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Clio Trophy No.162/500 - Restoration



  Better than yours. C*nt.
More of a mini-project than a full on project, but there's a long story behind it and a load of little jobs to do so aim to make this a bit of a help for people wanting to know about a few little bits and bobs that I come across, and more than anything to document the car's progress.

We came across No162 after a load of messing around with cars. We had a lovely Golf GTI, got rid for a Passat Estate, and then decided we wanted rid of that because it was less interesting than death. We wanted to save a bit of money in the process, but this shot us in the foot - we came across a seemingly nice Ford Puma 1.7VCT. A couple of days into ownership, it overheated. OK, these things happen, garage had it all sorted and taken back to theirs to be fixed. Couple of things were changed, then we got it back. It overheated. They had it back - this went on. Over the course of 5 weeks we had the car 5 days!

We gave up ultimately, but this wasn't through the garage's fault. Diagnosing an intermittant fault with a car is a sod of a job, and they were trying everything, but last week we'd had enough. We went up to the dealer, and decided on a 2005 StreetKa instead. Nice little car, low miles, good spec and the Mrs liked it. That was broken too. We spoke with the garage and decided to call it quits.

I then got looking on the interwebs, and found No.162/500. I've had a 182 before (as my username would suggest) so know what ownership entails, how much fun they are, what goes wrong and where to look for s**t bits. Other half has always hated red cars, but really liked this one so we made the trip to Telford to see it. Couple of niggly problems, but it's fixable and not a showstopper so we paid our money and brought it back with us yesterday.

Today, the fun began - I've ordered a load of bits, bought a load of bits off here and am still looking for the rest, but basically the car seems great bar a few things:

Wheels kerbed, supermarket dings. The car was well looked after, but in a supermarket runabout shopping trolley kind of way - not an enthusiast. The plus side of this is it's never been driven in anger. Downside is the bodywork wasn't 100%.
Rear brakes look about dead. Never mind - this kind of s**t wears out.
Nearly dead front tyres.
Exhaust is typical Renault Papier-mache.
Needs a clean underneath and the suspension checking/rebuilding eventually.

First things first though, I set about making it pretty with the other half - so red painted calipers it is, complete with a bit of a scrub up under the bonnet:

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Plans for the future:

Headlamps off the full fat.
Engine cover.
Full fat interior (bar the front seats - the Recaros are staying!)
Shorter-height front plate.
New back brake disks/pads.
Braided brake lines.
Yozzasport Exhaust.
ITG Maxogen.
All the dents pulled.
New Turinis.

Not in that order - going to set about the 'mechanical' stuff first. Wheels/tyres, exhaust and brake stuff, plus the interior stuff and plates as they're not too expensive to do are the first items on the agenda over the next week or so...
 

ForceIndia

ClioSport Club Member
  Gentlemans spec 200
Mike, the alcantara from the 182 doesn't match the recaros, but the ph2 172 stuff does. Looks much better! Nice choice.
 
  Better than yours. C*nt.
Meh, it's close enough for me for the time being - cheers for that though - at least I know what's coming!
 
  Titanium 182
^ Because trophy interior is budget spec apart from the recaros.

Looks ace mate, don't know if I would bother with the ECU bracket though. Just cable tie it they break constantly.
 
  Better than yours. C*nt.
^ what he said. Trophy comes with cloth seats and cards except for the leather/alcantara Recaros.

As far as the ECU bracket goes, I was going to get a couple of flat slips of steel/aluminium, and bend it to the shape of the bracket - kind of 'sandwich' it in if you get me. Hopefully that'll hold up better!
 
  Coupe/Defender V8
lol at tlc! Looks pretty tidy already, nice find

Oh and if you're getting rid of the seats, i'm your best mate suddenly :)

(yes yes, I know they're staying :()
 
  It's A Reno
Looks great matey.
Having a project is always fun, but you do seem to be throwing a lot of weight into the car.

1st time I've seen one of the trophy's Sachs? shocks too.
 

Gaz_

ClioSport Club Member
  Extreme mode
Get a splitter too!!

noticed its had a new grill in a past life also ;)
 
  Better than yours. C*nt.
Car looks nice but I don't understand getting a poverty spec Trophy and then filling it with heavier seats and lights etc.

Why not just get a FF182?

;)

Because the Trophy came with the seats/look/age/'rarity' that we wanted, with just a couple of small bits to add to (lights, seats). Hardly like I'm filling it with lead - it'll be what, a couple of kilos heavier? I'll have a s**t before I get in it...
 
  Better than yours. C*nt.
Refurb would save some money, but I've yet to see a set of wheels with kerb marks refurbished looking as good as new - so new wheels it is.

