Take one free Donor rolling shell, delivered to my mate George's place for storage a while ago courtesy of a flame spitting Volvo V70 T5, then to mine more recently my my mate George and his Focus TDCi and an A-frame :eek

this was back at the start of September.



Apparently the HG or bottom end has gone on this engine, not that it matters, as I have my RFS lump to drop in.

Obviously will clean the bay, maybe a lick of paint if required.



Made a start on getting the silver shell ready yesterday in between helping my mate Richard (Spannerman) change the clutch on a Mk7 Transit crewcab tipper twinwheel 100 PS.

Previous owner had somehow managed to break the rear screen, I can only imagine in attempting to remove the rear spoiler :wacko:



less of the street diamonds to hurt myself on! and a pile of trim bits...

from pulling out the seats dash heater box, to get at the carpet which was torn and flthy....




and to get at the heater matrix which was donald ducked.



then this morning Helped Rich sort his garage out and move stuff around, and got the donor in the dry ready to crack on.



Later on today after lunch and the F1 GP, thought I may as well get more done and start tearing the black bent car apart, this one similarly had the street diamonds scattered everywhere and a pretty damp carpet, but most importantly it was in once piece, the heater matrix in this car is under a year old as well, 2 hours later and all the seats carpet dash and heater box is out.



Jetwashed the carpet off in the back yard and put it on the workshop roof to dry out, is now hanging over the bannisters waiting for the bath to be free....

Didn't do anything Monday night after work, faffed about for an hour last night, front bumper was half off as can be seen in previous pics, but as usual the cage nut things were seized across the bottom lip, so had to take the angle grinder up.

Whilst I was fiddling at the front I took the slam panel off and unplugged the engine loom and drained the PAS res, wont take long at all now to get it out as there's no exhaust or coolant pipes left, just shafts and 3 bolts!!



Also swapped the wheels that Adam had put on to move the car as it came without any, he'll need them back soon as they're his winter tyres for his 406 Bus, comedy size difference, 65 to 55 profile!!



Oh and 3 days on the carpet is still hanging up in the house still damp in places! so interior progress is a bit slow still, but hope to get to a scrappy later on today and get some sound deadening as I don't work on Wednesday :D


Carpet finally dry, so dysoned it.



Popped down the sound deadening I alleviated from a ZX in Harry bucklands on Wednesday.



Carpet in



Fitted my shiny heater matrix into the heater box.



Then fitted heater box in the car, this one is so much easier than the 306 as there's a plastic plate and a foam gasket that sits over the pipes, then the pipes poke through the bulkhead and another rubber gasket and a steel plate is screwed down on the top, no faffing and cursing for ages trying to squeeze the grommit in place!

Two nuts on studs with fibre washers on the engine side of the bulkhead and a bolt to a bracket on the exhaust tunnel and that's it, wiring sits in a channel and screwed onto a few tabs across the top.



underside of the dash (which weighs bugger all) steel parts on the left are for the fuse box drivers side air ducting and general stiffness, on the right side is for the glovebox with an additional piece across the bottom, couple of in built ducts in the middle and brackets for the heater controls.



All done for the evening, no bad for 2 hours work :D



one of the other bits I got from the scrapyard was a two speed relayed fan control loom from a 1.9 N-A diesel ZX, as standard the 16v has a single speed single fan, the diesel has a single two speed fan as well but in a double cowling, the TD uses twin fans, a nicely self contained loom, I've used one of these on my 205 now, plugged straight in, just needed to splice in the fan connector :)

Spent most of the day yesterday (8th sept) at Castle Come watching now not to go around a track fast :lol

My mate Richard (spannerman) has said that I should get the interior done first, then body then mechanicals afterwards, that way nothing will be left when it finally gets on the road.

After taking the front interior apart in fairly swift time, I thought I'd crack on with the rear and get that swapped over today, or at least it all removed ready, crikey what a difference, there's so many bloody screws its not surprising it feels so much different to a 306, took me an hour and a half to get all the trim off, seats were already out!

The bag on the light cluster is half full of all the screws that hold everything down from the B-pillars back.



A big box of trim panels! Going to grab some autoglym engine and machine cleaner and go over the plastics.



This little piece that sits under the rear seats you don't get on lower spec ZX's.



ot some Autoglym engine&machine cleaner and washed the interior plastics, then had a look at how to get the sunroof cover off, as its broken on the donor, looked to be easier to take the roof lining down to do this so remove all 4 grab handles, roof lining is only stuck across the very rear edge with a tiny bead of sealant type stuff, the rest is velcro'd in place!

