Peugeot 205 Si -> 205 Rallye Replica Father/Son Project

[matara]

My 12 year old son Zacky is keen on learning to drive and doesn't want to wait another 4 years until he can do on the road here in Sydney. We have decided to get involved in doing Motorkhana events in the Junior class which he can start doing from 12 years old. So we looked for the cheapest way of doing this and we bought Graham Wallis's old competition car as a father/son lockdown project.

We intend to transform it from Si spec 205 to an imposter spec 205 Rallye with the aid of some steel wheels, a sticker kit and a Group N exhaust.

Graham has some competition use in Khanacross so it's already 0.5 Colin McRae spec already, and being 30 years old this year means we can put it on Historic Registration as well which is a bonus.

As we got it

Here is the goal:-

Here is Graham giving it some in Melbourne:-

So we started on the journey by getting a sticker kit from France:-

And stripping it down as it had nearly as much red dirt in it as the Simpson desert:-

Not a bad shell for a 30 year old car. Just like Graham said it was pretty rust free:-

Typical of most 205's that are 30 years old the dash was a disaster

But lockdown gave us some time to scour for parts on gumtree and ebay and we managed to get some replacement dash bits.

Sent the wheels off to the powder coater and they were stuck there for nearly 6 months during lockdown! Finally got them back in November

Tried out the rear badges to give us a bit of inspiration. The white colour was off so we had to get them sanded and painted to match the rest of the car.

Whilst it was apart we ran over the car with a mop and the paint came back from being dull and faded to pretty shiny. Removed the rubber side strips which took about 2 weeks of scraping 30 year old hardened glue off. The worst part of the project by far!

Interior was cleaned up and came up remarkably well. The door cards and carpet came back like new!

Got all the bumpers and replica rallye arches (sourced from Portugal) ready to send off the the painter

And things are coming together now

The painter turned around the job pretty quickly considering he had to paint the bumpers and valances, the front grill, the 4 rallye arches and we had the rear tailgate fixed and painted as it had a scratch in it and needed the rear part painting.

Have just spent today refiitting the bumpers applying the stickers and wiring up all the lights.

Painted the tow hooks red like Rallyes have, and replaced the front driving light lenses with yellow glass well because its french of course

Starting to look like the real deal now. Tomorrow I will be fitting the arches with rivnuts and sikaflex which is apparently the thing, then hopefully we can take it for rego.

Cheers

Steve

 

[schlitzaugen]

That troublesome glue comes off a little bit easier if you get your hands on some gum and sticker residue remover from say Altronics? people like that. It's badged Chemtools and does actually work even with tree sap.

There may well be other options but I have experience with this one:

https://www.radioparts.com.au/images/ProductImages/07520508.jpg

And I see there's other retailers too.

Why do you want to have an interior if you are going to race the car? I am seriously considering removing everything I don't need in my car (back seat, door cards, etc) and mine is a daily.

I'm even looking at something like this:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads17/IMG_07551270785736.jpg

Home made, of course.

 

[matara]

Thanks for the tip on the glue remover schlitzaugen. I think at this stage my son just needs to learn to drive and control the car, and since his brother wants to come along as well we may need the rear seats. Ideally if he starts getting competetive and moves on from Motorkhana to Khanacross we will look at lightening it up.

Got the arches on today. Took some fettling and I still need to sikaflex the tops of them but looking more like the real thing now.

The Si used to have a chrome strip around the bumper hence the holes. Real Rallye's didn't have the holes so I have decided to put a red bumper strip on like a GTi has. I have see a few genuine Rallye's with this on so must have been a thing.

Also came across this original promo pic which I thought was cool

Needless to say 12 yo son is getting hyper now and chomping at the bit to get out in it. I will see if we can get it pink slipped and inspected for the historic rego.

 

[Jared]

Hi Matara, thanks for sharing I really like the style of the Rallye and yours looks like it’s coming up a treat (wish my Dad had be been that inspired when I was 12!). I’m thinking of something similar for mine but in red with black highlights I’ve asked before in a previous post but you may have missed: where did you get the steelies and what size are they?
Cheers

 

[matara]

Graham sourced the steelies for me as he wanted to keep the alloys (in the first pic) when I bought the car. He told me they were from a Peugot 306 base model, and we had to use 14" wheels at it has 306 brake calipers installed. The ET is 24 and they are 14 x 5.5J. On the 205.si website it shows them as being installed on the 205, 306, 405, 406. Given this it shouldn't be hard or expensive to find some.

