Clio 182 Turbo

[Yarp]

Interested to hear how you get on with painting the panel and the wiper arms.

Mine are looking a bit shabby too.

It all depends I think. If they come off I’m confident they’ll come up well. I did all the other front plastics satin black a couple of years back. They’ve done 5000 miles and still look great.

That’s the before and after. I think I’ll stick with satin on these too, the gloss will be a nightmare to keep nice.

 

[Sir Nancy Flowers]

@Yarp have you thought about a coating on the skuttle?

Gtechniq C4 is ace for that kind of thing. Can do it in situ and it lasts years. Big scrub with some apc first, rinse, dry, then apply and level after. Its amazing stuff

Also, absolutely love how you immediately resort to violence when things dont fit 🤣

 

[Darren S]

It all depends I think. If they come off I’m confident they’ll come up well. I did all the other front plastics satin black a couple of years back. They’ve done 5000 miles and still look great.

That’s the before and after. I think I’ll stick with satin on these too, the gloss will be a nightmare to keep nice.
View attachment 1690691

The end result looks great above.

I take it that you popped the front bumper off rather than spray them on the car itself? Do the grille sections and fog surrounds pop-out of the bumper itself or are they fixed in place?

Questioning it as I do need a front bumper and bonnet refresh at some point (again). I'd happily tackle the grilles and fog surrounds myself whilst leaving the bumper itself to someone far more talented than I.

 

[JimF]

I satin black'd my grills etc all in situ about 5 years ago and they've stood up great. Better than the front badge that I took off actually.

 

[Yarp]

@Yarp have you thought about a coating on the skuttle?

Gtechniq C4 is ace for that kind of thing. Can do it in situ and it lasts years. Big scrub with some apc first, rinse, dry, then apply and level after. Its amazing stuff

Also, absolutely love how you immediately resort to violence when things dont fit 🤣

Violence is always the answer 😂.

A coating is a much more sensible option, I’ll give that a go if it works. The stuff I’ve used in the past has always been crap and not lasted long which was the thoughts behind paint.

The end result looks great above.

I take it that you popped the front bumper off rather than spray them on the car itself? Do the grille sections and fog surrounds pop-out of the bumper itself or are they fixed in place?

Questioning it as I do need a front bumper and bonnet refresh at some point (again). I'd happily tackle the grilles and fog surrounds myself whilst leaving the bumper itself to someone far more talented than I.

Yeah, bumper off and then all the plastic trim just pops out. The fog surrounds are a bit tricky but as long as you’re gentle they come off without damaging any clips. Mine all had trim restorer stuff on so took a few good washes to get clear. I did an alternative rinse of white spirit and fairly liquid until the water stopped beading on them and there were no reactions when the paint went on. Satin seemed to work best. I don’t like the finish of Matt and the gloss was too much.

 

[Sir Nancy Flowers]

Violence is always the answer 😂.

A coating is a much more sensible option, I’ll give that a go if it works. The stuff I’ve used in the past has always been crap and not lasted long which was the thoughts behind paint.



Yeah, bumper off and then all the plastic trim just pops out. The fog surrounds are a bit tricky but as long as you’re gentle they come off without damaging any clips. Mine all had trim restorer stuff on so took a few good washes to get clear. I did an alternative rinse of white spirit and fairly liquid until the water stopped beading on them and there were no reactions when the paint went on. Satin seemed to work best. I don’t like the finish of Matt and the gloss was too much.

Not sure on your levels of "detailing" abilities so sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs.

C4, having used it a few times, can go wrong. Prep is key. Almost neat APC scrub, rinse, dry, panel wipe (if you have it), let that flash off and then apply C4. Grab a couple of cotton buds too as there looks to be some proper tight bits in there (and going off memory of mine). Shout if you want any more advice Mr Yarp!

 

[Yarp]

Not sure on your levels of "detailing" abilities so sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs.

C4, having used it a few times, can go wrong. Prep is key. Almost neat APC scrub, rinse, dry, panel wipe (if you have it), let that flash off and then apply C4. Grab a couple of cotton buds too as there looks to be some proper tight bits in there (and going off memory of mine). Shout if you want any more advice Mr Yarp!

Great advice, probably need all the help I can get! I’ll order some and drop a message if I get stuck 👍

 

[Yarp]

I adjusted the pre-load tonight. It was probably wishful thinking that it would help and it didn’t. I still have ALL the boost 🤣. 20psi+ would be fun but I think it would only be fun once 😂.

I’ll fit the actuator off the old turbo at some point to sort it out.

 

[Yarp]

I decided to try and sort the boost issues today. I popped the actuator off the new turbo and it’s scrap. If you blow in the hole the air just flows straight out. I popped the original one that came with the old turbo on.

Quick test drive and it’s much happier but is only holding about 5psi. By the time I got it back it was far too hot to tweak anything. I’ll give it a bit more pre-load tomorrow and see if that helps. If not I’ve got a boost controller in the garage somewhere so I’ll fit that and turn it up a bit.

The bay looks a lot tidier now after a bit of a clean and fresh paint on the boost pipes. The battery cover still needs to go back on but it needs a 2nd coat of paint.

It then got a rinse while it was out to wash all the oily fingerprints off. It came up lovely again 👍

 

[Yarp]

I’d mentioned a few posts back about vibration through the car under load. The gear stick was also a bit flappy and moved on throttle and the gear change was a bit messy up the revs too.

I got a “new” dogbone mount with power flex bushes courtesy of @SKINTasPER today.

I decided to go 2nd hand to avoid the massive bollock on I’ve always had convincing old bushes to come out and new ones to go in!

All fitted up without any bother

It’s cured probably 99% of the vibration now. There’s still a tiny bit but it’s very much liveable with. It’s still very very tight but I can’t think of anything else to twist the engine forward a degree or 2 to make the space. I did think about taking a grinder to the rack but that bit looks important 😂

I went for a compulsory blast and it was running mint. Boost is holding perfectly, it’s running nicely, it’s just very silly and fantastic fun. It’s just got so much more useable speed than the M3. You haven’t got to wring its neck for every bit of power and end up doing 130+mph without realising it. The short gear ratios mean you can rattle through them quickly and really enjoy it. Plus I f**king love boost 😁.

When I got back the wife was there looking suitably unimpressed. I told her to jump in and f**k off. She’s not driven a manual car since 2015 but came back with a huge smile on her face. Turns out she also thinks it’s silly and f**king hilarious. Mrs Yarp loves the boost too 😂

Here she is taking it for a spin. I forgot to tell her it has no power steering and she nearly drove it through the hedge over the road 🤣. I did notice when she took it out that it sounds like there’s a bit of an exhaust blow at the front somewhere so I’ll get that sorted at some point. Aside from that it’s happy days 👌