JOLLY - OR NOT! I'M FINISHED! ME TOO!

Club Officials

Chairman Gary Creighton 01507 327784

Vice Chairman John Pigeon 01507 328364

Club Secretary Tony Topliss 01476 573212

Treasurer Fred Parker 01825 712916

Membership Secretary Fred Parker 01825 712916

La Renault Editor Fred Parker 01825 712916

Registrars & Coordinators

4CV / 750 Robin Redrup 01480 434984

R4 / R6 Derek Flavell 07816 586642

R5 Tony Topliss 01476 573212

R5 Turbo / Turbo 2 James Oneill 01916 453313

R8 / R10 Nigel Patten 01276 25426

R12 Robert Doran 01395 271116

R16 Paul Draper 01962 793375

R15 / R17 David Kelly 01978 843253

R18 / Fuego Richard Birchenough 01270 764912

Alpine 110 Phil Gardner 01446 710682

Dauphine Malcolm Rogers 01933 357556

Floride / Caravelle Malcolm Rogers 01933 357556

Competition Secretary Nigel Patten 01276 25426

Spares Coordinator Robin Redrup 01480 434984

National Events Len Kiff 01992 420305

Wales Dave Wheeler 02920 309815

Scotland Steven Swan 01738 633788

Ireland Seamus McElvanna 07751 057707

North West David Austin 07850 656663

Peter Bell 01606 44586

Yorkshire Derek Sparks 01845 597942

East & East Anglia Len Kiff 01992 420305

South East Tony Nappin 01329 285160

South West Robert Doran 01395 271116

Editor's Ramblings 911euf@gmail.com

A complaint has flooded in! A mem-

ber feels that the club does not

support the R16 as much as the

4CV he had previously. Well, the club

works like this ...... If you have a particu-

lar model and you write about it, what you

send me goes into the magazine and other

members with that particular model feel a

little glow of happiness that someone else

has written about the fragile tin box which

is the love of their life! That is how I felt

when I read Steve Cole's article about the

restoration of his Renault 10. My favourite

Renault and I am happy that someone else

has not only saved one but also taken the

time to photograph the restoration and

write about it too! All the other Renault 10

owners will read the article and feel that

the club is doing a good job supporting the

10. So ...... has the complainant written

anything for the magazine about his 16 or

previous 4CV ...... No! There is also the

forum but in this technological world if you

don't have a computer you can't summon

it up on your 1960s IBM Selectric type-

writer. I could resort to wholesale copying

and pasting and produce a 50 page, glossy

A4 magazine but that is simply not the

style of this club. I rely on contributions

and if nobody happens to write about the

16 then there will be no articles about it!

We have our three regular contributors -

Derek Flavell, Robin Redrup and Dave

Wheeler (alphabetical order!) without

whom the magazine would definitely be

thinner and to whom I am constantly

grateful. I have also had considerable con-

tributions recently from Lawrence Macduff,

John Waterhouse, James Polden & Neil

Adams etc ......... It's also worth mention-

ing that if you do send in material it could

well take six months for it to appear. This

is not because my brain is working at sloth

like speed but because I am so organised

that the following issue of La Renault is

almost ready to go to the printers when

the current one drops on your doormat!

Anyway, from current details sent in by

members we have, the following cars in

the club. 54 4CV/750 & 54 X R4 / 34 X

R8 / 28 X R16 / 28 Caravelle - Floride / 21

X R12 / 19 X R5 / 17 Dauphine / 12 X

R10 / 10 Alpines (various) / 9 X R11 / 8 X

R15 / 6 X R6 & Fuego / 5 X R18 / 4 X

R17 / 2 X R20 - R9 - Estafette / 1 Frégate

- Juvaquatre - Vel Satis - Clio.

The 4CV / R4 / R8 / R16 / Caravelle Flo-

ride & R12 are the most popular and

should, therefore, appear most frequently.

It is your magazine and the content is up

to you!

With best wishes to all our readers for a

happy and prosperous 2015.

3

had the time to devote to this hobby and has decided to sell the car. This 4CV has been in his family since new and is a 1955

example and totally original. Alan can be contacted on 01777 818345 for more in-formation. Peter Baker from Shropshire has bought Richard Lewin’s 4CV with the R8 engine and running gear. Welcome to our club Peter, should you need any assistance in the future, we have some well versed ex-perts to help you. Jim Cairns is nearly there with his 4CV

which he purchased from Keith Wildish. Jim will soon be sending me photos of this

H ere is another of those “Beach Buggy” 4CVs without the standard seat but a make do for now. This

photo was sent to me by Ed Critz in Amer-ica who is doing the restoration. The car is a conversion from a 1961 model. These

keep popping up and I do wonder truly how many were made. (More pictures fur-ther on). There have been more 4CVs and 750s coming up for sale recently. Barrie Carter of Beaminster, Dorset has regrettably de-cided to sell his 1954 750 which is now stripped for starting the restoration. The chap who was doing the work has left and Barrie has no one else available to con-tinue. The car was in the April 2014 maga-

zine. Any interested parties should contact Barrie on 01308 868884. He is asking £2,500. This car is one of seven 750s that are known to us in the UK and it has the UK dashboard with the twin instrument clocks which are very period and lovely to see in these cars. Being a 1954 model it was the only year that the front grille fea-tured the round badge in the middle. (Picture top of next column). Another 4CV for sale belongs to Alan Mor-

ris of Retford, Nottinghamshire. Alan was an RCCC member previously but has not

4

Renault 4CV Registrar Robin Redrup

robbie.redrup@btinternet.com

early 1950 built car which sounds breathtak-ing from what he has told me. Watch this space! Mark Fishpool of Peterborough has now added a Dauphine Gordini to his collection.

No doubt prised from the hands of a French-man after consuming a few bottles of local wine! This Renault joins the 4CV Mark bought in 2013.

