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Citroën Saxo VTS Fast Road/Track Day Project

91K views 133 replies 25 participants last post by  Andyblue 
#1 · (Edited)
I made this. :) Citroën Saxo VTS Build

Hi,just wanted to share a list of all the work I've done so far,what you see has already been posted on the Saxo VTS forum of the country of my origin (Italy),though it's pretty quiet these days unfortunately due to the social medias,I've been slowly updating it over the past 2.5 years even though most of the main chassis work (see underside) has only seen substantial progress recently,it's a pretty straightforward progress thread for now,mainly de-rust,paint etc,but I hope it can be of interest in some way.

Obliviously I'm no professional in no way and I learn as I go and test things so please feel free to make any suggestion (main reason for the creation of this thread) good or bad,they're much appreciated.

Last picture before hibernation:



Rear Axle:


Just a note,I've pretty much used all products from Bilt Hamber for the treating the metal: Electrox,Deox-C,Deox-Gel,Hydrate-80,Dynax S-50 for the cavities and Dynax UB.

Out with the old one:







Needed to cut off one of the 4 mounting bolts as it was jammed due to corrosion,an impact would have worked too but didn't have access to that at the time,have one now.



Started disassembling it:



Mild steel washers off the 4 mounting bolts were badly corroded,had someone custom made them in stainless steel to same specs:











Same with the torsion bars offset washers:





These socket off Irwin came in very handy to remove corroded bolts,would recommend them:



Extractor made for the torsion bars:







Pin looks okay on this side,not so much on the other though,see below.





Even though I found the seal had perished badly,not much longer before it wouldn't do his job anymore:



Faulty side,no good:



Used axle from a 1.1,arb still greased nicely:



First and second pin,much better:





Started stripping and de rusting it for new paint,started on the middle the easiest part:







Started working on the trainling arms,made M12 holes for the ARB plate and 6mm grease nipples,3 each arm:





















Deox-C to the rescue:





ARB plate almost finished:





Painted the arms (sorry no pics on them bare out of the Deox):



ARB plate tested fitted:





Mid way trough the Deox process,this was in a bad state:









Splines all clean,look nice (covered in copper grease now):



One part done:



Before and after (again no pics following the Deox apologies,was in the rush to get them clean and painted):



Rubber grommets fitted to prevent dirt inside the trailing arm splines:



Fitted bronze bearings in place of the OEM ones,side to side:





New seals:





Got together a tool to help setting the height of the rear axle:



Cut the outer ring for part upgrade,more on this later:





Axle is ready:



Fitted some PowerFlex:



Painted the rear brake discs shield,electrox first:





Camber kit for the axle,-1.5° from slavesta on 106rallyeforum (this was what the cut ring was for):



Little bit of paint first for the area that will remain exposed:









Assembled:













New rear hubs,after some paint:













Used a nyloc nut instead,grade 10:



80mm studs:







Gaz gold for the rear axle:



Also for the lower gearbox mount and smaller bush from Kam Racing,gave the support a quick paint:







Underside start:







Primed the rear bumper panel for now,still not finished,more later:



Passenger side near where the fuel tank sits,before:







Other side:





Chassis rail driver side,start:



Used Deox-Gel:





Wheel carrier support after Deox,almost ready (no before pics,sorry):







Front mounting pont for the axle:



Driver side,some rust damage present but I wanted to get it cleaned and primed anyway:





Middle part:











Exhuast side,before:



Decided this had to go if I wanted to get everything clean:



Primed:





Rear bench underside,please excuse all the holes from the rear (unused) seat belt plates,mistakes were made,probably should have used a spot weld drill bit instead of normal ones:





Had a start on the front slamp panel for the Pro Comp,it already had (bad) cut holes in it so had to work around that,before:



Started to get it back to bare metal:



Primed:







Passenger side sideskirt,almost ready:











Primed:









Driver side,sadness incoming:



















Floor passenger side has seen some water in the past:









Primed,not finished yet:



Mattig side mirrors,had them painted in the color of the car:









Decided to have a go with carbon fiber wrap (I know):

Before:



After:









Made the garage a bit more comfy,before:

















Made a start at the driver side front arch,feels bad:





Day 1 of many (this is the most recent job and what currently working on,will update as I get more substantial progress done):







Brake System:

Painted the master cylinder as it was looking in poor state due to paint flaking and rust:



Made new brake lines for the front:





Had the sleeves for protection,will have to see if effective:





This is as close as it gets with the steering at full lock and with no load on the suspension,not really representative of any normal driving situation but it should be okay,will do more testing once everything is in place:











Used a rivnut tool to support the lines at the front:









Proportioning valve,trial fitment,6 positions 100% to 60%:





Rear washer custom made for the lines that go to the rear axle trainling arms:



Brake lines for the rear seat that splits and go to each of the rear arms:



Rear bench will get repainted.



