China XS, Shed to shiner

[Grant]

Picked up a china blue XS for £250 due to a blown head gasket.
The car was in pretty tired condition. The interior ripped everywhere, needing new bumpers, bonnet, grille, boot, both doors due to denting or scraping, and missing various bit of trim inside.

But underneath all this, the shell is near enough mint amazingly, and to top it off, the head gasket hasnt blown! No oil down the block, no mayo in the oil, not oil in the coolant, andit runs and pulls fine. I found a leak on the radiator, so I'm assuming the bloke though 'oh crap its losing water! Must be the head!'

So this weekend the work set about fitting all the goodies I've accumalated over the last few months!

Fitted a new bonnet as the existing one was creased and scratched up where someone had obviously hitted a stationary object. A but of T-cut, and maguiars 3-step system and some elbow grease later:



So we then decided to remove the front end to see the extent of the damage from the front end bump. We also did a surprise mod that I will be revealing in a couple of weeks:



It needs two new crystals as the tabs are broken on those ones, but I think I'm going to black mask the new ones

The GTI-6 inlet manifold i picked up at FCS for a bargain (inlet and exhaust mani from GTI-6: £30!) was stripped down and tarted up:



Fitted GTI-6 steering wheel, sorry for sideways pic. Amazing what a difference it makes to the look of the interior:



And new heater controls asthe writing had fallen off the buttons on the old one:



Stuck on FCS Stickers from other car:



Put on filler cap covers in carbon effect vinyl. Going to do door pillars in aswell (the original black is peeling) and possibly spoiler. Not sure yet:



Came home from work the other week, and had this little number waiting on the driveway for me, courtesy of Darren at JDSport:



Contained two new doors, and two bumpers.
All were in need of a good cut and polish, so half hour on the machine polisher later and they look like this...





A few posts back i mentioned a surprise mod... Well, as everyone is aware, the original horn on the 306 is for lack of a better word... gay... so...:



Started swapping these panels yesterday and today... he drivers door had been bent open at the top at some point so was creased, and the old one only opened if the key was held in the open position. Not useful if you leave the keys in the car . So out came the hammer and screwdriver, two seconds later thanks to crappy peugeot build quality...




So next on the list was tackling the knackered suspension. The lower arm, although probably not, looked original, and to be honest that wasn't all that looked wrong with it...:



So that was swiftly replaced, and the coilovers fitted:



More pics to come, but the PC is being stupidly slow so i'll try again tomorrow.

[Grant]

So to continue from the other day...

New door was put on with the car looking somewhat like this:



Quite a milestone really, as its the first time the car has been looking really good. Before it has looked tired and battered, but with the new wings (i know one isnt on yet in the pic) bonnet, bumper and door, its coming together nicely. And I must say i love it more and more each time i see it.


Pictures of the '6 interior if not already uploaded:



Can also see the '6 steering wheel up there.

Then the old door, that was buggered from being broken into (once before i bought it and once by me!) was sent off in a dignified manner, being pumped full of .22 lead! haha!





And in older news: niallharper from here has spent a couple of afternoons round mine, where we refurbed his clones. Came out pretty damn well if you ask me. Going to be doing mine within the next couple of weeks:




So all in a productive weekend. Going to to do the rest of the body pannels next weekend, and then board out the back, carpet it and prepare for the MOT...
that its going for on Monday. Dead nervous about that one...

[Grant]

So the car is finally on the road, passed it's MOT... Somehow... Advisories were: Corroded brake lines, No rear seats or belts fitted to the rear, and handbrake efficiency.. Not too bad considering im fitting brembo's soon and the handbrake is a doddle...

Anyway, the christmas break looming, it would be rude not to do some modification to the faithful slab...
Machine polised one half of the car and stuck on the new sticker on the rear window...
China looks soooooooo good when its polished up!

Clones are getting refurbed this week, and painted white. Think that should look quite good, although torn between white and 'darker-than-standard' silver...



Niall made a start on sound-deadening the rear, with some cloud nine. Going to order some bitumen sound sheets when I get paid, and fit the new speakers to the front...
Im sure he will be kind enough to stick up the pictures he got, if he reads this

[Grant]

Reserved 2

[Grant]

Reserved 3

[4WayDiablo]

looooking gooooooooddddddd

[Niall]

I knew you would end up buying one seeing as I have one lol

Nice to finally see it on the road. But of an acievement really when you think what a state it was in!

[4WayDiablo]

I was gunna say am i getting grant and nial confused haha those horns any good? I got a stebel nautilus air horn which is pretty goood

[Matt]

Car looks awesome mate

[Dum-Dum]

OMG this looks so lush. Loving the 5 horns, that is getting done on my next pug.

