My cheap(ish) 172 Cup

[ex-Chinese Dave]

Two weeks ago I finally got an RS Clio. I picked up a 172 Cup for £3150. Everything checked out on the car before I bought it and I'm happy with my choice. There are a few jobs needed on it to bring it up to scratch but I think its decent. It has 125k on the clock but it's only done 1.5k in the last 10 years. I can't find any history of belts but its got a few receipts and the service book is stamped up to 2009. The last recorded date for belts is 5/2008 (!) but the last owner said he had a look at them and they don't look that old. Anyhow, it's booked in at Birchdown for a full service, belts and check at the start of next month.

The blower wasn't working but i've since fixed that. There are few silly bits missing but i've got them on order. The high level brake lense is cracked, the front jacking points need straightening, the hand brake needs adjusting and it'll want a steering wheel refurb eventually. There is definitely some play up front but i'll let the Birchdown lads have a look when it's up on ramps. Steering rack play was the only advisory on the last MOT and the tyres are ok, although they are Toyo's which I think makes it feel a little less sharp than when on the original spec tyres.

Bodywork wise it's a bit of hit and miss. There's obviously a few age related marks and the paintwork in general needs a proper polishing. The roof is terrible (see my other thread) but the rest looks ok from a few metres away. I'm tempted to buy a crap polisher for the roof but worried that it'll be too harsh to remove the marks. I'm not one for detailing so ill get the mechanical items done before I worry about paint. The wheels are Turinis but darker (maybe from a Trophy) but I bought the lighter centre caps to match the bullets. If manage to get the car back to original spec i'll have them returned to silver. A big plus for the body work is the lack of rust. I took the inside panels away today and had a look at the inner rear quarters. On the O/S I applied at bit of Rust Cure that I had. There doesn't seem to be any holes there but around the filler cap there is a little rust. It needs a good cleaning from underneath.

There is a tiny bit of paint bubble on the rear quarters above the bumper but this is on the edge/lip and it's very minor. Any idea what to do with it?

Overall the car is good. After the full service and any repairs it'll get a tune to make sure it's running as it should but it's returning 35mpg around town and about 48mpg on a run.

The value of these is going up so my idea is to keep it and bit by bit improve it but keep it standard. After 11 years I'm back in a Cup!

 

[Mr Underhill]

Well done. Glad to see you got sorted in the end.

 

[Poopensharten]

Good stuff. Those wheels need to be bright silver! Inner 3/4 don’t look too bad at all!

 

[MarkCup]

That looks like an original splitter?!

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

Yes, it's original but it has a little damage on the n/s.

 

[Matt Cup]

Looks like a good honest base to work on. Once the wheels are refurbed it’ll look a million times better.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

I thought I’d do an update on my Cup as I’ve done a bit to it. I’m trying to keep it as standard as possible.

Firstly, I’m never going to get this car mint bar a lottery win. I want it to run spot on, look decent and last me for the next 3 years or so. After that it’ll either be sold or be restored more depending on their values.

After it had a full service at Birchdown (belts etc and a new rear exhaust bracket) I did some smaller jobs myself such as fitting new thumb grips to the original steering wheel, fit a new blower motor and refitting the headlight motor brackets. I fitted an original stereo, new centre caps, rear strut cover and a non-original boot net.
I bought a decal for the gear knob and painted some lacquer over it and removed a ‘Cup’ badge that was fitted to the rear. I refitted the splash guards in the correct position and touched up some stone chips.

The car then went to EFI to be tuned and was running at 155bhp with a knackered knock sensor. Eventually it was tuned to 95ron and made 168.2bhp, which isn’t too shabby. It’s running at around 42mpg around town so it’s paying back and feels lovely to drive.

This week it was back to Birchdown for suspension work. They fitted a full set of Cup shocks, a set of secondhand Eibach Sportlines, new ARB bushes, new top mounts, new track rod and steering rack ends and a set of new ball joints. A new oil pressure switch and TDC sensor were fitted. The car went for MOT and passed with no advisories. If feels really tight to drive now the suspension has been refreshed.

