Bianca Ratlye

[C2K]

So I finally got fed up of the Rover. I've had it 7 years and nature's lightening is well underway.
 
So I only really looked in one direction. French. I've had my HDi for 150K now and it still drives beautifully. So, 1500 queens heads later and one hell of a road trip in the dark and i'm the proud owner of a '99 Bianca Rallye.
 

 
As you can see it's not quite standard. I've had it about 5 minutes so not even touched it yet but the shopping list will be going sharpish as will the mirrors...
 


 
He's gone a bit overboard with the stripping and I need to put a few things back in (no door seals!!!) but all in she's perfect for my needs really. It comes complete with OMP roll cage, 2 Cobra Monaco buckets with 5 point TRS harnesses, coilovers and a suede OMP wheel. Bonuses being when I got there i found it had a cat back stainless exhaust but bad points being the engine is a previous cambelt snapper and sounds like a sewing machine. In fairness, I expected that and have already lined up a replacement...
 
It's going to be an RWYB car that i'm not trailering, so 11 months MOT on it was handy too.
 
I'm thinking supercharger, solid beam mounts, some 4 pots, a lightweight flywheel, a Xsara VTS rear beam (to sort out the now-high rear) and a Xsara VTS quick rack and 5 speed box but will have to see how funds allow. She'll be ready for track action come the sunnier climates of 2011.
 
The master kill switch comes in very handy when i'm away, however I really need to weatherproof it as it had icicles on the inside of the roof last time I saw it. Rover stripping seemed to generate more than the target so i've been busy buying parts over the holidays but not been anywhere near the car to fit them yet.
 
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Bodywise i've de-stickered it and following the unfortunate demise of CUJ's Bianca Rallye i've procured a replacement rear bumper, a replacement drivers door+loom, some standard mirrors and a few direct replacements like the missing splitter, gloveboxes and the broken time clock. I've also bought a new set of Rallye decals to replace the missing/faded ones from Rick.
 
Performancewise I have a set of Gaz Gold coilovers, some BakerBM solid mounts, some Michelin slicks and a Hybrid ARB sitting in the conservatory at home.
 
I have also initiated the purchases of:
a Supercharger kit with the engine (cambelt and water pump recently done - current engine has a none-typical tapping noise, only appears when warm)
VTS box
VTS rack
VTS beam
Brembos
 
I suspect it will be a little while before I can fit most of the above, not only due to the inclement weather but also because I have other things to deal with and am pencilled in for a stint overseas at a currently undetermined point in the new year. There are a few assets to be liquidated from it when new parts replace others.
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NEW BOOTS!
 
Bye bye red wheels, I need more room soon.
 

 
Looks 10X better, albeit covered in ming. Rear looks high, but it's fighting the handbrake. Have a new beam lined up anyway that will drop it.
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Did a few bits over the weekend.
 
Fitted the top glove box and ditched the ghetto cover that was there. Got the standard mirrors on (well one anyway, i'm changing the whole drivers door to cure loom issues). Also now have a working clock in there.
 
I also investigated the lack of any dash and centre console lighting but drew a blank, confused about that.
 
Got 44000 things to do it seems, and with no daylight in the evenings and no garage for it, it seems slow going.
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Just a few updates as it's been MOT weekend for the HDi, resulting in...:
 

 
:thumbsup
 
Back onto the Rallye then. Changed the door I picked up off CUJ which has thankfully sorted out a number of issues from a dead checkstrap that clanked really badly to a loom that didn't work because it had been hacksawed an inch into the door. :laugh
 

 
Put a bit of colour back into that side anyway. I've got new Rallye stickers in the house courtesy of Rick_Rallye and will be sorting all those out when the weather warms up and I can give it a quick once over with the machine polisher.
 