John Henderson in Kent has decided to keep his 1960 4CV and take it to Scotland where he is going to live. We do hope you have a watertight garage up there John! Have any of you seen the ceramic poppy display at the Tower of London? Margaret

and I went and it was heaving with folks from all over the country, what a brilliant idea. We managed to buy one which was lucky as only 247 were left from 888,000 sold. Great cause and congratulations to the person who put the idea forward.

Dave Wheeler's little racer at rest in France

5

Renault 4 Registrar info@renospeed.co.uk

A t Renospeed Hilary’s R4 Gordini is

just about to have a freshly rebuilt

R5G lump fitted, this is mated to a

4 speed R4 GTL gearbox. I will be making

up a custom exhaust system using the

original cast iron manifolds and two bran

“out pipes” as a starting point. There is

also an R5G Turbo radiator to fit and some

re-jigging of throttle and other cables to

improve their operations. Hopefully the car

will be finished before Christmas.

The R12 estate is going well, after my pre-

vious article when I explained that I had

fitted an R18 2.0 litre ignition module, I

noticed that my engine was pinking at

light throttle on steep hills, obviously the

advance was not right after all, and as the

ambient temperature was cooler than

when I first fitted the module I did not

notice this fault straight away. My request

for parts in the last report was met with

universal silence! So I decided to have

another look at my original module. After I

changed the coil on it, the second coil

seemed to be making a high tension crack-

ing noise, so that was when I changed the

whole lot for the R18 one. After a re-think

it came to me that I had replaced one

dodgy ignition coil with a second hand one

that was also faulty! (I had that problem

on my Metropolitan! I changed the coil,

sold it to Françoise from Perpignan and he

set off from Uckfield in the snow. Got half

way down the M20 towards Dover and

the ..... thing packed up. When we got to

him he was sitting in the snow shivering

but at least he had his fluorescent jacket

on. Changed the coil for a really old one

and off he went). Back to Derek ... I took

the coil from the R18 module and fitted it

to my original module and the problem

was solved. After a bit of research I dis-

covered that the coils are often the weak

link in the Renix system and I have man-

aged to buy a new coil to keep in reserve if

it is needed. Other than the regular oil and

filter changes everything else is going fine,

mileage to date just past 40,000.

At home I have been making good pro-

gress with the orange R12 saloon that I

have owned for at least fifteen years.

Some of you may remember seeing it at

the Bromley Pageant a few years ago? If

not there are some pictures on my web-

site. The car has undergone several trans-

formations, the last being turbo charged,

but I have not been happy with this con-

version as it has cracked two cylinder

heads for no apparent reason. I have fi-

nally got around to the initial fitting of a

2.0 litre Douvrin engine, this all aluminium

lump will be modified to give approxi-

mately 200 B.H.P. with twin 45 DCOEs and

a programmable ignition system amongst

some of the goodies. I am not going into

all the details, but at present I am fabri-

cating the engine mountings. The car al-

ready has a Fuego derived 5 speed gear-

box, but I will be fitting an R18 2.0 litre

GTX transmission with the bell housing

from an R25 as this seems to have the

tallest gearing of the lot. The engine sits at

a slant and is substantially bigger than the

R12 was designed to take, but where there

is a will, there is a way. The photos will

explain some of the work which is all in the

mock up stage at present.

I used 4mm plywood templates and they

were translated into the same thickness

steel plate and welded together as re-

quired. I then used a standard R12 engine

mount, plus a third custom mount on the

front on the side the engine leans to.

Yuletide greetings to you all! 6

Derek Flavell 07816 586642

7

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year from:

12

South African Built R8 Gordini 1135

T his year's Competition Diary is now finally closed after culminating in my last event of the year, the FDMC

Sprint Royale held at the excellent Eelmore

Driver Centre near Aldershot on the 5th October. This year was celebrated as the 50th Anni-versary of the R8 Gordini and FDMC had arranged for a special class for the R8G and Alpine A110s to celebrate. Shame it clashed with the Loheac weekend, which resulted in some change of plans by club members intent on going there. As an observation it seems that lately

Dinalpins are appearing at speed events and this time we enjoyed seeing Tony G. debuting the new to the UK A110 look alike, in blue built by Pepe in Spain, a pretty little car in the flesh, Andy Owler joined Tony, with his pleasing on the eye, yellow Dinalpin. Lastly the lightweight A110 was pedalled by Bob Gibson, we all know this car and its drivers capabilities. We also had 3 R8 Gords in the class, Pat’s 1134 ex Goodwood car, Nigel’s well cam-paigned 1134 and my current 1135.

The weather was kind to us again as in-deed it was at last year's event which was also run in the opposite direction for the seasoned competitors. This is the norm, but for some reason I prefer last year's anti-clockwise course. I was joined on the road by Dave Evans who had entered in his Caterham SE 2.0ltr, the motorway journey was a cold

one in the early hours even in the R8 with the heater on but Dave had to stop at Reading Services to thaw out his deep fro-zen face and other bits of his anatomy. With hot coffee being taken, we then ven-tured out again and topped up our fuel tanks before rejoining the M4 again as the dawn sun came out heralding in a lovely day.

The start line queue with Tony G at the front, Pat in the middle and me in No 70. The day promised lots of runs but as al-ways matters got out of hand and we had some delays mainly due to a large oil spill-

age which resulted in a lengthy cement application by the marshals and then fol-lowed by a drivers walking meeting on the course so that everyone was aware where this had occurred. The final class results for the Renaults: Bob Gibson 56.45 Dave Wheeler 1.00.16 Pat Bridger 1.01.89 Tony Gomis 1.05.26

Nigel Patten 1.05.89 Andy Owler 1.07.39 Liz Owler 1.13.39 Dave Evans did a 58.39 in his class.

