Had a shocker of a day at work again so came home and decided to go and twirl a few spanners in anger and take the front subframe off. Been meaning to do it for a while and planning on doing a bit of grinding at the weekend to clean some more of the underside off so went outside and got busy.

The beginning…



Hubs off, suspension legs off etc. Then onto those bloody mounting cups on the inner arches/chassis legs. Passenger side cracked off very easily and came out without any fight at all.



Drivers side was a swine. Plenty of undoing, doing up again, etc. Took the subframe off, thinking I'd be able to brace the cup and undo the bolt further. No such luck, seized solid.



Healthy application of wd40 (not ideal but all I had), subframe back on, two 13mm bolts bolted back and and then more undoing, redoing, undoing etc. Eventually it gave in and came out. Subframe back off.



Little bit of rust here, think it's where I bare metalled earlier but didn't get with electrox. This bit is still pushed in and needs pulling out. Not sure how I will pull it out. Thinking about drilling a hole into a strip of metal, welding a nut on, sliding the strip into the hole on the pushed in bracket and attaching a slide hammer……





Where the cup fixes to the chassis leg….



Should be able to get in here and clean up quite a bit….



So the mounting cups have gone into the electrolysis tank, will see how they clean up but not holding my breath. Unfortunately, the cups are NFP.



I shall get my parts man on the case as I think I'll be looking to replace. Interestingly, Servicebox shows a gasket between the subframe and body, part number 7 on the diagram but no number 7 on the parts number list…..odd.

Thats all for tonight. Was knackered by the time I was done this far so hot shower, cold beer and dinner cooked by the wife…..

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

number 7 are for auto models iirc, the subframe is spaced down slightly.

if you leave your vin number out of the search and just go in for 306 you'll see the annotations that say which models parts are used on.

________________________________________

need a part number? get on here - http://public.servicebox.peugeot.com

Bring on the Trumpets.

As usual Mei, bang on. Parts man on the case for 6 of the cups Andy.

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Cant beat a good, well connected parts man.....cups found!

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin……

Anyone remember this horror?



Unfortunately, despite my very best hoping and talking nicely to it, it hadn't gone away. On that basis, I decided I'd better force it to go away….

Got under and started off by having a good look to figure out a plan of attack. As previously mentioned, this section has three sheets of metal, which all come together and fold under, effectively sealing the floorpan and sill together. They don't take to kindly to an errant trolley jack. Having has a good look, I thought the best plan of action would be to drive the three sections apart, clean up any rust, straighten them out and then reposition them as they should be. Easy enough in principle…

Out came the tools and got busy. It became immediately apparent the layers weren't coming apart without a fight. I had my suspicions why so got the grinder/wire brush going and confirmed what I thought.



Spot welds. I shouldnt have been surprised really. Haven't got a spot weld drill bit but got out a normal metal drill bit and got busy. Drilling out the spot welds worked and allowed me to separate the layers.



Wasn't as bad as I expected in there, just surface rust. Very difficult to get the layers apart above the right hand spot weld I drilled out, they were properly mangled together and the centre sheet of metal is much stronger than the outers. A chisel type of punch and a hammer eventually got them separated



Much work with a small drill mounted wire brush got the metal clean and manipulation with pliers (I know, bit it's all I have) started straightening the metal



Until eventually after about 2 hours, I got it to somewhere near semi reasonable.



Still needs more straightening work but before i can do much more, the three sections need clamping together and the spot welds reinstating. Once that's done, I can work on getting the metal all back into the correct place. Still, I'm very pleased with how it turned out, considering the mess it was before I began.

Also sorted this bit of the jacking point. Goodness only knows how it managed to get this bent. It's probably ¼” thick…..still, a bit of heat and the trusty mole grips and it's about there…





Then got busy cleaning up the surface rust and some scabby bits I could see at the bottom of the chassis leg….






A very small amount of welding required there….not sure if this hole is intentional either…



Was behind the factory seam sealant so who knows….anyway, that was all I did in the car itself today, currently got the zinc plating kit back out and fired up so will see how that goes….

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

The mangled bit was just behind the jacking point Cully. Think someone had taken it to Stevie Wonder Tyres Inc....god knows how they bent the bit of the jacking point though.....

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Starting to get the hang of this zinc plating lark....

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Done with a kit from Gateros plating Paul. Still not quite right with the method yet as the yellow finish is rubbing off in a couple of places.....trying to figure why.

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Could it be coming of because there was something contaminating the piece your trying to plate?

How have you cleaned it before plating?

I have no experience with plating but I would like to try it to.

i belive the colour is voltage dependant
Ie:- changing the plating voltage changes the colour

Clean water, is the tap or distilled?

that's likely to be it.

________________________________________

need a part number? get on here - http://public.servicebox.peugeot.com

Bring on the Trumpets.

FYI the bolts are available as facelift still i believe even though they will be listed as no longer available for the rallye

They use the same bolts for berlingo and around 6 other different peugeot models they are identical

Just incase your having trouble sourcing

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BLACK RALLYE - phoenix
WHITE RALLYE - valliant

http://public.servicebox.peugeot.com/

https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history