Rescuing an abandoned Diesel 12 valve in Europe

[GoceKU]

Today i've stood back to look at the progress on the body work and one thing that caught my eye was the rims. I'm always for the OEM look but the rims on this car look very 90s like casters on a sofa. The roads around me are not the best, so i'll never run after market rims only OEM they can be from other models but factory quality. So i started looking at OE wheels from other peugeot's. The drow back it this car has 4 bolt hubs almost all new models have 5 bolts, like on my other 6 series peugeo's. So my choice is very limited. Any advice, which of these will look the best?

 

[RandyWilson]

4x108? How very.... Peugeot.

 

[GoceKU]

4x108? How very.... Peugeot.

Oh yeah, not only oddball bolt pattern, the centre bore is 65mm so no others can fit, Ford has 63,5mm centre bore same bolt pattern. Nobody does it like the French.

 

[cjtoombs]

I like the 2nd and 4th ones, but that's just my taste.

 

[GoceKU]

Picture No:2 are called Equinoxe, they are very deep offset but with a 2-30mm spacer will fit, picture no:4 are called Challenger, they are considered to be one of the best design for factory rims but they have a bad reputation of cracking, i've had a set on a 405 about 10 years ago one thing i remember they are only 6" wide and hard to weld also they will need a 20mm spacer. I want to fit 225-245 wide tires under this wagon, it's a heavy car needs a bit more rubber to hold it on the road. The first picture is starting to be more and more interesting to me, they are very rare and are called T7, they are 7,5" wide and that inverted flare 5 spoke design looks much better in real life then on picture, i'll stop by my contacts to see what is locally available.

 

[GoceKU]

After few days of looking i managed to found and buy those factory peugeot "Rinjani" rims with 205 45 17" tires, the tires are too small but they are only 6 months old and have no miles on them and i paid less then two tires them and the rims. It was one of those deals were a rich boy brought them to fit them to a small car and they won't fit, they wore too close to the shock absorber, he did not know about wheel spacers and what they do. i'll probably run the tires for a summer of two just because they are so new and will be a wast to discard them ore sell them. Now, i'll have to found or make me some custom spec wheel spacers. But first it needs to go for paint.

 

[GoceKU]

Today after i clean up the garage from the engine swap i got the 406 in, i did install a seat from another peugeot just for driving it around, that one is already dirty and destroyed. One thing that i wanted to deal with first is the rust. The hood has couple of stone chips and a deep scratch that is also dented. The rear arches also had couple of bubbles, they also got ground down to clean steel and i spray them down with anti rust acid. With the acid working i started on the passenger front door. It had lot of small dents above the molding line. First i sanded it down with P240 apply thin body filler on some of the dents. Then i moved to the rear door and arch, its been damaged and poorly repair. I also glue couple of dent pulling studs on the rocker panel. By this time it was past midnight so i call it a day.

 

[GoceKU]

Today i spent some of my free time doing body work on this project, the drivers side got its dents fixed. Then the hood got its dents fix, and i moved to the passenger side, the rear door has lots of dents. Then come the fuel door to be removed, on any other car 2 screws and it come off but this is a french car. So it took me more than an hour, the entire fuel filler had to come out. After that fiascal I stopped, i need to deal with the 2 big dents one on the rocker panel and one on the front wing.

 

[GoceKU]

Today is a holiday and i had the day off work so i got some serious work done on this project. I started by welding couple of plates to the dented rocker panel, i used my big slide hammer to pull it out, but the metal is so thin i ripped and the bottom was rusted thru . I cut out the rust and from what i could see it was repaired sometime in the past with lead soldering. After looking inside the panel i decide it needs complete replacement and left it for tomorrow. Then i prepared the wheel wells first the front, then the back and spray them with black stone chip. I did take off the wheel and use masking paper and tape to protect the suspension. I need to find me some cavity wax to apply inside the frame and rocker panels. Last job i did is to pound out the front fender, that has a big dent, clean the inside and apply stone chip on the bottom and where the inner fenders contact them. It was a long, dirty and hard day of work in the big garage.

 

[GoceKU]

Today i spent some money, first thing i bought was a new rocker panel, it was 40$ a friend used his discount and brought it from skopje, then i started making phone calls to find something to protect it from rusting again. I've seen what cavity wax looks in one car i cut apart years back but i could not found in my country. Today i called all the body shops around me they haven't heard one told me it only come from the factory on some models, i know that is not thru. I found a shop in sofia which is about 200 km from me but that also means crossing the border that sells cavity wax. And as i was getting ready to jump in my car to drive to Bulgaria i thought of a new paint shop about 2km from my home. Visited their website and they had exactly what i had, i printed it and went there, first response was: no we don't have anything like that. So i pulled what i printed from their website, he looked in his computer for solid 5 min found it but he said it das not have a hose. I pointed at the description and ask him to call whoe ever placed it on the side, so he did and the guy on the phone know exactly what i needed, and they managed to find those two sprays and the applicator hose it cost me 17$. I was ready to pay double that in fuel so i was happy. The last picture is from a rocker panel i cut off a very rusty german car that has cavity wax apply about 15 years ago.