It needs the wheels refurbing and changing to the original colour, the gearbox whines a little and the trust release bearing is squeaky (that’s a rebuild and clutch pack needed) and there’s a few marks on the body. The window surrounds are not the best but not too bad. The original splitter has a crack in it (I can repair this) and there’s a few marks on the front bumper and rear spoiler. The paint work needs a machine polish but it’ll never be perfect and the rear spoiler brake light lense has a crack in it. And it’s missing the ELF sticker lol. I could go on. Overall I’m happy with it. A work in progress.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

I should add that it’ll be getting a new set of Uniroyal Rainsport 5 at some point.

 

[Poopensharten]

I should add that it’ll be getting a new set of Uniroyal Rainsport 5 at some point.

Great tyres if a little quick wearing but for the money you can’t go wrong on them

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

A few pics from today. Yes, would look better with silver alloys.

 

[rosco454]

Looks like a very tidy but usable example and some good jobs being ticked off the to do list.

Mine had grey turinis when I bought it and having them done silver makes such a difference!

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

Here's an update on progress so far.

Well, the big one was a recon box being fitted. I bought a JC130 box from a 182 for £50 and this went to NorthloopCup for a rebuild and the modification for the speed sensor as it was being fitted to a 172 Cup. The box was collected and a week later Birchdown fitted the box, a new clutch pack and a new brass bush for the linkage. It feels lovely now it's loosened up. I bought a secondhand aerial base and a new antenna and they've been fitted. The radio works perfect now. The drivers electric window switch was taken apart and cleaned as it was sticking.

This week the car is one the drive under cover so I can do a few jobs. Today I fitted a new bonnet seal (the front one) as it was missing. I'm going to try and straighten the jacking points as they are bent and have pushed the skirts out a little. I bought a buffer and did a bit on the roof a while back. It did make it better so ill go again on that and try and do the whole car. To be honest, to get this car back to really good condition it wants a full blow over. Not sure that is worth it at the mo. I'm sure these will hold their price but it will be a while until they go the full 205 GTi. The splitter is off for repair and paint (its an OE part) and the front bumper is coming off to change the dodgy headlamp. It also has a crack in it as per the above pic. My drivers vent repair broke so that needs doing again and as per my post about water on the electrics I need to repair the fuse box. The little bit of bubble on the rear wings are from the bumper rubbing so i'll see what I can do to help that. The seats will be cleaned with the dry foam spray I asked about, and the cable on the drivers side will be fixed. I have a new outside temp sensor to fit and there is that weird squeaking noise that I need to find from underneath (I think it's from there!). Oh, and I still need to find out why only the bottom half of the heated rear window works! I have two new tailgate struts to fit as well.

I think all the engine mounts/dogbone want changing but I will let Birchdown do those when it's next in for service (May time).

There's so much to do. At the moment the car drives great, is good on fuel and looks good when clean. I plan on keeping it for at least another 2 years as it's fun to drive....and it;s a daily. I came from XR3i's and 205 GTi's so a Cup still feels like luxury. Kind of.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

So today it’s bumper off time to replace the headlight on the near side. I found that I could get to the broken fuse box and it’s been taken off for repair. I do hope that I’ve not done anything nasty to the wiring , though. I also noticed that the air intake pipe is not good but as it’s split it won’t be causing a restriction. I also noticed that my side repeaters are different on each side and both are loose. That’s another set of parts needed!
The front bumper has that small crack so maybe I can do something with that, too.

 

[Matt Cup]

Get some fabric loom tape on that split inlet.

I need to do mine too 🙊

 

[geoffn]

I had the same issue with the inlet hose and replaced it with some plastic braided hose.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

I’ve got nothing in to replace the air inlet pipe but I can get at it in the future.

