Project Citroen AX Sport - Turbo

[Jessop]

A Brief History:

The Ax Sport was a LHD spec car only. It visually looks like the GT, sharing the same bodykit, but came with steel wheels as standard, and did not have electric windows or central locking.

The engine was the TU24 series, with a capacity of 1294cc. (Bore of 75mm stroke 73.2mm) In addition it had twin Solex carbs (Yes Solex, unlike the 205 rallye, which used Webbers as apparently the Webbers were too tall and wouldn't fit under the bonnet!).

As a result the standard engine was very revvy making 95bhp at the flywheel at 6800rpm. (The engine actually started life as a modified version of the TU3S version, and was designed in house.

The head from the sport is an entirely different casting than that of the GT. It has much bigger valves 31mm and 39mm compared to 29.4mm and 36.8mm, and has a specific cam and exhaust system.

The gearbox was also different to the already low ratio GT box. The final drive was changed from 18/82 to the 14/60 ratio as later used in the S1 106 rallye.

Combined with a very light weight model of the ax (715kg) this made for lively performance. Top speed was 186km/h and 0-60 the same as the 205 GTi 1.6! At 8.8 secs.

The only original colour was white, later red, black and grey were introduced, along with 14"� GT alloys, which incidentally required narrower tyres than the original 13"� wheels which the sport was using.



An AX Sport

In 1987 Citroen together with TOTAL and MICHELIN created the 'Challenge Citroen-Michelin-Total Championship'. This would select three drivers for the factory team in the World Rally Championship in 1988.

Now I know that of these 3 cars, one was piloted by Dimi Mavropolous, and I know that car is no more, As a friend has half of it! The rot was excessive, and the car was crushed. Not before he'd managed to get some bits off it first though! This would be around 2000/2001.

It is one of these 3 cars that is my yellow ax sport, the other car is probably out there somewhere in France I should imagine.

And so it began..

So in early 2006, a friend manage to track this 3rd ax sport down, sat in Derbyshire, about to broken. By the time he get down there he found the front suspension had already been sold, and the car is in bits. It had been resprayed recently in yellow, with smooth blue kit. It sat in full Forest spec, despite the car having spent most of its life in tarmac rallies. The shell looks to be in very good condition with absolutely no rust anywhere! There's never been any underseal on the car either so that was a pleasant find! The interior was rough! The paint was shoddy and looked like it had been daubed on with a brush, and possibley was dulex one coat white emulsion! The dash was shattered in many places, the electrics were lying everywhere.


The Pic doesnt do it justice, to just how nasty the paint was


If you look carefully the dash is bowing in the middle under its own weight! It was completley shattered beyond belief!

There would be a lot of work, but the car showed massive potential with a full weld in multipoint cage, seam welding through out, and a good solid shell, with bronze tint Perspex windows already in place!


My car in the Rally Sunseeker - its last event

And so 1 week later a shell arrives outside my friends house, and his bank manager phones up to ask what the hell is going on with his bank balance.. lol


Mid dismantling

Now at this point I should point out that my friend had another full race spec ax GTi outside hishouse. This car was prepped by him but would be stripped for parts to build the Sport up.


The Rebuild


The shell as a bit if a tip

The rebuild initially, like all good projects, started with a complete strip down! The interior was pulled out, all wires, switches, etc, all removed to leave just a blank shell.

Now many will argue the point that what he did next was wrong. The car had never seen undersealed, sod that! A can of underseal weighs roughly 1KG, and one can live with that to prevent this car from rusting! So that was painted on all over, apart from the boot area (This area got resprayed white) This shell was absolutely solid! Without a hint of rust anywhere!

The original paint was flatted out, or totally removed using a blow torch where it was too rough to do anything else with.

This was then all masked up and resprayed in celly EWT alpine white. This may not be the exact paint code for the sport, but is for the GT.. so it will do.






Primer


The top coat

The engine bay had the same treatment. There was a lot of staining here, so it took a long time to clean back to the metal in places.

The engine from his old race car was then stripped down and rebuilt in this shell. The bare block had new bearings, and a full rebuild and was then installed to an overhauled GT gearbox. Unfortunately funds hadn't stretched to a LSD at this point.






Note the excessive cut out throught the bulkhead to create a huge airbox space for the side draught carbs.


Note also the engine mounts used. He opted for solid engine mounts from the ax sport competition car. However a note of warning! The car had pulled out of the sunseeker due to the rear engine mount snapping! This was because they were running solid engine mounts all round! Which you are not supposed to do! There was simply no give, and the rear mount broke. So he'd gone for an uprated rubber rear mount on a lengthened bracket to angle the engine slightly...


Ignore the cam pulley, its since been replaced!


Gearbox side mount.. note the battery tray modifications.

With the engine bay cleaned and painted he started on cleaning and building the twin adjustable pedal box. This is in car controlled. The brake lines are stainless braided all throughout out the car, and obviously run on a front / rear split. He prefered doing it like this rather than running a combination of copper line and stainless flexies.


Pedal box - yes I know the mc's are upside down, but it was just trial run

The steering rack was cleaned up and thus set about the suspension. Up front there are Leda 2 1/4 inch fully adjustables with eccentric top mounts, and negative camber fully adjustable wishbones, with the special Citroen sport wishbone mounts with built in bracketry for the sump guard.


Ledas in place - you can see the fresh underseal and note the small alloy plates over the wishbone mounts.


The rose jointed wishbones

The track rod ends were further modified to use rose joints in the inner joint.

At the rear he rebuilt the Dimi Mavropolous rear beam using a new tube axle (as the original was showing signs of wear). This incorporates solid alloy mounting bushes, 23mm Torsion bars, and a one off custom 26mm Anti Roll bar. The original beam used AP rear callipers and discs. He retained a set of these, but frankly they are an over kill, so the car is currently running VTS rear callipers and discs.


The rear beam showing the Tony Law exhaust and the tank guard

The fuel tank is a standard AX10E item and is foam filled, with twin Facet Red Top fuel pumps. The filler neck is guarded as is the tank itself, and all fuel lines run internally and are stainless steel braided items.

