cleaned all of this back, treated with Deox Gel (nightmare to get out) and coated with a zinc primer and then a red Rustolem paint I had.


The carpet in the boot has had it. No amount of Rug Doctor action would clean the floor section + the underlay was missing. The bits stuck to the wheel arches were also tatty so that's all been binned and replaced with a good matching automotive carpet.


Mechanically I've been replacing suspension rubbers and perished brake lines.

This needed grinding off...


to reveal...


Only the P-bush needed doing on the drivers side wishbone. The passenger side needed everything so I replaced the whole wishbone with a TRW unit complete with ball joint, P-bush and front bush.




O/S outer CV boot had a tiny hole in it. Not a huge problem but it wasn't going to get any better. Whilst the wishbone & hub were off I replaced the CV boot with a genuine Peugeot item I got from ebay for half the dealer price.
First time I've used one of these tools which meant the driveshaft could stay in the gearbox!



I haven't got any pictures of the brake flexi pipe work but got one of my boys in on the action.


Next thing on the list was the exhaust. Reading how good the exhaust is in standard form I wanted to remove this and replace with a standard item.
[

Peugeot want £180 for a replacement centre section and reading around on here it seems that quality of dealer exhaust parts has diminished in recent years.
I'd looked at IMASAF parts as they appeared to be good quality.


I couldn't find any UK stock so had to think again...

The rear silencer on the car is an MTS branded item...


I thought I'd take a chance on an MTS centre section as the rear silencer looked to be reasonable qulity and, at the least, I'd have a hope that two parts from the same manufacturer would mate-up reasonably well.
Quality appears to be good with good clean bends and some protection on the welded sections.



I've cleaned up the rear silencer and coated that, along with the new section, in some VHT silver in an effort to keep it all corrosion free for a bit longer.

I'll hopefully be refitting the the exhaust at the weekend and might have the air-box back from the powder coaters (if it survives the blasting process).

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Did time team dig that up ? Lol

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Old pugs don't die they just get faster

My crusty box is back from its vajazzle! It has survived intact, pitting has not been covered but it lives to fight another day.

No pics yet as Photobucket isn't playing ball (it's on the FB group though).

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There she is in all her glory. Discovered a couple of holes since my earlier post although they look to be puncture wounds.




And here's the rest of the bits: slam panel, spare wheel cage, battery strap, couple of engine brackets and seatbelt bits. It's all sitting on top of the replacement boot carpet.


Hoping to get the exhaust back on and interior complete over the weekend...

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Good work! Where did you get the carpet and underlay from? I'm looking to replace mine

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China's ALIVE !!!

Thanks for the comments, good to know the thread is being read!

The weekend was quite a Rallye marathon. I started off by fitting the exhaust with the 'help' of one of my boys, he'd been driving his mum insane over the half term break so thought I'd better get him outside and occupied.
The new centre section went on without trouble but the old rear silencer needed some adjustment to get it to sit well with the new bit. Bit odd as they're both MTS branded parts. Anyway, it's all on now but I didn't take any pictures. I need to get back under and replace the earth strap so I'll grab some pics then.

Once that was done I moved on to installing the battery tray bracket and battery so I could get in to the car to finish off installing the carpet etc.

Battery tray in


Battery and painted strap in


I'd never been able to get the ECU cover on as the ECU didn't fit in to the box far enough. This bracket had been installed wrongly [presumably when the ECU was fiddled with (16bit upgrade + possible remap + possible immobilizer delete)


Whilst there I fitted this painted bracket


There wasn't a minimum quantity for the powder coat, and the slam panel was the main bit I wanted doing, but I thought I may as well get as much done as possible. It cost £60 and they do a good job, I've had garden furniture and numerous bike frames done by them over the years.

So, on to the interior. I'd removed as much of the surface corrosion as I could see and painted with some etch primer, high zinc primer and some Halfords finest Cherry red. It's never going to be seen but at least it's protected.

Cleaned up ready for carpet


All in + trim. Paint looks orange in the pic but it's definitely pink .


Finally, I wanted to remove the fan and rad so I could get at the front of the engine to clean it up. It seems to be leaking a bit of oil and I've dumped some UV die in to try and trace it.

Before


After. I replaced the corrugated trunking on the level (?) sensor as it had disintigrated.


Back together with the freshly painted slam panel; I've ordered a replacement Esso/Total sticker to finish it off.


I've refitted the air box now but I'm going to keep an eye out for a replacement. I discovered a couple of holes that I've stuck a rivet in as that seemed the best solution.

Just need to refit the trim around the boot and finish the front seat belts. I've got some genuine front discs and pads to go on as well as Brembo rears that I'll do just before the MOT.

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I got both from ebay. The underlay is Polyurethane and has a ‘waterproof’ layer on the side that sits against the boot floor:

Carpet https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PER-METER-ANTHRACITE-1-4W-VAN-LINING-CARPET-TRIM-CAMPERVAN-CAMPER-CARAVAN-CAR-T5/331024518656?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Underlay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cloud-9-Cumulus-11mm-Thick-PU-Carpet-Underlay-Rolls-UK-Manufactured/391652399184?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=660751950659&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

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Lol, those pads from a dealer where the outer box was damaged and were £20?

I've just bought the last set for my Xsara!

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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

Looks great! I think this Rallye was for sale near me (Croydon), was tempted to have a look but thought its best i sort out my current one first lol!

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Just Drive It