Shell Purchase.
Getting hold of the right shell for the type of project you’re doing can save you a lot of effort, time and money further down the line.
For this rally build, we had been looking for about 6 months for a suitable donor car to use.
You can cut corners on the spec of the car e.g. getting a sunroof model that needs to be welding up, or getting the less sporty model and throwing some racey arches at it; but make sure you’ve done your research to see what is really involved in correcting what may seem like a small change. You could also take a gamble on a car that’s got some filler here and there, and some surface rust; but make sure you REALLY understand the extent of the repairs you will need to undertake. Rust repairs can be very costly and time consuming, and remember that filler could be covering years worth of deep rooted rust, that will not protect you when see a tree coming towards you out of your side window.
205s are over 30 years old, and they’re becoming more and more popular as track and rally pocket rockets. So you really have to search about a bit to find one that follows the rules above.
I won’t pretend there weren’t a couple of times while I was searching, that I didn’t run the numbers for buying a Fiesta ST as a donor car for the build. They’re cheap, reliable power, in a bodyshell that is much stronger, and have all seen around 20 fewer salty winters than their French counterparts; so on paper at least they are a far more sensible option.
I would inevitably though be rent from my ‘fact based and sensible’ thinking by a conversation about lift off oversteer on a wet roundabout by someone who had owned one; or seeing those yellow fog lights on a completely nonsensical 80s advert with explosions and helicopters. This would snap me squarely back to the ‘205 Gti till I die’ stance, smile on face, hairs firmly up on arms and neck.
Eventually a shell was advertised near Welshpool, and after a very short message discussion, I ended up on the phone with the guy for absolutely ages talking about the history of the car, what his plans had been for it and my experiences with my previous 205 gti (and why this meant I wanted the one I built from the ground up to be just right). He was actually a really sound guy who I have ended up going back over to Welshpool to pick up whole cars full of good 205 spares that he’s taken off donor cars. He’d bought the shell off someone who had stripped down a whole car and planned to do a proper ground up rebuild, but run out of time; and eventually my guy had then himself run out of time. He wanted this shell to be used, rather than sit rotting on a driveway (and I think there may have been some slight pressure from another half…). I went to go and see the shell the weekend after I had spoken to him on the phone, and made the trip back with the shell on a trailer the weekend after that. We had gone all over the shell, and apart from the odd patch of genuine surface rust, the shell was in unbelievably good condition.
