Hedgehog Motors - The ̶L̶e̶x̶ Rex Files

[davidfowler2000]

I approve of the fact you too have decided that a collection thread commences when you leave the house even if it's a multi-day affair.

[Shirley Knott]

Great thread, assuming this is still cherry bomb equipped I'd imagine you now have tinnitus?

[davehedgehog31]

First impressions after 200+ miles home. 

The binnacle surround is all cracked to fuck, the bottom of it is pushing onto the back of the steering wheel which produces some interesting, nonlinear steering weight. It is perhaps the most irritating thing I have ever experienced on a car and it will be getting the dremel to it. 

Groan from somewhere (wasn't my passenger) and a clunk from NSF. 

May be placebo but think brakes improved on the drive. 

Exhaust is very loud indeed. 

Think someone else has vegged it, aftermarket fuel filter and clear hoses. 

None of the instrument lighting works at all, ask me how I know. 

Not achieving full throttle travel so progress is extra slow, will be easy fixed. 

Paint is woeful. Car is generally "charming" 

So a fair few small points to crack on with - but it will be a really nice and characterful little steer once everything is done! Cheers again Mike for the lift etc and honest description. See you at the end of next month! 

[davehedgehog31]

35 minutes ago, Shirley Knott said:

Great thread, assuming this is still cherry bomb equipped I'd imagine you now have tinnitus?

Indeed. It quietens down a fair bit on the motorway, but it's not for the shy and retiring type. 

[davehedgehog31]

13 hours ago, big_al_granvia said:

did you not buy a 205 a couple of months ago?? collecting pugs that run on chip oil

 

Indeed I did. This one won't be with me long term, it has two potential custodians lined up! 

[The Moog]

 

 

 

 

First impressions after 200+ miles home.  The binnacle surround is all cracked to fuck, the bottom of it is pushing onto the back of the steering wheel which produces some interesting, nonlinear steering weight. It is perhaps the most irritating thing I have ever experienced on a car and it will be getting the dremel to it. 

Groan from somewhere (wasn't my passenger) and a clunk from NSF. 

May be placebo but think brakes improved on the drive. 

Exhaust is very loud indeed. 

Think someone else has vegged it, aftermarket fuel filter and clear hoses. 

None of the instrument lighting works at all, ask me how I know. 

Not achieving full throttle travel so progress is extra slow, will be easy fixed. 

Paint is woeful. Car is generally "charming" 

So a fair few small points to crack on with - but it will be a really nice and characterful little steer once everything is done! Cheers again Mike for the lift etc and honest description. See you at the end of next month! 

 

 

I think previous owners vegged it - you get a whiff every now and then.

 

Clear hose was me as when I got it, it wouldn't start or run properly so changed fuel hose out and stuck clear in to check for bubbles.

 

Not sure where the filter is from but it has a priming bulb built into the top.

 

 

 

It's not a bad car considering I rescued it from being scrap - all boot has been welded and it has got a set of newish tyres.

 

 

[davehedgehog31]

Ah cheers man, I remember you writing about it, but struggling to remember which 205 on here is which! 

Absolutely right, it's not a bad car at all. It will tidy up nicely. Was pleasantly surprised to see four nice tyres too! 

[loserone]

Does all the instrument lighting come on with the handbrake like before?

[loserone]

13 minutes ago, davehedgehog31 said:

Indeed I did. This one won't be with me long term, it has two potential custodians lined up! 

Considering one has already paid for it, I don't think your brother has much of a chance.

 

Scary reckoned one of the UJs in the steering column was a bit notchy too.

[davehedgehog31]

24 minutes ago, loserone said:

Does all the instrument lighting come on with the handbrake like before?

Nah dude, remember you'd mentioned that. Will get a look at it this weekend. 

[Lacquer Peel]

I thought it wasn't unleashing all of its 59 horses as well.
Stretched/slack accelerator cable? I did it up a wee bit which didn't make much difference.

[davehedgehog31]

Myself and 320T had an afternoon of cars yesterday. First I gave him a run down to look at this very period Renault 25. 

Somehow, he contrived to not buy it. 

We set off back to Cumbernauld to prod the 205. It has a list of annoying foibles but will clean up into a nice enough car. First to look at would be the lack of lighting on the instrument binnacle. An easy thing to solve you'd think?

I have two sets of clocks, both varying levels of shagged. The instrument lighting is from two small capless bulbs that sit on the top and light down onto the dials, the tracks on the good clocks seem to be well fucked, handily the more fucked clocks have some bodged wiring into it. This however would only illuminate when the handbrake was on. My helper more than myself, figured out that it was earthed to the handbrake switch and moving the earth to the body has solved this. I have no full beam light, and with those lights wired to the dipped beam lights, handily* my clocks are plunged into darkness when the full beams are on... still some figuring out to do. Might be I try and strip out all the bodged wiring and replace with the clocks from my other 205 to test. 

