Project: Beagle
Okay so finally getting my license didnt go quite as smoothly as i thought it would. After a lot of shopping around and having been quoted 5,340 insurance to drive my Cabby I instantly knew that I wouldnt be back behind the wheel of a 19 for a wee bit. Panic stations set in as everytime i looked out the window i saw the fiat chinquecento, just leering at me, offending me with its looks and mere presence.
Then during a rare moment of brilliance i remembered i had been looking at an old 1996 1.2 clio for my ex ages back, several phonecalls later and some more torment to get insured i travelled to dublin to pick up the car. French cars ireland member janine had previously owned the car and had taken great care of her however she had been stood up for a peried of time which took its toll on her sadly. The lacquer had well and truly peeled from this car, also it had been given resprays in parts with aerosol cans, a good few dents and the bonnet appeared to be warped, more on that later, so she had lost a little of her former glory, none the less a great price and a nifty little runabout, more importantly it's a renault.
I drove it to wexford with little incident apart from a slight misfire and the bearing collapsed just as i got home. I began a to do list.
Essentials:
New plugs & leads (done)
oil & filter (done)
air filter (done)
some random bulbs (done)
new wheel bearings (done)
new cylinders (done)
new shoes (done)
new coolant (done)
new tyres (done)
new throttle body (or clean it) (done)
repair pass side mirror (done)
tax it (done)
test it (done)
new wheels (done)
alternator
More to do's:
alloys (done)
mouldings (done)
fix dents (done)
replace bonnet (done)
replace wings (done)
replace boot lid (done)
repair drivers side door (done)
replace head lamps
replace steel bonnet catch cable (done)
r19 cabby interior
r19 cabby wheel (done)
fix blower issues in the car (done)
fit a big "f**k you" sound system in there (done)
replace broken antenna (done)
replace poverty dash display (1 dial, speedo) with r19 dash (done)
respray (done)
live the dream again (done)
I have some parts donated from a 1996-97 white 5dr clio, the panels are all good, everything else both sucks and blows.
NEXT BIT - The Essentials:]
Nobody needs these details really, we've all done it, by we I mean my friend finto did 99% of the work as he's a great mechanic and i dont want to take any risks with this car. So we bursted on, first issue was a collapsed bearing in the drivers side rear, amazingly i just happen to have one laying in the glove compartment, thanks to the previous owner janine for leaving it there for me. So that went on, problem solved.
The misfire, replaced the plug leads and plugs, the misfire was sorted now the idling issue, ive had this on 2 r19s before so we headed the way of the throttle body first, i had one from a 1.4 R19 laying around so we banged that in there for the time being, it was terrible, the car wouldnt start without the foot on the throttle, although when going a decent speed it seemed to perform better but without any foot on the peddle it just shat itself and cut out, dead. Anyhoo while that was in there we cleaned the hell out of the original throttle body, popped it back in, problem solved.
Anyway thats enough about the essentials, we've all been there before.
NEXT BIT - The Fun Bits:]
The fun bits:
Replace the poverty one dial display with the awesome R19 display
not much to report there, 5 screws and the top of the dash pops off, pop out the clocks, put in the new ones and there you go, all the wiring was pre existant so there was no fecking about, just plug it in put the top of the dash back on, a great and easy upgrade.
Fix the mirror, it was horrible, the little inside clip had popped off so the three control cables were hanging off and the mirror glass was swinging wildly, took forever to wangle the knob back on but its on and i dont want to talk about it or think of it ever again.
Add 16V cabby seats and steering wheel:
The wheel is in, need to do some welding to make the seats go in, but it will be done shortly, YEAH!!!
Blower Issues:
Just replaced them all and sorted out the knobs, done!
Antenna and base:
Done
Alloys:
I have a set of original clio 13's, 5 spoke ones that will be on her till further notice, they will be refurbed and painted soon.
Boom:
I have put the entire sound system from the cabby in here except door speakers which i intend to mount into r19 door plastics, aka speaker bases. Asides that it's a 2 front kenwood, 2 rear pioneer and one sony boom box powerd by a sony 2500watt amp.
NEXT BIT - Bodywork]
This was the big bit.
The wings were quite damaged, warping etc, the bonnet was peeled, dented and out of allignment in a major way, the bootlid was dented badly, poverty bumpers with some signs af aging, blah blah blah.
The way i wanted it to go: take the wings, lamps, bonnet, bumpers and bootlid of the 1997 donor and pop them on to my 95/96 model
The way it went: Not like how i wanted it to. the front bumper came off, this is an easy task with the clio, then the wings lamps and bonnet, no major issues there, they all came off, this is where it started to suck.
As myself and my friend finto looked at our handywork and inspected random bits and bobs we came across the nightmare nobody likes to come across, the slam panel was twisted, bumper bar was cracked and twisted, nothing was right up there. So we done some minor bending and tried to fit the bits to see how badly they would go on, the wings actually went on okay but thats where the laughter ended and the depression began.
Nothing ligned up correctly for the lamps to be fitted properly at all, the bonnet in its original mounts was bad as ever, it was way off, wouldnt close right and definitely wouldnt clear the bumper when you opened it, in fact it tried to kill both lamps and the bumper when opened and was roughly 2 miles to the left side at the top and bottom. Let the wangling begin.
We headed to the local hardware and bought a good solid rope, found an anchor and stretched the bars into as close a position as we could get them with our eyes as the only judgement. Everything was fairly complient except the bumper bar, this was causing some major issues as the new bumper would not mount correctly due to the extent of the damage, not to mention the cracks on both sides where the bar mounts on. This will be welded in a couple of days. For now i just want to get all the panels in place.
Having wangled and bent every single thing over the space of about 3 hours things slowly started falling into place, first we got the headlamps to sit right with the wings, this was a major achievement considering how bad they were. These are the more modern lamps with electronic levellers, the controlls for this aint inside the car as the originals are cable driven, i plan to switch to the electronic system soon but for now im happy they fitted onto the car.
Now the bonnet: Really bad, doesnt land righ, its way too far out, its at an angle and its listing dangerously to one side. When the bonnet is oppened as it's too far back it mashes down on the front bumper so this wont do. The hinges were buggered for a start so we replaced them, no difference really at all.
More wangling and bending and the bonnet slowly started to sit more correct, this took a hell of a long time, the last remaining problem was the pass side sat too far back, was still crushing the bumper, 6 washers later and it sat just right, very right actually, the spacing between wings and bonnet was pretty damn acceptable, kudos to us.
Front bumper: Because of the state of the bumper bar behind it
this was a sucky job, firstly it just wouldnt fit right, this was due to the black waffle type stuff between the bumper and the bar, this went in the bin and it was now able to get in place. We were able to attack the bumper at the sides but when the bonnet opened it still pushed the centre down, the clearance between the bonnet lip and the top of the bumper was barely visible but seemed to be enough not to cause an issue, then we discovered that it was the drivers side bonnet hinge was the culprit, possibly a result of all the wangling to get the bonnet out, in retaliation i grabbed a bread knife, cut out a nick no bigger than 1cm squared to allow the hinge some clearance and bam, everything is now compatible up front, panel spacings are good, bonnet opens freely, wing and door clearences are even and there is no interference. Headlamp aiming and levelling is on the cards tomorrow. I once punched a threatening looking cow in the face and ran away.
