30 years old, some mega-mileage Renault erm... Alpine?
Discussion
Hi all, since it's an anniversary I thought I'd post this for posterity!
Technically 30 years old this weekend since its first UK registration so I'd guess a little bit older in terms of factory build date, however I don't have a birth certificate for it so we'll settle on that.
So for the uninitiated, it's a Renault Alpine GTA V6 Turbo, owned by me since 1995 so 23 odd years and in the spirit of Poppopbangbang's mighty 911 story I thought it worth putting up a thread.
The new Alpine A110 is obviously out as well so for anyone wondering about longevity and the fragile nature of all things French, it's probably worth putting it into context.
For quite a few years it was the only car we had, and pretty much used as such. That meant trips to the shops, garden centre, airports, holidays, pretty much anything and everywhere. Snow, floods, sunshine, on roads and over fields, you name it, it went with me. 20 years has seen it witness weddings, funerals, births (including bringing back our first child from hospital in a baby carrier - yes you can fit one in the back seats) and everything in between.
(Ermm it can do mud as well as snow)
What's that mean? Well it retired from 'active duty' about 10 years ago to have a refresh, but by that stage I was at around 188K miles, now 193K+
The refresh coincided with child no1 and then child no2... purchase of a more family orientated BMW M3 and some sense and sensibility perhaps?
In truth the GTA would probably still have been pressed into regular use, but the refresh was sort of forced upon me by some repair work that didn't quite go as planned and as a result it ended up languishing in my parents garage for several years, whilst I struggled to find time (or funds) due to moving house.
When I did get a chance to refresh things, the only logical course of action was to go all out. So engine and gearbox came out for a look, as a compression test revealed numbers were down on two pots. A plan of action was hatched with RATS in Derbyshire for a full engine rebuild and other associated work. Block was sent off to be steam cleaned and of course it's at this stage that the Alpine gods struck as the aluminium around the liners was now paper thin. Iron liners in a silted up block had set up a sacrificial reaction and (after 25 years or so) the coolant had simply eaten its way through the casing.... two holes later it was new block and upgrade time....what else would it be, this is Pistonheads after all?
To be continued....
Technically 30 years old this weekend since its first UK registration so I'd guess a little bit older in terms of factory build date, however I don't have a birth certificate for it so we'll settle on that.
So for the uninitiated, it's a Renault Alpine GTA V6 Turbo, owned by me since 1995 so 23 odd years and in the spirit of Poppopbangbang's mighty 911 story I thought it worth putting up a thread.
The new Alpine A110 is obviously out as well so for anyone wondering about longevity and the fragile nature of all things French, it's probably worth putting it into context.
For quite a few years it was the only car we had, and pretty much used as such. That meant trips to the shops, garden centre, airports, holidays, pretty much anything and everywhere. Snow, floods, sunshine, on roads and over fields, you name it, it went with me. 20 years has seen it witness weddings, funerals, births (including bringing back our first child from hospital in a baby carrier - yes you can fit one in the back seats) and everything in between.
(Ermm it can do mud as well as snow)
What's that mean? Well it retired from 'active duty' about 10 years ago to have a refresh, but by that stage I was at around 188K miles, now 193K+
The refresh coincided with child no1 and then child no2... purchase of a more family orientated BMW M3 and some sense and sensibility perhaps?
In truth the GTA would probably still have been pressed into regular use, but the refresh was sort of forced upon me by some repair work that didn't quite go as planned and as a result it ended up languishing in my parents garage for several years, whilst I struggled to find time (or funds) due to moving house.
When I did get a chance to refresh things, the only logical course of action was to go all out. So engine and gearbox came out for a look, as a compression test revealed numbers were down on two pots. A plan of action was hatched with RATS in Derbyshire for a full engine rebuild and other associated work. Block was sent off to be steam cleaned and of course it's at this stage that the Alpine gods struck as the aluminium around the liners was now paper thin. Iron liners in a silted up block had set up a sacrificial reaction and (after 25 years or so) the coolant had simply eaten its way through the casing.... two holes later it was new block and upgrade time....what else would it be, this is Pistonheads after all?