Just like the south coast diablo 6 owners bunch were gonna end up having a surrey china XU10 group

[Niall]

Let's put it this way, I thought my 2 horns were loud but f*ck me when he uses his horn I'm sure the car stalls! I need to fit more lol

[Niall]

One of the two together.....haha

[Dum-Dum]

Both of your number plates look huge, think i might just prefer grants though

[Grant]

Exciting updates!

Those of you who have seen the China XS since I've had it on the road, will have noticed that it has some wooden framework in the rear, where the rear seats should have been. Well, it was for an audio install. I may have said ths to some people, but to be completely honest, I've surprised myself that I've atcually gone ahead and done it...

So the framework was set in, and the amp for my Focal VB 165's mounted....


The amp on the black backing board...


Then the MDF board to do the floor was dry-fitted, luckily managed to get it out of one sheet which was a touch...


And then a tad more framework added, in order to support the Rockford Fosgate Sub. All well enough considering it weighs about a millions tons!


More of the framework...


And then the Amp for the sub added (on the left)


Framework out of the car, double checking the joints, and adding more bracing


Cold air feed, from random hole in side of car. With a 12v computer fan on the end. Seeing as there's going to be 2 amps under that MDF may pay to keep them cool. Got 4 to go in in total...


Wiring done and in place....


Holes cut in floor for perspex window and sub...


Then a baffle cut out to mount the sub onto. You will see why a few pictures down...


Sub in the floor, dry fit, with the amp on view where the perspex window will be.


See the baffle under the sub?


All the wiring to the head unit. One RCA cable, one of the Amps had a pass through on it so piggy backed them, one remote cable, two speaker cables from Amp, Microphone from handsfree, ipod cable, and all the usual gumpf for the head unit...


Sound-Proof underlay fitted. Can you see not why the baffle for the sub was made?


Another shot from the front of the car with the underlay fitted. Framework around perspex window fitted to. Routered down by 4mm on one edge so window sits flush with floor:


And then finally faux suede spray glued to the underlay to finish it off...


Protective screen removed from perspex window:


Still qute a bit to do. And surprisingly, there is hardly any rattles!

Things to do:

Wire in lights under tinted perspex window to illuminate amp on switch live
Wire in remaining fans
Fit bass controller to behind the handbrake
Mount the infinity components in custom fiberglass pods
Fit Focal VB165's
Set sound up properly
Glue faux suede down properly

Considering what it was, and that it was a DIY build, I'm well chuffed with it. It looks the part. Gotta stick the suede to the underlay properly to get rid of the creases, and sort the lighting out. Will be at Ace's in January though if anybodys that bothered to have a look lol.

And of course a massive thanks going out to Niall, who helped throughout the two days, and provided me with his witty banter...

[Dan]

builds looking good mate, id like to do a build in mine but ive got to fit a pushchair and car seat in it lol

[Niall]

Still surprised how well that was built considering we did it. Expecting it to be shite!

Jealous but wouldn't want to get rid of half of my interior. And I suppose I better keep something different so you can tell the difference between our cars lol

[Dum-Dum]

Yoube done well there to keep it relatively light, if id of done it it would of been made out of 2b4 and a million screws

[Grant]

It was atcually surprisingly light! The framework weighed bugger all. The sub was the heaviest part...

[spawn]

I like the install, it looks sweet!

[Matt]

What thickness mdf you using mate? Want to do something in mine

[Grant]

9mm MDF, works out perfectly, 'cos the cloud 9 (sound deadening enderlay) is 9mm thick, so where framework was put ontop of the floor it all butts up perfectly. See the pics.

Mine is supported every 350mm and there is no flex in it at all. And it hasnt been screwed down yet. Plus its not rattling, which is even better! lol

[Grant]

A well needed update....

So a few sperradic pictures of various jobs being undertaken...


the old door meets its death in the process of removing the window regulator (the lazy way...)



Machine polishing the rear quarter


The boot and rear bumper off for replacement, a few months old this picture but oh well


And the amount of crap collected in the arch liners...

More pictures to come as they upload, but i suppose they give a good timeline of the life of the car since I've had it...

[Foxy-jim]

That boot install looks amazing!

[Grant]

A long needed update. Havent done loads, but due to bad weather over the weekend I was unable to work, so set about molesting the car :dance:

Added some more stickers to the rear window and painted boot badge white. There is no better way to put it than I think boot button looks utterly shite! Its going gloss black next weekend lol:





Carbon wrapped the mirror caps to match the filler cover strips:


And painted the centre section:



But why would i repaint it? Perhaps the more eagle eyed of you will spot the secret mod that has crept into shot.... Guess away

[kingy]

vents?

[Grant]

There are no vents in the picture

[samass]

random gauges?

[Grant]

Nope, no gauges...

[samass]

NOS button?

[Grant]

NO no NOS lol, expensive hobby that one...