Matty's One-Seven-Two PH2 - Track Car Build

[Mattty]

Painted the Clio interior matt black this last week. Masked off all of the wiring and gave everything a good sanding. Primered and then spray matt black all using rattle cans. Turned out pretty good, pictures don't do it great justice because the lighting in the garage isn't great and I wasn't able to move it out for the pictures.

Threw the seat and dash back in so that I had somewhere to sit whilst wiring it all back up. Random floor mats are in temporarily to avoid scratching the paint. You can also see the door cards that I was trial-fitting.

 

[Mattty]

Fair play I would say that's the best set up trailering it to the track
That's not a bad idea however I do like the side mounted number plate and the aero catch for the front bumper. I don't know about you but most jobs on that car involve taking the front bumper off. I have to take mine off to change the oil lol
Thank you for the help mate your cars coming along nicely :smile:

Definitely agree about having to take the bumper off every 2 minutes! I like the aerocatches in that picture too, though I guess he has them on for support too, seeing as how half of his slam panel has been cut out :laughing:

 

[Mattty]

Recently bought a gearstick from @cliosport-carl that was fitted with a Yanoo stiff shift 2.0 (I think) and got that fitted in. Was a proper paint in the arse because my Clio has a welded-in decat pipe so I couldn't remove the cat to get it out, meaning I had to undo the mount and bend the exhaust to the side. The gear linkage didn't seem to want to go in the brass bush but after a little bit of sanding it slid right in, feels like an amazing improvement over standard and loads less slack in the gearstick :smiley:. Also painted the plastic housing in the same matt black as the interior. New gearknob is on the way too.

Also got a polybushed twisted dog bone and got that fitted. My battery is currently wired up under the passenger seat but now I've decided I want it mounted near the back in the boot, so that's another job on the list.

 

[cliosport-carl]

I haven't had this one for so long I completely forgot about having to do that sorry but looks fantastic

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

 

[Jekyll]

Car looks great.

Dash is very smart. Love projects like this

 

[Ben NBR Cup]

Definitely agree about having to take the bumper off every 2 minutes! I like the aerocatches in that picture too, though I guess he has them on for support too, seeing as how half of his slam panel has been cut out :laughing:

Haha that's very true not much bumper left I think mines only held on with two bolts now and them silly clips.
Loving the paint work inside mate looks really smart

 

[Mattty]

I haven't had this one for so long I completely forgot about having to do that sorry but looks fantastic

Cheers!

Car looks great.

Dash is very smart. Love projects like this :smile:

Thanks a lot! Dash still need to be flocked and modified slightly for the cage. Still have a few ideas about changing it up a bit and making some sort of dash pod.

Haha that's very true not much bumper left I think mines only held on with two bolts now and them silly clips.
Loving the paint work inside mate looks really smart

Cheers! The only problem with matt black is that it shows up every tiny spec of dust! Having to get the compressor out every other day to keep it clean inside :smile: Think I'm in the same boat as you, minus the two bolts! All that's holding my bumper on is the two crappy plastic clips on the plastic slam panel and the clips at the side. Think I'm going to put some aerocatches on the the bumper just underneath the clips at either side.

 

[Ben NBR Cup]

Cheers!


Thanks a lot! Dash still need to be flocked and modified slightly for the cage. Still have a few ideas about changing it up a bit and making some sort of dash pod.


Cheers! The only problem with matt black is that it shows up every tiny spec of dust! Having to get the compressor out every other day to keep it clean inside :smile: Think I'm in the same boat as you, minus the two bolts! All that's holding my bumper on is the two crappy plastic clips on the plastic slam panel and the clips at the side. Think I'm going to put some aerocatches on the the bumper just underneath the clips at either side.

I can imagine mate but I guess any floor with just paint on will show something mine is a nightmare for dirt dirt. It just shows how good carpet is haha
Haha you need a portable compressor fixed in the car for cleaning it from place to place
I think I will do the same mate they look pretty good there. I wonder if the picture with the aero catches on the front they have them on the side as well ?

 

[Mattty]

I can imagine mate but I guess any floor with just paint on will show something mine is a nightmare for dirt dirt. It just shows how good carpet is haha
Haha you need a portable compressor fixed in the car for cleaning it from place to place
I think I will do the same mate they look pretty good there. I wonder if the picture with the aero catches on the front they have them on the side as well ?

I think I can see on that picture that he has those little elastic type fittings. like this:

 

[Ben NBR Cup]

I think I can see on that picture that he has those little elastic type fittings. like this:

View attachment 166496

Ow yes that would make sense much cheaper than aero catches at £50 a set
Make the car look a bit JDM haha

 

[dynodan]

I've used Quik-Latch on some previous projects, they're cheap and work a treat:
http://www.quik-latch.com
The only down-side is that they need to be seated 100% of they come un-done, but once you know how they feel when you're re-attaching the panel there's no issue. Used them on some endurance cars in the past and will always recommend them.