After dropping my helpful helper off I continued for another hour or so until it got dark. The cowling and wheel surround is in a poor state, leading to the wheel rubbing against the cowling. Shaving a few mm off with a file and some gentle self tapper adjustment of the plastics geometry has fixed this particular  issue. 

Cast your eyes over some lovely patinated 205. There's a solid car in here, the interior is very charming. 

 

 

[Microwave]

Aha, I love how many owners this has had since I first put it on here. Out of curiosity, has the service history folder been passed on every time or has someone kept it for themselves? It’s got quite an extensive service history and has all the original manuals etc.

My other question is: has nobody noticed how fucking badly it leaks water in? Or has someone sorted it? When I had it parked up for yonks, I’d come to it sometimes and the rear footwells would be like small ponds. I thought I fixed it at one point, but apparently I hadn’t, which is when I gave up and sold it. So with that said, has anybody bothered to give the rear seats a clean with a wet vac? Because they were manky when I had it as I never got round to doing the rear of the car.

[davehedgehog31]

57 minutes ago, Microwave said:

Aha, I love how many owners this has had since I first put it on here. Out of curiosity, has the service history folder been passed on every time or has someone kept it for themselves? It’s got quite an extensive service history and has all the original manuals etc.

My other question is: has nobody noticed how fucking badly it leaks water in? Or has someone sorted it? When I had it parked up for yonks, I’d come to it sometimes and the rear footwells would be like small ponds. I thought I fixed it at one point, but apparently I hadn’t, which is when I gave up and sold it. So with that said, has anybody bothered to give the rear seats a clean with a wet vac? Because they were manky when I had it as I never got round to doing the rear of the car.

I've not dug into it to be honest. There is the original book pack in the boot but not seen what is in it yet. 

I hope it doesn't leak that badly, but not optimistic given it has a sunroof. Rear seats will be coming out to give the whole thing a damn good hoovering and the carpets a scrub, so we'll see what it's like. It was in LoserOne's lockup and it's been unusually dry of the last few days.

How long did you own it for? 

[beko1987]

3 hours ago, davehedgehog31 said:

Myself and 320T had an afternoon of cars yesterday. First I gave him a run down to look at this very period Renault 25. 

Somehow, he contrived to not buy it. 

Blimey how fucked was it then?

 

[The Moog]

Didnt leak for me and sat out in silly rain.

The clocks are a nightmare. I had pretty much all bulbs working for a week after fixing the handbrake warning light. Then slowly they stopped working again. The tracks were shagged so was going to either wire them in or get new binnacle.

Some of the bulbs I put in were led so they only work one way round so if they have been fiddled with may just be that.

[davehedgehog31]

1 minute ago, beko1987 said:

Blimey how fucked was it then?

 

It actually seemed to drive really nicely, would have been a nice thing to smoke about in.

Just too many niggly things that would have been fiddly to sort and difficult to source. Was strongish money. 

[Microwave]

26 minutes ago, davehedgehog31 said:

How long did you own it for?

Uhhh think I bought it February ish of 2018, sold it to a guy who lives near me around Christmas time possibly(?) and then Snagglepuss bought it from him. 

Me and a friend spent a whole day fucking about with the binnacle, we had that dash apart so many times but alas it was never fixed. Decided fixing the bodged to shite radio wiring was more important, so it atleast had choons (dunno if it has a radio in right now but the speakers are honestly quite good considering).

The leaking was a bit intermittent, and to be honest I think it depends on where and how it’s parked. I found it rarely leaked in when parked one way, but constantly leaked when parked another way, which made me consider the possibility that the sills were filling with water, hence the welding it needed. Might be worth looking into to be honest. If you look at my post history and find the topic where I originally brought this thing to the forum, you can see the state that it was in when I first got it. Extreme mould.

[davehedgehog31]

55 minutes ago, snagglepuss said:

Didnt leak for me and sat out in silly rain.

The clocks are a nightmare. I had pretty much all bulbs working for a week after fixing the handbrake warning light. Then slowly they stopped working again. The tracks were shagged so was going to either wire them in or get new binnacle.

Some of the bulbs I put in were led so they only work one way round so if they have been fiddled with may just be that.

 

28 minutes ago, Microwave said:

Uhhh think I bought it February ish of 2018, sold it to a guy who lives near me around Christmas time possibly(?) and then Snagglepuss bought it from him. 

Me and a friend spent a whole day fucking about with the binnacle, we had that dash apart so many times but alas it was never fixed. Decided fixing the bodged to shite radio wiring was more important, so it atleast had choons (dunno if it has a radio in right now but the speakers are honestly quite good considering).