To be continued....
According to How Many Left probably about 70 currently on the road (GTA, GTA Turbo + Le Mans) and maybe another 200 SORN.
Add to that about 20 or so of the later A610 and another 30 odd on SORN.
So yes always rare and always fun to see another on the road, but it's usually only club activities nowadays when that tends to happen.
Add to that about 20 or so of the later A610 and another 30 odd on SORN.
So yes always rare and always fun to see another on the road, but it's usually only club activities nowadays when that tends to happen.
It's probably pretty similar to an Evora in as much as Alpine are a sort of French Lotus in many respects.
It was 10 years old when I got it, So had about 70K miles on the clock. I was young at the time so everything is less of a concern in terms of practicality. Two rear seats and the space up front meant there was almost always enough room. It even got used a few times collecting computer equipment including a couple of big CRT monitors.
These days being that much older I tend to notice traffic is much worse and it's very low when you're being followed by a 4x4 whose lights are shining directly in your mirror. In fact I was stuck in traffic on the M25 a while back alongside a Ferrari FF - I was dwarfed by the FF.
Servicing was always limited. PJ autos in London for a very long time, but that's the rub... not exactly a dealer round every corner. Parts are a pain and very limited now. RAOC (Renault Alpine Owners Club) is very useful in that respect but still can't magic up something that is not available.
As an example I've just had the rear calipers rebuilt. They're pretty much unique (well almost the same as the 205 mid engined Grp B car but that's hardly a help) so rebuild is the only course. If you know what they are then it can be done, but in this case took the best part of a month what with one thing and another.
It's a second car now so that's not quite the issue it once was.
It was 10 years old when I got it, So had about 70K miles on the clock. I was young at the time so everything is less of a concern in terms of practicality. Two rear seats and the space up front meant there was almost always enough room. It even got used a few times collecting computer equipment including a couple of big CRT monitors.
These days being that much older I tend to notice traffic is much worse and it's very low when you're being followed by a 4x4 whose lights are shining directly in your mirror. In fact I was stuck in traffic on the M25 a while back alongside a Ferrari FF - I was dwarfed by the FF.
Servicing was always limited. PJ autos in London for a very long time, but that's the rub... not exactly a dealer round every corner. Parts are a pain and very limited now. RAOC (Renault Alpine Owners Club) is very useful in that respect but still can't magic up something that is not available.
As an example I've just had the rear calipers rebuilt. They're pretty much unique (well almost the same as the 205 mid engined Grp B car but that's hardly a help) so rebuild is the only course. If you know what they are then it can be done, but in this case took the best part of a month what with one thing and another.
It's a second car now so that's not quite the issue it once was.
Trollied said:
A thread that I'll be defintley following!
Any pics of the interior ?
Ok so here's an interior pic. I replaced the seats a number of years back with these - black leather to match the rest of the interior but a totally different (generic - non Renault) type. Reason for that was really that the original seat springs had sagged through general wear and tear of 20 something years and 180K+ miles of use. They look great and have bigger and better bolsters, but they don't quite fit as well and aren't as comfy as the original Renault spec ones which are very thin, waspish and clever in design in that the actually sit slightly under the lip of the central tunnel. Any pics of the interior ?
Door cards are tan leather - I bought them from a friend who was breaking one. Bit dirty but came up well with some Jiff and look at least a little bit Ferrari. Tan and black interior works for an F355 so why not an Alpine right?
Speakers and stereo are obviously not standard. Old Renault paper cones had long been replaced when I bought it and the 80's hifi that is standard in the GTA looks great but most have died by now.
Carpets were re-trimmed by me a couple of years ago. Again Renault carpet was a sort of blue deep pile type. Age makes them fade to a green stained kind of colour and the deep pile just goes shaggy. So carpet is now a thin charcoal 4-way stretch stuff, all glued to the tub and then with mats on top. There's not a lot of exposed carpet anyway as most is covered by the mats so works well.
