None :(
Well around 2/3 months ago I was going to sell up, and get another car after 4 years of ownership. When it came to actually selling I couldn’t let go. The Clio hasn’t let me down in 4 years, and it still puts a smile on my face most days. So sensible hat came on, and thought I don’t really want a loan again as it’s been nice to be 100% debt free for 2 years, and thought the money I had saved up for the new car (so savings + loan it would have been) I thought why not put this back into the Clio and have some cracking track day fun next year!
So as the car stands atm, my future plans for the car are:
-Skoda splitter (thought I’d put this one at the top
)
-SC/ITB/T
-Change the suspension
-Rollcage
But before I go spending silly money I thought I ought to think and read a little bit more and get cracking on with re-spraying my original wheels. The original wheels started to suffer from “cracking”. Not sure if that’s the right term, but basically water had got under the lacquer and therefor was slowly destroying the paint on the wheels.
So I bought some cheap 15” alloys to go on the car whilst I re-spray my original wheels. Now I had a little inspiration from crispy clio with the orange when he done it. This is something I now wish I never did, but hay, they only temporary so why the hell not. So I sprayed the 15” wheels orange, did a crap job, rushed it, wasn’t happy with it (normal spray can job). But was a good lesson learnt.
Ok so what i have done so far with the car over the last year, was get rid of the rear seats, put a rear strut bar in (which is a right pain when trying to put shopping in the car) removed the rear seatbelts, put Daniels old bucket seats in (I had a photo somewhere, they weighed in at 5.5kg each seat) so I saved a lot of weight compared to the standard seats. Daniel said this to me but just couldn’t appreciate the weight of them until I had removed the originals. Cleaned up the harnesses I bought off him also, they came up a treat considering they weren’t really red anymore.
I also put a V6 air filter on and removed the original CAF and put in my own one in. Whilst I was at it, I thought I’ve lost all this weight in the back, why not put the battery in the boot as it will always have to be in the car. So me and my dad sorted that out.
I then purchased a Scorpion exhaust, fitted it myself, I’m a geek not a mechanic, and it took me 3 days lol. Yes half way through it I did wish I had just paid someone to do it But got it fitted in the end and was happy with the instant better throttle response.
I then left the car as it was for about a year until I had decided to spend my car savings on the Clio. First off, I bought an OMP steering wheel. I had always wanted an aftermarket wheel as I hate the melting original one. But was always scared of not having an airbag, until the penny dropped when reading a CS thread, and realised an air bag won’t do much when you have harnesses.
I must say I do wish I didn’t choose that style of steering wheel. Don’t get me wrong, great fun to drive with a wheel like that, but sometimes when using the car for general use, it’s a bit weird having this flat bottom when parking/tight corners. But I’m starting to live with it, and the GF likes it also.
Here are some shots of the seats:
It was time to start getting the original 182 alloys sprayed. I first off spent hours and hours and days and days stripping the paint off just ONE alloy. I already thought to myself why am I doing this. In fact it was so hard to take all the paint off I nearly gave up. But Jades (gf) dad saved the day, he took all 4 alloys into work and had the paint blasted off. I remember him saying something like, the wheels have spent 4 hours in like a dishwasher. When the wheels came back I was stunned how much paint had been removed I’d say 90% off all wheels. Wish I had taken a photo now.
I still had to prep the wheels for spraying and Jades dad gave me these brush type heads to put on a drill, to remove the last bits of paint that wouldn’t come off. I did try and go down the polish route at this stage, and lacquer after. But it was just too much effort, and I went back to the original idea of spraying the wheels.
The above pic, the alloy looks scratched, but that was just the sanding, the alloy to touch was smoooooth as a babies bum!
Now even smoother!
So I was close to finishing off getting the wheels ready, and thought it was time to sort my (what will be) spray booth. Got the hoover out and started hoovering the inside of the shed. I wanted as much dust removed as possible. I then, with help from my mate Rich, put up this thin plastic sheeting. The spray booth was ready.
So whilst I was sanding/brushing/cleaning the wheels outside ready, Rich started with the primer on the one wheel which was ready. By the time he had done a few coats and rested the next wheel was ready.
The below pic is Rich after doing the first coat of primer, as you can see from the outside pic of the shed, there isn’t much ventilation!!!
Said he felt a little dizzy!
Rich finished the first coat of primer on the wheels then went to primer the wheel caps (if that’s the name for them):
Then he did the diamonds and the front Diamond I bought off a member on CS. I was going to do these red to add subtle touches to the red theme I have going on (only inside the car atm). I then grabbed the cup spoiler who I bought off Clart on CS, and sanded down a few notches and cleaned it ready for primer.
It was my turn, so I kitted up and went in the booth and sprayed primer on the spoiler.
That was it for day 1, was a good laff must say, and mucho thanks to my mate Rich, without him I’d probably be nowhere near this stage.