Rear bootlid:
This went delightfully easy, old dented lid off, done, new lid with incorporated brake light on and standard spoiler, brake light to be wired tomorrow.
Rear bumper:
This was a direct swap, however, the after market exhaust was mounted in such a way to suit the original bumper which had a small little upraised lip thing in it, the plan? i assume the exhaust will melt a small lip into it then i will sort it.
NEXT BIT - The Plan Comes Together:]
Well tomorrow (12th aug) the Clio will spend it's day in fintos garage, on the to do list is this.
Final adjustments to front bumper and panels, make sure everything sits right.
Strip some bits off.
Repair all the minor scuffs and dents.
sand the car down
prime it
paint it, hell yeah!
Paint all black plastic parts (mirrors, mouldings, handles, bump strips)
If time allows: repair and paint the alloys to match the car
On friday (hopefully):
Final weld on the bumper bar crack.
Put in the cabby seats.
Clean the hell out of the inside of the car.
Start living the dream and enjoy the Clio.
NEXT BIT - The Big Respray Day (Prep)]
New Bumper:
Needed to get the same style rear bumper on the go so there it is...
So today project beagle entered the garage to be sprayed, myself, finto and mick prepped it up, mick repaired the body damage and would later go on to prime and paint her too, legend of a guy.
Prep work:
This took forever, rubbing down, sanding, rubbing down, masking... i wont bore you but heres some pics.
There was quite a bit of body damage, ive not bothered to post all of the pics of it cos it would only depress all of us but heres some.
Then came some priming action from mick.
NEXT BIT - The Big Respray Day (Painting)]
And now my favourite bit, having been set on matt black with orange wheels there was a dramatic change of plans at the last minute, white car, white wheels and fresh new black plastic bits and strips all round. Mick stepped into action and gave the emporer its new clothes.
And here's how she's looking now.
Tomorrow she will be put back together with minty fresh black bits, wheels will come later
NEXT BIT - She's Painted]
Here she is all painted and put back together, aint she a beaut? Next week she will be sanded down with 2000 sandpaper then buffed to remove any imperfections. The wheels that will be used are 5 spoke low profile ones which will be sprayed the same white as the car. Front fogs will be added tomorrow and the r19 interior later in the week, YEAH
NEXT BIT - Seating Arrangements]
Not having done a huge amount in a while, mainly due to finances and general not arsedness the clio was long overdue some attention.
I had intended on having the seats from the donor cabby in there but there's were not a direct transfer. The rear bolts on each lined up to the sliders perfectly however the front ones did not. I have heard of two ways of doing this, get brackets made or weld em in there. Brackets sounded expensive but thankfully my friend Scoob can weld. I headed up to his and here's the result.
Just some of the welds, three on each rail through the original holes onto the sliders.
Much better. Comfort level increased vastly although I have now noticed that the seat belts are a lot higher up towards your neck, this is not a major issue at all for me.
NEXT BIT - Fog Lamps (Updated: 20/02/2011)]
Pics to follow...
My poverty spec clio never came with fogs, no lights on the dash to tell you they were on, no switch, just blanker panels in the bumper etc but I had noticed the similarity between the 19 and clio fogs and having a spare set of yellow ones i set about getting them in there...
After several seconds investigating i popped the blanker panel off the switch to the right of the steering wheel, wouldnt you know it a fog lamp switch from a 19 fitted straight on there, this was good news...
I then moved over to the fuse/relay section, had the fog relay from the 19 handy so I popped it in and to my sheer joy when i switched the fog lamp switch the indicator on the dash display came on to tell me i had fogs on, the car didnt originally even have this indicator light till i threw in the 19 display...
next step, wire it up... not much to do here because on the right hand side beneath the headlamp sure enough there was the plug for the fog lamp wiring, took the wiring cable out of the donor 19, plugged it in and there was power running to it on demand.
Fitting the actual lamps... this did not go smoothly as everything else did. Removing the fogs from the 19 was fine, all went well, i carried over the surrounds (mounts) as I had thought these would be the same as the clio, to the eye they appeared to be. Expecting a walk in the park I began to try wangle them in to the holes in the bumper of the clio, impossible, the clio had kind of sliders where the surrounds would pop into place however the 19 had a diferent set up, a screw and such. Not being a very patient man I decided the power of a self tapping screw through the original screw hole in the mount would do it along with a cable tie on the other side, none of this is visible with the fogs in place.
Wroking fogs are now in place...
The switch itself lit up however I wanted it to come on on the dash display when I turned them on.
I checked the relay bays in the fuse box and located the one for the front fogs. Found it and popped in a relay, et voila the dash display fogs on light now works too.
I have not connected the lamps themselves yet, mainly because it's bucketing down outside and I dont want to get wet, this will be done when it dries up.
Update: 20/02/2011
Well the fogs have been connected for quite some time now, only just remembered to get some pics, the new bumper remains unpainted for now but all in its own good time.
In the meantime I replaced all my switches with ones from the donor cabby as I prefer them over the slightly rounder clio ones, also threw in the clock from the 19 as the display is bigger and i can actually read it.
NEXT BIT - A Sad Bad Day (Update: 21/02/2011)]
NEXT BIT - Winter brings yet more problems]
After the crash the car was reconstructed, new wing, headlamp, bumper and some bonnet repairs, still needs a new coat of paint, more on that later.
More importantly the winter brought other problems, I cant solely blame this on the more harsh weather conditions but I'm going to anyway, here's a rundown of the new issues:
- Rear cylender completely burst (putting roughly 3L of fluid in per week)
- As a result the shoes are destroyed... DEAD!
- Front brake lines badly perished
- Exhaust mount rubbers disintegrating
- Exhaust down pipe gasket headed off somewhere
- Bulge in rear right tire and destroyed alloy (pot hole)
- Mega misfiring action
- Alternator appears to be shot
- Headlamps out of allignement
- Still not installed the fogs on the front
- Still needs re-spray
- I am a lazy lazy man
NEXT BIT - Halfords - Dont do it (Brake issues)]
So having store credit at halfords that i wanted to use up i said i would order the various bits from halfords and be done with them, i needed as follows
front brake pipes
rear shoes
rear cylenders
this didnt seem like much to ask, anyway, after 4 months of getting wrong parts off them (literally went through about 5 sets of wheel cylenders and the same amount of shoes), to say halford of wexford town are incompotent is giving them too much credit...
long story short, finally 2 days before my nct/mot i had got what i thought were the correct cylenders and finally had got what i knew were the correct shoes, (didnt bother trying to make them understand what a brake pipe was, i went elsewhere), we began work on the brake repairs, needless to say on closer inspection the cylenders were wrong, there was not enough time to order more and i had already cancelled my nct twice as a result of halfords being idots at a cost of €44 to me, my friend finto decided to pull apart the incorrect cylenders on the off chance that the rings inside may be the same as the originals, in a rare awesome moment it turned out they were. He set about reconditioning the original cylenders, about an hour later et voila, they were ready to go on.
