tiTTy & SV650
Project vehicle: 1990 G plate phase 1.5 205 gti 1.9
Well I've had the car for quite a while now! I bought it in October 2007 prior to selling my 182 in order to pay off the 182 which I'd had since new in 2004 and get myself on the property ladder.
I flew to London to get the car having seen it advertised on autotrader, the appeal was it was on about 54k miles and from previous experience (my first car was a 205gti) I knew I could make my money back or even sell it for more later.
The original pics:
Looked reasonable enough in the pics I thought but when I got to London I was a bit disappointed! So I give it a once over and a test drive and negotiated about 25% off the price on the basis it needed new bumper plastics and I'd be getting the timing belt done as he couldn't tell me when it had last been done.
So I did the deal and bought it at the reduced price and drove it back to Glasgow at about 50mph up the M1 then across to the M6 getting home about 4am lol but I was taking it easy hoping it'd make it home, the aux belt looked a bit dodgy!
I got to work on it straight away claying and polishing and cleaning and waxing, the paint was yellowy green due to sitting in a leafy London driveway relatively unused for 3 years. It needed some serious TLC!
These pics show the contrast before and after claying:
The LHS is clayed the rest isn't
It was more noticeable to the naked eye!
I got the car booked in for water pump and timing belt to give me piece of mind.
Then my 182 sold and the Pug became my daily runner! so I was keen to get it tidied up pretty quickly before I found a flat. My commute from my folks wasn't far at all so it wasn't a big deal really.
As a matter of course I replaced the air filter, fuel filter, dizzy cap, ht leads, spark plugs and did an oil change.
I even made a journey to Rugby to pick up some doors, a tailgate, an air flow meter and a 2.8 V6 Turbo Technics Capri... (but the Capri is a different story!)
I spent my weekends working on the car if the weather permitted, changing the bumper plastics front and back:
I got a text one day from Iain who was running a 106xsi at the time asking if I wanted to go for a drive, at the time I was on my folks driveway with the car in bits:
But it was a nice day and this motivated me to get the car back together and go for a wee blast, so I got the new bumper on and the trim etc ready just as Iain arrived and we headed for the hills:
The car was handling pretty badly with a mixed bag of tyres with varying levels of tread and different sizes let alone tread patterns and the brakes were woeful
So I decided it was time for new discs and pads all round and bought myself a spare set of Speedlines from ebay to refurb and then get some fresh tyres on.
I bought a flat in March 2008 which kind of threw the whole Pug project but nonetheless I got the wheels refurbed and popped 4 PE2's on for good measure, this changed the car completely making for a lot of fun in dry and wet a lot more confidence inspiring to say the least.
Work on the car ground to a halt, I used the car as a daily runner right through winter 2007 winter 2008. The car let me down once in over a years motoring when the gear linkage popped off leaving me stuck in a gear between 3rd and 5th and having to slip the clutch to get me to safety! So that was fixed the next day. and all was well again.
The pug was looking reasonably healthy and going pretty well but wasn't where I wanted it to be, here's how she looked in September 2008:
Then I bought myself a mk2 172 for a bit of refinement in Feb / March 09 from a certain Mr AJR:
With the arrival of the 172 I stopped using the Pug and I love the shape and style of 205gti's so I cringed when I saw it sitting there unused, I didn't want an unfinished project!
It sat feeling sorry for itself outside the flat for 3 months!
Until last Saturday that is when I dropped a new battery in and took it for a blast to blow the cobwebs out.
And basically this is the start of the project thread, tomorrow I'm going to be doing a bit of work on it and will do more over the weekend and post update pics here.
Plans: new lockset, new tailgate (old one is dented), new doors (I have spares), bit of paint to tidy up some stone chips, replace oil cooler to end an irritating oil leak and I'll be detailing the car thoroughly inside and out. In the 18 months or so I've owned it I've never hoovered or cleaned the interior lol
I think tomorrow will be an interior detail and leather restoration.