Castle Combe - Rally Day Nigel had organised his familiar and usual club stand for this RCCC annual fixture and this year the club had a very good turnout

of R8 Gordinis to celebrate the 50th anni-versary of the 8G version. Stuart Levee drove all the way from Newcastle in his ex Seaton/Pidgeon 1135. Pat Bridger brought his ex Goodwood race prepared 1134 and Nigel campaigned his faithful 1134. I was in my own 1135 having driven from Car-diff.

8

Wheelers Wonderful Wintry Workshop

We were also joined by Trevor Davies in his immaculate R5 Turbo 2 and Graham in his R12G both these cars and drivers are regular attendees of this event. While the action was ongoing I had the

rare opportunity to examine all the R8 Gord engines on display with a view to comparing each installation in order to understand the engine mounting orienta-tion and hence work out the correct instal-lation, as I had some doubts with the cor-rectness of my own engine installation.

Trevor's R5 T2, Pat's 1134 & my 1135. Note the 50th. anniversary balloons!

It was obvious to our collective keen eyes that some engines were sloping forward more that others, which prompted some delving of heads under each Gord engine lid to spot the differences in the mount-ings, which is not so easy to do as the ad-ditional Gord bits get in the way. We went away puzzled and slightly wiser so I de-cided to investigate why there is such a discourse between engine installations.

In the workshop

After digesting the various R8 engine in-stallations I saw at Rally Day, firstly I re-call that the standard factory mounts for R8/R10/Caravelle etc. are fixed into the chassis cup with the notched depression on the metal brackets being visible when

viewed from above. This is how the origi-nal old saggy mounts were installed on my car, there appears to be little reference to the correct way of installing these in the car manuals which I have from the Haines to the 1135 Renault publications. Most of

us now have replacement mountings ob-tained from the numerous French suppli-ers, which are faithful reproductions of the original production items - or are they? Going back to the line of Gords displaying their engines, I noted that the installation varied between cars which resulted in the pitch of the engine being very different by comparison, why does this happen? The engine mountings can easily be in-

stalled upside down resulting in a raised timing cover end of the engine which ex-aggerates the engine stance pitching to-wards the fuel tank. The telltale sign for this is also the fan blades clearance from the radiator shroud top which naturally reduces if the engine is installed higher at the pump end, with the lower fan to shroud clearance become proportionately greater. If you are aware of the scallop notch to

show the mounting top then naturally that’s how you install them, but when you compare the new suppliers mount to the old factory mounts, it is my opinion that they have been made incorrectly. If you examine the actual mountings and I have penned a sketch showing the std fac-tory fitted unit [No 1], you will see that the lower bump stop part is closer to the main mount rubber body than the upper

bump stop, that is with the scalloped marker at the top as well. The common after sales mounts from the likes of Ich-ard, Der Franzoze, Melun, Mecaparts etc all show their scalloped indicator to be the wrong way up, which results in an incor-rect installation as sketch No 2 shows. This raises the rear of the engine adding to the pitch angle I mentioned earlier.

9

Wheeler's Workshop

1210

Dave Wheeler

Pen points to original mounting scallop indent with big bump stop uppermost and nearest to it.

This is a new "upside down" typical of all the French suppliers. Note that the scallop is upside down - i.e.: opposite from the bigger bump stop. What is the effect on the car? Little that you can notice really, but what it does is

make the dampers not operating vertically in their stroke, ditto the rear springs and also the gearbox remote control angle of attack changes as well. Some would say this has an effect on the car's handling as a slight toe in effect is created due to the swing axles not articulating vertically ei-

ther, but pointing off roughly towards the rear parcel shelf area. The closer fan to shroud clearance seems not to be an is-sue, also as RCCC member Steve Cole demonstrated a few weeks ago when be brought his lovely R10 to Cardiff so I could evaluate the gearbox for him, I noticed that his new, Der Franzoze, engine mounts were also installed upside down resulting in an obvious exaggerated engine

pitch installation. The solution to all the above is to simply install your mountings with the shortest bump stop part down-ward facing and ignore the scallop indica-tor, all should then be OK. As an aside the Dauphine uses the same flexible rubber mounting design except for the cross member attachment steel bracket shape but to illustrate the upper and lower bump stops relationship within

the chassis cup I have shown this as well in sketch No3. These match the orientation of the factory mounts as fitted in produc-tion. The above named suppliers do make these Dauphine items to the correct de-sign, by the way. It's also possible to note from the following photographs that the old tired mounting types have sagged in the same direction—i.e. downwards.

11

Left side - R8 cross member with original LH mounting (scallop at the top). Right side - Dauphine cross member with origi-nal left hand mounting (lower rubber stop is missing).

1212

Wheeler's Workshop

R8 original tired and sagging mounting on left - ditto Dauphine on right. Larger bump stops on top. It's too late now to know why M. Gregoire decided to design such a primitive rubber block system to hold the engine/transaxle ensemble in the rear engine location of the Dauphine and the R8, as with aged, sagging, cracked and peeling rubber blocks this con-tributes to making the rear steering effect even more pronounced.

Steve Cole also brought along the unique new Mecaparts design for the gearbox side mount system to replace the usual familiar bonded side blocks design. My observations are that they are well made, and appear to have two jumbo sized rectangular rubber blocks, like the gear change ones, in each side giving four independent mounts in total. They have been cunningly designed to be 20mm lower in overall depth measured from the upper right angle bracket holes, to where the inner plates fit onto the two uppermost gearbox studs. This means there is no stretching of the rubber when fitting the new system unlike the standard design mountings which can start peeling apart over night al-most. I currently use the homologated Group Two all steel Girdle kit on my R8, it makes every thing very noisy but locates the whole axle better and the rubber blocks are now acting as spacers but they won't peel apart. The other part of the Gp2 kit was, and is now, the impossible to find harder rubber version of gearbox side mountings and also the engine mountings. Today I only have the hard ex John Price A110 hard side mounts still surviving which I bought from John in 1981, but the Girdle kit

negates using these. Mecaparts stocks a 70 shores hardness engine mounting set but I don’t know what the Gp 2 kit hardness was in period in order to compare same. 70 shores is, however, widely agreed to be comparable to car tyre rubber hardness. My current after sales engine mountings are now installed the correct way around, in do-ing so I noticed that the top, taller, bump stop back face of the rubber moulding has the letters ALTO which translates to TOP in English, I had just not noticed it before.