 

[Mattty]

I've used Quik-Latch on some previous projects, they're cheap and work a treat:
http://www.quik-latch.com
The only down-side is that they need to be seated 100% of they come un-done, but once you know how they feel when you're re-attaching the panel there's no issue. Used them on some endurance cars in the past and will always recommend them.

Will have a look into those, cheers! Can you buy them there on that website? Couldn't see a link.

 

[dynodan]

Best off Google searching, I usually get mine through some motorsport suppliers at Silverstone but I've seen them on eBay before

 

[dann2707]

Awesome stuff mate. Didn't think the gearstick housing would look that great sprayed but it looks fantastic.

 

[Mattty]

Simple 5 minute job; single wiper conversion! Was simply a case of removing both wipers and bolting the passenger side wiper onto the driver's side wiper motor. The stroke of the wiper is like it was made to be there, it sits stationary where it is in the picture and sweeps right to the bottom of the drivers side of the windscreen. Slightly sticks out over the side of the windscreen as can be seen in the first picture but the actual wiper blade only just touches it so not really an issue.

Showing the sweep of the wiper when my windscreen filled up with condensation.

 

[Mattty]

Few little jobs done over the weekend. Clio felt a little too French, so added on these JDM bumper quick releases :grinning:
@Ben NBR Cup

Added a little sticker to the engine cover just for the hell of it. Its a track car, not a show car, but that doesn't mean it can't look pretty :grin:

And gutted out the drivers side headlight for weight reduction and paint prep. Going to be painted black.

 

[jjfernandesly]

Great little project, Ill follow this one just small mods make all the difference.

 

[Mattty]

Great little project, Ill follow this one just small mods make all the difference.

Cheers. I like paying attention to the little details on a car that no one will really notice

 

[Mattty]

Finally finished my splitter build after taking my damn time on it. My first version was way too flimsy and only attached to the plastic bumper so needed something more substantial. Used my old one as a template and cut it out on some 9mm ply. Its coloured blue because I scavenged it from being scrapped at work, free stuff is the best kind of stuff :smile:

Bought these steel retaining straps from Screwfix as they were perfect for what I wanted, just cut them down to the length that I needed.

I attached the brackets to the splitter using these tee nuts. They're great because it means there are no bolts sticking out the bottom that could catch easily and rip the splitter off.

So spent all morning lining it up and putting packing underneath it to line it up. Carefully took the bumper off. Carefully place the brackets so it didn't move. Carefully marked and drilled the holes so they were right and mounted it all up, and........

Sh*t. It didnt line up correctly at all. It was about 20mm off to one side and about 10mm too high, so nothing fit right. Cue some cursing and unbolting everything and knocking out my teenuts and redrilling the holes and lowering the brackets and bolting everything back up. Woohoo, it all fits! Then painted blaccckkkkk.

And as I'm writing this I just realised that I need to put my splitter struts on too!

 

[Akay]

Looks awesome mate! What timber was it? Are you going to do anything with the motors on the single wiper conversion?

 

[Mattty]

Looks awesome mate! What timber was it? Are you going to do anything with the motors on the single wiper conversion?

Thanks! Just 9mm thick plywood sealed with many layers of paint. Im going to remove the passenger mechanism but only once I'm happy with the single wiper. Although I may remove it when I do the aircon delete whilst all the scuttle and stuff is off.

 

[Akay]

Ah so do you reckon you can just remove the other section of the motor? Ive pondered but wondered if it would de-restrict the travel of the remaining wiper!

 

[Mattty]

Ah so do you reckon you can just remove the other section of the motor? Ive pondered but wondered if it would de-restrict the travel of the remaining wiper!

Now that I think about it I don't actually know how the wiper system works, never even looked into it. Im guessing there is only one motor and some kind of linkage to the pivot point on the other wiper?

 

[Mattty]

Ah so do you reckon you can just remove the other section of the motor? Ive pondered but wondered if it would de-restrict the travel of the remaining wiper!

Nevermind, just had a look and it seems that the wiper goes through the passenger side pivot point to get to the middle wiper, so cant remove any of the wiper assembly unfortunately. Oh well!

 

[jamier27]

Keep up the good work. Great little project that I am taking inspiration from

 

[Akay]

@MattyPerkins I reckon you could lose the drivers section of the wiper motor, it looks like its linked by the metal bar that runs between the two, I might have a look this weekend.

Not sure if you mentioned but what did you do with the YAW sensor near the handbrake? Im stripping my interior at the mo.

 

[Mattty]

@MattyPerkins I reckon you could lose the drivers section of the wiper motor, it looks like its linked by the metal bar that runs between the two, I might have a look this weekend.

Not sure if you mentioned but what did you do with the YAW sensor near the handbrake? Im stripping my interior at the mo.

The drivers section of the wiper linkage is what the passenger wiper blade is connected to though I think, so it needs to stay. The yaw sensor is just taken out.

 

[Akay]

No esp or abs issues?

 

[Mattty]

No esp or abs issues?