Watch this space....
Well I've had the car for quite a while now! I bought it in October 2007 prior to selling my 182 in order to pay off the 182 which I'd had since new in 2004 and get myself on the property ladder.
I flew to London to get the car having seen it advertised on autotrader, the appeal was it was on about 54k miles and from previous experience (my first car was a 205gti) I knew I could make my money back or even sell it for more later.
The original pics:
Looked reasonable enough in the pics I thought but when I got to London I was a bit disappointed! So I give it a once over and a test drive and negotiated about 25% off the price on the basis it needed new bumper plastics and I'd be getting the timing belt done as he couldn't tell me when it had last been done.
So I did the deal and bought it at the reduced price and drove it back to Glasgow at about 50mph up the M1 then across to the M6 getting home about 4am lol but I was taking it easy hoping it'd make it home, the aux belt looked a bit dodgy!
I got to work on it straight away claying and polishing and cleaning and waxing, the paint was yellowy green due to sitting in a leafy London driveway relatively unused for 3 years. It needed some serious TLC!
These pics show the contrast before and after claying:
The LHS is clayed the rest isn't
It was more noticeable to the naked eye!
I got the car booked in for water pump and timing belt to give me piece of mind.
Then my 182 sold and the Pug became my daily runner! so I was keen to get it tidied up pretty quickly before I found a flat. My commute from my folks wasn't far at all so it wasn't a big deal really.
As a matter of course I replaced the air filter, fuel filter, dizzy cap, ht leads, spark plugs and did an oil change.
I even made a journey to Rugby to pick up some doors, a tailgate, an air flow meter and a 2.8 V6 Turbo Technics Capri... (but the Capri is a different story!)
I spent my weekends working on the car if the weather permitted, changing the bumper plastics front and back:
I got a text one day from Iain who was running a 106xsi at the time asking if I wanted to go for a drive, at the time I was on my folks driveway with the car in bits:
But it was a nice day and this motivated me to get the car back together and go for a wee blast, so I got the new bumper on and the trim etc ready just as Iain arrived and we headed for the hills:
The car was handling pretty badly with a mixed bag of tyres with varying levels of tread and different sizes let alone tread patterns and the brakes were woeful
So I decided it was time for new discs and pads all round and bought myself a spare set of Speedlines from ebay to refurb and then get some fresh tyres on.
I bought a flat in March 2008 which kind of threw the whole Pug project but nonetheless I got the wheels refurbed and popped 4 PE2's on for good measure, this changed the car completely making for a lot of fun in dry and wet a lot more confidence inspiring to say the least.
Work on the car ground to a halt, I used the car as a daily runner right through winter 2007 winter 2008. The car let me down once in over a years motoring when the gear linkage popped off leaving me stuck in a gear between 3rd and 5th and having to slip the clutch to get me to safety! So that was fixed the next day. and all was well again.
The pug was looking reasonably healthy and going pretty well but wasn't where I wanted it to be, here's how she looked in September 2008:
Then I bought myself a mk2 172 for a bit of refinement in Feb / March 09 from a certain Mr AJR:
With the arrival of the 172 I stopped using the Pug and I love the shape and style of 205gti's so I cringed when I saw it sitting there unused, I didn't want an unfinished project!
It sat feeling sorry for itself outside the flat for 3 months!
Until last Saturday that is when I dropped a new battery in and took it for a blast to blow the cobwebs out.
And basically this is the start of the project thread, tomorrow I'm going to be doing a bit of work on it and will do more over the weekend and post update pics here.
Plans: new lockset, new tailgate (old one is dented), new doors (I have spares), bit of paint to tidy up some stone chips, replace oil cooler to end an irritating oil leak and I'll be detailing the car thoroughly inside and out. In the 18 months or so I've owned it I've never hoovered or cleaned the interior lol
I think tomorrow will be an interior detail and leather restoration.
Watch this space....
Last edited:
