Rob's little black one, Clio MK 2 1.2 16V

[Rob530d]

Hi mates,

after my first words in the "new here" theme, I want to present my Clio more in detail. Maybe it is a little out of place in between all these 172 and 182 Clios here, but run such a car is quite too expensive for me at the moment. Yes, it's a slow little thing but I like it a lot and maybe you might like it a bit too :wink:.

The story started in August 2015 when I bought my blue one. It was driven by two older people who all in all looked after their car but in 13 years, it surely got some scratches, the headlights were blind but all in all, it was a lot of car for only 1450 Euros.
This was the first picture I've taken from it after I bought the car. It was on my way home and I was very proud of it:

The first thing I've done to it was the renovation of the headlights. When I polished it for the first time, I discovered some litte rust spots at the doors. Because they shouldn't get bigger, i brought the car to a paint shop, where the rust spots and some scratches were deleted. Then it was time to think about winter tyres. First, I only wanted used ones on steel, but at a junkyard I found some nice 14'' alloys from a Clio Initiale Ph. I for only 50 Euros. So I bought new tires for my alloys and winter could come. What really annoyed me all the time were the yellow side indicators, so I replaced them with white ones which I found at another junk yard. Fitted with the winter tyres and the new indicators, my Clio looked like this:

I could enjoy the new look of my Clio for nearly four weeks before the unbelievable happened. An incredible idiotic driver crashed me with high speed from the Autobahn. My Clio saved me, but it was totally destroyed

It was one of the sadest feelings in my life. Nearly 27 years I've waited for my very own car and I got exactly what I wanted, was so happy and then...such an...whoa even today, more than a year later it makes me so angry and sad.

Only one day after the crash, I was driving again - with my mom's Clio. Two days after the crash, we were looking for a new Clio. In between I thought about buying something bigger like an older 520i BMW but no, it had to be a Clio again, now more than ever. So we got Dad's BMW and drove over 100 kilometers to see six Clios which I was interested in. After seeing three of them, which were junk, we decided to look at the most expensive one first, because it had a very low milage, was the youngest and it looked fabulous in the advertisement. And it also looked fabulous in real life when I stood in front of it. After checking the service history I surely hat to go on a test drive. It was love at the first sight. The only thing what concerned me was that the tooth belt hat do be renewed and without that the car would be to expensive. After a chat with the Car Dealer, everything was clear. Clio will get polished, used winter tyres, a new full service, new TÜV and a new tooth belt if I pay the price which is listed. That was a fair offer and I agreed. After signing the contract, I've gone out to take the first pictures of my new car:

I had to wait six days before I could take it home. These were very long but finally, on December 8th 2015, I enjoyed the first ride in it as my car. Sure we took pictures because on this day, we didn't use the BMW to get to the dealership but mom's Clio. And so, this was the new Clio-Team on our driveway:

So much for today. What I've done to the car until today, I'll tell you later. Hope you will enjoy my little story, even it isn't a RS.

 

[ADS_V6]

Hi welcome
The cars look very clean in the pictures.

 

[Typhoon]

Welcome to the club Rob! The new car looks really nice. It's sad about your old one though

 

[Rob530d]

Thanks a lot.

Now we go on. A few days before christmas, the Clio got hand washed for the first time. It was so warm at this day that I could wash it in a T-shirt...in Germany, not in Spain or Italy...sick! And when you wash it for the first time, you see all these little scratches that your haven't seen when you looked at it at the dealership. Fortunately, the paint was in very good condition, especially for a black car. Okay there was still upside potential to make it better, but the basis was really good. A blind patch on the left backside was the worst thing, so there I started polishing after I washed it:

Clio nice and clean

The blind patch before...

...and after polishing...it's nearly gone :grimacing:

What I hated most was the sticker of the dealership on the tailgate. I hate stickes on paint, an absolutely no-go for me :rage:. So it had to go as fast as possible.