The leaking was a bit intermittent, and to be honest I think it depends on where and how it’s parked. I found it rarely leaked in when parked one way, but constantly leaked when parked another way, which made me consider the possibility that the sills were filling with water, hence the welding it needed. Might be worth looking into to be honest. If you look at my post history and find the topic where I originally brought this thing to the forum, you can see the state that it was in when I first got it. Extreme mould.

Cheers chaps. It's got a set of clocks in it that L1 acquired but still no binnacle lighting, not sure if it's the wiring car side or just another fucked cluster. I've got my other 205 with known good cluster, so will two way test at some point. 

No stereo in it at the minute, but did notice the ISO adapters there so should take two ticks to install one tonight. 

[Microwave]

There’s receipts for a shit sparkrite alarm from 1990 or 91 in the history folder, and there does still appear to be the odd bit of wiring for it here and there. Furthermore, like I said earlier, the radio wiring was dangerously bodged to fuck so it really wouldn’t surprise me if someone’s done something to knacker the cluster in some capacity. One of my favourite (not) memories in a car is driving this thing back from the North East on a winter night with extremely shit headlights and no dash lights. Had to have the reading light on to see the speedo through variable speed limits hahaha

[davehedgehog31]

Made good progress on this tonight. 

First order of business, door check strap. Easy enough. First things first, door card off.

Check strap is held in with two 10mm nuts which you will undoubtedly drop into the door cavity, or will stick to back of the speaker in the door. The other end is attached to the body using a roll pin which is extracted using your biggest flat screwdriver and a big hammer. Do yourself a favour and replace with nut and bolt as seen here.

An unpleasant job, given the door is constantly trying to shut on you.

I next tried to fit a stereo but it was dud, did test for 12v on ISO plug and got it, so reckon it's the head unit. Will try with another.

It was running some kind of canister fuel filter arrangement, I'm sure it would be fine but I sacked it off and went for my tried and trusted Freelander canister filter. Not final mounting position, will need more 10mm hose to site it down next to the radiator.

 

A few other jobs, took slack out throttle cable and bumped the idle up 100rpm or so, much less clattery now. Productive overall. Please see below for working binnacle lighting;

Then it met it's younger brother for the first time.

I even wash't the fucker. The damp bodywork really brings out the dug dick red.

 

[davehedgehog31]

7 hours ago, Microwave said:

There’s receipts for a shit sparkrite alarm from 1990 or 91 in the history folder, and there does still appear to be the odd bit of wiring for it here and there. 

From the year before I was born...

[Microwave]

Could be worse, 10 years and 2 months to the day before I was born. Feel old yet?

Good to see it finally has dash lights! I take it just swapping the binnacle worked?

You know I'd really love to have a go in this thing again one day, now that it actually idles and has all 59 pathetic horsepower. It always ran shite in my possession. 

[MorrisItalSLX]

6 hours ago, davehedgehog31 said:

A gingercators that originally had clearicators and a clearicators that originally had gingercators, what a time to be alive.

[davehedgehog31]

8 hours ago, Microwave said:

Good to see it finally has dash lights! I take it just swapping the binnacle worked?

Not quite, it does have a new binnacle, but the dash lights are fucked in that too. We harvested the wiring from the original binnacle and lashed something up that works for now. They do go off when you put the main beam on... but I can live with that for now. 

[davehedgehog31]

I've continued to work away at this, refitting most of the interior trim that was scattered around the car. Have removed the back seats and given the thing a good hoovering out. Much fresher inside now and seems to be surprisingly watertight. 

It was given a damn good polishing at 320T towers last night. The machine polisher and helper made it quite a painless task, apart from when I caught my shoulder on the door corner. 

Before pictures, car had already been cleaned by this point. 

After;

Note the difference particularly in the drivers door and bootlid before and after. We went over the full car with AutoGlym polish before following with a good coat of Bilt Hamber wax, it was beading water a treat this morning but didn't have my camera!

Unfortunately that dented rear quarter won't polish out, but the car is a hell of a lot fresher than a week ago.

 

 

[loserone]

Bit of wood and a mallet on the inside of the boot?

[The Moog]

Good job there! Unrecognizable car

[Tamworthbay]

I am 99% sure I have a set of base model clocks. I got them in a fit of enthusiasm to swap,out the clock as mine is, well, very French in its approach to using electricity to make things move. If you end up needing a set give me a shout and I will dig them out.

[davehedgehog31]

22 minutes ago, loserone said:

Bit of wood and a mallet on the inside of the boot?

Did try, access isn't great even with bottle removed. Think the best bet is to try and pull it out from outside.

20 minutes ago, snagglepuss said:

Good job there! Unrecognizable car

Cheers dude

16 minutes ago, Tamworthbay said:

I am 99% sure I have a set of base model clocks. I got them in a fit of enthusiasm to swap,out the clock as mine is, well, very French in its approach to using electricity to make things move. If you end up needing a set give me a shout and I will dig them out.

I think we'll be OK Sir, thanks for the kind offer though.