The exhaust is a Tony Law custom built item with single re packable back box. The system is brought up into the recesses of the car, so if used for forest rallying its not the lowest point on the car.

The Exhaust off the car - note the easy spring clip joins

Back to the interior!

Inside after the respray the car needed a replacement LHD dash! There happened to be one on ebay, so that was bought. Fortunatley, he managed to get one from France from a Mk1! Which is a rare thing. Mainly because of the policy the Europeans have on scrap yards. (ie, you squash a car instantly! Hence no AX's, let alone MK1's!)

Another problem lies in that the sun in France being that bit hotter, any of the remaining dash have split due to the heat and are very fragile and brittle.

He modified the dash to fit round the roll cage best he could and set about refitting the myriad of wiring loom from the sport. This loom was all bespoke to the car, and is not standard in any way, and with no way of knowing what goes where this took some time!


The dash in and tackling the wiring loom

Fabrication of a number of panels was in order to make the switch gear. This was all done in thin 0.5mm alloy to good effect, and is just screwed in place. He mounted the fuses and relays in easy access areas, so they can be replaced whilst driving, well that'ss the idea anyway.


Switch gear panels in place

Chequerplate was cut to fit in the footwells, as paint last the whole of 5mins when you have shuffling feet syndrome with your passengers! This was just bolted through the floor in a few places. The passenger footwell was cut in to two pieces as eventually he intended to run a navigators footrest with the plumbed in extinguisher underneath.

The gear linkage is a combination of the Peugeot Sport rose joint linkage with the TAS quickshift, with extended rod length. This is way over the top, as the synchro's would last all of 10 minutes. This was to be changed by removing to TAS quickshift and just retaining the Peugeot Sport linkage.


Peugeot Sport rose jointed shift

At this point, Handbrake and gauges/dials were still on list of things to do.


The rest

The engine was completed using a standard GT top end with standard carb. This was really to just ensure the car would be driveable first time, and also to help it pass the emissions test come MOT time the first time round.

A set of aircraft 6point Sabelt 3" harnesses were fitted and a set of Corbeau buckets were also fitted.

A hand held extingusher was also been fitted to the drivers foot well.

Wheels Sourced

The car was then fitted with a set of 15"� Compomotive MO's. These are to try and cover the Brembo 4pots up front. But they were not doing it!

The compomotive MO's were the wrong offset as they came off a 106 supercup car. They will fit but require a 8mm spacer.... however he managed to source a set of OZ Superleggeras, which JUST fit over the brembos. The lead balence weights just skim them.


Ignore the rusty brakes discs - they were new but thats what a week in the rain does for them!


You can slide a rizler paper through there if your careful.

The brakes were all bled up and worked superbly. With no servo it did require some serious leg exercise, but the feedback was awsome, and once your used to it, its a big improvement.


Cooling

Managed to fit a 106 diesel rad... its sitting behind the panel as the original set up. Space to the alternator is limited but not worrying. About a centimeter at worst. He left space to mount the original 106 fan on (would need to be reversed though). But eventually just left the standard ax fan mounted vertically to prevent fouling the 4 branch manifold.

He quickly sprayed the surround black so the white didnt stand out for when he fitted his black GT bodykit


Morrettes fitted and 106 Diesel radiator fitted.


He couldnt be bothered spending £50 odd quid on an expansion tank so got a brass one instead.


After some time...

He finally got the loom sorted using yet another RHD GT dash loom. It took 3 attempts but he eventually sorted it!

Funny moment with the rear lights as with it being a RHD loom on a LHD car it seemed to recognise the left hand indicator as the right one and vice versa

... That was soon sorted though.

Everything was plumbed in and working. Made some new dash plates... again. Simplicity it seems was everything!

Only issue was the front indicators on one side! With a multimeter it read roughly 8volts. Earth was ok, Electric sockets are ok, But the indicators on the front left werent working! Checked the bulbs/earth/connections/etc.... couldn't see what was wrong! Ran out of ideas on this one.


January 2007..

Electrics were all completed & working.. Finally... !

He took the sport for a test drive and was pretty impressed! It was r unning very flat and not pulling like it should, but it idled fine so it sounds like a carb & dirt problem in a jet somewhere, but he dont care too much because it was all coming off after the MOT emissions test to fit the race head/cam/carbs anyway.

So its was set to be off to be MOT'd soon with some luck before the end of Jan. Then February was set to finish some final tidying up of bits and fitting the race stuff with some track work being penciled into my calender for coming year.

Pictures - Jan 2007'








May 2007' - Makeover

Well with my friend hardly ever doing anything on the sport, and not really liking it, He thought he'd better either finish it, or sell it. Having had a few offers for breaking and even taking it as a whole but all falling through in the end for one reason or another - it left him with two options.
- One: advertise it properly on ebay/Pistonheads/here
- Two: sort it out and keep it.

So like anybody faced in this situation he had one or two beers.. A combination of bordom and car tinkering motivation took hold and he found himself outside, and had a good look round it, curosity got the best of him and found himself idly picking a sponser sticker.... then another.... and another.... eventually he found he'd had ripped the bodykit off it - spoiler, bumpers, bonnet vents, wing mirrors, all the stickers and graphic work. The lot !

..

So he then got himself some Sikaflax 212FC (as this perticular sport has no clips/mounts for the bodykit like the normal 'road going' sports did) and dug out a black GT kit he had knocking about. Have to say I personally think this was a good move, but some of you may diasgree.

It had taken on quite a transformation and doesnt look like the car it did previously. It now looks a lot more mundaine and not so much in your face.

Not the best pics due to shadow, work in progress and lack of polish!












He also added a Laguna front splitter and tinted the side repeaters.

Some slightly better pics "mid clean". Just needed a rear bumper & black roof strips. along with some black Metro vents (which were originally blue when the shell was purchased)

[Jessop]

THE REBUILD!

