RuskiWeldFab
ClioSport Club Member
Clio 172, RS4 B7
Hello everyone!
I think it's time to start my own build tread.
Mainly to keep record of what has been done to the car and how I butcher it up in the only way I know how and perhaps to get advice and pointers from fellow members!
Little history,
Russian born, living in the uk for the past 20years. By day I am commercial product photographer and by night self convinced racecar driver ha ha.. aren't we all lol. Only joking! I've been racing my Daily for a few years now. Done 20+ track days so still a newbie! Lots to learn!
I came to realisation that as Awsome as my car is on the track!!! It's way to expensive to run and way to heavy!!
So for about 6 months I been planting a ceed to my wife that I want a proper race car dedicated machine I can trash around the track and spend our family money on lol. She seemed to be ok with it after I said it's a way of saving money on petrol and brake pads lol! What a lie that was!
So in March 2017 after searching for a few months, for car to buy I came across this "gem"
Was at 99p auction with a no reserve a non runner, finest pile of French poop! I though it was perfect! 83k miles, zillion owners, clutch pedal on the floor, non running, mouldy interior, questionable service history, no MOT Or Tax. etc.. so after few days it turned out I owned this skip on wheel for just over £400.! [emoji95] result!
Got it delivered home and to my surprise! Very straight body and almost no rust!!! Some surface rust underneath but that's to be expected! So after a quick wash, it was quite clear that I got a decent shell of a car IF I can get it to run lol!
Changed oil and coolant, checked spark plugs, new battery, few blows with a hammer on the starter motor and guess what!!! It's alive!
So now that I have a running motor, I knew that first thing to do would be sell/trash all interior and other bits Race cars don't need! Get it ready to be caged!
Compared to my Audi this car is a breeze to disassemble! No headen fixings or special tools needed! Literally 13mm spanner, screwdriver and a large hammer haha! Very satisfying!
So interior was out and after a proper chemical clean was in very very good condition!
sold for around £200. £30 for spare wheel and £20 for the tools.. so now the car cost me less than £200 a runner with little to no rust, which ever way you look at it a bargain I think!
Next step was to get rid of the sound deadening.
I went with dry ice method! And Naptha for the residue clean up.
Dry ice was easy! Spread, wait, knock with hammer and pick up the bits! Unsurprisingly weights a lot!
Cleaning up the residue was a bit of a pain! Partly because naptha is so freaking volatile so even with a carbon mask it was giving me a headache! Even tho this was done outside with all doors open.
Now that the car was clean ish.. was time to remove some bits from the engine including drive shafts to be rebuilt. Inlet manifold and throttle body I sent away to be port matched and polished/painted.
Air con was removed, as well as complete heater matrix.
So now the car was ready to be caged!
Woohoo because race car! Defo didn't want bolt in jobies! So decided to go with custom cages clubman 6point and add a few extra bit for extra protection and cool kid points Haha! Decided to take to JCWELDFAB in Wellingborough. They did my exhaust on my rs4 and are really really good when it comes to fabricating and the official installers for custom cages.
Now was time to decide what I wanted to do with a car.. hmm. I knew that after a while I would want to enter some kind of competition racing so wanted my mods to be future proof. So gave Ktec a call and ordered most major components from them. Like suspension, brakes, exhaust, few engine components, group N clutch, lightweight fly wheel, Steering wheel, Oil cooler etc. Suspension wise decided to go for their 750 club Spax suspension set up with solid top mounts and black line Polybushes. Brakes decide to keep standard but rebuilt calipers with height carbon discs and CL6 pads, steel lines, rbf660 fluid etc..
Also ordered 182 manifold and wrapped it up in heat-shield wrap.
Got pure motor sport shifter, rear axle strengthening kit, air con delete kit and plates for the front suspension arms..
Xmas came early! But still no car
So decided to do a bit of welding. Unfortunately made a noob mistake and got 1.4 rear axle with a smaller antiroll bar in the Center. But not to worried as I can as PMS antiroll bar if it's too soft.