I didnt take any pics of this as my batt was dead but after lots of cleaning and whatnot inside the drums was brought back minty, new shoes on, cylenders sweet, everything good back there, then we moved to the front brake pipes, needless to say as these were not ordered from halfords they were correct, went on as they should and everything was perfect. Brakes bled, everything is perfect on that front, no need to replace the pads up front or discs as the discs are nearly new drilled and grooved along with ebc pads...
in summary the only thing you should buy from halfords are smelly trees and hello kitty merchandise.
NEXT BIT - Fog lamps]
Pics to follow...
My poverty spec clio never came with fogs, no lights on the dash to tell you they were on, no switch, just blanker panels in the bumper etc but I had noticed the similarity between the 19 and clio fogs and having a spare set of yellow ones i set about getting them in there...
After several seconds investigating i popped the blanker panel off the switch to the right of the steering wheel, wouldnt you know it a fog lamp switch from a 19 fitted straight on there, this was good news...
I then moved over to the fuse/relay section, had the fog relay from the 19 handy so I popped it in and to my sheer joy when i switched the fog lamp switch the indicator on the dash display came on to tell me i had fogs on, the car didnt originally even have this indicator light till i threw in the 19 display...
next step, wire it up... not much to do here because on the right hand side beneath the headlamp sure enough there was the plug for the fog lamp wiring, toog the wiring cable out of the donor 19, plugged it in and there was power running to it on demand.
Fitting the actual lamps... this did not go smoothly as everything else did. Removing the fogs from the 19 was fine, all went well, i carried over the surrounds (mounts) as I had thought these would be the same as the clio, to the eye they appeared to be. Expecting a walk in the park I began to try wangle them in to the holes in the bumper of the clio, impossible, the clio had kind of sliders where the surrounds would pop into place however the 19 had a diferent set up, a screw and such. Not being a very patient man I decided the power of a self tapping screw through the original screw hole in the mount would do it along with a cable tie on the other side, none of this is visible with the fogs in place.
Wroking fogs are now in place...
NEXT BIT - New wheels and tires]
(pics to follow)
Another thing the frost and ice over the last while brought was destroyed roads, potholes, trenches etc, the main roads werent too bad but where I live i tend to have to use a lot of s**tty back roads to get to places, if i wanted to i couldnt tell you where the damage occured as all the roads have been bad but somewhere along the way a pot hole warped the hell out of the inside of my alloy and made my tire wall pregnant, this created some frankly lethal wheel wobble, all in all i think 2 of the other alloys got warped over the festive season too. So i had 2 leaky tires and one bulging one.
I wrote the wheels and tires off as I had never really liked them anyway and the tires would have needed replacing to pass the nct/mot anyway.
I brought my old set from one of the valvers in and got some tires thrown on, these ones were a little grubby and in need of some tlc which they will get for now they went on the car as they were and might i say they look awesome...
195/55r16's look truly immense on the clio, especially from the back... you can judge for yourself when i upload the pics...
Ill come back to this at a later date as Im having camera issues
NEXT BIT - Mega misfire]
For some unknown reason around the time of the bad weather kicking in the engine developed a terrible misfire, power was down, if i really pushed it the car could hit 90kph but this did not feel remotely safe what with the buckeld alloys and stuff... anyway this turned out to be one of the easier fixes thankfully...
presumably this couldnt be leads or plugs as they had only recently been replaced, so i had a quick snoop around the dizzy cap, I noticed one of the plugs had come very loose, thats all it was, pushing it back on kept it there briefly but it came loose again so a gentle squeeze of the plug and now its tight and secure, misfire issue solved...
NEXT BIT - NCT/MOT today]
So today was the big day, my first ever nct/mot, never bothered before but im trying my hardest to be fully legit these days. Spent the last few days solid working on the clio with the hope of getting her through or at least not having a massive amount of fails.
i expected a lot of red marks on the sheet, was very nervous considering the state of the car when i got it (and the fact that i crashed it that time) but to my surprise when i got the results everything was perfect apart from an imbalance in the rear brakes, the tester even commented on how good the car was, now sadly the imbalance resulted in a fail but i just have to sort that and drop it in so they can see it's been done and then ill get my cert so its a sure thing.
We had suspicions that this may be an issue as when the new cylenders and shoes were going on we realized that the automatic adjuster on one side was totalled but all in all I see this as a win for the Clio, into the bargain she's driving amazing, better than ever since all the work was carried out this week.
NEXT BIT - Post NCT/MOT Recap]
Things that were done to pass:
Headlamp alignemnt
Handbrake cables
Brake pipes all round
Brake cylinders
Brake shoes
Bodywork at the front (repairing some pre-me damage)
New tires
New wheels (thanks to the condition of the roads here)
Some random new gaskets etc
Lots other small bits, thats all i can think of off hand, either way i now have the test until 2013. As a result of that I can spend a little less time on essential bits for the beagle and focus on the visible bits and fun crap etc.
NEXT BIT - New interior lamp]
I have this:
I want this:
I have no major issues with the poverty spec interior lamp but mine is far from functional, it falls out every few seconds and it will only stay lit if you keep your fingers pressing it toward the roof, and an open door does not activate it. far from perfect...
The lamp i will be putting in came from the donor 19, it's in general a nicer lamp, big bright b*****d on the drivers side (which is connected to the door open switch too) and the dimmer reading style light for the passenger side.
It's a 3 wire thing so nothing too complicated
The first thing is to identify live and earth etc, no point in explaining that, a quick look and youre set to go, just in case though i used some elc tape to do a test run, worked first time thankfully, immediate success is rare in my life...
Sadly there were some slight complications, the lamps are a completely different size and originally these ones were mounted into the centre roof console with the reciever, however my one does not have a fob for the locking so i dont want to put the whole console in, also it doesnt fit in at all so that was ruled out. Also the wiring connectors on the lamp stop it from fitting into the existing hole in the steel so they need to be bent upward instead of to the side as they were.
The solution for the securing problem (and most of lifes problems) was self tapping screws. Put the new lamps in place and screwed them on in, job done, everything functions as should...
Thats that, either light can be operated by their switches or the main one will come on when the doors are opened, exactly as they should be, thats all I wanted.
NEXT BIT - New wheels]
I began with steelies, then I moved to some classy original Clio alloy wheels, the tires on these were absolute s**t, they had plenty of thread on them but were just cheap rotbags.
Into the bargain the ice back in november had ruined many of the roads, this resulted in 2 of the tires getting damaged/bulged side walls, and one of the alloys getting nicely warped. I had not planned to keep the alloys for long anyway as i wanted something that would fill out the arches a little more.
So it getting close to NCT/DOE time I had to replace the tires anyway, I had a set of these with excellent tires:
they didnt, let's move on.