Competition braking issues While the R8 in its lightweight competition guise is providing better results by reduced times measured in direct comparison with my closest class competitors, the lighter car, 15.5 stones removed, is causing me some further concern in the braking department. I have even more trouble slowing the vehicle

sufficiently without easily locking up the fronts. After changing the pads, discs, hubs, callipers and removing the new servo, it dawned upon me that the fronts are doing all the work, while the standard rears are just providing an effective handbrake. My previous R8 had the GP4 Alpine A110 big brakes set up on all 4 corners, R16 front 48mm callipers and 12mm discs, the rears were Matra Simca Bagheera 45mm dia with integral handbrake mechanism, with 12mm R16 discs. A brake bias valve was retained on the rear cross member, but it was adjustable. My current set up is Golf Mk2 ATE 48mm fronts with 20mm vented discs with standard 32mm R8 rears & 8mm discs without a rear bias valve. To resolve the matter I concluded that I needed to enlarge the standard rear callipers from 32mm to at last +38mm. It would have been easy just to fit the old front R8 38mm callipers to the rear axle but they have no handbrake mechanism. The 38mm Mecca parts big brake version is too expen-sive, so it's back to the drawing board. The internet is a wonderful thing especially with sites such as Bigg Red who overhaul callipers and sell pistons, seal sets, slider sets etc. They provide vehicle technical informa-

Dave Wheeler

tion so wading through the mire of info can reveal, say, a big bore rear calliper with inte-gral handbrake mechanism. I have a pair of Citroen BX Bendix Mk4 front, mineral oil sealed, callipers which have the necessary handbrake parts as well. These have a whopping 50mm piston size which Steve Swan successfully uses on his R8G rear axle, but mine are for 12mm discs and will need to be valved down to stop premature rear locking up. I also have a pair of MK 2 Laguna alloy rears, with 38mm pistons and a good handbrake system, these use a narrow 10mm disc but after a dummy assembly the 13”Cosmics rims rub a little so I have cast my net again. The Peugeot 205GTi has a front 48mm calliper bore with the 20mm vented disc version which means that the cast iron yoke is 10mm wider than its plain disc 205 sibling and is held together with strange 5 sided headed bolts. A special Draper socket is required to disassemble and

swap over the parts. So my next rear axle dummy set up to try is to the spare 20mm Vauxhall vented discs on R8 Hubs with R10

swing axle tubes and the Citroen BX big 50mm calliper fitted with hydraulic oil com-patible seals and the 205 GTi wider cast iron yoke, but this fouls the rearward shockers and brackets. It will require a one off bracket to be welded to the bearing housing part of the single damper tube to bolt the calliper to, allowing the big calliper to be positioned as

its original R8 one, making the hose and ca-ble connections a lot simpler. A bias valve within the car providing adjustment will com-pliment the set up which in theory should address the imbalance between the calliper sizes being used currently, we shall see. Why go to all this trouble to change the calli-per manufacture/design apart from the piston increases? Taking the 48mm R16 type for example, they are secured by a pair of metal wedges into the rigidly mounted carrier, fine for the fronts where the double taper roller wheel bearings can be adjusted to avoid any disc play, but at the R8 rear axle it’s a differ-ent matter with floating of the hub in its single ball bearing race which in fast corner-ing can push the calliper piston into its bore sufficiently to give a soft long pedal next time the brakes are applied - not a nice feeling in competition. Its called Pad Knock off. The Bendix design has 2 generous rubber bushed hollow slider pins with stout mounting bolts inside which give some degree of flexibility in absorbing this disc run out well that's the theory anyway, we shall see. The R8 std Lockheed calliper set up is, fully floating, re-member the little rubber tubes in the clamps? This is designed so they can move in sym-pathy with any disc movement.

13

Citroen/Peugeot Bendix 38mm front calliper. Citroen/Peugeot special pentagon socket and 5 sided, pentagon, calliper bolt.

Dummy set up of 48mm Bendix calliper on R8 front hub with 20mm vented disc.

Renault 10 Restoration

Nice to be able to rescue an 1192 from the grave, it's got potential, and if I do the work properly it could end up look-

ing really nice. I spent a lot of time on ebay.fr but I missed a pair of rear inners, but man-

aged to get a right rear inner from vin-tage French cars in Greece, and a pair of rear outers from Eric Masmondet, plus a

rear panel. I'm sure when I was searching Ebay, I came across a set of lateral under body cross members.... I may have been mis-

taken as it was a while ago and I've never been able to find them again. As

you can see, the underside doesn't look the best but I'm hoping it can all be fixed. The brakes will need a bit of work, but I can manage that ok... The body-work issues were the immediate chal-lenge.

In the meantime, there's a picture of one of my original 1964 R8s, which was one without an ignition key and strange fabric seats. I guess it has long since rusted away, this was 1973 after all!

Just wanted to post a few pictures at the

start of the project. The interior is mint, and gives me a very nice feeling when I

I used to own R8s back in the 1970's. Recently I came across a

1971 R10 1300, having covered only 13,000 miles, still with the plastic on the door panels!

At least the interior was mint, but as always, rust had taken a hold. There was a fair bit of corrosion to the rear

inner wings, (and outers) but I've got outer replacements ready for when the time comes. Not bad so far, but under-neath there was some too, on a cross member near to the near-side jacking

point, but as far as I could tell, that was it so far.

The brakes were unserviceable and I needed replacement hoses, callipers etc.

