My Citroen AX GT5 project

[clarkey2010]

Well after many years away from the forum after selling my Citroen ZX and Ash's old 306 vnt estate, i thought id post my latest long term project as my normal forum has gone aweful quite.

Some might not make sense as some is copied from the AXOC

from the pictures in the advert i think a few people were abit worried about the mileage etc...but later that day and a few phone calls and messages later with the seller along with a HPI check etc... we decided to go a view it.

now at this point driving close to 4 hours we are hoping it to be worth while as in the past car sellers haven't been honest or describing cars as MINT! when in reality its a rust bucket, but thankfully mark the seller was absolutely spot on! and all round top bloke.

8 hours later its on the drive  8) 



obviously nothing happened that night as it was pitch black so we started looking through the folder of history that came with the car  :o 





both of us were quite surprised at the vast amount of history with it, all the old MOT's, service receipt even the receipts for the bulbs & wipers which i was gob smacked at  8)





Day 2:

couple of daylight photos.









Wilsys OCD is probably kicking in now    











couple of the underside (considering its ages its quite tidy imo)







Boot floor









fog lights look in pretty good nick too which is another winner! (one looks like to have the chrome reflector peal inside)





probably the first time it has ever been cleaned in a long time has started today   



Snow foam with no agitation at all  hock: 

it was followed by a quick wash and de-tar which i didn't take any pictures of it because really no one is that bothered lol 

next up fallout remover (Autobrites Purple rain 2.0) 






quite bad for a car that has lived most of its life in London  hock: 

also managed to clay half the bonnet but with the amount of contamination coming off i am going need a few more packs of clays lol

anyway pulled the lights out to see what its like behind.








another thumbs up from me  :mrgreen: 




and a quick shot of the them together (when I still had my )

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Nothing big has happened other then cleaning away the gunk to see what we have underneath in the engine bay 





Also ordered:
New plugs
Ht leads
Rotor arm
Distribution cap
Ignition coil 
Air filter
Oil filter
Fuel
Oil
Gearbox oil


as much as we loved the wheels that came with the car , sadly they have been pulled off the car and replaced with these.





Headlights off as they were seriously gunked up.



more cleaning. a more intense clean will happen once the garage is sorted where it will be moved too.



Another nice edition thanks to Paul/Onzo which are hard to come by these days 8) (ignore the dirty parcel shelf and interior lo


New plugs: DONE
Ht leads: DONE
Rotor arm: DONE
Distribution cap: DONE
Ignition coil: DONE
Air filter: DONE
Oil filter: DONE
Fuel Filter: DONE
Oil: DONE


we also managed to sort the garage out and the GT5 now has a dry home  :mrgreen: 



right with it in the garage we can now start the rust hunting as every AX has some hiding somewhere   so we started with pulling all the kit off to see what we are dealing with.

















with a quick wipe down i dont think there is anything serious this side of the car at all. a small blister which can be treated. but so far so good    







one thing that we did spot cleaning the dirt off was the letters WTE ? anyone have any ideas ?



we have managed to get the kit off with 99% of clips in one piece. 1 had to be drilled out (which is expected tbh).i have managed to source all new clips anyway including the wedge shaped clips, as 1 or 2 are damaged.

Front bumper off, sadly the headlight clips broke when removing (no surprise really) but managed to source a few new sets  :mrgreen: along with wedge clips as i see a few of mine have broken or damaged when we removed them.

 









Yummy!











wing off.



just a quick clean up and its come up alright. will need a polish before reassembling and maybe a wax or a clear underseal (bilthamber)dont know just yet. but thankfully no rust   





probably noticed in the other pictures the black inner arches, it seems that it had some protection put on from when it was new which has probaly saved it that little bit longer from rust. but still iffy on black inner arches and would much prefer the white imo but we will see. (Sprayed with Autosmart Tardis and wiped it down)



original brake ducts which are still intact 8)

[clarkey2010]

more dirt!

sadly the trim broke on the other side when removing it which i am not surprised at really but hay-ho will source new.



also managed to source a brand new rear GT badge after the original was stolen off the car when the previous owner had it , handful of wedge clips (which have mostly all sold), headlight clips as mine pretty much all broke from removing the headlights, new bonnet stay and bracket and a new genuine passenger side rear central locking solenoid to replace the dead one.





as i broke my roof trim removing them i have ordered some replacements ready to go on.


another ebay bargain as the one on car has split or being bashed to many times...



also my exhaust heat shield had rusted and the hose had started to fall to pieces, so new was ordered which surprisingly are both still available from the dealers

New fog lights also!





also thanks to wilsys AX thread i had to buy a plating kit and was quickly set up  :mrgreen: . took a few goes to get the hand of it which a few would of seen the poor attempts in the whatsapp group woops! lol





fresh out of the yellow passivate:








another before and after (abit too long in yellow passivate but still a big improvement over the originals)

before:




After:





and finally the latest piece which i have finished and was probably the largest piece i plated as well. alot of tinkering with the current controller to get a good even plate which is the hardest part in my opinion. not perfect but certainly a improvement   8) 



progress has been slow but things are slowly getting done.

we took the drivers side arch off to get started on repairing the small 20p size hole we had next to the washer bottle seen in a few photos further up. we didn't get many photos (i will have dig through the old photos on the external hard drive as i took a few ) of the repair.