Deatil of the flare with kunifer pipe:

 
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187
#2 · (Edited)
Got some gold tape for the Pro Comp induction kit,before:









Refitted the manifold with new bolts/studs and gasket:





Retapped the holes as well:



Installed JP4 covers:



Bought a custom badge:



VTR alternator setup,sits lower,easier to adjust and sits farther from the manifold:





Aluminium pulley:





Made up a new earth for the gearbox,same spec as battery negative cable,25mm2 170 amps:





New brakes and discs for the front:









Relocated the fan relays:





106 GTI black pillars in place of the "cream" standard ones:





Radiator OEM shield:



Baker BM gr.N gearbox mount:



Only trackday I've taken part in so far at Lydden Hill:

 
#8 · (Edited)
Thank you,I appreciate that a lot.

So,gave some attention to the damaged part on the sideskirt,this is how it looked like,I went ahead and made it so possibly a new plate can be welded in,not finished yet I think I'm able to clean it up a little more.

Before and after:





This is how it looked from the interior quarter panel before the Deox gel:



Left it with the Deox for 45 hours,doesn't look like a lot at the bottom from the pictures but it's done a good job so far,covered it again for another application.



The end of the master cylinder was going rusty as it's not protected for some reason so removed the corrosion and gave it a coat with the Electrox:



The tow hook needed some attention as it was rusty,used a flap wheel to strip it taking care not to remove too much good metal,this is as far as I got,now it's being treated by the Deox:





Also continued with the driver side,left it like this from last time,,clearly it will need some large new panels but not a lot I can do about it,this side is the worst (at least visually) and the rot was extended,all I can do for now is get it cleaned and primed,lack of welding skills and tools.







After today so far,few bits that still show some corrosion being treated with the Deox as well (also need to remove the earth to continue further,didn't have a 10mm spanner with me lol)







 
#11 ·
What an incredible amount of attention you're investing into this. It is very nice to see. I see you're in Kent, so am I, I am also a fabricator by trade, so if you get desperate I may be able to give you a hand.

I've never done lydden, I am keeping my eyes out for some cheaper track days although I've not done one for a good few years.



I regularly check your build thread so am in no doubt you'd possibly experienced it yourself. However many years ago in my younger days I had a good friend with a gold 1.1 independence, it was a right dog. One night on the way home from the pub I noticed it sounded like rushing water which after a fair few got the mind ticking "am I actually hearing that". Well it turned out that both his sills were full with a fair few litres of rain water. When he pulled away or braked heavily you heard it all slosh from one end to the other. I can't remember if we cleaned out a drain hole (that may have been the door) or if he hammered a darn nail in the sill end to get it out.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Wishbones start.

Stripping down the wishbones at the moment,balljoint and front bush came out quite easily with the help of a drill and a dremel to cut the metal sleeve however had some diffiiculties with the rear bush,I've found out what worked for me was cut some small slots on the front of the metal sleeve so that it can be pushed back with a chisel easily,then it can be pushed out using a socket and hammer:









These are as they come off,some rust but nothing that can't be fixed.

Front bush pins:





Bushes housing:





Balljoint housing:





I've cleaned them up with a flap wheel and left the bits above with the Deox-Gel for now,so waiting for that to do its thing:





Removed the rear seatbelt brackets which aren't used anymore:





Yes,I've messed up a hole.




 
#14 · (Edited)
So,wishbones still with the Deox for a third application,it has already removed a lot of corrosion from the second one but I prefer to wait another 48 hours and get them as clean as possible,I know the Deox-C is best for this but I already have a few litres of the Deox (bought the 5 litres can lol) so might as well use it.
Also,was at Lydden Hill trackday on Friday 14th for some needed motivation.


Back to the driver's front arch as I made some progress today (I think),scraped off almost all of the underseal so that I can start treating the metal with the Deox,used a flap wheel shortly just to get the flaky rust off but would like to use as little abrasive as I can to avoid removing good metal,especially with pitted rust.
All of the areas below already being treated with the gel,as you apply the gel you can already see it working and be able to notice some areas showing shiny metal behind,it might appear worse than it is in the pictures but I should be able to treat the damaged metal to a decent condition ready for the Electrox.

Some pictures before today:





and so far:







 
#15 · (Edited)
Seam sealed the boot floor.