Also got my new shoes on the Superlegs:

 
Now sticks like the proverbial at last. s**te red wheels were sold on!
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Investigated the rocking passenger seat this morning to find that the genius who installed them only put 2 of 4 bolts in the 306 runner, neither of which were tight. :<<
 
Also found that the seat rails they were mounted too were genuine Cobra, which was nice, and that they were using 10mm spacers which I removed on both seats as i felt they were a little high for my liking. I'd banged my nogging a couple of times already on the cage. :rolleyes
 
Got a couple of cars to sort out first which will see attention diverted away from the Rallye for about a month I expect, whilst I continue to hoard parts. Still trying to sell the last of the Rover parts which is time consuming.
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Tonights post is brought to you by the letter
 

 
For seal. :laugh
 
Came home from work to find the light rinsing from earlier today has made the car damp as fook inside again so went around the car refitting various seals the previous owner delightfully binned.
 
Before

 
After


 
Weatherproof at last. Small, but important.
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Finally managed to start getting to work on the Rallye today having dealt with numerous other things first. I've also managed to cover it in dirty hand prints and the cats helped out with a few dirty paw prints. Heh.
 
Got my crystals on:

 
Got my P3 repeaters on there:

 
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So i've been short of time lately, having been away on business for a fortnight. Nontheless, the Raceland coilovers are off and gone, replaced by:
 

 

 
It dawned on me today that i thought it was a little strange the rears don't have dust boots. Anyone else got a picture of rear Gaz Golds? I'll get a pair if they exist.
 
As i'm an engineer for a company manufacturing power station equipment, we have a rather sizeable and very well equipped workshop. As a result, I got the lads to ash blast and seam weld a spare subframe I had, completed in just 1 day around their actual work lol. The blasting got rid of most of the s**te, but it tends to leech out of the joints as it's welded. Gavin is a really top quality welder, proper meticulous in his prep and can't stand anything less than a perfect job so the leeching irritated the hell out of him. I was more than happy. :lol
 

 

 

 
Off to the powdercoaters when i've brought the rest of the bits in.
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Had a bit of a subdued weekend so spent a bit of time sorting bits out as it's a bit of a mobile skip at the moment, full of various parts destined either for the Rallye or to be sold.
 
I prepared some Phase 3 rubstrips during the week, so fitted those and cleaned 10 years of ming from behind the old ones.
 

 
I'm very pleased with how it's looking at the moment, especially considering all the cosmetic stuff on the outside didn't cost me anything.
 
I've managed to sort out the non functinoning dash lights which is very pleasing. It transpires that the rheostat completes the circuit whether it's there or blanked, and the previous owner in his wisdom binned it. As a result I had no lights, glad that it's an easy fix as electrics are not my forte. Ironic for a power station engineer but that's why I work with the turbine not the generator.
 
I took the front bumper off to refit the splitter and do a sort of smart repair all the gravel rash, and rectify the missing splitter. Don't suppose anyone has a drivers Rallye blank kicking about?
 
Tried out my new jetwash to blast all the crap out from the arches and the engine bay which was mildly toxic it was so filthy. Should make stripping it down less of a chore, as i'm taking steps to get the new lump ready to drop in. The car has obviously lived under a tree or something at some point as there was inordinate amounts of moss and ming in all of the seals and shuts. I got half a field out of the rear window. :S
 
Hope to take my subframe to the powdercoaters tomorrow lunchtime, with a view to having it returned for the weekend so I can build it up. I need to make a start taking the engine out, but I have a lot of things to do both in and out of work at the moment so progress is by no means moving at the pace i'd like it to and still learning Peugeots so i'm not the quickest at some jobs.
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Yeah i've noticed they don't come off willingly.. :doh
 

The more parts you take out the boot, the more desperately it needs lowering!

 
Removing a gearbox from the boot helps with that. :whistle
 
Still, I resorted to playing spot the difference tonight.
 

