Peugeot 205 GTI "Bulkhead Forwards" Restoration.
This is a project carried out on my "daily drive". I have promised myself a 1.9 Peugeot GTI since admiring them at a much younger age! I remember being driven in a colleagues version back in 92 or 93. It felt amazing, even from the passenger set, I remember it feeling thoroughly modern and well balanced, with sublime handling and power aplenty to exploit the back lane we were on. All-be-it compared to my Mini 1275GT that was already 22 years old!
So in February this year I found myself in the pleasant position of searching for a candidate car, which I was planning to use for my daily commute. I set out my wish list, knowing that I would probably have to compromise on one aspect or another.
This list in order of preference was 1.9 GTI, as standard as possible, not a "major project', but some tidying would be fine, non sunroof and finally white preferred and definitely not red (not red simply because I have had lots and lots of red cars, and I fancied a change).
After a few weeks of surfing the internet finding cars that barely matched half of my criteria I was beginning to wonder if I was being too difficult. Then an advert arrived on Pistonheads that listed not some, but ALL of my preferences. The only trouble being, it was about 240 miles away. No matter, when needs must etc, so I made the trip (with a return train ticket, just in case), but fortunately it fitted the bill just perfectly, so the return train ticket was discarded and I had a very pleasant drive across the Peaks and into the Midlands on B roads and lanes before darkness fell and I found the A1 for the rest of my journey south. Click on the "before" picture to see what I bought.
On the drive it was clear that some fettling would be needed and I started to think about where to start. There was quite a lot of creaking from the front end suspension and the dampers all round had clearly had better days. So some time over the Easter Weekend was put aside for a "front corner' restoration and a quick change of the rear dampers.
Once the wheels were off, I spotted some slightly more extensive rust on the right chassis leg, that would need to be welded, certainly before the next MOT, but really as part of the "front corner" restoration. Now, this is where things start to creep on the project definition front, see if you can follow my logic!
The front of the engine sits very close to the area that needed welding and would clearly be a serious restriction for any grinding / cleaning up etc. So...... with the agreement of my very understanding wife "we" decided the engine needed to be removed and....... the engine clearly had a few leak issues, mainly from perished hoses but also from various gaskets and seals as well. So...... having made the effort to remove the engine, 'clearly' there was no point putting it back without fixing the leaks, and..... if stripping the engine to fit new gaskets, 'clearly' it would make sense to check over the rest of the engine mechanicals at the same time, and...... (finally), it 'clearly' would not make sense to put a nice shiny rebuilt engine back into a dirty engine bay, so...... the concept of "Bulkhead Forwards" restoration was born, and here we are! click on the "during" pics and follow the Blog to see how things are progressing.
So in February this year I found myself in the pleasant position of searching for a candidate car, which I was planning to use for my daily commute. I set out my wish list, knowing that I would probably have to compromise on one aspect or another.
This list in order of preference was 1.9 GTI, as standard as possible, not a "major project', but some tidying would be fine, non sunroof and finally white preferred and definitely not red (not red simply because I have had lots and lots of red cars, and I fancied a change).
After a few weeks of surfing the internet finding cars that barely matched half of my criteria I was beginning to wonder if I was being too difficult. Then an advert arrived on Pistonheads that listed not some, but ALL of my preferences. The only trouble being, it was about 240 miles away. No matter, when needs must etc, so I made the trip (with a return train ticket, just in case), but fortunately it fitted the bill just perfectly, so the return train ticket was discarded and I had a very pleasant drive across the Peaks and into the Midlands on B roads and lanes before darkness fell and I found the A1 for the rest of my journey south. Click on the "before" picture to see what I bought.
On the drive it was clear that some fettling would be needed and I started to think about where to start. There was quite a lot of creaking from the front end suspension and the dampers all round had clearly had better days. So some time over the Easter Weekend was put aside for a "front corner' restoration and a quick change of the rear dampers.
Once the wheels were off, I spotted some slightly more extensive rust on the right chassis leg, that would need to be welded, certainly before the next MOT, but really as part of the "front corner" restoration. Now, this is where things start to creep on the project definition front, see if you can follow my logic!
The front of the engine sits very close to the area that needed welding and would clearly be a serious restriction for any grinding / cleaning up etc. So...... with the agreement of my very understanding wife "we" decided the engine needed to be removed and....... the engine clearly had a few leak issues, mainly from perished hoses but also from various gaskets and seals as well. So...... having made the effort to remove the engine, 'clearly' there was no point putting it back without fixing the leaks, and..... if stripping the engine to fit new gaskets, 'clearly' it would make sense to check over the rest of the engine mechanicals at the same time, and...... (finally), it 'clearly' would not make sense to put a nice shiny rebuilt engine back into a dirty engine bay, so...... the concept of "Bulkhead Forwards" restoration was born, and here we are! click on the "during" pics and follow the Blog to see how things are progressing.