another cup being fiddled with

liam172cup · Mar 12, 2012

hello all

So, from the start... I bought my 172 cup back in 2009. its a 53 reg and at the time had only 27k on the clock with full service history, this made it an attractive buy and I couldnt help myself. Deposit was left as soon as i saw it. The car already had a full milltek cat back on, this was a bonus although i wasnt a big fan of the tail pipes. After driving it to work and back for just over a week it became apparent that the baffles in the back box had collapsed, this made it sound fairly unwell. I ended up just getting a custom backbox made, this was an immeddiate improvement in the way it sounded

. being younger at the time i thought that a laguna splitter and white stickers would be the way forward...

So unfortunately for the poor car it looked like this for the first year :S

... I know lol not the best

...

Any how, things eventually started to change when this happened

while the special wheel was on i decided to get rid of the big stickers on the sides.

so out came the girlfriends hair dryer and vodka haha

I'd been eyeing up some anthracite pro race 1.2's for ages and this was the push i needed to make me buy them. I ordered them with yokohama parada spec 2's, I also chose to drop a wheel size to 15's as the tyre prices were unreal! at the same time i ordered a fresh number plate for the front and a skoda fabia splitter.

One sunny day work began...

gave the car a quick wash then the plate was first to go..

before

after

then set about the splitter

while doing this the wheels and tyres arrived ready to fit.

after a bit more work it looked like this.

after this i went off to check tyre pressures.

it did look like a tractor on the new smaller wheels, but i didnt have much money left at the time. desperate to sort out this crazy ride height i ordered some apex springs, not the best but were fine for the time being.

So this is how things were looking...

Between then and now iv also fitted:-

ktec decat
brembo hc plain discs front
mintex m1144 pads front
hel braided lines
ate super blue racing brake fluid
oem spec rear discs and pads

did have photos of every thing but cant find them.

Decided to start this thread as i am looking to get on track this year and have a stash of new/better bits and bobs waiting to go on, I will update when i have some pictures of the nice new parts to post.

Thanks for looking

Liam

leeroybrown · Mar 12, 2012

Often see you at Peel on a Sunday pal with your mate in the mrk 1 Focus RS.

Looks sweet, although the billy big woooooooops its canny large

liam172cup · Mar 12, 2012

leeroybrown said:
Often see you at Peel on a Sunday pal with your mate in the mrk 1 Focus RS.

Looks sweet, although the billy big woooooooops its canny large

haha what do you mean by that? the tail pipe? lol if so thats 1 of the things on the to do list.

what car would i see you there in? iv not been along in ages.

leeroybrown · Mar 12, 2012

Yeah the tail pipe lol

Just to have a Megane Trophy, got myself a CLio Trophy now, slightly lowered one. Was there a month or so ago when you came into Peel.

liam172cup · Mar 12, 2012

was the megane silver? if so i might have chased you down wessington way 1 night... think i gave up fairly quick though lol

leeroybrown · Mar 12, 2012

Yep that was me lol

liam172cup · Mar 12, 2012

haha it supprised me in the corners. give me a wave when you see me next mate cos iv seen a couple of trophys along there.

Duffman_172 · Mar 12, 2012

Some good changes so far mate, what else you got planned for her?

liam172cup · Mar 12, 2012

Duffman_172 said:
Some good changes so far mate, what else you got planned for her?

cheers mate. A variaty of things lol you'll see when i get some new photos up

liam172cup · Mar 12, 2012

for got to add cambelt and dephaser got changed last year at service time..

also removed fogs. mainly due to this...

god. · Mar 12, 2012

love those wheels

liam172cup · Mar 13, 2012

god. said:
love those wheels

cheers god. best part is they're not too expensive

liam172cup · Mar 13, 2012

so heres a few pictures of the things i have lying around the house at the minute..