we didn't want just cut a patch out and weld in another patch as it would look odd compared to the other side as they had grooves in which we wanted to replicate so it looked like it never had a repair.







only picture i can find atm of the finished repair which involved cutting out the rust, making up a plate and groove, alot of welding and grinding and then paint 








also managed to source a few new pieces which were needed for the front of the car, mostly the rubber grommets etc for the wings . 


another ebay find as my door is fudged which i collected from a Citroen dealer 



followed by some new bumper brackets and some OEM headlight rubber covers 



with the manifold coming off as it was blowing slightly we had the rad out as well to give things a once over and replace what is needed. the rad fan will  be plated by a local company as it wont go in my tank so that will be done at a later date as well. 



further investigation and a hour or so in the electrolysis tank we found our first victim lol 




luckily they are still available new and a adjustable power supply for more plating  8)



more to follow once i get everything uploaded off the laptop  8)

[Danny Wideboy]

What a sweet, rust free example.
Getting a lot of love as well. Nice one.

[zx_volcane]

wow, a really nice example, great work so far!

[td_dan]

excellent work, love the plating it really makes a difference

[darrenjlobb]

Great project, love what your doing with the plating!

[Choppin]

Lovely little project, look forward to seeing where it goes....... and that plating is awesome!! Haha

[clarkey2010]

Cheers guys the plating took a few goes to get a semi decent results (and by all means not perfect now) but better then the originals lol

Still have more to post just need sit down and write it up

[Eeyore]

omg this is all fantastic! Cant belive what good condition its in. Shame its a 5 door but its properly mint! that interior is very jazzy too!

[clarkey2010]

cheers guys,

few more plating pieces which are just odd screws and nuts


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[url=http://s247.photobucket.com/user/apc2008/media/AX%20GT5/IMG_20150919_233357_zpsyqtmkuux.jpg.html]
also purchased some more parts mostly service parts and NOS discs and pads (trying keep as much genuine old stock parts going back on the car depending on what i can source)





also removed the exhaust as the middle pipe had a nice repair from the previous owner which sadly wasn't cutting it for me. but luckily managed to source a new genuine middle section and genuine backbox.
was polished up briefly with autosol and wire wool and coated to keep the shine that little bit longer, the middle section will get the same treatment once i come to get it fitted.













on the line of buying i got a new genuine Rad , granted the one on the car was fine it was just getting abit scabby to look at after all them years so just to be on the safe side i thought i would replace it for good measures








anyway fast forward about a month or so and with everything out of the bay (other then the engine , dont have the space) we wanted get the bay painted up as there was chips all over the bay and just didnt look to pretty.
to cut a long story short and save me typing a big paragraph we stripped all the paint off with nitromors back to bare metal due to the paint reacting for some unknown reason (did have pictures but cant seem to find them on my photobucket account)







not the best job in the world and abit annoyed that the odd crack has appeared but i can probably live with it until next year until it gets a full body respray to get it looking minty fresh.

so it currently sits like this at the moment (apologies for the shite picture)

[clarkey2010]

with paint drying i have started getting pieces back on the car.

manifold was left in the electrolysis tank to get it perfectly clean and all the crud off it, then it was painted in POR15's high temp paint in their cast colour.



then it was to be baked in the oven for 15mins on 170c, then upped it to 200c for 15 mins and again at the max the little oven would do just to be on the safe side, as a few people have said it doesn't like getting hot to quickly.



 


then off to mounted with new gasket and nuts




downpipe also got a similar treatment but this time attacked with multiple goes with Bilthamber deox gel, followed with POR15's paint.









bonnet back on as we are running out of space in our small garage lol



few more odds and sods going back on now and its starting to abit more like a Citroen AX GT again.

[Eeyore]

ah it just gets better!

[Mattcheese31]

feel the love going into this mate . .

[mr_fish]

bringing it back to a real tidy example, expect finding all those NOS parts is quite satisfying to put to good use.

[clarkey2010]

cheers guys, yeah sourcing the old stock parts has taken alot of the time, as i only want use NOS parts where i can to keep it close to OEM.
obviously there are a few bits that are not NOS like the cambelt and water pump etc... as i don't really want take my chances.

anyway i got some yellow fog light covers for when it finished because #frenchcarscenepoints




another big hunt was a another GT5 carpet which has literally took close to 12 months + for one to even pop up forsale. the one in car has a big hole in where the previous owner had worn heals or work boots which was a shame. a quick hoover and a wetvac and it will be as new


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next part was to get all the suspension looking new again, so the wishbones have been pulled off the car, along with the struts,springs and ARB.
they have all been stripped down (balljoints pressed out etc...) and will be sent off to be blasted and powder coated, so just waiting for them to come back.

calipers were taken off and sent to BiggRed for a complete refurb which i am very pleased with!

before:


After:

[url=http://s247.photobucket.com/user/apc2008/media/AX%20GT5/IMG_20170125_211304_zpsknltuzul.jpg.html]


which will go nice with the stainless lines from HEL (black cover to try and keep it abit OEM lol )



also a box a fluid arrived! (ignore the Quantum thats for the VAG daily)





also waiting for the following to turn up:

powerflex rear wishbone bushes ( i know the citroen purests wont like it )
powerflex front bushes
new misc nuts and bolts
new balljoints
top mounts
new driveshafts + seals