We left the primer parts for a few days to dry, and then we started spraying the wheels again. I had originally, in the paint shop where I got all my bits from, chosen this glitter silver. But first of all you have to spray black as an undercoat. So got the black tin and the thinners out, and rich mixed up the black:
Then we took it in turns spraying the black, but Rich did do most of the first few coats of black.
Once they started to dry, I was really liking the alloys in black. I tried to search on CS for a 182 with original alloys in black, on a silver car. But had no joy, so once they were dry, we took one of the wheels and put it up again the car to see what they would look like. We both thought black looked ace!
I bet you lot think ARCH GAP!
That was it for another day, left the wheels to dry. Then after 2 days in the morning before work, I gave the wheels another coat of black. As I was starting to think I may keep them black and not use the silver glitter with binder as the final finish. I was concerned the wheels might end up looking like an old tatty disco ball.
Here are some pictures of the diamonds I had sprayed red. I was very pleased with the finish, and they are just waiting to be lacquered now.
*They look a little on the pink side, but they look deep red in real life
At the moment the wheels are drying in the living room. As its getting chilly at night, I don’t think the paint is drying very well.
I was very impatient and just wanted to get them lacquered and finished, but Rich and Jade both persuaded me not to rush it, and sand down the odd bit of dust that landed on the paint and do another coat. In the end I can imagine me thanking them. I wanted them finished because of what’s happening on Friday 5th of November.
What is happening then? Well going back to the start where on my list I had SC/ITB/T I had a gooood long think about which one to get. As when you have saved up some dosh, and it’s just staring at you (SPEND ME) it was time to think which route to go down. Spent many hours reading everyone’s threads regarding SC and Tubo’d Clios. In the long run with both those options it sounded like the car could just become a money pit, having to uprate everything to cope with the extra power etc. So I started to think about ITB’s. Mainly for the sound and the way it changes the car (to drive). Again spent many hours reading and threw a few PM’s at some people/traders on the forum, and I then decided to go for the RS2 option from JMS. So the car on Friday is getting dropped off for a week at JMS to get the work done.
Ok I know what some of you are thinking here, BRAKES AND SUSPENSION FIRST! Well the way I looked at it, was I have the money now to do the RS2, it will be the most expensive mod I’ll ever do, get it done before I spend the money and have to re-save.
I have purchased the Brembo discs (Thanks Quade) http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?526203 and are sat in the garage now just waiting. I don’t have the standard brakes on the Clio, apparently they are uprated, and I do personally think the brakes are good, but I’m sure I’ll say their sh1t once the Brembos are on
So updates to follow I imagine once I get the car back from JMS!
Comments and suggestions are welcome thanks!
P.S. Splitter will come off once i have got car back from JMS
So as the car stands atm, my future plans for the car are:
-Skoda splitter (thought I’d put this one at the top
)-SC/ITB/T
-Change the suspension
-Rollcage
But before I go spending silly money I thought I ought to think and read a little bit more and get cracking on with re-spraying my original wheels. The original wheels started to suffer from “cracking”. Not sure if that’s the right term, but basically water had got under the lacquer and therefor was slowly destroying the paint on the wheels.
So I bought some cheap 15” alloys to go on the car whilst I re-spray my original wheels. Now I had a little inspiration from crispy clio with the orange when he done it. This is something I now wish I never did, but hay, they only temporary so why the hell not. So I sprayed the 15” wheels orange, did a crap job, rushed it, wasn’t happy with it (normal spray can job). But was a good lesson learnt.
Ok so what i have done so far with the car over the last year, was get rid of the rear seats, put a rear strut bar in (which is a right pain when trying to put shopping in the car) removed the rear seatbelts, put Daniels old bucket seats in (I had a photo somewhere, they weighed in at 5.5kg each seat) so I saved a lot of weight compared to the standard seats. Daniel said this to me but just couldn’t appreciate the weight of them until I had removed the originals. Cleaned up the harnesses I bought off him also, they came up a treat considering they weren’t really red anymore.
I also put a V6 air filter on and removed the original CAF and put in my own one in. Whilst I was at it, I thought I’ve lost all this weight in the back, why not put the battery in the boot as it will always have to be in the car. So me and my dad sorted that out.
I then purchased a Scorpion exhaust, fitted it myself, I’m a geek not a mechanic, and it took me 3 days lol. Yes half way through it I did wish I had just paid someone to do it
But got it fitted in the end and was happy with the instant better throttle response. I then left the car as it was for about a year until I had decided to spend my car savings on the Clio. First off, I bought an OMP steering wheel. I had always wanted an aftermarket wheel as I hate the melting original one. But was always scared of not having an airbag, until the penny dropped when reading a CS thread, and realised an air bag won’t do much when you have harnesses.
I must say I do wish I didn’t choose that style of steering wheel. Don’t get me wrong, great fun to drive with a wheel like that, but sometimes when using the car for general use, it’s a bit weird having this flat bottom when parking/tight corners. But I’m starting to live with it, and the GF likes it also.