 
Buggered if i can work out what the difference is. :whistle
 
Subframe at the powdercoaters. £10 ftw - bet he f*cks it up or something. :lol
 
Got confirmation from a helpful man at Gaz that the revised design of Golds required no boot at the rear, although the can be purchased separately. The seal was apparently revised. Might still get some boots if they're cheap.
 
 
 
Thursday 10/3/11 update:
 
 
Ok i'll just keep editing this post for now rather than bump the thread with uninteresting non shiny bits. Ordered some Gaz dust boots for £11 delivered, expected next week.
 
Got my dash lights working ftw, so chucked in some P3 clocks. Little dark spots in the usual places but it's better than total darkness!

 
Wednesday's job became Thursday's job after Royal fail couldn't find my parcel at the post office. Ordered a bargainous filler elbow for the petrol tank off ebay for half dealer prices, came in a Peugeot bag - must be old stock.
 

 
I set to work getting it off, i'm an unfortunate dab hand at that seeing as I had to find and cure a mystery diesel leak on the HDi last year. There it is next to the old one, which had quite a few cracks in so i'm hoping it's the culprit. I would guess so since it looked like this in Dec:

 
Job done.

Replaced the gash peugeot clips with jubilee clips as per my HDi.
 
 
Current status:
 
Fitted:
Drivers door
P3 Rubstrips
Standard Mirrors
Gaz Golds
Crystals
Splitter
Boot seal/windscreen seal/door seals
Superleggeras (road)
Mintex 1144 front pads with oem discs
Arch liners x2
Top glovebox
Clock!
 
Sorted:
Aerial
Sorted Front bumper (bad gravel rash)
Clanking door pins replaced
Dash lights fixed
Wiper
 
Got to change clutch in HDi soon which will deviate me from the point somewhat!
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Yeah it's pretty remote, it was just moisture ingress that concerned me. Well, we can see what turns up and if it's any good!
 
Edit:
 
Made some progress today. Flywheel is on the new engine:
 

 
Looks nice, gave it a good clean once on, and modified the clutch to fit (drill the fitting holes out to 8mm)
 

 
Just need to sort the box out now then I can bolt it up off the car and drop the pair in when i'm ready.
 
Moved onto the car to sort some bodges out. Amazing how one man can bodge so much in a short space of time. Half the bolts holding the seat frames to the floor were any old s**te, so fished some genuine Pug 10.9s out the garage and used them, job done. Whilst seats were out, I managed to fill half of my Dyson with soil, leaves etc from the car. :rolleyes
 
After removing the final bits of sound deadening residue I chucked in a half carpet I had as I prefer it to no carpet. I got the idea from Nick!'s Rallye.
 
 
 

 
No longer a mobile skip.... at least for a week or so lol.
 

 
Need to locate my spot weld remover and get those useless brackets out the back. Low priority really, got a lot of mechanicals to do now.
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So I took it out this morning for a shake down and picked up a few things I wanted to correct/investigate during the engine change. I have suspension issues somewhere, it likes to wander under braking. No doubt the roller wishbones will cure that.
 
Thought she looked alright, albeit in dire need of a wash:


 
So good in fact I drove it home and pulled it apart. :laugh Found me a GTi6 on the way back to base to toy with, he was impressed I was pulling away in a straight line, with a sewing machine on full slipper in front of me. :laugh
 
So I started making tracks in the engine bay, got the box oil and engine oil out first - worrying this required this bit of kit to get the sump plug off:

 
Retards. :rolleyes
 
This is a sample of the ming i've got to get rid of (post jet washing the bay!):
 




 
Just carried on at my own little pace. I'm still learning so I wasn't out to break any speed records, just be methodical, and take pics so I can put it back together properly.
 
Here endeth today's progress. I doubt i'll remove the engine til next weekend but we'll see how adventurous i'm feeling tomorrow. Got to find a clean way to drop the PAS fluid.

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Only a mini update tonight, got my subframe back from the powdercoaters ftw.
 

 

[Pompey306mark]

Amazing

[Eeyore]

looks awesome!

