Renault 5 barn find

[X J07HAM]

Bit of back story before we get into things. I was working on a farm doing some contract work when I noticed lots of old cars and tractors in the yard hidden in the undergrowth. Nothing really stood out to me until I drove past one of the open sided barns and noticed a numberplate. I didn't want to be caught being nosey, especially when it was my first time there, and been working for the company for a few days. Snooping round someone's barns was the last thing I wanted to do. I went back to the yard 3 months later and the curiosity got the better of me.. I had a quick look to find it was a Renault 5. Being quite the Renault lover (please don't bully me) I instantly fell in love with it. I asked my boss the important questions of who owned the yard and had he got their number as I wanted to have a closer look without the risk of getting caught. Oh and of course, ask if it was for sale

Last week I got in contact with a family member of the late owner who said that they are willing to sell it and wanted x amount of money for it. I went for the closer inspection to see what it's like instead of buying something basically blind and grabbed a few pictures

Now to current day I have made a counter offer which will be less of a blow if it turns out completely rotten in places I cant see. They definitely have overpriced the car but I found out that they only bought it for the numberplate, hence the higher price.
To me its a tricky one.. My heart is telling me to buy it. Yes its got rust spots and dents, yes the paintwork is bad, but the chassis looks good, I've seen worse seals on clio 1*2s, the interior has potential to clean up nicely and it was driven into the barn to where it sits now. At the end of the day I'm not too fussed on how much they want for it as I won't be buying it to make a profit. I'm expecting it to cost me thousands upon thousands to get it looking somewhat presentable again and I'm fully aware it would be cheaper to just find one already restored. But I've always wanted a barn find project to restore and take to shows with all the before pictures. But at the end of the day I don't want to be buying something that is completely knackered and the scrapyard wont even touch it.
Being a Renault and definitely on the cheaper end of the barn find scale this would be a nice car for me being my first car restoration. This could be something I could look back on in the future when its all sorted, or this could be the shortest project post. Only time will tell I guess..

Here's the rest of the pictures

 

[DaveDreads]

Did you tell them they can keep the plates?

 

[X J07HAM]

Did you tell them they can keep the plates?

That's something I was willing to negotiate with them. But I quite like the plates and as silly as it sounds, its how I found the car so would quite like them to stay with it. No idea what's so special about them though

 

[TC.]

That's something I was willing to negotiate with them. But I quite like the plates and as silly as it sounds, its how I found the car so would quite like them to stay with it. No idea what's so special about them though

It looks like zero digit reg, pretty rare 😉

 

[Matt Cup]

It looks like zero digit reg, pretty rare 😉

The only way Metro plates look good 😉

 

[Brigsy]

If your handy with fabrication/welding, and the price is right its worth a look.

 

[DaveDreads]

Depends what they want in relation to an MOT failure R5, I get wanting to do a real barn find but you might be paying a premium for moss and dirt.

Unless it's a very early one or rare spec, that's a different story.

 

[X J07HAM]

If your handy with fabrication/welding, and the price is right its worth a look.

Im personally pretty useless but thankfully have some friends and family that are really good at them sort of things

Depends what they want in relation to an MOT failure R5, I get wanting to do a real barn find but you might be paying a premium for moss and dirt.

Unless it's a very early one or rare spec, that's a different story.

Yea absolutely
According to howmanyleft I believe there's only 2 registered TX