Project: White-Clio, 172 Conversion + Respray.

[DeanJ]

Ok,

So I don't really know where to start as my photo collection is a huge jumbled mess. I've been meaning to start this project log for a while now but have delaying the inevitable.

I sure hope some people appreciate what I'm doing to the car. I've seen a few posts of Clio's with body kits and the response wasn't very warming. I am obviously doing the car for myself but it's always nice to know other people think you're car is nice.

To begin with I'll give a little insight in to the history behind the photos and give a bit of a story.

I started off purchasing a 1.2 Clio back when I was 18. I always wanted a Clio and was absolutely over the moon at my purchase. Being just 18 year's old I started making some pretty Gash modifications to say the least. I knew very little about cars except I enjoyed driving them:boring:.

I started off getting a ridiculous bean can exhaust, some alloys and getting the car lowered. I went on to get the dual optic headlights and various other mods. I wanted the whole car smoothed and took it to somebody I had been recommended. I got the car there and work commenced smoothing the doors in. Smoothing the tailgate and smoothing the side skirts in.

several weeks into it I realised the cowboys didn't have a clue what they were doing and was left with a rather gash exterior.

too embarrassed to drive the car and with no need it sat off the road for a year whilst I saved up my pennies for a re-spray. I'd changed my mind 100 times on what I wanted to do, what kit if any and where to go with the car.

I spent some time and got her MOT'd, taxed and ready to go to the body shop then I took some pictures before she went off to be sprayed Vauxhall Casablanca White.

got myself on Flee bay and did a search around for a new door/boot and the front bumper I wanted. Drove down to Tunbridge Wells and on to Maidenhead to pick up the gear.

After a gruelling 12 hour drive to Kent and back in the same day I checked the bumper was a fairly good fit.

now at this point in time I understand most of the forum members will be saying it's not my style and each to their own etc. I've seen the general consensus on the Mohave bumper but I like it and I think once its cut and fitted correctly it should look fairly nice. If not it can be replaced

we stuck the gear in my sitting room for a few days till we could transport it to the body shop heh. Glad I don't live with my parent's otherwise they would have gone ballistic.

So off the car went to a real body shop to commence work.

During the process of work commencing I heard my friend had written his Clio 172 off. I was very interested in this as I had always wanted to source a cheap write off for a conversion.

To cut a long story short one night when out in ASDA we passed each other and got talking. We agreed a price of £1500 and I let the body shop know I would finally be getting the 172 rear bumper I was searching for.

We got the car a few weeks after discussing it and I parted with an extra £1500 over budget. But I really wasn’t that fussed I had always wanted to do the conversion. I got on to Adrian Flux who were more than happy to insure me for only £1000 Per year with all mods declared .

So here’s the car the day it arrived.

There isn’t a massive amount of damage and yes I’ve heard this one before “would it not of been cheaper to repair it?” Well maybe but that wasn’t the point I had a Clio in the body shop which would only be lower in value than standard and therefore I would lose money.

So we commenced operation Strip.The.172.

 

[DeanJ]

With very limited hands on experience of mechanics I began stripping the engine bay carefully documenting where things were laid out for the conversion.

A week later we hired an engine crane out and finally removed the engine completely. We wrapped it up and covered it to protect it from rain and went back to our efforts on the 1.2

And so we return to the 1.2 in the body shop. Firstly the roof got sprayed.

 

[Ali]

That as far as you've got?

 

[Brett]

Looks good mate, not a fan of the bodykits though....

 

[DeanJ]

I decided on trying to get as much smoothed as possible. So I asked the sprayer to flush out the Renault badge on the bonnet.

Work then moved on to the side skirts and trying to blend them in as best as possible. It was imperative that the side skirts look as OEM as possible.

A week later I return to the body shop to be greeted by this

This is just the primer but I am absolutely astounded by the quality of the work, there are absolutely no visible join lines for the side skirts.

