Well I thought I'd write up my project so far. Still plenty to do:
After not having a clio for about 3 years I had the opportunity to get a car just for fun and a few track days. I've owned two 172's before:
and
So this time it had to be a PH1.
I spent ages looking for a decent one but in the end I got fed up of waiting and bought a fairly standard one with 114k miles!
On the drive home I found out the wheels were tat. Lots of vibration. I went to get them balanced and two of them were buckled.
So annoying as I wanted to keep the F1's
First job was to remove that knackered rear wiper, and I also changed the rear lights to PH2 as I prefer them:
I had to get the wheels sorted pretty quick as I found I also had a slow puncture. Searched about for deals and ended up collecting these Inovit 15s with Yoko AD08s
Needless to say, they were not very well received on here! Not my favourite wheels either but they were a bargain and almost new.
Next step was to start stripping out the rear interior etc:
And even though the steering wheel was in good condition, it had to go!
Next up was the seats. Unfortunately I'm trying to do this on the cheap so I bought some OMP TRS seats. One of the cheapest out there but still cost nearly £500 with the subframes & side mounts etc:
Suspension was next. Got these SPAX RSX second hand from Stu on here:
Fit the rears and had terrible trouble with the fronts. Had to give up in the end and took them to a garage. Even they had a nightmare. I picked it up from them on the day of its first track outing at Brands Hatch:
The car was great, but the brakes were shocking. I mean really pants.
To rectify this I removed the fog lights for a bit of cooling and I also bought some HEL braided lines and replaced the fluid.
Then I had to do something about the wheels. A bargain set of OZ superleggeras came up. I had to have them:
I had these refurbed and powercoated gloss black. Then I went off to my first track day at Snetterton:
Again the brakes were shocking. Like really bad. Came off the track a couple of times. Had to brake super early in the end so it took some enjoyment out of the day.
Despite having nearly new pads I just had to change them. I got a super bargain on here with some Brembo HC discs and Ferrodo DC2500 pads.
Got them changed over and some Motul RBF600 fluid
This helped but it was only when I had my MOT I found out the brake imbalance was 45%!
One of the sliders was totally seized so I bought a second hand caliper, painted it red to match the other side. Fitted this when swapping the brake fluid and then finally I had brakes that worked properly!
After not having a clio for about 3 years I had the opportunity to get a car just for fun and a few track days. I've owned two 172's before:
and
So this time it had to be a PH1.
I spent ages looking for a decent one but in the end I got fed up of waiting and bought a fairly standard one with 114k miles!
On the drive home I found out the wheels were tat. Lots of vibration. I went to get them balanced and two of them were buckled.
So annoying as I wanted to keep the F1's
First job was to remove that knackered rear wiper, and I also changed the rear lights to PH2 as I prefer them:
I had to get the wheels sorted pretty quick as I found I also had a slow puncture. Searched about for deals and ended up collecting these Inovit 15s with Yoko AD08s
Needless to say, they were not very well received on here! Not my favourite wheels either but they were a bargain and almost new.
Next step was to start stripping out the rear interior etc:
And even though the steering wheel was in good condition, it had to go!
Next up was the seats. Unfortunately I'm trying to do this on the cheap so I bought some OMP TRS seats. One of the cheapest out there but still cost nearly £500 with the subframes & side mounts etc:
Suspension was next. Got these SPAX RSX second hand from Stu on here:
Fit the rears and had terrible trouble with the fronts. Had to give up in the end and took them to a garage. Even they had a nightmare. I picked it up from them on the day of its first track outing at Brands Hatch:
The car was great, but the brakes were shocking. I mean really pants.
To rectify this I removed the fog lights for a bit of cooling and I also bought some HEL braided lines and replaced the fluid.
Then I had to do something about the wheels. A bargain set of OZ superleggeras came up. I had to have them:
I had these refurbed and powercoated gloss black. Then I went off to my first track day at Snetterton:
Again the brakes were shocking. Like really bad. Came off the track a couple of times. Had to brake super early in the end so it took some enjoyment out of the day.
Despite having nearly new pads I just had to change them. I got a super bargain on here with some Brembo HC discs and Ferrodo DC2500 pads.
Got them changed over and some Motul RBF600 fluid
This helped but it was only when I had my MOT I found out the brake imbalance was 45%!
One of the sliders was totally seized so I bought a second hand caliper, painted it red to match the other side. Fitted this when swapping the brake fluid and then finally I had brakes that worked properly!
