Restoring my Renault Clio 172 Cup track car.

[conor1n]

So i've been playing around with various ideas for the switches over the past while. MSPaint has served me well as I can easily move stuff around.. here is the design along with some thoughts, reasoning behind positioning.

The design is an aluminium panel that will be cut and drilled then bolted (four corners) to some lightweight structure (TBD).

Small panel - To the right of the steering wheel, offering some secondary switches.

• Cabin is a momentary switch that I can press to temporarily light the cabin if I want to glance at something. The cabin switch on the other panel is latching.
• H. Light adjust will be the OEM headlight level adjustment (Never used it in any car, but it seems important lol)
• EPAS is the adjustment for the amount of assistance from the electronic power steering. This required finer adjustment and I am right handed so it's probably better to the right hand side of wheel.
• Door lock is a push button that will just lock the doors. It's there as OEM, so I may aswell keep it. Can be handy. Useful on the right so I can just slam it if needed - probably not totally track safe... but useful on city roads.

Large Panel - To the left of steering wheel (RHD), in front of the gear lever, with the appropriate clearance.

• Those toggle switches should be easy to switch with gloves and should offer solid tactile feedback.
  • The led in the switch will be constant, whereas the indicator underneath will be on when in on position.
  • This design should enable me to find the switch easily and also see if it's on/off at a glance.
• The buzzer will sound along with one of the following lights when one of the following conditions is met.
  • NO ISOLATE - Door open and battery is not isolated
  • KEY IGN - Door open and key still in ignition
• Hazzard is a push / pull switch so I can just easily push with my palm.
• MAIN will light up when battery is no longer isolated.
• IGNITION will light up when key is in and turned to ignition position. I have toyed with push button start but this will be fine and secure. I need to keep the key in car, near immobiliser receiver anyway.
• OBDII Diagnostic port is there until I find a better home for it. I was going to have it right hand side, but centre is better if I wanted to put a laptop on the passenger seat, or have a passenger operate something while there is a driver, without the cable needing to cross over the driver area.

Any feedback welcome as this is a first pass.

Brownie points if you can find a use for this "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" widget. Maybe I can just put it on the ignition key, meaning I need to remove before I leave the car... It's cool and IS needed

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I power washed off the crap, look how it all just comes straight odd..

Sorry, I've somehow missed your updates and am only catching up now..... I have one of those 'aggressive' nozzles but have been afraid/wary of using it on anything yet - but that is really impressive .

 

[conor1n]

Sorry, I've somehow missed your updates and am only catching up now..... I have one of those 'aggressive' nozzles but have been afraid/wary of using it on anything yet - but that is really impressive .

I accidentally used it on my spray painted wheels before.... its effective in getting the paint off them too :'k

 

[conor1n]

So guys. Quick update.

I have a bigger update to make but i've had to step away from the Clio build for a bit.

Work has been hectic and I hit a wall last week and realised I'm a bit burned out. Working two whole days every weekend has effectively turned the last 8 months into 7 day working weeks for the most part.

I have decided not to look at the Clio for one whole month to get a mental break from it. Before then, I hope to post another bumper update of where I am at.

Cheers
Conor

 

[Nick DV]

So guys. Quick update.

I have a bigger update to make but i've had to step away from the Clio build for a bit.

Work has been hectic and I hit a wall last week and realised I'm a bit burned out. Working two whole days every weekend has effectively turned the last 8 months into 7 day working weeks for the most part.

I have decided not to look at the Clio for one whole month to get a mental break from it. Before then, I hope to post another bumper update of where I am at.

Cheers
Conor

Always a good move - and lessens the chances of mistakes and getting pi**ed of with the build

 

[conor1n]

Quick update lads... here is a quick video of the chassis giving a good close up all around.

I was out at the car at the weekend and took this. Might be of interest. I'm looking forward to getting back into next month. I think I have a few other photo dumps that I need to post up here to get this thread up to date.

In other news -- while I do plan on getting back to the Clio, which I am excited about. I recently acquired a 2005 Supercharged Range Rover.

This needs brake lines and an airbag up front suspension.. everything else can be part of a rolling project.

 

[Myles1970]

that's gonna be some tow car! Commercial?

 

[indy4x]

Did they do a supercharged RR commercial?

On that year its in the cheaper road tax bracket anyways, if it was an 06 or newer then the road tax nearly doubles

 

[Myles1970]

Did they do a supercharged RR commercial?

On that year its in the cheaper road tax bracket anyways, if it was an 06 or newer then the road tax nearly doubles

Ah, they convert them over here (or they used to).....tax rates are different too. Forgot he'd moved back to the UK

.... actually, road tax on a pre 2008 3litre was about €1500 (when I last had a 3ltr), and was calculated by emissions after that which meant the rates for some petrols tripled

 

[conor1n]

that's gonna be some tow car! Commercial?

It would do.. it's not commercial, but will stay on UK plates as I will move back there.... so no janky Irish road tax.