Being slightly broke I wasnt going to go and buy a new set of wheels and tires so I checked out the wheels on my cabby, 2 of the tires were minty (and had the required E marks on them), the other 2 were busted, managed to get 2 pirelli 195/55/15 tires locally for 50 euro. The alloys are showing a little wear and tear but they will be painted when the car is being resprayed (within the next week or two).
No good pics of the wheels at the mo but here's what I got:
Note: they give the clio a nice chunky solid look from behind compaired to the wee 13's
Slightly fuller arches
NEXT BIT - Sunroof Install]
My post cabby life had been getting the better of me and with the unlikelyhood of a break on insurance I'm fairly sure I'll be driving the beagle till its engine explodes and my face melts off, the resale value of such a car would be very little, maybe 300-350 euro even with its 2 year test and tax on it so I'm not afraid to take a few risks with this car as far as the projects go.
This would prob be the biggest one though as if this went wrong the car would pretty much be screwed, or at least be an involuntary cabby, both not ideal results.
The sunroof project:
Having removed a sunroof from a scrap clio recently (cost me 30 euro) I made sure to draw a template of the original sunroof hole, this made things a lot easier. And my car being white made things even easier. Step one was to mark out where we would cut, measuring from the black roof strips to the centre and from the top of the windscreen back we were able to get it quite accurate
Initially we were going to use an airsnips however this had some issues, went through the roof itself excellently however when it encountered any of the adhesive etc that was used to attach the headliner it crapped itself, so with a very slight risk of fire we used the grinder and went through it that way, there was no fire
as far as centering i think we had 40mm on one side and 40mm-ish on the other.
.
We treated the exposed edges of the freshly cut roof and then set about test fitting the sunroof, fitted like a glove, popped it back out, out with the sealant, a generous helping of that and popped her back in, obviously there was a lot of it squirted out from around the edges, and even more came out when we screwed the base of the sunroof in, the sunroof comes in 2 parts, one that you lay in the top and the second screws in from the bottom and sort of sandwiches the roof skin. Clean off the excess sealant and job done...
Not powerwashed it yet but after a very wet and stormy night and lots of driving there has been no damp spots or leaks, result! Now i'm going to go back to reading my copy of s**t eater monthly till the next step of project beagle.
NEXT BIT - Potholes & Steering Issues]
So a few nights ago I was out taking a random drive to nowhere on the backroads of nowhere when pulling up to a suspiciously gravelly crossroads I experienced a serious bang, instantly I knew it was a pothole but from the bang it sounded I had smacked into a wall. Instantly I knew I would have problems, as it was pitch black out I knew there was no point i getting out to have a look so I drove on home.
On the drive I noticed serious play in what appeared to be the steering rack, when going over the slightest bump it sounded like the entire steering rack was moving and there was a dead spot in the steering, when turning left to right quickly the steering wheel seemed to take a moment before it engaged the actual act of steering.
I assumed this was a fairly serious problem, prob requiring a new rack or some crap so I didnt address the issue and had no plans to until such a time as I could afford some bits, however tonight I decided to take my standard 1:35am drive to nowhere, as I was on this drive I decided to pull over and have a look at what was going on with the steering as it seemed a lot worse.
Had a look underneath and in the bay, no obvious problems there, depressed I got back in the vehicle, I decided I'd pop off the centre cover of the steering wheel and chance a look there as there was play in the entire wheel at this point, sure enough the centre bolt holding on the wheel was incredibly loose, I unscrewed it entirely (using just my sausage like fingers). Had a look, there was a fair bit of wear on the wee spline thingys but nothing detrimental, I replaced the steering wheel, tapped it down with a hammer and tightened the bolt back on to the last with the trustee halfords ratchet. Replaced the centre cap, fired up the car and took her on a wee shred of a very curvy back road and lone beholed, GONE, the problem is entirely gone, what a relief as having just lost my job I would have had no money to replace anything.
The moral of this story is that sometimes (even with renaults) the problem aint as big as it may seem and a lot less costly than you think, always investigate the simplest and most obvious (or even not so obvious) issues before getting mega depressed about it, more importantly, open her up, keep her lit and drive her on.
NEXT BIT - Back To Work (Respray & Conversion)]
Enough time was wasted here, and to my shame i have let the beagle become quite tatty, a lot of stone chips, and a dent in the bonnet complete with missing front badge, and a fog lamp is shot, actually just thinking of it i must ask jr how much postage would be on the lamps he offered me...
Anyhow, it's time to start getting on top of things now, first thing is first, she needs a respray, I have also decided to convert her to a car/van as i have literally used the rear seats maybe twice since i got her and i nearly always have them folded down anyway and this way id not have to find a way to make the rear standard seats match the 16v fronts, i'll get to this, i will not be replacing the rear windows with metal though, just completely blacking them out which will look quite cool from the outside too i'd say.
So this weekend and the week after if all goes according to plan we'll be prepping the shell and wheels for white paint, black the rear windows, strip out the back, paint the car & wheels and apply the stickers I have designed for her which I will order tomorrow, below just as a guide I have thown some diagrams of where the stickers will go.
I shall update the beagle thread with as much detail as possible as the project gets underway again.
NEXT BIT - Day 1 of repairation and respray]
okay heres a lesson on karma, i went out and did this
Video evidence
got some heavy damage including the loss of a fog lamp, the loss of a badge and a nice dent where the badge used to be, wasnt too pushed cos she was due to go in to my friend micker for her anual respray and some body work etc, here's a couple of pics from morning one of the facelift
NEXT BIT - Day 2 of repairation and respray]
More done today, getting there now, still hope to have it done by the weekend, so far all the various dents etc have been repaired now, bit more sanding to do and then its time for paint...
NEXT BIT - Day 3 of repairation and respray]
Okay so lots has happened, all the various little imperfections throughout the shell have been addressed, all primed, blah blah blah
Here's whats left to do:
Prep and paint the wheels (white)
Fill & smooth where rear badges used to be (being replaced with custom sticker clio badges)
Rub the car down and do final prep
Small bit of rust repair needed on pass sill
Shutz the hell out of the bottom and other rust prone parts of the car
Remove various bits of the interior and convert it to a van
Replace boot lid window
Replace fogs
Re-spray the car in delicious white
Re-spary all black plastic parts in satin black
Put on original renault mudflaps
Some more little touches to make it all nice,
Here's some pics from earlier today, more has been done since though
NEXT BIT
Day 4 of repairation and respray]
There are various reason the repairation and respray part of this project took place, first reason was the different colour wing and bumper and some random bits of damage, another one however, and this was a major reason, i had discovered some right through rust a patch featuring a hole the size of a pound, i wanted to nip this in the bud before the whole car started rotting away.
The rust patch was located at the bottom front corner of the door rubber on the pass side, turns out the rubber by the windscreen had come loose and there was a constant build up of water in a specific lacation at the bottom, anyhow, here are some pics of the latest work mainly involving the door shuts etc, there will be more comprehensive pics of the work when its all done.