Ok so now you guys have brief understanding of the history involved in this car, I took it upon myself to replace my current AX Forte' VTS with this AX Sport as it has more potential, plus (as you will see in the following pictures) it really isnt doing much, and if anything will end up like the other works AX Sport which got crushed due to being neglected/unused.

Since i knew the previous owner, and he know's how much effort i put into my current Forte' he gave me the opportunity to take on the challenge of restoring the sport.
It had been sat under a tree for the best part of 2007' and had not moved, therefore wasn't in the best of cosmetic shape. The entire car was covered in thick muck from the tree it had been sat under. the scuttle panel was full of leaves and damp, the engine bay was messy and again, full of leaves due to the open vents in the bonnet which had not been covered on rainy days.
Also, since the car has polycarbonate windows with sliders and rear bootlid window, these are definatley not the best of seals therefore rainwater had got into the interior and begin to eat away at the floorpan under the alloy plates, and also at the back of the car.

Here's a few pictures of the car before it was trailered to my place.


You can see here the muck that was laying ontop of the paint



You could tell the car hadn't moved for a while. But of no concern as i didnt need these brembo's


You can see the muck in the scuttle here




Not the original SPORT logo, but passable!


On the way back from taking a look at it, i stopped to stretch my legs [cant move much in my current seat!] and take some photo's before the sun went down! [ASW]







And so it begins.. [again]
The Cleandown

After being dropped off at my place, i decided to crack on and get it cleaned. This took some time however.

Pics will do the talking:

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p307/Jessop_bucket/Project%20Sport/Cleandown/DSCF3132-1.jpg/img]
You get a good idea of how mucky it was in this pic

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p307/Jessop_bucket/Project%20Sport/Cleandown/DSCF3138-1.jpg/img]


Havent yet removed the slider to clean it properly, but you get the idea how how it will look



[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p307/Jessop_bucket/Project%20Sport/Cleandown/DSCF3143-1.jpg/img]


Undecided weter or not i'll keep the 'Citroën" vinyl on top


The plugs & leads were full of water since the vents havent been covered in the rain etc


Next to my Forte' VTS



The Stripdown

Eventfull day of stripping the car of the major bits so i can see what lies beneath and crack on cleaning everything down and replacing various nuts & bolts so it all looks like new.

Started with the interior:



As you can see here, the floor pan under the alloy plates has been gethering water and surface rust has set in


Rear of the car wasnt so bad, very light surface rust here n there

Took the car into the garage and then carried on removing bits from the outside of the car.



As mentioned before, very thick deposits of muck


Removed the wiring from the engine bay

Removed the suspension & dropped the struts off the car along with brakes etc.



Dropped the engine





Engine bay looks better already without even cleaning it

I spent a good few hours wet & dry'ing the engine bay removing any muck & grime that was on it and any rust lurking was removed. I then set about removing any traces of rust that my have been there with Kurust, some may say it was a bad idea but quite a few people reccomended this stuff to me. there wasnt rally any on show but rather be safe than sorry and see it creeping back through in a few months time.




Kurust

While that was doing its thing i decided to treat the mild steel tony law exhaust system to the wire brush treatment and a coat of Kurust ready for paint.. along with various other components such as the pedal box, coilovers, fuel tank guard, rad fan bracket etc.




Items now ready for primer & paint to look good as new


Back to the Interior..

The interior required a massive amoung of work to get to the condition i want it to be.
The floorpan wasnt in TOO bad of shape, mainly surface rust. The worst part that worried me was behind the fan, under the grill in the scuttle panel area which has allowed water to seep into the car, onto the arch/bulkhead and rot it though. Since all the arches are reinforced & twin skinned it has not effected both skins, however the inner skin is absolutley rotten and needs replacing.


as it was


Driver side bulkhead corner


Bulkhead


Area concerning me the most. You can see the rot hole on the inner skin of the bulkhead/arch under the vent

At this point i will take the opportunity to note that the bulkhead is structually sound. It looks bad, but its surface rust, besides the rot on the right side of the above picture.

I decided to crack on and see how bad the rot was here.


Peeling the rotten inner skin away





I did take it further than that, and stopped at solid metal, its solid now with the rot gone, but im left with a huge hole where the inner skin should be.. this will be remedied by replacing that section with new metal and seam welded to ensure it does its job properly.

Decided to crack on with the floorpan after this.


Hole in the passenger floorpan, only small. I imagine it was from a dole beign drilled in the wrong place and just left there to rust.


The other hole in the floorpan. The rest is solid other than the holes for the alloy panels


Drivers side floorpan


A rediculous amount of hours wet & drying






Most back to bare metal where possible.

I'd also like to note to anybody else planning to do this. WEAR GLOVES. My fingertips started to bleed after a few days so was forced to, also made it much more difficult to get into the corners like behind the cage mounts and right into the corner of the bulkhead.

Once i was relativley happy with the condition of the metal, proceeded to Kurust.


Kurust turns black on surfaces that have been effected by rust.


Seems that it doesnt effect real bare metal though (see bronze colour on tunnel).

Took the car out of the garage for some snaps outside, however it soon got dark once i put the front struts back on so i could move it.








And that's pretty much it for the moment. It's sat like that for a month or two now since the weather has got rediculously cold and i now need funds to sent it to the bodyshop to do a proper job on the interior & engine bay.



