Project: Clio 182 RB

Eddie. · May 6, 2012

Ricardos said:
Did you fit a genuine Renault stat? Grill looks spot on

Wasn't genuine no? From GSF Car Parts?

Ricardos · May 6, 2012

That'll be why it didn't fit properly, new stat from Renault is about £13. Pretty sure there's a rubber seal that comes with it too. I bought 1 from Renault as well as a coolant temp sensor but havent got round to fitting the thermostat yet

Eddie. · May 6, 2012

Ricardos said:
That'll be why it didn't fit properly, new stat from Renault is about £13. Pretty sure there's a rubber seal that comes with it too. I bought 1 from Renault as well as a coolant temp sensor but havent got round to fitting the thermostat yet

The one I bout was £13 and it included a rubber seal, so it's probably just a tight fit, I'll keep my eye on it for now, need to take a bit of coolant out later anyway!

Ricardos · May 6, 2012

I've always bought genuine service items, just the way I am

Cain · May 6, 2012

Some great photography, Clio is looking very nice. I debated getting a blue one but ended up landing on orange. It had to be one of the two slightly larey colours though

Eddie. · May 6, 2012

Bought a little something off Matthew off here earlier this evening:

DSC09990 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

Frankly, I can't wait to apply it and top up the Glasur that is already on the car.

I did toy with a nice sealant, but to me, nothing could compare with the feel of applying a top wax.

Eddie. · May 19, 2012

Gave the car a good detail today. Finishing with my new Glasur. Do love it so much, a dream to apply, although a little more grabby than the first time I applied, but my prep today was brief at best

Will get some decent photos when the sun comes out as its cloudy and miserable at the moment.

We all love some beading shots though:

DSC00162 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

DSC00168 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

Jon.G · May 19, 2012

Did you use your drying towel to buff it off with?

Eddie. · May 19, 2012

Jon.G said:
Did you use your drying towel to buff it off with?

No. I used my green buffing cloth.

I was being a photo ****

aucky · May 19, 2012

^ Swissvax Microfluffy?

I want to live in mine

Jon.G · May 19, 2012

Chemical Guys Wooly Mammoth that one.

Eddie. · May 19, 2012

Yeah, what Jon said.

It's awesome! So thick, like drying my car with a polar bear.

Joe# · May 19, 2012

Agreed. I can dry the whole car without having to ring it out.

Lovely beading btw

Eddie. · May 19, 2012

XxHarDinGxX said:
Agreed. I can dry the whole car without having to ring it out.

Lovely beading btw

Yeah I pat dry mine, and it doesn't print, it absorbs everything and its just generally epic!

aterro · May 21, 2012

Looks nice!
Where did you get car shelter from?

Jon.G · May 21, 2012

He got it from eBay IIRC.

Eddie. · May 21, 2012

aterro said:
Looks nice!
Where did you get car shelter from?

Yeah I got it from eBay mate. I'd link you but I'm on my phone

Y7 ADW · May 23, 2012

What a lovely RB mate. So nice to see one standard, they are rare nowadays. Abit lower and it will be spot on, not that i'm bias or anything

Eddie. · May 23, 2012

Y7 ADW said:
What a lovely RB mate. So nice to see one standard, they are rare nowadays. Abit lower and it will be spot on, not that i'm bias or anything

Cheers mate, I know that's what kind of motivates me to keep it reasonably straight, the fact that not many of them are any more. Things like black grills and sportlines are acceptable though imo

welshname · May 23, 2012

I'm putting this in here, hope you don't mind but It looks epic on here considering it wasn't "properly" clean, could just be Joey's skillzzzz

Ed's RB by j0eyD, on Flickr

Eddie. · May 23, 2012

Good effort Rhys.

It's an epic photo, sums up last night perfectly, late evening sun, doughnuts, mates and cars.

Matthew · May 23, 2012

Great read this thread mate.

Eddie. · May 26, 2012

*** WARNING: PIKEY UPDATE ***

Right today I was supposed to be fitting a decat, but it didn't turn up, more on that by lunchtime tomorrow when my deadline for confirmation of postage is up.

So my car is jacked up and waiting to have something done on it, so I thought I would straighten the slightly wonky exhaust, I attempted this but the hangars have been put on by either king kong, or a hammer drill, so I will need a breaker bar and the correct Torx bit (I only had a screwdriver style one, so I couldn't get any leverage on it).

So with 2 jobs now none starters I thought the exhaust could do with a bit of a polish up.

And so begins the pikey

Manual labour in 27 degree heat isn't my thing, so I set about making a polishing pad for my drill, words will probably fail me here, so I will let the pictures do the talking:

DSC00195 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

DSC00197 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

DSC00199 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

DSC00201 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

DSC00204 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

DSC00207 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

DSC00208 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

Happy days, certainly cheaper than buying one

So anyway, with that working, I set about getting the exhausts sorted.