Next Jeff moved on to the doors and boot as I stipulated I would like them completely smoothed.

 

[DeanJ]

That as far as you've got?

Still Posting. Trying to batch convert the images as well to be a lower resolution.

 

[DeanJ]

Once that was all done my friend helped me crane the engine down to the body shop and I began stripping the 1.2 lump out of the car.

We loaded the inside of the car full of parts lol and left it for a night.

Next night after work we returned and got the timing belt done on the 172 lump. The previous owner had not taken care of the engine to say the least and the inner shaft on the driver’s side was split and the inner cir clips on the passenger side was out so we needed to reconnect the shafts.

I began working stripping out the interior ready to put the new loom in and began turning the car round ready for this evenings work.

Don’t let anyone tell u getting those damn sub frame bolts out are easy. In typical Renault style there is a nut and bolt, however the nut is welded with a _o_ sort of system, the nut has 2 metal lugs which clip to the chassis. The only problem is they can’t withstand the torque needed to loosen the bolt so the result is that the nut spins. This is nothing the blowtorch doesn’t sort out though.

Whilst those 2 got on removing the bolts I began refitting the new interior wiring harness.

We packed up for the night and put the old 1.2 engine in the corner.

We’ve since managed to get her firing and running. We need to replace the N/S shaft, get the clutch cable fitted and bleed the brake system as well as swap over the 172 rear axle.

At present though the painter is working on getting the car sprayed so I’ve got to wait on him to finish that before I can get the rest done. But I’ll try and get some more photos up soon.

Really hope you’ve enjoyed the read so far.

 

[DeanJ]

We couldn't get the car started to begin with. I was puzzled and really starting to wonder what was wrong, Aside the really lame battery charger I had and the dead battery once that issue was resolved she would just turn over without firing. I isolated it down to the grounding strap being broken. A quickfix applied I tried turning her over and got this result.

There was no exhaust attatched to the car at the time and the first time she did turn over, I literally nearly had a hard attack. I absolutely nearly s**t myself, the noise it makes with just the downpipe is UNREAL especially in an echoy garage.

 

[DeanJ]

As mentioned earlier I was 2 months into my car being resprayed when i got/heard about the 172. If i ploughed money into the silver 172 id spend money on that, plus money getting the 1.2 finished then the 1.2 would sell for next to nothing so I'd loose a lot.

The way i've done it, ive got everthing I want/need out of the donor car and made a shed load of money off selling the parts...Economically I've done it the best way possible imo.

 

[guysy]

Cool project.

Still. Would like to see the final result. Unsure weather it will look good or not.

 

[madmike1]

why did you smash the rear windows on the 172 btw?

 

[karlktm]

looking good.

are you puttin ph1 or 2 interior in it?

 

[stewart]

I have to say that i do like to see something a little bit different. Clearly alot of hard work gone in to this car. I will be keeping an eye on this thread, cant wait to see the final product.

 

[DeanJ]

Wait for the finished product to make you're mind up. I hate tat so hopefully you'll see where i'm going with it in the end.

looking good.

are you puttin ph1 or 2 interior in it?

Yep, Full interior from the donor car , with a bit of a twist that will appear later on.

why did you smash the rear windows on the 172 btw?

I didn't someone else thought it would be appropriate to climb over my rear fence, and have a bit of fun smashing things up on the car. not impressed but what can ya do. Atleast the windscreen hasn't been popped as I could do with it for the sensor.

Like others have said i would have done the 172 up and bollox to what you spent on the RN at least you could have sold it on as a Cat reg car or whatever the 172 is, that RN will be a mule to sell on.

Well it's either going to end up in a ditch somewhere or ran into the ground, I would never sell it on. Had it now for 4 years or so.

Cheers for the lovely comments guys. I'll be updating tomorrow wiht more progress and hopefully the base should be sprayed

 

[Ali]

knowsit, much better looking then a bodykitted 1.2 imo.

lol - Got to agree...

