Fred the 1.2 16v mk2 Expression

[Fred the Clio]

Hello ClioSport,

I've browsed the forum for months on end before making my first post and my situation is much the same as many of the other 1.2 owners on the site. I'm a skint student with limited funds trying to make my beloved first car a bit more "hard nut" and a little less "Sunday driver".
About 3 months ago I was lucky enough to get a 1.2 16v 04 expression... oh yes... its a 5 door which may not go down too well on this forum however its mechanically sound, only 1 previous owner and had its cambelt replaced as well. Despite still being on my provisional I've decided to make a few aesthetic mods with the hope of passing (first time- lol) in the future. Any suggestions would be great. I'm currently doing exams but during the summer I'm hoping there will be more mods to come.

This is the very little I've done so far:
Dynamique spoiler to replace the rubbish standard piece of crap
RS Grille - picked up a cheap one off ebay for £20 and restored it
Plasti dipped badges black
Back to black on bumpers
French Flag decal

Future Upgrades:
182 alloys (preferably anthracite cup ones) - I know not many people think these look any good on non 182s but I quite like them
Colour coded front and rear bumpers, side panels, bullets in anthracite etc. (Or leave it all standard?)
Bee sting aerial
Lowering springs ( this is a maybe, anyone have any ideas how much this will increase insurance by?)
Perhaps a Cup spoiler at some stage... not in the near future though.

Oh yeah.... a tree landed on my car in the mad winds we've had down South recently. Luckily not too much damage to bodywork, hoping to get this fixed soon.
That's it for now, I appreciate that this thread might be quite slow due to the funding issues and all that but I thought it would be nice to see the progression of another non sport on the forum.


Got a few pics below:
Black front badge

Tree on my car!!

A Twingo I saw with some 182 alloys in anthracite

 

[Typhoon]

Nice start mate! Welcome to ClioSport. As you've probably read from when you have browsed, try not to pump too much money in to this.

2 reasons.

You can save the pennies and buy something quicker when insurance/funds permit but also it's much easier selling a 1.2 Clio as standard instead of one which has had the Halfords touch

 

[Fred the Clio]

Nice start mate! Welcome to ClioSport. As you've probably read from when you have browsed, try not to pump too much money in to this.

2 reasons.

You can save the pennies and buy something quicker when insurance/funds permit but also it's much easier selling a 1.2 Clio as standard instead of one which has had the Halfords touch:smiley:

Defo agree with you man, will be spending cautiously - well, as cautiously as possible for a young guy with money burning a hole in his wallet.

Nice 197 you've got there!

 

[Typhoon]

Defo agree with you man, will be spending cautiously - well, as cautiously as possible for a young guy with money burning a hole in his wallet.

:smiley:
Nice 197 you've got there!

Cheers mate! Nice.. but costly! We're in the same boat haha!

 

[Fred the Clio]

RS Grille - £20 and French flag decal- bought from ebay for £3

What key is complete without a tacky keyring

 

[Typhoon]

Join ClioSport membership. You may get a ClioSport keyring. No need to blur plates out mate, it's pointless

 

[Fred the Clio]

Join ClioSport membership. You may get a ClioSport keyring. No need to blur plates out mate, it's pointless :tongueout:

Think i'm being a bit too careful!! , will defo think about getting membership at some point.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Do you blank them off every time you go for a drive .. or when it's parked up ? Anyway...

As for mods.... trying to make a 1.2 clio 'hard' ... honestly, only you will care what it looks like.

I'm sure there'll be people coming along to say 'oh its your first car, do what you want' but really - having a clean, fairly standard car will be much easier to sell when the time comes. As you've not even passed your test yet, I'm sure the insurance will be daft anyway, let alone +mods.

Keep it clean, keep it shiny side up and get something else with the money saved from not buying every modification under the sun over the next couple of years Seriously - every time you think about spending £5 or £500 on spoilers or wheels, put it into a separate bank account or your sock drawer. In a couple of years you'll be amazed how much money you have !

 

[Fred the Clio]

Do you blank them off every time you go for a drive .. or when it's parked up ? Anyway...

As for mods.... trying to make a 1.2 clio 'hard' ... honestly, only you will care what it looks like.

I'm sure there'll be people coming along to say 'oh its your first car, do what you want' but really - having a clean, fairly standard car will be much easier to sell when the time comes. As you've not even passed your test yet, I'm sure the insurance will be daft anyway, let alone +mods.

Keep it clean, keep it shiny side up and get something else with the money saved from not buying every modification under the sun over the next couple of years :wink: Seriously - every time you think about spending £5 or £500 on spoilers or wheels, put it into a separate bank account or your sock drawer. In a couple of years you'll be amazed how much money you have !

