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Not so epic 1.2 Project

Blackie

Blackie

So I've been lurking for a few weeks now and having recently bought my first Renault and first Clio I thought I'd get a wee project thread up.

Now don't go getting excited, this is a second car and was intended to be a run around. I have a large young family (9yr old and 5yr old boys and twin 3yr old girls) and as such I unfortunately can't afford a 1*2, prices here in Northern Ireland are crazy for them, also I can't justify the running an insurance costs for one at the moment.

So I bought a 2004 1.2 16v Dynamique in some sort of burnt orangey sort of colour. It seems to be a great wee car and has really started to change my ill-conceived impressions that all French cars are cr@p! lol I've owned a couple of Peugeot's, a Citroen and for those old enough to remember, a Talbot Samba, and these cars are where I got that idea of French cars!

So I've had my eyes opened by this wee car, loving driving it, seems a very competent wee car and seems to be well built, except for the sunroof lol.

There are a few wee niggles around the car that I will be sorting and my plans are really just to tidy the car up, lower it, possibly a mild I.C.E install and maybe add a few dress up parts to the car.

Oh and I just received my Clio Sport membership pack today too. :)
 

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Chris_Beer said:
Welcome pal

New front non-xenon type lights are cheap enough and they will make a massive difference to the front end. Of alternatively look at decent headlight restoration kit. the 3M one is good.
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Thanks for the welcome. I tried a Meguiars kit and it was useless! Lol.

I have a few headlights saved on my eBay watch list, I think I'd like to go for the black insert type as they look smarter in my opinion.
 
Samv96 said:
One of the best mods you can do to a non-sport is a 172 rear bumper in my opinion, totally changes the rear end. I'd also look at colour coding the mouldings and a 40/50mm drop and you've got yourself a smart little daily!
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Funny I've just been looking at a set of 1*2 door mouldings in Flame red, if I can get the price dropped or free postage I'd be buying them lol
 
Do all the AC non-sports have climate? Not sure I've seen that before, probably just never noticed.

Would benefit from the headlights being restored with one of the 3M or Meguiar's headlight restoration kits, would remove all the frosted discolouration and freshen the front end up.
 
I tried the Meguiars kit and it didn't make much of a difference, I then used some G3 which has made a good bit of difference but I got frightened lol! I'm scared of wrecking the headlights!

On another note, I had to replace the headunit as the factory one was deciding intermittently which cd if any it would play lol, so I treated the car to a Kenwood DAB unit :smile:

As for the climate control, it's a Dynamique model, not sure if that's standard spec in that range or if it was an optional extra chosen by the original buyer of the car?
 

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Here's a before and after shot of the headlights when using G3 after using the Meguiars kit. I simply used the same drill bit attachment from the Meg's kit.
 

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You do have to spend quite a bit of time on them with the restoration. Took about an hour for each light on mine, the before and after is in my project thread.
 
Yeah, the key for lights I have found is to be a bit bold. Start with something like 800 grit wet and dry, with plenty of water, and get them sanded right back, then use 1200 grit, and build up to 2000 grit, and then polish with the megs kit. Chrisfix on youtube does a great tutorial for headlights, and also an excellent one on scratch removal, and it's amazing how being a bit bold but also putting in the time pays off.
 
Not much of an update, a huge reason for me not spending any money on the car was a fear of what the MOT man might find when it was up for its test on Thursday past.

For the first time in my twenty plus years of driving I decided to simply drive the car into the test centre without checking the car over.

I should say that here in Northern Ireland our MOT's are different than what you guys on the mainland do. Here our test centres are simply that, test centres. If they fail the car, you take it away to your mechanic, or in my case home, and have it fixed. I understand you guys have garages/mechanics that are DVA approved testers, but who will then do the necessary repairs to ensure it passes.

Anyhow, my fears were misplaced as the car passed with no advisories and the tester actually commented on the good condition of the car!

So, soon I will start buying little modifications for her :)
 

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Congrats mate. Nothing better than the fear of the mot clearing when you get the thumbs up from the tester!! I think your mot over there is a little stricter than ours over here.
 
PP172 said:
Congrats mate. Nothing better than the fear of the mot clearing when you get the thumbs up from the tester!! I think your mot over there is a little stricter than ours over here.
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Well I know a few testers here and they say that yes, on the whole ours is stricter, but there are areas such as emissions where over your side of the Irish Channel it's stricter?
 
Lately I've removed and replaced the cigarette lighter with a USB charger with voltmeter and the postie has finally delivered my Connects2 harness
 

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And it's in, now where the information display was blank it shows "Renault", and more importantly I have my steering wheel buttons back! Lol
 

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I'm in a bit of a dilemma here at the moment. I didn't really want to do a 182 lookalike but recently a bumper and a "custom" back box has popped up for sale local to me and it's not crazy money so I'm tempted!

What should I do?
 

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I haven’t updated this in a while. There have been a few minor things done to the car since I lasted posted. I finally restored the headlights properly using a 3M kit
 

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