Now we are in May 2017.
Decided not spend any more on the car before I actually get it back fully caged!
So I started thinking where am I going to build and keep my race car? Hmm.. old garage was basically shed for accumulation of junk and even if it was clear was too small for a race car garage (insert smiley face here lol)
So the idea was to extend the existing garage and widen the new section to use as workshop and remove front wall to make open plan car port, make new roof and job is done!! How hard can it be?
Well surprisingly a lot of work lol, but nothing too difficult again if you own a big hammer and a box of nails and have access to inter webs for occasional advice on building and materials.
Luckily I have a few friends who were willing to help out with a few jobs here and there like brick laying, digging and roofing, basically anything that involves hard labour.. I mean lifting heavy things lol
Below is a quick 101 in to how to build a glorified man cave.
1. Dig foundations
2. Lay concreat
3. Lay the bricks
4. Put down steel lintel
5. Surgically remove old roof while building new one so not to move to much junk out of an existing garage. Because to lazy haha.
6. Modify doors
7. Electrical first fix
8.Put down the floor tiles. Went with cheapest most durable option. Pressed concreat tiles. Basically what councils use for paving. Extremely hard wearing, decent looking and cheapppp!
9. Weld a work bench
10. Pretend you are Jackson Pollock and paint the walls.
11. Clad the outside walls with cedar cladding.
12. Second fix electrics
13. Test figment on your other car sit back, open a beer and contemplate on own goal achievements.
Now we are in August 2017
Decided I need a compressor since I am going fibreglass panels and most of the car will need painting as well as inside and the cage!
+added benefit of air tools
50L twin piston 3hp 14.1cfh burisch compressor fits very snug between the Bench and the wall.
Also added a shop line with air filter/oiler for tools.
Got back the Clio! All caged and looking eager he he.
So first thing first was to add a few bits to the roll cage. B pillar gussets, door bar gussets and 2 extra bars. One behind the seat and one underneath the dash.
Remove doors, glass and boot. Ready for figment of fiberglass panels before the thing can be prepped and pained!!!
So that's about it for now
Next updates will be a little smaller ha ha this was 6 months worth of stuff!
I think it's time to start my own build tread.
Mainly to keep record of what has been done to the car and how I butcher it up in the only way I know how and perhaps to get advice and pointers from fellow members!
Little history,
Russian born, living in the uk for the past 20years. By day I am commercial product photographer and by night self convinced racecar driver ha ha.. aren't we all lol. Only joking! I've been racing my Daily for a few years now. Done 20+ track days so still a newbie! Lots to learn!
I came to realisation that as Awsome as my car is on the track!!! It's way to expensive to run and way to heavy!!
So for about 6 months I been planting a ceed to my wife that I want a proper race car dedicated machine I can trash around the track and spend our family money on lol. She seemed to be ok with it after I said it's a way of saving money on petrol and brake pads lol! What a lie that was!
So in March 2017 after searching for a few months, for car to buy I came across this "gem"
Was at 99p auction with a no reserve a non runner, finest pile of French poop! I though it was perfect! 83k miles, zillion owners, clutch pedal on the floor, non running, mouldy interior, questionable service history, no MOT Or Tax. etc.. so after few days it turned out I owned this skip on wheel for just over £400.! [emoji95] result!
Got it delivered home and to my surprise! Very straight body and almost no rust!!! Some surface rust underneath but that's to be expected! So after a quick wash, it was quite clear that I got a decent shell of a car IF I can get it to run lol!
Changed oil and coolant, checked spark plugs, new battery, few blows with a hammer on the starter motor and guess what!!! It's alive!
So now that I have a running motor, I knew that first thing to do would be sell/trash all interior and other bits Race cars don't need! Get it ready to be caged!
Compared to my Audi this car is a breeze to disassemble! No headen fixings or special tools needed! Literally 13mm spanner, screwdriver and a large hammer haha! Very satisfying!
So interior was out and after a proper chemical clean was in very very good condition!
Next step was to get rid of the sound deadening.