[Dum-Dum]

Like!

[C.A.R.]

Sweet!

Read it before but skimmed through it again.

I actually went up as passenger (co driver?!) in Nicks' old red Rallye to a meet a couple of years back (after writing my GTi6 off...). One thing I can't tell from your posts is whether you stripped the headlining and sun-blinds?

If you did, you definitely need a sun-strip! Stuck pinned in the buckets by the harnesses and totally blinded by the light - Nick had thought of bringing some sunglasses. Me? Not so much.

Looks sweet as fook though mate!

[vlj]

Absolutely superb read, love it!

[Alee83]

Looks totally faptastic... Really love,this car! Nice work :clap:

[Matt]

f*ck you. Now need to do more to my Rallye, made me jealous haha

[7057sam]

Awsome mate.Is that a charger from lynx?or carl (cgcars)

[thethorne]

wow good work man really nice car....

[C2K]

Continued from Post 1:
Here it is with quality control, his name's Oscar - he cut his teeth on QC about 3 years ago.


Built it up with my Xsara rack that's ready to go on.


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Wahey:



Engine and gearbox came out particularly willingly, with no dramas whatsoever.

Engine mount was loose as f*ck on the cambelt side so feared the worst at first, til I realised it wasn;t actually moving anything below it. Had a good survey of the area and noticed that some dopey twat hadn't actually bothered to do the mount up properly, it was a clear 3 threads from the chassis. :crazy Had a washer on it that wasn't supposed to be there and took me about 15 minutes to get off as it had grown onto the thread. Frigging thing.

Not pretty, but solid and will do for now.

If it goes then the 100 Tonne crane and the welding bay at work will be employed. :whistle

Big hole!


:laugh

Oh, and a courier brought me a present..




:hyper Tran-X FTW. It was the one thing I really didn't want used. :no Thanks to Mr Miles.
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Just a few little updates of the last few nights.

Got a bit further with the bay, having attacked it with the pressure washer, degreaser, and varying degrees of elbow grease. Came up nice, and left me with quite a bit of painting to do.




I went over the back one more time and got rid of the ming in the last pic. Light was fast fading so called it a day and will survey in daylight Saturday morning.

Retiring to the conservatory.. I reckon i'm missing something here..


Ah, there it is:


Took it to work with me today with the LSD, and left it with the valve fitters for 10 mins to go and look at some monster rotor cracks in the lathe, returned to:


Job jobbed. :thumbsup Thanks very much to Miles for the help with the correct torque and words of wisdom re orientation :yes :whistle

Also picked up a few bits I had blasted at work and coated.



Not touched the car tonight as I found out this morning i'm going to South Africa for 2 months+ at the end of next week. Rallye is going to have to take a backseat til mid summer I think. I have this weekend to get the engine plopped in and mounted, and i'd dearly like it back on the deck.
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Productive start to the morning after changing a friends driveshaft, we turned to the Rallye. Subframes swapped out and VTS rack equipped seam welded subframe installed yo. Group N Linkages on and ready, new clutch cable run but appears that the spring on my clutch pedal is f*cked, gonna have to find a new one of those.



These turned up just in time for installation. Richw roller bearing bushes and pretty much brand new balljoints.



Should eliminate the wooly handling, coupled with the PhillipM Droplinks i've just bought.

Engine bay prepped I turned attentions to the gearbox. The diff required some fettling as I was warned, grinding of a couple of casting webs inside the box. Not too taxing, just trial and error.




Blue checked it one last time and job's a good'un. Box rebuilt and ready to mate with the engine in the morning.
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Simple Update for the day albeit not simple by task. Engine and box are in the bay, suspension and driveshafts re-built and car is on the deck.



That's where I wanted it to get to prior to South Africa. Probably buy some cheap oil to drop in the engine and box just to keep things lubed up.
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Postman brought me a present today..



