Megane Ricardo's Budget Track 225

[Ricardo]

Nothing going on today so I took a drive into South East London (Sydenham). I thought i'd purchase some harness accessories from a company called MSAR who've only been open a month in the area. They specialise in all things related to trackdays, club level upwards racing and more. The chap I spoke to was really helpful and seemed to know quite a bit, I had the impression he raced at club level or was active in the scene practically. Definitely worth looking on their website, there's no other shop nearby that stocks this amount of products. I actually ordered a couple of Schroth brackets off him last week and had them delivered but wanted more accessories today to finish the harness properly.

So I bought 2 more Schroth clips and a bolt in bracket set. Sods law I didn't use the bolt in brackets only as one of the bolts is a thicker gauge thread and didn't have the drill to hand to open up the washer ever so slightly to accommodate the bolt. Instead I bolted in the clips to the OE seatbelt bracket locations using the OE bolts. These clips are nothing short of a lifesaver, homologated and used in racing by the likes of Porsche, they sell loads of them so I've stuck to using these for now. They're a great alternative to eye bolts to use in really tight spaces. I'll have a think whether to use the bolt in brackets at a later date. So the harness straps have been fully adjusted now, sorted.

I've also had a sneeky peak at the exhaust brackets, they don't seem to hard to do so I might give them a go tomorrow morning.

 

[Ricardo]

Can anyone tell me or point me in the right direction in how to remove the plastic centre trim panel where the stereo sits, the glovebox strip and the door pull trims please? I'm looking into painting them an anthracite to tidy them up a bit.

I'm also looking to relocate the battery from the engine bay to either passenger side footwear or boot space. Can anyone tell me what bits I need to facilitate this.

Just giving myself things to do, this is what happens when you have too much spare time!

 

[papps]

Can anyone tell me or point me in the right direction in how to remove the plastic centre trim panel where the stereo sits, the glovebox strip and the door pull trims please? I'm looking into painting them an anthracite to tidy them up a bit.

I'm also looking to relocate the battery from the engine bay to either passenger side footwear or boot space. Can anyone tell me what bits I need to facilitate this.

Just giving myself things to do, this is what happens when you have too much spare time!

Door pull trims can be had by using a teaspoon, or a specialist trim removal tool - prize the top and the bottom - (You should see the gaps to place the teaspoon) and they should come off no bother.

Don't know about the glovebox strip (my interior is slightly different to yours I think), but they glovebox itself is taken out in the following way:-

Passenger door sill trim panel first, then the bit of plastic just next to the boot release clip, then you can take off the side panel of the dash - the one with the airbag sticker on the side of it. Then its 4 torx to get the glovebox out, I'd imagine is really easy to get the trim piece off once the glovebox is out

Battery options are something I've half looked into - stupidly last year my battery died, and I wasn't thinking and just went for a new one, instead of looking into the lightweight options - the Lithium Ion Battery tech is filtering into motorsport and they come in at very good price points and weights. Maybe worth looking into this option also?

 

[Ricardo]

I might go lightweight battery but it's not essential. It's really to give me more room in the engine bay, this week I'll spend some time under the bonnet with a tape measure and to make myself familiar with what's actually under there. I've not popped the bonnet since buying the car, not even to look at the BC top mounts. I'm looking into an alternative induction setup but need to see if it will work before banging on about it

I'm also gonna look into brake disc cooling up front with flexi hoses from the foglights. I think I'm gonna have to get my hands dirty in the next week to R&D some ideas.

 

[papps]

I'm also gonna look into brake disc cooling up front with flexi hoses from the footlights. I think I'm gonna have to get my hands dirty in the next week to R&D some ideas.

Please do!, I'd be interested if it it would make things more £ economical ha

 

[Ricardo]

Time to dig out the axle stands and trolley jack! Will take a front wheel off and have a look at what I can do, I'll design something then speak to the guys who modified the side mount bracket to have them make something up.

 

[Mart]

V6 airbox?

 

[Sash]

As mentioned above pop the side trim off and there's 2 screws to undo, undo the glove box and there's more torx screws along the top to undo including one under a little cover there's also a bit of plastic cover to remove from the lower Centre console it should then pull out.