Today I refit the repaired fuse box. I used a mixture of plastic bumper filler and also superglue with bicarbonate of soda. I was going to spray it black but time was an issue so any places that show the repair can be painted later. The lid fits well now but the catch is broken. I’ll try to sort that soon.

The new headlight went on and everything works as it should. My front bumper is not the best but I’ll sort that crack and touch it up. As in one of the photos you’ll see that a bracket is not straight and I had to use cable ties. It’s always this was with older cars. They’ve had knocks and bumps and dodgy repairs and now things are not perfect. I can see that the headlight is slightly out if position but it’s hardly noticeable. It’s just where the front corner of the bonnet meets the headlight you can see it’s closer on the n/s. The bonnet is also not perfectly aligned. This is why I’m not trying to restore this car as it’ll take all my time and money.

I’ve cleaned up all the bonnet release and I fitted a new external temperature sensor that’s in the mirror. The jacking points are as standard on an old Cup; bent at the front. The drivers side is ok as it’s not moved the side skirt too much but the other side was out. A bit of poking, bending and hammering has allowed me to put a screw in a hole that would have had a rivet in it and now the skirt is straight. Again, to get this area perfect would require heating, welding and new sideskirts which is just too much effort. Yeah, if values go to £15k I’ll get it done but for now it’s good enough.

I’ve got the struts to fit, clean the front seats, vac it out… the list goes on. Oh, and a full buff and polish.

 

[Brigsy]

The hot staples work great for plastic repairs if you want a strong repair on the bumper.

Pardon our interruption...

 

[Matt Cup]

The hot staples work great for plastic repairs if you want a strong repair on the bumper.

Pardon our interruption...

Didn’t realise these were that cheap! Well worth buying just in case 👍

 

[Brigsy]

Didn’t realise these were that cheap! Well worth buying just in case 👍

Can get them even cheaper if you sniff round mate. I think i paid £15 delivered for mine, its successfully repaired loads of bits. Add a bit of epoxy resin over the finished repair and pretty strong. Great for small repairs on bumpers etc, do it from inside so not seen. Just beware staple melts the plastic fast so can go through if not careful

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

The hot staples work great for plastic repairs if you want a strong repair on the bumper.

Pardon our interruption...

I did that but using my own method. I cut up some paper clips, got my longnose pliers out, held the clip over the gas hob until it glowed and then 'inserted' into the fuse box where a join was.

For the bumper i'll just use filler as it's a small crack but my splitter got a right beating so i'll do the same with the clips.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

So back at it today. You never get everything done as planned with older cars (I’ve had 205 GTi’s and even resprayed my XR3i at work during a bank holiday!) There’s just too much to do.

I’ve machine polished everything and once you start removing years of tar spots you notice just how much road rash is on a 21 year old car. I’ve done my best with it. I used a cutting compound, a medium one and them polished it with Super Resin stuff from Autoglym. I’m sure a detailer would do a better job than me but when there are so many tiny pieces of paint missing you can only go so far. The car would benefit from a full blow over to look mint. There may be a tiny bit of rust at the back (not the usual arch rust) and a few bits of filler in the bumpers but it would be straight forward to paint. Until I have a garage I’m not considering it.

I’ve got a few hours tomorrow to do a few more bits.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

Final day (for now). Finished the buffing and polishing and I can see why detailers earn their pay. Not enjoyable at all on an old car. There’s a few minor jobs to do (fit new boot struts, repair the air inlet pipe, put dielectric grease on the electric plug that caused an issue, fit new side indicators) bit I’m waiting for the parts to arrive.
Having the car on the axle stands gave me a chance to try and find the strange squeak that’s been apparent since I had the suspension renewed. I found nothing loose or wobbly so had given up. When I was about to close the bonnet I thought I’d give the top mounts a squirt of WD as doing this stopped the clunk you can sometimes get on full lock when parking. A little bit more WD has stopped the squeak so I can only presume that the new parts were causing some rubber or plastic to rub on the turrets. Thank F for that !!!

Overall I’m happy with the car. It runs great and I’m now on top of everything.