14

Steve Cole

sit inside (like new!). On Tuesday,

March 11th, the car was transported to Barkstons for refinishing! and as the days went by, I was acquiring some nice bits ..... for instance new headlights. But

to start here's the interior: (Pictures on this page). The colour is 686 Gris Metal.

Of course, the underside, is not quite so nice! I had to search for a cross mem-ber (rear of the central pair), and a NS inner rear wing. Eventually I had just about everything else I needed. The re-

placement NOS outer wings and rear panel went to Envirostrip in Tamworth

for stripping and priming. The brakes were not so easy. The calli-

pers looked immaculate, but trying to get the bleed nipples to turn resulted in two of them shearing off. Otherwise the brakes seem in good condition, and If I

can fit new bleed nipples all round, I'll be sorted. The original reg was EIA3638, and I've

applied for a Mainland GB age related plate (K reg).

My original R8

15

Renault 10 Restoration Steve Cole

All the brightwork (bumpers etc) had already been re-chromed and the pieces looked superb. It was at Barkstons for several weeks, as there was quite a bit

to do, which took it to end of June or so. Tuesday 11th of March saw the transfer from Walsall to Barkston's beautiful new premises in Grantham.

The search for inner wings and sills con-tinued! The interior fittings were re-

moved and also the inner front right wing in preparation for replacement. Great progress was made on the front inner wings. The RH front was now complete using a replacement (Upper

Section) inner wing, and work had now started on the LH. Unfortunately no

spare was available, so Andy had to improvise.

Meanwhile inside the car, work was now complete on stripping out: all the glass out, all the rubber seals etc, and then the headlining was delicately re-

moved. New ones are available at 250EUR! but the original came out un-damaged even though parts of it were glued.

(Perhaps I ought to visit the forum more! I have sills, headlamps and lots of other bits I shall probably never need sitting in my attic! Ed) The radiator panel needed removal so I

set about draining the coolant by means

of the usefully provided drain point on the bottom of the rad. The nut was on so tight that I succeeded in removing the nut complete with the brass fitting.. Oops. Now the rad panel was stripped,

16

Renault 10 Restoration Steve Cole

and the rad itself went off to a local firm for a refurb. Access to the fuel tank sender unit had

me going .... it was buried underneath the bituminised sound deadening. Cut-ting through around the edge of the barely visible hatch was enough to allow

it to lift away ..... et voila! This then allowed removal of the front to rear wir-ing loom complete to keep it clear of

any adjacent welding work. As previously mentioned, two of the bleed nipples had sheared from the cal-lipers, so all were removed and trans-

ferred to Past Parts of Bury St Edmunds for complete refurbishment. When they

returned they were replaced along with new pads / rubbers / split pins and hoses. The front hoses have to be fitted

with a slight twist in them so that they don't foul the disc casing when turning corners.

With the front right inner complete, at-tention now turned to the rear right in-ner, as I had yet to acquire left side inner panels. Also, there was the loom-

ing problem of the fuel tank. The car had stood for many years with old fuel which had evaporated much of its con-

tents leaving evil residues to clog up the whole system. At the bottom of the fuel tank there is an almost-impossible-to-get at gauze filter and the inner surface needed a thorough clean up too. For

fuel tank removal, the engine (at least)

needs to come out, and as the rear right wing needed replacement, that meant that the whole trans-axle assem-

17

Renault 10 Restoration

12

bly had to come out anyway. So the whole lot came out, and it was amazing how simple that was. As I hadn't done it before, Tony Topliss supervised opera-

tions, and the job took just over two hours, with David lending a much needed hand. It's a case of diss'ing the cables (speedo/clutch/accelerator/wiring

etc underneath). With the radiator panel/rear body panel out of the way, and the rear of the engine frame assem-

bly supported on a mobile trolley, undo the four engine mounts and the rear cross member main bolts. This allowed the car body to be lifted out of the way, leaving the motor/gearbox assembly to

be wheeled rear-wards and out of the

way. Now access to the fuel tank was straightforward, and removal and refurb could begin, whilst Andy could begin on

the right rear quarters. The lower C pil-lar was pretty rough as well, so I had to procure some much needed parts. Thankfully, Richard Allen had put me in

touch with Wim Boer over in Sledrecht in The Netherlands, who incredibly man-aged to find all the parts needed to complete the body restoration, causing

lots of happiness to myself and Bark-stons!

On Saturday April 12 I had a day trip to Holland to visit Wim and get the parts, plus a R16 bonnet for John Pigeon! This meant we now had front left inner square-eye wing, rear left inner R10

wing, rear underside cross member

(jacking point to jacking point) and a full right hand sill complete. The way was clear for Andy to sort the right inner

18

Steve Cole

wing and the picture shows the new in-ner in position ready for welding. The right chassis rail also received attention at the joint of the front cross member,

and the replacement right sill came in useful for dealing with the titanic corro-sion of the lower C post.

With the engine out, everything can be accessed very easily, so first of all the fuel tank was given a wash out. Nasty

crud inside here, and the sender unit was looking very much the worse for wear, and in spite of some attention, still appears a little intermittent. I may have to dis-assemble, or try and find a

new one ... (new one prefer-

able) Anyway, a few handfuls of gravel, and a suitable cleanser with a lot of agi-tation and a few rinses, and the inside

was looking reasonable. Using a mirror and a torch we could see the internal gauze filter which was just visible and looked clear (not a clever place to put

this) and but the tank should be OK. There is also a fuel filter on the Solex 32DITA3 itself, but these filters aren't

enough to stop the build-up of crud in the float chamber, so the carb came in for a bit of a clean up too. What's nice

is that I had an unused carb as a spare should I need it .... and I did, as the main coolant bleed point on the carb was seized solid. I noticed that in the re-furb kit, the accelerator pump dia-

phragm doesn't have a spring like the

original, but as the original was in good nick I put it back in. I fitted an 'in-line' filter just to be on the safe side.

