Discussion
Last year I was finally fed up with my wife's Alfa's niggles and we've sold it. After a month or two of looking at different cars, we've decided to go with an RS Clio. Can't deny the decision was heavily influenced by Pistonheads. We've bought this car in November:
A '2000 Clio 172 phase 1.
It had its technical inspection (a local counterpart of MOT) due in a few days and while testing front lights were found out to be defective. So I've took it to my mate's garage, took the headlights out and realized the right one is beyond repair. The new ones had to be ordered from Germany which meant the car will be off the road for a couple of weeks, so we've decided to use this time for a bit of work.
Started dismantling
Three weeks of sanding, puttying, spraying primer and more sanding:
Till the last minute we couldn't decide on which colour to go with, mainly choosing between white and some kind of blue. Spent a fair bit of time at a paint shop where swmbo scrolled through paint catalogues and finally found a tone she *might* like. We've bought a small amount of the paint and my mate sprayed one fender to see how it looks in real life:
Decided to go forward with the colour and finally could start spraying. In the meantime got a nice set of wheels from a guy on mx5nutz forum. 15" Advan RG, look the part and are lightweight, though not as light as 16" Regamasters we've ran on Alfa, but still cool and proper Japanese wheels. Tried to fit them and discovered they interfere with brake calipers at the rear and are very close to calipers at the front. Fortunately 5mm spacers helped a treat.
At the same time bought a set of proper winter tyres, Goodyear UltraGrip Ice+ with studs. Besides safety reasons, studded tyres are much more fun to drive in our snowy winters.
After spending all the evening and weekends at the garage for 5 weeks, almost done:
Time to get some rest and spend some time home? No. From the very beginning we didn't like the Renault seats. They're too wide for us (we both are fit
), seating position is too high and reminds of a minivan and I can't say I like how they look. We consider what options we have with a limited budget and find out that Evo4 seats are reclinable
and would allow access to the rear bench. A couple of calls and we go to another mate who built an Evo4 for rallying and has a pair of original seats sitting at his garage.
Another week's evenings spent adapting Evo seat mounts to fit the Clio. Driver's seat partly fitted:
That's where the pictures end. I've actually fitted both seats, passed technical inspection and swmbo is driving this car for a week already but there are a couple things to be done. Rear wiper and RS badge just came in the post and side moulding stickers still have to be printed. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll finish with these little things and make a couple of proper photographs.
A '2000 Clio 172 phase 1.
It had its technical inspection (a local counterpart of MOT) due in a few days and while testing front lights were found out to be defective. So I've took it to my mate's garage, took the headlights out and realized the right one is beyond repair. The new ones had to be ordered from Germany which meant the car will be off the road for a couple of weeks, so we've decided to use this time for a bit of work.
Started dismantling
Three weeks of sanding, puttying, spraying primer and more sanding:
Till the last minute we couldn't decide on which colour to go with, mainly choosing between white and some kind of blue. Spent a fair bit of time at a paint shop where swmbo scrolled through paint catalogues and finally found a tone she *might* like. We've bought a small amount of the paint and my mate sprayed one fender to see how it looks in real life:
Decided to go forward with the colour and finally could start spraying. In the meantime got a nice set of wheels from a guy on mx5nutz forum. 15" Advan RG, look the part and are lightweight, though not as light as 16" Regamasters we've ran on Alfa, but still cool and proper Japanese wheels. Tried to fit them and discovered they interfere with brake calipers at the rear and are very close to calipers at the front. Fortunately 5mm spacers helped a treat.
At the same time bought a set of proper winter tyres, Goodyear UltraGrip Ice+ with studs. Besides safety reasons, studded tyres are much more fun to drive in our snowy winters.
After spending all the evening and weekends at the garage for 5 weeks, almost done:
Time to get some rest and spend some time home? No. From the very beginning we didn't like the Renault seats. They're too wide for us (we both are fit
), seating position is too high and reminds of a minivan and I can't say I like how they look. We consider what options we have with a limited budget and find out that Evo4 seats are reclinableand would allow access to the rear bench. A couple of calls and we go to another mate who built an Evo4 for rallying and has a pair of original seats sitting at his garage.
Another week's evenings spent adapting Evo seat mounts to fit the Clio. Driver's seat partly fitted:
That's where the pictures end. I've actually fitted both seats, passed technical inspection and swmbo is driving this car for a week already but there are a couple things to be done. Rear wiper and RS badge just came in the post and side moulding stickers still have to be printed. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll finish with these little things and make a couple of proper photographs.
Fair points. Either the pictures don't do justice or maybe my taste is.. erm.. different. I didn't really like the bumper when first saw the car but it has grown on me. As for the lights, they illuminate the road much better than the old originals and again, I like them much more with the black internals.
dmitry said:
Each to their own I guess. However I struggle to see what is so out of place with the car and wouldn't mind to hear you elaborate. 
Well as I said its not to my tastes.Don't be so touchy about people commenting on your car.
For the record, I hate the rear bumper it looks awful. The Headlights look odd and I don't personally like your choice of alloy wheel.
But each to their own.
As someone who would quite like a 172 I don't mind sayin that in my opinion you've ruined this one
The rear bumper just looks special (not in the good way)
The head lights look 90's chav
The alloys, well they just look crap on that car in all honestly
Sorry but I really like the 172 and you bastardised this one, It kinda looks like you've taken a base model 1.2 and added 172 styling to it
But if you like it then keep on cracking
The rear bumper just looks special (not in the good way)
The head lights look 90's chav
The alloys, well they just look crap on that car in all honestly
Sorry but I really like the 172 and you bastardised this one, It kinda looks like you've taken a base model 1.2 and added 172 styling to it
But if you like it then keep on cracking
No problem gentlemen, I'm not being touchy. Usually when you like something and someone don't it is quite obvious why, this time it was not. So I was just curious as to what specific details aren't to your liking.
I love Japanese cars and Japanese car scene and the style I'm after with this car is something that wouldn't look out of place at a soukoukai at Tsukuba or Honjo circuit.
I love Japanese cars and Japanese car scene and the style I'm after with this car is something that wouldn't look out of place at a soukoukai at Tsukuba or Honjo circuit.
To rb5er: Of course we did. Areas not sprayed are interior under the trim and engine bay.
RikZR, I guess we'll have to do something with exhaust some time soon. Bumper and exhaust combo is as old as the car itself, they were fitted as a dealer-supplied package in Germany. Now, the zorst doesn't look like it could last for long and might require replacement later this year. We'll see what to do, maybe we'll go for a standard bumper and a more conventional exhaust.
While we're at that, can anyone please tell me, does 172 ph1 rear bumper differ from a usual 1.2/1.4 model?
Areas not sprayed are interior under the trim and engine bay.RikZR, I guess we'll have to do something with exhaust some time soon. Bumper and exhaust combo is as old as the car itself, they were fitted as a dealer-supplied package in Germany. Now, the zorst doesn't look like it could last for long and might require replacement later this year. We'll see what to do, maybe we'll go for a standard bumper and a more conventional exhaust.
While we're at that, can anyone please tell me, does 172 ph1 rear bumper differ from a usual 1.2/1.4 model?
Edited by dmitry on Wednesday 16th January 20:13
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