Only comes out through the boot if you want to keep it in one piece, then I had a look up at the mechanism, AHA!!! that'll be why you don't see any ZX's with rusty roofs like you do 306's, clever buggers at Citroen used a plastic frame and bolted it :D not like Peugeot that spot welded the sunroof frame up....



sod all progress the last week as my mate Rich is having some building work done, and they found how the garage was getting its electrickery, the garage is across the lane with some armoured cable between two posts and into the shed at the end of his back yard, we found the cable simply goes into a junction box as you'd find for a lighting circuit :blink: then carries on to the house another 30 feet or so in some standard 2.5mm2 cable spurred off a socket next to the boiler!! :wacko:

given the roof is off the shed and the wiring exposed Rich doesn't want to leave the power on whilst he's not there in case it trips, he'll have a defrosted freezer and dead fishies!



Dan (DCC) popped up yesterday to have a fudged locking wheelbolt sorted on his C2, and dropped these off :ninja



A bit more progress finally! (19th sept)

Rich managed to get the wiring sorted so its safe again, and I sorted the Strut swap to complete his PAS conversion on his 1.5 diesel 106 runabout as he's injured his arm, then after a very late lunch did some work in the garage.

Continuing with the bodywork+interior, unplugged the tailgate which is a doddle as the wiring just sits under the seal and goes into the car through decent sized holes behind the rear light clusters.



Pop the struts off, Knock/pull the hinge pins out as an able assistant (my brother Osian) holds on to the tailgate.



Pulled down the headlining,



undid two plugs and 8 nuts, and out the sunroof mechanism came.



Naughty thoughts of leaving the bugger off :ninja




Undid the 4 13mm bolts in the boot for the bumper, cut off the two 10mm's underneath, caged nuts, say no more! A good yank and off it came.



Gave this a little prod, and it fell off



29th september

Got my brother to give me a hand fitting the sunroof mechanism and vacuum a few bits.



Stuck the strengthening piece back down onto the headlining, then lifted it up into place.




Went to remove the seatbelt clasps that sit under the seat seat.



OH COCK.

so I just carried on with fitting the rest of the trim, dozens of different bloody screw types! nightmare trying to remember where they all go :crazy



got it all done, fitted rear light clusters, then popped the parcel shelf in, cool rear sunblind integrated into it.



Dropped the rear seat back in, simply drops into two brackets welded on either side, has a bar running across the bottom of the seat.





Had a quick peek underneath, the bottom of the seatbelt bolts are visible, hence why they are rusty and seized :angry:

will have a go at drilling and tapping, but if all else fails they are the same thread as a standard harness backplate, 7/16 UNF x 20TPI.



All the brakelines underneath look rotty as hell, this one is actually damp!



I did re-pipe the old black car some 18 months ago from the base of the buklhead back, so should be able to salvage them.

Pushed it all the way back in the garage, then jacked the front up, will tinker along a bit more later.

It's a bit crusty up front, thankfully not the body, 16mm socket just slipped straight around the balljoint pinch bolt :eek



not to worry, as the stuff on the other car was painted when I had it apart last time.

Today's progress (30th sept)

Seeing as I wont be using this lot and it was looking to want to put up a fight, I did it the easy way, 4 bolts two nuts each side, chop the brake lines as they looked grotty as hell and unplug the ABS Leads.




Removed the alternator and unbolted the AUX bracket from the block, remove the two nuts from the hard pipe bracket on the bellhousing.



Drained the oil and whipped the shafts out, history of the engine is unknown, other than the shell has 120k on it, I think its safe to assume the HG had gone!



Sling a Towrope around the engine+box, take up the slack with the trusty manual engine crane, remove the last nut from the transmission end...



Jack the car up slightly, remove axle stands, and drop the car down.



SO much easier than trying to wind that crane up and down!

Pull the engine out and push the car back into the garage on the jack.



One emptier engine bay.



Going to extend these cables and relocate them across the top of the bulkhead, as they run across the bulkhead stiffener along with the 3 brake pipes, having seen how hot the RFS exhaust manifold gets when I was down at Alvin Powells with Dan and Sandy for Mapping in his 205,and having the wiring loom grommet melt and smoke away, I think it'll be a wise move to replicate the 306 here!




Having thought that'll do for today, went back to the house for some coffee and late lunch, got a call from Dan (DCC) asking where I was, as he was outside

He had a present for me :D

Pete (MadScientist) had mentioned a few weeks ago that he had a Satchel DCOE pattern inlet that he wasn't using due to the angle not suiting a 205, however as the ZX is somewhat longer in the bonnet department may be of use, conveniently Pete was in Cardiff on a Stag weekend and Dan was passing and picked the inlet up from Pete who had kindly bought it along :D as Dan now works down west Wales he hadn't had a chance to pop up for a few weeks, and given it was raining today wasn't going to work on his 205.

