Rear beams are a b**ch. Destroyed 3 on my old 6 bought bronze bearing oilite conversion and never looked back.

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Ph2 Black GTI 6!

EX black 6 owner
But now a Black caged rallye owner

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Mines currently track setup so the beam does take a bit of a pounding along with the solid mounts.I may have a picture somewhere will have to check

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Ph2 Black GTI 6!

EX black 6 owner
But now a Black caged rallye owner

Hunting for Go faster bits!


SEARCH

click here

Almost there with the beam refurb...

Collected the parts from the powder coaters at the end of last week.




I got someone else to press in the trailing arm shafts and stub axles. Unfortunately the bracket, on the trailing arm, that holds the caliper and abs sensor got broken whilst pressing in the stub axle. I've replaced that with a spare that I cleaned up and painted gloss black to match the powder coat on the rest of the trailing arm.

Over the weekend I tidied up the ends of the beam tube...


...keyed the yellow powder coat and applied several coats of gloss black.


I bought a shiny hardware kit from axlesbystef...


...and began fitting the axle to the car.


I bagged a pair of OE front beam mounts from eBay for £30 so these replace the Febi one's I fitted not so long ago.


Not the best pics I'm afraid.

I've got the drivers side on with torsion bar in. Passenger side left to do + refit brakes with new rigid & flexi lines and re-attach the exhaust. Assembling it all on the car as I think it'll be easier to lift it all in to position - seems to have worked so far.

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Thanks! Yeah, it's looking pretty tidy and it's a shame it'll all be hidden by the heat shield, exhaust and spare

Pretty much there now and excited to see how it performs Axle is completely assembled and I've fitted the replacement flexi and rigid lines. Calipers have had all of the external rubbers replaced.
Left to do is: fit painted pad carrier, backing plate and pads then bleed the brakes. Fit cables in to calipers and adjust parking brake. Re-fit exhaust, heatshield and spare wheel.

I've bucked the trend of Bilstein dampers and gone for Monroe Monotube dampers


I was hoping to get their Reflex version (part E5001) although these seem impossible to source. I've ended up with the 'Original' version.


The difference between the two is that the 'Reflex' has a speed-sensitive valve which I assume is just a sprung check valve against the compression shim stack? I think the 'Original' flavour will be fine for my purposes/on a road car

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Little update on progress over the last couple of months...

After refurbishing the axle and getting it back on the car I had a couple of issues to resolve. One of the wheel bearings hadn't survived the removal and refit process so that got replaced with a Motaquip item. In a similar vein, and not unusually, one of the ABS sensors wasn't happy so that got replaced again with a Motaquip item as it looks like Bosch are no longer making them.

With that done, and winter looming, I found and fitted some mudflaps. I'm not planning to drive the Rallye much over the wetter months but it will be used now and again. I say fitted, the fronts are on as they're easy, I'm still figuring out the rears...
AS you may know, the mudflaps have a recess to attach a 'Peugeot' or '306' badge. The set I got came with a 'Peugeot' badge but it's in the old font and doesn't look great. To fill the recess on the mudflaps I've had these made


And applied to one of the yet-to-be-fitted rear flaps


Next job is replacing the front dampers. I've gone for matching Monroe units and I've bought new spring pans and cups etc from the dealer. Also got some replacement Lemforder top mounts+bearings and this morning I collected the freshly powder coated Xsara VTS springs I had from Ben_W.



And assembled


I'll get them fitted over the Christmas break if the weather's ok.

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Nice work, coming along nicely.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Thanks gents and happy new year to you all!

I've got a few bits done over the festive period. The replacement dampers & springs are on, front feels a bit firmer and the mudflaps are no longer grounding. Steering feels a little lighter, maybe due to the new strut top bearings. Not much to see but the new top-mounts look nice in the engine bay




After the steering knuckle was replaced for the MOT back in March I'd had a bit of gear oil escaping from the seal. I'd replaced that seal with the 'new' type but I'd made a mess of putting it in and it continued to leak. Whilst the n/s strut was out, and I had better access, I removed the seal and replaced it again. This time I was supplied with the older style seal with the external teeth. I found this style easier to install as it's got a metal body beneath the rubber whereas the newer style is all rubber. Anyway, it seems to have sealed well this time




Also, I'd previously used the Eurorepar gearbox oil that Peugeot is supplying. This time I used the Total stuff and can't believe the difference it's made.




Having got that sealed up I fitted my undertray that's been siting around since February 2019.



It's a reproduction item from eBay that's listed for diesel Berligo & Xsara Picasso's. It fitted reasonably well but a bit of trimming had it fitting much better.


Next to do is address a small hole in the sill next to the fuel filter. Hoping a mate, who undertakes restorations to a high standard, will do it for me sometime before the end of March. He had this little 304 in when I visited him this week

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Crazy times. Hope you're all keeping yourselves safe and healthy?

This’ll probably be a long post with lots of words & pics

Finally, the rusty bits have been sorted. It was a stressful couple of days having to remove so much, and worrying about putting it back, and seeing the Rallye being chopped in to.

