Mondial 172 Cup OEM+ / Rolling Resto

[MAXRUNDOWN]

New dephaser pulley fitted today, timing belt re-fitted and the odd clicking noise is gone, thankfully!

Also got the cam pulley cover, lower inlet manifold, alt/pas brackets and new engine sensors fitted.

Annoyingly I've found that the alternator pivot bolt bracket it cracked

So that's going to have to come off to get welded up, unless I can find a good one that's not cracked. Or just bite the bullet and buy a billet one.

 

[Polynesian]

Glad you solved the dephaser issue, s**t when it’s a new part! Hope you don’t get slowed down too much with the cracked bracket.

 

[MAXRUNDOWN]

Back home again and slow progress is better than no progress.. picked up the repaired bracket this morning.

I've got a couple of weeks leave coming up so hopefully I'll be able to get the front subframe, bottom arms, hubs etc off and away for powder coating before the bad weather sets in

 

[MAXRUNDOWN]

Bit of a quiet weekend, spent most of Saturday giving the garage a deep clean and a proper tidy and doing the brakes on the Mrs car, got time to do a couple of batches of plating, ran out of demin water so I built up my front calipers with new pistons and seals.

Forecast decent weather this week so hopefully be able to get some work done outside 👌

 

[MAXRUNDOWN]

Bit more progress today, got the engine bay loom out, exhaust manifold and cat out, engine bay cleaned and the subframe, rack, hubs etc off

My back is in bits now, if I can move tomorrow I'll strip the subframe down in the garage, then sort out powder coating. Still feels like I've got a mountain to climb. I really want the engine in before xmas, hopefully I can get some more leave in and the weather is kind.

 

[Polynesian]

Good work! Looks so much better where you’ve cleaned it up. It’ll all be worthwhile.

 

[Yarp]

Looks epic so far to be fair.

Getting the subframe off as a 1 man job is no walk in the park either. I dropped mine with the hubs and disks still on and nearly killed myself when I tried to move it 🤣.

It’s not too bad once the rack, hubs and wishbones are off but I’m still not looking forward to trying to get it back on without it landing on my face

 

[npt]

Looks like it'll be nice once complete, only thing i would say is I'd avoid powder coating except the wheels, paint is far more durable with stone chips and the like, powder simply looks terrible and falls apart in a few years if the car is used in all weather's, I've learnt from my mistakes 😂 paint is by far the best for under carriage stuff 👍

 

[MAXRUNDOWN]

Looks like it'll be nice once complete, only thing i would say is I'd avoid powder coating except the wheels, paint is far more durable with stone chips and the like, powder simply looks terrible and falls apart in a few years if the car is used in all weather's, I've learnt from my mistakes 😂 paint is by far the best for under carriage stuff 👍

Thanks 👍, I'm surprised you've had a bad experience with powder coating, I've used the same place for mine for almost 20yrs and I've never had a part fail. I do agree you lose the fine detail in some parts with thick powder but going into winter it's too cold for me to spray 2k in the garage now.

 

[npt]

Powder coating just cant deal with stone chips, i used to use my cup all year, it was restored underneath and everything has held up well with it being waxoiled over the years, its all the powder coated items that now look in a sad state, rear axle was chipped to death within 18months after not to much miles, would never use it again on an everyday car

 

[npt]

Clio looks to be in a good shape to start with, is there any corrosion? Mine was good apart from a little under the rear axle mounts, nothing serious but guessing it would of got bad hadn't i seen to it then, was 10yrs ago now 😂 time to sell it i think ha

 

[MAXRUNDOWN]

Clio looks to be in a good shape to start with, is there any corrosion? Mine was good apart from a little under the rear axle mounts, nothing serious but guessing it would of got bad hadn't i seen to it then, was 10yrs ago now 😂 time to sell it i think ha

The shell is really solid, when I removed the rear 1/4 panel trims to look down into the back of the sills there's a little bit of corrosion so I'll do the rear sills before it's painted. Jacking points/axle mounts etc are all good, thankfully

 

[MAXRUNDOWN]

Dropped all of the parts I need powder coating off this morning, they reckon they should be able to turn them around in a week which is ideal.

Picked up some bits I'd had vapour blasted for plating on the way home, I'd had the guy blast the exhaust manifold too, as it looked a bit scruffy.

I Didn't want to leave it bare, so I've given it a few coats of VHT flameproof ceramic black, obviously it's not going to be as durable as Cerakote but it's also less than 1/10th of the price

I'm happy with how it's turned out, I'd considered wrapping it too but don't think I'll bother.

 

[Yarp]

That looks epic.

Who do you use for the blasting? I’ve got a few bits that could very much do with a proper clean

 

[MAXRUNDOWN]

That looks epic.

Who do you use for the blasting? I’ve got a few bits that could very much do with a proper clean

Durham vapourblast for vapour blasting and bead blasting small parts, Stella blast are doing the powder coating

 

[MAXRUNDOWN]

Had the call today that my parts are ready to collect from powder coating, so I'll go for them tomorrow.

In the meantime time I've been doing more bits of plating - ARB brackets, steering rack brackets etc.

Decided to give the rack a freshen up too, plated the pipes, stripped the paint off the rack and gave it a few coats of gloss black. Looks loads better now.

Tackled the wiring loom too.. other than being filthy, someone had previously replaced the crank sensor plug, but just used uninsulated crimps and some electrical tape to splice it in, which is obviously unsatisfactory. That was undone and re done with some adhesive lined solder sleeves.

The branch of the loom that comes along the front of the block with the alternator power cable, PAS sensor, oil pressure sensor and oil level sensor was in a bad way, corroded wires, crumbling insulation etc, so I've cut that right back to good wire, depinned the plugs and spliced in new wire with solder sleeves then new pins and re attached the plugs. Laid it out along the front of the motor, just needs some new conduit now.

Id like to have the subframe built up and fitted next week, if not the engine back in too

 

[Yarp]

Cracking that is.

I’m too scared to even look at my loom 🤣