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(I do remember back in the 70's having to unblock the slow running jet every now and again on my R8s).

The last of the outer wings (front right) came back from Envirostrip at Tam-worth, and they always look like new, I must say I've been really happy with

them too. Then it was time to be think-ing of cleaning up the engine/gearbox whilst it was all easy to get at.

Work continued and progress was steady and incredibly thorough. Every last bit of rust was forever banished and (as far as the body is concerned) we

were past the half way point. There

were no horrible surprises as more of the chassis was exposed, far from it, the structural stuff was surprisingly good.

Renault 10 Restoration

Every unrepairable part was now in line for replacement with NOS originals (all procured) and as of 13th May, newly painted (Renault colour 686) panels

were starting to appear. The right hand side sill was replaced in its entirety with a NOS original and the rest of the inner sections were complete, it wasn't long

before the outers were refitted. Meanwhile in the shed at home, I had

de-gunged the fuel tank, but was not totally happy with the result as there was some rust still lurking in the inner recesses. Some research suggested that Phosphoric acid was the answer, so I

got some from ebay, and it really did

the business. The rust had now gone and this 30% acid (then diluted with 3 parts water) even produced a rust pre-ventive action. It was a great result at not much cost. A film of paraffin on the insides protected the surfaces until the new fuel went in. The sender was diffi-

cult to acquire, but Wim dug the deep-est deep and came up with probably the only NOS (boxed) Jaeger late 1192 sender in Holland!. It was a cracking result, so now the tank was complete with replacement rubber work, and was hopefully going to produce a trouble-

free result. Having said that I still put an in-line filter in the 6mm rubber feed b e t w e e n t h e t a n k a n d t h e

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Steve Cole

pump. Pumps are readily available from franzose.de (and also from your local Renault dealer!) so I indulged in a new one, although there was nothing wrong

with the existing one I just wanted to make it as reliable as I could. Things are so nice in boxes, and (thanks

to Nigel) I also acquired a NOS Solex 32DITA3, still in the Solex box together with the original documentation 'carte

postale' etc, should there be any prob-lems with the original. I didn't envisage any problems as I did a franzose refurb on it and it looked OK, but I do like original parts in their boxes, and the

(temporary) sight of this brand new carb

on the kitchen table was the best orna-ment anyone could wish for! With the fuel tank out of the way, shed-work started on the rad panel, and shroud. There were some small amounts of surface rust, but easily dealt

with and de-rusted, primed and painted. The radiator came back from the rad-rebuilders and is as new (probably bet-ter than), perfect inside, because I did-n't want any cooling issues, though I had a spare water pump standing by if there was any trouble. I hadn't come to

a decision on the thermostat yet but I have a replacement QH one (QTH114) although it looks a lot different to the

one that's on the car, but compatible I believe, so I'll see if the existing one works first. Also in the shed, the head-light surrounds were brasso'd and

looked as good as new, amazing that they are 43yrs old ..... very satisfying! Back at Barkston's work had now

started on the LH side, with parts of the steering being dismantled in preparation for fitting a complete NOS front in-

ner. The A post was pretty bad and the sill also had to be replaced in its entirety on this side too. I gotta say I'm very grateful for the way Tony popped along every now and again to give tremen-

dous support to this project and expert

advice, together with the necessary tools needed to deal with the steering/ suspension component disassembly,

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Renault 10 Restoration

even bringing spares which might be needed if there were problems. Fantastic support. Looking down the end of the tunnel, I could see something glimmering! Andy

placed the last of the inner wings (rear NS) in position ... A great day, and with the rear rad panel mounted (lined up per-fectly) it all seemed like a great leap ...... mm well .. Not quite.... On the other side of the workshop a disas-ter was brewing. I had acquired a new pair of Al-Ko rear dampers off eBay for £21 a pair (!) ..... the intention being for

'shelf spares'..... BUT ... as the motor unit was out, it seemed sensible to swap them out. It is such an easy job with the unit out, and Tony came along with the vital tools ... i.e. the pukka spring compres-sors. Incredibly, all the nuts unscrewed OK, and in a few minutes the springs were

off and the telescopic dampers were out. An inspection on the OS spring support mounting and lower damper joint showed loads of rusty looking crud, which all scraped off and cleaned up to reveal these parts to be serviceable. BUT... the NS was

a very different story. Poking around and a clean up showed titanic corrosion, with an unserviceable 'U' section for the damper bolt, and worse, the support structure for the road spring was wafer thin, and would have almost certainly have failed in use. So, as it turned out, what an excellent idea it was to replace the dampers and discover this lurking hor-ror. The 'U' section which holds the lower

damper bolt could be broken off by hand it was so thin. This is quite a rust trap as there is a drain hole in the road spring support which was blocked by a load of crud. Water is fine if it can drain off, but with a build up of crud, drainage becomes a problem, and slow rusting is possible. Strangely, the OS one was perfect, ... maybe its the 'crud in the road gutter' effect. Anyway, a disassembly of the

wheel fittings was now needed, to gain access to the countersunk screw on the inside of the top of the drive shaft tube .... and the realisation dawned that a complete replacement tube was needed complete with the road spring support, which is basically welded on to the tube. A phone call to Nigel later, and I picked one up the following Sunday!

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Steve Cole

Meanwhile, the five road wheels complete with Michelin 135-15ZX's, were in need of a refurb, so (following RCCC recommen-dations) I took them down the road from Grantham to 'Wheel-Genie' in Huntingdon.

That was a good move too .... very knowl-edgeable, so an order was placed for full refurb, powder primer and 'Old German' silver satin finish on top. The spare had been flat, and it was noticed that this was a tube-less tyre, whereas the 4 road ones were all tubed. I acquired a replacement Michelin tube in readiness for any prob-lems (from ECAS).