Slung a couple of bolts in quickly and popped it in place on the old Black car.



looks great....

AH.....



DOH! the bonnet does close if I slacken the nuts and let the manifold tilt downards a little, but no chance of getting a filter on :(



Tons of space around them though, and I think this might work in a 306.



HMMMM



Now then, this is what me and my brother have been up to this evening, he was piloting the computer, I did the measuring.



That's a gti6 inlet cup open btw, trumpets still intact.

Bonnet angle hasn't been measured yet, but we know the trumpets touch at the moment.



rough guesstimate so far is that the flange needs to be at about 155mm, its currently at 95mm.

Valve to head flange short side is roughly 70mm, inlet is roughly 300mm total.

24th sept

Been trying to get hold of the brake pipes and bulkhead heatshield and not feeling great for a while, motivation levels almost non-existant.

About a week ago I did some grinding away with the wire brush and applied some rust eater, had a poke a few days later and found a hole :( crap pic, but its right next to the subframe mounting section, as time is sparse I got some 2mm plate and extended that section down covering the hole, bit tricky and not the best welds, but its on and stuck



then gave it a shot of primer and some crappy white paint I Had lying about.



then dug out the tubing I bought off ebay to sort the engine bay brake pipe re-routing, as well as sort the rotten bits.



I quite enjoy doing this actually, I'd love some more tooling to make it easier as its very satisfying getting it looking as it should from the factory, nearly.



will do more tomorrow hopefully as Dan (chipstick) has posted me a load of bits which should be at work by now.

25th october

Done a bit more!! Dan's parcel had indeed arrived, thanks Dan :)

Stuck the heatshield in place to see what I needed to do to get it secured.



the lower stud is already there and secures the upper exhaust tunnel heatshield, the two holes further to the right on the strengthening section are already there, leaving only one fresh hole to be drilled! I have a rivnut Gun and some Stainless steel caphead screws, the upper most stud is already present.

onto the brake lines, and here's the DOH! moment, I couldn't figure out how they were meant to sit, then it dawned on me that Dan's xsara must have been a fairly early car prior to PSA deciding top shift the brake lines up the bulkhead!

Still, there were a few unions and clips I can re-use, so cracked on with a brake line, now I remember why I wanted to buy a Decent Sykes-Pickavant flaring tool, you have to wind this thing pretty tight for Copper-Nickel tube to stay put as you wind the die down!

Mostly bent up and placed in the clips to get an idea of where to route it.



Also fitted the Servo vacuum hose Dan sent and bent the original pipes up roughly where I will stick the new ones




31st Oct

Got more done today, drilled the two holes to 9mm and added the third one, popped some rivnuts in.



Then started the faffage with the brake pipes, found my el-cheapo flaring tool really doesn't work on Copper-nickel tubing so gave up on that and used my Copper pipe, I can't afford a proper Sykes tool at the moment but the most awkward pipe to replace I have managed to sort in copper-nickel so if I really want to I can do the rest again at a later date.

Popped a pair of 7mm holes in the scuttle and added some clips.



Heatshield in place, looking good :D



Got the heater pipes clipped in, what a doddle with no engine in the way

Bolted the heatshield down properly, and stripped some ancillaries off the old lump.



Need to sweep the floor out under the car then drop my engine in.

Compomotive TH, 8x15 ET0, so not sure if they'll fit under the 205's arches, but there's this very useful web page here called Will they fit.com and it looks like there's a slim chance, the ZX arches are a little roomier though :D

My Willtheyfit.com linky

extra 1/4 inch poke inwards, 1" 3/4 outwards :D

Done naff all for a little while again, but today got a fair chunk achieved.

I'd removed the driveshaft nuts a few weeks back, so to get the shafts out was easy enough, wheel off bottom balljoint removed and shaft pulled out, drained the oil whilst faffing about supporting the RHS of the car (it's on a slight slope which makes everything a PITA, and a bit dodgy :ninja ) undid the two 11mm nuts on the Intermediate driveshaft bearing carrier and whipped that shaft out, oh the wonders of working on a car you've already had apart, no seized bolts!

Bought some ratchet straps, only girly ghey ass skinny ones, but they were all I could find and be bothered to hunt for, slung a 2" dia bar resting on some wood across the bay and popped both straps around the engine.



Undid the downpipe to manifold 10mm's, then removed the LHS engine/transmission mounting and cradle.

Marked up the clutch arm+shaft, removed the wiring support bracket, popped the clutch arm off then the starter motor.



removed the remaining bolts, pulled the box off the engine.





So at the mo its sat on a trolley jack and two engine mountings with a T-bar stopping it swinging forwards, waiting to be whipped out which I might do later with a hand off my brother.

Engine oot!



nearly the end for the black car :(

More done today.