 

[Ricardo]

As mentioned above pop the side trim off and there's 2 screws to undo, undo the glove box and there's more torx screws along the top to undo including one under a little cover there's also a bit of plastic cover to remove from the lower Centre console it should then pull out.

Cool, is all that needed just to take the grey trim off the glovebox lid?

 

[Sash]

Oh wait I mis read... Not sure let me go look......

 

[Ricardo]

And I'm taking the centre trim off to paint too where the stereo goes.

 

[Sash]

I would hazard a guess they just pull off as there's no screws or anything on the glovebox bit. The radio surround needs the radio taking out and I think 2 torx undoing then it just pops off from the top as there's 2 locating tabs on the bottom be careful not to pull too hard or else the key card reader will pull off ( it should unclip)

 

[Ricardo]

I would hazard a guess they just pull off as there's no screws or anything on the glovebox bit. The radio surround needs the radio taking out and I think 2 torx undoing then it just pops off from the top as there's 2 locating tabs on the bottom be careful not to pull too hard or else the key card reader will pull off ( it should unclip)

Excellent, thanks @Sash there isn't a stereo fitted..... Yet, I can see the Torx screws you mean so I'll have a go this week. Tidying up the dash space to make it look more presentable than it is.

 

[Ricardo]

I thought it was about time I actually did something practical on the Meg, I did toy with taking it to an exhaust place to swap over the brackets but thought as it's a decent evening for weather I'd have a go at it myself. Now it's on BC's it's too low to fit a trolley jack underneath so I have to use the OE jack to give me a head start, after that I use my trolley jack and have the back end up on axle stands and chock the front wheels.

There's only 3 brackets that hold the system in place, 2 on the backbox and the other halfway on the centre section. Worse case scenario from what I could see would be the bolt holding the bracket in place being rusted in and probably snapping the head off..... But no, all 3 bolts crack off with out a problem. The 13mm head bolt holds the bracket to the chassis while the 2 other 10mm bolts hold the exhaust to the bracket. All of them undo without even a sniff of WD-40 so it made for a fairly easy swap over resulting in about an hours work. This gave me enough light to pack everything up and take it out for a drive.

Big difference! Even on start up it's lost the rattle from the centre section, now on idle and driving at 30mph it's made for a much quieter cabin. For the sake of £15 each for a genuine Renault part and an hours work I have to say I'm impressed.

It makes me like the car that much more. So, now the swivel hub bearings have arrived in the post ( thanks @DaveL485 ) the Meg is booked back in with Alex on 18-19th June to have the remaining work carried out. As for the Godspeed 2 piece discs, I was all set to buy when I had a conversation with a friend who now works in a body shop. I mentioned the crease in the rear arch to which he gave me a crude quote to have repaired which came in cheaper than the disc setup. So my thinking is that as the brakes are all new and working well, I'll probably have the bodywork sorted. It's really THE only part that let's the car down.

Mechanically it's 99% there, externally bar spacers it's there, interior bar a stereo and a couple of homebrew ideas it's there. 2 big things I'm also looking into are cooling ducts and induction which I'll be looking at this weekend. I don't think I've taken any photos of the engine bay yet.

 

[DaveL485]

I replaced the exhaust hangers for the THIRD time on my 172 last week, bloody useless things. I home-brewed it this time, the OE ones are gash, do the same as yours pictured above.

 

[Ricardo]

For £15 each if they last 6 months I think I'd have had my money's worth out of them.

 

[Ricardo]

This weekend I turned my attention to the interior plastics. Door handle grabs, centre console and the glovebox lid trim. Just a tidy up as the silver was scratched in places.

 

[andybond]

I wish I could rattle can as well as you. Looks factory fresh that.

 

[Ricardo]

I'm not 100% happy how the centre console came out so I'm on the lookout for a replacement. The other parts haven't come out too bad, I need to buy more paint. My problem is I want everything finished yesterday and fitted back on, I have to tell myself if it takes a week to do them properly then so be it but like everything I was hoping to have them back in already, a bit silly really considering its paint and needs time to cure.

 

[Chris Smith]

If you were local could of borrowed my curing lamp... Little things like that it works wonders for...