21 Turbo The Scrapyard Quadra

[DaveL485]

After going to my blast/powder coat place and speaking with the foremen, the shell will be going in to have specific areas blasted in their big-ass chamber. They will accommodate my specific requirements.

Also, I spent quite a long time looking but I have found a cage maker that I would say is the right combo of quality and price to make and fit my cage. He would rather fit said cage with the roof off as Mark illuded to several times. He also has space in December to fit my car in (yes, the same December as xmas, and two kids birthdays *facepalm*). He has priced me at £1500 for a weld in modern interpretation of the Europa cup cage, with A-pillar gussets and a harness bar with a 7-10 day turnaround.

A few shots of his work. I know where to go now if I ever fancy a tubular subframe!



Downsides:
Money/Proximity to xmas
He's 302 miles away from my house
Moving a car with no wheels 302 miles
I'd want the blasting work done first which is another £500-1000

Anyone wanna buy a kidney?

 

[andybond]

n modern interpretation of the Europa cup cage

What does a non modern interpretation of a Europa cup cage look like?

 

[DaveL485]

What does a non modern interpretation of a Europa cup cage look like?

Erm....a period Europa cup cage?

 

[Turbell]

What they blasting it with? Diamonds?
It's a lot of outlay for an Athens taxi....

 

[andybond]

Erm....a period Europa cup cage?

Ok. What was the period europa cup cage like?

 

[DaveL485]

 

[Red21]

When I had the cage done for my 21, I showed them what pictures I had and they found that to comply with the regulations of that time (1997) the main hoop & back stays could not be in the same locations as they were in 88/89 due to angles and requirements for clearance of the drivers head.

 

[DaveL485]

After a few PM's with @davemaygtt I got some new welding wire in and had a bit of a head reset on settings and stuff (and read the instruction manual, which also helped!)





Bit of practise on 1mm sheet, and welding some old car metal to the new 1mm sheet - seems better. No holes!

 

[DaveL485]

So... Sunday afternoon I tackled a rust patch on the rear NS Quarter where the rear wing joins the boot floor.



Cut out and the back lip put back in





There's a couple of angles as the outer wings comes down to the lip so I made it in a few bits



Now I know i'll never be opening my own bodyshop or anything but i'm quite pleased with it.



Reattached the inner support panel at the bottom as that had all rusted too



Once thats primed and seam sealered it'll all be hidden away so I didnt bother grinding it back, plus access in there was pants. Quite why I took the decision all those years back to paint the inside of the boot black I do not know lol.... the sand blaster will soon sort that out though!

 

[davemaygtt]

Well done Dave, night and day difference!

 

[DaveL485]

Well done Dave, night and day difference!

Appreciate the help mate, thankyou!

 

[DaveL485]

Collected some more parts from blasting/powder coating







Bought a Rotisserie too, collected that Friday.








He didnt have a pattern for a R21, of course, so I had to mount it myself. I only ended up drilling 2 new holes in the car at the front so happy with that. Used an exusting chassis hole and the new hole at the front with L-plates

 

[DaveL485]

Front brackets went in easy enough, welded some bolts in and some nice big spreader washers







Then lined up the mount and marked/drilled the holes



Rear went on the OS towing point and NS bolted to the chassis rail, which is a lot more substantial than a 2wd with all that axle crap at the back.







Then it was time to hoist it on - engine crane very useful to get the height here

 

[DaveL485]

Out came the stands and - over it went! And even better it didn't break in half LOL







Success! Very pleased with myself, a successful Saturday. I have to say Saturday evening 4-7pm in the garage with Dance Anthems on is one of my absolute favourite "me time" things to do

With the underneath exposed I surveyed the full extent of carnage caused by the rust monster. It's...well....it's not great.









Underside of the OS front turret - yes you can see through where the turret skin is coming away from the turret top



However bad you think it is, it's probably worse up close!



Wanted : Renault 21 outer sills

 

[DaveL485]

It's amazing what crap falls out of an upside-down car...



Sunday I went out to Caffiene and Machine in the Vee, gratuitous pic for the sake of it



Spotted a K-Plate 21, seen him here before, last time I chased him down the road in the V6 to say hello - pretty sure he thought I was off my rocker.



Sunday afternoon I carefully unwrapped my subframe also back from powdercoating, and put the new bushes in that had just turned up from France







Then I primed the steering rack that I had had blasted (but not coated) with rust inhibiting primer. Think I will paint this black.





To finish off Sunday I hacked away some more rust underneath and welded up a small 2" square patch, just so there was a tiny bit less rust on the car - because if I keep getting rid of it I will eventually get rid of it all....right?

 

[andybond]

Couple of questions :

1. I assume replacement shells are not available ( stop laughing )
2. Is the qudra shell different to the 2wd one? Could it be mangled to fit
3. Is the 2wd 21t shell the same as a regular not boosted shell
4. Could item 3 new be purchased
5. could 4 then 3 then 2 be actioned to make a new shell?

 

[DaveL485]

1) Sadly not, I have looked. Also, if I shelled it, it wouldn't be "my" car, same thing stopping me buying a new shell for the 9.
2)Yes, the whole floorpan from bulkhead to boot is totally different. You could "mangle" it but it's more work than patching this one unless I found a new Ph2 2wd shell, which wont happen.
3)Yes, the 2.0 one is, but again different floor. They did do a TXi Quadra which would work, but I don't think there's any left anyway in RHD. Even then they would have rust and even then, I don't want to shell it.
4)No
5)Shy of a magic wand, no. I can't even get sills new, or a roof skin, or anything else let alone a shell.

Pretty limited on options tbh.

 

[Turbell]

It's only rotten where it's rotten, I'd just get some sheet folded for sills, leave top seam alone.

 

[Big Steve - Raider]

That’s the way to do it @DaveL485 !!

 

[Neal R19]

That welding looks damn decent from where I'm sitting!

The level of rust is no worse than you were expecting?