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1987 Renault GTA :: Gone to a new home


PhilA

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This kind of puts me off ever touching a Renault here if I ever see one!, so far the Jeep has been just the usual few electrical problems (as I'm an Electronics Engineer not a problem) and a power steering pump - I will keep this in mind when looking at earlier Renix Jeeps tough!

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....then sit there and look at it, panic about what I have done, go to the newsasians to get some fags, smoke the fags, panic a bit more and then give it up as a bad idea and go to the pub instead.

 

Then oddly I'd probably find my phone ringing, with a request to borrow some random tool, as a ruse to get me over to sort it out....

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....then sit there and look at it, panic about what I have done, go to the newsasians to get some fags, smoke the fags, panic a bit more and then give it up as a bad idea and go to the pub instead.

 

Then oddly I'd probably find my phone ringing, with a request to borrow some random tool, as a ruse to get me over to sort it out....

 

That's what friends are for :lol:

 

I learned the hard way- I'm guessing the dash was designed for installation at the factory before the doors were put on and/or windscreen was put in because getting it to fit through the gap proved it to be maybe 1/2 too wide for the car.

Some sort of strange black magic, that is.

 

Regardless, I put the dash back in- what I omitted from the story was it had to come out again because the loom goes over one of the pegs, not under, which then prevents the dash from going on all the way because it snags on the loom.

 

Then the trim that surrounds the A pillars broke.

Then the overhead interior lights fell apart. Literally. i have them in my toolbox, they're in about 6 million little plastic pieces.

Thankfully the lights were used all the way through to the phase 2 Clio, so I can scavenge those. The plastic trim in the car feels like porcelain. the heat from the sunshine has made the plasticizers in the plastic leech out, and the result is very, very brittle plastic that snaps if you so much as look at it funny.

 

I don't know what I'm going to do with the headlining yet. I guess I should start by finding out what color it was originally and go from there. I think the windscreen or rear window has to come out to get it out- the thing is one of those molded jobbies and not a "traditional" headlining like you'd find in, say, a Cortina.

 

the interior I'm still undecided about. Previous owner, or one before, had a dog, which has torn up the rear door cards. Those I may be able to salvage, but having a rear seat may not suit the 'look' of the car once it's painted- I'm thinking probably faux roll cage made from plastic tubing (gr8 for crashin) in the back, with stock seats and belts up front.

 

--Phil

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Oh yeah, and a photoshop of the paint scheme.

 

3267841725_96b707b228.jpg

Renault rally colours by renault9gta, on Flickr

 

Seeing as the paint is on its second coat already (original color was still silver, but a much finer, lighter shade of silver metallic, called "Sterling") and all the sun-facing panels the paint has dissolved, it all has to come off and be redone. So it might as well look the part.

 

Can always undo paint :)

 

--Phil

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Spent a little time tarting up the bodywork, to eyeball what the car needed to look like.

 

The car's butt was very bland- original factory color scheme.

3317059103_35691814ed.jpg

Festive Renault GTA back by renault9gta, on Flickr

Tarted it up with some Christmas lights to get things a bit more festive.

 

Took the spoiler off, sanded it down and gave it a coat of black.

3336548566_2f7cc49f42.jpg

Rear spoiler, rubbed down and keyed by renault9gta, on Flickr

You can see there the difference in surface finish of the paint. Underneath the spoiler, where the sun hasn't gotten to it, it's actually still quite nice.

 

3357368604_5f43a5e929.jpg

Renault GTA black spoiler far view by renault9gta, on Flickr

Looks better for that, but the rear bumper still makes it look like a Dodgem car. Typical Federalization of any vehicle to include MAHOOSIVE foam bumpers.

 

Gave the back end a coat of black between the lights and redid the black on the lenses as well as cleaning the years of chod that had accumulated in the (silly design) open edges at the sides which made the lights look grimy.

DSC05718_modified.jpg

(Newer photo because I can't find one from around the time)

 

rear_lights_no_lsu.jpg

All the lights on at the back. The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice the rear lights are Federal-spec too. The swage line doesn't line up with the light divider, like on European models, as the indicators and reverse lights are bigger. There's also no fog-lights because law here doesn't require them.

 

In the top picture with the car draped in lights you can see a dent behind the door, where something- looks like a shopping cart- has gone into the body and pushed it back.

rubdown_2.jpg

Took out the wet-n-dry and the hosepipe and began to sand the paint back after taking the insides of the car apart and bashing it back to shape.

 

rubdown_3_paintlayers.jpg

Plenty of layers of paint- you can see bare metal, the black under-primer, the paint primer, the paint, several layers of clear-- this is where the factory paint stopped. they advertised a multi-layer protection which involved galvanisation, corrosion protection, paint and a wax polish coat. Maaco or similar have employed Stevie Wonder to mix the paint and David Blunkett to paint the car in the past by looks of it but that did admittedly save the bodywork from the worst ravages of the climate down here.

masked_painted.jpg

Masked it all up and gave it a quick prime and then a blow-over with some white.

