The Confused Track Clio MK1, MK2 & MK3 Content (01-Sep-12 DEADLINE)

[Squeak]

Well hello everyone!

Im back again as i couldnt resist!

Some of you will remember my old clio GLP (still miss her just not the rust!) lol
This is how she ended up:

Anyway i still popped on the forum every now and again to see if anything cheap come up that i can turn into a track car as i am never ever driving a stripped out 'Track ****' as an every day car. Plus the astra is to costly to do the odd track day as a set of decent pads is £280 and four reasonable tyres is around £500 fitted so ideally dont want to be doing that.

Anyway this little car turned up

http://www.clio16valver.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=48020

Before going to even view the car as i didnt want to waste Neil's time i sorted out where i was going to store it and how i would get it home. Well my uncle said that he could trailer it back so that was sorted! And then my nan and grandad said i could build a 'garage' (wooden one with roof and doors) to the side of thier shelter for the caravan. Its about 10ft wide and 18ft long so plenty big enough for me to work in . The clios home pictured below.

So i arranged to go and view the car with my mate alex (alex-clio on c16v) (Struggler on CS). Shitty horrible day unfortunately so didnt really get under the car but it was straight and pretty much rust free so i good foundation for the build. So a deposit was left with an arrangement to collect before the end of Jan.

Time went by me pestering my busy uncle to give me a day which finally come so we went and picked up the car on 19th Jan.

During the time from me leaving a deposit and collecting the car i started sourcing bits that i would need for the build. First thing was first Front and
rear suspension and breaks from a 172. I managed to source this from Stevescort off of CS a really nice chap. Managed to get the following.

(All PH 1 172 bits)

Front Hubs, Front Calipers, Front Discs and Pads, Wishbones, ARB, Subframe, Steering Rack, Front Shocks, Rear Shocks, Complete rear Beam, Handbrake Cables, Gear Lever, Gear Linkage, Speedo Clocks.

I also picked up 4 Oz F1 wheels with Toyo PX4 tyres and a PH1 172 Airbox with the Pipercross Race Filter and large fire extinguisher for £110 happy days!

I also bought KTR front and rear discs with pads off of Bomber on CS as i was going to buy some new discs and pads for the front anyway and these
had only done 200 miles.

I also purchased a Cup master cylinder and servo the standard car had no ABS so it has the brake lines already in place. I just need to get an adaptor for two of the lines as for some reason on the cup there are two different sizes. (Gave the servo a lick of paint as it was a bit rusty.)

Below are a few pics of the stuff i have stripped down, cleaned up and painted.

I also have burnt out all of the bushes to make way for the full polybush set i have bought off of Deano off CS as i want to focus on the braking and handling of the car. Quick question has anyone got any pictures of the sleeves welded in for the wishbones.

More to come (not going to be an amazingly fast project due to funds and time) Also need to pay for the shelter for the car first and wait for the weather to get better so i can build it.

 

[theduck]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Be interested to see what you do with that, as tbh it looks a mess! What engine is in it?

Good luck with it though.

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Oh it is a mess but i like a challenge! TBH going to rip the whole lot out and start again and tify it all up. Its an F7P 1.8 out of a mk 1 clio (1990 - 1998)

 

[theduck]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Ah ok, yeah see it now. Budget track cars are the way forward imo, will watch with interest.

 

[Struggler]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

even with the state it's in, this car was an absolute steal!! look forward to reading this thread dude!! and im sure ill be lending a hand with a few bits over the summer!!

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

^ALlex so true! Im sure ill be lending you a hand aswell lol.

Also just purchased 4 used R888's lovely! (alex dont tell stacey haha)

 

[Djw Dave]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Nice, not sure on the f7p, my old converted mk1 Ph3 was pretty nippy, not sure what it'll be like in the ph2 shell.

I'll be keeping a eye on this.

 

[Djw John]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Nice, a proper slaggy mongrel of a car! Good stuff!

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Nice, not sure on the f7p, my old converted mk1 Ph3 was pretty nippy, not sure what it'll be like in the ph2 shell.

I'll be keeping a eye on this.

TBH eventually it will go F7R as i prefer the engine but fund are holding me back. I want it complete already but realistically not going to happen.

Nice, a proper slaggy mongrel of a car! Good stuff!

Well it never really going to be a head turner on the look front lol.

 

[andywa]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Looks like an interesting build. I'll keep an eye on this.

 

[Struggler]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

haha dont worry, ill keep quiet!!