2 new parada spec 2's as the fronts are looking fairly well worn now, these came at a very good price from camskill.

mintex pads are pretty good but when going on a drive up hartside last year they seemed to go a bit soft after some enthusiastic driving... so this year im changing to ferodo ds2500's as iv heard they're a brilliant pad, even on track. discs were looking a bit worn on the inside so got a new set of brembo plain discs to go on at the same time.

Iv also got a new set of fk konigsports to replace my apex springs. Im hoping to see a decent improvement in handling over the old apex springs.

so thats what iv got so far, now i just need to find the time to get it all fitted.

If anyone knows of any where decent in the north east to get a 4 wheel alignment done please let me know

Cheers

Liam

Duffman_172 · Mar 13, 2012

Nice, should notice a vast improvement with them!

liam172cup · Mar 22, 2012

quick little update... had a spare few minutes to myself when i finished work today, so i decided to set about removing the badges from the back end of the clio as iv always thought they look a bit cluttered. so out came the good old hair dryer and dental floss.

started with the obvious usual...

when the first 2 badges came off i was left with this

after a bit more peeling and a quick wipe down this is how it was looking

after this i decided to hit it with the old white spirit just to remove the excess glue that was left behind, i then washed it off and put a quick coat of polish and wax back on. so this was the finished product.

the two holes from the clio badge are to be covered up by a new style renault sport badge after iv ran the polisher over the back end on sunday, just dont see the point putting it on till thats done...

cheers

Liam

Danith · Mar 22, 2012

I've got a big bore on mine too. I know it's a bit big but really it isn't as loud as you'd think! Performs really well with it so it's staying. Just wondering, how did you cut the bumper for the recess and do you need any protection there to prevent it melting?

liampete · Mar 22, 2012

that badge looks good! i just went on ebay to look for one! are you made of money?? jesus! 35quid for a badge!!!!

liam172cup · Mar 22, 2012

my mate who made the back box did it. not sure how like. I'll ask when i see him next. I have no protection for the bumper hand for 2 years have had no problems with melting... getting a smaller pipe in the next few weeks like.

liam172cup · Mar 22, 2012

liampete said:
that badge looks good! i just went on ebay to look for one! are you made of money?? jesus! 35quid for a badge!!!!

Cheers mate. aye they are a rip off like but been saying for ages that I'll get 1 and never did lol in the end it came to me in the form of a birthday present haha.

liampete · Mar 22, 2012

dont think i wana risk some little scally taking a screwdriver to it haha!

nice motor! wish mine was blue

liam172cup · Mar 22, 2012

liampete said:
dont think i wana risk some little scally taking a screwdriver to it haha!

nice motor! wish mine was blue

cheers. i do love the colour.

Just had a look at yours, i really like flamers.

liam172cup · Mar 30, 2012

just a quick snap of the back end with the new badge on. big improvment imo.

jonw279 · Mar 30, 2012

the car looks spot on mate!

where in sunderland are you from? i am normally out and about in sunderland.

Austin-182 · Mar 31, 2012

Rear badge looks great, still concider doing it to mine.

Stefan. · Mar 31, 2012

Austin-182 said:
Rear badge looks great, still concider doing it to mine.

Do it i did it to mine xmas tiem just gone, looks alot better!!

liam172cup · Mar 31, 2012

jonw279 said:
the car looks spot on mate!

where in sunderland are you from? i am normally out and about in sunderland.

Cheers mate. I live in castletown just round the corner from the Renault dealership.

liam172cup · Mar 31, 2012

Austin-182 said:
Rear badge looks great, still concider doing it to mine.

Cheers. It's pretty expensive, worth it though.

liam172cup · Apr 10, 2012

had a busy weekend working on the car over the bank holiday. I had new seats to fit, didnt imagine it would be as much of a faff on like.

these were the seats i had managed to get a hold of. They came from a friend at the bargin price of £160..

i also got these omp subframes which i had to drill to get them to fit the the runners on the seat.