 

painted_2_semishiny.jpg

Looks acceptable. Certainly passes the five-yard test.

 

Did the same for the front.

rusty_headlight_bucket.jpg

headlamp_bucket_in_bucket.jpg

stage_one_derust.jpg

2_spraypaint.jpg

grille_prepped.jpg

grille_primed.jpg

carefully_paint.jpg

grille_complete.jpg

front_with_lights_closeup.jpg

 

Bought some new headlights.

One had water in and the other had no reflector left.

3_wet_sealedbeam.jpg

3_silvergone.jpg

 

Light output was Land Rover at best.

7_lights_front.jpg

7_headlights_poop.jpg

 

...how about no. This'll do better, thankyouverymuch.

dipbeam.jpg

 

Gave it an oil change after redoing the bearings... and the rest is in the next instalment :)

 

--Phil

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Those rectangular Sealed beam headlights are really prone to leaking after a few years, one of mine on the toyo had a dissolved reflector and water in it...at least you can get brand new ones at Walmart for $7.99.

Still don't understand the lack of rear fog-lights here, I expect it would be too complicated to explain in the Drivers Manual.

And don't get me started about the rear red indicators some cars have here!!!

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Those rectangular Sealed beam headlights are really prone to leaking after a few years, one of mine on the toyo had a dissolved reflector and water in it...at least you can get brand new ones at Walmart for $7.99.

Still don't understand the lack of rear fog-lights here, I expect it would be too complicated to explain in the Drivers Manual.

And don't get me started about the rear red indicators some cars have here!!!

 

Ha, yes. My old truck had red turn signals to the rear.

I'm used to it. Both the vehicles we have now as daily drivers have brake/turn to the back to flash the brake lights as the indicator.

 

Red rear fog lights here is legal though. I'm surprised Louisiana allows it, but the driver's manual states that you may fit them if you wish to aid visibility in poor weather.

 

(Plus, my driving test to move here involved driving around the block, stopping at 4 stop signs, not running a child on a tricycle over and parking up again. the written test took longer.)

 

--Phil

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Ah, I remember the brittle dash plastics on my '83 Alliance well. Barely touch them and they'd crumble to bits!

 

I almost tore the lot out and binned it. Instead I spent several hours with glue and repaired it. Still, however, infuriating.

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(Plus, my driving test to move here involved driving around the block, stopping at 4 stop signs, not running a child on a tricycle over and parking up again. the written test took longer.)

 

--Phil

 

Here in Mississippi I just had to do the "written" test on a computer, while I was doing it my 3 year old son I was looking after wandered off and I had to go get him and come back so had to complete the test in half the allowed time, passed fine!!.

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Somewhere aroundabout this point in time I got fed up of the Really Noisy Pulley that was fitted to the side of the engine.

 

 

With the engine running, it was by far the noisiest thing in the engine bay.

02_culprit.jpg

 

Lifted the battery out.

10_battery_out.jpg

That was inadequate for clearance.

 

Ended up having to pull the battery tray out.

13_undo_bolt.jpg

 

The offending article. Thankfully work has a hydraulic press and it's a fairly common bearing.

14_liberated_pulley.jpg

 

It made a SQUIZZZZzzzz noise when spun on my finger. I suspect the insides were drier than .. a dry thing.

Fitted a new one and the noisiest thing in the engine bay is the fuel injector. This is a relief, as it means the tappets are shimmed correctly...

 

--Phil

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Does the Renix system use OBDII for external interface?

 

Renix II does not. It's a proprietary electrical and logical interface. Open-collector output from the ecu which requires inversion, then it runs at a funny speed (62500 bps) with a proprietary protocol (XR25).

 

OBD-II would have been so much easier.

 

-Phil

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The opportunity to purchase brake parts fell through until next week.

 

Today fell apart too.

 

Tomorrow I hope to be able to liberate some good data off the car's ECU for someone and also hopefully test the new electronics.

I also need to put some penetrating oil on the brake unions and bleed nipples.

 

--Phil

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The opportunity to purchase brake parts fell through until next week.

 

Today fell apart too.

 

Tomorrow I hope to be able to liberate some good data off the car's ECU for someone and also hopefully test the new electronics.

I also need to put some penetrating oil on the brake unions and bleed nipples.

 

--Phil

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Update from yesterday. It was just too hot out.

 

110F / 43C in the shade, with no breeze.

110_43.jpg

 

Because the car's at the mother in law's, I get to contend with this each time I go down to the car:

junk_in_carport.jpg

 

Tidied up some, now a little better. At least I have access to the vehicle...

tidier_carport.jpg

 

Had $20 available to spend that I'd earned doing someone a favor.

Bought some bits and bobs that I need. Two jubilee clips for the heater hoses, some PB Blaster penetrating oil and some primer and a bit of Chrysler Bright White.

supplies.jpg

 

Set the fan up and got the computer running to try out the electronics.

arduino_pnp_fail.jpg

 

The Serial port adapter will talk to it but the Arduino won't. Back to the drawing board with that.