P is a good starting point just to get the car going as theyre so cheap, and when it comes to F7R, the conversion is rediculously easy!

 

[mallspeed]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

it will be good m8 when its sorted :clap:

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Small update my parcel from Deano off of CS has arrived,

Thanks very much mate.

Brilliant service! No just to get them fitted

 

[Djw Dave]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Very nice.

 

[gardner51]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Hey squeak. Nice to see you back in a proper car . How's things!

Ellz

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

lol you aint seen the astra then have you matey lol.

N yeah the love for a clio hasnt died yet, especially GLP she was a good one barring the rust

Im good ta mate and yourself?

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Another small boring update but an update none the less.

I wanted to start assembling stuff as all i seem to be doing is painting and to be honest its boring dull and not something i really enjoy doing.

First of all i cleaned all of the mating faces to assemble the sub axle back onto the rear beam.

I then greased up the stub axles and bearings of the rear discs and fitted them on.

(I had also given the calipers another coat of paint.)

I also went over the subframe and rear calipers in a few places to give it a fuller colour. TBH its not perfrect but its not a show car so not worried as long as it looks red from a distance i dont mind!

Then i fitted the Front discs to the hubs and fitted the carrier to the hub (ensuring the sliders were cleaned and regreased). Will assemble the front calipers when the paint drys.

I did also clean up the wishbones a bit in preparation for welding the sleeves in for the polybushes but i didnt get any pictures of this.

Im taking them into work tomorrow to use the sand blaster. Im also taking in the rear calipers (Piston part) to get them looking nice and shiney once again.

I have also been looking quite a lot into roll cages for the car and i have spoken to a couple of local cage builders who im going to visit tomorrow afternoon and saturday to get ideas of prices. As this is a budget build i would like to do it as cheaply as possible.

I could make one myself as i have a mate that has a tube bender and can weld. The only problem is he does not have the right former his one only goes upto 1.5" but i need 1.75" for the MSA regualtion stuff (although not needed for track days it will help if i decide to sell the car). So there is an intital outlay if i want to do it that way. If he had the former it would be brilliant as we could mock it all up as i can get the material quite cheap. i can get the proper material that compiles to the MSA regulation the material is 1.75"x12swg (45mm x 2.5mm basically) in CDS (Cold Drawn Seamless). I can get it for £7.50 a metre delivered win win.

I also had a chat with Dan @ 519 Automotive! Top bloke known him for a while over on Clio16valver so been getting advice from him about what cages are a nice fit and what are a PITA. Unfortunately the one that i was looking to use is meant to be a PITA to fit. What i was hoping to do was to buy the CL3 kit from custom cages and then order 12 metres of material and add the additional bars where i want them. I would definately add Cross door bars, Cross Rear, Harness Bar, Bar running through the dash. Might do a little bit more but tbh that would be overkill and only if i had the spare material.

This would be cheaper than buying an omp bolt in roll cage (and better) but would involve a lot more work. Tbh that doesnt really bother me as i wanted to do something a bit more than what i done to GLP.

Will have to see what happens either way i think the best way to go would be to get a 4point cage whether it be the custom cage or get one of the cage builders round here to do it and then add on from there. Still early days so will have to see whats what.

Link to custom cages website. http://www.customcages.co.uk/roll-cages/clubman-rollcages

More updates soon......

 

[Djw Dave]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

I'd love a cage for mines. But i fear i should buy some suspension, tyres, engine and about a million more bits before i buy a £500+++ cage.

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

I'd love a cage for mines. But I fear I should buy some suspension, tyres, engine and about a million more bits before I buy a £500+++ cage.

Ideally I need to get the cage welded in there so I can start working around the car. That’s the main thing I need now the other bits I need can wait until the cash flow comes up a bit lol.

Tiny update, have done a little bit more but going to wait until I take the pictures of them.

Few pics of the work I done Friday.

Firstly got a mate to weld the sleeves in for the wishbones. Done a fantastic job as ever.

I let them cool down a bit then I started to sand blast the wishbones to take them back to bare metal.

I got bored of doing them as the sand we use is so fine so takes an age to get paint off.

Then I made a start on the grubby rear calipers. Sand blasted on the left and dirty on the right.

I then went over the roll cage builder my uncle’s mate had put me on to so I could go and have a chat with him and have a look at his workshop. Was a really nice guy who knew what he was talking about but was more than I really wanted to spend.

If I supply the material he would charge £400 to fit a basic 4 point so that me and a mate could fabricate off of it. If I supply the custom cages CL3 it will still be about £400. I did work out thought that if me and a mate do it including all materials, gas, wire, grinding stuff and the CL3 cage I could do it for about £500 all done. All be it lots of work.

