Following the sale of ST Cup, and the continued disappointment with my 11 Turbo Project (because of the feckless painter) I was looking for something to keep me engaged in addition to my Raider. Many of my piers had already moved on to Megane ownership but I just wasn’t feeling the love for the MK2 Megane so was thinking I would go for a Clio MK3 with a Megane Turbo engine conversion, especially after having a ride in @tutuur’s fabulous car at the 2016 National Day.
I was all set to go down this road until my dear wife @Millie_Bee reminded me I just don’t have the time to be buggering about with a project car. So the search was on for a MK2 Megane and given I’d recently put a Quaife locking differential in ST Cup, and enjoyed it on track I decided I’d have to go for an R26 Megane as it comes with all the lickies and chewies from the factory.
So the search was on and I started to browse the usual webpages we all spend too much time looking at (Pistonheads, Autotrader, Gumtree, eBay). I was originally thinking I would go for a Liquid Yellow one and was in negotiation with a chap to go & have a look at one but then decided against it because of previous paint mismatches.. and the struggle to match the LY paint!
I was then in touch with a guy selling a Blue R26 in good condition with all the OE Decals I was looking for with 89K miles and history et. and was all set to go & have a look and then this appeared on eBay:
Induction kit and Airbox mods with a K Tec air filter
Forge dump valve :an:
Recent new GENUINE Renault clutch and GENUINE Renault Dual mass flywheel fitted in May this year
I wanted a Blue one as it’s my favourite colour (and to match the Raider) so I leapt in the car one Friday morning and hot-footed it down to Tonbridge where the deal was struck!
The following Saturday morning @Millie_Bee and I got the train down to Tonbridge & picked it up:
It didn’t take long for my OE-OCD to kick in :ap: so I had the urge to fit new R26 Decals as I think they look great on the blue cars so started to have a look around t’internet to see what the deal was with them and where they could be purchased. But first I had to address a little bit of peeling lacquer on the edge of the front bumper, right where the new decal needed to go. So for jobs like this where I need my hand holding I call on my Best Man @jas_racing to come round and give me a hand. As quick as a flash the front bumper was off and there was a few coats of lacquer being sprayed on the offending area:
Following a little bit of research, I found that the best place to buy some replica bumper & door decals for an R26 was from a chap on Facebook called Wojciech Żylski in Poland. He’s a great guy and the decals he makes are just amazing quality. £66.50 including postage to the UK is well worth it in my opinion!! They were with me within a few days. :grin.gif:
The time came to fit them and it actually coincided with a little social gathering I was having at the weekend, so I managed to muscle in Mr @Ricardo into helping me put them on. Light spray of the area with water before they were applied (then you have room to give them a quick move if required) before smoothing out with a squeegee. All in all, a successful job!:
Next job was to check over the brakes whilst the gang were at Thomson Towers for the weekend. So they were thoroughly checked over and found to be in good condition… :aa:
Love the colour looks an awesome buy with only 48k on the clock. I would be the same ditching the non standard graphics in favour of the Renault F1 proper versions and cleaning up those mucky corners lol. Update list stereo you can fit a lead from ebay for Ipod/phone if you wanted to ;-).
Next on the odd job list was to sort out the handbrake. The lever itself was slightly damaged so the button wouldn’t always dis-engage the handbrake mechanism… and left you fumbling about trying to release it at a junction. I ordered a used unit off eBay and just transferred over the silver trims, so it matched the rest of the car.
Very simple really, just remove the centre console:
Undo all of the nuts and replace. You have to make sure that you do up the main adjusting nut to the same lever, other than that, very easy.
Whilst I was at it I re-fitted the rubber seals that surround the handbrake mechanism that were lying underneath the centre console. I looked at gluing them on but the best way of keeping them secured in the end was to drop them into a pint glass of BOILING HOT water so they return to their as extruded state, and then make sure that you slide them back into position, don’t push them back on, otherwise you again deform the extrusion, and they lose their “grip” on the centre console again..
I then gave the seatbelts a clean and followed the proven spray with a bottle of Oxy Action Vanish, then a blast with a Jet-Wash. The difference is just INCREDIBLE and I’d recommend you try it even if you don’t think your seatbelts are Manky..
Ah, my seat belts in the Trophy are that colour too so would defo benefit from a good scrub, Renault may aswell have made the cars with seatbelts in white!