Okay so finally getting my license didnt go quite as smoothly as i thought it would. After a lot of shopping around and having been quoted 5,340 insurance to drive my Cabby I instantly knew that I wouldnt be back behind the wheel of a 19 for a wee bit. Panic stations set in as everytime i looked out the window i saw the fiat chinquecento, just leering at me, offending me with its looks and mere presence.
Then during a rare moment of brilliance i remembered i had been looking at an old 1996 1.2 clio for my ex ages back, several phonecalls later and some more torment to get insured i travelled to dublin to pick up the car. French cars ireland member janine had previously owned the car and had taken great care of her however she had been stood up for a peried of time which took its toll on her sadly. The lacquer had well and truly peeled from this car, also it had been given resprays in parts with aerosol cans, a good few dents and the bonnet appeared to be warped, more on that later, so she had lost a little of her former glory, none the less a great price and a nifty little runabout, more importantly it's a renault.
I drove it to wexford with little incident apart from a slight misfire and the bearing collapsed just as i got home. I began a to do list.
Essentials:
New plugs & leads (done)
oil & filter (done)
air filter (done)
some random bulbs (done)
new wheel bearings (done)
new cylinders (done)
new shoes (done)
new coolant (done)
new tyres (done)
new throttle body (or clean it) (done)
repair pass side mirror (done)
tax it (done)
test it (done)
new wheels (done)
alternator
More to do's:
alloys (done)
mouldings (done)
fix dents (done)
replace bonnet (done)
replace wings (done)
replace boot lid (done)
repair drivers side door (done)
replace head lamps
replace steel bonnet catch cable (done)
r19 cabby interior
r19 cabby wheel (done)
fix blower issues in the car (done)
fit a big "f**k you" sound system in there (done)
replace broken antenna (done)
replace poverty dash display (1 dial, speedo) with r19 dash (done)
respray (done)
live the dream again (done)
I have some parts donated from a 1996-97 white 5dr clio, the panels are all good, everything else both sucks and blows.
NEXT BIT - The Essentials:]
Nobody needs these details really, we've all done it, by we I mean my friend finto did 99% of the work as he's a great mechanic and i dont want to take any risks with this car. So we bursted on, first issue was a collapsed bearing in the drivers side rear, amazingly i just happen to have one laying in the glove compartment, thanks to the previous owner janine for leaving it there for me. So that went on, problem solved.
The misfire, replaced the plug leads and plugs, the misfire was sorted now the idling issue, ive had this on 2 r19s before so we headed the way of the throttle body first, i had one from a 1.4 R19 laying around so we banged that in there for the time being, it was terrible, the car wouldnt start without the foot on the throttle, although when going a decent speed it seemed to perform better but without any foot on the peddle it just shat itself and cut out, dead. Anyhoo while that was in there we cleaned the hell out of the original throttle body, popped it back in, problem solved.
Anyway thats enough about the essentials, we've all been there before.
NEXT BIT - The Fun Bits:]
The fun bits:
Replace the poverty one dial display with the awesome R19 display
not much to report there, 5 screws and the top of the dash pops off, pop out the clocks, put in the new ones and there you go, all the wiring was pre existant so there was no fecking about, just plug it in put the top of the dash back on, a great and easy upgrade.
Fix the mirror, it was horrible, the little inside clip had popped off so the three control cables were hanging off and the mirror glass was swinging wildly, took forever to wangle the knob back on but its on and i dont want to talk about it or think of it ever again.
Add 16V cabby seats and steering wheel:
The wheel is in, need to do some welding to make the seats go in, but it will be done shortly, YEAH!!!
Blower Issues:
Just replaced them all and sorted out the knobs, done!
Antenna and base:
Done
Alloys:
I have a set of original clio 13's, 5 spoke ones that will be on her till further notice, they will be refurbed and painted soon.
Boom:
I have put the entire sound system from the cabby in here except door speakers which i intend to mount into r19 door plastics, aka speaker bases. Asides that it's a 2 front kenwood, 2 rear pioneer and one sony boom box powerd by a sony 2500watt amp.
NEXT BIT - Bodywork]
This was the big bit.
The wings were quite damaged, warping etc, the bonnet was peeled, dented and out of allignment in a major way, the bootlid was dented badly, poverty bumpers with some signs af aging, blah blah blah.
The way i wanted it to go: take the wings, lamps, bonnet, bumpers and bootlid of the 1997 donor and pop them on to my 95/96 model
The way it went: Not like how i wanted it to. the front bumper came off, this is an easy task with the clio, then the wings lamps and bonnet, no major issues there, they all came off, this is where it started to suck.
As myself and my friend finto looked at our handywork and inspected random bits and bobs we came across the nightmare nobody likes to come across, the slam panel was twisted, bumper bar was cracked and twisted, nothing was right up there. So we done some minor bending and tried to fit the bits to see how badly they would go on, the wings actually went on okay but thats where the laughter ended and the depression began.
Nothing ligned up correctly for the lamps to be fitted properly at all, the bonnet in its original mounts was bad as ever, it was way off, wouldnt close right and definitely wouldnt clear the bumper when you opened it, in fact it tried to kill both lamps and the bumper when opened and was roughly 2 miles to the left side at the top and bottom. Let the wangling begin.
We headed to the local hardware and bought a good solid rope, found an anchor and stretched the bars into as close a position as we could get them with our eyes as the only judgement. Everything was fairly complient except the bumper bar, this was causing some major issues as the new bumper would not mount correctly due to the extent of the damage, not to mention the cracks on both sides where the bar mounts on. This will be welded in a couple of days. For now i just want to get all the panels in place.
Having wangled and bent every single thing over the space of about 3 hours things slowly started falling into place, first we got the headlamps to sit right with the wings, this was a major achievement considering how bad they were. These are the more modern lamps with electronic levellers, the controlls for this aint inside the car as the originals are cable driven, i plan to switch to the electronic system soon but for now im happy they fitted onto the car.
Now the bonnet: Really bad, doesnt land righ, its way too far out, its at an angle and its listing dangerously to one side. When the bonnet is oppened as it's too far back it mashes down on the front bumper so this wont do. The hinges were buggered for a start so we replaced them, no difference really at all.
More wangling and bending and the bonnet slowly started to sit more correct, this took a hell of a long time, the last remaining problem was the pass side sat too far back, was still crushing the bumper, 6 washers later and it sat just right, very right actually, the spacing between wings and bonnet was pretty damn acceptable, kudos to us.
Front bumper: Because of the state of the bumper bar behind it
this was a sucky job, firstly it just wouldnt fit right, this was due to the black waffle type stuff between the bumper and the bar, this went in the bin and it was now able to get in place. We were able to attack the bumper at the sides but when the bonnet opened it still pushed the centre down, the clearance between the bonnet lip and the top of the bumper was barely visible but seemed to be enough not to cause an issue, then we discovered that it was the drivers side bonnet hinge was the culprit, possibly a result of all the wangling to get the bonnet out, in retaliation i grabbed a bread knife, cut out a nick no bigger than 1cm squared to allow the hinge some clearance and bam, everything is now compatible up front, panel spacings are good, bonnet opens freely, wing and door clearences are even and there is no interference. Headlamp aiming and levelling is on the cards tomorrow. I once punched a threatening looking cow in the face and ran away.
