Turbo2 full restoration in South of France

[Stylin_ju]

hello everyone,

I finally create this thread and add all the pics later this week, this part is the total stripped down of the car and I'm a man of action rather than talk/write. I'll put many pics this week for showing the point I am until now.

It miss the wiring loom/engine/gearbox and the front seat of Turbo 1 (designed by Bertone) as I will find a professional handyman to recreate them as they're so rare on the market, even down in France.

First, last year I knew about my health condition when I was in holidays in France, so now I'm stuck there with treatments, because I hate doing nothing and I always wanted a Turbo2, I decided to buy one then restoring it. The one I choosed one who got all the upgrade available on the chassis ( Maxi5 drivetrains which cost 10k each, welded roll bars, TDC pedals, too many to list now) This car was seating in garage pro in France for 8 years! the client/owner never did anything on it and because it's in the Champagne area, The rust start to come back.......

Then the garage I have in my mom's place overthere is too small, A mate lend me his one which is double size, and I can store parts around during the stripping.

before this friday, all the interesting pics I have will be uploaded.

[Stylin_ju]

Here's when my GTT was towing it to my mate's garage

I'll add more pics on tomorrow

[turbo ted]

Here's when my GTT was towing it to my mate's garage

I'll add more pics on tomorrow

Awsome gt turbo towing a turbo2

[Matt Cole]

Ha. Great pic that.

Turbo 2 looks in great condition. Keep us updated.

[Stylin_ju]

Thx for comments, Turbo2 looks shell is solid and upgraded in solidity, I made it sandblasted for being sure that any rust will ever come back on it.

pics when I bought it

The former owner wanted to make it a MAXI5 replica, that's why, almost everything was uprated on it. Maxi body kit is kinda too much for me. Those big lamps are not discreet (I mean more than this car itself) and hide the little typical face of the Renault 5 ( turbo or not)
I sold bonnet and front bumper for making space. will replace by almost original ones (bonnet will still have the huge intake of maxi one)
I will keep the uprated technical stuff on the chassis, but it will have a closer original look than when I bought it.

[Trevhib]

Sounds like a great plan, keep the pics flowing

[Stylin_ju]

The "poor thing" was seating there for 7 years, all dusty waiting for someone to bring it to his former glory.

[Stylin_ju]

after a drive of a total of roughly 2000kms and 6 months.

I found time to remove engine and gearbox from it, my younger brother helped me out on that.


The thing I absolutely love about this car is that Engine gearbox are in a "tunnel". It was designed so easily to remove or put in an engine inside. unlike the GTT where we need to remove everything ( nota: pic was outside the entry door of my mum entry building in the car park. I would never do this with my GTT which need more space for this operation)
the turbo2 fit in to this very garage. And yes I had and will have to play Tetris....

[Stylin_ju]

then I towing away to my mate's garage which is bigger for the first part of the restoration

well taped for not loosing anything on the road
more pics of the strip tease ( of the turbo2, indeed) tomorrow! that's all folks!

[Bigfoot]

So looking forward to seeing this progress, love these cars

[Trevhib]

You have the Lancia Delta style bonnet on your GTT. Very rare to see that!

[Stylin_ju]

You have the Lancia Delta style bonnet on your GTT. Very rare to see that!

It might be rare in uk, but they "often" come up for sale in France. I wanted one as I made the filter box/compartiment behind the left headlamp, the air intake is already in this bonnet, with phase one grill, it looks more agressive I think.

