1991 Peugeot 205 track car project

Thank you - I will be careful as there is a goodly amount of stuff missing from that area. I am only showing you the worst bits though, most of it is very good and belies the time its spent standing unfinished under a tarp. This was the damp side furthest into the hedge so had little opportunity to dry out ever. If I can get the cage right first then that should add quite a bit of reassurance when I start chopping there. I've no idea how deep the frillyness goes as I deliberately haven't looked too hard but suspect the tinworm is in all of it in that area.

Mechanic next door says pull the engine and box and put it on it's roof to do the work. I have to say I'm a little bit tempted to do it that way just for the craic.

Obviously it would be a stupid thing to do.




I'm not really up for changing the cage out for a new one, I think that I'd rather work with what I have. The money would be better spent elsewhere and I think, when correct, it'll be enough. It's not going racing and it will always be safer than the R1 track bike my mid life crisis wanted to buy..

I can't live with it like that though. It's effing terrible it's coming out and going back in properly. Cut off the current mess and put some flat feet on the bottom of the A and B post tubes. Discard current lands and fit new box shaped ones (to the correct heights to make the frame fit nicely left right front back and without twisting.... ) Weld the lands in strong, bolt cage to lands. 5 minute job WCPGW?

Hoving a look and a think today has made me realise that it's even more terribly fitted than I previously thought it was. Those lands made to take the B post 4 bolt feet which I had thought of as being a box section made of plate with a flange bolted to it?








Nope, they too are badly welded to the together and the bolts are merely decorative bodgers delight shortened specials.

What a throbber. I hope that's the last of his handiwork surprises and I've now found them all.

Lol yeah totally understandable.. MSA blue book will tell you all you need to know for re-installing it properly, but if you need any guidance drop me a message, I used to do this stuff (cages) a lot!

Honestly with the original tin foil bodywork being so thin it's very difficult to flatten back welds properly without weakening the joint. The weld shrinks and pulls the joint down so it will never be flat enough to not require a skim of filler anyway, so I wouldn't bother!

Cage is out. What a ballache.

Having never mucked about with a Cage before I was naively assuming that it would be a proverbial 5minute job to run a grinder through the welds and then simply lift the front and rear parts out through the rear hatch. Ha. No. Not so easy.

You can get a welder places that you can't get a grinder, like between the cage tube and the b pillar. And then when i finally managed to chisel and lump hammer my way through and free it I discovered "just pop it out the hatch" was very optimistic.

It's all a learning curve. I enlisted help.




It's out, leaving a bit of a mess which I can fix and then wrestle it back in again. Going to take the passenger door off for that, it will make it easier.










Had a dive into the front wheel arch to see what welding needs doing, (happily not a lot) and while there tried cleaning the disc up to see if it's salvageable.





No, not really. Not a surprise as the pitting looked fairly deep. The view in the wheel arch was good though, revealing a fancy trigger wheel and more importantly a sump spacer.





But that will have to wait. Cut measure weld the b post rust away and the cage back in next. Can't take too long surely?

Time to sort the mess out.

I started, gingerly, at the top and let in a few repair pieces until it looked like the top of the sill / beam thing was intact


Then i jacked it up onto ramps to 'just have a look at what needs underneath' and proceeded to pull away by hand really quite a lot of rotten metal, leaving a good view all the way through and out the other side. Although it can't have been doing much, having seen how much was missing I was too scared to lift it to drop it down again, so sorted it there. I kept an eye on the door all the way through and it kept its alignment, so i think its all good on that front despite the car not being flat and level whilst this was done.

I've said before that I'm learning welding, so this was the introduction to upside down welding to rubbish metal tutorial. Can't say I enjoyed it particularly, and that was inside in a clean dry unit on a very flat floor. Those peeps that report doing that sort of stuff outside in the rain and dark I now hold in even higher esteem.

Anyway


















































And just like that the rottenest bit of the ropey old peugeot became solid and safe again. And I'm really, really pleased with my last outer sill repair patch. I made that from sheet metal and it fits in there lovely. Proud of meself for that.

Thats the drivers side B post area repaired. Progress rodders, progress.

Thanks. I was pleased with myself.

For some reason when they were cheaper I wasn't much interested, i liked them but had experience of them as passenger, mates had them, I'd had a 1.4 one ... there was always another fish to fry. (And good times were had).
I'm not the only one that is getting the mid life nostalgia it seems, despite having been in pieces in a hedge for a decade and being a relative distress sale bargain this is the most expensive car I've ever bought myself.

Progress is still slowly being made and the cage is back in to measure up and fit and it's fitting much more nicely.




Following the screen pillar much more neatly and naturally now, mainly because the front feet are naturally landing about an inch further forward than they were before - you can see from the repair at the bottom of the a post how much further back it was.

Obviously, now the front of the cage has moved out my door bars aren't long enough, but that is easily resolved. Happily for the wallet each length is just a bit less than a metre so a 2m length of cds tube will do it with minimal waste.






Got fed up with the clutter so removed the dash and most of the loom. It was in poor condition and full of scotch blocks, crimps and extra bits all just waiting to cause headaches so will be replaced with something better, newer and reliable.

I'd forgotten about insurance, that's another reason I didn't have one. Nickable and crashable. Deepest Devon where I grew up had exactly zero car thefts but there were plenty of holes in the hedges so insurance for a young male could still be challenging. Then I moved to brizzle* and bought a xr4i. Disclock, remote immobiliser, different physical touch immobiliser the only way to stand half a chance of it still being there.

(*just off Filton Ave which at the time was one of, if not the joyrider capital of Europe. Joy.)

As I'm waiting on metal to come in the post and having had a tidying stint I finally took the front slam panel off.

Check. Out. My. Trumpets.*




Nice new* Nissan radiator as well, half full of brown.




It's been damp in here. That alternator looks like it will never turn again, the oil filter looks near rusted through in a couple of places and the block is covered in white fuzz.






Which means that it's an alloy one. Happy days. This car really does seem to have all the trick bits on it.

*and to the left of the trumpets check out the air temp sensor mounted in and shrouded by a 19mm nyloc. Ffs. And crimps, crimps everywhere.

Oh looking good - just found this thread and I'm in for the journey

Yes please, I'd be a fool to turn that down!

Progress has been made.

First, put the cage in, support it in the right place, mark up to cut tatty end of tube off nice and level



Take the cage out. Cut it off



Put the cage back in, make a box out of cardboard



Make a box out of 1.5mm and make a foot made out of 4mm









Do that on both sides and mark up for holes




Make a box out of cardboard for the b post



Spot the mistake. I was quite annoyed with myself. They are not perfect isomers, but was measured bespoke and then folded the wrong way, carefully. I did swear a bit.



Boxes have 3mm plate inside, 4mm plate outside all clamped and drilled through together









Then captive nuts welded onto the 3mm plate and the 3mm plate welded into place







All lines up lovely and ready to tack into the car



Got straight on with it and welded the b post bits in






Then put the cage back in



Ah flip thats a bit short. Both sides.







Stretch it out the tiniest touch









Thats much more like I wanted.


Tack the front boxes in and tack the feet onto the cage tube all round






Take the cage out and weld the front boxes in






Paint everything in hydrate 80



And knock the tacked exactly in the correct place foot off of the roll cage while moving it about. Ffs.




Definite progress. This time next year rodney...