I also acquired a Fulmen battery (FB-450) off Amazon, and a replacement clutch for the 1192 (170mm 20 teeth)(Franzose) .... again intended as a shelf spare, but com-mon-sense suggested that I should fit that too! From the pics you can see the beautiful job that Paul was making of the paint-work. It took me quite a while to be con-

vinced that the modern paints could give

the 'retro-look' ... but he has done a care-fully crafted job, shiny but not too shiny, smooth with a hint of retro 'orange-peel', together with a flawless finish so by now I was totally sold on it. Also, the old paint is not a patch on the modern stuff, and

that's such a benefit too. Long lasting, robust, and the 686 colour suits the 10 real nice. By this time I was beginning to think about aerial, radio, and speakers the end must be in sight! June 2nd: having picked up the replace-ment LH axle tube, it was then time to fit. This went smoothly, and the spring support could now do its job. The cross

member support that the springs fit in to was given some attention and the upper spring fittings were removed complete with the rubber mounts which cushion the action of the spring against the cross member. The bare cross member (and the rear road springs) were then taken up to JB Blasting at Foston for specialist clean-ing. On the car the last of the NOS body parts was welded in and the welding work

was complete. The next phase, after thoroughly sealing all the seamed joints, was to rub down, and prepare for paint. Meantime I was in delivery of an-other couple of parcels. One was an eBay purchase, a couple of original boxed head-light surrounds new and mint, at 150 Eu-ros the pair! .... some things are too hard to resist! The other was the Franzose 1192 clutch kit. It was noticed that having

fitted the new Franzose rear engine mounts (Art-No:81320), that the (4) holes did not line up with the engine support cross member which connects onto the two mounts, the total error being 10mm, and totally unacceptable. So today I had a useful conversation with Ansgar Bie-mann, and he is looking in to it. I could drift the holes laterally 5mm each, but shouldn't really have to do it. Other pur-

chases were some Comma Heritage 20/50 engine oil in a gallon tin can, and Miller gearbox oil 80EP.

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Renault 10 Restoration

treatment' because now I have the full confidence that all is well with this heavy duty part of the car. What a difference from what it looked before, now all is gleaming and solid. Pity most of it is hid-den from normal view!

June 16: Chassis black & roof day. Lovely stuff is chassis black .... creamy, oily, goes on nice, even smells nice with an 'anti-rust' smell, quite a pleasure to paint on the cleaned up chassis parts. Mean-while, up above, roof work starts and the paint which seemed to be original plus a layer of cellulose, was proving rather stubborn, so some serious stripper was

used. In a short while the messy business was over and the remnants of the old paint layers could finally be removed, showing the shiny surface underneath. A couple of minor dents had to be filled but apart from that the roof was in good nick. A lot happened in the next week: A new clutch (from franzose): I was advised that since the motor unit was out of the car it

was sensible to fit the new clutch, that sort of logic I couldn't argue with! One reluctant (lower) bolt needed heat apply-ing to the ally casting to release it, but it then came out OK, otherwise (although all a bit fiddly) the new clutch went in and the engine mated back up with the gear-box. Re-centering proved a bit of a prob-lem. I had invested in a Draper universal clutch re-centering tool, which proved to

Eventually I picked up the newly shot blasted main rear cross member and rear springs, then they were painted, so that they were ready to re-assemble. A bit fid-dly and I should imagine impossible with-out the right spring compressor

tools. The springs looked nice in their gloss black, and the new AL-KO dampers and replacement front mounts were fitted too. The mounts fail all too easily I've heard and one of the those removed from the car actually had a small pair of nuts and bolts added in an attempt to hold the mount together! With the trans-axle out of the car, the fitting of the mounts is very straightforward (i.e. the holes line up OK)

whereas I understand if this was done 'on the car' the mounts have to be squeezed into place using long bolts first, then swapping to the normal size. Very pleased that this area has been given the 'full-

24

Steve Cole

be not so universal! All 3 of the attach-ments supplied in this device were too fat to go into the 10's engine shaft narrow inner. In the end a long bolt padded out with layers of PVC tape did the neces-sary ..... not the way I like to do things

but it worked. Next came the refit of the reconditioned original parts (brake callipers) complete with Renault 10 1.3 EBC OE spec rear brake pads DP118, from click4carparts. Basically very good and reasonable price too, but there were 3 of one and 1 of the other in the one pack, but when I spoke to very helpful Graham about it, he acted

straightaway in sending out a replacement pack. In the pack there should be 2 LH and 2 RH pads, the 4 rubber 'buffers', 4 split pins, and a useful and vital sachet of copper grease. In the past I have found that fitting the rubber buffers was a bit of a faff because I was fitting them dry, ap-plying a very thin smear of copper grease means that they will squeeze into the proper resting place in the calliper and in

no way foul the edge of the rotating disc. I also had to smooth the edges of the housing slot (sides) so that the pad moved smoothly but without play in its proper location, again with a little smear of the supplied copper grease just on the sides of the pads, so now they are nicely in and it all looks very nice. Must say I like these EBC pads, and its great to get a new box of stuff with Renault 10 on the

end. I also fitted the replacement flexibles on the rear, together with copper washer against the ally calliper. The car was now ready for a trip to the paint shop for the two stage priming proc-

ess, and the colour (Renault 686) ap-peared on the body. The whole body was primed, and where the less vital parts are (e.g. the boot floor which is covered by a mat) then a 1st stage prime was all that was needed to then accept the top coat colour, which is one base coat (2pk) then two layers of protective top coats. But the critical areas of the car body, which do show were given a further second stage

'filler' prime (cream colour) which filled any minute irregularities, which were then sanded out. Then it was time for the col-our to go on!

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Models David Austin

4CV Jolie

H i Fred - Writing to you about a Renault Jolie that we recently purchased. Wonder-

ing, do you happen to do restorations of these vehicles, or know anyone who would?

We're located in Los Angeles, but I don't imagine location will be our primary concern.

