21 turbo project

[alex barker]

This has been in the making for a month or to now and ive been doing a build thread on the 21toc.

This will be abit all in one go as i update to where i am today. cheers alex.

Firstly i bought this car off a friend of mine in 2007 who was a mechanic by trade and a 21toc member. I had my first 5 at the time and loved his car to pieces so when he put it up for sale at the handsome price off 2k i snapped it straight up. I didnt really do anything to her as it was in such lovely condition (all but interior fan being wired up on a switch) for the 2 years i owned her. I spent money ect and had things done which needed doing but it was such a reliable motor it only ever needed tyres, brakes ect..

After that i moved on to expensive cars and sold the 21 to a good friend of mine who lives close to my mums. I saw the car on a regular basis and still loved it but it was going down hill condition wise very fast. After doing a little restoration job on a naples red clio 16v he offered me a swap and i jumped at the chance to have her back!!
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Fortunately this is what she looked like after 6 hours washing, clay barring, polishing and waxing!!!
So i was glad first thing was to make sure it still looked good, BUT there were some obvious problems!!! Oil in the coolant (not the other way round) she was getting hot under boost, abs not working (pedal hard) knocking suspension and one hell of a messy engine bay.

[alex barker]

I parked the old girl up and got her on some axle stands, pulled the front apart and started on the engine side of things.
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Sub frame bushes, arb bushes, drive shaft gators all ok. Nearside front caliper buggered, front disks buggered, corroded fuel lines under inlet manifold, muck and crud everywhere. Coolant system blocked on the return pipe, rad corroded, fans not working, top intercooler had a nice hole in it and found turbo to be causing the oil & water mixing problem! (weird in know but have had that problem before funnily enough on one of my fiesta rs's)
Thats all i can remember for the moment.

[alex barker]

Right, engine side of things mostly done. Replaced dizzy and rotor, new iridium spark plugs and cleaned up the magnecore's. New water pump, cambelt and tensioner, both aux belts. Fitted missing bolts in both engine mounts fitted turbo tecnicks recon turbo with 360 bearings, polished rocker and plenum. Gear oil, oil and filter and flushed the coolant system. Oh and replaced the dodgy fuel lines!!

At the time i was having my alloy radiator hand made by MJ Fabrications in maldon essex so i got on with the other stuff ready for the new rad.
Fitted a genuine coolant bottle, redox coolant silicone hose set (french ebay) and a k-tec low temp thermostat (r5 turbo 82degree)

I had to rip out all the burnt out wiring for the rad along with the relays ect as was all mega melted!!! Simplified the exsisting wiring for just a fan switch in car.





Im so happy with the rad!!! Built to mimic size of the original but with a 50mm core and all out of top grade alloy. The workmanship is spot on. I gave him two 12v 10" slimline fans (again ebay) and he welded in proper brackets with m6 threads on them.

I then got the rad in and all plumbed up and gave everything a dam good clean up, bled the system and run her up!!! All is good

Forgot to say he also welded the little split in the pace intercooler and pressure tested both of them for free!! When i say free i mean the rad cost £400 lol But i was happy with the little extra jobs.

[alex barker]

When i next had some time i managed to do a few little jobs like sort out all the coolant leaks lol

Stitched up the drivers seat then boot polished all the leather and then fed it with auto glym's best gear. It was all looking pretty tired but its looking lovely and fresh now. All the tints were removed with the aid of some good old picking and hours of rags and tinners (what a f*****G job)

Pulled the dash apart to have a look at the heater motor and the wiring. Seems to be the wiring that was the problem so thats had to stay on the switch as someones completely hacked at it I did get a another fan motor as i thought that had packed up (Thanks to Lewis for that)

I still had a bit of time on my hands so i pulled the buggered caliper off the front (Many thanks to Ollie for most of my parts so far) and pulled off all the front suspension. I couldn't believe the state of the suspension It looked like it was pulled from the north sea!!!! Not only were the top mounts buggered (there's my knocking prob) but they were rotten from top to bottom.

[alex barker]

This week ive managed to get the rear of the car stripped. Finding along the way a snapped coilover, corroded copper brake line, rear tank strap is a red ratchet strap and rotten sills!

The sills were largely solid, its just the front and back both side which have started to rot through. So all the affected area's have now been cut out and replacement pieces all cut ready to be welded on. Luckily i had a new sill for a clio valver which had the right shape sort of, just a little bending needed. Now need to learn how to weld lol

Once iv got it all welded up sum time this or next week i will be under sealing all arches and underneath. And when i get hold of the bits i need i will be putting it all back together. Thanks to ollieR (21toc) for sourcing the suspension, tank strap and brake line needed ;-)

[alex barker]

Been a long while with no progress what with the bad weather ect...

Well today is the start of my week long holiday so maybee I might get her undersealed this week lol

[allanr5gtt]

[5 turbo]

Spot on motor, always wanted one of those.

