My 205 4X4 Cosworth

[Caddyshack]

My thought is to remove the bar striped in red as it just doesn’t seem safe and add a small fillet where I have marked in black.

It’s a road car that will be used on track. (That has always been the spec)

[The ArtfulBodger]

Caddyshack said:

The supplier of the seats and the cage builder, floor designer were all the same person at the same time. Sadly the seats did not have enough room to go far back enough from my legs to straighten. I am just over 5’10". I have had to cut out the harness bar and the uprights from there to the hoop. I think the hoop should have been around an inch farther back, in line with the door pillar.



The base of the seats hit the base of the hoop support and the shoulder wings hit the diagonal door bar.



I am tempted to cut out the diagonal door bar and put in a shorter one much higher up. It looks worse than it is but your head would be very close to this bar.





Harness bar cut out. I will finish it with a skim back to the bar and any grinder nicks will be welded over and dressed back. It’s a shame to lose this bar so I will put another in further back for the harnesses, this time at the correct height as per the blue book as the current one would have been way too low and could snap the seat back in a shunt.

The seat hits the floor support for the cage, it will be on mounts or runners if I have room but it looks like this will have to be re-done too.



Below, seat has a bit more room to go back now but I think with a bit more corrective work I can get it how it should be.

Edited by Caddyshack on Thursday 28th April 18:38

I hate to say it but those welds look pretty cr@p - I’d not want to be putting my faith in that in a big shunt TBH.

That is crying out for the cage to be pulled out and a decent one fitting built to what you want and need.

Have a look at custom cages offering for the 205 for comparison to quality

https://www.customcages.co.uk/product/peugeot-205-...

Edited by The ArtfulBodger on Thursday 28th April 19:02

[Caddyshack]

normalbloke said:

I’m loving the car. The tube work around that seat is shocking, some of the welds definitely need revisiting. Is this an opportunity to start again with the tube work and get the seating position and safety where it needs to be? Am I being too harsh, and is it the photos doing it an injustice?

I was tempted to cut it all out and send off to a company like custom cages but after having lost the car for the last 3 yrs I am going to re-do what I can. Some of the welds are simply art, others are weird so I will re-do what needs doing.

[Caddyshack]

To be fair a lot of the welds are good;

[url]|https://thumbsnap.com/wA3A5Af4[/url

[normalbloke]

Agreed. It does seem to be the work of at least two welders! The main thing is, you seem to have noticed what is OK and what is not. Take the time to have a step back, and get it right this time, or it may be a missed opportunity.

[Caddyshack]

normalbloke said:

Agreed. It does seem to be the work of at least two welders! The main thing is, you seem to have noticed what is OK and what is not. Take the time to have a step back, and get it right this time, or it may be a missed opportunity.

Defo 2 must be more than one welder, totally agree.

I have it on a rotisserie spit and workshop ramps so it makes sense to get it right, as you say.

I am glad that I have it at the stage it is at as if the car had been finished as it was supposed to be then I would have been more reluctant to cut out and start again.

[Caddyshack]

I will also compare the seat dimensions to Recaro Pole positions as these seats can always go in my 944 turbo track car. I think the poles are thinner as I had them in my 911, they fit me well.

[Caddyshack]

Actually, it was the spg that I had.

[url]

Vs

|https://thumbsnap.com/XQF7xnqz[/url]

Edited by Caddyshack on Thursday 28th April 20:26

Edited by Caddyshack on Thursday 28th April 20:28

[Caddyshack]

I have always had a concern that the front shock top mounts looked too tall to allow the bonnet to close. I raised (pun) this query at least 10 times after a previous customer on a WRC fiesta had to lower his mounts. The pics below show the bonnet on the strut without even adding the top mount or the bolt that locates the damper on the mount. I am guessing another 25 mm would be added to this.






Mr cutting wheel in the grinder is gonna be busy again

Edited by Caddyshack on Friday 29th April 11:35

Edited by Caddyshack on Sunday 1st May 06:52

[Caddyshack]

I have started to clean up the cage, removed the upper door bar as I just couldn’t see a safe way to drive the car as a helmet would be touching the roll bar padding if I aimed to protect myself and that’s not a great road car look anyway.

I am waiting for a tube notcher to arrive so I can consider a small bar right at the top.

The new, new front struts will need to be tied to the cage too when I remake those.

I will now start to stitch weld the panels in the floor and then rust treat, fill the cavities with protection, seam seal and epoxy prime to seal it up ready for paint. I will just do each section as I go.

I have begun to scotch bright off the cage bits that are staying….ready for the same treatment.

I am relieved that I had a fair bit of cutting to get the bars out, I couldn’t help but cut in to the remaining tube but I will fill with weld and then dress.







Below is a pic of the rear, you can see how much extra height I need to allow for on top of the strut top pictured above that already hits the £1600 carbon fibre bonnet.

Edited by Caddyshack on Friday 29th April 11:54

All of the bit highlighted below needs to go on top of the bit touching the bonnet and the bonnet needs to come down 20mm to close yet.

Edited by Caddyshack on Friday 29th April 11:55

[Caddyshack]

Floor degreased and de-rusted ready for welding then rust killer.




Little bit of CAD and 3d printing to trial the new door strengtheners. I need to drop the diameter though and then test the seat and head clearance.

[Caddyshack]

A bit more CAD on the rear strut towers to box in what I had to cut out

[ReverendCounter]

Nothing worse than running out of cardboard when you're deep into some CAD - everything stops while you go rummaging through the cupboards for some new material.

[Caddyshack]

ReverendCounter said:

Nothing worse than running out of cardboard when you're deep into some CAD - everything stops while you go rummaging through the cupboards for some new material.

I asked my wife where the toilet rolls were that I had stacked up ready for the tube work, she said not to worry as she had torn them up and put them in the compost.

[Caddyshack]

I made a start cleaning up the drivers rear wheel tub

I think the 4 different owners over the 30 yrs and only 33,000 miles have each added their own coat of under seal which has kept it rust free but I had to burn it all off to clean it up for welding and eventual body colour.



I have been playing in the chassis rail. I am a mortgage broker and not a fabricator or welder.



I will dress the welds but you can see the shape coming back now.



I added back the return ledge.




Boot floor also getting stripped, all the holes being welded up as I go.


I found some uncompleted welds that needed sorting

[Caddyshack]

I would not attempt this without the spit to spin the car over.

My Twizy lurking in the background showing it lambo doors.

[Caddyshack]

It picked up some damage whilst it was away. The pic is the right way up, the car is upside down.


Must have been a fair thump as it’s rippled the alloy inner wing.

This will need sorting out

[Caddyshack]

Lots of welding to do on the front. I THINK the compression strut goes roughly here but will need to build up the front end to check it all. Waiting on some new front mounts as the old ones went missing. Once I have those and replace the missing engine mounts I can offer it all up. Fingers crossed this all fits as planned.



Virtually all of the standard 205 metal is .75mm to 1mm thick (thin) or less in places so you have to go very carefully when welding as the metal just melts away. No wonder the 205 was so quick back in the day, they really were not made of much.

Edited by Caddyshack on Saturday 30th April 17:44

Edited by Caddyshack on Sunday 1st May 06:45

[Coleyst200]

Hi mate your doing some very good work . I'm just shocked about the amount of work mark has not done to the car in the time he had it

[Caddyshack]

Coleyst200 said:

Hi mate your doing some very good work . I'm just shocked about the amount of work mark has not done to the car in the time he had it

Hi Buddy. There really is a lot left to do. Silly me, should have just gone and got it sooner.