Three 205's (with four engines :-)) but unfortunately one too many. Since I was just about to start restoring my full stock Ph1.5 Silver 205 GTI 1.9 (aka 205 GTI 999), it was a very difficult choice - made even harder as Ph2 Miami Blue with 16v engine was a receipt for my "dream spec" 205.

Helped by the fact that I would end up with a free Miami Blue rolling shell by selling the parts I don't need off of it and also already having most of the parts I will need for the build just laying around doing nothing for a number of years - I decided the only sensible option would be to sell the Silver one and build the Miami just as I want it.

Since I decided I was going to keep the Miami Blue 205, it was bugging me that the car had original remote central locking but the key with the remote had been long lost. Then I remembered I've had this pair of RCL module with the matching remote sitting in my parts stash.

The replacement RCL module fitted straight in the place of the original one, so I crossed that off the list (one job down - 465 left to do). It made me feel better about my decision as well.

Just as I was going to start the work on the car, I stumbled across a XU10J4RS engine for sale - it wasn't really looking nice to begin with but since this type of engine is extremely rare where I live, I just had to buy it. A plan of a modern-engined 205 with ABS and A/C was quickly formed :-).

Since I had to inspect and refresh the engine prior to using it, I started taking it apart. Wiring had all been cut and injector plugs all broken and glued on (!), so it wasn't looking good, but I was hoping the internals would be fine at least.

No such luck though - someone had been "playing" with it, crudely enlarging the valve pocket cut-outs in the pistons. At this point I thought I would still be able to make a good engine out of it, by replacing the pistons and giving it a full rebuild.

However, the head has had a similar kind of "mods" done to it and even one of the spark plug threads stripped. At this point I decided not only to scrap this engine but also the whole idea of a "modernised 205" and just "keep it simple".

After a failure with a GTI-6 engine idea, I continued the actual work on the car, by removing its (non-)original engine.

I've had a good idea of what I was doing (hint: a light bulb above my head) :-).

After some struggle with clumsy French engineering, the engine was beheaded.

It turned out that having had a swap for a DFZ 1.9 102 bhp engine in the past was a fortunate circumstance in this case, as a friend was after such a head for an interesting project.

The next task was removing the engine internals (pistons with rods and then the crankshaft as well).

The pistons and rods have been sent away together with the head, while the crankshaft is hopefully going to save a dead 205 GTI 1.9, sooner or later.

The last job for the day was to remove the front wings (easy, as they had been replaced in the past and not resealed afterwards) and bumper (hard because all the bolts had been rusted up solid).

Removing the front wings has enabled me to get a clear view of a rotten inner wing, due to a known incident from the past.