Spend a long time on it this weekend - new stereo/bluetooth thing, new mats, new plates (slightly shorter height one on the front) and a damned good clean inside and even more cleaning on the outside. Started off by washing it, clayed it with 3M overspray clay as it hadn't been done - ever, then polished with PO85RD3.02 which was worked until clear, followed by Autoglym Super Resin Polish again worked until clear. Two coats of Extra Gloss Protection over the weekend, and will do one more next weekend with a coat of Dodo Orange Crush to make it ready for Trax.

Wheels are a sore point - got the buyer who is upset thinking I've sold them to someone else because the muppets that are Renault decided to tell me on Friday (when I was collecting them) that they only had 3. One more on it's way, but 3 were in on Saturday for me to collect. But they weren't - they lost those too. Well, TNT did - their driver misdelivered the dealership's overnight cage.

Berk!

Well - here's a few pics of the work:

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Tuesday is a trip to JMS to get the mechanics of it all up to scratch - it sounds like a long day for the guys as it's a full set of belts, new rear disks/pads, braided lines and a full service complete with some interior bits and bobs to finish it off. Very excited, and will have a few pics for that! The car is finally coming together after a fairly heavy week of work on it. The bodywork looks as it should - still some marks in the paint but I'm loathed to do much more without paint depth readings as I don't want to burn through, but it's all just about shiny now so that'll do! Maybe I can persuade a blowover instead of just the doorhandles which are going a bit pink...
 
  Better than yours. C*nt.
Update: Renault have *FINALLY* furnished me with goodies. It's taken a while, but:-

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Tada! All sealed and ready to take tyres.
 
  Better than yours. C*nt.
Righty! Finally had chance to get some more done to it. New polisher has turned up courtesy of cleanyourcar.co.uk:

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And it's incredible. Utterly sublime - such a joy to work with. It doesn't take any effort at all to haul around because of it's (lack of) weight, the speed governor is spot on and from CYC I ordered it at about 3 on Friday and it was in my hands at 10am on Saturday.

The wheels now have rubber on, and the new hoops are on the car courtesy of Protyre who have just opened in Warwick. For the princely sum of £50 they checked (and amended on 2 wheels!) the balance, fitted the wheels on, and then did a full suspension geometry check and adjust. I've got the report somewhere which I'll scan in but it was all absolutely miles out from spec, and now it's all in the green and as close to spec as possible.

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Highly recommended - guys were enthusiasts of motorvehicles and knowledgable, and did the geometry 3 times before being happy with it!

The car now feels incredible. It handles like it used to once in it's life, it pulls like a train thanks to Tom and the team at JMS, and I am truly jealous of the OH who gets to use this thing a few times a week when it's not practical for me to give her a lift to work, while I get to use the hearse.

Very pleased with it - I've got the Xenon to put on it at some point (might set about those tomorrow) and then there are areas of the car which I think need a bit of a wet sand, so I'll have to set about that as well... Nervous doesn't cut it - it's the first time I've done it on my own car and whilst it's better in that it's my own car I'd break, it just feels that little bit scarier! Lol!
 
  Better than yours. C*nt.
Right! Didn't have chance for any wet sanding - TBH I've got so much on at work that getting time to do anything to the car is a blessing. Saying that, last night after my meeting in Bourne End, I got back and set about the car.

Now, earlier in the week the other half got home and the wheelarch liner had dropped and dragged on the floor. So much so that most of the bit that screws to the car had worn off! New one of those arrived yesterday morning before I left and I set about that and the headlights first... Off with the bumper, Lotus parked in front of it, stuck tape to the side to record headlamp alignment and then swapped the lot over for the Xenon headlights. Took me about an hour in total including dicking around with the alignments, but I'll live. New lights on, time to get the bumper back on with the new archliner and stick the Streamline front splitter on as the original one appears to have grown legs at some point in the car's history.

Also, when I went to JMS at some point on the way down there I managed to smash a foglight. Trip to Coventry Renault furnished me with a new one, although that hurt... Shiny new light in this morning and a quick splash of paint on the inlet and plenum and it'll have to go to Trax like that because I'm shagged.

Enjoy the pictures:

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See you at Trax tomorrow!
 
  Better than yours. C*nt.
Another update after another hard week of graft! The car is nearing completion of 'stage 1' - the cheaper bits of work! This week has been changing the doorcards, changing the speakers for JBL GT5s in the rear and GTOs in the front, cleaning the car over and getting the engine bay tidied up a bit more. Been for a thrash in it this morning and it's now feeling absolutely sublime!

Total changes/modifications since I bought No162:

New Turinis and PE2s
New Kenwood headunit
New JBL speakers
New RenaultSport mats
Full Fat rear bench and doorcards
Cambelt/Aux belt/Full service
Alloy footrest
Streamline Carbon Front Splitter
PiperX Panel Filter
Full Fat HID Headlamps
New fog light
Silvervisions all round
Short front plate
Full suspension geometry check and adjustment

And the obligatory pictures after the other half waxed it yesterday:

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