As promised here is my R9 project thread!
The car how I bought it in December 2010:
It was a non running 1.4, the heater matrix started leaking and the previous owner thought he would make it to the garage without coolant :P
No problem for me as this gave me the opportunity to buy it cheap. Heater matrix was replaced and when they tried to start the car it appeared the engine was gone.
I didn’t even knew what a Renault 9 was but after searching “Renault 1986” on Marktplaats.nl (marketplace.nl) it popped up 15km away from my house. Gave the man a call and eventually bought it for €400.
First thing I did was remove the 1,4 engine and after breaking the donor Willy the engine went into the 9 (don’t have pics of it. However you can imagine how it looks like in the bay of a 9).
Fitting the engine in to the bay was the easy part, the worst part was wiring it all up. Unfortunately the 9 doesn’t have 1 big connector but the diagnosis (oil press light, alternator light etc.) connector sits on the right side of the bay.
When finally I got everything wired up properly it was time to custom fit the shifter rod and the exhaust, this is how the exhaust looks:
It didn’t take long before I started ‘pimping’ the car, so out came the coilies which were on the Willy and lowered the rear torsion bar too, I also took a small lip off the Sport alloys so they’d fit in the rear arches cause it was a bit tight!
And this is how it looks:
Took the bumpers and spoiler off and sprayed them matt black to make them look “as new” (could be done again by now) and fitted new chrome strips.
Imo the front was to high but I couldn’t wind down the coilies any further (bumpstop already hacksawed to 1cm and only have 1cm left to move).
after searching around the net I discovered Golf 1 topmounts would be the solution, I sawed a few centimeters off the top to clear the hood and also make them a bit weaker so they would flex when weight is on the wheels:
The front has been lowered by 4cm extra or so:
The driveshafts now hit the beams however it’s a self clearing issue :P
And here is it next to my €300 winter 5:
And on the driveway:
Lowering it this much offcourse comes with risks which soon came true:
Look at the crack on top off the thread! And the rest looks like this:
The rear was still a tad too high compared tot he front so pulled the torsion bar out again and lowered it by another 3cm (last time I measured it was more than 12cm more to the ground than factory specs):
Got a bit bored by the Sport wheels so bought a brand new set of BBS LM replica’s, took them to the machinery to take 5mm off the inner lip and fitted 185/35/17 tyres:
Looking at previous pics i don’t have to tell you it was a hell off a job to make it fit! Lots of hamering and angle grinding involved, and I still doesn’t fit actually :P (not to mention the front on full lock!).
Some fun down town:
And it now looks like this, the APK (MOT) trim:
Am tired of typing now so will post an update soon!
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Originally Posted by HAndy
