Hi from Lanarkshire

[Dobboy]

Well as the dark nights are here I thought i'd get myself a little project, I've did a couple over the last few winters (205GTI restoration, and a Saxo VTS track car build).

So picked up a non runner R53 on Gumtree. Very nice condition, but lots of crisps, hair, paper, crap, grush (money!), coffee powder?! inside of it..... a bit neglected.

Car came with a full Miltek on it which was a bonus, and also a golf ball dent on the bonnet for free!

It was supposed to have a dodgy HG but when I went to see it, it wouldn't start at all. So I thought there's more to this, and thought it might have jumped the timing.

So fully prepared to do an engine swap, I worked my way through fault finding it first as the engines are £500ish and I might only be buying what I have or worse.

Long story short, a few tests/codes/head scratching etc etc and messing about, it was a combination of things.

Duff coil pack, off fuel (piss coloured), spark plugs that had seen too many mis-starts, but the main culprit a stretched timing chain.

My garage has my 205 in it and too much other stuff to get the mini in, so as i'm very impatient, over the last two weekends I've got the long johns on and set about it under a gazebo. New timing chain etc, and i'm waiting on Cam cover bolts coming, then I can get a swift blast round the backroads, and see what it might or might not need for an MOT. I really can't see it needing anything.

A little bit of attention and some time spent on it and it lives to fight another day.



These are the tools required for doing the chain, and removing the bottom pulley.



The old fuel (water/dirt was inside the bottle I used).



Timing chain stretched by about half a link, meant the compression was way down and through the Cam sensor out.



I've got the interior all cleaned and most of it dressed, and i'll make a start on the exterior when it's road legal and I've got a replacement bonnet for it (local PDR man has stopped doing it).

If the GF doesn't want it i'll probably be putting it up for sale, she likes the looks of them but doesn't like driving my R53 cos the stiff bits on it.
If she likes it, i'll get the back windows blackened and get the outside fully detailed as mine.

These pics don't really do it justice, it's VGC and very straight in the flesh, just needs a wee bit of love!

[a11y]

Lovely 205!

Looks very original. Almost thought it was a friend’s old car which he sold a few years ago after doing some mild restoration work on it – had to check but his was a 1990. Identical down to the same original orange front indicators. He’s an idiot for selling his as it was 55k miles and 2 previous owners and it was mint.

[Dobboy]

cheers ally, here's a better picture of it. It turns some amount of heads when it's out, and gives a lot of new hot hatches a fright with what I done with it.

[EcosseGP]

Ah the old 205 I've had 14 of them so far and can't think that I've ever done the same thing twice. Xantia turbo in my last 205 project ... took me ages to get an engine mount and a relay for it and once I did I sold it.

[a11y]

That's lovely Dobboy. Not sure I want to ask what you've done to it! But, rightly IMO, it looks standard from the outside to me.

Sorry, OT, but EccoseGP you didn't have a red turbo'd 205? Bumped into (not literally) someone at Knockhill before - possibly on a TrackScotland session - and sure they were from Falkirk too.

[Dobboy]

Did the red turbo start as a 1.6?, if so I think the guy is from livingstone, he found it in a shed when he was removing asbestos and bought it off an old dear. The conversion was done at west Calder. We were parked together at a French show.

It's not too mental a11y, and it's all done to look OE, and undetectable from the outside.


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[a11y]

The username Jockstar came to mind - googled and yes it was a guy from Falkirk with a red 205 turbo I was thinking of, so different guy.

Sorry, totally focussing on the French metal when I should be complementing the MINIs

[EcosseGP]

Mine was red too believe it or not and started out life as a 1.9. Like I said I've had my fill of them in all different disguises from standard ones to a wide bodied full blown rear engined rear wheel drive V8. There was a fair few 205s kicking about Falkirk for a wee while maybe given the fact that Peugeot Ecosse were just down the road. Probably the best Peugeot I owned in standard form was the 405 mi16 ... the engine which laterally ended up in ... you guessed it another 205 !


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[Dobboy]

Rear wheel drive V8??!!! mad.

I thought about the Mi engine but opted for the later similar GTI6, same as Xsara VTS, which gives a few more horses but more importantly easier to come by and spares more readily available. I then converted an Xsara VTS box which is only 5 speed and much better ratios, and put on a lightened flywheel and Quaife diff for good measure, it goes well, if anything it could do with thicker torsion bars on the back. I've got a 309GTI beam for it but decided not to fit it.

My mate's got the same set up as me on his 205 with a Rotrex on it and there's not much goes by him at KH. It goes by some £50k+ modern sports cars with ease! On the road it's scary, and i'm always glad to get out it!

[ELFMAN]

Lots of interesting stuff here! Well done on the Minis and nice to see a subtly modded 205 too. Took me back to my good old Peugeot years, though mine were all 106's as opposed to 205's (I'm just a wee chap!). Good luck with all the motors and keep up the good work.