Top work and awesome to see one about still

[alex barker]

Why Thankyou. It's been a while since I attended any club days (national day @ rockingham 2007) but the 21 should be done in the spring so weel be back on the scene in 2012 lol

[THE MASTER]

Why Thankyou. It's been a while since I attended any club days (national day @ rockingham 2007) but the 21 should be done in the spring so weel be back on the scene in 2012 lol

looking farward to seeing this in the flesh looks good so far

[CROOKSTON]

New poster! (less than 10 posts)

Brilliant car. Not seen one of those for a long time. Good luck with it all

[Tony Walker]

There was a lovely quadra in red with gold split rim alloys up the road from me but its since disapeared fantastic to see so much effort put in to any car, especially a renault turbo

[Trevhib]

More pics please.

[alex barker]

very slow progress due to weather but under sealing is under way!!! rear aches are done and boot floor pan. looks the nuts with a fresh lick. i will get some pics up when i get round to getting it done......

[andybond]

Get an FMIC on the car pronto. That and a strut brace. Two essentials mods on a 21T.

[alex barker]

I need to sort a strut brace. But that is 1 of the last things needed to get it bk on road. As for front mount that's something I will tackle once it's on road and in full time use. There are issues with the fmic for me too. 1 being as I fitted the 50mm core rad I've lost alot of space as I want to keep the exterior of the front bumper o.e so cutting would only be to the back. And 2 at 17-18 psi would the difference be noticeable?? I doubt it considering the placement of the pace o.e coolers is pretty dam good considering. I have a few idea's lingering ;-)

[alex barker]

right, i never get on the sodding computer but when i do i update the 21toc thread so just gona bring any1 interested up to date!

As of if i can remember correctly this was end of november.

All welding completed buy my good friend and Alex Johnston (just rejoined after a few years from the world of renault)

After last weeks welding session today I thought I'd have a good look at the motor and make sure there's nufing left todo befor the welder goes bk to matey. There's no more welding to be done but iv found quite alot of rust dust on the paintwork. The car was mostly covered but still it looks nasty lol. Iv had a go at washing it off but still no joy!! Has anyone else had to clean this crap off???? What did you use ect.....

09/11/11
Managed to polish out the rust dust with megirs cleaner wax the other afternoon so that's that little worry over. Next is to underseal the bad boy when I get some time and a half decent day. Slow progress is still progress lol. I blame MW3, work and family commitments haha

05/12/11
This week I'm on holiday leave so I'm hopeing to get the 21 undersealed. Absaloutly no progress is getting to me abit now lol

26/12/11
undersealing is underway although very slow as have no time nor the weather for it at the mo. rear arches and boot floor pan done and it looks the nuts!!! messy horiable job lol. I will get sum pics up when i get it done eventually.

26/01/12
Right as off last weekend i managed to finally get all the fiddly bits undersealed BUT still have to do the floor pans!!!! Its just doin me in thinking about getting on the floor and carrying on with it, so it will be left till some enthusiasm comes back. Because all the arches and sills are covered now the suspension went back on which is quite a milestone


Im waiting on my copper brake pipe to turn up with the fairing kit ect... so i can start the rear brake pipes. Then onto cleaning up the abs rings and sensors and fitting the new discs and pads.

30/01/12
Was just testing the water today in regards to the 21's insurance (when I finally get it finnished haha)
Lancaster managed £235 fully comp with mods and limited mileage. Pretty damn happy with that, although nearer the time I shall have a better look round.

24/02/12
Today I just insured the beast with Lancaster (classic) for a handsome £240 and it's starts the 22nd of march. I'm hoping with this deadline I can finally Finnish the brakes off refurb sum wheels and get her taxed and tested ready. Still 3 million little jobs to do but can't wait to get the old girl on road!!

12/03/12
Update, it's hard enough to get time on the 21 let alone time to update this thread lol.
Finally undersealing is completed after doin drips and drabs coz it's the worst job on road. All brakes fitted, bled and tested (thanks to OllieR for replacement rear caliper as the last nipple to bleed snapped haha)
Offside ball joint was found to be knocky on my first test drive along with no clutch!!! Clutch is now bled and seems ok but I remember it being smoother so I shall have to play with that again.
So a good valet and sum new wipers and I shall get the mot booked!

18/04/12
Just had MOT and she failed :-( on the plus side it was only coz the handbrake works at 12% efficiency!! Nothing Else And no advisorys, So il have to adjust that badboy and get it bk saterday for a free partial retest.

today got back from the MOT and the old girl passed! Lubing and a little adjustment did the trick!! Just gota wait till the 1st to tax it. Can't wait, good times lol.

once ive had a valet il update with sum pics ;-)

[Mr Raider]

Good work mate,-all legal for a year on the road!

[gtmatt]

Keep it up beautiful car

[Tony Walker]

Brilliant news, back on the road