I'm not sure what i'm doing with this really. Might keep it as a car to use in Ireland when I come back. I won't have space to store all my cars when I return to the UK, and this one really takes the biscuit. I bought it only because it was very cheap and broken. It's driving now, but I think I might just flog it after a while.

Did they do a supercharged RR commercial?

On that year its in the cheaper road tax bracket anyways, if it was an 06 or newer then the road tax nearly doubles

I don't think so. not sure they did commercial RR at all.. most commercials are converted to avoid high tax rates in Ireland. Yes, pre end March 2006 is the sweet spot for me.

 

[conor1n]

I forgot to mention.. I have a project thread on the Range Rover over on another forum...

fullfatrr.com - View topic - Crazy newbie. Sight unseen with inactive suspension 4.2 SC

www.fullfatrr.com

 

[conor1n]

Ok guys... early morning and not being able to sleep.... finally some "me time" to update this thread

I'll do my best to get up to date here, but i've fallen a little behind. The last update (stripping the bumpers, doors etc..) was, according to my photo journal, day 48.. I'm up to day 54 now.

Here goes.

So after making the welding repairs as per previous, I was went about welding in some box steel as beefy jacking points. The logic is that, as a track car, it should be getting lifted a hell of a lot more than a regular daily. With this in mind I wanted the sills to be fairly beefy to take that abuse.

I cut some box and capped off one of each end, as these will be facing the wheels and attract dirt/grime (=rust). I left the rears open, with a view to being able to spray cavity wax in there and then put a plug on them.. I feel I might have messed up a few of them by adding weld so not sure what i'll do. A future me problem though.

See the two holes to the right of where the box section is. I needed to make those, in order to pull out the body section, so that I would have something to weld to. The gap was too large. Further down, you will see I filled those holes with weld.

 

[conor1n]

And here came the big demotivator which ended up a massive delay in the project. It led me to a bit of burnout and meant I decided I needed to take that break back in November..

More rust!!

Here is a shot of one the new jack supports welded in to the rear. It wasn't until I had completed both of these, that I went to "plug" a little hole with the MIG on the sill, and it popped through immediately. I thought to myself.. "that is very light". I could then poke through it with a screwdriver, as if it was tinfoil... :arrrgh!

Anyhow you can see in the picture, where the sill meets the rear wheel well, it attracted dirt and rotted a bit. I don't know how I missed this. Big fail!!

I really needed to address it, so I took out my grinder and a fresh cutting disc. The following montage should explain where I ended up.. and you might then understand why it was a bit of a mental set back. Just as I thought I had finished the welding and ready to move to paint.

First signs of trouble in this pic.....

Then I just went all in.. Cut out the freshly welded jack support.. and pulled back the sills to find the true extent of the rust.

Relentless! Booo...!

And the other side was similar, but not as bad! I ended up butchering that side too...

This is where I basically left off for a while. Next post is reconstructing all of this.

 

[conor1n]

Ok, so I must admit that the next update is a little light on the photo detail, as I just needed to get on with it really and to be honest, I kept forgetting to take photos.

Here is the first sill section I ever went about making for a car, and I must say that it isn't really all that bad. It was the only steel I had to hand and was quite heavy. In the end, by the time it came to welding, a scrap car had arrive and I cut some bits off that to make lighter sections. My concern with this stuff was that it would be too heavy to weld up against lighter stuff. Given my inexperience, I might just end up burning away at the lighter stuff..

It did fit nicely though

The profile of the section wasn't exact. But for a track car, and a sill that will be covered by a side skirt, and it being my first attempt, it wasn't all that bad.

FYI - This is what I used to perform the bending. It's a bit of angle steel and what I think is a pin from a digger attachment setup. The pin was mega heavy and that day I was the only person in workshop, so I had to try and balance it all up while turning the vice. It was a somewhat failed attempt and the curve ended up a bit wonky but you wouldn't notice it. I managed to cut off the end that was way off.

Oh.. and I came across this photo in my journal.. it's the local clay shooting ground. I have been living at home with parents the last 12 months and as a result of having a little extra money, I ended up buying a sporter. I am sure there are a few clay guys here, no?

So back to business. Inspecting this panel, it was all a bit mangled so I decided to cut it away a bit further down to make it easier to fit a new section to straight metal.

 

[conor1n]

It turns out the last update was basically the trials and tribulations of fabricating that section with the heavy gauge steel, which ended up being a throwaway piece. Good practice though :+1

Anyway, this is what I have ended up with. Various little bits to build back up the sections that had rotted/been cut. Ignore the left piece which is the heavy.

While I remember.. This section was going to prove a challenge due to the corrugated nature of the panel. I wouldn't be able to match that. I ended up just welding some box close up to it, to close it up and retain some strength. There shall be plenty of seam sealer in these nooks and crannys later anyway.

Here is some support that had completely rotted. I cut the slits and was able to hammer them over. Then weld back together.

Then there is adding some small sections to build everything back up.