The Clio-logo had to be polished, so I removed eveything from the tailgate and polished it for nearly two hours to clear all the shadows of the sticker...what a nice black it was now:

A few days later I walked into our dealership to order some parts for the Clio. The sportsgrill, sure, but I also ordered something very unusual - a light and a contact for the glovebox. The blue one had a glovebox with a light so the black should get one too. The wires were already there so it was plug and play:

I fitted the sportsgrill as soon as I could:

And what is the sportsgrill without the typical French flag?

These were the first changes in the first month I owened it, done with the little budget of a student.

What I've done next, you will see in a couple of days.

 

[Mr Plums]

Very nice, but i dont like the french flag on the grill 😧

 

[Rob530d]

It is not everybody's cup of tea, I know, but I like it, it's a nice little detail.

In Febuary, I've nearly done nothing to it except fitting some LEDs in the lamp of the interior and the boot because the old ones were much too dark.

I think it was worth it :smile:.

In March I had time for the first 10 hour cleaning marathon. I washed it two times, polished it, made every crack in the interior clean, fitted the summer tyres and some new licence plate holders with the logo of my favourite icehockeyteam. After that, I've taken some pictures because it looked like a brand new car

And these are some pictures of us at work...cleaning the Clios :smile: :

After this very clean post, the next will be more technical, I promise.

Cheers

 

[Rob530d]

Now we are in May 2016.

On ebay, I found these nice valve caps which I thought would fit very nice on the Clio

What annoyed me since I've fitted the summer alloys was the crappy look of the rusty brake drums on the rear axle. After thinking about the right colour for a long time, I was very brave and painted them...black :smile: (and the calipers on the front as well)

before...

after

After this little change there was a big one. The Clio had to be lowered for sure but because of having a backache, the long distances that i'm driving and the dirt roads that I have to pass from time to time, I had to choose the springs wisely. The chassis shouldn't get too hard and too low and after a lot of reading I've chosen the Eibach pro kit springs. They lower the car nearly 30mm (in fact the Clio got down 40mm), the chassis is a bit stiffer which makes the car nicer to drive at high speed on the autobahn but there is enough comfort for long distances and to not hurt my back. I am very pleased with the springs.

Compared with mom's Clio you see how much lower it came:

So much for today. Cheers!

 

[imprezaworks]

Looking great

 

[Rob530d]

Let's go on in July 2016.

First I met two other Renault-Enthusiasts of a German Clio forum:

Then a few days later, I fitted a sunstrip at the front window. After that, I've made a few pictures in a sunny summer afternoon:

Then I was driving it for a while without changing anything except replacing the yellow indicator bulbs on the rear (at the front I did it in spring) with silver ones produced by Osram (I think they're called silver vision...looking silver, shining yellow). In September, there was my first Renault meeting in a place called Schlüchtern. Because of that, my little fella has to shine as new...or even better...I think I've done a good job :smile::

At this meeting, my little slow Clio was seeing a lot of other Clios and especially a very fast and powerful one:

So that should be enough for today. In the next posting, I will describe more chances on the car, maybe everything I've done until today...we'll see.

Cheers.

 

[Rob530d]

Now we're still in September 2016, a few days after the Renault meeting. My parents were on holidays and while they were enjoying some mountians in Italy, mom's Clio enjoyed wellness at it's best:

In October, the Clio got an EZ-Lip, I've done a big service with an oil change, new filters, new spark plugs and all the other stuff which makes a car happy...and also mounted his winter tyres.

In November we had a few nice days which I used to wash, polish and wax it very properly so he was prepared for the next months.

Sadly the alloy wheels for the winter couldn't be used this year because...yeah it's a long story which includes a flat summer tyre, my pressure of time, mom's old winter tyres and...okay to make it short, I was a bit unlucky and I had to use mom's winter tyres for this season. In the next winter season there will be alloys on the car for sure.