Before:

DSC00209 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

DSC00210 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

After:

DSC00224 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

Unfortunatly I ran out of time before I had to make a move, so didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but I will make another pad at work (on the lathe so it will be correctly balanced!) and give the whole system a clean up when I do the decat/straighten the system.

Eddie. · May 26, 2012

Also forgot to mention, I found a lot of fluid on the passenger side rear damper, suggesting that the unit is past its best.

I have had some "washing" at high speeds, so I knew something was wrong, not too fussed as they're not that much of an expensive fix (I will change both sides to new ones) although with a service now knocking on the door, it might be an expensive few weeks :dapprove:

guysy · May 26, 2012

Full credit for the DIY polisher lol, you definitely need a drill mop!

Post it up on detailing world pretending your a n00b using it on paint and ask if tcut is a good polish then post the thread

Results look good

littleand · May 26, 2012

love the idea mate, top job, the car has really come along from day 1 and look sweeeet! Panasonic drill too, good choice

just got a set myself, only the best!

Eddie. · Jun 5, 2012

Got my decat fitted the other day.

Was a pain in the arse to get the cat off, and the little section that fits into the centre section had to be heated up to get it out!

Anyway we got it done and it sounds tremendous, toxic warning light has appeared already though

Decat + no centre silencer ftw :evil:

Matthew · Jun 6, 2012

TheKid said:
Got my decat fitted the other day.

Was a pain in the arse to get the cat off, and the little section that fits into the centre section had to be heated up to get it out!

Anyway we got it done and it sounds tremendous, toxic warning light has appeared already though

Decat + no centre silencer ftw :evil:

give it a month, it will be off

(Your running a Yozza arent you?)

Eddie. · Jun 6, 2012

Matthew. said:
give it a month, it will be off (Your running a Yozza arent you?)

Nope, Janspeed.

Couldn't bear a Yozza!

Matthew · Jun 6, 2012

TheKid said:
Nope, Janspeed.

Couldn't bear a Yozza!

Ahhh right ha

I lasted about a month with the Yozza decat - unbearable.

Christopher · Jun 6, 2012

It did sound mint yesterday though...

Eddie. · Jun 6, 2012

Matthew. said:
I lasted about a month with the Yozza decat - unbearable.

Yeah they are so loud!

Christopher said:
It did sound mint yesterday though...

Aye, sounded good at the Lowry

Christopher shouting from his car said:
It's all gone a bit...

LOL!!

Eddie. · Jun 26, 2012

Right, had a bit of a busy few hours over the weekend.

The left rear damper had s**t out all its oil and was knackered, so much so that by the time I came to replace them, it was knocking it's head off

Anyway, because photos:

DSC00448 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

I also gave the arches a good scrub down. They have been waxoiled at some point, but whoever did them didn't do quite all the arches, so I will get onto that some point soon.

DSC00457 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

DSC00463 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

One other thing I noticed is that my left rear brake line and handbrake line are different colours to the right rear:

DSC00451 by Eddie the Kid, on Flickr

I know the handbrake was replaced last year by Renault (before I bought it), so is this all that is? Just want to be sure that it's nothing I need to be changing?...

Also some excellent photos came up from Bonxy, big thanks to him for that, hopefully he won't mind me putting them in here

YJ54 DUL by cadab, on Flickr

YJ54 DUL by cadab, on Flickr

YJ54 DUL by cadab, on Flickr

YJ54 DUL by cadab, on Flickr

Eddie. · Jul 1, 2012

Replaced the PAS pressure switch yesterday with a genuine Renault replacement after the last one split and dropped all it's PAS fluid

Seems to be all fixed now though

Eddie. · Aug 12, 2012

Yesterday myself and Jon set about a bit of house work prior to our trip around Europe.

The decat was removed and the cat was put back in. The noise was great, but on the motorway it was a little irritating. Hopefully this way will be more comfortable.

We also fixed the washer jets in the form of a new pump. I had been told it was a nightmare of a job but in all honesty it wasn't that bad. The wipers came off easy enough and the mechanism and washer bottle was pretty straightforward too. Anyway they work perfectly fine now and it's a nice luxury all of a sudden!

After all the work was done I dropped the car back down and went to move it back into it's space on our driveway and after a few moments of loud creaking, the spring broke. Now after some inspection it appears it may have been broken for a little while, although when exactly I don't know as the car has felt perfectly fine. Anyway this morning I replaced the spring for one off a 60k car (mine is on 64k so it makes sense) and we saw just how badly the spring was broken, I will let the pictures do the talking on this one: