Back in a CS, this time a 172!

[Jason_E]

I love groundhog day.

It's been a while, I think I sold my last Clio Sport in 2022? Maybe 2023. Either way I've missed having one around, and the recent sale of my Elise has left me yearning for a fun car.

Just before Christmas I saved my friends Panda 100hp from the scrapyard, did a load of work on it to sell, but put the feelers out there on facebook to see if anyone fancied a swap for a 1*2.

A couple weeks later, here's what a 1 owner Panda 100hp is worth in Clio Money:

It's had a bit of an odd history, but the bones are good. 75,000 miles, fresh MOT and largely standard. Doing VCheck on the car didnt throw up the Make and Model (as did some of the insurance quotes), which makes me think its perhaps one of the imports.

Ownership history seems to back that theory up:

I can only imagine the 1st owner of 27days was an importer, or dealer, pre-registering the car? I dunno, I'm sure the CS.net hive mind will tell me more.

It was also sold at Copart a few months before the guy I got it off bought it:

Oddly, he collected it from someone in Scotland, who was a bit cagey about where he got it from. Perhaps worried about the stigma attached to buying at a salvage auction, or just wanted to hide whatever ludicrously low price he probably paid!

The car has clearly had a blow over as well, with slightly less than perfect paint almost 100% across the car, as well as overspray on trim in the gaps etc. However it looks good enough for me, and I'm sure a flat-back and decent polish would improve it greatly.

Whatever the history, it drives well, and the only modification is a 182 manifold with PMS Stealth system. It's a bit too loud for me I think so may swap that with someone, or get a centre silencer fitted.

Anyway, here it is occupying the space (and car cover) in my unit that the Elise used to occupy!

Seeing a standard 172 these days is pretty rare, so my plan is to just keep it standard and do the bits that need doing. I can tell the bushes are a bit tired, and the aformentioned exhaust is giving me a headache. Other than that I just want to enjoy owning a 1*2 again!

TL;DR, I'm back with a questionable but lovely 172. Maybe someone here knows more about it!

 

[Jason_E]

Managed to get an hour on it today.

Ever get the feeling you’re not the first person in there?

Anyways, the grill needs a spruce up as do a few other bits. I like Ctechniq stuff but you can’t beat good old Bumper and trim paint!

I also decided to try a new headlight restoration method. Sand back as usual, but not polish - lacquer!

As it turns out, not using the correct lacquer is f**king stupid of me. The headlight plastic reacted and melted, sending me back to square one.

I actually have a tin of lacquer specifically for headlights, but decided to use a can of my personal favourite stuff lesson learnt! Not again.

Personally I’ll just stick to polishing in future. It’s not as good for longevity but at least I’m good at it.

 

[MLB]

That looks great and will be a good base car to refresh!

I believe the writing behind the bumper is the factory colour coding. My Arctic blue Clio also had a three letter code there and flame red is Rouge de feu in French.

 

[The_Pirate]

Very nice, Jasmong x

 

[Jason_E]

That looks great and will be a good base car to refresh!

I believe the writing behind the bumper is the factory colour coding. My Arctic blue Clio also had a three letter code there and flame red is Rouge de feu in French.

Well it’s fair to say they didn’t remove a single thing to do the paint on this, given the aggressive overspray on everything. So that makes sense.

 

[TC.]

Can’t beat a flamer

 

[imprezaworks]

Superb

 

[cat171]

It looks great!! Whereabout are you? (I've got the same thing)

 

[Jason_E]

It looks great!! Whereabout are you? (I've got the same thing)

Near Oxford!

 

[dann2707]

For what it's worth you can do both with the headlights. I did exactly that with my Z4, polish them as usual to cut back the headlights and remove the conjunctivitis, remove polish residue and then lacquer them to seal it in.

 

[cat171]

Near Oxford!

Cool. Essex here. Mine needs some paint due to the classic lacquer peel etc. Once it's done I'd love to arrange / come along to a meet. I've only ever seen one other flamer on the road and that was a couple of years ago.

 

[Matt Cup]

Cool. Essex here. Mine needs some paint due to the classic lacquer peel etc. Once it's done I'd love to arrange / come along to a meet. I've only ever seen one other flamer on the road and that was a couple of years ago.

I drive past this sorry looking flamer every time I visit my parents, it’s the only one I’ve seen out and about, It’s been sat here for years.

 

[Jason_E]

Took a bit of sanding but managed to remove the mess caused by the lacquer. I’ll stick to sanding and polishing in the future.

I also cleaned all the grime from behind the bumper. You’ll never see it but I’d feel lazy if I didn’t.

Painted the little covers on the wipers too as they were so grey, they were almost white.

Shows up the faded scuttle so another job for another day.

Finally reassembled, fitted the correct size plate and admired the work.

 

[Jason_E]

Decided to take a break from the screen today and fit the @ScottRallye intake I ordered last week!

The before shot. Obviously I had to make my life difficult as well!

Scott supplies a beautiful bare metal welded piece of art. And I decided, hey I think I want that black. So I scuffed it up and went mad with some VHT black. I sat it in the sun to help speed up the process.

As you can see I had to absolutely bury it in paint. It was so hot it was drying uneven, so went for big coats which looked great dry! A good slightly textured Matt black.

However as you can see, when fitting it the pipe was still red hot… and I smudged some of the dry paint with my sweaty hands. It’s not awful but I’ll redo it when it’s slightly cooler than the surface of the sun outside.

I’m actually really pleased with how it came out overall though. I’m not a big fan of showy engine bays, so painting it black takes your eye off it. Even if it did feel like a crime covering up the loverly fab work!

Thanks again @ScottRallye !

Oh and one other thing that was annoying me I sorted, before taking it out for a blast down Harry’s road as a shakedown.

Also moved the car to my new council garage which is a 5 minute walk from my front door, rather than a 20+ minute drive.

Was worried it was a small garage but the Clio do be smaller.