Forgot to mention that I zinced and painted the inner section prior to fitting the sill. Not sure it was needed and cavity wax would be fine later.. but I did it anyway. Felt like the right thing to do. I think I forgot on the other side lol.

Best only shot I have of the other section being added, it also shows the first sill section being tacked in. I ended up having to pull this out again, as I forgot to drill the holes and dress for plug welds up top...!

Welded and plugged. Another pass needed as some holes still there (again, forgot photos).

Tbc....

 

[conor1n]

At this stage, I forgot a pic for the next section. But here is the underside, where that support from earlier is. It needed a bit of help to fit with a chisel.

Welded in.. Oh and the massive blob on the plug weld above.. I really tried to burn that in and it built up high lol.

Same trick again, with the ends. Cut some slots, bend over with hammer and weld up again. It worked out quite nicely.. at least I thought so

Now that the sill was completed, I needed to weld in the box section. I wasn't confident of the integrity of what was there in the context of jacking / support. With that in mind, I decided to take some of that heavy steel, jam it in between two sections and weld it in. This ended up adding a lot of strength and meant I had something nice and heavy to weld the box onto.

Okay.. so this is where I really fell down with the photos.

Anyway, I welded in the heavy stuff and made more holes to plug onto the existing sill.

Here is the only shot I have of the box welded at this stage. But I will tell you this. I think I was too focussed on mating the box up against the corrugated sections as mentioned before. With that, I left too much space between the box and the end of the surface. A total mess from a jacking perspective.......

Here is a pic from later on which shows it a little clearer. That isn't a jacking support area right now!!

You can see where I capped off the various welded sections with some weld and ground it down. That is totally sold now I think.

Oh and here is a quick snap of the overall welded in sill sections on that side. I'm not sure I added one of those yet. All in, I don't think it's bad the panels match up nice enough and with a skim of filler I don't think it would look awful. I'm sure there might be some high spots etc. But i'm aiming for function over form on this one as it will be all hidden anyway.

 

[conor1n]

The solve the box section/jack support fiasco, I decided to just add another piece of box on top, as there was just about enough room. I really didn't want to go cutting out what I had just welded in. I needed to be moving forward not backward.. again!!

I had to nip off one corner so it would fit over the weld bead on the existing box.

Oooh maybe it didn't fit then.. a bit proud heh!?

Given that I added the heavy steel earlier, I was able to get a nice burn on for this weld. I don't think that is an awful bead is it?

Overall, I think it's fairly solid now.

Oh and. This possibly the worse piece of welding I have ever done. Basically, once everything was done, there was a bit of a gap in here, which I didn't like the look of. I hammer in a piece of shaped steel to fill it and then attempted to weld it in.

What you are about to see is a result of my bulky mask preventing me from getting light in to see what I was doing, not being able to see the tip of the welder.. and to top it all off difficulty in getting a good arc. It is what it is, and at least the seam sealer will have something to build over later.. ahhhhh! Cover it up, quick!

 

[conor1n]

Then onto the other side... a lot less painful in comparison.

For one, I didn't need to remove the box section support!

I didn't take make many pics of this side, but what I can show you is the completed job here. I think the turned end is even better on this side.

Will be trimmed down to size obviously. Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of it when all trimmed down. But basically, I trimmed it down, capped it off with some weld and ground down to desired profile.

Overall I am happy.

Oh and.. I had read somewhere about stitch welding and started to give it a go on this side. Here are some shots of some decent attempts.

You are now up to date

There are a few smaller bits I need to tidy up here and there, but I am likely to just crack on with that, off thread.

The next stage is a bit tricky.. it's logically time to paint the car, starting with the underside. I ended up springing for some black Epoxy Mastic from rust.co.uk. Supposed to be some fantastic stuff. The issue is it's still a bit cool and damp for spraying this. I would be concerned with the adhesion.

So I might try my best to try and delay that to next month, as late as possible, in the hope that a month shall throw things in my favour even if only a little. I think what I am going to end up doing is loaning a sizeable heater and blasting it at the underside prior to paint. That should get some heat into the panel and drive out the moisture at the same time. Curing is the concern after that. Watch this space.

In the mean time, I think I will work on rebuilding my brakes, which have been sitting there for a while. I might work on the engine too, as this needs the cambelt changed, water pump etc.. oh it needs treating and painting too. There is plenty to be getting on with anyway.

 

[Nick DV]

It's coming along nicely. Don't get too frustrated with bodywork, especially when the rust appears. Step back and go play with the engine or brakes, have a rethink then start on it with a clear head. Just don't cut too much rusty metal away in one go

 

[conor1n]

It's coming along nicely. Don't get too frustrated with bodywork, especially when the rust appears. Step back and go play with the engine or brakes, have a rethink then start on it with a clear head. Just don't cut too much rusty metal away in one go

Thanks. It is getting there.

Yea I have learned that now. only cut away the rust when you have the new shape made. I see Fitzee on Youtube shows how it's done really lol. He does a great job.