facelifting an early 406??

[benjhill]

I recently bought a 2000 406 rapier hdi 90 in silver which was all well and good till i put it next to my pals 2002 406 rapier hdi 90 i thought they were the same but his just looks sharper inside and out and its the same spec as mine he has different alloys too , now the question is can i do anything to make mine sharper so to speak i also love his dials mine are plain black where as his have chrome rings etc , cheers fellas

[Ares]

Outside you probably meen front section.
Well,it can be done but it a lot of work and includes at least bonnet swap,both front wings,lights,bumper and slam panel.
Interior,you can upgrade it by buying those chrome rings for dashboard.

[gumby6371]

Are you saying you have what we call on here a D8.5? Mk1 body with a HDI engine?
In which case it is quite a faff to update the panels.
I thought that everything was phase 2 by 2000 but I've been wrong before!!

Interior wise I believe any phase 2 interior will fit a phase 2 car and the same applies to phase 1's (obviously estate rear seats don't fit saloons) but upgrading manual heater controls to digital etc.. would be a lot of work. Clocks are plug and play but be careful with the mileage as it usually takes the higher figure I believe and I wouldn't advise fitting petrol clocks in a diesel. Stripping down a nice set of clocks and pinching the dials is an option tho if you get a set with the same amount of dials.

[benjhill]

Shes a very early d9 i believe with the black grill and comes up as a rapier on a the checks i have done , i have been looking into the full leather interior as there is an exec in my local breakers a 2.2hdi im slowly nicking bits from it ive already stolen the front wing as mine was rusty and it fit with no problems at all , all lined up just right , i havent looked at the dash of the 2.2 but i will now i know the clocks are plug and play, my interior is drab grey with wood everywhere and plain black dials , i want black really.

[Ares]

I have similar case,2000 406 Coupe D8 with D9 engine and dashboard.
petrol ofcourse,2.0

[steve_earwig]

The wings are the same, jut the indicator repeaters are in a different place.

We really need a "how-to" or something for this as it gets asked a lot (including by myself when I first came on here).

You will need: Bonnet, bumper, grille, slam panel (+ bonnet release as it only has one catch) and headlights of course.

The D8/D9 thing is very simple apparently, up to chassis VFxxxxxx8080000 is a D8, above that it's a D9.

TBH as time goes on I'm finding more and more that I appreciate the D8's simpler front end over the D9.

[gumby6371]

I may be corrected on this but honeycomb grill and chrome inserts on the bump strips = D9
In which case any panel from a later model 'should' fit without changing anything else.

Of all the cloth interiors I think the Rapier is the nicest, overall the half leather, black inserts, grey/silver dash trim and white dials from an SE is my favourite. I've never been a fan of full leather, especially on the three days a year it gets hot in the UK.

[benjhill]

I believe mine is a d9 then if the grill and chrome inserts tell them apart and she is an ugly ducklin at the moment

[GingerMagic]

To be honest, the best way to freshen up the front of the car is to clean the milky stuff out of the fog lights - it makes such a difference