[Stylin_ju]

strip tease session
Maxi5 radiator style which I'll keep
minus fog lamps
minus one big rear arch, the left grill is hard to removed, and we can see the air intake of Tour de Corse version
the other side, yeah tyres look huge without arches (compomotive 16")
engine bay without seats and engine gearbox( which was removed for easing the towing)

[Stylin_ju]

That part made me sad, as I removed the filler of the extension which allows the MAXI5 rear spoiler and I found some rust as blokes who did the job, didn't cover the shell with anti rust product.... so there is rust, thanks condensation!
The only good news is that I discovered the original color of it and all the previous : It starts its life in pearl white, then maxi5 bodykit then red, then metallic silver. Sorry for the purists, I dislike white in car's color, and I fancy the Metallic Gun Grey KAD of R35 Nissan GTR, so It'll be its new color.
Front windscreen was very easy to remove as they were not glued back in the days
right hand side before I removed the fillered " tour de toit" as I have no idea of the word for this in english, you'll excuse my french
Exact same s**t the other roof side, I even made an hole for removing it. That's the joy of a restoration
driver floor got surface rust, under petrol tanks

[Stylin_ju]

engine bay
which is bit dirty and rusty
view from the hole behind the right rear arch
same view on the left side
interior stripped view

[Stylin_ju]

rally pedals or "Tour de Corse" in this case, I removed the pedal clutch on the pics
finally stripped down

check out its new wheels LOL

the goal there is to put the bare shell it on the truck for bringing it for making sand blasted, but my mate's garage got a slope for going back on the road, so the wheels will help to do that, with other pairs of hands
on this pic, you might see better what I meant earlier.

[Stylin_ju]

I took this pics on the top of the slope
Then we made it

to the sand blast cabin
yes, you're not having hallucinations, the bare shell sat on the floor and take a small sun bath
yihaaa, back to garage now, it'll need an epoxy primer layer all around, for stopping the rust

[Trevhib]

It might be rare in uk, but they "often" come up for sale in France. I wanted one as I made the filter box/compartment behind the left headlamp, the air intake is already in this bonnet, with phase one grill, it looks more aggressive I think.

I agree, great styling choices

Fantastic pics of the Turbo 2. Full strip down and rebuild!

[Stylin_ju]

I agree, great styling choices

Fantastic pics of the Turbo 2. Full strip down and rebuild!

Thx a lot Trevhib. I will add more tonight though

[tubbyG]

Really fantastic to see such an iconic car being brought back to life. Thanks for sharing

Using the R5 GTT as a tow car is excellent

[Stylin_ju]

Really fantastic to see such an iconic car being brought back to life. Thanks for sharing

Using the R5 GTT as a tow car is excellent

Thx tubbyG, I saw that not really a lot of post were in this section, it gives a little animation
It was using my GTT as a tow car or my mum's car which is a 2000 skoda fabia, My GTT is more powerful than hers, so choice was quick made.
In the past I already tow my brother's cars as the clio mk1 diesel and 16V, so I know how to do it now

The tip here is to remove the rear bumper for not getting any scratch in slope and bends

[Stylin_ju]

strip tease done, painting shell !


back to the garage totally naked.
here epoxy primer applied and the good news with this painting is that we can apply the color and the shining lack between one hour and 24h after applying this primer, no wait, no sand paper, gained time!
the weather was excellent but a little windy because of the "mistral", the local wind ( which I personally hate when stronger).

front view with primer applied
general view
inside the shell

[Stylin_ju]

resprayed in KAD metallic gun
front view without under arches in kevlar

engine bay

interior ceiling
interior
its big ar*e painted
I lt the exterior in primer as when It will be running, I'll bring it to a professional painter,It won't have any external default at all.
I'm just an enthusiast and I won't undergo such a restoration any time soon after this one, it's long and full of surprises
As a french proverb says : " when we love, we don't count"

[Stylin_ju]

now rebuilding for towing it away
carbon kevlar under front arches


as I like the air intake and the width of the front MAXI5 arches, I'll fill with some resin/glass fiber the front repeaters. I'll put a standard front bumper later on

[Stylin_ju]

My younger brother helped me (again) to sand and remove all dust on all drivetrains parts, I'll respray them with a special tarmac anti rust spray matt black


put things together
front bay as well
rear drive trains

[Stylin_ju]

I removed the surface rust manually as those bars where bolt during the sandblasting and the respray.

now the first kool part
front drivetrain almost complete and looks new, thx respray!

calipers are wildwood 4 pistons, resprayed in red, at each corners, I rebuilt them with new seals and bleed with Motul RBF 660, which can take more degrees on racetrack while braking oftenly.