The work was carried out by Sean @ DrVDub. I was at university with Sean and, like me, he found finding work in the mechanical engineering\design\manufacturing\materials industry a bit of a challenge when we’d finished our course. I went and worked in the cycling industry for a couple of years, as that’s where my interest was at the time, and eventually found a ‘proper job’ with a local highway authority undertaking highway engineering projects. Sean went on to do a PhD (hence ‘Dr’ V-Dub ) followed by working for a few car restoration places and then setting up on his own.

Sean’s incredibly thorough with his work and regularly turns away customers because they’re just looking for an MOT type of patch up job, he’ll only turn out work that’s as good as, if not better than, a factory fresh job. Good enough for a 20 year old French hatchback then!

A date was agreed and I set about removing the dash so that the bulkhead could be repaired without causing a fire by igniting the sound deadening. I’d replaced the heater matrix on a phase 1 306 in the past so I knew what I was getting in to.


Here’s how the rust looked from the inside.


I also carefully loosened all of the fasteners holding the fuel tank in place as that needed to be removed to safely weld the hole in the sill. Lots of PlusGas and working the fasteners in and out and running die over the stud got everything free.



The day arrived and surgery commenced. First, cutting out the affected area on the bulkhead.


Taking old metal bit-by-bit and checking with the replacement panel.


Final cut-out.


And marking up the replacement panel.


The lower edge consists of three sections spot welded together.


Sean used various abrasive implements to whittle away the outermost skin so that just the inner two were left (the outer, third skin, is the repair panel).



Then it was time to make good. Holes drilled in the replacement panel for the welds…


… and get welding


Panel in place prior to dressing back.


Tidied-up a bit.


Should’ve taken some pics before reassembly but, here it is with a couple of layers of Bilt Hamber Electrox and some Cherry Red from an aerosol. This is just a quick job by me to protect it until I can get in there and make a better job of it.




We applied some Electrox and then stone chip to the inside as this won’t be seen. The stone chip will provide adequate protection and, possibly, some sound deadening benefits.



The Electrox and stone chip was extended to the bottom left as there was also a small hole here that was repaired.



Pretty happy with that. On to the sill.
Tank out, fuel spilt straight down my sleeve up to my armpit. Nice! Here’s the hole in the sill; right next to where the fuel filter sits.



Surrounding area ground back ready to receive a fresh bit of metal.



Repaired. I went over the whole area with some Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 and then applied stone chip. I need to make a proper job of the whole underside but that’ll have to wait for now.



Fuel tank got cleaned up and I fitted a new fuel elbow and filter strap before reinstalling; we drained the fuel out of it this time though.



Fuel elbow was replaced as I spotted it had a leak when I was underneath loosening the fasteners.



Cracking job by Sean I hope you’ll agree? I’ll be back with him at some point as there’s some jacking damage to the sill by the front wheel to repair that I didn’t have the time, money and energy for this time around.

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ah man this I looking real good.

need to do mine next week now I'm off for 2 months

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Ph2 Black GTI 6!

EX black 6 owner
But now a Black caged rallye owner

Hunting for Go faster bits!


SEARCH

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Cheers buddy. I thought you might've continued working in your line of work?
At least we've got something to fill the time with! Our cars will emerge on the other side in better shape.




Thanks for the kind words and glad you're enjoying the read!

It is an MTS cat, Here it is against the old one.



These are the MTS part numbers. They've got an app which is pretty useful, you can see I've referenced the engine code to get the right parts.

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That cat does look a fair size compared to the one that came off your car.



That's the one that's on my car, you can see how close it is to the side of the tunnel, I guess it's not correct.

I'll have a look at swapping it out for an MTS one. Thanks for the part number.

I've noticed the tip on your back box is recessed a bit in the bumper more than normal. My car was like that when I bought it. I've now replaced the middle and back section and the tip in now level with the rear of the bumper. Could one of your bits be the wrong part and be the reason why you had issues fitting yours?

I got the epoxy mastic on both sides of the n/s chassis leg. It was brushed on but I really struggled with applying it this way on the engine bay side of things because of the engine & gearbox limiting access despite dropping it as low as it'd go. So, out came the engine & gearbox and I flatted back what I'd applied on the inside of chassis leg. Didn't bother with the wheel arch as that'll be getting some stonechip.



Also flatted back the o/s as this had the same treatment last year. The brush strokes weren't so obvious on this side but, why not make a better job of it whilst access is good?



You might see from the above that I've cleaned back a lot of the coatings in the lower corner on this side. There must've been a leak from the master cylinder at some point as brake fluid had lifted the rubberised coating. The metal was actually quite clean beneath but cot a clean-up and a coat of BH Electrox.



Yesterday afternoon I got the epoxy mastic on after waiting the required 96hours for the Electrox to cure.





This time I sprayed it on and it looks so much better, as you'd expect. I need to order some Cherry Red paint to finish things off and this'll also be going on the strut tops etc.


Going back to the master cylinder leak, the servo was also in a nasty state with paint bubbling up beneath where the MC would sit. I rubbed it all back, applied some Hydrate 80, etch primer, Matte Black from a rattle can finished off with some petrol resistant lacquer. No idea if the lacquer is brake fluid resistant but it's all I had!

The MC also got a rebuild with a new seal kit that was only £10 delivered from Bigg Red. Reservoir got a scrub and I refreshed the text on the cap with a paint pen.

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