I thought I would take some pictures of the Dynax seam sealer I'm using on the underside at the back now that's dry,still have some areas to do,might be hard to see from the pictures once it's painted with the Electrox but I swear it's there:



















This is how it looks unpainted:



Wishbones look much better now,one last application should do it,altough I admit I already painted in primer most of the wishobones where they are free of rust,will come back to the other bits once the Electrox is cured.











Also,used for the 1st time the Dynax-UB on the rear bumper panel,I know it doesn't look uniform and everything but this is just a first coat (suggested at least 2 coats at 24 hours intervals),surely need some practice to get decent looking coverage (not overly important as these areas will be covered,still would like to get a decent finish) will see how it looks with a 2nd coat and decide if further coats are necessary.
Anyhow,I'm guessing I might have been holding the can too close to the surface hence the runs,I'm thinking 20-25cm away will be adeguate? Any suggestion is much appreciated.



 
#16 · (Edited)
Second coat (sorry for bad quality pictures,will get more with better lighting):





And third coat,I think is where I'll leave it at,protection should be adeguate.



Second application of the Deox on the arch:







Third application,I don't think it's necessary to bother you with pictures of every application so I will just take my time and keep applying the gel and update once all of the rust has been taken care of.









Before and after on the side panel:





Back on the rear quarter this as far as I was able to get to with the corrosion removal without spending way too many hours for little improvment,so decided to use the Hydrate-80 to take care of the rest and then I'll be applying a coat of Dynax S-50.

 
#19 · (Edited)
Thank you,love the Deox gel although time consuming and need patience.
Now that the underside on the boot floor is almost done I'm starting to work on the part inside the car,never been happy with the black ish color from factory which looks pretty bad (altough on other factory colors is much better) so I was thinking to strip it all back to bare metal and re paint it.
Been thinking for a while about the color of choice and because of all the work to be done I'm not too inclined to go back to a simple gloss black so I've been looking around and I really like anthracite,this is semi gloss,this would also match the color of the new wheels I'll be installing,bare in mind that this is with a L.E.D lightining and it does look darker normally.



 
#23 · (Edited)
So started working on the interior of the boot area,first job was to remove the tar "sound deadening",used Tardis for this and it scraped off quite easily:





Before:



Got it down to bare metal,slightly underestimated the amount of time it would take to do this,taken me around 15 hours of grinding lol







First coat of primer:





This is where I'm at with the driver arch,don't think I can do much better than this and I don't want to leave the bare metal too much time exposed so I will tidy up these corners where I've been applying the gel and then I'll coat it in Electrox











Been applying the Dynax S-50 in all the cavities,here shown penetration is good.




Gave a quick coat of primer to the arch before it starts rusting again:

 
#24 · (Edited)
Electrox on the driver strut top,still a llittle bit of work to do,little rust spots in the corners:













Started refurbishing the front struts prior to installing upgraded components,firstly removed the bearings and smoothed out the small "bumps" as they will interfere with the coilovers I'm planning to fit:







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Removed the flaky rust to ease the job for the Deox-c,before:









and after:





Wanted to check the sunroof for a while as I know they leak and might cause rust in the corners where water just sits,sure enough:







I'll just be cutting out the metal brackets that supports the sunroof assembly and remove it completely as I'm not a fan of it and never use it,by being careful it can be cut out quite neatly and looks original from the outside,there is one company that makes a carbon fiber blank that looks pretty nice,expensive though.



Strut top passenger side start:







Wire brushed the loose stuff off and left it with the Deox,no holes so far so that's good.





After 2nd application:







Made some panels to cover the rear axle mounting holes,cut out from mild steel and then painted in Electrox and covered in carbon fiber wrap,and on this subject I've to say I always would prefer the real thing but the wrap has come a long way from when I first used it years ago and I think it looks decent.





Cut out the last bit of metal that was spot welded on the rear bumper panel as it looks more tidy.

Before and after:







Cut out the rot on the passenger arch and also the bumper bracket which will be replaced with a genuine one:









Back on the driver sideskirt,I've cut out all of the damaged metal that was too far gone expect this part,this below is located inside the sideskirt and the portion of it that faces down towards the outside look okay and could be saved,however had no idea how the other side towards the inside of the car was looking so bought a usb camera that connects to my phone and took some pictures,not looking very good:







Now,I could just treat it with the S-50 which is advertised as able to stop existing corrosion but I believe this is too far gone for me to confindently use this method,what is left to do is just cut out the affected metal,not easy though as access is very limited but I should be able to find a way to do it.

Not sure on how the corrosion process goes with this part but I believe that the drainage pipe from the sunroof that runs from the roof all the way down to both of the sideskirts have something to do with it,for reference this is how the passenger side looks:





I went ahead and sprayed the Dynax S-50 on this side.

