Willsy's 309 GTi - Latest update 04/09/2018

[D4MJT]

I like this Willsy, good effort. I've not logged in for ages so it was nice to catch up, it's coming along a treat!

[willsy]

Finished the hub piece today. After polishing this bit up (not bad for 26 years old) I decided to clear coat it rather than paint it.








Finally got the Satin done on the knuckle piece. Best picture that I can get until it dries.

[lincolndanny]

Great work on this as usual! Itching to get moving with the vts doing this but Christmas, other car mot's house blah blah. You should post this in the resto section on Detailing world mate.

[LSOfreak]

This is the only progress thread I come here to regularly check on haha

Amazing progress , would love to see the finished product

[willsy]

Cheers Danny, really appreciate the feedback, I've loved reading your updates aswel, especially the welding that really has been some quality work done properly.

Rekon Detailing World would be interested? I do update this progress on 309owners and AXowners already where I've been a member for years. Easy for me to copy and paste onto detailing world too :-)


LSOfreak it's good to know that people are popping back regularly to read the updates :-) I'll keep the progress updated. Cheers

[willsy]

I have now completed buying/refurbishing the entire front end suspension assembly right down to every nut & bolt. I just need to refit it all now.

Completed list of suspension overhaul as follows;

Non OE bits are Bilstein B4 dampers, Eibach springs, Powerflex front/rear wishbone bushes, Quinton Hazell wheel bearings.

Refurbished original bits; subframe powder coated. Hub assembly back to bare metal, cast painted Satin black, hub clear coated,, wishbones painted satin black.

New genuine Peugeot items; complete top mount assembly, drop links, ARB bushes, every nut & bolt (I have kept all the original nuts & bolts too so that they can be sent for electroplating eventually and kept as spares)


I've almost completed the front brakes overhaul list too. Everything except the main servo has been refurbished or replaced too. I'll update that shortly. Might actually get cracking reassembling it in the coming weeks

[lincolndanny]

Originally Posted by willsy

Cheers Danny, really appreciate the feedback, I've loved reading your updates aswel, especially the welding that really has been some quality work done properly.

Rekon Detailing World would be interested? I do update this progress on 309owners and AXowners already where I've been a member for years. Easy for me to copy and paste onto detailing world too :-)


LSOfreak it's good to know that people are popping back regularly to read the updates :-) I'll keep the progress updated. Cheers

Thanks mate, yes they would love it on there. Jigs posted up his VTS rebuild and it got a lot of interest

I should have a decent year on it in 2016, just collecting nos bits at the moment. I love how the dealers are turfing out stock cheap at the moment

How deep are you going to go with this? I think I've become obsessed with mine. Even managed to track down a full new set of original Michelin SX GT tyres!

[willsy]

Perfect I'll take a look and start copy/pasting my updates over on there aswel. If people can appreciate it then I may aswel :-)

I plan to reach 'immaculate' sort of state with this. Concours is another level and with careful preservation of original paintwork being a non starter (needs a respray) it'll never reach that status even if I can happily buy new genuine parts and don't mind spending hours refurbishing original parts. Immaculate I hope will be a fair comment once it gets there :-)

You're already finding some gems with yours then, let me know if there's anything that you need, but can't find at your local dealers. I know a man that can find just about everything. There's only 1 part that he hasn't been able to find for me yet (and you can imagine just how many are listed on service box as NFP for the 309!)

[lincolndanny]

Originally Posted by willsy

Perfect I'll take a look and start copy/pasting my updates over on there aswel. If people can appreciate it then I may aswel :-)

I plan to reach 'immaculate' sort of state with this. Concours is another level and with careful preservation of original paintwork being a non starter (needs a respray) it'll never reach that status even if I can happily buy new genuine parts and don't mind spending hours refurbishing original parts. Immaculate I hope will be a fair comment once it gets there :-)

You're already finding some gems with yours then, let me know if there's anything that you need, but can't find at your local dealers. I know a man that can find just about everything. There's only 1 part that he hasn't been able to find for me yet (and you can imagine just how many are listed on service box as NFP for the 309!)

Great Matt, I'll bare that in mind if I need anything. Because I'm in no rush I'm just picking up bargains as and when they pop up. Picked up some new body kit sections etc the other night.

Are you interested in tracing the history of it at all? I've sent off a V888 form to the dvla to request all the information they hold on my VTS. They should send back all copies of previous V5's along with the original dealer request to register the car. Then I can get original dealer plates, window decal and tax disc holder made up

[willsy]

Yep already done that one Danny, when I bought the car I literally just had the new keeper slip. I got back the original dealer request to register, copies of previous V5's (dealer as demo car for 6 months, some old dear until 2012, bloke before me who did absolutely nothing with it then me)
They sent records of when it had been taxed & SORN. It's been SORN since 2004!!
As their computer MOT records only began in 2005 I have no MOT history and DVLA records simply show as 'not held' as they don't even know the expiry date of the old one. Can only assume it's been off the road over 10 years.

I will write to the former keepers though especially the old dear and see if I can get any more original history from them, or even a letter back confirming anything of history value.

[willsy]

Voila! Just needs the new bearing popping in now

[lincolndanny]

Originally Posted by willsy

Yep already done that one Danny, when I bought the car I literally just had the new keeper slip. I got back the original dealer request to register, copies of previous V5's (dealer as demo car for 6 months, some old dear until 2012, bloke before me who did absolutely nothing with it then me)
They sent records of when it had been taxed & SORN. It's been SORN since 2004!!
As their computer MOT records only began in 2005 I have no MOT history and DVLA records simply show as 'not held' as they don't even know the expiry date of the old one. Can only assume it's been off the road over 10 years.

I will write to the former keepers though especially the old dear and see if I can get any more original history from them, or even a letter back confirming anything of history value.