At the same time I did the engine cover in the same fabric - clever design there by Renault as the engine cover has a very fine wire mesh bonded to the surface (under the fabric) that's then earthed via two straps to the chassis. This acts as a Faraday cage to reduce radio interference from the engine as it obviously doesn't have a bonnet in the normal sense that a front engined car would have.
Oh and steering wheel is a later A610 version - simply as I prefer the shape.
giveitfish said:
They’re both critically acclaimed yet slow-selling plastic panelled 2+2 sports/GT cars using v6 engines from family saloon cars 
The performance and power figures of the last A610 and my N/A Evora are also surprisingly close from what I’ve just read on Wikipedia. There’s a definite kinship!
I also suffer from 4x4 lights but not as badly as my Elise did, that really was dwarfed by everything. Sadly parts supply is another commonality, it’s just taken 3 weeks to get drop links and bushes for mine and the car is still in productions FFS.
Have you kept your car fairly original or is it more of a resto-mod now? I guess with such a long standing owners club there are various improvements and upgrades people have implemented over the years?
Yes indeed PRV V6 from effectively a Renault 25 turbo - they differ a little (sump etc), but essentially much the same. It's an underrated engine in my view.The performance and power figures of the last A610 and my N/A Evora are also surprisingly close from what I’ve just read on Wikipedia. There’s a definite kinship!
I also suffer from 4x4 lights but not as badly as my Elise did, that really was dwarfed by everything. Sadly parts supply is another commonality, it’s just taken 3 weeks to get drop links and bushes for mine and the car is still in productions FFS.
Have you kept your car fairly original or is it more of a resto-mod now? I guess with such a long standing owners club there are various improvements and upgrades people have implemented over the years?
I guess you'd call it resto-mod. Obviously lots of work over the years when I used it as a daily, but all that was pretty much standard with the exception of upgrade to the exhaust (stainless clone of a Devil system) and the Azev alloys. Only reason again for changing the alloys was that the correct 255 section 15 inch tyres went out of production for a while. There's a 225 option, but I took the chance to change the sizes to something similar to the Le Mans - so 17 inch rear, 16 inch front. Much better choice of tyres, but having said that even these sizes are getting less and less popular as manufacturers see them as very small these days.
Within the club there are a fair few now with differing upgrades. 3litre turbo and 3 litre twin turbos, plus changes to the existing 2.5 engines and even a LS3 V8...
Spinakerr said:
Fantastic machine, 23 years and 123k is outstanding too. Glad to hear it's getting a full rebuild, and any pictures of the work involved, plus upgrades that the owners club and trusted workshops have come up with in 30 years would be stupendous to see.
Well truth be told it's probably in excess of 200K miles hard to say. Most have suffered a bit with speedo issues so all of a sudden the speedo will just drop out and then not work for a while. Mine's been cleaned, lubed and now works well but I probably lost 10K miles at least over the years.One of those things in the club that we all spent ages trying to find an answer for, but only now do we really seem to have cracked it and we're seeing it less and less (albeit less cars around to see the issue with!)
Watchman said:
One of my favourite car shapes ever. Looks so right from any angle.
What sort of power can be extracted these days from the V6 motor without spoiling the car?
Thanks. I've always thought they look better in the flesh than photos though, but yes works well from a few angles.What sort of power can be extracted these days from the V6 motor without spoiling the car?
Catching the last rays of September sun...
Re the engine. 250bhp is now pretty much accepted as a good level of tune and not stupidly expensive to get to (turbo, injectors and remap). 300bhp is within the limits of the chassis and makes for a very quick car. They're about 1100kg so same pretty much as the new A110. Contemporary tests put 0-60 at about 6 seconds (5.8 I think was the fastest Autocar recorded) so the ones running 250-300 bhp are now in the 4.8secs for the quickest and most powerful.