Below is a pic of the very crappy design of the cage I am proposing to get and build on from.
Red bars = the custom cages cl3 (so we don’t need to do any bending)
Green bars = is the additional bars I would like to add to the cage. We may add strengtheners in the crosses but that will be it.

Done a little bit more last night with the sand blasting of the wishbones and also a few other parts.

I haven’t got any pictures at the moment but will get some when I get in.

I sand blasted the wishbones as best I could until no more paint would come out. I then used some of work industrial paint stripper and smeared that into the wishbones and left it to soak in.

While it was working its magic I sand blasted the dogbone mount and the arms that bolt from the subframe/wishbone to the chassis.

The plan is with all of the bare metal stuff that I have sandblasted is to give it a coat of lacquer to try and protect it. It just looks nicer than silver paint imo.

Once the dogbone and links where done I went back and gave the wishbones another go. I have go 95% of it off the wishbones with only a few bits to do. While I’m at work today my dad is going to use some paint stripper and leave it to soak in all day. With any luck tonight I can give them a coat of lacquer so I can start installing the polybushes!

More pics soon.

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Well another update.

Tuesday 21/02/2012
I was in the garage a bit more last week than usual but this wasn’t because I was continuing with the clio parts. I ended up spending about 5 hour sorting all of the stuff in the garage as it was a complete mess and was pretty much an unbearable environment to work in! Plus last Saturday I had organized to go and collect some nice goodies from a Williams 1 with 71k so had to ensure that I had enough room to put everything

Thursday 23/02/2012
Unfortunately I had no joy with the paint stripper so had to take the wishbones back into work to continue bead blasting them. This time it took no time at all as earlier that day they had replaced the filter and put new material in. I had also taken in the 172 steering arms that I removed from the PAS rack as I will be running non PAS (plus the standard 1.2 steering arms are not long enough for the widetrack!)

With these items done I degreased them and gave them a coat of lacquer. Hopefully this will stop the bare metal oxidizing…..time will tell.

Picture of the nicely lacquered wishbone.

Friday 24/02/2012
I left them overnight to try and surprisingly I didn’t step foot in the garage again until last night.
What I did do on Friday (my day off) was go down to where the car is stored and have a look at what is actually in there. Since I picked up the car I haven’t really gone down there to have a look at it, all I did was go and buy a cheap cover from argos and put it over the car during the snow. Bad really.
Anway I emptied the car out to see what I had actually been given with it. Tbh there was a lot of stuff that I am never going to use so they ended up going on the bin pile.

In my hast to get down to the car I forgot to bring my tool box (massive fail) so had to settle to some of my granddads ancient tools.

The car started off like this:

I then got it like this:

The pile of rubbish:

Bit more stripping:

The finished rubbish pile I didn’t bother weighing it but I have got some more weight out of the car! Plenty more to come!

This is how I left her:

I then chucked all the rubbish in the astra and went down the tip.

Saturday 25/02/2012
A nice early start today!

Got picked up by Mr Bass_Direct at 7.30am (ish). Loaded up the car full of tools and the engine crane.

Had the traditional McDonald’s breakfast which is a must for any car journey where parts are being collected!

Anyway arrived at Surrey about 9.20am.

Had a chat with the owner (really nice guy). He was breaking the Williams 1 as someone had properly hit him up the arse at about 60mph. The car was a complete wreck!

Anyway run the engine had a look around and then started removing parts!

The long and short of it was whatever could go wrong did go wrong. In the end I resorted to angle grinding off s**tty bolts and chopping the chassis leg to remove the sub frame. It was not a fun day.

This is how the van looked once we had finished loading all the parts we had got.

Big thanks to Bass for his efforts and calming me down when my electric fag died lmao!

We left surrey and headed back to Bass’s garage as I had given him some parts for his help. We hit the A12 and then sat in traffic oh joy!

We unloaded all the stuff and then headed back to my garage where we unloaded the remaining stuff.

By the time we had finished unloading it was 9pm and we were both completely drained! My garage was also now full to the brim again!

P.S I have the following bit for sale so if you are interested let me know.

Monday 27/02/2012
Well after Saturday I could not be bothered to go in the garage so I waited for last night to go in there for an hour or two.

I ended up greasing up the polybushes and fitting them to the wishbones and dogbone. Quite pleased with how they look, hopefully they perform just as good aswell.

