L Triple 2 and the not a project project.

[iChris]

Right well seeing as i said i would, heres my new acquisition to the family.
Her name is Clio (so much thought went into that i swear!) and she once belonged to my late g/f and best friend before she lost her fight with cancer a few weeks back. I promised to keep and spoil it for as long as there is tarmac on the ground...and boy was i going to be tested on that!

Last week while doing the daily drive into town some kind chap left a rainbow of oil on a down hill s bend, now no amount of opposite lock and nail it could save the rather light arsed clio from doing a 180 and belting both offside wheels into a thankfully angled kerb and ending up in a field of sprouts.
Now, if a certain someone was around i would have no doubt been in the dog house for many years but yesterday i went bonkers and after 2 new rear disks, bearings, pads, full set of yokohama s drives (tried and tested on my cars before and i love em) and then a full lazer alignment to get rid of the 'adverse' effects of belting kerbs. £400 later and she drives better then ever!

However, in the post as we speak are camber bolts, a whileline arb and carbon fiber front splitter (to replace the one thats now in many many bits thanks to said kerb) are in the post.
The aim is to restore the bodywork (shopping dents galore) and enhance a little along the way with mostly hidden upgrades...have some pictures.



Spec wise:
30mm Eibach springs and shocks
Air filter
Custom exhaust cat back system
and more to come.

 

[Struggler]

not what i was expecting to read in a project thread, im sorry for your loss,

clio will hopefully put a smile on your face, theyre so much fun to drive with the arb/camber/proline set up!
get yourself to some track days if you can, then you can really give it a good thrashing!!

enjoy it and stay strong !!

 

[iChris]

It's okay, memories live on forever and the clio has given us plenty of them, before she went to a better place (im thinking the ascari race track, all inclusive and a selection of super cars!) i was instructed to do a track day and the ring so this year ill do one of them and next year ill do the other.
Driving its just fun, ive done 500 miles in it going to france n back a few times and every time its just fun, looking forward to getting the suspension set up to confidently hoon it about as im used to rwd, takes some learning.


Had a call from ktec about the arb, i'll have to wait a month because of the aussies but it will be worth it and i may have it mapped by then just to tide me over lol.

 

[iChris]

mber bolts and caliper rebuild kit have arrived, know what im doing today...

 

[Tez.]

It's living it's life the way she would have wanted good luck with it mate !

 

[Jamie_182]

sorry for your loss pal but nice to see you keeping the car in her memory.

look forward to seeing these changes.

 

[PP200t]

Sorry to hear your loss bud, least your following her wishes and driving the Clio, and looking after it.

 

[iChris]

Well this morning i stripped down the seized caliper with relative ease and found the problem, a rather dry covered in grit and dirt slider bar.

After a quick go over with wd40, wet n dry and white spirits it was itself and its carrier copper slipped like it was going out of fashion, new seals banged on and put back together.
Its quite nice to know that all 4 corners have the ability to stop me doing a nice 180 into a kerb now.
I was going to do the camber bolts but the weather was just to awesome so i took the liberty of filling up with shells finest and going for a hoon down the back roads of warwick, Money well spent on all the bits this week, tis like a go kart with a stereo, after 30 miles of arsing about and chasing an mx5 with 'lazy lights and a gash-tastic wilkinsons sword spec spoiler i cant wait to get the whiteline arb on!
She'd be proud, also a bit miffed that i never blew £800 quid in one go on her or wondered why i maoned about the price of shampoo then go and blow £15 on meguiars lol.
Also i love the colour, going to clay and 3 step in sometime next week, needs to go deeper!

 

[Tez.]

Make it the best for her !!!!!

 

[iChris]

Oh im going to, Sold one of my bikes to fund the trip to the ring and all the bits im doing.

 

[andywa]

Sorry for your loss mate. It's nice to see you going all out with the Clio. Plans sound superb.

 

[Duffman_172]

Sorry to hear about your girlfriend mate, lost my gran to cancer so know how much it can hurt, she did not leave me a Renaultsport Clio though unfortunately lol. Keep up all the good work mate, look forward to seeing how it progresses :approve:

 

[iChris]

Cheers for the support, does help when you have a huge forum backing ya!
She left me the savage little clio as no one appreciated it more then me and i did most of the mechanical work its ever needed.. collapsed springs, blown rear shock, rusty exhaust, servicing ect.. and welcomed it into my family of motors that at the time consisted of a 500bhp rx7, golf gti, 2 motorbikes and a mini moto lol.

So... Progress looks like this today.

Purchased this nice silenced decat from Matt350 who lives sort of round lots of nice twisty roads and corners from me
What a bugger it is! Everything came out fine, most of it went back in fine after a clean up and coating in copper slip, apart from the manifold to decat bolts, thats a two man job so ill deal with that tomorrow.
Something i did notice when perusing the ending bay looking for fallen washers was an Ecotek valve! That would explain the odd tinkly rattle when the loud pedals being given a rest. Best to loose it or just turn it off? No doubt it will be leaning the poor thing out, ive been under the bonnet many times and never notice this tucked up under the coil pack.

 

[Owen]

Sorry for your loss mate, hope the car will keep the memories of the good times going.

Plans sound good mate, think I need to look into a RARB at some point.