I came across this pic of a red car done up as a rallye, if you want an idea about how yours might look.

 

[PeterT]

You can also do Supersprints with your son. They're also a safe environment. I started my son on those before he had L's.

 

[schlitzaugen]

Geeez these cars look cute in a nice coat of paint.

The GTI red bumper strip is unobtainium and worth a lot of money these days, I hear. Are you sure you want to put them on car that is likely to be thrashed around? I would look at sourcing some cheap stick on strip, they are available and I think they even come in red. In fact I think a few GTIs might have that treatment given the prices for the original strip.

If you do have the OEM strip already, I'm sure you can finance the build by selling it.

 

[Jared]

@matara when you had the bumpers painted did they smooth/sand the black textured section or paint straight over?

 

[matara]

@Jared, the bumpers are in 2 parts the grey bumper (fibreglass) and the lower valance (ABS plastic). The bumpers are textured and I got the guy to spray them with primer filler, then block them down so they were smooth. I am not 100% he did this to the degree I wanted as there is still a bit of texture there, but I only paid $700 for the upper/lower front/rear bumpers with a repair to the tow hook area which had a crack/chunk missing, 4 x wheel arches, front white grill and a repair on the tailgate and the whole tailgate painted, so I'm not complaining. Being trying to manage the budget on this car as it will probably get some abuse.

 

[matara]

@schlitzaugen I only have the chrome looking inserts that look to be stainless steel. I have just bought some of this stuff from ebay to cover the holes:-

 

[Dijon16]

This is a unique project, and great to see the likes of it locally.

Peugeot Talbot Sport had a rather large finger in the development of this pie. Peugeot wanted a 205GTi-style car that was more affordable to buy and to maintain.

They attacked the two most fundamental fronts – displacement and weight. The engine started out as a 1.1 and ended up a 1.3, with a sports camshaft and twin Webers. It had 102hp, which was already nearly as much as the early 205GTi, but at a screaming 6800rpm.

The interior was basically gutted, and the car ended up weighing only 790kg (as per the photo you provided). With the decals and road wheels and flared guards (which even the 205GTi did not have), it not only went like a proverbial scalded cat, but it looked the part as well.

With an initial production estimate of 5000, they sold over 30,000. A RHD version was eventually made, but it was detuned, presumably because the French thought that the English could not drive.

Well done, good luck with it. I suspect that so few people will realise its significance.

 

[matara]

I knew about these cars before I saw Chris's video but he does a good job of getting across the ethos of the Rallye

We won't be going the full hog on our one since getting hold of a TU 1.3 engine would require importing one from France.

 

[Bowie]

This thread is great. Great work there!

 

[1pugnut]

Geeez these cars look cute in a nice coat of paint.

The GTI red bumper strip is unobtainium and worth a lot of money these days, I hear. Are you sure you want to put them on car that is likely to be thrashed around? I would look at sourcing some cheap stick on strip, they are available and I think they even come in red. In fact I think a few GTIs might have that treatment given the prices for the original strip.

If you do have the OEM strip already, I'm sure you can finance the build by selling it.

On my SI I had the Crome strip covered in red vinyl 12 years ago and it still looks good

 

[Dijon16]

Saw the 205 Rallye at Machines and Macchiatos, Oxford Falls, this morning.

Looks heaps good in the flesh, and was attracting a lot of attention from obviously discerning people.

Photos here? Or OK if I post one?

 

[matara]

Hi @Dijon16, yes we finally got it registered on Historic rego through the North Shore Sporting Car Club and some plates on:-

and yep we were there this morning, the car's first outing. Here is my son Zacky taking the drivers seat:-

And on the way home we got in the spirit of the Rallye:-

 

[GRAHAM WALLIS]

Amazing restoration. I bought it to pull apart, previous owner tried and tried but just couldn't get it to go, turned out to be the fuel pump relay. After getting it going I noticed it was a an early (1991) model so just old enough to go on Club Permit. Then used it for a few years of motorsport, before passing it on, still running great but getting pretty scruffy, so as I said a great effort to get it looking that good.

 

[schlitzaugen]

What wheels are those?

 

[GRAHAM WALLIS]

I supplied them with the car 306 I'm pretty sure, 14 inch.

 

[matara]

Thanks Graham, the mechanicals were very sorted mostly due to yourself, and after a cut an polish and ceramic coat the Peugeot factory paint came back remarkably well. Yes they are 205/306/405/406 14" steel wheels. The offset is slightly out at ET24 (instead of ET28) and they were catching at the rear but a 6mm spacer sorted that out.