Good article here on one of the tuned versions - JL engineering's work on this example:
https://petrolicious.com/articles/paying-a-visit-t...
Pistom said:
Very nice. Very very nice.
How expensive was the refresh to make it as lovely as that?
Thank-you. I try not to count too much these days to be honest. How expensive was the refresh to make it as lovely as that?
Couple of things to be wary of, firstly the body is GRP and even the bad ones tend to polish up quite nicely. So all that glitters is not necessarily gold...
Mine is probably an odd example to use as a standard re costs as the mileage has dictated that money spent would be considerably higher than a low mileage example. Having said that, I bought it 23 years ago for 9K and it's currently insured for 15K so depreciation wise it's flat at least.
I would say good sorted ones are getting fewer and further between. A few years back you could pick up a project car for 3-4K quite easily (and then spend at least the same again getting it to a fair standard). Probably a good one with everything tight and sorted is maybe getting on for 12-15K I figure, if you can find one for sale.
Atmos (carb engined ones to everyone else) are a bit cheaper, but all down to preference really as they're very sweet when they're on tune. Watch out though as the carbs are rare and a big pain if you have issues.
Turbos are that bit more to buy, get better mpg and theoretically quicker (especially if tuned) but it's all individual preference really. The turbo just has the cool naming and 80s thing...
Le Mans are super rare but again a few people have built some very nice clones using differing engines including the rare 24v PRV.
Notanotherturbo said:
They aren't very responsive to minor tuning, injectors and turbos are close to their limit at 200bhp so boost increases don't gain you much without upgrading (230ish tops). Standard ECUs are very basic and it's only in the last few years a couple of people have put in the time to make them mappable. Hybrid turbo with injectors and modified ECU will net 250-260bhp on a good engine running 1.1-1.2 bar. RATS in Derby have been selling this has a conversion for a few years now and it has proved quick and reliable. Quite a few cars out there on Emerald, Adaptronic and Megasquirt now too. Most powerful 2.5 we've seen in the UK is running about 310 bhp and similar torque. Fully rebuilt with different cams , repositioned turbo, beautifully detailed, built by JL Engineering. Myself and 1 other have fitted Safrane Biturbo engines, mine runs with a single hybrid and Adaptronic and the other runs twin turbos and Emerald both make 300-320 bhp but I need to run more boost on my single than the twin turbo set up to make the same power. The twin turbo car ran 0-60 in 4.6 and 100 in 10.6 at our annual Bruntingthorpe test day. Most cars won't match manufacturers times at Brunty as its up hill so that is very quick even for modern cars. They are very light - about 1200kg. There are 2 development engines that I know off currently being built and both are aiming for 400bhp and I have a project on the go with a 500bhp LS3 fitted in the back. They have a very loyal following despite them being a frustrating car to own at times but they are lovely to drive once properly sorted. For Darren to rack up 193k is massively impressive and a good 50k more than any other car I've seen in the uk.
I knew you'd be along soon! Did you ever do a thread on the black turbo? I know the LS3 one has been running a while.So here we go, some more pictures of the old interior before I retrimmed the carpet and then with the new seats at the time they were fitted.
You can see how worn the old seats were. Oh and pre leather door cards:
Versus after:
Pic including the rear seats:
And after the carpet:
Plus re-trimming the engine cover etc:
Now all that peeling back of carpet also meant finding rust holes on the interior of the sills - so some professional (and expensive) welding to make good. Obviously this is after I'd stuck a big screwdriver in it to make it stupidly big. No point just carpeting back over!
There's a gap there between the seats and the carpet of several years, but this is a bit like Blue Peter and I've skipped that bit.
You can see how worn the old seats were. Oh and pre leather door cards:
Versus after:
Pic including the rear seats:
And after the carpet:
Plus re-trimming the engine cover etc:
Now all that peeling back of carpet also meant finding rust holes on the interior of the sills - so some professional (and expensive) welding to make good. Obviously this is after I'd stuck a big screwdriver in it to make it stupidly big. No point just carpeting back over!