Thanks for the advice, a good reminder. I probably should have mentioned that I have brothers who will also be learning to drive on the Clio so it will be staying in the family for years to come assuming that its still in good mechanical working order or hasn't been driven into a ditch... :wink: so I have no intention of selling it however I do understand where you're coming from, save today in order to spend at a later date. I've kept the standard parts so that if the day comes where I do indeed part with the Clio, I can simply restore it to standard. It's difficult not to get carried away when the 1.2 is actually quite a good base for a potentially great looking car. A couple cheapish mods here and there and I'm a happy man. :up:

 

[bampot]

I looked at the pictures before I read it all and thought you were trying to take 'arty' pictures of it through a tree 😌.

Plans sound good but some sound advice given, all the best with what you do. :up:

 

[Fred the Clio]

I looked at the pictures before I read it all and thought you were trying to take 'arty' pictures of it through a tree 😌.

Plans sound good but some sound advice given, all the best with what you do. :up:

Thanks very much. The tree issue was crushing both emotionally and literally!

 

[D4nny]

Id say colour code wingmirror covers bumper sude trips door handles and you've got a spoiler and get the alloys and ull have a smart tydy car minus the tree although ive red a very nice 5 door sport rep which looked the part alrhough it would make much mie sence to do thw above maximum abd then buy somthing else

 

[Fred the Clio]

Id say colour code wingmirror covers bumper sude trips door handles and you've got a spoiler and get the alloys and ull have a smart tydy car minus the tree although ive red a very nice 5 door sport rep which looked the part alrhough it would make much mie sence to do thw above maximum abd then buy somthing else

Think I may put alloys on hold for a while until I become a better driver but when the car goes in to sort out the dents for the tree, I'm hopefully gonna get the bumpers, mirrors, handles and side trim sprayed just to give it a cleaner look.

 

[D4nny]

Deffiently does smartien the car up and make them look more Morden and cleaner as you say u can get some good trim covers which r grey colours untill bur better unless u could buy some which ud wqnt refurbished and get them refurbished after a while but keep the steelies to use while refurbingas an Iidea

 

[D4nny]

Did the tree damage the windscreen or cause much damage and Howed u get car out guess u gradually cut the tree away? Id be fumming at the land owner if was there tree

 

[Fred the Clio]

Did the tree damage the windscreen or cause much damage and Howed u get car out guess u gradually cut the tree away? Id be fumming at the land owner if was there tree

Hi mate, sorry for the late reply, yeah I was pretty p**sed off, thankfully no windscreen damage, it was the neighbours tree so he paid for some guys to come round and cut it off bit by bit. His insurance wouldn't pay for the damage though and I don't want to claim and affect my premium so I'm gonna get it down privately soon I hope.

 

[D4nny]

At least he paid For That I Spose Sounds Expensive Though Thinking How Much My Colour Coding Set Me back On mine

 

[Fred the Clio]

Bought a set 182 alloys for £130 inc shipping. Need a refurb badly and in poor aesthetic condition but no buckles and all of them are true, plus the tyres have got 5-6mm of tread left. Can anyone recommend me any colours - was thinking either gun metal grey or just standard silver. I think black might not look too good with the colour scheme of the car. Will post some pics when they arrive

 

[Fred the Clio]

Got the alloys, started the refurb process today. 2 primed already by the previous guy. Pic below - missing the centre Renault badges though.

 

[Fred the Clio]

Alloys done. DIY refurb in Halfords Anthracite alloy spray, really happy with the results considering the paints and equipment etc cost me about £8 a wheel! Giving them a bit of tyre shine. Anyone know where I can get some of the centre Renault badges on the centre cap?

 

[Fred the Clio]

Small update, blacked out part of lower grille, hardly makes a difference but I had a can of plastidip in the attic and went for it. Black plastidip on front badge was removed... wasn't feeling it

 

[memel]

nice job, little but great job, to be continued

 

[Fred the Clio]

nice job, little but great job, to be continued :smile:

Cheers man...slow progress but more to come soon

 

[Fred the Clio]

Test passed and 182s finally on! Make such a difference!

 

[Martin_172]

That colour suits they wheels

 

[Knuckles]

Looking good! Keep it clean and simple

I did similar to my old money pit, but I sprayed the fog light surrounds rather than the black strip

And how it ended up

I would not recommend copying me. It was a waste of money.

 

[Fred the Clio]

Looking good! Keep it clean and simple :smile:

I did similar to my old money pit, but I sprayed the fog light surrounds rather than the black strip

And how it ended up

I would not recommend copying me. It was a waste of money.