Plans/Spec:

Engine:

Standard VTS Engine. Modified wiring loom with ECU in-dash [for time being]
Raceland 4-2-1 Manifold
Tony Law custom made 'forest spec' exhaust system
ZF Solid engine mounts & Group N/A Rear engine mount
Low pressure 'red top' fuel pump
High pressure external cosworth fuel pump

Brakes:

Hi Spec/Wilwood/Brembo/AP 4 pot front brakes with grooved discs [TBA]
Forodo DS2500 Pads
Pedal box [Independant front/rear master cylinders. sizes TBA]
Braided brake lines
Wilwood bias valve
VTS Rear brakes

Suspension:

Fully adjustable Leda coilovers & Eccentric top mounts, 350lb springs
Peugoet Sport rose-jointed wishbones, with special mounts incl. accomodation for Sump guard
Works spec rear axle:
Modified trailing arms to allow for slight negative camber
23mm peugeot sport torsion bars
26mm custom Anti-Roll bar
Peugeot Sport France rear dampers
Solid mounts

Interior:

Full multi-point works FIA spec roll cage
Corbeau Revolution bucket seat
6-point TRS Magnum 3" harness
OMP Corsica suede steering wheel
Flocked dash
SPA Design 80mm Tacho with LCD speedometer combined
SPA Design dual LCD oil pressure & water temperature 52mm gauge
SPA Design analogue fuel level 52mm gauge
Carbon door cards
Carbon panels on dash
Quife nylon gear knob
Custom 'bespoke' wiring loom
Brake lines & fuel lines mounted inside car
Fire extinguisher
Helmet Hammock
Door 'straps' for handles
Internal fuel 'swirl pot'
Battery relocated inside car
Washer fluid bottle relocated to car interior
Full respray in white

Exterior:

Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 in satin black
Toyo Proxy T1-R's
Lowered accordingly
Center-roof mounted ariel
Polycarbonate windows all round with side window sliders
Lockable
'Citroen' vinyl on roof
'Sunseeker rally' vinyl on bonnet/wing
Metro bonnet vents in black
Black GT kit + spoiler

[Jessop]

New bits came today..

some samco hosing, 106 gti hose kit, only Demon Tweeks ****ed up the order and sent me the wrong top hose to the rad!!! so been on the blower to them thismorning n they're arranging pickup for the kit and they're sending me the proper one this time but have to wait a week or something to actually get it back, what a ****about!

One of my SPA Design gauges came too, along with a row of warning lights for the dash.

still waiting on the spa design tacho, shift light, fuel level gauge, and cage stiffeners/gussetts though, should have them this thursday apparently.

Rally Design said the wilwood 4pots, bias valve & one of the switch panels for the dash would be with me by friday (yesterday) but no sign of them? their number just rings too, hard to believe that they dont open on saturdays? lol

anyway, some quick pics:


The random wrong samco hose that DT sent me?


Bits that came today


SPA Design Oil Pressure & Water Temp dual gauge

[Jessop]

Little bit of progress...

Had a little tinker with the dash looms for a few hours earlier. The plan is to fit a mk2 AX poverty spec loom without the leccy window, central locking etc wiring to a mk1 AX dash.. only the mk2s i have are RHD, and the dash is LHD, so ive had to pretty much turn the loom upside down and see how it fits, and its not all that bad really... few wires need extending and a handfull of relays need relocating back to the other side of the dash. the fusebox needs modification too so it sits properly, probably a bracket or something made up to support it but its almost there as it is =]

Heres some pics anyway. Not a huge amount of progress, but ive got 9 days off work coming up soon expect to get all of this done then, hopefully










Quick pic of the size of the gauges compared to the visible dash area is. Should work out alright!



alrite mate..

if it makes it easier there will be no windscreen or rear windows so should be easier to get into it...

If you've got the gear i might be able to get a friend to let me use his lockup/spray booth.. he doesnt have the waterbased gear though so youd have to use yours lol.

nevertheless.. i got some more new toys in the post today

- SPA Design tacho with integrated speedo and gear number display!
- SPA Design analogue fuel level gauge

[Jessop]

Small update as ive been off the last 2 days.
Spent a little time with a paint remover disc and wire wheel for grinder/drill and decided im bored of trying to prep it, ill leave it for the professionals as im sure they have the knowledge & tools to do the job MUCH more quickly [considering the hours ive spent on it so far! and its not even near 'flat', to the standards im expecting anyway]
Sorted a few components out today too but didnt take any pics yet, need to give them another coat tomorrow =]
Some pics anyway =]




After some debating decided to zinc primer it as didnt want bare metal on show for long, knowing the weather round here on the coast..


3 cattle cans of zinc primer later!

The Floorpan.. is something im not sure what to do with, The holes in the floor from where alloy plates and also where rust has eaten through is going to be a pain in the arse to get somebody to plate over as i dont want the floorpan to have weld seams and random plates all over..
So options are to either:
A: Cut them out and replace with 'new' floorpans but that means starting again with side mount brackets/mounts and 6th eyebolt and the cost of getting somebody to weld one in properly!
B: Cut out a square section where the holes etc are, basically where ones feet would go and weld a steel plate in there so at least it was flat so could maybe giv eme the opportunity to fit a carbon panel over it or something?
C) get it painted anyway and use rubber gromets to plug each of them, which imho will look too dodgy on a white floor!


Random photo:


On a more positive note anyway, i treated myself to a Halfords pro socket set. Can really reccomend it like, only a pain in the arse getting the spanners out if im honest, probably needs a bit of breaking in lol

More to come over the next couple of days while im off work! =]

[Jessop]

Some more pics from yesterday...

Leda coilovers

Get an idea of the size of the calipers here, didnt want to take the discs out of the bags as by the time i get to use them they'd be rusty!

Pedal bias box


Pugsport special rose jointed wishbones

Pugsport rose jointed gear linkage

Tony law custom 'forest spec' exhaust

If it sounds anything like this i'll be chuffing happy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjFHfjmOSII

[Jessop]

Fished the engine out of the garage earlier..
but first had to put the struts back onto the car so i could move it =]
pic:


Few of the engine about 30 min ago when i started stripping it.. forgot about the time though and need to go check out the new addition [car] in a few mins, just thought i'd breifly shoot some pics up in the meantime


Handy that stand for moving engines on your own


From further inspection it seems that the saxo VTS it was in had a bit of a bump!


More to come..

Intend to strip the engine down then put it on the engine stand i have and crack on cleaning it up, replace the sump etc! Baffled sump anybody?