Thank you! Jessica (Referred her to the club's restoration department in LA).

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Renault 16 50th Anniversary UK Tour

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Y es! An event for R16 owners. (See editorial)! A special event is being arranged to celebrate this milestone for the Renault 16. All Renault 16 owners are in-vited to participate in a two day tour based on a three night stay in Skipton,

Yorkshire. The accommodation is at the Hotel Rendezvous which has a restaurant overlooking the canal. It also boasts a fitness centre and swimming pool which are both free to guests. Accommodation: The total price for three nights, based on arrival on Friday the 14th August. Standard double, twin or studio £131.25 per person. Room with canal view £292.50 per person. Superior double room £322.50 per person. Breakfast is £9 each per day and the evening meal is also extra. (You may wish to stay elsewhere and join us during the day.) Itinerary: Arrive Friday afternoon - evening meal 7pm. Saturday depart Skipton 9am arrive Malham Cove 9.30am. (14 miles 30 minutes). Short walk to this amphitheatre cove where you can explore the unusual features of the limestone pavement on the top. Or, you may like to see the spectacular Gore-dale Scar gorge at 1.5 miles from Malham. Lunch back in Malham. Depart Malham at 12 noon arrive at the Fred Dibnah heritage centre Bolton 1.30pm. (49 miles 1 hr 25 minutes.) Here we start a guided tour at 2pm of what was Fred Dibnah’s home in Radcliffe Road Bolton, which was televised, showing all the buildings, workshops, machinery and traction engines. We are also entertained by Alf Molineux telling us of Fred’s escapades and experiences which he shared with him. Entry fee is £12 and includes refreshments. Depart Bolton 4.30pm to arrive back at Skipton 6pm. (47 miles 1 hr 15 minutes). Evening meal 7pm. Sunday depart Skipton 9am arrive Castle Bolton 10.15am. (32 miles 1 hr 10 min-utes) Visit castle entry fee £8.50 concessions £7. A spectacular castle set in Wensly-dale featuring owl displays and archery. Depart castle 12 noon arrive in Reeth 12.15. (6.5 miles 15 minutes) Lunch stop and show cars on Reeth green, an abso-lutely glorious spot. Depart Reeth 1.30pm arrive Tan Hill pub 2pm. (11.5 miles 25 minutes) Short stop for views. Depart Tan hill 2.30pm arrive at Buttertubs 2.50pm. (9 miles 20 minutes) Look at Buttertubs. Essentially 60 to 100 foot deep shafts that rainwater has carved out over a very long time. Depart Buttertubs 3.20pm arrive Hawes 3.30pm. (3 miles 10 minutes) Walk around Hawes and afternoon cuppa. Here you can visit the Wenslydale cheese factory, a Dales museum, nice shops. Depart Hawes 4.45pm and arrive back at Skipton 6pm. (31 miles 1 hr 5 minutes.) This drive includes some of the very best scenery you will ever see in Yorkshire, it is stunning. Evening meal 7pm. Depart for home Monday morning. Contact Gary Creighton: 01507 327784 or email: ggcton@gmail.com

My Home Restoration Keith Glover

O ver the years I have had many classic cars, from a MK11 Jag to a Triumph GT6.

With retirement my thoughts turned to having another after a few years' break. My thoughts turned back to the 60’s and my mate's Dauphine as something a bit different that was a challenge. During my search, I came across a Renault Caravelle SGT 5F for sale. Not a Dauphine but very different. The car had been completely stripped and most of the welding done but not all done correctly, so I started my restoration. I was determined to do all of it myself and to sort out any problems. I man-aged to find a home for all the boxes of parts. During the restoration, with the help of the club, Robin and Fred I made the discovery that the en-gine I had with the car was a Renault 5 (810-05) and it did not mate with the gear box due to the clutch assembly. Again with the club help I managed to track down a Caravelle engine near my place of Birth, Welling-ton Somerset. The engine was frozen, but all I needed was the fly wheel to swap over to the Renault 5 engine, so the pressure plate would fit, again, from the net all new and boxed. After assembly the Renault 5 engine mated per-fectly to the gearbox and I had a working clutch. I also sprayed the car myself, something which will need to be done more professionally in the future. I Have also reupholstered the interior (My former profession) The car is now MOT’d and on the road and I look forward to many miles driving after fitting a new fuel pump. (Note: Fuel pumps are available from your local Renault dealer. I ordered one and it arrived two days later. Apparently it is the same as the one on the R4 but you have to block off one of the outlets).

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When it was new ........ Renault 16 Event

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C AR Sandouville are planning a 3 day event to celebrate 50 years

of the Renault 16 on 26/27/28th June 2015.

We already have a number of club members who have indicated a wish

to attend and I have been in touch with CAR and they will supply full

information when available.

It has been suggested that as we are that side of the channel we tack

on two or three nights in Bruges either before or after.

To express an interest and be notified as information comes in, please

ring me on 01507327784 or email ggcton@gmail.com. It will be possi-

ble to attend the event only or the event + Bruges.

Renault 12 Restoration - Now For Sale

Other photos from the restoration were in the October issue of La Renault.

The car was a barn find and had been

off the road for a number of years.

W ell, the R12 is virtually there (in fact it has been for a couple of months) after a somewhat

protracted restoration... Unfortunately, I am very sad to report that due to increasing financial woes I

am looking to sell the car (now all the hard work has been done!). I am hoping for around £2000 and, as you can see

from the pictures, it is looking very smart. It could really do with a replacement gearbox to match the current engine but

as it would cost around £300 to have this fitted I have decided to sell the car

as it is. At the moment there is a grind-ing noise which I've been told by Law-rence is likely because the transplanted engine is an earlier one and doesn't fit the original gearbox.

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John Williams 0788 4315857

It is located in Norwich and can be seen at the following links.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB369mt1j-s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU-lbekx9Ac

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