Cheers Knuckles. Yours must have been a spectacle to behold haha. My rear bumper is in a sorry state so may replace with a 172 , colour code the strips and bullets and I'll leave it at that reckon. You must've turned heads in that 1.2 though

 

[CoryColeWilkins]

@Knuckles I loved my 1.2 with its sport bumpers! So much that I put some on my dCi but left the dCi badges on it. :tongueout: 60 MGP... enough said.

 

[Knuckles]

It was alright, Myself and a few others mistook it for a trophy a few times.

172 rear bumpers do add a nice touch to these and can be sold on when you get rid of the car

@CoryColeWilkins that dci looks ace!

Brilliant looks and economy

I left the 1.4 bullets on mine and highlighted the text

 

[Fred the Clio]

Two Clios.

 

[Fred the Clio]

So I've finally bitten the 16v bullet and become a member of ClioSport! See what I did there.... sorry....:grimacing::grimacing:
Looking forward to applying the obligatory cliosport.net sticker in the rear window soon :blush:

 

[Fred the Clio]

I've been contemplating colour coding for a quite a while now and finally decided to do it. Debated going to a body shop to get it done professionally but couldn't justify spending £150-200 on a few pieces of plastic. I resorted to the dreaded Halfrauds to source my paint and carry out a DIY job. I'd heard horror stories about Halfords paint matching but decided to give it a go. They didn't have my colour (TEF47- Cyclade Blue) so I asked them to make some up for me. I bought 2 300ml aerosols costing around £14 each which they made up in store, plastic primer, Iceberg Silver for the bullets and some lacquer to finish it off. The spray can is hard work to use, the nozzle is incredibly stiff to press but after dropping it in a bucket of warm water for about 5-10 mins it sprayed cleanly without any drips. At first I was worried because the paint looked like a poor match however after I applied the clear coat I can say it seems pretty good for 13 quid. Potato quality pic below.

Finished the job pretty late so will put them on the car tomorrow and see if it doesn't look horrendous against the bodywork. If its respectable, I'll do the door handles and front bumper trim at a later date, weather permitting.
I'd say for things like colour coding, the Halfords paint is fine- assuming you're not expecting a perfect finish and not too fussed whether the paint is a perfect match however if you're trying to fix dents and blend the paint work, its simply not good enough.

 

[KHP93]

Looking forward to seeing your next update!

 

[CoryColeWilkins]

@Fred the Clio - do halfords not offer a matching service where they come out to your car and match your shade?

Looking forward to see how the colour coded bits look on the car.

 

[Fred the Clio]

@Fred the Clio - do halfords not offer a matching service where they come out to your car and match your shade?

Looking forward to see how the colour coded bits look on the car.

Thanks Cory, hopefully it will turn out good on the car.
Not sure about the shade matching. I just gave the guy my paint code, he mixed it up and before putting it in the aerosol, he took it outside and we compared it to my car. You never know with Halfords....:tongueout::tongueout:

 

[Fred the Clio]

Happy new year everyone! Here are the results!
Before:

After:

 

[Fred the Clio]

Haven't updated this for ages so here we go!
Sourced a 172 Cup rear bumper (with an exhaust cut out) - I'm going to be filling it so will update my progress on here.
Also sourced a Cup Spoiler
Both were from @Chapppers11 Thanks buddy.
Colour coded my mirror caps using Halfords paint
In the process of colour coding front bumper insert- Will post when finished.
This car is a real DIY project for me so don't expect super glossy finishes All spraying so far has been done by rattle can.
Pic below!

 

[Fred the Clio]

I've finished colour coding the front bumper trim on the Clio and it makes such a difference to the front end!

Paint was matched by Halfords. Not a bad job.
I also blacked out the fog light surround on the car using Plasti Dip. My clio being the poverty spec Expression doesn't have fog lights so I'll have to fit some just for the aesthetics

 

[Fred the Clio]

I had some paint made up (F47) by my local paint shop LE WENT to see if there was any difference between it and the Halfords stuff. The guy at LE WENT had a BG FF 182 so I got talking to him a bit he was a nice enough chap. He matched the shade to my car with a small booklet filled with all the shades of my paint code. Safe to say it's a much better match than the Halfords stuff. I then colour coded my cup spoiler and fitted it. I'm very happy with the finish considering I sprayed it with a rattle can.

 

[Fred the Clio]

Some Osram Diadems that I ordered arrived in the post since the orange coating on my front indicator bulbs had started to peel. A nice subtle change and in my opinion they look great against any blue paintwork!
Here's a before and after:
BEFORE:

AFTER: