Project "Uh Oh" 172 Flame Red

[HemiHusky]

Hey everyone and welcome to the ramblings/progress of my 02 flame red clio 172! first time owning a fast clio myself I've had multiple friends own them but never myself. ownership got off to a roaring start where not even 24 hours into it a very strange failure happened, loud bang and loss of drive yet we still had engine braking, so i had it for 1 day then it was trucked off to beaniesport because it also needed belts, and a host of other things before i wanted to use it road side.

but on re emerging we have this! its got some history for sure, i was told by the previous owner that it had been engine swapped, this i believe is correct because of how many things are just wrong mechanically, the car itself lovely condition, the quality of the work thats been done to the mechanicals. questionable.

but the price was good and i can do mechanical things, i just dont like doing bodywork constantly having had a long spell of rusty volvos buying a not rusty clio as a weekend toy seemed a good plan.

How it arrived back from bedford, rather dirty and the exhaust fell off on the way home because the hanger is made of cable ties.
no seriously, but its fine because its got a safety cable, so its clearly not its first time falling off either, quality

front end is usual age related issues, headlights a bit fuzzy, grilles a bit faded, plates are stupid gell
glitter things that will be going in the bin asap, you know, normal yobbo car things.

The interior is actually in pretty good nick, the seats must have been replaced as i doubt they would have survived up to 144k this well
the floor mats are eh, but being a set of custom 172 mats showed someone cared for it once aswell as having some of the sticky plastics
replaced, and the colour matched dash trim pieces aswell as the cluster is a nice touch, ill likely do a bit better job in time but for now its
nice

the rear seats although dry are actually in very good nick, sadly the rear alcantara is peeling off the sorta rear trim pieces but that's fine, that finish is not part
of the eventual vision, you will see in due time.

Another touch to show that once this really was a well looked after clio, full alcantara headlining conversion, and with how the A pillar trims have faded
this must have been done a while ago, its a very neat job and none of it is peeling at all, its just had the sun bleach it but i may re-do the A pillars and then
it matches.

this is where it goes slightly downhill, from what i can gather, a 182 block swap with 172 head and its original box, but its a lot of missing shields, damaged wiring, stripped self tapper holes (power steering hose for example) the pvc anti spark device by the ecu that is free floating because the brackets busted, the cone filter that's too big so it is actively eating through the battery and the numerous oil leaks, but hey, it runs and drove back from Bedford so, great success.

Overall paintwork on the car is alright, the bumpers are scuffed to hell, but that's fixable, the only bad part is the spoiler and the 2 channel cover trims either side.
also dont worry the gold and fake carbon stubby will be going straight on the bin asap.

And the first big parts run in the clio to give you a vague idea of the future also you can just about see, the car comes with a BAF K brace thingy, a nice touch i suppose, if it wasnt covered in rust from i assume being stored in the ocean.

ill leave it there for now untill the next week!

 

[HemiHusky]

So continuing the updates on the clio, its been doing grand overall as my main daily has decided that having rear brakes that aren't stuck on, or a handbrake that does anything at all is for losers, between the two if you average out stuck on and non functional there's a working system there, sadly the mot man wouldn't buy that.

when i got the car when you put the headlights on the dash clock and climate lights just went completely dark, annoying when your auto lights make it so you cant see the cluster, thankfully this was just the rheostat but i got a new panel with cruise control and thankfully the car lit up set speed when its pressed, so it does recognise the switch, seeing how it has auto wipers and lights im guessing its a 03 model year? but registered late 02?

started the tidying up process for small things and touches of mine sadly then i started to discover some of the prior owners handywork, such things like the radiator being held in with cable ties because the rad mounting is shot and the brackets are long since gone, so those are on the way from fleabay.

the dipstick tube being broken meant he had shorted the dipstick, but not enough, you could feel it hitting the sump bottom and not once, not twice but 3 times this blew the dipstick out while driving and showered everything in oil, i ended up fixing this by cutting it shorter and then i had to make a seal as the dipstick is smaller than the block bore, so its 2 rubber through hole grommets carefully shaved down to make a tight seal.

after that it was mainly its first proper bath, some stickering up, some original bullets, side repeaters and correct antenna to get rid of the boy racer tat and the covers being finally re-instated.

a long old way yet to go but its starting to look better slowly, also its great fun and surprisingly good on fuel, even beating my S80 diesel on my run to work that is 90% motorway!


