Just picked up my new project car, project old codger, an E reg Renault 9 GTL in red
It's only a 1.4 C2J but that's fine as its just going to be a restoration project.
Pics will follow
Just picked up my new project car, project old codger, an E reg Renault 9 GTL in red
It's only a 1.4 C2J but that's fine as its just going to be a restoration project.
Pics will follow
Well I've been driving it for a day and a half now and she's performed faultlessly and the boat like suspension isn't as bad as I first thought it would be, I've started a list of the jobs that need doing.
Paintwork needs mopping
Both front jacking points need replacing
Both front wings have a small amount of surface rust
Small ding in the middle of the bonnet
Small rust patches on the top of inner wings
Rocker cover gasket leaking
Rocker cover to inlet breather pipe missing
Gearbox oil needs flushing and replacing
Aux belt a little warn
Small leak between downpipe and centre section of exhaust
Fuel gauge now then needs a bash to get it working
Headunit looses its presets when turned off
Drivers seat foam base has started to collapse
In the grand scheme of things, that little lot is bugger all, progress with this will be slow as it has MOT and Tax till September so itll act as transport while the undergoes any work, then once the MOT runs out I'll treat it and fix up the above list, there are a few bits that need to done sooner rather than later, like the missing breather pipe and the oil leak but there no biggie.
dont forget the baby seat for the back
Great buy Oli - no big engine going in? or are you just there to save her?
That said, knowing you - if it don't spit a 3ft long flame you'll soon get bored.
Baby seat
And you're not?
Did the math on the fuel economy and it's doing 52mpg who needs a feckin hybrid
Done my first 2 jobs on the 9
First I replaced the old wiper blades with some new flat blade jobs, now I can see when it's raining without having to listern to the wipers scraping there way across the windscreen.
Second I decided to take a look at the drivers seat, the foam on the right side had collapsed so every time u went left you'd fall out the window
I got some new foam off the local market
But when I got the fabrics off I found the foam although damaged was intact and was infact no longer support by the seat pan due to a big split in the metal
A few small strips of metal and pop rivits later it's all 1 piece again, yes this is only a temporary fix until I can get hold of a new seat pan
Nice mate, very retro! but has it got the sex seat?!
Just weld the seat up, i done it on my 11t back in the day. 52mpg?? You wish
And don't let Handy near that seat again
That's so cool. Loads of potential
As it turns out the mileometer might be a tad ambitious, a did a trip last night that was exactly 10 miles, I know this as both the 5 and the works van told me so, the 9 told me it was 12 miles this would explain as to why I seemed to get 52mpg, more like 42mpg but on the bright side that's still good for a car that's 24 years old
Its a positive car in that case you can probably knock 20% off the mileometer
pop ya seat out again and i'll weld it up for ya boss
Haven't done much with the 9 except put fuel in it and drive it, that was until the banding in 1 of the tyres let go causing massive vibration and distortion of the tyre, had the road not been wet I recon the tyre would have overheated and blown. Take it from me people, even if the tyre has plenty of tread left on it, if it's old and cracking get it replaced. I can't afford a new set of tyres at the moment so I've temporarily fitted a set of Clio alloys with toyo's on, ok so there 15" not 13" and they don't suit the car but at least there safe till I can afford a new set
For those that wanted to see what the 9 looks like on alloys, here ya go
I missed this Ollie. Nice looking little car you've got there
You'll certainly look the part cruising round Ipswich in that
Nice 9 16v conversion ??? How much did that hurt the bank ?
hideous rims - get em orf, yer great lanky Sparky
Done 3 jobs on the 9
1) the outer cv boot on the passenger side shaft needed to be replaced, shaft off and boot replaced in no time.
2) there's annoying vibration at 50mph, wheel off and rebalanced, no change
3) gear oil well past it's best, while the shaft was out I drained the rest of the oil, flushed the box and replaced the oil, gear change feels much better.
Love my 9. Nice work! Someone has to keep em alive!
It's all right faffing around Oli. But you know it's gonna happen, get the 5 finished (LOL) and then itching for another project???? Don't fight it.
Andy the plans for the 9 are growing larger by the day, they now include
5gtt front brakes ( got my old calipers in the shed).
Less wobbly suspension (5gtt ph1 springs & dampers on the front, mk2 Clio rear dampers on the back).
Polybush the wishbones & anti roll bar.
New bottom ball joints and track rod ends.
Been abit slack with this project thread, mainly as all I've done with the 9 is use it and abuse it and she's performed well.
The suspension has steadily got more and more boat like so much that in hard cornering the outer front will drop straight onto the bump stop and lift the back well a foot off the ground but I've managed to source a brand new pair of front dampers for feck all notes
The passenger front wheel bearing has decided its time to die aswell so I'm gunna be clever about replacing it, I'be got a pair of valver hubs which I'll fit new bearings to and stick them on the 5 and use the 5 hubs on the 9 while the hubs are off I'll replace the track rod ends and bottom ball joints.
Oh yeah, almost forgot, the rad fan which was controlled by the OE switch stopped working, a temp bridge of the plug proved the fan to be ok and the switch to be at fault, so I ordered a new 1 from renault and fitted it and guess what....... it was a duff switch so for now I've got 2 wires leading inside the car to a manual switch tie wrapped to the side of the centre console.
Fitted the passenger side GTT hub and a new track rod end on the 9 and the good news is the wheel wobble has gone but I still have a noisy bearing on the drivers side, but the other GTT hub is ready and waiting for when I've got 5mins spare.
Drivers side GTT hub and track rod end fitted and the new OE front dampers fitted, yes some of the boat like characteristics have been reduced but not completely, whilst changing the dampers I found both springs were showing signs of wear but more worryingly one of them had a bend in it :/ so I'm on he hunt for a new pair of springs, I'm thinking I'll fit something abit stiffer, maybe off a R19 or similar
Was out the 9 Saturday night and nearly ended up in a tree after the top mount of the drivers side rear damper let go as I rounded a corner, the damper pushed through the top and the whole drivers side rear damn near hit the deck
So I decided to get on with fitting the mk2 Clio dcu rear dampers donated by MarkyB. All they needed to make them fit is to open the metal insert in the bottom bush from 11.85mm to 14.02mm, using the stock clio top mounts too they fitted straight on. As you can see from the pic the Clio damper (at the top) isn't much longer than the stock 9 jobs and as there the stock item for the clio they perfectly comfortable while still being a little stiffer than the 9 items.
End result the back feels so much nicer and instead of annoying understeer it now has death dealing lift off oversteer, which is fun
The rad fan on the 9 has been abit of pain for a little while, first off the switch packed up and replacement didn't work so a temporary dash mounted switch was needed. The fact Renault never fitted a relay probably didn't help matters and now the fan motor itself has started making unpleasant noises, so I decided to make use of the old 10" spal fan formally on my R5.
The old fan and bracket
The new relay wiring on the fan side of the plug
The new fan
Gave the bracket a clean up and coat of primer
Whoops I spilt red paint on the bracket as I fitted it
Colour co-ordinated fan bracket! lol
Decided to get on with pulling the 9 apart so I can see how bad the rust is and the news is worse than I thought.
This is just the passenger side, the drivers side I'm sure wont be much better, safe to say both wings will need replacing aswell as the sills oh well the bits of them that aren't rotten will being perfect for patching the inner wings.