It's home!

[rustedandrotten]

Hate to sound critical but you should be careful driving it on a trailer facing forwards. Most of the weight is at the rear which can be bloody dangerous on a mid axled trailer.
Aside from that its great to see the car on the mend mate. It used to be a very very clean car by all accounts and it looks great in the pics! Well done.

Balance point of car was between the axles and there was adequate draw bar loading, don't worry it was checked, as you know mine does plenty of miles on the trailer and balance is critical when you are doing big distances. There was no way that would have launched off to englandshire if it wasn't right!. Also you have to be careful if loading vehicles facing the wrong way, particularly at night as the police take a dim view as it can confuse other road users!

 

[DaveL485]

Looking good. Some decent Recaros make all the difference to the driving experience as obviously the seats and the steering wheel are your two contact points with the car! hopefully they are also mounted lower than the standard chairs!

They will be paired with a brand new RS Sabelt wheel, with the blue alacantera. Got one of the last ones before they ran out

 

[DaveL485]

Hate to sound critical but you should be careful driving it on a trailer facing forwards. Most of the weight is at the rear which can be bloody dangerous on a mid axled trailer.
Aside from that its great to see the car on the mend mate. It used to be a very very clean car by all accounts and it looks great in the pics! Well done.

We got it far enough forward to balance nicely, i've towed quite a lot over the years so although your points are absolutely right, we were checked and safe

 

[DaveL485]

Made a template for the bolt locations of the undertray while the stuff on the bumper was drying

So then it was time to refit the bumper. The passenger side main beam bulb had karked it so had to grab one of those.

Fast forward a bit and its MOT time!

 

[DaveL485]

So the MOT was passed but had an advisory for a driveshaft boot. There was no visible split as such but it had spat some CV grease on to my newly painted wheel so I decided to change it while it was waiting to be geo'd.

The hub nut was super duper "i'm not coming off for shit" tight, i've had this breaker bar eleven years...

In the end we had to break out some heat and the biggest baddest dugga dugga gun to free it up.

While I was there and it was on a lift, I removed, cleaned up and lubed all of the toe adjusters front and rear and marked the left hand threads to save the messing about with difficult fittings when on the geo machine.

Insured it on a private policy today too, I have no private NCB at all as I have been on a trade policy for ~15 years so after a bit of leg work I got a fully comp policy for 3000 miles a year, £20k agreed value and mods declared for £460 which I thought was OK. Cheapest comparison site quote was £850! I wanted the Vee on its own policy because reasons

 

[DaveL485]

Undersealed and a cursory geo, made it to CSS

 

[MarkK]

Great to see the car back on the road again Dave. A real credit to your vision and tenacity!

 

[DaveL485]

Great to see the car back on the road again Dave. A real credit to your vision and tenacity!

Is that a posh way of calling me stubborn?

You're not wrong to be fair!

They like a bloody drink these things don't they, i've barely scraped into the low twenties lol

 

[DaveL485]

The Clifford on the car loves to scoff the battery. At best I get 2 weeks before it drains it flat, common trait for em it seems as my 172 was the same. I have a trickle charger but the battery sits under the front luggage liner and removing that every time I wanna hook it up is a pain. The charger came with crocodile clips and ring terminals though so I fished the ring terminals out, chopped it up and extended the cables so I could route it all and fitted it to the car so I can plug the charger in easily. I need to mount the plug properly somewhere but at least connecting it is considerably easier now.

 

[DaveL485]

Oh and I put my brand new Sabelt wheel on and removed the most hideous OE wheel and stashed it away.

 

[RUSSO]

[mention=4,#000000]James[/mention], do you have any photos handy of the little charger brackets we once had made
Might give Dave an idea

 

[Jamesv6]

 

[DaveL485]

Doesnt that foul the luggage liner?

Might have a look at a similar position actually, my plug socket is that side too.

 

[Jamesv6]

I don’t recall anything fouling, but I believe the PH1 liner may be a slightly different shape.

 

[DaveL485]

Service time! I'm a very much hands on person and I rarely sub any work out to a garage that I can do myself, the Vee will be no different! It's an interim service though, not belts this time

I was a nice day so I moved it out of the garage to work in the sun, all easy enough save for the over-tight oil filter that put up a massive fight. Why people crank these on like they're head bolts I do not know....and try and remember to lubricate the effing seal too!

Oil, filter, air filter, plugs, fuel filter changed and then fitted my rough wheels for proper geo so the croms dont get bashed while we're arsing around under there and camber bolts on each corner so i can have a play with setup and feel. I whacked some negative in just for laughs to see how it changed the behavior and blimey, what a difference! I'll defo be setting up with a bit of that. The front is FAR more pointed even with a **licks finger and holds in air** setting.

Distinct difference in the way it drives after the days work, its a lot happier.

 

[SJ]

For once the italians got it right, about 10 various labels on box and packaging and even on filter, mind you you do pay for the privledge, £140 for a simple oil filter, although to be fair i got it for just over £70 from independant specialist, i’m going to mount the old one as cant get over price, not even dry sump model.

 

[SJ]

See, everything happens for a reason, your oil filter struggle made me think of mine and half an hour in woodwork stewdio i got to try my new mini router and viola.

I now have a maserati paperweight, offers over £70!!!

 

[DaveL485]

£70! Is it lined with gold?!

 

[CdnR5T2]

Carried on reassembling the front end today, lots of trims and stuff going back in. Put new rivnuts in to hold the big trim across the front too, with a bunch of new spire clips and stainless bolts and fir trees.

Car looks awesome. I have a PH1 as well. Someone told me that I had to take the front wings off to remove the
bumper. By the looks of it, you don't have too. I had a custom "trophy" front splitter which I damaged and I want to
replace it. I plan to take the front bumper out and do some minor repairs to allow for the proper mounting of
the new splitter.

Where can you buy the proper spire clips and Fir Tree's . Is there an OEM number?

I also noticed that you changed the rear license plate bulb lense. Has anyone had any
experience with the LED kit for sale on EBay? Mine is clear but the heat from the bulb
started melting the plastic inside. I suspect that the lense and housing had separated or
it was a cheap knock off.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/1X-LED-Number-L ... SwY4pZZdsJ

Or is the original better?


https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Genuine-Renault ... xyY9VRQVbV




comments anyone?

Leo

 

[rustedandrotten]

These should help you! Clips are all still available from Renault as they are not unique to the V6.
The front bumper is readily removable from the car without the need to remove the wings though if you are taking it off it is not a bad idea to remove them for a bit of TLC :approve: I tend to use plastic number plate retaining bolts to hold the bumper and wing together(4 on each side) as this allows these to shear in an impact rather than smash the wings as well as the bumper and vice versa!