I then wanted to bring my attention to the engine as I want to clean it all up, paint a few things and do a cambelt and waterpump on it. I have been quite lucky to get hold of this engine as it has full Renault service history and has only done like 71,000 miles!

I started to strip and found that the more I stripped it the more I realized this engine is so original! It has had brackets that I have never seen before! But with original engines come troublesome bolts! After taking off a few of the mounts I got bored and my back started to hurt with working on the floor and bending down so I cleared up and called it a night. Struggler (aka Alex-clio) has said that I can borrow back my engine stand that he bought off me as he is currently not using it but trying to get hold of someone who is at Uni partying all the time is easier said than done! That’s it for now.

More updates soon!

 

[Struggler]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

ahhhhhh sh!t sorry dude!! i chatted to my dad and he so its all ready for you to get it!!
ill text you my house number like right now!! hes usually at home from 6pm ish!! sorry about that,

project looks soo good mate!! i wish so much that i had access to a bead blaster,
mines going to have all the good bits buts its all gna be dirty

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

ahhhhhh sh!t sorry dude!! i chatted to my dad and he so its all ready for you to get it!!
ill text you my house number like right now!! hes usually at home from 6pm ish!! sorry about that,

project looks soo good mate!! i wish so much that i had access to a bead blaster,
mines going to have all the good bits buts its all gna be dirty

Mate that’s brilliant I will probably pick that up tonight if I get the chance but I will give your dad a ring first.

Thanks mate its getting there slowly and surely really happy I am putting an F7R in it!

Mate I would offer to do the bead blasting for you but I can just about be bothered to do mine! Plus the machine is quite low down so you have to bend your knees which hurts your back after about 30 minutes of doing it (or could be just coz my back fucked lol)

When are you due back anyway?

 

[Struggler]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

might have to beg you to do a couple of bits still!! lol, that or ill just clean them up as much as i can, and then paint the bits!!

and iirc F7R<F4R!! lol

and ill be home in at most 5 weeks, but most likely sooner,

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

might have to beg you to do a couple of bits still!! lol, that or ill just clean them up as much as i can, and then paint the bits!!

and iirc F7R<F4R!! lol

and ill be home in at most 5 weeks, but most likely sooner,

Talk like that and i wont do s**t to help you haha!

You know GLP's engine was good. Showed up the F4R's i cam across even Ellz's old bodied 182.

Yippeeee about time you come home to where you belong lol. I miss taking the piss out of you when we are out!

 

[Struggler]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

ohh gee thanks!!

its true, i also remember OMG's engine being rather good, but then why do f0xy and all that run F4Rs in their track cars??

and shh dont say that about the bodied 182, i once mentioned that in a thread and i got flamed!! lol

 

[theduck]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Who mapped the boddied 182?

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Dno tbh some local lad to Ellz

 

[hybrid beeson]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Talk like that and i wont do s**t to help you haha!

You know GLP's engine was good. Showed up the F4R's i cam across even Ellz's old bodied 182.

Yippeeee about time you come home to where you belong lol. I miss taking the piss out of you when we are out!

not all f4r's :rasp:

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Well it was quicker than ur f4r and kels but there was one tht used to go lakey that was rapid

 

[Struggler]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

tbh, the only fair one to compair them too is ians old bus, since lee's and kel's both have cloth its not really a fair comparason!

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Beesons did kel's is about 60% stripped at a guess from the last time i saw it.

It done matter as this one is going to be 100% stripped even more than your last one alex!

 

[hybrid beeson]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

no rear seat's aint 60% tbh having no rear seats aint stripped, stripped is havin nothing like my mk1 was, urs, alex, and ians was............. at the end of the day yours was a quick car tbh one the best 1's ive seen. but i still dont understand why you dont go f4r tbh makes better power its newer and using it f7r for track/ fast road all the time it wont last long. but thats my input

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

no rear seat's aint 60% tbh having no rear seats aint stripped, stripped is havin nothing like my mk1 was, urs, alex, and ians was............. at the end of the day yours was a quick car tbh one the best 1's ive seen. but i still dont understand why you dont go f4r tbh makes better power its newer and using it f7r for track/ fast road all the time it wont last long. but thats my input

I dont want to go F4R as i prefer the power delivery of an F7R thats my preference. If it s***s itself then i may do that in the future but for now its staying F7R!!!!!

 

[Struggler]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

only a difference of opinion dude!! i must admit im with beeson on this one but youre welcome to put together your own project mate!!

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

only a difference of opinion dude!! i must admit im with beeson on this one but youre welcome to put together your own project mate!!