[Stylin_ju]

still on its 4 jack lifts, but not for long


As this time I needed to rebuild the front, and light is shit inside, we only can count on daylight, really, I decided to make it a U turn and putting the front at the front of the garage
we took it for a sunbath, we can hardly see the mediterranean sea under the hill in the right top corner of the pic
this pic made me think that I always wanting to build my own car when I was a kid ( with pallet of wood or so..). As a kid this result would be already nice LOL
radiator back, not for long as I needed the space for bolting an under front bar...

[Stylin_ju]

I put the right front wing back with an adjustment with the door, as the previous mechanic guy who install the bodykit did not well

same thing with left side
engine bay
with master cylinder in place
starter wires/water pipes/brake, clutch lines organized

[Stylin_ju]

underneath organisation
fuel tank unblocked and cleaned with my Karcher

interior partially rebuilt
new thermic layer applied on the engine bay

[Stylin_ju]

here's the future bonnet, it's not finished at the mo. I kept the big intake of the MAXI5. View with gel coat applied.
It will need some work. I bought it cheap as big lamps were cut for french rally specs, then no one want those cut.
I was highly interested in the big air intake.
engine bay fresher
Fuel tanks fitted on

[Stylin_ju]

front bumper preview
haha, My GTT strike again and towed it
and it looks better suddenly
as it reached home


Now It need a new wiring loom, new engine and sequential gearbox ( or a cheap one for low revs session)
I will sell the former engine which is a 1550 cc and the gearbox Tour de corse which has 0 miles for helping me to finance what will be next on it.

Thanks a lot to each of you who watch my first part of restoration. Now I need to get back to work on it in the next 2 weeks. that's all folks!

[francob80]

This is awesome, looking forward to seeing the finished article. You are a lucky man, I am very envious.

[Trevhib]

I can hardly keep up with how quick this is moving. Those front wings will look much better without those repeaters

Loving the colour chosen.

I didn't realise the standard design is for the fuel tanks right behind the seats!

[Stylin_ju]

This is awesome, looking forward to seeing the finished article. You are a lucky man, I am very envious.

Thx francob80! but as Louis Pasteur said : Luck smile only to prepared minds.
I wanted one, but didn't know when I might do this.
Unfortunately It's cheaper nowadays to refurbish one than buy one ready to enjoy...

If it's one your dream, and you're a true believer, it will happen to you as well
As Ali G said "Keep it Real"

[Stylin_ju]

I can hardly keep up with how quick this is moving. Those front wings will look much better without those repeaters

Loving the colour chosen.

I didn't realise the standard design is for the fuel tanks right behind the seats!

Actually it happened in around 2/3 last months with some full weeks of inactivity on it.
Yes front wings will look smooth!
Thx for loving the chosen color, one friend of mine told me it HAS TO BE an the first original color, but it's my car, So I chose what I wanted.

Yes, tanks are nicely under your a*se, the bad point is that it could blow your a*se off, but the good point is that it's well balanced in the shell.

[Matt Cole]

This is awesome.

Would love a turbo 2.

Definitely out of the price range now

[Stylin_ju]

Hello everyone,

Long time no see!
I had my surgery mid june, and with the rehabilitation ( I'm still into it btw) and sh*t, I started again the T2 mid July, little by little.
Next week I will update pics of the new wheels, as I sold replicas Maxi5 ones, pics of the engine and machining of top head... ( I hope closing the top head this week, when I'll receive my bespoke head gasket, before I flight to London), scheme of wiring loom ( the hardy part...) anyway, all pics for the following restoration.

Also I will put for sale in the "advertised" section, my former engine of 280bhp, whole pulley system TDC, ignition TDC, brand silicon new water hoses, Ap racing clutch and lightened flywheel.... all the bits that I won't need for finish it

Here's a pic for keeping you waiting


See you soon fellas & thx for looking

[Matt Cole]

Loving this matey and glad your on the mend!

Keep the updates coming.