In January the Clio got some new parts for the interior. First I bought some dashboard trims of a 172, then I found some Renault Sport trims for the sill in our German Clio forum and here in this market place, I found a gearknob inlet from a 172. I also wanted a RS steering wheel but in Germany they're very rare and quite expensive. So I looked after a steering wheel in the UK. It shoud be out of an early 172 because they don't have the melting problems of the wheels which come out of 182 or late 172 models. I tried to contact a lot of people on ebay who were breaking 172 Clios bud sadly nearly no one answerd and those who answered didn't agree to send to Germany. But after a lot of throwbacks, I found a wheel of an early 172 - a very cheap and very crappy one - and a seller who would sent it to Germany. So after a lot of work, I was the owner of this piece of sh*t:

But there was hope for this poor poor thing. My mom was sewing steering wheels for a couple of years and surely I showed her the pictures of the wheel before I bought it. She said it wouldn't be a problem to fix it and I think I've seen a little smile on her face. Maybe she was delighted to work on a steering wheel again. As it arrived, she lost no time and fixed it within a moment. Now it's mounted and my interior looks like this:

Sure it's not like a refurbished wheel but at the moment I can't afford a refurbishment and this one is way better then my old melted sticky disgusting wheel.

So that's enough for today. In the next one, I'll show you my little Clio in the current state.

Cheers.

 

[imprezaworks]

Great update, car looks great.

 

[Rob530d]

Today I'll show you what my Clio looks like now, I'll give you the latest news which are good ones and also not so good ones.
The first thing I've done since my last posting was mounting the summer tyres:

Combined with the EZ-Lip it looked pretty good. Yes it looked because the wheels were on the car for only two days. The reason for this was a very boring evening with an even more bored Rob who couldn't stop looking at ads for the Clio on the internet. What I found was a set of wheels which I wanted so bad for a long time but there was no set to find which I could afford. Now there was one, cheap, two almost new tyres, but nearly 250 kilometers away from me. Nevertheless I got in contact with the seller who was a really nice and honest guy. He reserved the wheels for me for one day so I hat to clear only one more hurdle...I had to talk to my dad because I wanted to use his car to carry the wheels. This doesn't sound like a big problem but my dad really doesn't care for stuff like this...he thinks it is a useless waste of money. I was prepared for a long discussion when I asked him, but the only thing he said was: sure, take it but please refill it when you're back home... Okay...I wasn't expecting this reaction at all.

So the next day, I took the big one and was on my way to the new wheels:

Now you see where my nickname comes from ;-)

After three hours I arrived at the seller's home where we loaded the wheels in the boot of the BMW...

First I wanted to use the trip for a little sightseeing because I've never been in this region of Germany before...but when the wheels were in the car I only wanted to go home and put them on the Clio as fast as possible. But after I arrived at home, I had to clean them first:

After I had done it properly...the big moment was there...the wheels of my dreams for the first time on my car...

I think it looks so f***ing sick...16'' Fondmetal Tech5 on my car...it really was a dream and it still is. The wheels have a lot of scatches and need a repaint but they where cheap and after a weekend of work they should look like new.

That was the good news...now the bad ones. I wanted to get rid of a little bit of rust on the sill.

Nothing to worry about I thought...easy to fix. But then, the unbeliveable happened: the protection paint was falling off nearly by itself further and further the more I grinded and reveald a big rust damage on the sill. I was totally davastated.

After I grinded the rusty parts I had a couple of holes in my sill...and this strange looking spot made me wonder:

This can't be original...so I stripped the car a little bit in the interior to look in the sill from the inside and what I saw was that the complete side panel was renewed at some time in the past...my car has had a big accident and was fixed badly. The dealer I bought it from sold it to me as accident free...so I was talking to a guy from the dealership but he surely didn't see or hear anything...he said everything on the car is like from the factory and after twelve years a rust damage is normal. Now I have to talk to the store manager next tuesday when he is back from holydays and I hope he hasn't such stupid excuses like his employee. In the meantime I was in the workshop of a friend who agrees with me that the car must have had a bigger accident, also an expert which is a friend of my friend told me so. We'll see what will happen next Tuesday. I hope the store manager will see the things as they are and they pay me a compensation so that I can go to a workshop of my choice to get my Clio fixed properly. By the way, the other side which is really original has no rust damage at all.

So that's it for today. Now you are up to date. We will see what happens next.

 

[RichAwty]

Looks great, I hope the manager is helpful for you.
I'm not a fan of the wheels personally but nobody seems to like the wheels that I do so that must be a problem with my taste not yours (I like 3sdm 0.05 wheels)