renault clio 172
Alright, so I been a member now 6 months and think its about time I made a post.
I bought the 172 back in July from Southampton, how ever I couldn't the insurance sorted for a few days until i turned 21 so had to watch my dad drive it before me
needless to say by the grin on his face he loved it ... to pour even more salt on the wound, when we hit the motorway he left me for dust
but later that night the most important mod of all was added:
3 days later after insurance was all sorted (or so it seemed) I finally got to hit the road. it was all ok to start with but 24hours after driving it the back box quite literally fell off the car, so back to the dealer it went to be replaced free of charge (needless to say he was not a very happy man after I already talked £300 off what he was asking for it). 2 days later I got the car back once again, and was straight round to my mates "robbygraham" to show off the clio after he introduced me to his 182 a few months previous.
All was going well, then two weeks later I got a call from the insurance company rejecting my insurance company as they had me listed a year older than I was, even after setting up the policy over the phone and talking through my details 3 or so times, the still managed to **** it up
So with that i decided the car was coming off the road over the summer until i could afford to pay a years insurance in full. So into the back garden the car went:
It was a was a bit of a squeeze but after an 80,000 point turn finally got it onto its new home for the next three months
As you have probably seen i started fiddling around already with different things, like changing the colour of the badges and the tape on the front grill after seeing what people had done to their clio's on here.
So now the clio wasn't going anywhere it was time for the fun to begin...
Started off removing the spare wheel, hacking up some MDF to make a solid floor for the boot, then used the old carpet to cover it all up and make it look nice:
Next on the list was an LED conversion, had a few problems doing this but all worth it in the end: (pictures to be added soon)
Then came the carbon fibre, this on the list were; fog light surround, all renault diamonds (inc. the tiny one on the steering wheel), side bullets, speaker covers, door handles ..... so the list went on.
After a few nights in the rain, due to the harsh curves on the wings mirrors (and my terrible fitting) the 3M vinyl decided it didn't want to stick properly so it was removed.
Following this it was time to clean off the brake callipers ready for painting:
Finally i got the car back on the road, struck by yet another problem off to rentech the car went, 3 hours later and £150 less with a new accessory belt fitted.
I decided to try tidy up under the bonnet a little bit, polishing the top of the engine and some of the other pipework:
Yes that is a Halfords air filter, not happy with it The previous owner decided to put it on and get rid of the the old lid but left the rest of the air box in place, have been unable to source a lid on its own. Until recently when robbygraham decided to get his new induction kit, so i gladly took his lid and air filter off his hands
After reading more posts on here the idea of stripping the car out seemed quite appealing (i had already done this in my first car) however the parents weren't such fans when they saw it all happening again, but hey I'm now 52 Kg lighter
(picture to be added soon) just need to buy a few rattle cans to make it look nice now rather than a primer coloured interior.
A week or so goes by, a nasty ticking noise starts, so its back off to rentech again, this time its the carbon canister making the noise was quoted £110 to get it repaired but now its so close to Christmas its just not going to happen yet, so maybe in the new year when it goes into to have the cam belt changed. However the car drives fine and the ticking isn't too audible and only seems to occur intermittently.
I've got a few more plans for the car over the next year or so, but a few things have to be done before i can start on these ...
I bought the 172 back in July from Southampton, how ever I couldn't the insurance sorted for a few days until i turned 21 so had to watch my dad drive it before me
needless to say by the grin on his face he loved it ... to pour even more salt on the wound, when we hit the motorway he left me for dust
but later that night the most important mod of all was added:
3 days later after insurance was all sorted (or so it seemed) I finally got to hit the road. it was all ok to start with but 24hours after driving it the back box quite literally fell off the car, so back to the dealer it went to be replaced free of charge (needless to say he was not a very happy man after I already talked £300 off what he was asking for it). 2 days later I got the car back once again, and was straight round to my mates "robbygraham" to show off the clio after he introduced me to his 182 a few months previous.
All was going well, then two weeks later I got a call from the insurance company rejecting my insurance company as they had me listed a year older than I was, even after setting up the policy over the phone and talking through my details 3 or so times, the still managed to **** it up
So with that i decided the car was coming off the road over the summer until i could afford to pay a years insurance in full. So into the back garden the car went:
It was a was a bit of a squeeze but after an 80,000 point turn finally got it onto its new home for the next three months
As you have probably seen i started fiddling around already with different things, like changing the colour of the badges and the tape on the front grill after seeing what people had done to their clio's on here.
So now the clio wasn't going anywhere it was time for the fun to begin...
Started off removing the spare wheel, hacking up some MDF to make a solid floor for the boot, then used the old carpet to cover it all up and make it look nice:
Next on the list was an LED conversion, had a few problems doing this but all worth it in the end: (pictures to be added soon)
Then came the carbon fibre, this on the list were; fog light surround, all renault diamonds (inc. the tiny one on the steering wheel), side bullets, speaker covers, door handles ..... so the list went on.
After a few nights in the rain, due to the harsh curves on the wings mirrors (and my terrible fitting) the 3M vinyl decided it didn't want to stick properly so it was removed.
Following this it was time to clean off the brake callipers ready for painting:
Finally i got the car back on the road, struck by yet another problem
off to rentech the car went, 3 hours later and £150 less with a new accessory belt fitted. I decided to try tidy up under the bonnet a little bit, polishing the top of the engine and some of the other pipework:
Yes that is a Halfords air filter, not happy with it
The previous owner decided to put it on and get rid of the the old lid but left the rest of the air box in place, have been unable to source a lid on its own. Until recently when robbygraham decided to get his new induction kit, so i gladly took his lid and air filter off his hands After reading more posts on here the idea of stripping the car out seemed quite appealing (i had already done this in my first car) however the parents weren't such fans when they saw it all happening again, but hey I'm now 52 Kg lighter
(picture to be added soon) just need to buy a few rattle cans to make it look nice now rather than a primer coloured interior.
A week or so goes by, a nasty ticking noise starts, so its back off to rentech again, this time its the carbon canister making the noise was quoted £110 to get it repaired but now its so close to Christmas its just not going to happen yet, so maybe in the new year when it goes into to have the cam belt changed. However the car drives fine and the ticking isn't too audible and only seems to occur intermittently.
I've got a few more plans for the car over the next year or so, but a few things have to be done before i can start on these ...