Here are some shots of the seats:
It was time to start getting the original 182 alloys sprayed. I first off spent hours and hours and days and days stripping the paint off just ONE alloy. I already thought to myself why am I doing this. In fact it was so hard to take all the paint off I nearly gave up. But Jades (gf) dad saved the day, he took all 4 alloys into work and had the paint blasted off. I remember him saying something like, the wheels have spent 4 hours in like a dishwasher. When the wheels came back I was stunned how much paint had been removed I’d say 90% off all wheels. Wish I had taken a photo now.
I still had to prep the wheels for spraying and Jades dad gave me these brush type heads to put on a drill, to remove the last bits of paint that wouldn’t come off. I did try and go down the polish route at this stage, and lacquer after. But it was just too much effort, and I went back to the original idea of spraying the wheels.
The above pic, the alloy looks scratched, but that was just the sanding, the alloy to touch was smoooooth as a babies bum!
Now even smoother!
So I was close to finishing off getting the wheels ready, and thought it was time to sort my (what will be) spray booth. Got the hoover out and started hoovering the inside of the shed. I wanted as much dust removed as possible. I then, with help from my mate Rich, put up this thin plastic sheeting. The spray booth was ready.
So whilst I was sanding/brushing/cleaning the wheels outside ready, Rich started with the primer on the one wheel which was ready. By the time he had done a few coats and rested the next wheel was ready.
The below pic is Rich after doing the first coat of primer, as you can see from the outside pic of the shed, there isn’t much ventilation!!!
Said he felt a little dizzy!
Rich finished the first coat of primer on the wheels then went to primer the wheel caps (if that’s the name for them):
Then he did the diamonds and the front Diamond I bought off a member on CS. I was going to do these red to add subtle touches to the red theme I have going on (only inside the car atm). I then grabbed the cup spoiler who I bought off Clart on CS, and sanded down a few notches and cleaned it ready for primer.
It was my turn, so I kitted up and went in the booth and sprayed primer on the spoiler.
That was it for day 1, was a good laff must say, and mucho thanks to my mate Rich, without him I’d probably be nowhere near this stage.
We left the primer parts for a few days to dry, and then we started spraying the wheels again. I had originally, in the paint shop where I got all my bits from, chosen this glitter silver. But first of all you have to spray black as an undercoat. So got the black tin and the thinners out, and rich mixed up the black:
Then we took it in turns spraying the black, but Rich did do most of the first few coats of black.
Once they started to dry, I was really liking the alloys in black. I tried to search on CS for a 182 with original alloys in black, on a silver car. But had no joy, so once they were dry, we took one of the wheels and put it up again the car to see what they would look like. We both thought black looked ace!
I bet you lot think ARCH GAP!
That was it for another day, left the wheels to dry. Then after 2 days in the morning before work, I gave the wheels another coat of black. As I was starting to think I may keep them black and not use the silver glitter with binder as the final finish. I was concerned the wheels might end up looking like an old tatty disco ball.
Here are some pictures of the diamonds I had sprayed red. I was very pleased with the finish, and they are just waiting to be lacquered now.
*They look a little on the pink side, but they look deep red in real life
At the moment the wheels are drying in the living room. As its getting chilly at night, I don’t think the paint is drying very well.
I was very impatient and just wanted to get them lacquered and finished, but Rich and Jade both persuaded me not to rush it, and sand down the odd bit of dust that landed on the paint and do another coat. In the end I can imagine me thanking them. I wanted them finished because of what’s happening on Friday 5th of November.
What is happening then? Well going back to the start where on my list I had SC/ITB/T I had a gooood long think about which one to get. As when you have saved up some dosh, and it’s just staring at you (SPEND ME) it was time to think which route to go down. Spent many hours reading everyone’s threads regarding SC and Tubo’d Clios. In the long run with both those options it sounded like the car could just become a money pit, having to uprate everything to cope with the extra power etc. So I started to think about ITB’s. Mainly for the sound and the way it changes the car (to drive). Again spent many hours reading and threw a few PM’s at some people/traders on the forum, and I then decided to go for the RS2 option from JMS. So the car on Friday is getting dropped off for a week at JMS to get the work done.
Ok I know what some of you are thinking here, BRAKES AND SUSPENSION FIRST! Well the way I looked at it, was I have the money now to do the RS2, it will be the most expensive mod I’ll ever do, get it done before I spend the money and have to re-save.
I have purchased the Brembo discs (Thanks Quade) http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?526203 and are sat in the garage now just waiting. I don’t have the standard brakes on the Clio, apparently they are uprated, and I do personally think the brakes are good, but I’m sure I’ll say their sh1t once the Brembos are on
So updates to follow I imagine once I get the car back from JMS!
Comments and suggestions are welcome thanks!
P.S. Splitter will come off once i have got car back from JMS