[Jessop]

block has been done gloss black, only i dont want to paint the cylinder head as it only goes crappy after a short while anyway.
Head has got pitted with muck on the front, which is a ****ing pain in the arse, the back is much better though, typical!
Might see how the steering columb & arms come out in spray silver like, also the pedalbox looks a bit **** with the brush marks on it. might go over it with another coat to see how it goes though in the meantime! might just be a first coat type of thing.!
Its pissing down here now so cant do any work on the shell, picking up timing belt kit and new water pump in the morning too, been on order since monday. If i get bored later i might get bufty on the rocker covers or something. but more than likley crack on with the dash loom. Need to move the multiplug tht goes through behind the inner wing to the other side of the car since the dash loom has been turned inside out. needs reinforcing too (the dash that is) as its had so much cut away from it.
Heres some quick pics anyway..



Right on queue it begins to piss it down something chronic!
the joys of sharing a garage with the folks... !
NOTE: The wood on the left side, theres about 6 months worth of it there [garage is pretty wide!] for the new wood burner we fitted in the conservatory.. so so nice n warm in there now after a days graft

Anyhow.. stopped raining so took it back outside and painted it up..
Heres how it looked straight after a lick of paint, was a little wet and the cheap camera does it no justice , Looks really good in comparison to what it did. With the white 'minimalistic' engine bay it should look pretty cool in the glossy black!
Pics..

[Jessop]

Small progress with engine.






UPDATE
Been working on the wiring today, what a chore on !
Have moved the relays tot he passenger side of the loom now.
Note: Right hand drive MK2 loom on a left hand drive MK1 dash
This is sort of what the previous loom was like, only put together better rather than bullet connectors and crimps that fell apart as i was taking the dash off!!



I still have to move the multiplug with about 20 wires on it to the other side of the dash for the headlight loom, that goes through the side of the shell to behind the inner wing. Will be a ball ache, but i guess worth it at the end of the day.
Jonathan (rallyax) came round the other day to check out how things were. Came up with a few ideas about mounting these MK2 stalks to the MK1 steering column to suit the MK1 dash. Will see how that goes too.
More to come..



Bought a new toy yesterday.
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...iy-mig-welders
Seems **** hot and will, or at least should do everything i require from a welder.
Auto tinting visor coming tonight from work. =]
Sport SHOULD have been welded today but my mate was far too hungover and is probably still in bed at the mo lol. im not going to start 'practising' on the sport however untill im confident enough in my abilities =]
Should be good though once i know how to use it properly! woop.
wide track anybody?


still lacking in motivation at the moment though ..
need to sell my other AX VTS to fund bodywork for this sport too. no holidays this year it seems :|
pics of welding to come =]


Cracking on
The new toy:


Friend of mine who's been welding for a while and im confident in his abilities helped me out (as i wasnt prepared to start learning to weld on the sport which would potentially ruin it.
Reinforced the engine mount on the 'passenger' side
Filled a bunch of random holes that were all over the place in the engine bay.. just need to grind them flat now.
in action..


... Then it got dark
Decided to cut away the scuttle panel, as it was chopped to pieces anyway and i figure it would mean things are more accessible in the bay, especially the inlet manifold in the AX bay on the VTS engine, also will give me room for some long trumpets for ITB's if i decide to go down that route, and ultimatley make the bay much tidier which is what i want to achieve at the end of the day.


Seam welding to make sure its still strong


Bit of a bad picture but you get the idea.. still a bit to cut off at each end but got dark and didnt want to make any costly mistakes!

I think im going to take the sport steady now though and not rush it.
If i can get a decent quote on my other AX VTS i'll insure that for the next fw months for the show season, take it apart over the next few weeks and tart it up a bit. Its not been used for the last 2 months as MOT ran out and ive nto been able to source a standard exhaust on the cheap to pass emissions :lol:
Anyhow, will keep you all updated with how things go. ill take some better pics of the welding work once its all been done probably on the coming weekend!



UPDATE...
A slight problem
I returned home from work thisafternoon to discover the house that is owned by a guy that doesnt actually lives there [lives on a campsite] and i was using his garage while he's away has sold his house and the new owners want all my stuff out of the garage ASAP. by the end of this bank holiday weekend basically.
So this evening i've been frantically trying to get everything [that was rather well organized] together and put it somewhere.
Now at this point i should point out that we've recently fitted a logburner in the conservatory and there is a fooking huge amount of wood stashed away in our garage, and my dads smiths woodworking machine is also there, not to mention various tools, freezer, various coupbards for food storage etc so im very limited for space... of which to fit an AX shell, various suspension components & setups, gearbox, 3 engines, all the bits and pieces that make up the car such as gear linkages handbrake radiator hoses etc etc. two dashboards various car looms... the list goes on [.. but you get the idea ]

So for now im in desperate need for a lockup somewhere local, otherwise when my folks gets back from York on sunday evening they're going to kill me as you seriously CANNOT move in there. and thats even before ive put the shell in there [due to a big skip being in the way].
Some pics of how my garage looks so far. [still more to go!!]




Heres what its like across the road...


Now i should also add that i need to move my other AX VTS off the chaps drive ASAP also. however that also has no suspension up front, no loom, steering rack, brakes, servo etc on it.. and engine is about ready to drop out [hence the engien crane in the middle of my garage].

The sport is absolutley full of bits and pieces at the moment too, so its a bit of a **** situation to be in tbh

Just thought i'd give a breif update anyhow for the record =]

[Jessop]

UPDATE..


Since the car has been sat in a warehouse for storage for the last few months, well.. Since before summer 2008' anyway ive decided to crack on with this thing again.
Plans have changed somewhat, So here goes...


UPDATE
Small update anyway, but a rather funky one none the less.
Some new bits for the Sport, Engine rebuild on the cards, need a whole load of other bits. Not 100% decided on what turbo to use AS YET, Although 230atw is sounding like a nice figure.
Will have an omex 600 standalone ecu here in the next few weeks too. Think i'm going to have a bash at making my own 'minimalistic' loom, It will do the job fine!

