106 GTi tidying

[DavidS16]

The mrs 106 GTi had some wee issues: tired paint, couple of suspension parts needing replaced, that kind of thing.

First thing I did, as the weather was nice, was to tidy up the paint. Used a DA to get it looking like you see below..


Hey, lets not do the important stuff first!

However, when repairing and replacing the suspension I noticed a wee 5p of rust. Its never a 5p though.



Wee bit of welding and ended up with a not bad panel. However, upon looking underneath - some weeks later- I realised the inner suspension turret looks like this


This is probably THE most awkward bit on the car to get to: underneath, at an angle, with bits in the way! Its not the greatest of designs in there as there are three overlapping panels, spot welded and seam sealed.

Truth be told, Im not entirely sure how to tackle this, but Ill need to just have a wee plan out and give it a whirl!

 

[Stevos]

Hi mate I'm in the exact same boat with the exact same car. Replacement panels are very hard to get for these now.
I have been sourcing parts for months now. Got most of what I need now so will have to get the engine out next.
Mine only has 47k miles genuine and one owner but still rotted in the inner wings.
Try 106parts.co.uk they still have some bits.

 

[DavidS16]

Best of luck with yours dude

Rest of the car is totally solid, which is a plus, at least the wings are fairly accessible.

Id buy the inner wings from 106parts but they bought up all the UK stock of parts then doubled or tripled the price, so Id rather not line their pockets They did the same with Rallye graphics, then want a fortune for decals which have been lying around dealers a pretty long time!

 

[Stevos]

Yeh tell me about mate they are rip off guys but I want to make mine the best I can so stumped up the cash. Been trying to get the passenger inner wing for 6 months but managed to find one for sale with the strut top and everything attached.
You got any more pics of your inner wing repairs.

 

[DavidS16]

Ill get some pics when I make progress next week, all going well. My mums 207 has decided to pretty much seize and melt the clutch release bearing, so ive spent the past couple of days sorting that and a few other wee jobs that needed doing.

What colours yours?

 

[Stevos]

Sounds like you've got a busy time ahead of you. Mine is black mate on a R plate. Hoping to get a thread started on here myself soon.

 

[DavidS16]

Wee while off from this due to work, and getting our old flat sold. Spent the past few days trying to finish it off.

...until tonight, when bolting the panels back on to work out where to weld on the bumper mount bracket, I realised that Ive somehow made an unforgivable mistake; Ive somehow pulled the remainder of inner wing inwards, which has knocked the bolt holes for the upper slam panel out of kilter.

Im not even sure how I managed this as I continually used the upper cross member as a brace and to check it was sitting as it should.

What a ****!

Not really sure how to remedy it: cut it out and start again, or cut a small slice out and try to widen it back where it should with a thin strip. :-/

 

[hillman]

Here's a Rallye I had in earlier this year. That was a little bit rotten too!

 

[DavidS16]

Here's a Rallye I had in earlier this year. That was a little bit rotten too!
View attachment 95656

Aye thats pretty far gone!

I also have a 106 Rallye in Bianca white, but Ive used all new Pug panels on that as the front was a disaster. That was simplistic to do though, doing one panel at a time kept the car jigged as it should. Where do you even begin with something like yours??

 

[hillman]

Yes, doing one panel at a time is certainly the way to do it. I made up a simple jig to help keep things in line picking up on the eng & g/box mountings and a couple of tapped holes on the bulkhead.
Luckily for me the lad had a lot of the new panels needed for the job.
Funnily enough I'm just doing another at the moment and the owner bought a bare shell for me to remove the panels from. A bit time consuming, but if the new bits are too scarce then we didn't have much choice.

As you can see on the pass side inner wing it had been repaired before (badly). That all got chopped out and replaced properly.

 

[DavidS16]

Is that Mark Yates car? A fair amount of work!

Made some decent progress today. Learning a lot from reading stuff on here but having a go and learning by mistake also works! Still getting a hang of the actual welding part, and working metal to make repair panels is black magic if you ask me.

Nevertheless...

 

[DavidS16]

Not the finest of repairs, but its all part of the learning process I suppose!

 

[hillman]

Yes Dave it is.

The bits look good pal.
I've got this one I'm on with at the moment using the donor shell and Mark messaged me a little while ago about another one he needs repairing.
I've got to fit a cage in a 306 Rallye which the chap is going to be racing in the Tintops series next year hopefully.
I didn't realise I'm a Pug specialist Ha Ha.
Al.