[Stylin_ju]

Hello everyone,

As I promised Here's pics of the restoration of my T2.
We'll talk about the electric today and maybe my new wheels ( Gotti 75BA in 15")

As I will put an electronic injection (E-Race), so I decided to put a wiring loom of a normal renault 5 Ts with signs of function on it.
then do update functions as radiator fans, fog lamps, intercooler fan, injection alimentation and so on, on a board on the dashboard
here's schema of relatives relays that I had from the 250cv (bhp in French) manual of the T2 tour de corse


Haha, this where it got messy, mixed with the wiring loom of the normal R5
Normally, I dislike a lot car's electricity, but as Winston Churchill once said "If you're going through hell, keep going", And I better be otherwise I won't drive it one day!

[Stylin_ju]

After I sold the compomotive replica of MAXI5 Turbo wheels, I had to buy originals for keeping rolling my car out of the garage ( it's a box size, not very convenient but still handy)
I wanted to get those Gotti 75BA which give the real "back in the days" look to the R5 turbo2.
I couldn't find second hand ones, so I decided to buy one second hand pair then buying from the factory in France ( which still running) and buy the rear ones, in order to get the whole set to fit on mine.

I bought them with centre wheel in white and decided to refurbish them in black with shiny crown inside.
they got primer on it, was done on my mum's balcony . They'll be black thereafter.
, well the black ones are not completely shiny yet, the red are from the factory as I decided to have one side red and the other black, instead of having 2 different colors from front and rear.
after tyres fitted and balanced
then I mounted front ones, I'll do the rear when I will put the gearbox in it.

[Stylin_ju]

Also since my car was a former MAXI5 replica, I had to adapt corners for fitting front original grill then hinges for fitting bonnet.
I did a model in cardboard for having some ideas about where it will be getting the best position for the job.

Here's front hinges I got from forum member Ashy in a swap including his genuine turbo2 parts with some of my MAXI5 ones.
also those parts were rusted, but after having an acid bath, they are fully functional and ready to be painted and fitted.
Front edge ready to be welded
well ,I'm not a professional, but it's solid and will be painted
Both corners in place with hinges just sit and not fitted yet
Yes, that's me trying to se how front grill will be fitting on those corners.

I am thanking a lot Ashy (who is an awesome chap) as the front grill was his, and THANKS TO RTOC for this!

Even in France which is the cradle of R5 turbo, it is very hard to find front grill and some original genuine parts.
Ashy was a real help in the restoration as I can keep going it with parts I didn't have from the start.

Tomorrow or Friday, I will show you engine bloc pics and the fitting into the car.

Keep it Real fellas!

[Matt Cole]

Looks like good progress. Be great when it's done.

[Stylin_ju]

hey there,

Now here's new engine pics. All machining operations was done by a professional down there who is very serious and passionated by those Cleon type engines.
Head and valve seats machined

Valves in place with uprated springs from Catcam ( as my camshaft brand too)

Balanced crankshaft in place with bearings. I have made balanced the full assembly of crankshaft, chain pulley, spacers, ancillary belt pulley, flywheel, clutch mechanism, for a better result. Yes as you saw it well, I built engine on the rear board of the car, I have no space and my movements are limited. This alloy board is very strong though!!
Time to insert those Wossner 77mm pistons into their shoes

Linkage of conrods and crankshaft.
Now we will go into the delicate insertion of this baby into its new home!

[Stylin_ju]

Car's out, sun's out!!
...in the shadow, better to work there as it was 30something degree if I recall well, that was end august.

Ha, this beloved grab arm, A birthday gift from my deceased Dad. It helped me with all my engine insertions in the GTT from Volvo 480 turbo injection from original to uprated ones and one subaru engine &gearbox as well!!! It's still alive, that's beautiful what 100 euros (that was its price back in the days) could bring so much joy in a life time LOL.

My reduced mobility and my good (or lazy) idea to build the engine in the rear board made this task easy, just: lift, aim, aim well again, and agin and yes, it fits!

