Martin_172
New Member
Afternoon TurboRenault, I've been registered here for 4 or 5 years and done a bit of lurking but never posted. I've just bought an EFI mapped Twingo GT so thought id get involved but before i start work on that, here's my current project that I've JUST about finished.
She started out as an old £230 Clio DCi Van, I had fancied one for a while for running about in and doing runs to the tip with garden waste etc. I wasn't for paying the £1000+ that most seem to get listed for so i just kept my eyes open and found this ending on eBay, a pretty basic ad saying it was listed as spares or repairs but starts and drives. a last second bid secured it for £230, It was in Sheffield and I'm in Scotland so it was a 7hr return trip, the first leg was easy, the return leg not so much, it had hardly any brakes, all 4 wheel bearings were shot, clunks, knocks, bald tyres, didn't feel like the steering was actually connected to the wheel etc etc, however engine and box wise it was sweet as a nut!
Ill be honest around the half way home mark I was very close to ditching it at the side of the road, it was horrible.
It made it home and before I started any mechanical work i started giving it a clean up to see what it was like. It actually cleaned up quite well and apart from a few scuffs and a cracked back bumper it was pretty tidy.
so then i started on all the mechanicals, it got the works, brakes all round, suspension all round, lower arms, bushes, ball joints, tie bars, track rod ends, wheel bearings etc etc a full service and it ran perfectly, and was thrown straight into daily duty which it performed faultlessly
i started raiding the scrappys and looking for a nicer interior and started replacing anything that was badly worn
Then it got a trip computer upgrade and an LED conversion
Then things started to snowball out of control! I couldn't find a tidy set of xenons for it but an Initiale came up cheap so i bought it, pinched the xenons and sold it on again for a profit
it got a set of alloys
everything was going so well and then, high pressure fuel pump failure took out the injectors too. i priced up putting a set of injectors on it, a new HP pump, filter, cleaning the lines and tank etc and i was looking at probably no change from £1000, i took it off the road until i decided what to do as i couldn't bring myself to scrap it.
Then i got a call from my mate who owns a garage, he had bought a few cars from the auction and this ex Cat C 182 was one of them, it had been repaired years ago where they had cut the front corner of it and welded on a new one from a non RS, the welds had been eaten by rust, the subframe was still bent, the floor was creased, basically it was toast, so £500 later it was on my drive!
and so it began! The plan was to quickly throw it together, i was going to retain the vans interior and loom, leave the vans rear drums and abs system and just fit the front brakes but the more i looked into it i decided to swap EVERYTHING, and just re shell the 182 fully so what i was left with was effectively a white 182 with rear panels!
Now i decided to throw the engine in without spending a penny on it, no belts etc as the car it came out was a proper heap, it had been ran with the poorest "air filter" i had ever seen so i didnt want to spend money on an engine that was toast, so the plan was get it in, get it running and next winter, pull it out and spend some cash on the engine if it was a strong one.
a quick tart up
in she went
wide track front end on
set of genuine mats from the scrappies (notice the 3x pairs of feet, i was really impressed for a fiver, the other pair weren't sharing my enthusiasm )
set of genuine mud flaps
neighbours and Mrs finally happy to see the back of this
cleaned the 182 fuel tank up and swapped it over
rubbed down and painted the rear beam (no pics doh!) and fitted a set of powerflex bushes
and she rolled back out the garage under her own power for the first time in a few months
waiting on either getting the 182 wheel retrimmed or stick a sabelt in it
fitted a pure motorsport AC delete with the PAS delete too as ive retained the vans EPAS
as is becoming a trend when i need parts, i needed a new rear bumper as the vans was cracked, found this cheap as chips with a good bumper, swapped the bumpers, sold it on for a profit again lol
ktec link pipe arrived to link the 182 manifold to a 172 exhaust
got a cheap patern part standard exhaust for it for £96 delivered, bargain! nice and quiet!
bought a cheap 2nd hand k-tec bend from their induction kits and made my own
her first trip round the village to check for any issues went smooth
got a new suspension setup as the setup from the 182 was well past it. Went for grams springs and genuine cup dampers all round along with new top mount kits and new top hats
looking quite the sleeper!
went for an MOT and sailed it without an advisory! (i would have been disappointed if it didn't with the amount of work its had!
Then on the way home, threw an abs fault and lit the dash up like an Xmas tree and the speedo was jumping about. The RSTuner is showing ABS/ESP module unknown status so a loose connector or wiring fault, thats this weekends job to rectify, but she was driving mint and pulling STRONG!
