Clementine's Garage
Clementine the Cat
 
Image of flower
Yellow R4
 
home my cars restoration tech tips guides forum
Réparateur d'automobiles

A tale for two 4s (GTLs)

Great work and great progress! You had lots of help .....that's brilliant. Mind you trying to persuade them to hold something while lying on the cold hard garage floor on a Sunday eve in December will likely prove more difficult ! I see you made a supporting frame -well done with that too. It will pay to elevate that later when you come to weld the body .
 
JonathanT said:
Great work and great progress! You had lots of help .....that's brilliant. Mind you trying to persuade them to hold something while lying on the cold hard garage floor on a Sunday eve in December will likely prove more difficult ! I see you made a supporting frame -well done with that too. It will pay to elevate that later when you come to weld the body .
Click to expand...
Yes I got the idea for the wooden frame from you and was very relieved when the body fitted onto it correctly. I was going to add wheels like you had but they were £10 each from B&Q so I didn't. Yes I will make the dolly higher before I tackle the bodywork. Thanks for your advice. Bob
 
Obviously I should have drained the oil long ago, after I got the engine running, but I didn't and now we are so far away from getting it running that I had to drain it cold. Black sludge came out of the engine and this wonderfully aromatic stuff slopped out of the gearbox. I know Malcomb is collecting paint codes. Perhaps he could also create a colour chart of engine and gearbox oils?

IMG_7593.JPG
On the subject of Malcomb and oil changes I would like to state for the record that my drain plug required an 8mm tool rather than the 10mm one mentioned in his excellent guide. Luckily the other end of the tool I bought expressly for this purpose was what I needed.
IMG_7595.JPG

I also forgot to drain the coolant. Is this the drain on the block, where the screwdriver is pointing? If so, what will turn it? It looks rather rounded.

IMG_7594.JPG
 
In 1976/7 the drain plug size changed from 10 to 8mm Sq
16mm washer needed not 18mm previously
Maybe the guides need updating
Drain is 11mm use a single hex socket and give up b4 snap it off
 
I got another Renault 4 at the weekend - another C reg GTL but with vinyl seats and a chrome grill. It hasn't been run for years and it was my intention to use it for spares - some of the panels are better than mine - but I have a sneaking suspicion it is altogether better than mine and now I'm wondering whether I should save this one instead. That would mean starting again though and I might run out of room and it's got no paperwork which might be a problem...
2.jpg
 
ha, now you have the Renault bug and it's difficult to stop soon you will more, trust me :clapping:.
 
Looking at your chassis and seeing your rusty bits should make it fairly easy to assess
You can apply for v5 cost £25 take upto 6 weeks
Always a tricky one to decide but you yourself said that it was a learning excercise and I think several of us spotted the blue one on RCCC facebook page my comment must resist
The main thing is it hasn't been scrapped and if you make one good one out of two with parts left over to sell on
 
Chrome grille ( secret squeal of excitement) - how about being old enough to qualify for hallowed old style black and white number plates?
No road tax (at least for now) and lovely oldie style number plates
 
Oh pooh just noticed the 'C' reg bit. But is that correct with chrome grille? Maybe its older Maybe...
 
I started work on the blue car today and got quite a lot done. Bonnet and doors off, seats out and everything disconnected inside the engine bay in preparation for lifting the body, all except the brake pipes going into the master cylinder which was I cannot undo. It was a pain on the white GTL too and I ended up cutting them.

In the background of the photo you can see the body of the white car under the green tarp and the chassis under the blue tarp. I'm now going to remove the wings of the blue car and lift the body and compare chassis. My guess, based on what I can see already, is that the chassis and body of the blue car is much better than the white car but the engine and wiring in the white car are better. (The blue car had lots of additional wiring for a radio and lots of speakers and one part of the harness under the bonnet has burnt out). The black vinyl seats and floor mats in the blue car are also better than the cloth seats in the white car.

Today I had a great surprise because through the post I received the registration documents and keys for the blue car, both of which we feared had been lost. I guess there's no big issue with the DVLA if I put the white car's engine in the blue car (?)
IMG_7694.JPG
 
The blue one is looking decidedly better already. Just look at those inner wings -no fudged repair to the top edges . Ok there are going to be other areas but that's a good place to be good if you see what I mean. Love your enthusiasm keep up the great work:clapping:
 
This has surprised me... As I said in my last post I received the registration documents and keys for the blue car. It turns out that the blue car which has chrome strips on the side and vinyl seats is the newer of the two! The following is taken from my blog (www.beambreaking.wordpress.com)

The white car was first registered on 6 September 1985 making it older than the blue one, which is a surprise since I had thought older cars generally had chrome and newer ones didn't. I bought the white car from a woman in Derby but it was first registered to a man (a teacher) in Over (near Cambridge) who bought it from West's Garage in Cambridge. Wests are still a franchised Renault dealership in Cambridge though they seem to have moved premises. Since then it has recorded 55600 miles though it has not been on the road for the last ten years.

The blue car, which I picked up from Winchelsea near Hastings in Sussex. was originally sold to a lady in Shrewsbury by Reades Of Telford on 2 June 1986. I looked up the dealership but it has long gone, making way for a plumbing shop now. Should you want to know more about Pat Reade and his garage, see Wellington Through Time). This car has done 61,500 miles and has been off the road for five years.

So the plan is still to remove the body from the blue car and compare the two chassis to see which is easier to repair. Then build up one good car from the best parts from each. I wish I had tried to start the blue one now but the lack of keys and some burnt out wiring under the bonnet put me off trying. Now it's too late since I've removed most of the things that connect the engine to anything else. Still I know the white car runs.
​
I think I'll have to change the title of this thread so it includes the blue car.
 
Upon reading your last post , I realised that the car you're talking about came from Reades of Wellington, not Telford.. Only because the people of Wellington didn't like being made part of the Dawley new town, which became Telford.

My father and Pat grew up together and we bought and had serviced all out cars throughout my child hood from there.
 
Our manager at my place of work lives in over Cambridgeshire. I wonder if he remembers it on the road?
 
Did you get the steering lock out in one piece now you've got a key ?
 
mr-reno-139 said:
Did you get the steering lock out in one piece now you've got a key ?
Click to expand...
Well, I didn't get it out, I just unlocked it. Previously I had removed the door lock in order to get a key cut but I had not got around to getting it cut, which was lucky.
 
My wife likes a gravel drive. Me, not so keen.
IMG_7713.JPG

The next photo has nothing to do with Renaults but I have to post it. I saw it tonight in Stourbridge and it's something like this that will probably happen to my Renault 4 if I ever get it all back together.
IMG_7705.JPG
 
Ah that'll be the new rear wheel steering system for automatic parking
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Community platform by XenForo® © 2010-2024 XenForo Ltd.
Back
Top