new panel fitted, thankfully it recognising cruise control means it will eventually get it i just need to find the squib now.

the car had lost its cig lighter so i found a random one in my drawers, thankfully someone has already sorta half de-sticky'd this car, the climate (thank god) switches and under radio have been done, sadly the top and passenger door pull is still sticky but i do plan to flock the dash so that shouldn't be a huge issue

gotta add the lucky dice, nearly all my cars when i was young had the huge fluffy dice for whatever reason that was my style, ive gone away from that but a small metal one is a nice touch.

closer look at the painted insets and mileage as it currently sits, its actually been a very good job, though i am tempted by some custom dial sets and re-polish the plastic cover, at that point i may re-paint the inserts to be true flame red pearl like the outside of the car.

door cards held up pretty good vs a lot i see with horrid arm rest damage

this is when i discovered that yep, that dipstick wont work

while swapping the grille is when i discovered this lovely bodge, cleaning off all the gunk but it needs a new rad as its pretty beaten, can also see the previous owners "ac delete" aka Ive removed the lines, and the condenser and that's it, good job, that'll be getting re-instated and a new pump

brand new grille and swapped over the old alternator shield as there was nothing wrong with it

new grille all fitted up, i do have the repro stickers for it i just need to stick them back on, during this job aswell i discovered the bonnet latch was not tight, at all, glad it was still working! so we had a few times of adjustment with the grille out of the car before it operates happy. just everything to do with the mechanicals/engine swap area of this car has been ruined.

engine bay after initial cleaning and re-fitted the injector shield

New battery + hold down clamp for it as that was also missing, im waiting on the original style battery terminal/cover to arrive but that order got put in late so wasnt here in time. though this horrible intake system will be going soon, i also want to re-do that earth cable a bit better as its quite home bodge job

went for 22" wiper blades to remove the small triangle that the sweep never got, also the old wipers were absolutely fubar

Fitted a nice 3d printed cupholder i got off ebay because those original holders are absolutely useless for me with my huge thermo mug!

Genuine renaultsport mats in and added a steel footrest so now all the pedal area matches nicely

got the cliosport and elf stickers back in the rear window

original radio controls re-fitted, I'm waiting on a connect 4 box to make these work again but its better than the connector hanging out randomly

need to make it official right?

original style white indicators re-fitted, i was tempted by orange as its a red car but, will see how it goes, i may change it but its better than the black Chinese "dynamic" ones, they weren't very dynamic being thrown at mach 10 into the bin

found the original tax disk holder in the cars service history, had never been fitted to the car so I think it should at least wear it now, I need to find a company that does replica tax disks to get one for the end of 03 made up, I'm sure I remember these existing years ago? I had one in my F reg Volvo but that company is no more it seems

made the exhaust fit a bit better, its quite the lash up, the original mount has gone soft naturally so that needs replacing, but there's nothing to hold it into the mount, he then tried to weld a nut to the stainless (unsuccessfully) then there was some random L shaped thing, 9 cable ties (not even kidding) a hole drilled through the boot with a hook hanging through to try give the other side some support (deleted all that) and a safety wire round the end with more cable ties because naturally, it falls off a lot, the safety cable for now stays but a Ktec or PMS is in the future

 

[HemiHusky]

Continuing photos, this is after its first proper wash, there's a lot of paint correction still to do but I'm waiting for summer to arrive for that, mainly on the front bumper area is quite bad, also after a rear wiper has been re-added, the exhaust fitted and the horrid gel plates removed it should look good from the back

interior also got a good going over, it looks a lot cleaner now

late night trip out to trade the real carbon (was news to me) bullets for some original ones, i much prefer the silver look on this car

original Renault antenna re-fitted

and finally the engine cover can go back on after I ordered the correct bolts because the ones I ordered wouldnt fit down the small recess

Large update i know and thanks for bearing with! hopefully much more performance for the Clio come summer time, and if/when I can get parts from Ktec.

 

[Poopensharten]

Bronze against flame red, not a combo that should go, but does! That looks cracking, good work buddy👏🏼

 

[HemiHusky]

Bronze against flame red, not a combo that should go, but does! That looks cracking, good work buddy👏🏼

that is one thing I'm trying to decide on eventually is what to do with the turinis, I've seen flame red cars with silver, they look good, equally I was thinking maybe trophy anthracite? Or a more pronounced bronze, either way for now as you said it looks well enough and its not something that my mind is saying needs absolutely fixing right now