Anyway..., new bits.
Forged Peugeot sport rods
Forged omega low comp pistons
DP Engineering stainless 'blister' manifold with wastegate and T2 flange
DP Engineering stainless 'blister' 2.5' downpipe with 2 lambda attachments & exhaust flange option
DP Engineering Screamer pipe
Turbosmart 'Ultra Gate' 38mm wastegate'










More info on the bits if you were interested:
Manifold: http://www.dp-engineering.nl/EN/prod..._stainless.php
Downpipe: http://www.dp-engineering.nl/EN/prod...DP_Blister.php
Wastegate: http://www.dp-engineering.nl/EN/prod...ultra_gate.php

[Kenobi]

This is one of the best project threads I've read on Rtoc and its inspiring me. keep it up.

[Jessop]

Decided to take some more pics earlier.


















And thats pretty much how it sat for most of this year .

Finaly started cracking on with this again about 2 weeks ago, done loads of prep on the engine bay (although im not 100% happy with it - i need to keep telling myself im building a track car, NOT a concours car!)


Purchased a Citroen C2 VTR JP4 engine last week, it has only done 34k, so pretty fresh - has bigger valves than a saxo/106 engine as standard and has better oil squirters in the block so generally all round better as a base to build my turbo project around.

Also purchased a citroen picasso BE4 gearbox, which has a much bigger casing and i believe slightly bigger internals making it a little mre robust for the torque i'll be running.

Modified input shaft with bigger spline for the clutch (larger surface area into clutch place!) should be here next month..

Picasso driveshafts are on their way too, only i believe these wont fit with the 37mm wheel bearings (mk2) i'm running so i may need a peugeot 406 N/S shaft and a custom jobby on the O/S - however i have no idea how to measure lengths , and nobody else does on the various forums..


I may need some help & advice from Scoff on this one, as i believe he had custom shafts made for his 5 to suit? How does one measure accuratley without shafts that fit to begin with ?

People typically (when doing BE gearbox conversions on these cars - and not many have done it!!) purchase peugeot sport driveshafts - but these are £1200 quid alone!!!!!!!!!!! Complete rip off, considering they arent indestructable and could potentially break easier than a set of custom shafts designed for say drag racing yet cost half the price!


Anyway - hope you guys enjoyed the read (sorry for the goliath post!).

Ill keep this updated as and when i have a decent update to post.

[Scoff]

I may need some help & advice from Scoff on this one, as i believe he had custom shafts made for his 5 to suit? How does one measure accuratley without shafts that fit to begin with ?

I made them myself so I can't comment on how other people would want their measurements. I installed the gearbox, suspension and hubs then sat it on the ground at ride height. I measured from the inner face of the hub to the flange on my gearbox. I knew I needed to allow 20mm for the inner CV to compress, so the drive shaft when fully compressed needed to measure 20mm less than the distance I had just measured. IE, when installed, the CV would stretch 20mm allowing it to compress 20mm if required whilst turning, hitting bumps, etc.

I arrived at 20mm by measuring how much the standard shafts could compress on a standard car. I removed the hub nut and measured how far the shaft would push in toward the gearbox before it hit full compression.

[Jessop]

Sounds pretty logical to me.

Does your setup retain any intermediate bearing carrier for equal length shafts as such? or just single piece items? (not sure what the renault setups are like if im honest)


Problem i have is that there are no current driveshafts i can measure that actually fit properly, as the diff on the new BE4 gearbox is a different location/offset than the original standard MA gearbox. So i cant measure any existing shaft. None of the lads with pugsport shafts are prepared to measure their stuff to help anybody else


My only other theory is to measure the offset of the diff on each box to the edge of the block and compensate this way - which isnt ideal really.

[alister]

Alright jessop, I used to follow your progress on axoc, I remember back in the day when you first started modifying and you asking questions on the forum and getting loads of bad feedback when you were just after help, they are a bunch of nobbers on there, and then you did your own ax vts conversion, and now your turbo conversion! Youve come along way and its inspiring.
The people on here are much more helpfull and friendly, I'm sure you will get pointed in the right direction on your questions.

[Jessop]

Alright jessop, I used to follow your progress on axoc, I remember back in the day when you first started modifying and you asking questions on the forum and getting loads of bad feedback when you were just after help, they are a bunch of nobbers on there, and then you did your own ax vts conversion, and now your turbo conversion! Youve come along way and its inspiring.
The people on here are much more helpfull and friendly, I'm sure you will get pointed in the right direction on your questions.

Yeah i get that vibe at the rtoc meets ive been to - top bunch of guys on here

and lol, the early days of asking for help & advice - yet im still in the same boat just with a slightly better understanding of mechanical works
What was your AXOC username?

[Scoff]

Hi jessop

no intermediate joints in my shafts, just plain un-equal straight shafts. I was more concerned with durability than getting the lengths the same.

re. no one measuring stuff for you, crack on and do it yourself, and when you make a success of it at a fraction of the cost it'll just annoy the hell out of them winner..

it's not complicated stuff when you apply common sence. get everything mounted as I describe and once you know how much your CV's need to compress by it'll be pretty straight forward working out what you need. you can tell the engineer's where you have measured from (IE inner face of hub to gearbox flange, or whatever) so that there is no confusion.

or, how about you obtain some old shafts, cut and splice them yourself until you are happy that they are the correct length's and then ask the engineer's to copy them.

[Trevhib]

Alright jessop, I used to follow your progress on axoc, I remember back in the day when you first started modifying and you asking questions on the forum and getting loads of bad feedback when you were just after help, they are a bunch of nobbers on there, and then you did your own ax vts conversion, and now your turbo conversion! Youve come along way and its inspiring.
The people on here are much more helpfull and friendly, I'm sure you will get pointed in the right direction on your questions.

Blimey, bad form if you have to come away from the AXOC and onto RTOC to get support and information for an AX-VTS turbo conversion!

Bit odd to have a ton of information and pics of an non-Renault motor on the RTOC boards and server.

Good luck with it though, interesting, and a lot of work there.

[Rob@Backyardracing]

What a great project Jessop...

[Jessop]

Blimey, bad form if you have to come away from the AXOC and onto RTOC to get support and information for an AX-VTS turbo conversion!

Bit odd to have a ton of information and pics of an non-Renault motor on the RTOC boards and server.

Good luck with it though, interesting, and a lot of work there.

I didnt join up soley for advice on here, i joined up as ive been to a few meets with Brigsy (good friend who i share the garage/lockup with) and ive got on with all the folks ive met at the various events, Just thought i'd share my current project with you all. =]


Thanks for the comments chaps =]

[Matt Cole]

Awesome my good mate! Keep the info coming. At least we don't have to put up with Brigsy's 'Redcar' slaver and ph 1 baffled sump crack!!

You coming to the motorscope rolling road daY?

[Jessop]

You coming to the motorscope rolling road daY?

Probably - may be driving an R5 GTT on that day too!

[Trevhib]

I didnt join up soley for advice on here, i joined up as ive been to a few meets with Brigsy (good friend who i share the garage/lockup with) and ive got on with all the folks ive met at the various events, Just thought i'd share my current project with you all. =]


Thanks for the comments chaps =]

Good for you. You and I have things in common, we both paid the membership subscription, neither of us has a Renault at the moment and we both like Brigsy.

As I said - interesting build.

[alister]

Jessop it is aliaxgt, I first joined axoc when i got my first axgt aged 17, so thats 12 years ago now!

Not had an ax for awhile now, made some bad buys/sells and lost some money on a pair of axgti's in burgandy, that I know atleast one of is now a vts.

I still have a big pile of axgt bits in the garage, couple of body kits, set of three stud alloys, set of 4 stud alloys of a saxo and a set of leda suspension of a 106 that i was going to sell to gab******* but one of the dampers is leaking so its still cluttering up the garage.

The guys over on axoc, well met a couple of nice lads, taz, has he finished his ax cossie yet? And a guy who was breaking his turbo gt down on the south coast near me.

Went to fcs one year and tried talking to people at the axoc stand and mentioning no names thats what put me off the club in the end. Went to a meet in guildford before that and theres a couple of guys who are just living on another plannet, so up themselfs its a joke!

You got yourself a r5gtt then jessop? If not, shamless plug comming, I'm selling mine!

[Jessop]

Haha there are a few guys onthere who are idiots like.

Tell me more about the Leda coilovers you have? i would imagine these are the earlier type? damping adjustable etc? Drop me a PM with bits you have i may be interested.

Taz hasnt finished his cossie AX yet, the most recent pictures are a little crazy, but its not been updated for ages now due to personal issues i believe. Hes a good lad mind. Lad breaking a gt turbo down south, if it was red would have been a lad called steve, forum name 'welleh' - he's doing a Clio 197 cup car project at the moment with a megane turbo engine.. i'd be suprised if he's not on here already. Top guy, helped me out a bunch when i needed help doing a head gasket on that VTi i first bought if you remember? (one i had to reshell shortly after).

There are some good folk on there, however typically people want cheap projects rather than spending good money and doing things right in the first place.

Couple of pics (not to try and clutter my thread mind) of taz's car, last i'd seen of it.

[alister]

Think I sold him his rad, off a r5gtt.
Yeah wellah thats right, he had the car just down the road from where I used to live.
Pm comming your way about the ledas.

[Jessop]

Picked JP4 citroen c2 vtr engine up... Only done 34k.





Omex too..






Picasso Gearbox and BE driveshafts arrived...







some time spent on sanding the engine bay..







Although engine is in situ, the solid ZF mounts i have which were for the AX Sport engine dont seem to fit properly, as i figure the alloy TU24 engine has a much taller 'block' that bolts to the rear of the engine as it also houses the water pump, this making the engine sit 'lower' in the bay, so i've had to go out and get some new mounts -

Just picked them up from main dealer this morning, genuine AX bracket & bush to suit [i had the same one on my old AX VTS]. Also got a genuine berlingo battery tray/mout which im having welded in replace of the AX battery tray - allowing me to use a genuine BE bush, rather than messing about with making my own brackets up to use the AX stuff - just makes replacements harder to get for future maintenence. Got some other genuine washers/bolts too to for the various brackets/bushes.









More to come once ive had chance to fit it all and had the BE bracket/inner wing mount welded to the AX.

Been shopping for loom bits of late also, so much choice not sure what connectors etc to use yet - will need some advice on that soon.

[Maxwell]

you truly are fit for a mental home haha!!

outstanding! have you got a build thread over on saxp? and if my rotrex sells im going to buy a dp engineering turbo mani and a gt2860rs

[Jessop]

For the first time in something like two years, the Sport has an engine sat in the bay, on engine mounts instead of a jack!.. Only this time, with a much bigger gearbox =]

Had a right faff on though with the other mounts as the box section this 'OE' bush sits on was at an odd angle where somebody previously had their attempt at reinforcing it. That required re-making so it sat level. The battery tray was cut out, measurements were taken so the engine sat bang on level in the bay - then i proceeded to tack the 'Picasso' mount on the inner wing. Ive stitched welded across the top and bottom, and two plug welds - proceeded to jump on it once it was done and it wasnt going anywhere so confident the welds have done their job.

Bare in mind though that ive never really welded before, and this is my first attempt at any kind of 'fabrication' work so im happy with how its turned out. It needs a bit of tidying mind but it was late and i've got work tomorrow.

I'll be making the rear engine mount on Tuesday. Ive already got the engine in the bay at the correct angle it needs to sit at, The shafts are a bloody tight fit against the front arms ! The box , with it being bigger than the normal AX/Saxo/106 type is also bloody close to the inner wing too- had to completely ground down whatever trace of the original battery tray supports. Will have to improvise if this causes an issue on track under load, same goes for the shafts and the front arms !

I'll let pics do the talking. =]



Prodded some more at this side..


Decided cut it out and start from scratch..