Fantastic stuff! The Vts has had 11 previous owners-I think Facebook will come in handy for once....

[willsy]

One of the only useful features of Facebook :-)

Well, I've made an account on Detailing World. Just waiting for admin to allow me to post then I'll start copying and pasting over to there

[lincolndanny]

Originally Posted by willsy

One of the only useful features of Facebook :-)

Well, I've made an account on Detailing World. Just waiting for admin to allow me to post then I'll start copying and pasting over to there

Your efforts will be well recieved Matt

[chinkostu]

suprised you didn't buy a new hub seeing as theyre still available! (the part that sits in the bearing that is, not the whole thing!

[willsy]

Originally Posted by chinkostu

suprised you didn't buy a new hub seeing as theyre still available! (the part that sits in the bearing that is, not the whole thing!

I did consider it, and they're not too much money either. They've cleaned up so well that they'd have been a shame to bin, just couldn't bring myself to do it lol

[chinkostu]

Understandably! I've got to bin mine, tyre place crossthreaded one side and i fucked the other accidentally!

How did you press the bearing out anyhow?

[willsy]

Evening all,

Some quick fire updates here for you all, for the progress made over the last few weeks.

Whilst waiting for a few more parts to arrive again before I start reassembling the front end I've been tacking some more of the ugly stuff. In/around the engine bay there's been various bits of surface rust here and there which all needs sorting. Vast majority of it is extremely minor and will wait until I take the engine out to do a full respray on the engine bay.

However I've wanted to get the worst looking bits restored.

This bit of the front frame is improved again. Still needs a bit more work yet, you can see the small hole that I need to get welded when the cars mobile again.


Better than it started anyway


Next up was to start attacking the scuttle panel area.



You can just see the surface rust sitting at the bottom of the scuttle too. Some bits were straying under some of the seam sealant which is always a worry but I've neatly trimmed it back a bit and it hasn't strayed anywhere near the actual seam line. Will be easy to resolve.

Anyway after a few hours scrubbing and a few hours letting Bilt Hambers Deox gel work its magic I've ended the day here







And the scabby looking bit at the bottom of the scuttle is slowly getting there.


The other bit which I'd been flicking between was the front brake line bracket within the passenger arch. This bit (and the opposite side) I am tending to for piece of mind. As you can see the surrounding area is plastered with factory stone chip. Whilst this is great when it's sealed, in removing the slider clip that retains the solid line and flexi hose in place, it was obvious that the clip had penetrated the excessive application of stone chip and therefore could have been susceptible to water ingress and may be a potential hidden lurker for rust.

So I've excavated around it, have cleaned the fixed bracket up and can happily report that there have been no hidden bits of rust so far. I shall reapply the necessary coatings and stone chip safe in the knowledge that it's a confirmed safe zone from rust.

That's the first update.

[willsy]

Slow going then over the Christmas/New Year week. I'd mainly been carrying on with some rust removal on the same few parts from the last update. Sure, rust removal gel does work, and it works well, but it does take ages.
My input has mainly been applying the gel, leaving it a few hours, giving it a good scrub with scotch pads and small tooth brush sized wire brush, repeating the process then wiping clean and reassessing. Several coats are needed generally before I'm completely happy that's it's clean.

So here's how another days worth of application is panned out (At this stage I ran out of my usual Bilt Hamber Deox so whilst awaiting delivery, I grabbed a similar Hammerite product from Halfords.

[willsy]

Evening all,

After a long hard slog, almost a weeks worth of cleaning up the scuttle area (which I might add is a damn awkward job that requires a contortionist to help with looking in all the nooks and crannies) I'm finally happy that it's rust free.

My earlier update covered some rust that was evident in the passenger side. A similar scenario awaited on the drivers side. Again praying that nothing had developed into a hole



As you'll recall from earlier in the thread the scuttle was full of rotting conifer debris and had therefore been wet constantly for god knows how long. A worry as it was deep enough for the rust to have started creeping under the seam sealant which spreads about 20mm either side of the seam.

I've reduced the seam sealant spread to 10mm or so and fortunately no rust extended that far up.

As a starting point the rest of the drivers side wasn't too bad



The factory paintwork here is pretty crap anyway, there was never much of a key given to the surface for the paint to stick too and small bits had begun to flake loose. I really spent ages going to town on it all over with the harshest (red) scotch pad. Anything loose was easily shifted.
Then came several applications of rust removal gel. I'd ran out of the Bilt Hamber Deox Gel so I've been using the Hammerite alternative. It still works well but I've found that it needs longer to do the job and I've got through it much quicker.

Anyway all done...?




....wishful thinking! Ever the one to be thorough I grabbed the trusty mirror (old sun visor mirrors are very handy) and had a look at the underside of the lip.



Sinking feeling, many more hours of work needed


Same the other side


And more rust beginning on the underside of the other ledge just above the seam sealant.


Oh well best to catch it early. After several more hours of graft I've defeated it


So to be 100% sure I hadn't missed anything I got the scotch pads out again and gave it one final blitz, followed by some very thorough panel degreasing to clean all traces of the rust removal gel.

Two thick coats of Bilt Hamber Electrox (95% zinc primer) that they claim offers better protection than the original galvanised factory coating (I hope so!)



And that's that stage finished





The electrox is very thick stuff and does seem to fill the majority of the pitting left by the surface rust.
I'm going to leave it for a few days now to dry fully. Temperature isn't exactly ideal.
Painting I'm going to have to do in two parts, I'll do the hidden underside first as it's tricky spraying with the can inverted, I'm bound to knock the visible parts a few times in the process so I'll do the visible bit as a second stage when I'm not having to lean over at obscure angles.

That concludes the fun and games for a few days now.