 

[iChris]

think I need to look into a RARB at some point.

Best get the order in fast, orders are staking up for them to the point theres almost a month wait.

 

[iChris]

Carbon fiber splitter has just arrived, needs a bit of repair on the backing for strength but nothing a fiberglass repair cant fix, not sure if i should satin black it for clear coat and polish it up.

 

[dezmondo]

Best get the order in fast, orders are staking up for them to the point theres almost a month wait.

Yeah ordered mine in early December and not got it yet!!

Nice to see you are keeping the memory alive mate, best of luck with everything.

Oh and lose the ecotek crap asap!

 

[welshname]

Sounds like you have some good plans for this. Really sorry for your loss too!

Any pics of the rest of the car fleet?

 

[iChris]

This Silenced decat got installed along with new seals.

Front splitter repaired and hurled on and the engine bay given a quick once over with the wd and a rag.

Went out for a test drive and used this pedal quite a bit, not sure if its just the placebo effect but shes smoother, and still as quiet as before until you give it the full ken block. Its quite enjoyable.

Got lost somewhere in the deepest darkest lands of warwick/hatton/hasleys knob so i took a picture.

 

[iChris]

Theres an arb shaped package waiting to be fitted tomorrow

 

[seltking]

sorry for the loss mate lost somebody close to me with cancer, car looks realy nice mate think its nice you doing it in memory of the g/f could be a nice touch getting a metal plac made up for it. plans sound realy good aswell.

 

[iChris]

Cheers, its not a nice feeling but she'd only kick my ass if i went all emo.
I was thinking of doing that actually and mount it on that bit of trim next to the dash light fader thingy but i duno what to put on there other then a reminder to myself not to break it again.

 

[theduck]

Massive respect. Don't do too much to it, keep it simple and preserved!

 

[iChris]

Im only going as far as i am now with it in terms of throwing toys on it and getting all the running gear perfect, next up will be a new air filter to replace the rusty halfarks thing and spray the cf splitter satin black to look oem.
Most if not all ive done extra wise is the silenced cat and arb, the rest were just bits that had failed, about to fail, broken or in the case of rear tires... not up to my standards.
I've spend thousands on cars before and felt like i was hurling money in the fire, ive spent 700£ and every penny made it better.
Once the good weather is here to stay its de dent and pay some nice chappy to do a full paint reso/detail from top to bottom and a trip to the ring time.

 

[James V]

What a great way to remember your girlfriend by, so sorry to hear of how the project came about, I'd be in pieces if I lost my wife (we were best mates for a good few years before we got together) but at least you're getting on with life rather than drowning your sorrows and looking at the bottom of a bottle.

Your strength is an inspiration to us all Chris, keep it up, she's going to be so proud of you.

 

[dezmondo]

Theres an arb shaped package waiting to be fitted tomorrow

My ARB shaped parcel arrived Wed, might chuck it on this PM. Exciting isn't it? You got it fitted yet?

 

[iChris]

Well i do seem to go through jd more and i do get the odd downer.
Anyway, progress update on the arb, rear offside shock bolt is in need of a tap, seems that when i undid it the exposed section dragging in a load of crap and as i was doing it up started to chew the threads.
Mate of mines on his way with a tap n die kit to fit that in an hour, until then im going to play forza until the stress levels drop and it stops raining,
typical British weather, wanna work on the car, it rains, you need to be stuck in a meeting all day, epic sunshine outside.

And yes it was exciting right up intill "hmm bolts tight, bolts not moving...FUUUUUUUU!!!"

 

[iChris]

Such a difference this little bar makes, so much more confident ground the corners now.

 

[iChris]

Did a nice 50 miles with this on today, why renaultsport never felt the need to have this as an oem part i dunno, the car feels so much better when when not hooning it, as it rained today normally roundabouts are a tad sketchy with the hoon mode engaged but with this is planted and solid to the point that i got tire squeal in the wet!
I have it set at its hardest at the moment and it seems to suit everyday driving happily, now im looking at getting some track time to see what all the upgrades and freshen up has done.

 

[iChris]

Well 1000 miles later and the EML has come on, turns out its the decat triggering it so i've ordered a spacer to tide me over until the remap.
One other thing ive noticed is there's a tiny amount of oil sitting on top of the rocker cover, i'd assume it was from the last service but as i did that and i brake cleaned it all down something is leaking/breathing oil from above the rocker?!

 

[iChris]

so, little update, 3000 miles later (i get around a bit) and its still going good, love it so much i hopped on the group buy and got the uprated mounts, nabbed an rs tuner box and decided to start up a carbon fiber skinning hobby, might even go so far as taking orders once i perfect my techniques.
Going to re skin the front splitter, as well as fog covers and an engine cover. tempted to get a roll cage and skin that lol.
There will be a new addition to the garage as well as im off to tiverton to pick up a tvr chimera.

 

[The Dominator]

Sorry for your loss, But alot of respect for what you are doing mate

 

[iChris]

quick update between easter eggs.
My rs tuner box has arrived, will crack on with that soon, i've started working on carbon skinning random bits and getting good results, somehow lost half the passenger side inner arch on the m25 last week, scared the crap out of me.
Just the many trolly dents and then a full inside and out clean and valet for summer and then its going to some trackday to make my fathers tvr look silly.