I went with dry ice method! And Naptha for the residue clean up.
Dry ice was easy! Spread, wait, knock with hammer and pick up the bits! Unsurprisingly weights a lot!
Cleaning up the residue was a bit of a pain! Partly because naptha is so freaking volatile so even with a carbon mask it was giving me a headache! Even tho this was done outside with all doors open.
Now that the car was clean ish.. was time to remove some bits from the engine including drive shafts to be rebuilt. Inlet manifold and throttle body I sent away to be port matched and polished/painted.
Air con was removed, as well as complete heater matrix.
So now the car was ready to be caged!
Woohoo because race car! Defo didn't want bolt in jobies! So decided to go with custom cages clubman 6point and add a few extra bit for extra protection and cool kid points Haha! Decided to take to JCWELDFAB in Wellingborough. They did my exhaust on my rs4 and are really really good when it comes to fabricating and the official installers for custom cages.
Now was time to decide what I wanted to do with a car.. hmm. I knew that after a while I would want to enter some kind of competition racing so wanted my mods to be future proof. So gave Ktec a call and ordered most major components from them. Like suspension, brakes, exhaust, few engine components, group N clutch, lightweight fly wheel, Steering wheel, Oil cooler etc. Suspension wise decided to go for their 750 club Spax suspension set up with solid top mounts and black line Polybushes. Brakes decide to keep standard but rebuilt calipers with height carbon discs and CL6 pads, steel lines, rbf660 fluid etc..
Also ordered 182 manifold and wrapped it up in heat-shield wrap.
Got pure motor sport shifter, rear axle strengthening kit, air con delete kit and plates for the front suspension arms..
Xmas came early! But still no car
So decided to do a bit of welding. Unfortunately made a noob mistake and got 1.4 rear axle with a smaller antiroll bar in the Center. But not to worried as I can as PMS antiroll bar if it's too soft.
Now we are in May 2017.
Decided not spend any more on the car before I actually get it back fully caged!
So I started thinking where am I going to build and keep my race car? Hmm.. old garage was basically shed for accumulation of junk and even if it was clear was too small for a race car garage (insert smiley face here lol)
So the idea was to extend the existing garage and widen the new section to use as workshop and remove front wall to make open plan car port, make new roof and job is done!! How hard can it be?
Well surprisingly a lot of work lol, but nothing too difficult again if you own a big hammer and a box of nails and have access to inter webs for occasional advice on building and materials.
Luckily I have a few friends who were willing to help out with a few jobs here and there like brick laying, digging and roofing, basically anything that involves hard labour.. I mean lifting heavy things lol
Below is a quick 101 in to how to build a glorified man cave.
1. Dig foundations
2. Lay concreat
3. Lay the bricks
4. Put down steel lintel
5. Surgically remove old roof while building new one so not to move to much junk out of an existing garage. Because to lazy haha.
6. Modify doors
7. Electrical first fix
8.Put down the floor tiles. Went with cheapest most durable option. Pressed concreat tiles. Basically what councils use for paving. Extremely hard wearing, decent looking and cheapppp!
9. Weld a work bench
10. Pretend you are Jackson Pollock and paint the walls.
11. Clad the outside walls with cedar cladding.
12. Second fix electrics
13. Test figment on your other car sit back, open a beer and contemplate on own goal achievements.
Now we are in August 2017
Decided I need a compressor since I am going fibreglass panels and most of the car will need painting as well as inside and the cage!
+added benefit of air tools
50L twin piston 3hp 14.1cfh burisch compressor fits very snug between the Bench and the wall.
Also added a shop line with air filter/oiler for tools.
Got back the Clio! All caged and looking eager he he.
So first thing first was to add a few bits to the roll cage. B pillar gussets, door bar gussets and 2 extra bars. One behind the seat and one underneath the dash.
Remove doors, glass and boot. Ready for figment of fiberglass panels before the thing can be prepped and pained!!!
So that's about it for now
Next updates will be a little smaller ha ha this was 6 months worth of stuff!