Front struts refurbishment.

Front struts condition before the Deox-C bath for reference:











In they go:





Passenger strut ready:







Painted up with the Electrox (spray):



Driver strut:







Painted up:



Also,in the process of disconnecting everything to remove the engine I've found out someone has been messing with the starter motor wiring,one of the connections has been cut out and the green wire from the starter wasn't connected to anything,another thing to fix on the list.





Engine removal.

Bought an engine crane:



Removed the engine:



Put the engine on the stand:



Engine bay as it stands:









While taking the top engine mount off noticed the lower buffer wasn't in a very nice shape:





The whole unit will be replaced with a Gr.N one.

Heavy duty wishbone ball joints from Spoox:





3rd application passenger arch:





Seam sealed the boot floor:







In the process of stripping down the power steering rack to convert it to non power steering,read a dozen people keeping the same rack and going down the same route so decided to do the same,removed the ram,pipes,pump and everthing not needed,one of the unions was quite rusty so decided to cut the pipe so I could use a socket and impact and came out pretty easily,probably would have rounded it with a spanner.







Left it with a garage a while ago (before getting off the road) to fix a power steering pump pipe that was leaking due to the steering arm rubbing against it because of the angle they work with the car lowered,nice to see they messed up the thread on one of the unions,or somebody else did...still,will retap the threads when the new taper arrives:



Then just replaced the boots and cleaned up the rack a little bit,just waiting for the blanking bolts and the grease gun applicator to apply some grease through the grease nipples,will also be painting the arms which I took off and new uniball rod ends installed.









Re tapped the M14 hole and fitted the blanking bolts:





Got a nicer workbench,before:



And after:

 
#68 · (Edited)
SUPERMIG150 for rust repairs and some chassis strengthening

Mainly for potholes mind you...



Back on the driver sideskirt,I've cut out all of the damaged metal that was too far gone expect this part,this below is located inside the sideskirt and the portion of it that faces down towards the outside look okay and could be saved,however had no idea how the other side towards the inside of the car was looking so bought a usb camera that connects to my phone and took some pictures,not looking very good:







Now,I could just treat it with the S-50 which is advertised as able to stop existing corrosion but I believe this is too far gone for me to confindently use this method,what is left to do is just cut out the affected metal,not easy though as access is very limited but I should be able to find a way to do it.
Made some progress on the driver inside sideskirt before moving but didn't post it,took forever due to the lack of room but with a hand saw I was able to cut out most of the rotten metal,a little bit more work needed but I think I'm most of the way there.







 
#25 · (Edited)
Front wishbones strengthening.

Received back the wishbones from the bracing thanks to Spoox,they also blasted and power coated them,they've done a fantastic job,very happy with the result,plate is 6mm thickness:











Fitting the ball joints was a bit of a pain even because of the angle of the wishbone,took an hour and half,while pressing they were going in at a weird angle but luckily was able to straighten them up and press them in all they way,maxed out my 6 ton press should really have a 10ton for this,from what I can see they seem to be seated where they are supposed to so hopefully they will be okay once fitted to the car:













Applied some clear silicone to the back just to keep water and dirt out:





Marked up the sunroof hole so that I can center up the blanking panel easily (I'll give a good clean to the rest of the roof soon):



Made some blanking panels for the rear boot vents,tried with a 5mm square piece to guide the cuts and that helped a lot getting the lines straight:





Old part:

 
#26 ·
great write up mate! Just be advised, if you do use Group N Engine mounts they will vibrate through the whole car, as there's no flex in the engine, but the car will feel a lot faster though! I had this on my Saxo until I bought an original set of mounts and go them put back on. If the car is a weekend motor then you shouldn't have a problem.
 
#31 ·
Got to keep the motivation up lol,sometimes it's just a case of going in the garage and putting in hours but sometimes it's not easy and you might feel the need to take a break and that's okay but I find it's then harder to get back in the mindset and go back to it but then again at times I just don't want to bother the neighbours with too much noise too often lol.
Sometimes I just watch other people's threads,youtube and such to keep up the motivation or if you can a trackday works nicely too even as a spectator.
 
#32 · (Edited)
Quick update,painted up the boot section in solvent based enamel in anthracite,chose this type as it dries hard and it resists well scracthes,abrasion etc,still need some touch up but 90% is done:





Re-painting the wiper arms as well as look tired,before:









Got them down to bare metal first:



Blanking panels for the upper holes of the boot:





25.4mm rear ARB by Spoox:

 
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