Once the seats were sitting on the frames properly we bolted in the first 1, but there was a problem... It wasnt sitting straight, it was leaning into the middle of the car. So next came some fiddling around to try and get it sitting level. In the end we got it sitting level by looseing these 2 spacers on the door side.

and then had to pack up the other side with some of this metal strapping.

After sorting out the first seat we knew exactly how the second 1 was going to go and got it straight in.

This was the end result.

that is all for tonight

Rubicon_ · Apr 10, 2012

Car looks great.

Just done the same with the rear badge, was daunting at first spending so much on a badge but worth it in the end.

liam172cup · Apr 10, 2012

azza_ said:
Car looks great.

Just done the same with the rear badge, was daunting at first spending so much on a badge but worth it in the end.

Cheers mate. It's a worth while little mod I think.

Craig. · Apr 10, 2012

Cars looking good mate, there's loads of Cups popping up in the NE now, you don't work in Stockton by any chance do you?

liam172cup · Apr 10, 2012

Craig Davis said:
Cars looking good mate, there's loads of Cups popping up in the NE now, you don't work in Stockton by any chance do you?

Cheers mate. It's been a while since I saw yours up sunderland way last. Naa don't work in stockton though, I used to work in hartlepool last year though...

Wayne-G · Apr 10, 2012

Looks great so far mate! Wheels are basically the same as exact same as mine

15" tyre prices FTW haha, A slash cut exhaust cut into the bumper with a 182 surround would finish that up a Treat

Craig. · Apr 10, 2012

liam172cup said:
Cheers mate. It's been a while since I saw yours up sunderland way last. Naa don't work in stockton though, I used to work in hartlepool last year though...

Hopefully itll be back out soon enough.

I was sure I seen it the other morning when i was going to work that's all, cup with dark wheels & exhaust. It was early though lol

liam172cup · Apr 10, 2012

Wayne-G said:
Looks great so far mate! Wheels are basically the same as exact same as mine 15" tyre prices FTW haha, A slash cut exhaust cut into the bumper with a 182 surround would finish that up a Treat

Cheers. Yeah tyre prices are ace for 15's. Not sure about a slash cut though... But it will be getting down sized shortly.

liam172cup · Apr 10, 2012

Craig Davis said:
Hopefully itll be back out soon enough.

I was sure I seen it the other morning when i was going to work that's all, cup with dark wheels & exhaust. It was early though lol

Haha no not me mate. I'll look forward to seeing yours back out though, bet you can't wait.

liam172cup · Apr 11, 2012

bank holiday weekend part 2... after seats were sorted me and a mate started on fitting my new coilovers. We started with the rears and all was going well... till this.

we ended up working into the dark fannying on with that... but got it out eventually.

starting again the next day we had to find a new shock bolt, this was a fairly hard task on a bank holiday monday. We ended up having to use a make shift jobbie from kwik fit as a temporary solution, it was the closest match we could find but we had to use some spacers.

old bolt

temporary bolt

i know it looks a bit rough but it was all we had haha.

few pics of the shocks built up and going onto the car.

dont really have any pics of the fronts going on because it started to rain so put the camera away. but this was our getto camber adjustment method haha

i was very happy with the result, so here are a few quick snaps i got of it once all done.

i will get some better pictures next time i clean it. the front end has been lifted 15mm as it was rubbing. new bolt has been ordered from renault and will be collecting it tomorrow.

Cant wait for some good dry weather now so i can see how it handles

.

liam172cup · Apr 12, 2012

Collected new rear shock bolt today, £6.72 from renault! That's a fairly pricey bolt...

liam172cup · Apr 16, 2012

got a few bits and bobs done on the car this sunday, got the new tyres on the front wheels

also i fitted the correct replacement rear shock bolt and got rid if the bodge... after that was fitted i had a play around with the ride height, the front got lifted another 10mm and the rear went down 10mm

Rear adjusters are now all the way down