Peugeot 405 1.9 GLTD
By far the worst car I’ve ever owned, bullet proof engine but sadly the same couldn't be said for everything attached to it. Having sold the Corolla, I found out about this car through a friend of the family. It was nice because there was no monotonous internet searching needed or wasted journeys involved. The owner had had their use out of the car and basically driven it into the ground using it as a workhorse, which you can clearly see in the pictures. It had a few weeks MOT remaining and a couple of months Tax left and I picked it up for pennies, literally. Oh and did I mention it had 189,000 miles on the clock when I bought it?
There were no real surprises; it was as bad after a clean as it was before. That being confirmed I set about doing the work involved for it’s MOT. It needed an assortment of bushes and ball joints, new front brake discs and pads and new front dampers.
The wheels were looking decidedly shabby but they did have a very good set of tyres on them. One by one (too keep the car on the road with the spare), I took them off, removed the fake studs, filled the holes and re-sprayed each wheel.
The car had had a cooling issue since I bought it whereby the radiator fans did not switch on at all. Under normal driving this did not have any adverse affect, however in traffic where there is no air flow over the radiator fins the car would start to overheat. As a temporary measure I used to have to turn the interior fans on at the hottest setting to disperse some of the heat. This worked surprisingly well, if a little uncomfortable during the summer. I never did trace the problem but I suspect looking back that it was a continuity issue with some of the wiring.
After hunting scrap yards high and low I realised that finding a part in the correct colour, that fitted!, again would be hopeless so I decided it was a good time to learn how to paint.
I had done various bit of bodywork on my Fiesta, but all separate items off the car; mirrors, handles and the like. I’d taught myself the basics and was able to get pleasing results with spray cans but the type of paint available in these cans isn’t particularly durable and the fan pattern (or lack of) means painting large areas will only result is a patchy finish.
Many hours were spent researching online and reading various instructions before I figured I may as well just jump in and do it. My uncle loaned me his compressor so I could get started; it was only a small hobby type item so not very good for professional painting but great for me to practice with.
Another trip to the breakers, this time with a tape measure, saw me return with a door that fitted albeit in the wrong colour. This first job was to strip the door down completely, all trim and mechanisms were removed before I keyed the surface. Now the amount of preparation depends on a variety of factors but the key is to prepare the items as best you can to achieve the best results. My spare door was in good condition with no dents or rust and the original paint (a known quantity).
I sanded the entire door down with a combination of 800 grit wet/dry paper and a medium grade scotch pad for the intricate areas.
This is as far as I got with the door as circumstances changed meaning there was no point finishing it. The plan was to get the door on the car in primer and then spray the whole side in one go but this didn’t happen. I did however learn a lot from the process.
While I was doing the door I also re-sprayed the front bumper as it was peppered in stone chips. The same paint process was used on the bumper only this time it was finished. Once the primer was flatted I sprayed 3 coats of base on leaving around 15 minutes between coats.
On the last base coat before the lacquer stage, I left it around 10 minutes so it wasn’t 100% dry. This lets the lacquer ‘melt’ into the basecoat slightly to give a better finish before further layers are added.
I used the car like that several months commuting 50 miles a day with only occasional maintenance having to be carried out…until the radiator popped. As it was my only car and I needed it for work, I had no choice but to throw more money at it and repair it.
The final straw was replacing a CV boot and having it split again within a few hundred miles. By that point I’d finally lost all interest in the car and advertised it on eBay. I wrote the most in depth advert every seen, listing every single issue and potential problem the car had; doing this really helped me realise I was doing the right thing. Fully expecting the car to fetch around £40 on ebay I was pleasantly surprised when someone phoned me asking if I’d take £200 for it. True to his word, the buyer turned up the next day and took the car away. A large, overheating, multi-coloured weight was lifted that day and I immediately started hunting for my next steed.