There's a gap there between the seats and the carpet of several years, but this is a bit like Blue Peter and I've skipped that bit.
Around the time I did the seats I also replaced the dampers - swapping from the standard gas filled DeCarbons (which are very good but were well and truly worn out) to adjustable Gaz units with uprated and lowered springs.
Now the lowered springs look great (and the platforms could be adjusted to go very low for racing):
With mine it was now sitting like this:
Looks great but the rear springs were 400lb and I considered it over sprung and under-damped. So more fiddling carried out, including sourcing a good set of standard S/H GTA springs that had been powder coated. These were then combined with the Gaz dampers and everything adjusted accordingly.
To be honest the DeCarbons are good and probably very well suited for road use, but like many Alpine parts they were very rare, expensive and equally 20 years old - even if they'd been on a shelf in Dieppe. So typical path of the Alpine owner of upgrades being thrust upon us.
Now the lowered springs look great (and the platforms could be adjusted to go very low for racing):
With mine it was now sitting like this:
Looks great but the rear springs were 400lb and I considered it over sprung and under-damped. So more fiddling carried out, including sourcing a good set of standard S/H GTA springs that had been powder coated. These were then combined with the Gaz dampers and everything adjusted accordingly.
To be honest the DeCarbons are good and probably very well suited for road use, but like many Alpine parts they were very rare, expensive and equally 20 years old - even if they'd been on a shelf in Dieppe. So typical path of the Alpine owner of upgrades being thrust upon us.
Ok, so going back to the plot and the chronological order of things, some 8 or so years ago, in a galaxy far, far away....
The car at this stage had the Gaz dampers fitted, new seats, and all new rear suspension bushes together with new turbo oil feed pipe (safety measure) and various other bits and bobs including some welding to the front and rear. Suspension bushes are very expensive now, but are a very solid top-hat design so you get what you pay for and Renault knew what they were doing. They just charge way too much these days so I'm glad I replaced them when they were fairly reasonable.
So engine had come out and was with RATS in Derby. The compression test as I mentioned had revealed a low value on two pots - nothing bad considering the 200K odd miles (real miles remember as the speedo had been losing quite a bit on dropping out for extended periods i.e. a few months at a time).
However it was at this stage the block was taken apart, liners and crank etc all inspected. The decision was made to go for a full rebuild and as I mentioned before, the steam clean blew a pair of small holes in the block due to corrosion of the aluminium around the liner bases. Ultimately it would probably have been repairable at a push but just not worth it.
A friend then came up trumps (he used to service and restore Deloreans) with a late cross-bolted block. These were the last of the PRVs with the design really taken from the adaptations that were made for Le Mans - namely cross bolting - a couple of horizontal bolts on each side of the block attach the saddles for the main bearings. This stiffens the whole assembly and is generally 'a good thing'. (Not that the original block had this design and it had survived very nearly a drive to the moon)
So all good fun and the new bearings, liner seals, gaskets etc went in, along with a good s/h crank - the original had just started to pick up on the bearings. Again still could have been used if push came to shove and amazing for the mileage but best to replace. We had some fun when a liner from the new block turned out to have a hairline crack but a new one was made up and went in.
So now we get interesting as all the bits I'd collected over the years to make the 'ultimate' - in my view - Alpine were starting to come together.
So working from the base up the engine was now along the lines of this:
Cross bolted 2.5 block with newly machined liner seats
Low compression pistons with gapless 'Total-Seal' rings (gifted from another project)
New bearings, gaskets, seals, crank (naturally)
Larger injectors
Higher lift cams (I swapped these for the 'interesting' hybrid ebay turbo I'd bought - Chinese not very good but funnily enough with a good compressor from the point of view of tuning)
Revised ECU - still Renix but now with new map
Hybrid T3 turbo
Water cooled chargecooler, plus original intercooler
The aim was always reliability so hence the chargecooler to keep temps down. More on that later, but at this stage it sort of looked like this.
