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Renault 5 Rescue

hpojnk

Active Member
Flash back to nearly 2 years ago I got a little R5 advertised on this forum, it had no MOT since 2012 and was in dire need of saving. I got it running and driving and made a cool daily of it and used it all year before giving it to someone else as it was given to me in the first place.

It was mostly stripped and then sat on a yard, got stripped some more and then last week I got it back again, as pictured.. needed a bloody clean and lots of love.

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My plan for it was to do the exact same thing, I wanted to try and save it from being scrapped a second time even though it is only a campus, I've just always liked this one out of all the ones I've had and I just wanted something fun to drive to work in and use as a workhorse outside of my job too.

So I've owned it just over a week now, I started putting it back together with anything and everything I had in stock, gave the inside a bloody clean and then got it running and diagnosing some wiring gremlins. I've had a little bimble about in it on private property and it drives alright so after some more welding and some more parts I'll be taking it for an MOT when it's totally roadworthy. I still need a passenger door mechanism as theres nothing there at all, a seatbelt for the drivers side, and some other parts. But it's a start


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Cheers Adey, keep watching your clio thread for progress its looking great, I miss it haha.

I've not bothered with threads/forums for ages as I'm never on a PC but with TR I can upload pics etc from my phone really easily which is nice
 
Good stuff, glad the mobile side of the site is working well for you too. I now use my phone to upload all my pics here these days. Makes it easier for me that way rather then from the phone to the laptop then to the site

keep the updates rolling i love the older/different stuff
 
Cheers Jon, yeah it needs a driver's side sill, a little around drivers rear window, and some little bits in other places. As you can now buy the sills from gtt spares and cgb etc I'll get one and then do the rest it needs as I also need to do floors in my Escort
 
Okay so I cut the whole of the rotten sill off a while ago as there was no point patching what was left, I can't call the other side saveable because theres nothing wrong with it. But yeah I've now cut all the rot out the bad side, a bit on inner wings and some other places. Waiting for new sill from GTT Spares, very satisfying cutting all the rot out ready to weld new metal in and doing it properly to prevent it happening in future. Luckily the windscreen surround on this one is good too

The sunroof leaked a tiny bit but I never liked it anyway so I took it out and blanked it off, the car should be pretty light as 5's are anyway, but with no interior, buckets etc it should be quite quick when a new lump happens. I've always wanted to do an engine swap in a 5 but I've always been half way through a different one, and after owning the c1j clio this will hopefully be the car it happens to when the Escort is done.

With it running good I've traced back some wiring issues in preparation for an MOT early august so that I can hopefully take the car to RRG in august :)

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The subframe was covered in surface rust too which is all gone now, and with torrential rain happening as we speak I can report the sunroof panel doesnt leak a drop subsequent to fitting it after the size check above which is nice. Also found some gtt shocks I had which are now on as well as some other bits from my hoarde, just need to find some time to finish the rest of the list off
 
Sills rot from inside out on these. My extra van was the same, pushed a small hole at the rear & had to take 300mm off the sill to get back to good metal. More stonechip than metal ! Hides the rust well.
 
Very pleased atm as the sill is on and the cooling system that I always thought was an issue with this car is now sorted, found a fan switch and stat in my hoarde as well as a chinese electric ebay fan which cuts in and out when necessary. Also picked up some super cool rare european smoked indicators off ebay for a bargain £13, last set I got outbid on went for £75 ;)

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Yeah MOT time always makes me nervous, no matter what car it is as I usually book a day off for it. If it fails then fixes, if it passes then goodies.

In today's instance that meant extortionately expensive camber adjustable top mounts from Compbrake, which haven't gone on yet as the rain here is torrential, but I'm hoping they correct the positive camber that comes from using golf coilovers on a campus.

Pov spec PH1 doesnt have this issue as the geometry is slightly different, when using it on one of those its spot on. I've had 5's for years so it'll probably be one of those "forever" parts.

Back to work tomorrow, 5 taxed and insured ready for daily driver use and workhorse use, and RRG soon :)
 
have you got pics of the golf coilovers fitted? used to be able to add a bit more camber just by drilling the top hub bolt holes bigger in the shocks
 
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