However good worksmanship!

 

[Daniel]

I say fair play to you mate. Ignore these cavemen on here. They'd rather you repair the 172, fit turinis and silver visions and go Baaaaaaaaaa as you follow the rest of the sheep.

I'll certainly be following the thread.

 

[W17GLE]

I've got full 172 engine and running gear and was considering doing the same thing. the only thing is that with ph1 172's coming in as low as £1500 now i don't know if its really worth the hassle.

i'll be watching this thread to see how it goes, you never know i may end up doing it after all

 

[Gally]

keep an eye on it mate but think your crazy!

 

[DeanJ]

I say fair play to you mate. Ignore these cavemen on here. They'd rather you repair the 172, fit turinis and silver visions and go Baaaaaaaaaa as you follow the rest of the sheep.

I'll certainly be following the thread.

Thank you very much mate .

I've got full 172 engine and running gear and was considering doing the same thing. the only thing is that with ph1 172's coming in as low as £1500 now i don't know if its really worth the hassle.

i'll be watching this thread to see how it goes, you never know i may end up doing it after all

I've got to be honest, it's a lot more work that I had first thought, but it's not hard it's just there's a lot of it. If you've got everything you need then I'd say go for it. I really really enjoyed doing this project and have had a lot of fun and gained a substantial amount of knowledge from this project.

People have said just repair the 172 but I think the knowledge I've gained from doing this will help me a lot in years to come. Instead of paying a lot for a garage to sort my car I'll do it myself so yeah I'd say go for it but I am bias .

If you need a hand doing it I'd be more than happy to help.

 

[DannyR]

why did you smash the rear windows on the 172 btw?

It looks like only the offside one is smashed, and that the nearside was removed succesfully, and guessing the offside one wasnt!

Good project though, not my style, but good! Bodyshop looks like they know what they doing!

 

[Andyman]

Easy for folk to say you should have done up the ph2 but to put it back up to a road worthy standard it would have cost a easy 500 + which then brings it well into the 2nd car market so doing the donor project makes more sense.

Its enjoyable too doing these kind of projects so top marks fella and loving the pics

 

[andrewuk]

fancy selling the ph2 steering wheel i need 1 for my 02 plate 172

 

[DeanJ]

fancy selling the ph2 steering wheel i need 1 for my 02 plate 172

yeh sure mate, it's got some melting but ill upload some pics if you want.

 

[ChrisPearson]

:s are you keeping the gash bumper etc or making it more OEM?

 

[DeanJ]

if you're talking about the front bumper then its gunna be a damn sight more OEM. it looks f**king gash at the moment I would agree. but just wait and see. that plus the side skirts are the only major visual diffrence to the outside.

 

[ChrisPearson]

ah ok so what have you bought the bumper for?

 

[DeanJ]

because its going to be cut to fit the lines of the car a lot better. its made for a mk2 ph2 but mines obv ph1 shape so I was hoping for a 1 off car just wait and see theres a lot thats being done that hasn't been posted up. Lilliput is a clue

 

[Chrisjk]

I've got full 172 engine and running gear and was considering doing the same thing. the only thing is that with ph1 172's coming in as low as £1500 now i don't know if its really worth the hassle.

i'll be watching this thread to see how it goes, you never know i may end up doing it after all

How about getting a new twingo and sticking it in that(if it fits)

 

[Djw Dave]

Cattytastic.

Why didnt you weld up the smoothed bits first? The catty will sink and crack fairly quickly Id imagine. And why did you only paint 1 side of the car at first? Its gonna be a b**ch to get the other side to match well.

 

[Alan]

Nice project..

 

[DeanJ]

Cattytastic.

Why didnt you weld up the smoothed bits first? The catty will sink and crack fairly quickly Id imagine. And why did you only paint 1 side of the car at first? Its gonna be a b**ch to get the other side to match well.

it's a bodyshop, every single part has had plates welded... the only photos showing shocking bodge is what the horrible old bodyshop done which has been replaced. the painting is just primer and buildup. so it's fine what hes doing hes levelling each side then hes gunna do the real spraying.

 

[Djw Dave]

Fair enough but I would've thought that having the whole car with a level layer of paint would be a good start! But Im no painter! Good luck with it bud

 

[Jay Payne]

Nice project, loads of hard work going in.

Fair play to you bud, the finished item may not be up to everyones taste but at least it will be how you want it and as you have said the knowlege you will build up is worth its weight.

 

[MarcoB]

This looks like a good project but i couldnt see half of the photos As for the people saying fix the 172 open your eyes...

 

[IB172]

Respect on the conversion mate, I doubt I could have done it myself,
Cant wait to see the finished article, looks ace so far

 

[DeanJ]

UPDATE:

Just a small one, thank you very much for the lovely comments. I said earlier there was a suprise and here is part of it. Pay day came yesterday so I went out and got some other bits and bobs for the car.

I had already sourced:

It's a Lilliput 619, 7" Touchscreen XGA monitor, takes VGA and 2 RCA imput's, I've had this for circa 1 year but the fun is just begging, I've taken the shell of the monitor to the bodyshop to be fabricated into the dash to look completely OEM.

This will be the basis for my Carputer which I've already purchased.

I've got a photo of me playing WoW on the monitor somewhere and some new photos to upload but I'll do that another day.

So heres the spec of the Carputer:

Via Epia M 1Ghz PC,
1GB Ram
250GB IDE HDD
M2 ATX Intellegent PSU

The PSU is specifically designed for car applications as PC's only run on 5V and 12V it wouldn't make sence to take the ~15V from the car transform it to 240V then back to 12V so the PSU is super efficient and controls the startup & shutdown of the computer automatically based on the voltage.



A long side that I was very worried about potential car park dents appearing on the car once shes finished, It's very easy to park up and some careless individual smacks my door...not good if its full of filled and not cheap to fix either.

I pondered for a while over a possible solution and decided I needed to source some camera's and determine there appropriate location.

Fleebay sold me some Infrared camera's, 2 bullethole ones and 2 bulky ones. Luckily the bullethole camera fits perfectly in the rear tailgate where the wiper used to be and covers that hole in the plastic nicely

One's to go in the front bumper and the other 2 are getting moulded into the mirrors. so they will be able to capture number plate + said incident.

Here's the ones for the mirrors.

and one of these for the bootlid;

Next problem..a DVR? Well a trip to maplin's today solved that one.

got myself one of these;

It takes a laptop hard drive and 4 BNC imput's with a BNC output, got myself some BNC to RCA converters so I could wire it up.

Just been having a play with it tonight and its absolutely brilliant, perfect for what I need and does motion detection.

I'll save the good stuff till after the car comes out of the bodyshop though.

more in store for you later.

Ciao.

 

[Maxdicapua]

wow thats gonna be a pretty spec'd up car in the end then!!!

 

[JON13S]

i'll be the first to admit bodykits and that aren't my thing. but fair play to you for being different and making your car you own.... people that say it will be hard to sell on don't have a clue.. you're building this car for yourself. it will never make financial sense because it doesn't have to it's worth whatever you're willing to spend on it. also with the current cliamte for selling cliosports a cat write off 172 will be worth feck all anyway,

so i'm going to go against the flow and say i think you have done the right thing as you will ultimately get what you want out of this car.. where as the rest off us will always moan we want more.....

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Quite interested to see the computer fitted, don't see where the cameras will get you though. Will also be interested to see how your Ph2 bumper fits around Ph1 lights but I'm sure you've thought of that.

Are you still using 1.2 driveshafts/hubs/suspension etc?

 

[DeanJ]

Are you still using 1.2 driveshafts/hubs/suspension etc?

No, full running gear from the 172.