The car at this stage had the Gaz dampers fitted, new seats, and all new rear suspension bushes together with new turbo oil feed pipe (safety measure) and various other bits and bobs including some welding to the front and rear. Suspension bushes are very expensive now, but are a very solid top-hat design so you get what you pay for and Renault knew what they were doing. They just charge way too much these days so I'm glad I replaced them when they were fairly reasonable.
So engine had come out and was with RATS in Derby. The compression test as I mentioned had revealed a low value on two pots - nothing bad considering the 200K odd miles (real miles remember as the speedo had been losing quite a bit on dropping out for extended periods i.e. a few months at a time).
However it was at this stage the block was taken apart, liners and crank etc all inspected. The decision was made to go for a full rebuild and as I mentioned before, the steam clean blew a pair of small holes in the block due to corrosion of the aluminium around the liner bases. Ultimately it would probably have been repairable at a push but just not worth it.
A friend then came up trumps (he used to service and restore Deloreans) with a late cross-bolted block. These were the last of the PRVs with the design really taken from the adaptations that were made for Le Mans - namely cross bolting - a couple of horizontal bolts on each side of the block attach the saddles for the main bearings. This stiffens the whole assembly and is generally 'a good thing'. (Not that the original block had this design and it had survived very nearly a drive to the moon)
So all good fun and the new bearings, liner seals, gaskets etc went in, along with a good s/h crank - the original had just started to pick up on the bearings. Again still could have been used if push came to shove and amazing for the mileage but best to replace. We had some fun when a liner from the new block turned out to have a hairline crack but a new one was made up and went in.
So now we get interesting as all the bits I'd collected over the years to make the 'ultimate' - in my view - Alpine were starting to come together.
So working from the base up the engine was now along the lines of this:
Cross bolted 2.5 block with newly machined liner seats
Low compression pistons with gapless 'Total-Seal' rings (gifted from another project)
New bearings, gaskets, seals, crank (naturally)
Larger injectors
Higher lift cams (I swapped these for the 'interesting' hybrid ebay turbo I'd bought - Chinese not very good but funnily enough with a good compressor from the point of view of tuning)
Revised ECU - still Renix but now with new map
Hybrid T3 turbo
Water cooled chargecooler, plus original intercooler
The aim was always reliability so hence the chargecooler to keep temps down. More on that later, but at this stage it sort of looked like this.
Ok, so car was now back with me along with rebuilt engine, turbo, more welding etc from Lee @RATS and back in its new home (garaged once more - it never was at the old house) as we'd moved and now had the additional space. I think my parents were keen to see it back home again too and not taking up space in their garage where it had been temporarily housed for way too long.
Now sadly around this time my Dad was suddenly taken ill with what turned out to be a Grade IV glioma - brain tumour.
If you have something this long, it goes not just on the physical journeys with you but also the big ones in life, including one of the final trips to the hospice one Sunday. I think from memory he died on the Monday.
Now sadly around this time my Dad was suddenly taken ill with what turned out to be a Grade IV glioma - brain tumour.
If you have something this long, it goes not just on the physical journeys with you but also the big ones in life, including one of the final trips to the hospice one Sunday. I think from memory he died on the Monday.
Pistom said:
This is turning into a fascinating and heart warming thread.
Hope that doesn't seem out of place after that last post but I feel empathy and sympathy with much I'm reading here even if I can't find the right words.
Thanks. Hope that doesn't seem out of place after that last post but I feel empathy and sympathy with much I'm reading here even if I can't find the right words.
As I alluded to before, it wasn't the only event of this nature, sadly we had been to a friend's wedding about 8 years before that which was a hastily planned event as he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer (again a brain tumour). The Alpine then took us to the funeral about 4 months later. He was mid 20s, so far too young. As I said, own a car for long enough and it becomes a constant thread in all these things...
Anyway, on to happier times. The car was now back and although not getting enough use did go to a few proper events that year, including open day at RATS:
And OrigineRS at Goodwood:
On track next to John and his wife Sue. One of life's true gents who has owned his from new, so very nearly 30 years. We're a dedicated bunch...