New piece mocked up.. Looked about right


Didnt think the welds were 'too' bad considering im a rookie


Finished welding this in, checked and drilled the holes for the Forte mount i'm using.


[i]Supporting plate for the underside of the mount pictured above.. For extra support![/]


Box sectioned off after cutting..


mocking up..


CLOSE..


Welded in piece


End piece for support welded on


Engine level in the bay


The 'BE' 'Pin' type mount


Diff housing pretty close to lower arm

Decided to take a break and re-check measurements at this point.. 'Measure twice.. cut once' so they say =]







Tacked on 'picasso' tray


First time the car has had an engine support itself for two year..


Stitch welded across the top


Voila..


I'll probably box off the front/back bits i think too for a bit extra support, but i very much doubt it'd move anywhere as it is. Dont want to chance it with the torque i'll be running with the turbo engine on track though.. Some of those apex's are big !


Trial run of some straight pipe between the diff and the wheel hubs..




I need to get some Pug 306 type wheel hubs and have them machined down to fit the AX wheel bearings now so i can crack on making some mock-up shafts. I've a pair of citroen Picasso shafts in the garage, i intend on keeping the Intermediate bearing carrier.. It wont quite be bang on equal length, but nearer than one massivley logn shaft, and one really short !

[benj88]

Class work mate

[Maxwell]

your a ****ing looney lol

have read so much about the BE conversion. Was thinking it myself for the saxo, but im maybe going down a different route see how it goes!

[Jessop]

If you want lots of torque, you'll need to go BE, but ideally VAG or something but it would be a lot more work. This is essentially - custom shafts and welding in a new engine mount in the bay.. You can actually buy peugeot sport mounting kit & shafts, linkages & clutch cable mount but the kit is VERY expensive. Im talking £1200 just for the shafts, mount kit is about £600. So far this has cost me about £40 in parts, shafts about £200 i suspect once they're made and a bit of welding/fab work.

Another major benefit using this BE box is that you can just unbolt the diff casing and change it without having to rebuild the box. The standard MA gearboxes have the diff pressed onto the crown wheel. Just extra ball ache when you kill a box at the pod

[Brigsy]

Pmt ftw, who needs the proper fitting kit mate

[Matt Cole]

Suprised Brigsy aint dropped a C1J in there for some real power!

[Jessop]

lol Matt,

Youd be rather suprised how well an S2000 engine & drivetrain mocks up to an Ax shell though..

needs big arched but theres only minimal wheelbase difference.. PMT ahoy

[Jessop]

Welded two plates to the battery tray earlier on; 1 on each side for a little extra strength. Is thicker stuff but i really dont think the tray will be moving anywhere. I'll get the engine in and jump about on it and see if anything moves or flexes before any paint goes onto it. If it needs more reinforcing i'll do it.

Also obtained a pair of front 'BE' wheel hubs from a diesel Peugeot 306. I should have taken some pictures for comparison to the MA stuff as the spline really is a lot bigger [therefore stronger, im sure] than the standard AX stuff.
The 306 hubs will be getting machined down to suit the AX wheel bearings asap so i can mock up the driveshaft lengths to be made. Will get the rear mount made this week though , Should be able to gauge how close the shafts will sit to the lower chassis arms by resting the currently 'too' long BE shafts in the now empty wheel bearings/struts.

Quick pic of my novice welding skills anyway.. =]

[Jessop]

After some thaught about these bigger citroen Picasso 'BE' shafts ive had to rethink the box section again which i had to re-do and re-locate the mounting hole on it slightly further forward and angle it downover slightly so the engine sits at a slight angle back over compared to standard so it gives the shafts some clearence from fouling the chassis legs.

This time ive used 3mm steel so it really wont be going anywhere or warping under load.

Seems to fit much better now. I didnt take any pictures before; but the rubber boot on the intermediate bearing shaft sat pretty much ON the chassis leg, i couldnt even fit the shaft into the box as it had to go in at an angle or rock the engine a lot further back than i'd have liked - meaning the rubber engine mounting bush on the offside sat hard up on one side against the box section leaving no room at all for movement under load.

Some quick pictures anyway.


Cut out again..


Can see here the extra bit of angle required to prevent the rubber bush fouling on the rear side under load


Here's how it was before - see how it curved round at the back fouling the bit under the stud when engine rocked back.


Not pretty but functional.



Shaft is IN on nearside




Some clearence now!


The other side..


The rear engine mount still needs to be made up, shouldnt be too much bother though; you can see in the picture here there are two studs that stick out of the rear diff housing which i'll use as mountings for the rear bracket/bush mount. Ideal really!





I'll be happy to see the new wheel hubs arrive from my hero of a friend having them machined down to suit. Then onto shortening that offside shaft.. engine mount made at the back then engine is in - on to making gear linkages which shouldnt be too much of a bother - i already have rose jointed peugeot sport linkages i can just extend to suit. I need to change one of the arms on the box to a 'BE3' type from a pug 205 i believe though, then bend it round to suit, shall see when i get my hands on one! [Not to mention all the clutch cable bits im yet to order from Peugeot [from a Berlingo van] as the Hydraulic clutch setup fouls the turbo


Had to take a quick picture as seeing the twin cam covers in the AX engine bay makes me smile =]



Lots of work required inside welding over previously drilled holes & the odd plate here.

Some roll cage gussets to go in too , should look rather cool up front on the A pillars!






Hopefully wont be too long until i'm ordering fuel system, brake lines & wiring loom bits.

[alister]

Jessop I've followed your progression for years now, from the early days of just tinkering on your car to where you are now. Some people gave you stick in the early days over on axoc for asking newbie questions about things, but you kept going.
Brilliant work mate, how the hell you affording it all I dont know, but its not about the parts its the work going into it all, I tip my hat to you sir.

Ive not yet seen a project of mine to completion yet, axgt restoration, axgt turbo conversion and axvts conversion all never finished.

Lets hope my current bmw e30 turbo conversion gets finished this time!

[Matt Cole]

Come on Jessop, update on this!!