 

I'm by now running out of time as I had to be somewhere.. plus it's too hot and I'm sweating buckets- which isn't good for electronics.

Did the main thing of the trip- took a look at the brake unions. They mostly look like this:

rusty_unions.jpg

 

Squirted those, the ones at the back and the handbrake cables with PB Blaster to let it sit:

pb_blaster.jpg

 

checked my lights on the offchance, as I'm keeping an eye on things to see what's randomly stopped working. Oddly today the front foglight has started to work again.

working_foglight.jpg

 

Packed up and headed out. Have more electronics to work on but I think I know what I'm going to do there.

 

--Phil

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Update from yesterday. It was just too hot out.

 

110F / 43C in the shade, with no breeze.

110_43.jpg

 

Because the car's at the mother in law's, I get to contend with this each time I go down to the car:

junk_in_carport.jpg

 

Tidied up some, now a little better. At least I have access to the vehicle...

tidier_carport.jpg

 

Had $20 available to spend that I'd earned doing someone a favor.

Bought some bits and bobs that I need. Two jubilee clips for the heater hoses, some PB Blaster penetrating oil and some primer and a bit of Chrysler Bright White.

supplies.jpg

 

Set the fan up and got the computer running to try out the electronics.

arduino_pnp_fail.jpg

 

The Serial port adapter will talk to it but the Arduino won't. Back to the drawing board with that.

 

I'm by now running out of time as I had to be somewhere.. plus it's too hot and I'm sweating buckets- which isn't good for electronics.

Did the main thing of the trip- took a look at the brake unions. They mostly look like this:

rusty_unions.jpg

 

Squirted those, the ones at the back and the handbrake cables with PB Blaster to let it sit:

pb_blaster.jpg

 

checked my lights on the offchance, as I'm keeping an eye on things to see what's randomly stopped working. Oddly today the front foglight has started to work again.

working_foglight.jpg

 

Packed up and headed out. Have more electronics to work on but I think I know what I'm going to do there.

 

--Phil

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I've just read this thread from beginning to end, and frankly I'm half amazed, and half just plain jealous.

You, yesterday:

wiz.gif

 

 

It goes into much greater detail over on RR. It's usually in the top 3 pages if you want to go read.

 

I think I'm pretty much there with the fuel injection though. Just a couple little bits to fix. Climbed in, twisted the key and it started before the oil pressure light had went out. (Fourth compression stroke).

 

Ain't too bad. Saw that the brake on the back was weeping too. Going to replace it.

 

--Phil

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I've just read this thread from beginning to end, and frankly I'm half amazed, and half just plain jealous.

You, yesterday:

wiz.gif

 

 

It goes into much greater detail over on RR. It's usually in the top 3 pages if you want to go read.

 

I think I'm pretty much there with the fuel injection though. Just a couple little bits to fix. Climbed in, twisted the key and it started before the oil pressure light had went out. (Fourth compression stroke).

 

Ain't too bad. Saw that the brake on the back was weeping too. Going to replace it.

 

--Phil

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Spent some time tonight after gathering enthusiasm, to rebuild things on the breadboard.

 

arduino_circuit.jpg

 

That small mess on the board makes it run (9 discrete components in all: 1 transistor, 1 optoisolator chip, 5 resistors, 1 diode and an LED), the other few bits are to make the RS232 port on the desk "pretend" to be the car.

renixcomm_pseudoworking.jpg

 

Welp, that's the code running on the Arduino, reading in data recorded about 8 years ago from a Jeep. I'd say it works on the bench alright..

 

..which means it SHOULD work in the car.

 

--Phil

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Spent some time tonight after gathering enthusiasm, to rebuild things on the breadboard.

 

arduino_circuit.jpg

 

That small mess on the board makes it run (9 discrete components in all: 1 transistor, 1 optoisolator chip, 5 resistors, 1 diode and an LED), the other few bits are to make the RS232 port on the desk "pretend" to be the car.

renixcomm_pseudoworking.jpg

 

Welp, that's the code running on the Arduino, reading in data recorded about 8 years ago from a Jeep. I'd say it works on the bench alright..

 

..which means it SHOULD work in the car.

 

--Phil

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Again, I fail at electronics and wasn't thinking what I was doing. Going to grab a few more bits and bobs and rethink the circuit.

 

On the plus side, I came home yesterday afternoon to this:

box_on_doorstep.jpg

 

Which, when unpacked, contained this:

eezibleed_box.jpg

 

Now I just have to convince the wife to let me buy the spares I need to complete the brakes, and I'll be set. Right now she's doing the books and checking see if I can get the bits this week or not. So far I've been told no three weeks running. Way it goes, I guess.

 

Really need to address the driver's side window too. I've a feeling the mechanism is either going to be completely FUBAR or I'll have to do some major hacking about to make it work again.

Note to manufacturers: PLASTIC IS NOT A GOOD MATERIAL TO MAKE GEARS FROM

 

--Phil

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