Super rare two times Le Mans A220 racer with v8 Gordini engine.
I particularly like the bathplugs. How else do you stop things falling into the throttle trumpets?
And a small local meet where we got rained on. Hard.
Ok, so here's what happened next.
So the car had been back with me for a while, and been used a bit before I embarked on the replacement of the carpets pictured earlier. At this point (as per the pic) I'd then found rust on the inner sills so post-screwdriver poke around it went to a local garage for some welding and a small service.
MOT was due at the same time so they took it to a local centre for that, however just as it's about to start the VOSA inspectors turns up for a spot check.
Apparently 'we haven't seen one of these in a long while, let's make it a test case' or words to that effect. To cap it all, the MOT inspector herself was female (which must be a pretty rare thing) and now she has VOSA breathing down her neck - which in a male dominated world is probably more than enough for her to then have a point to prove. Accordingly they spent very nearly an hour on the car and put it through something closer to a SVA test - with MOT lady showing exactly how proficient she was at spotting any small defect.
Ultimately it was passed (on the second attempt - after some more welding) but it now had a massive list of advisories, most of which focused on corrosion - suspension, chassis, subframe etc. Pretty much anything they could visibly see having very nearly crawled over it with a magnifying glass.
Hence it was used a bit that year, but the following summer I decided (before any MOT) that I'd tackle this head-on and correct anything I could find from the prior MOT sheet. I bought some two-part 1-2-1 epoxy mastic paint (as it's far superior to the standard hammerite type treatment), some wire wheels for the drill, new wire brushes etc and dremmel bits.
So here it is in various stages:
Getting better and by this time I'd blown up the dremmel :
Final product. Suspension wishbones, track-rods, chassis, all done:
I even did the calipers in gold.... mmm tarty!
I'd done pretty much the entire car, front and rear over the course of multiple weekends. All done.
'I'll just paint the main water pipes whilst I'm under here, may as well just give them a very slight clean with the wire brush'
It was then that a trickle of Type-D coolant appeared. A constant trickle that I then spent the next 20 mins decanting from various kitchenware into a suitable container.
To be continued....
So the car had been back with me for a while, and been used a bit before I embarked on the replacement of the carpets pictured earlier. At this point (as per the pic) I'd then found rust on the inner sills so post-screwdriver poke around it went to a local garage for some welding and a small service.
MOT was due at the same time so they took it to a local centre for that, however just as it's about to start the VOSA inspectors turns up for a spot check.
Apparently 'we haven't seen one of these in a long while, let's make it a test case' or words to that effect. To cap it all, the MOT inspector herself was female (which must be a pretty rare thing) and now she has VOSA breathing down her neck - which in a male dominated world is probably more than enough for her to then have a point to prove. Accordingly they spent very nearly an hour on the car and put it through something closer to a SVA test - with MOT lady showing exactly how proficient she was at spotting any small defect.
Ultimately it was passed (on the second attempt - after some more welding) but it now had a massive list of advisories, most of which focused on corrosion - suspension, chassis, subframe etc. Pretty much anything they could visibly see having very nearly crawled over it with a magnifying glass.
Hence it was used a bit that year, but the following summer I decided (before any MOT) that I'd tackle this head-on and correct anything I could find from the prior MOT sheet. I bought some two-part 1-2-1 epoxy mastic paint (as it's far superior to the standard hammerite type treatment), some wire wheels for the drill, new wire brushes etc and dremmel bits.
So here it is in various stages:
Getting better and by this time I'd blown up the dremmel :
Final product. Suspension wishbones, track-rods, chassis, all done:
I even did the calipers in gold.... mmm tarty!
I'd done pretty much the entire car, front and rear over the course of multiple weekends. All done.
'I'll just paint the main water pipes whilst I'm under here, may as well just give them a very slight clean with the wire brush'
It was then that a trickle of Type-D coolant appeared. A constant trickle that I then spent the next 20 mins decanting from various kitchenware into a suitable container.