 

[DavidS16]

Thanks man, appreciated.

Only guessed it was Marks car as he posted on bookface about it fairly recently, and I think hes the only one with his hands on genuine repair panels! I dare say more than a few Rallyes and GTis have been scrapped as few people are prepared to pay to have them repaired properly. Myself included, but thats only cos Id rather spend the money on a badass welder and learn how to do it myself!

Hopefully will finish the welding on Monday, then just need to warm up the garage to paint it, will update when i get that done.

Quite good to be a Pug specialist, the market is on the up!

 

[Turbo]

Greetings from another 'Pug Specialist'. My specialty would be the 106's uncle, the 205 so I'm no stranger to trying to weld thin French rusty panels! My first car was a 205 & I've owned at least one since. I currently have 1.9gti rally car, a 1.9 MI16 track car, a mint gti shell, a stock car shell plus loads of spare panels, suspension, drives, engines & boxes.

A guy I know wrecked his 1.9gti engine in his rally car. He said he couldn't source another engine and had to rebuild his old one, which wasn't easy as he had done a lot of damage. I have 3 sitting in my shed including a Skip Brown Gp N engine, but I don't like the guy so I said nothing!

My current project is a 306 HDI Dturbo that was someone else's abandoned project and I'm determined to rescue it and get back on the road. I've always liked the look of a 306, like a 205 on steroids, but never owned one.

The guy I bought the 306 off rang me looking for an inner wing for a 205. He had one that had had rotted around the strut top & need replaced. He had tried everywhere but they were no longer available, even a local breaker who specialises in Pugs had nothing. Unfortunately I had nothing either, out of several 205's I've scrapped over the years I never thought to keep the inner wings.

I did some welding on the exhaust of a 106 gti belonging to my sister's friend. Easy 5 minute job and when he offered to pay I said I only wanted a quick drive in his car. I live out in the sticks with some interesting roads perfectly suited to a 106 so a 'quick drive' was what we had. A revvy engine with a light nimble body on tight twisty roads is a good recipe for fun. I think the car owner regretted letting me loose in his car as he looked a bit pale when we got back!

 

[DavidS16]

They are a lot of fun. Still a fair whack more portly than my AX GT though!

Well, all finished bar reassembling the wiring, wing, odds and sods. If Im totally honest Im disappointed with the final result, its less than attractive. That said, its my first proper go at it, and Im happier with ugly-but-solid steel than a gaping rusty hole (behave).


Some pics of shame...

 

[DavidS16]

Some time has passed since I last touched this! Had umpteen other car projects on the go in the meantime, some of which were a 106 Rallye, a Saxo VTS that I built up for my mate, an AX GT, and Im now currently doing an AX GTi and a BX 16v! Its not a hobby, its an addiction...

Some more rust found and tackled. These commonly go under the engine bay fusebox and under ECU tray on the inner wings. What happens is the front bumper mounts spot weld to the underside of the inner wings but dont have a lot of rust protection/stonechip, so the rust starts there and creeps along seams till its really bad.

This is the inner wing on the drivers side. After this, Im spinning the shell on the chassis roller (hoping it doesnt shear all the bolts and drop on the floor) to weld up a lot of the underside where utter morons in garages have jacked it up on bits that arent jacking points; cue crushed panels, compromised underseal, and more rot.

Im pretty happy with progress so far, miles better than I was doing before! Thanks to all who gave me advice and encouragement previously

 

[jpmillermatic]

much improved, indeed!

that looks ace.

Jp

 

[DavidS16]

The absolute fear - thankfully unfounded - when spinning a car for the first time and hoping your brackets are well made enough!

Car now spun and I could see the damage; common area on 106/Saxos, where idiots assume that small panel is a jacking point, attempt to jack the car up but then wonder why the jack's going up but the car isn't, they don't say anything and you only find out later when the underseal has been compromised and lets in moisture. Some time down the line, the whole lot is crunchy as. The most frustrating thing is these panels used to be available for about £20 from Peugeot so it was just a case of remove the old ones and weld in the new, but Peugeot are pretty rubbish at supporting old car parts.

Really have my work cut out here especially as the box section underneath was rotten and its taken a small section of floor with it

 

[Morris]

That seems to be a common thing with jacking points. Wifey has a Golf MK3 with crunchy sills/floor due to idiots (tyre fitters especially) jacking under the sill with a cheery "that's the jacking point ain't it...). No you Muppet, only if you have the supplied shaped VW jack.
Carry on, nice work.