Well thanks for allowing me to do it mate lol

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

I forgot to show some nice rubber I picked up for a nice cheap price. These will come in handy when it actually gets on track!

Wednesday 29[SUP]th[/SUP] February 2012
I started stripping down the engine for the parts that I wanted to sand blast and clean up just to freshen up the engine bay.
The Engine went from this:

To This:

To all these parts:

Thursday 1[SUP]st[/SUP] March 2012
Well after spending 2.5 hours in the sand blaster I got bored and called it a night as I was bloody hungry by this point. Anyway ill let the pictures do the talking. Eventually these items will be lacquered to prevent them oxidising and looking crap.

Not much more was done over the weekend as I had so many parts in my garage it was difficult to move and work in there. I did pick this up on Friday night Thanks Jay!

Saturday 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] March 2012
So I spent a few hours sat cleaning the garage and transferring the engine on to the engine stand I borrowed from Alex-clio aka Struggler. Thanks Mate!

Sunday 4[SUP]th[/SUP] March 2012
Did a bit more on Sunday and then decided to make some space so I went and transferred a load of parts down to my nans so that I could walk freely in the garage!

Got to love the company car so useful!

I did also give the gearbox a jet wash and remove most of the remaining parts of the engine!

Sneaky picture of the engine on the engine stand.

Parts Removed:

Did also spot this which I have never seen before any ideas?

I did win something on eBay that evening but I have yet to pick it up so I’m not going to jynx it!



Friday 9[SUP]th[/SUP] March 2012
Well after working away for a week in Bristol. The only good part of the trip was to see some old mates Ronee and Gaz!

I got back and thought I best start on the engine so out came the engine degreaser!

Then a quick lick of paint (im going to have to give it a few more coats to cover it properly! The red is a b*****d!!!

Then the gearbox got a lick of paint:

Sunday 11[SUP]th[/SUP] March
Didn’t do anything on Saturday as I was playing with the astra as I hadn’t touched the car or even cleaned it in a while so thought it was best to give it some attention!

Anyway on Sunday my granddad gives me a call asking me to check the drum brakes on his caravan so I pop over which gives me an opportunity to have a look at the clio!

Well after doing his drum brakes I thought I would take the cover off the clio.

Well I had planned to be there for 5 minutes but turned out to be all day! Oops.

First of all I put the steering column in the correct place in the car as it would make it very difficult to move.

I then decided that I needed to get the F7P engine out (1.8 16v) so that I could 1. Put the F7R in once its complete and 2. Sell the F7P to free up some more cash for the project!

First of all I removed the front grill and the slam panel so that it would be easier access to remove the engine.

I then spent ages trying to remove the hub nuts so that the driveshafts can come out and then the engine to follow. 1 problem I brought limited tools with me as I didn’t expect to be working on the clio. The little f*****s would not budge even with a big bar on the end!

After a while I got the hump and decided to drop the subframe and the lot as I thought this would be the easiest thing to do.

Up on stands:

A Little while later after undoing all the necessary items draining the brake fluid, gearbox fluid I dropped the subframe with all the necessary bits.

I then removed all of the bits individually so that I can sell them on when I can be bothered to do a for sale thread.

Engine is planned to be out next weekend so that I can start tarting the engine bay up and running all of the necessary looms etc. More updates soon and hopefully my new eBay win will get collected soon!

 

[Struggler]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

nice update!! i swear lee said you have to take the flywheel off to mount it on that engine stand! lol

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

He lies! I just cant turn the flywheel as one of the mounting points hits it. I could have adjusted it so that it wouldnt foul but i couldnt be bothered tbh. Once i take the engine off the stand ill do the cambelt then so it dont really matter tbh that the flywheel cant be turned. Tbh it just to give my back a break when painting and removing/putting things on the engine.

P.S not long till your home is it>? Ill have to take you down to my new workshop haha. My nan is brilliant she just keeps bringing me cups of tea!

 

[Struggler]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

around 2 weeks until im back down your neck of the woods mate!!

definatley be up for giving you a hand!! engine looks epic, cant wait to start painting mine!!

unfort im gna have to paint everything as i wont get access to a sand blaster unless i talk ross into letting me use his!!

 

[Squeak]

Re: The Confused Budget Track Clio!

Sweet ill look forqard to it!

N i dont mind doing afew bits for you its just its a pain in the arse and so time consuming.

I still have another bag full of stuff that i need to do im just trying to give myself a kick up the arse so ill do it!