Nice, love it. Won't get around to fitting them for a bit. Berger will probably steal them from my house. hifty
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-Well, my trip to SA got delayed by 7 days in the end due to complications with the SA project office. I semi-prepared the rallye for long term standing, to try and do as many jobs as possible to prevent things being forgotten.

Peugeot's finest


PTFE inlet manifold gasket


All new Nylocs on the suspension and steering arms


Inlet manifold, injectors and fuel rail on


GE quickshift fitted


Lower strut brace fitted


Loom back in and cranking off the HDi to get some oil to the head.



Looking a bit more presentable at least, however I flew to SA on the 1st April so it's already been standing a fortnight nearly. itching to finish it but having an awesome time out here.
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Ok so it's been a while. Had some spare time this week so thought i'd crack on with a few jobs. Main aim of the time before I return to SA was to make sure that it runs, seeing as it was a bit of a parts bin coming together and the donor car had a few pains. So, first job was wiring extension.

Order up one box of tricks, one electrician friend, some cups of tea and one cold wind. ¬_¬



Job almost done:



Very tidy work by by friend Tom.

With the wiring complete the next step was coolant and the rad, so in she goes



Nissens rad and two spal fans, although i didn't get a chance to wire the fans in - she'll have to wait.


Had to take the PTFE gasket off as it was making the inlet manifold foul the supercharger, so bought a genuine Peugeot gasket, and re-painted the inlet manifold since it had hemorrhaged the paint where the rail dumped some petrol on it. Wire brushed, etch primed, painted and petrol-resistant lacquered this time. Looks nice.



From there I just went a bit gung-ho and pipes up the intercooler supported on my toolbox just to see if it runs. Cranked it for a bit and then hooked up the injectors and she coughed into life. During cranking though, my clocks moved round on the dials and decided they'd had enough, staying where they were - plus the mileage display is gone - anyone had this before? I presume they're dead but would rather make sure.



WTF?

Anyway, runs just a little lumpy but the engine has been stood over a year and the car almost a year now. Think the alternator belt is past it's best as something in the vicinity started squealing. Might have to dose it with WD40. At least I know it all works and can go on and buy the remaining parts I need like a charger fluid change, where I will move the cooler too to behind the drivers fog recess. I will then change the engine oil, add the spacer plate and fit a 19 row oil cooler behind the passenger fog recess.

So in all, it runs, which is where i wanted to be before I return to South Africa for a third stint. It's not likely to be ready to run before summer, but that's what pays the pennies after all - i've got a 600MW jigsaw puzzle to oversee for Eskom. Off to quickly was the moss off it now..
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Thanks for the kind words guys. Hopefully when I get back I can get it moving fairly quickly.

Off the top of my head I've still got the lowered Xsara beam with 21mm tbs, hybrid ARB, rose jointed droplinks, oil cooler and sandwich plate and my brakes to fit.

Sweet!

One thing I can't tell from your posts is whether you stripped the headlining and sun-blinds?

I will be buying the least chavvy sunstrip I can find, but for the time being I have a spare set of sunglasses which I leave in it.

Awesome mate.Is that a charger from lynx?or carl (cgcars)

I didn't get it from them but it's a kit from Carl.

[7057sam]

Ah cl have you had it dyno'd yet ?

[C2K]

Not yet, as per the text I was partway through boosting it when South Africa beckoned. I tried to get it all done and dusted before I came back/during visits home but to little success so far!

Got to spend some quality time with the girlfriend too when i get back!

[C2K]

Well a few days tatting with things on the HDi and the house normal service can resume.

Car itself was in a bit of a state given how long it has been standing outside (plus my twat of a neighbour has scratched the f*ck out of the passenger side with his wheely bins). Could see that growth on it as i was blasting it with the jetwash. The filth washing out of the door shuts and things was disgusting as usual. As the wheely bin fell over and cracked the passenger side cluster I set about that first as it was quick and easy - only to find epic ming everywhere:



ew!