Rear bootlid:
This went delightfully easy, old dented lid off, done, new lid with incorporated brake light on and standard spoiler, brake light to be wired tomorrow.
Rear bumper:
This was a direct swap, however, the after market exhaust was mounted in such a way to suit the original bumper which had a small little upraised lip thing in it, the plan? i assume the exhaust will melt a small lip into it then i will sort it.
NEXT BIT - The Plan Comes Together:]
Well tomorrow (12th aug) the Clio will spend it's day in fintos garage, on the to do list is this.
Final adjustments to front bumper and panels, make sure everything sits right.
Strip some bits off.
Repair all the minor scuffs and dents.
sand the car down
prime it
paint it, hell yeah!
Paint all black plastic parts (mirrors, mouldings, handles, bump strips)
If time allows: repair and paint the alloys to match the car
On friday (hopefully):
Final weld on the bumper bar crack.
Put in the cabby seats.
Clean the hell out of the inside of the car.
Start living the dream and enjoy the Clio.
NEXT BIT - The Big Respray Day (Prep)]
New Bumper:
Needed to get the same style rear bumper on the go so there it is...
So today project beagle entered the garage to be sprayed, myself, finto and mick prepped it up, mick repaired the body damage and would later go on to prime and paint her too, legend of a guy.
Prep work:
This took forever, rubbing down, sanding, rubbing down, masking... i wont bore you but heres some pics.
There was quite a bit of body damage, ive not bothered to post all of the pics of it cos it would only depress all of us but heres some.
Then came some priming action from mick.
NEXT BIT - The Big Respray Day (Painting)]
And now my favourite bit, having been set on matt black with orange wheels there was a dramatic change of plans at the last minute, white car, white wheels and fresh new black plastic bits and strips all round. Mick stepped into action and gave the emporer its new clothes.
And here's how she's looking now.
Tomorrow she will be put back together with minty fresh black bits, wheels will come later
NEXT BIT - She's Painted]
Here she is all painted and put back together, aint she a beaut? Next week she will be sanded down with 2000 sandpaper then buffed to remove any imperfections. The wheels that will be used are 5 spoke low profile ones which will be sprayed the same white as the car. Front fogs will be added tomorrow and the r19 interior later in the week, YEAH
NEXT BIT - Seating Arrangements]
Not having done a huge amount in a while, mainly due to finances and general not arsedness the clio was long overdue some attention.
I had intended on having the seats from the donor cabby in there but there's were not a direct transfer. The rear bolts on each lined up to the sliders perfectly however the front ones did not. I have heard of two ways of doing this, get brackets made or weld em in there. Brackets sounded expensive but thankfully my friend Scoob can weld. I headed up to his and here's the result.
Just some of the welds, three on each rail through the original holes onto the sliders.
Much better. Comfort level increased vastly although I have now noticed that the seat belts are a lot higher up towards your neck, this is not a major issue at all for me.
NEXT BIT - Fog Lamps (Updated: 20/02/2011)]
Pics to follow...
My poverty spec clio never came with fogs, no lights on the dash to tell you they were on, no switch, just blanker panels in the bumper etc but I had noticed the similarity between the 19 and clio fogs and having a spare set of yellow ones i set about getting them in there...
After several seconds investigating i popped the blanker panel off the switch to the right of the steering wheel, wouldnt you know it a fog lamp switch from a 19 fitted straight on there, this was good news...
I then moved over to the fuse/relay section, had the fog relay from the 19 handy so I popped it in and to my sheer joy when i switched the fog lamp switch the indicator on the dash display came on to tell me i had fogs on, the car didnt originally even have this indicator light till i threw in the 19 display...
next step, wire it up... not much to do here because on the right hand side beneath the headlamp sure enough there was the plug for the fog lamp wiring, took the wiring cable out of the donor 19, plugged it in and there was power running to it on demand.
Fitting the actual lamps... this did not go smoothly as everything else did. Removing the fogs from the 19 was fine, all went well, i carried over the surrounds (mounts) as I had thought these would be the same as the clio, to the eye they appeared to be. Expecting a walk in the park I began to try wangle them in to the holes in the bumper of the clio, impossible, the clio had kind of sliders where the surrounds would pop into place however the 19 had a diferent set up, a screw and such. Not being a very patient man I decided the power of a self tapping screw through the original screw hole in the mount would do it along with a cable tie on the other side, none of this is visible with the fogs in place.
Wroking fogs are now in place...
The switch itself lit up however I wanted it to come on on the dash display when I turned them on.
I checked the relay bays in the fuse box and located the one for the front fogs. Found it and popped in a relay, et voila the dash display fogs on light now works too.
I have not connected the lamps themselves yet, mainly because it's bucketing down outside and I dont want to get wet, this will be done when it dries up.
Update: 20/02/2011
Well the fogs have been connected for quite some time now, only just remembered to get some pics, the new bumper remains unpainted for now but all in its own good time.
In the meantime I replaced all my switches with ones from the donor cabby as I prefer them over the slightly rounder clio ones, also threw in the clock from the 19 as the display is bigger and i can actually read it.
NEXT BIT - A Sad Bad Day (Update: 21/02/2011)]
NEXT BIT - Winter brings yet more problems]
After the crash the car was reconstructed, new wing, headlamp, bumper and some bonnet repairs, still needs a new coat of paint, more on that later.
More importantly the winter brought other problems, I cant solely blame this on the more harsh weather conditions but I'm going to anyway, here's a rundown of the new issues:
- Rear cylender completely burst (putting roughly 3L of fluid in per week)
- As a result the shoes are destroyed... DEAD!
- Front brake lines badly perished
- Exhaust mount rubbers disintegrating
- Exhaust down pipe gasket headed off somewhere
- Bulge in rear right tire and destroyed alloy (pot hole)
- Mega misfiring action
- Alternator appears to be shot
- Headlamps out of allignement
- Still not installed the fogs on the front
- Still needs re-spray
- I am a lazy lazy man
NEXT BIT - Halfords - Dont do it (Brake issues)]
So having store credit at halfords that i wanted to use up i said i would order the various bits from halfords and be done with them, i needed as follows
front brake pipes
rear shoes
rear cylenders
this didnt seem like much to ask, anyway, after 4 months of getting wrong parts off them (literally went through about 5 sets of wheel cylenders and the same amount of shoes), to say halford of wexford town are incompotent is giving them too much credit...
long story short, finally 2 days before my nct/mot i had got what i thought were the correct cylenders and finally had got what i knew were the correct shoes, (didnt bother trying to make them understand what a brake pipe was, i went elsewhere), we began work on the brake repairs, needless to say on closer inspection the cylenders were wrong, there was not enough time to order more and i had already cancelled my nct twice as a result of halfords being idots at a cost of €44 to me, my friend finto decided to pull apart the incorrect cylenders on the off chance that the rings inside may be the same as the originals, in a rare awesome moment it turned out they were. He set about reconditioning the original cylenders, about an hour later et voila, they were ready to go on.