She started out as an old £230 Clio DCi Van, I had fancied one for a while for running about in and doing runs to the tip with garden waste etc. I wasn't for paying the £1000+ that most seem to get listed for so i just kept my eyes open and found this ending on eBay, a pretty basic ad saying it was listed as spares or repairs but starts and drives. a last second bid secured it for £230, It was in Sheffield and I'm in Scotland so it was a 7hr return trip, the first leg was easy, the return leg not so much, it had hardly any brakes, all 4 wheel bearings were shot, clunks, knocks, bald tyres, didn't feel like the steering was actually connected to the wheel etc etc, however engine and box wise it was sweet as a nut!
Ill be honest around the half way home mark I was very close to ditching it at the side of the road, it was horrible.
It made it home and before I started any mechanical work i started giving it a clean up to see what it was like. It actually cleaned up quite well and apart from a few scuffs and a cracked back bumper it was pretty tidy.
so then i started on all the mechanicals, it got the works, brakes all round, suspension all round, lower arms, bushes, ball joints, tie bars, track rod ends, wheel bearings etc etc a full service and it ran perfectly, and was thrown straight into daily duty which it performed faultlessly
i started raiding the scrappys and looking for a nicer interior and started replacing anything that was badly worn
Then it got a trip computer upgrade and an LED conversion
Then things started to snowball out of control! I couldn't find a tidy set of xenons for it but an Initiale came up cheap so i bought it, pinched the xenons and sold it on again for a profit
it got a set of alloys
everything was going so well and then, high pressure fuel pump failure took out the injectors too. i priced up putting a set of injectors on it, a new HP pump, filter, cleaning the lines and tank etc and i was looking at probably no change from £1000, i took it off the road until i decided what to do as i couldn't bring myself to scrap it.
Then i got a call from my mate who owns a garage, he had bought a few cars from the auction and this ex Cat C 182 was one of them, it had been repaired years ago where they had cut the front corner of it and welded on a new one from a non RS, the welds had been eaten by rust, the subframe was still bent, the floor was creased, basically it was toast, so £500 later it was on my drive!
and so it began! The plan was to quickly throw it together, i was going to retain the vans interior and loom, leave the vans rear drums and abs system and just fit the front brakes but the more i looked into it i decided to swap EVERYTHING, and just re shell the 182 fully so what i was left with was effectively a white 182 with rear panels!
Now i decided to throw the engine in without spending a penny on it, no belts etc as the car it came out was a proper heap, it had been ran with the poorest "air filter" i had ever seen so i didnt want to spend money on an engine that was toast, so the plan was get it in, get it running and next winter, pull it out and spend some cash on the engine if it was a strong one.
a quick tart up
in she went
wide track front end on
set of genuine mats from the scrappies (notice the 3x pairs of feet, i was really impressed for a fiver, the other pair weren't sharing my enthusiasm )
set of genuine mud flaps
neighbours and Mrs finally happy to see the back of this
cleaned the 182 fuel tank up and swapped it over
rubbed down and painted the rear beam (no pics doh!) and fitted a set of powerflex bushes
and she rolled back out the garage under her own power for the first time in a few months
waiting on either getting the 182 wheel retrimmed or stick a sabelt in it
fitted a pure motorsport AC delete with the PAS delete too as ive retained the vans EPAS
as is becoming a trend when i need parts, i needed a new rear bumper as the vans was cracked, found this cheap as chips with a good bumper, swapped the bumpers, sold it on for a profit again lol
ktec link pipe arrived to link the 182 manifold to a 172 exhaust
got a cheap patern part standard exhaust for it for £96 delivered, bargain! nice and quiet!
bought a cheap 2nd hand k-tec bend from their induction kits and made my own
her first trip round the village to check for any issues went smooth
got a new suspension setup as the setup from the 182 was well past it. Went for grams springs and genuine cup dampers all round along with new top mount kits and new top hats
looking quite the sleeper!
went for an MOT and sailed it without an advisory! (i would have been disappointed if it didn't with the amount of work its had!
Then on the way home, threw an abs fault and lit the dash up like an Xmas tree and the speedo was jumping about. The RSTuner is showing ABS/ESP module unknown status so a loose connector or wiring fault, thats this weekends job to rectify, but she was driving mint and pulling STRONG!