To be continued....
So today's installment....
The GTA is obviously rear engined & water cooled and as such there are two main pipes that go to the rad at the front, plus a smaller one for the heater. My cleaning of the pipes as mentioned in the previous post hadn't exactly been vicious, so this was just bad luck plus nearly 30 years use that meant one of them had sprung a leak now. It was a relatively known problem that we were seeing in the club more and more often.
Massive pain though after all the work and I spent some time pondering whether I had any other option than to get the engine out again. Those pipes are single piece and were only designed to go in with the engine and rear subframe out of the way.
I did wonder though whether I'd be able to sleeve the pipe with some silicone hose as at least a usable fix. Time to try out my specifically long ramps:
Unfortunately not. The split was where the pipes rest on a plate at the front of the chassis just before they divert to either side of the car. Put simply they really do rest on that plate and there simply isn't the room to move them in-situ. I guess with a bit of effort I could have cut the pipes and patched it, but that would have been a bodge.
So I had a bit of a think, saved up some more cash and waited for an answer to appear in the form of new stainless pipes that one of the club members was having made up. These were the second batch so we knew they were a very good fit, well made and superior to other replacements available. Plus unlike the original mild steel ones they won't rust.
They are quite a complex bend:
More hatching of plans and again another trip to RATS beckoned:
Getting the pipes out means dropping the engine, gearbox and rear subframe as a single unit, plus removal of the fuel tank at the front. So added to the wish-list was a gearbox rebuild with all new synchro rings plus strip down of the front end, including peeling back the fibre-glass from around the front cross-member and making any repairs - more welding!
3rd, 4th and 5th synchro rings can still be sourced for the UN1 box from Renault. 1st and 2nd are a different design completely and aren't available. However after a bit of a quest I had one (or two) rings to rule them all. Actually I had four as I bought another set for a friend.
I did make sure they were clean of any grease before this visual gag as this isn't my illustrated copy of the Hobbit and she would have killed me...
The GTA is obviously rear engined & water cooled and as such there are two main pipes that go to the rad at the front, plus a smaller one for the heater. My cleaning of the pipes as mentioned in the previous post hadn't exactly been vicious, so this was just bad luck plus nearly 30 years use that meant one of them had sprung a leak now. It was a relatively known problem that we were seeing in the club more and more often.
Massive pain though after all the work and I spent some time pondering whether I had any other option than to get the engine out again. Those pipes are single piece and were only designed to go in with the engine and rear subframe out of the way.
I did wonder though whether I'd be able to sleeve the pipe with some silicone hose as at least a usable fix. Time to try out my specifically long ramps:
Unfortunately not. The split was where the pipes rest on a plate at the front of the chassis just before they divert to either side of the car. Put simply they really do rest on that plate and there simply isn't the room to move them in-situ. I guess with a bit of effort I could have cut the pipes and patched it, but that would have been a bodge.
So I had a bit of a think, saved up some more cash and waited for an answer to appear in the form of new stainless pipes that one of the club members was having made up. These were the second batch so we knew they were a very good fit, well made and superior to other replacements available. Plus unlike the original mild steel ones they won't rust.
They are quite a complex bend:
More hatching of plans and again another trip to RATS beckoned:
Getting the pipes out means dropping the engine, gearbox and rear subframe as a single unit, plus removal of the fuel tank at the front. So added to the wish-list was a gearbox rebuild with all new synchro rings plus strip down of the front end, including peeling back the fibre-glass from around the front cross-member and making any repairs - more welding!
3rd, 4th and 5th synchro rings can still be sourced for the UN1 box from Renault. 1st and 2nd are a different design completely and aren't available. However after a bit of a quest I had one (or two) rings to rule them all. Actually I had four as I bought another set for a friend.
I did make sure they were clean of any grease before this visual gag as this isn't my illustrated copy of the Hobbit and she would have killed me...
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