One engine in the back of the trusty 405, its been in here before, about 5 years ago!



Set the height roughly on the crane, reverse the car up to it, pop a bolt through the D-shackle



Take up the tension with a ratchet, drive the car forwards!



Shift it into the garage out of the way, pop the gearbox on.



Lower the car on the jack, swing+shove the engine into the bay, jack the car up enough to get the LH mounting bracket on the chassis leg.



Take the car back up with the jack, fit the LH rubber mounting, wind the crane down till the RH arm is sitting over the mounting and taking the weight of the engine, shift the crane out of the way and pop the car back on the axle stands.

Dropped the slam panel on out of the way.



Got the RH driveshaft in and secure, main long gear rod from the base of the stick in (its different on the RS engine to clear the cat+downpipe) fitted the gear rods, starter motor in place, PAS pump and alternator bolted on, for some reason the AUX belt sems too short, but I haven't tried the one from the black car, might be that the RFS crank pulley is larger, forgot to check this.

Quick spec is:

RFS engine, Newmans PH2 cams, Piston valve cutouts deepened by 1mm, standard MLS HG, minimal skim when original HG failed, should be circa 180 maybe.

Running full RFS cooling system other than ZX TD cooling fan.

RFS wiring lookm from 306 gti6 mated to original ZX engine loom multiplug

RFS main gear rod from gearstick, Pugracing gear linkages.

Xsara VTS gearbox, purely because the original was tired, Xsara VTS large Dia hollow shafts, as per gearbox!

283mm front brakes, o.e pads, standard rears, o.e pads, pugracing braided brake lines, short rear brake hose delete (plumbed up fully solid along trailing arm, as per later cars, 306/xsara)

AST Sportline 1 front coilovers, 185 LB/in springs, 23mm Rear Torsion bars, Koni Yellow dampers, std ARB's.

Partner/berlingo Rear wishbone P-bushes, the alloy ones with the round bush.

Standard 2.4 turn steering rack.

Rolling on Citroen C5 Alloy wheels inc spare, wrapped with either Michelin PE2 or Alpin A3's.

oh and Stock Kerb weight is 1140kg, so would be around 1100 with the C5 wheels and Michelins.

Fantastic thread , it's good to see things are coming together with the replacement shell , I'm certainly looking forward to more updates and pics .

Mark

When 7J ET15 wheels are fitted there is less than a cm between the rim and the front struts, I don't think they will fit...

Nice to see some Zx 16V's get some attention.

I think they will fit, as they are ET0 !

I have fitted ET28 x 6.5 wheels without rubbing, clearance was MM.

here's a comparison from ET0 x 8" wide, to ET28 x 6.5" wide.

http://www.willtheyfit.com/index.php?wi ... mit=Submit

as you can see, they sit 9mm further away from the strut :D

here's a comparison from your ET15 to the ET28 that I know will fit

http://www.willtheyfit.com/index.php?wi ... mit=Submit

Yes, you're right. I simply forgot to divide the extra inch by 2

wow...
good job.

Seeing as I need to get it rolling fairly soon, thought I'd get some suspension back on it.

Quite pleased with how these look after 2 years, springs are only cheapo's not the top dollar Eibach's AST use on their competition stuff, but the bodies are pretty much as they were bar one bit where they must have been scratched.



Got my Wishbones off too, one side is all bolted up, having lunch then cracking on with the other side shortly.



Found that the n/s f brake pipe was also a little crusty, so did that whilst fiddling with the suspension on that corner, also got the o/s built up.



Re-taped a few bits on the loom and got it fitted and clipped in to anything available, only the ECU and anything on the inlet to go.





Car is now at the back of the house with the old shell gone, wasn't a great deal left on it, subframe struts wishbones 2x tailgates passenger door, 15 tin roof sheets a dozen brake discs a few clutches, the old dash + heater box, came to 580 kilos.

The ZX non aircon only used a single speed single fan, but last time I was over at a decent scrappy near Cheltenham there was a TD ZX in there, also single fan but two speed so I got the loom off it, I couldn't take the fan cowling as it had forklift damage :lol :doh but its the same as a 306 twinfan housing which I already have.



Swapped the fan over and fitted the wiring, just need the box and a relay, and a clip for the low speed resistor.



Got the radiator and the cowling in, headlamp/slam panel on.



Bolted the air box on, slowly filling that bay up with clutter!



Stroke of genius, needed to sort a few flares that the £10 heapos**te flaring tool had made a mess of, take one Sykes vice mounted Flaring tool, and a large pair of stilsons.



No more jobs to do with the inlet off, so Bolted that on to get it out of the way in the workshop



then got p**sed off with catching my overalls knees/thighs on the pointy wing ends, so fitted the bumper and lights.