It was already removed when I bought the car. Traction control won't be used anyway but I haven't had any warning lights or anything on the dash. Honestly hadn't even thought about it up until you just mentioned it since it was never there. No issues so far though.

 

[Mattty]

Keep up the good work. Great little project that I am taking inspiration from

Thanks. Thats really awesome to hear 😌 Good luck with your build.

 

[Mattty]

Bought a PMS air con delete kit a few weeks ago and finally got around to fitting it. Saved a ton of weight and since I also had no heater in the car I saved a load of weight along removing all of the blower motor and such that is behind the bulkhead. Need to make some blanks to fit over the holes in the bulkhead now that everything is removed. The amount of weight that came from the aircon and heater really surprised me and I'm going to weigh it all up tomorrow.

Space behind the bulkhead with everything removed:

Upon removing the air con radiator I discovered that the entire bottom third of my radiator was non-existent! There were absolutely no fins left at all, so time for a new radiator.

Whilst I had the radiator removed, the front crash bar got a big chunk taken out to increase air flow behind the speed holes in the front bumper. Primed and then painted matt black.

Also deleted the heater rad from inside the car by cutting off the lower hose and bending it round to the top hose going into the thermostat. Not really sure if I'm happy about this set-up though as it put 2 very slight kinks in the hose, so may end up buying a U-bend and attaching that on.

 

[Mattty]

Been working on making a CAI for the passenger headlight over the last 6 months. Hasn't taken that long, just been working on it on and off with help from my mate. Its definitely over-the-top but it was a good little project and looks cooler than just a duct going through the headlight.

Started out by gutting the headlight and cutting out the general shape of the intake mouth with a dremel.

Then filled the headlight with expanding foam to create the general shape.

Then added on fibreglass, then sanded, filler, sanding, more filler, sanding, more filler, sanding, more filler, sanding, etc. Here's a picture of it all before painting properly. Black was just a guide coat and also sprayed the inside of the passenger headlight black so stone chips wouldnt show up as much.

The paint used: Plastic primer, filler primer, and matt black.

After painting. It is by no means perfect and there are a few small holes here and there in the intake but at the end of the day I figured that its a track car so doesn't need to be absolutely perfect.

And on the car, half the stuff of the bumper is missing; splitter, canards on one side, renault badge, so it all looks a little bit incomplete at the moment. Used a rock to push the bumper up because it bends down quite a bit, however the rock will not be there on track as the bumper will be held up by the splitter.

 

[R50 NJD]

Your mate helped??? helped

 

[numbers_]

Looks awesome!

 

[Mattty]

Not been much progress lately due to the cold and darkness every day when I get home from work. Bought a nylon gear knob and drilled out the thread and with a bit of persuasion in the form of a large mallet, it went on and wont be coming off any time soon.

Decided to move my battery further back behind the passenger seat as I didn't want to have to faff about moving the seat to get to the battery all the time. Whilst I was moving it I also decided to wire in a battery cut-off switch so I didn't drain the battery as often, and also put in a 150A megafuse.

I wanted to mount the cut-off switch within reach, but not on the dashboard. That left me with mounting it somewhere around the gearstick/handbrake, so I needed a mount for it. I started by making a template on cardboard, before transferring it onto some plastic.

Then moulded it into shape by putting it in a vice and melting the plastic with a heat gun. Crude but it works. (PS. Ignore the slight little crack that peeks out of the cut off switch it was absolutely definitely a feature and doesn't annoy me one little bit whatsoever)

Painted blackkkkk to match the interior.

 

[Mattty]

Then set about mounting it all in place. I moved the battery further back behind the seat. All cabled were cut to length, crimped, and heat-shrinked. I mounted the mega fuse close to the battery first.

The cable then went from the fuse to the cut-off switch mounting below the handbrake. You can see the notches I had to cut out for the cables.

And then from the cut-off I went through the bulkhead to my positive battery connection using the hole left by the old heater pipes. As you can see from the next image, the cable is just sat on the sheet metal, so I made a big rubber grommet-type thing.

And heres a picture of the full set-up. Need to buy some rubber-lined p-clips to make it look better. Excuse the terrible picture and the mess.

Also painted the rusty old handbrake bracket whilst I was at it.

 

[Richpowell]

Keep up the good work, i like the fact your doing all the neater finishing touches that often get left just because its "only" a track car.

Where did you get the battery cabling and fuse holder from if you dont mind me asking?

 

[Mattty]

Keep up the good work, i like the fact your doing all the neater finishing touches that often get left just because its "only" a track car.

Where did you get the battery cabling and fuse holder from if you dont mind me asking?

Thanks! Here's the links:
Battery cable
Megafuse/holder

 

[Inequality Street]

Taking so much inspiration from this thread. Great work!!

 

[stonejedi]

I Love what you have done to your car,keep it up:up:.I Have a few questions for you mate...how much cable did you purchase to relocate the battery as I am going to be trying to do it myself soon,any tips you can tell me would be very much appreciated.SJ.