So I spent about an hour cleaning all the mould, ming, growth etc from the door shuts. Then I went back to checking my earths for my non functioning clocks but with no joy, found a bad earth but connecting it only got me functioning warning lights, still no dial life.

God to sort out the amazon rainforest that is my back garden tomorrow then I shall return to the car I think.

[C2K]

I've fixed the smegging clocks at last! After all that it was a blown fuse that you couldn't see, just failed continuity! At last!






So I am here...



Except I bothered to put all the wipers and that back in. All I have to do now is fit the oil cooler, relocate the supercharger oil cooler and mount the intercooler! oh, and check the suspension/fit the droplinks.

Gotta go back to SA though!

[C.A.R.]

Just leave the keys under my doormat. I'll finish the job while you're gone

[padge]

looking good mate.

[C2K]

Just leave the keys under my doormat. I'll finish the job while you're gone

Sure thing, :p
Cannot describe how chuffed i was last night. Put about 4 hours back into it just putting stuff back that i'd taken apart trying to find issue.

[C2K]

Just a little update for this everning. Had the drivers wheel off to attach the droplink and check I torqued everything up, then went at the intercooler.



I've not carpeted my driveway, she's tucked up in the garage as Trevor is on holiday.

Intercooler is mounted properly, the pipes are just resting in position. I need to relocate the supercharger reservoir on the right hand pipe run as when i roughly positioned it, it's fouling both the rad switch and the boost pipe. Gonna stop off for some hose tomorrow on the way home if i can. Left hand side pipe is an extremely tight pipe run - think it's slightly too long axially but i'll get to the bottom of it.

Slam panel looks a bit skanky but it's a spare that I was scrapping which I can drill lots of holes in til i'm happy with the oil cooler locations/bracketry. Forgot to order the lines for my oil cooler/sandwich plate though so piping it up will certainly have to wait.

Going to have to do a cambelt change to be safe, doubting myself for some reason on that one. Not sure quite why the cam pullies need to be rotated to set the belt tension.

[Tallguy_2]

Read this on the gti6 forum mate, a lot of work in that, fair play to you, top job too

[C2K]

Thanks. Aiming to get it running and presentable for an MOT, then i'll tat about with things and tidy them up once I know she's legal. It's a massive pain in the arse having an immobile car on the driveway blocking the garage.

Gotta pop back to SA for a quick stint but aiming to cross the finish line in 2012.

[C2K]

Well I piped the intercooler up last night and started it up to make sure all was working well. Sounds a bit tappy but it'll quieten down. Got to sort some fans out as I need to adapt the wiring loom yet. Hopefully a good weekend once I come back and she'll be properly mobile.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4147571/rallyep...EO0017.3gp

[Curt]

Awesome project, really good read

[DavidG]

AWESOME!!! Good read, Im thinking about charging my XSi myself in the summer.

[318d4n]

some good reading, looking good now mate

[C2K]

Thanks guys. Finish line is in sight so hopefully I can get it polished off when I come back in December. Having it in my Garage has helped enormously tbh.

[C2K]

Had to go back to South Africa until early January, so this had to stay on the back burner.

I'm home now, and have amassed some parts which were required to get it mobile as the TVR is home this weekend and just bought the other half a Dooper so this thing needs to be able to move!!

The supercharger oil system is split up at the moment whilst I re-route the piping, and a last minute change of plan as to where I wanted the coolers has meant I needed some new lines which have just turned up.

She started and ran fine no problems, and the dashboard electrical issue is now fixed, so she's not far off moving under her own steam. My electrician friend has studied the fan wiring and is making me a little loom for them which is nice.

It's not the most exciting project on the forum, granted, but hope that it looks a bit more respectable in weeks to come.

[306GT30]

Loveing mate!!
keep the pics coming!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Piggy]

looking ace chap...and welcome to a proper forum

[Ruan]

Welcome?!

C2K is like older than 306oc itself!