I didnt take any pics of this as my batt was dead but after lots of cleaning and whatnot inside the drums was brought back minty, new shoes on, cylenders sweet, everything good back there, then we moved to the front brake pipes, needless to say as these were not ordered from halfords they were correct, went on as they should and everything was perfect. Brakes bled, everything is perfect on that front, no need to replace the pads up front or discs as the discs are nearly new drilled and grooved along with ebc pads...
in summary the only thing you should buy from halfords are smelly trees and hello kitty merchandise.
NEXT BIT - Fog lamps]
Pics to follow...
My poverty spec clio never came with fogs, no lights on the dash to tell you they were on, no switch, just blanker panels in the bumper etc but I had noticed the similarity between the 19 and clio fogs and having a spare set of yellow ones i set about getting them in there...
After several seconds investigating i popped the blanker panel off the switch to the right of the steering wheel, wouldnt you know it a fog lamp switch from a 19 fitted straight on there, this was good news...
I then moved over to the fuse/relay section, had the fog relay from the 19 handy so I popped it in and to my sheer joy when i switched the fog lamp switch the indicator on the dash display came on to tell me i had fogs on, the car didnt originally even have this indicator light till i threw in the 19 display...
next step, wire it up... not much to do here because on the right hand side beneath the headlamp sure enough there was the plug for the fog lamp wiring, toog the wiring cable out of the donor 19, plugged it in and there was power running to it on demand.
Fitting the actual lamps... this did not go smoothly as everything else did. Removing the fogs from the 19 was fine, all went well, i carried over the surrounds (mounts) as I had thought these would be the same as the clio, to the eye they appeared to be. Expecting a walk in the park I began to try wangle them in to the holes in the bumper of the clio, impossible, the clio had kind of sliders where the surrounds would pop into place however the 19 had a diferent set up, a screw and such. Not being a very patient man I decided the power of a self tapping screw through the original screw hole in the mount would do it along with a cable tie on the other side, none of this is visible with the fogs in place.
Wroking fogs are now in place...
NEXT BIT - New wheels and tires]
(pics to follow)
Another thing the frost and ice over the last while brought was destroyed roads, potholes, trenches etc, the main roads werent too bad but where I live i tend to have to use a lot of s**tty back roads to get to places, if i wanted to i couldnt tell you where the damage occured as all the roads have been bad but somewhere along the way a pot hole warped the hell out of the inside of my alloy and made my tire wall pregnant, this created some frankly lethal wheel wobble, all in all i think 2 of the other alloys got warped over the festive season too. So i had 2 leaky tires and one bulging one.
I wrote the wheels and tires off as I had never really liked them anyway and the tires would have needed replacing to pass the nct/mot anyway.
I brought my old set from one of the valvers in and got some tires thrown on, these ones were a little grubby and in need of some tlc which they will get for now they went on the car as they were and might i say they look awesome...
195/55r16's look truly immense on the clio, especially from the back... you can judge for yourself when i upload the pics...
Ill come back to this at a later date as Im having camera issues
NEXT BIT - Mega misfire]
For some unknown reason around the time of the bad weather kicking in the engine developed a terrible misfire, power was down, if i really pushed it the car could hit 90kph but this did not feel remotely safe what with the buckeld alloys and stuff... anyway this turned out to be one of the easier fixes thankfully...
presumably this couldnt be leads or plugs as they had only recently been replaced, so i had a quick snoop around the dizzy cap, I noticed one of the plugs had come very loose, thats all it was, pushing it back on kept it there briefly but it came loose again so a gentle squeeze of the plug and now its tight and secure, misfire issue solved...
NEXT BIT - NCT/MOT today]
So today was the big day, my first ever nct/mot, never bothered before but im trying my hardest to be fully legit these days. Spent the last few days solid working on the clio with the hope of getting her through or at least not having a massive amount of fails.
i expected a lot of red marks on the sheet, was very nervous considering the state of the car when i got it (and the fact that i crashed it that time) but to my surprise when i got the results everything was perfect apart from an imbalance in the rear brakes, the tester even commented on how good the car was, now sadly the imbalance resulted in a fail but i just have to sort that and drop it in so they can see it's been done and then ill get my cert so its a sure thing.
We had suspicions that this may be an issue as when the new cylenders and shoes were going on we realized that the automatic adjuster on one side was totalled but all in all I see this as a win for the Clio, into the bargain she's driving amazing, better than ever since all the work was carried out this week.
NEXT BIT - Post NCT/MOT Recap]
Things that were done to pass:
Headlamp alignemnt
Handbrake cables
Brake pipes all round
Brake cylinders
Brake shoes
Bodywork at the front (repairing some pre-me damage)
New tires
New wheels (thanks to the condition of the roads here)
Some random new gaskets etc
Lots other small bits, thats all i can think of off hand, either way i now have the test until 2013. As a result of that I can spend a little less time on essential bits for the beagle and focus on the visible bits and fun crap etc.
NEXT BIT - New interior lamp]
I have this:
I want this:
I have no major issues with the poverty spec interior lamp but mine is far from functional, it falls out every few seconds and it will only stay lit if you keep your fingers pressing it toward the roof, and an open door does not activate it. far from perfect...
The lamp i will be putting in came from the donor 19, it's in general a nicer lamp, big bright b*****d on the drivers side (which is connected to the door open switch too) and the dimmer reading style light for the passenger side.
It's a 3 wire thing so nothing too complicated
The first thing is to identify live and earth etc, no point in explaining that, a quick look and youre set to go, just in case though i used some elc tape to do a test run, worked first time thankfully, immediate success is rare in my life...
Sadly there were some slight complications, the lamps are a completely different size and originally these ones were mounted into the centre roof console with the reciever, however my one does not have a fob for the locking so i dont want to put the whole console in, also it doesnt fit in at all so that was ruled out. Also the wiring connectors on the lamp stop it from fitting into the existing hole in the steel so they need to be bent upward instead of to the side as they were.
The solution for the securing problem (and most of lifes problems) was self tapping screws. Put the new lamps in place and screwed them on in, job done, everything functions as should...
Thats that, either light can be operated by their switches or the main one will come on when the doors are opened, exactly as they should be, thats all I wanted.
NEXT BIT - New wheels]
I began with steelies, then I moved to some classy original Clio alloy wheels, the tires on these were absolute s**t, they had plenty of thread on them but were just cheap rotbags.
Into the bargain the ice back in november had ruined many of the roads, this resulted in 2 of the tires getting damaged/bulged side walls, and one of the alloys getting nicely warped. I had not planned to keep the alloys for long anyway as i wanted something that would fill out the arches a little more.
So it getting close to NCT/DOE time I had to replace the tires anyway, I had a set of these with excellent tires:
they didnt, let's move on.