Ok, so this car only got a 1.4L engine, yes it is and looks small and It should produce 300bhp, sensations and..... adrénaline as well? doesn't seems so at the mo

I wrapped it like a sandwich in order to avoid dust and other shi*s, because of the slightly hatable local daily wind

I start to connect oil radiator, pressure sensor...

So, I don't have any other pics at the moment, and before I went to London, I didn't receive my bespoke head gasket yet, so it's still in this state.
Thickness of 2.5mm with 77mm bore separated rings for a better pressure handling, which will give, if my maths are correct a compression ratio of 7.77, who is the winning number of casino machines!
And also maybe of this T2 machine!

Please give your comment or advice, or If you want name's of company I bought from my parts.
Please keep in mind It's the first time I'm building a whole engine alone and also my first real restoration ( my second get, but didn't strip it whole, was too shy, LOL)

KEEP IT REAL!

[turbo ted]

Awesome car Julian might get my hands on a turbo 2 someday win the lottery😀
Reading your post about 77mm bore head gasket I'm need head gasket with 77mm bore for a c1j any info where I could get one regards rob👍

[Ashy]

I am thanking a lot Ashy (who is an awesome chap) as the front grill was his, and THANKS TO RTOC for this!

Even in France which is the cradle of R5 turbo, it is very hard to find front grill and some original genuine parts.
Ashy was a real help in the restoration as I can keep going it with parts I didn't have from the start

No problem at all mate, glad to be able help a fellow enthusiast out 👍🏻

hopefully I'll get time to fit the bits you gave me too, maybe even do a restoration thread of my own so I can give you a mention!

keep the updates coming! Catch up with you again soon!

[Stylin_ju]

Turboted and Ashy,

Sorry, The website forum didn't show me any notifications about your replies, I just had a look now...

Turboted, you can have bespoke gasket head, separate rings, many thicknesses and 2 bores available there: C1J is GT Turbo I guess?
http://www.mespiecesauto.com/produit...e-r5-gt-turbo/
renforcé means uprated, in case of

They had delay to make mine, but this guy build his own parts, good quality though!

Ashy, you can have a look at the link and find your future engine parts, forged conrods are cheaper than anywhere else and made in France also!!

Cheers Ashy, I didn't fit all the parts that you gave me as well. Some grills will be fitted at the end.
Keep up the good work on yours!
Cheers!

[Stylin_ju]

Dear All,

Almost one year later I didn't post anything on this thread.
I did some slight progress on it.
I sold all the used parts which weren't needed to finish the restoration.

In between, I refurbished my GTT engine. I will make a thread about it in the GTT section later this week.

But now I will speak tonight about the interior

[Stylin_ju]

I always wanted to have a R5 Turbo1 interior (the one originally designed by Bertone, the one which looks like an aircraft interior from the ‘70s and the seats from the manga «*Akura*» seat motorbike ) into my turbo2.
I had a replica T1 dashboard already on my car, so that was sorted!
I had old 2 bucket seats into it, got rid of this pair.

I bought then a replica of turbo1, a RIB brand one. I initially started to give it to a pro for making another model of the structure. We can buy aftermarket foams and covers but not the structure itself.
The «*alleged*» pro waited 6 months that I will have to wait another 6 months…. so F**K him, I took it back then.

Some time earlier this year I found 2 other replicas with genuine handles on it, I asked my mum to make cover seats following my taste, black with red stitching (which is not original)
I managed to source at a very decent price brand new original fabric from tour de corse seat pattern (black with white stripes), and I bought an original blue with red stripes one to help her making shape of covers (pic of former quote)

and now here is how she did it.


basically she copied the blue one cover in 2 black cover with red stitches

She was in redundancy at work, so I gave her a purposes for few weeks (she used to create her own clothes when I was a kid, I knew she could handle it)

She did recreate the pattern foam with the original fabric

view from inside

[Stylin_ju]

then kept going with the fake leather shapes around

those red stitches are just maintaining the shapes in order really they are not final


Some adjustments upside down

Same with full shape

Lovely mess