The Hurricane rebuild

[Gary]

As you may remember Dads GTi Hurricane was hit by a driver about 3 years ago,and it has sat patiently waiting for us to do some thing with it.
We did buy another GTi Hurricane and was going to make one good car out of the two but we have decided to try and save them both as they are quite a rare model and there is very few left.
Here's the car 3 years ago


Two weeks ago it was collected by North Herts College it be repaired .
It will be used to train the students on how to repair a crash damaged car which is a win win situation as they gain experience and we get the car repaired .

On its way



Two weeks later the rear of the car has been pulled out the damaged rear 1/4 panel has been removed and the rear panel needs to be straighten a bit more , the inner wing has a small amount of damage but not too bad and the tailgate has a small piece missing which you can see in the pictures is being repaired they also managed to remove the 16v style air vent from the rear 1/4 without damaging it




They cut off the crushed bumper support on the rear panel and once the rear panel is straight they will be making a new piece to fit back on , the small fuel tank has been crushed but it's not split and I am going to try and get it back to shape using a hot air gun and some carefull manipulation .
The rear 1/4 will be replaced by a panel supplied by Paul that he had cut out of a scrap car.
I have a new rear bumper and rear light but the rear door is scrap although I may have a door skin some where if not I am going to need a o/s/r door, the front door is repairable ,but I will need the o/s/r 1/4 moulding if anyone has such an item .
Hopefully it will work out ok if not then we haven't lost anything.
I will keep you all updated as things progress.

[rutter123]

Thats pretty impressive work there, and all for free, now thats a good deal. Couldnt you blag a paint job too? My gti had similar damage to the o/s/f mainly just bent panels and a crease in the inner wing, its taken a lot of time to get it back straight again but it just took 3rd place at the x rally.

[rutter123]

Just a thought could you blow the tank out with an air line, maybe warm it first.

[Gary]

I was looking at your GTi at the X rally very nice and congratulations on the 3rd place, there aren't many 8 valve GTIs that attend any of the CCC meetings so it's always good to see one.
I am trying to rig up something to fill the tank with compressed air at the moment but if it doesn't work it is still useable as most of it has come out.

[Tim Leech]

That's great news Gary, so glad that it didn't end up being scrapped!

Indeed the GTI hurricane is a VERY rare motor now.

[Gary]

A bit more progress , rear inner wing straightened rear 1/4 replaced and dent in outer sill pulled out rear bumper support straighten and re welded on , they could have fabricated a new panel but Andy who is charge of the students wanted them to repair it rather than just fit new parts and a great job they are doing.
The car is comming back home for a while as the collage is relocating a few miles up the road , once they have moved repaired panels will be resprayed

[Tim Leech]

That is awesome Gary!!

[Paul296]

That is awesome Gary!!

Yeah that ^ Great to see. The GTi Hurricane is probably the rarest of the rare (infact, I think you own both of them! )

[Kitch]

Good to see it taking shape Gary.

GTi Hurricane - uber cool. It's weird, isn't it? A GTi Hurricane has 25% of the bodykit of a 16v, 93% of the wheels, it's 30-40bhp down on the 16v, doesn't have the best seats ever fitted to a BX (16v seats, incase you were wondering) and they seem to love to rust.

And yet somehow it's 100% cooler than a 16v, every day of the week. I guess the 16v tries too hard in comparison!


Life's weird

[Caffiend]

Looking good

[Jaba]

It would seem that the Hurricane blows away all the other models in your affections

[MULLEY]

Just need a 16v hurricane in my life

[Gary]

Things are going well rear 1/4 and bumper have been painted ,front door and wing still to be repaired but the college is moving so car had to come out of there for now .
The whole car could do with a respray but that will have to wait.
It also passed its mot
I have noticed when cold the exhaust is noisy sounds like a cracked manifold Noise disappear's when hot.
I did replace the gaskets but that was 3 years ago , so if anyone has a exhaust manifold for a 8 valve GTi please let me know.

[Tim Leech]

Hi Gary

My tzi has the same issue with the exhaust, I'm sure it's the manifold, but I can't find where!

Hurricane looks great!

[Jaba]

Me too and I have two manifolds with farting exhausts.
I think the problem is with the two outside flanges, and don't forget this is a cast iron manifold, that don't have a great deal of width for the gasket to seal on. I have found that the surface rusts away on the surface once a leak starts.

To save a thousand words here are pictures :



Despite using exhaust cement 3 years previously the carbon tracks of incipient escaping exhaust can be seen on manifold #1.

Next here is manifold #2 which has much rust evident and needs some attention to regain a good flat surface. I might just get it machined flat




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