Being slightly broke I wasnt going to go and buy a new set of wheels and tires so I checked out the wheels on my cabby, 2 of the tires were minty (and had the required E marks on them), the other 2 were busted, managed to get 2 pirelli 195/55/15 tires locally for 50 euro. The alloys are showing a little wear and tear but they will be painted when the car is being resprayed (within the next week or two).
No good pics of the wheels at the mo but here's what I got:
Note: they give the clio a nice chunky solid look from behind compaired to the wee 13's
Slightly fuller arches
NEXT BIT - Sunroof Install]
My post cabby life had been getting the better of me and with the unlikelyhood of a break on insurance I'm fairly sure I'll be driving the beagle till its engine explodes and my face melts off, the resale value of such a car would be very little, maybe 300-350 euro even with its 2 year test and tax on it so I'm not afraid to take a few risks with this car as far as the projects go.
This would prob be the biggest one though as if this went wrong the car would pretty much be screwed, or at least be an involuntary cabby, both not ideal results.
The sunroof project:
Having removed a sunroof from a scrap clio recently (cost me 30 euro) I made sure to draw a template of the original sunroof hole, this made things a lot easier. And my car being white made things even easier. Step one was to mark out where we would cut, measuring from the black roof strips to the centre and from the top of the windscreen back we were able to get it quite accurate
Initially we were going to use an airsnips however this had some issues, went through the roof itself excellently however when it encountered any of the adhesive etc that was used to attach the headliner it crapped itself, so with a very slight risk of fire we used the grinder and went through it that way, there was no fire
as far as centering i think we had 40mm on one side and 40mm-ish on the other.
We treated the exposed edges of the freshly cut roof and then set about test fitting the sunroof, fitted like a glove, popped it back out, out with the sealant, a generous helping of that and popped her back in, obviously there was a lot of it squirted out from around the edges, and even more came out when we screwed the base of the sunroof in, the sunroof comes in 2 parts, one that you lay in the top and the second screws in from the bottom and sort of sandwiches the roof skin. Clean off the excess sealant and job done...
Not powerwashed it yet but after a very wet and stormy night and lots of driving there has been no damp spots or leaks, result! Now i'm going to go back to reading my copy of s**t eater monthly till the next step of project beagle.
NEXT BIT - Potholes & Steering Issues]
So a few nights ago I was out taking a random drive to nowhere on the backroads of nowhere when pulling up to a suspiciously gravelly crossroads I experienced a serious bang, instantly I knew it was a pothole but from the bang it sounded I had smacked into a wall. Instantly I knew I would have problems, as it was pitch black out I knew there was no point i getting out to have a look so I drove on home.
On the drive I noticed serious play in what appeared to be the steering rack, when going over the slightest bump it sounded like the entire steering rack was moving and there was a dead spot in the steering, when turning left to right quickly the steering wheel seemed to take a moment before it engaged the actual act of steering.
I assumed this was a fairly serious problem, prob requiring a new rack or some crap so I didnt address the issue and had no plans to until such a time as I could afford some bits, however tonight I decided to take my standard 1:35am drive to nowhere, as I was on this drive I decided to pull over and have a look at what was going on with the steering as it seemed a lot worse.
Had a look underneath and in the bay, no obvious problems there, depressed I got back in the vehicle, I decided I'd pop off the centre cover of the steering wheel and chance a look there as there was play in the entire wheel at this point, sure enough the centre bolt holding on the wheel was incredibly loose, I unscrewed it entirely (using just my sausage like fingers). Had a look, there was a fair bit of wear on the wee spline thingys but nothing detrimental, I replaced the steering wheel, tapped it down with a hammer and tightened the bolt back on to the last with the trustee halfords ratchet. Replaced the centre cap, fired up the car and took her on a wee shred of a very curvy back road and lone beholed, GONE, the problem is entirely gone, what a relief as having just lost my job I would have had no money to replace anything.
The moral of this story is that sometimes (even with renaults) the problem aint as big as it may seem and a lot less costly than you think, always investigate the simplest and most obvious (or even not so obvious) issues before getting mega depressed about it, more importantly, open her up, keep her lit and drive her on.
NEXT BIT - Back To Work (Respray & Conversion)]
Enough time was wasted here, and to my shame i have let the beagle become quite tatty, a lot of stone chips, and a dent in the bonnet complete with missing front badge, and a fog lamp is shot, actually just thinking of it i must ask jr how much postage would be on the lamps he offered me...
Anyhow, it's time to start getting on top of things now, first thing is first, she needs a respray, I have also decided to convert her to a car/van as i have literally used the rear seats maybe twice since i got her and i nearly always have them folded down anyway and this way id not have to find a way to make the rear standard seats match the 16v fronts, i'll get to this, i will not be replacing the rear windows with metal though, just completely blacking them out which will look quite cool from the outside too i'd say.
So this weekend and the week after if all goes according to plan we'll be prepping the shell and wheels for white paint, black the rear windows, strip out the back, paint the car & wheels and apply the stickers I have designed for her which I will order tomorrow, below just as a guide I have thown some diagrams of where the stickers will go.
I shall update the beagle thread with as much detail as possible as the project gets underway again.
NEXT BIT - Day 1 of repairation and respray]
okay heres a lesson on karma, i went out and did this
Video evidence
got some heavy damage including the loss of a fog lamp, the loss of a badge and a nice dent where the badge used to be, wasnt too pushed cos she was due to go in to my friend micker for her anual respray and some body work etc, here's a couple of pics from morning one of the facelift
NEXT BIT - Day 2 of repairation and respray]
More done today, getting there now, still hope to have it done by the weekend, so far all the various dents etc have been repaired now, bit more sanding to do and then its time for paint...
NEXT BIT - Day 3 of repairation and respray]
Okay so lots has happened, all the various little imperfections throughout the shell have been addressed, all primed, blah blah blah
Here's whats left to do:
Prep and paint the wheels (white)
Fill & smooth where rear badges used to be (being replaced with custom sticker clio badges)
Rub the car down and do final prep
Small bit of rust repair needed on pass sill
Shutz the hell out of the bottom and other rust prone parts of the car
Remove various bits of the interior and convert it to a van
Replace boot lid window
Replace fogs
Re-spray the car in delicious white
Re-spary all black plastic parts in satin black
Put on original renault mudflaps
Some more little touches to make it all nice,
Here's some pics from earlier today, more has been done since though
NEXT BIT
Day 4 of repairation and respray]
There are various reason the repairation and respray part of this project took place, first reason was the different colour wing and bumper and some random bits of damage, another one however, and this was a major reason, i had discovered some right through rust a patch featuring a hole the size of a pound, i wanted to nip this in the bud before the whole car started rotting away.
The rust patch was located at the bottom front corner of the door rubber on the pass side, turns out the rubber by the windscreen had come loose and there was a constant build up of water in a specific lacation at the bottom, anyhow, here are some pics of the latest work mainly involving the door shuts etc, there will be more comprehensive pics of the work when its all done.
