Panel plans
Now that I’ve made the decision to invest some time and money into sprucing up the 2000’s bodywork, I’m keen to get the ball rolling quickly. I’m not yet up to the task of doing the required welding myself, so I’ve enlisted regular contributor Iain Jones to help. Iain came down to the workshop to view the car and we mulled things over while clutching the obligatory mug of tea, before coming up with a plan of attack. The two main areas concerning me are the rear lamp panel and the offside rear valance/wing bottom, where it meets the wheelarch.
The seam at the base of the lamp panel has been steadily getting crustier over the previous five years and it was long overdue some attention. Iain said that while it would be possible to blast the affected area clean, before filling and painting it, the better option would be to completely replace the whole panel. That way I’d be sure that there was no rust hiding within and waiting to break out once more. I agreed, so the first purchase has been made in the search for a body beautiful. I found an original NOS rear lamp panel for £145, which I think is pretty reasonable.
As well as welding the lamp panel in, Iain is also going to sort the base of the rear wing. It doesn’t look terrible, but a closer inspection revealed that it’s actually rotting from the inside out. Pulling up the boot board and checking from the inside confirmed this as fact, so that will also be addressed soon. Iain agreed that the rust on the front valance is purely cosmetic, and
The first purchase has been made in the search for a body beautiful
sorting that is a job I’m up for taking on myself. We have a Miller Soda Blasting pot in the workshop, along with the Archifine media that will be perfect for stripping the valance right back. I’ll then have a crack at priming the metal, before applying some white stonechip and the final colour coats. If all of the above goes to plan, the 2000 should be looking a lot sharper, relatively quickly, which pleases me no end.
After all the wet weather lately, I decided it was time for some new rubber all round on the 205. The tyres fitted when I bought the car were looking a little worse for wear – the history folder with the car revealed they’d done 20,000 miles. Time to go, then. I plumped for a set of Falken Euro All Season AS200s all round ( www.falkentyres
uk.com), after being impressed by the ‘on paper’ specs when we featured them in Product News ( CM 210). As the lengthy name suggests, they’re designed for all year round use, and seem to have made a difference so far. The grip on offer is most apparent when driving up the hill at the top of my street, before pausing, then joining the main road. The hill is quite steep, and previously the front wheels would often spin up when faced with a standing start on that gradient, but not anymore. I’ll be interested to see how they cope when (if) the weather warms up, but so far, so good.
After a few false starts, I also managed to find a suitable replacement diesel filter – same as on a Ford Granada, if you’re interested – meaning the warning light telling me the filter has water in it now remains unlit at all times, which is handy. Finally, after removing the plastic cowl in front of the leaking sunroof, I was able to make a much more thorough job of Duck taping it shut. It now leaks less than before, but still leaks nonetheless! I’m now using the ‘shower cap’ car cover left over from my old TR6 to keep the little Peugeot snug and dry for now, but the search for a replacement seal for the non-vacuum sunroof continues. If you think you can help, I’d love to hear from you.