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Renault Twingo Mk 1


RichardK

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  • 2 weeks later...

Am doing so (how're you doing, btw?) - 50 miles down, it seems a little slow compared to what I'm used to; it has done 127,000 miles not km - I know the convertor was fitted early on and it does change the km to miles as well as the kmh to mph - the most obvious, simplest correction in other words.

 

Going to check oil tomorrow but the coolant levels are spot on, no gunk in the lovely red OAT, heater working perfectly, fan working perfectly with the shiny new radiator, new brake pipe on rear axle was done by the garage in about 1/2 hour - seemed a lot faster to just pay for that than add further delays pissing about with it. Steering is odd - I think the EPAS changes with speed, but also may need alignment.

 

Jobs to do:

Fit new plastic guides on sunroof - rear ones are missing and it rattles a bit.

Paint door, as mentioned before.

Fix LCD on radio (or fit new radio).

Replace rear bumper in the long run.

Replace interior light - part has snapped off so the lens falls out, it's held with blutack. Just need a lens.

Replace glovebox handle.

Consider replacing engine mount plate I overtightened, but it seems fine.

It's quieter than a 2014 Ford Ka.

Visibility is AMAZING, race up to a junction, look over the side, you can see for absolute certainty that it's all clear.

Yellow modern bulbs are lovely and yellow and the lights are good.

Having the window and sunroof open is amazingly nice.

Clutch feels good.

Brakes are good.

It passed emissions first go, no shenanigans.

It has no rust underneath.

 

It'll still take me a while to trust it, but it has fresh oil, filters, plugs *not leads yet - want to make sure to get the best ones with the extensions for removing them*, radiator, water pump, thermostat, coolant, timing belt, tensioner... there's really not much service-wise not to trust - and the brakes have been bled. Rear bulbs are LED brake/tail (high level not as bright as I'd like though) and are frankly, obnoxiously bright when viewed straight on, so no worries about HGVs ramming it.

 

Such a lovely little car :)

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Birmingham at rush hour. Ages stuck on A38. Car with unproven head gasket repairs... you can guess what happened next...

 

 

Yes, it was a little traffic ninja, shot through the congestion, behaved perfectly then belted down the M6 in a pissing storm with excellent wiper and nice heater.

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You know what, I really like this car. It's awesome. Also I love driving LHD.

 

post-19568-0-97805300-1505590655_thumb.jpg

 

Leicester sports traffic battled, Highcross defeated.

 

At what point can I trust my repairs? 200 miles down now... can I trust I did the work okay? Is a misfire gonna reappear?

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Looks amazing. Whats the crack with the silver SLK man?

 

 

Several cracks. Including rusted-through bolt-on tension rods.

 

It owes me, technically, £1500. I was persuaded that it was clean enough to be a fair swap and make the trip up (and not check underneath, because trust), but it's not worth that. A grand maybe. I could shove it in a corner of the garage and do something about it, right now it's SORN, uninsured, and far from my mental space.

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RichardK, your  Twingo looks perfect, and I love the colour, you have put

a lot of time, and work into that, so it must be as good as new; or better !

 

That green one on the I.O.W.  has still had no bids, & ends today:  apart from

the huge kilometreage (395,000 ? !! )  it looks good to me for that price,

I have been told it can be run in UK  (I.O.W.   IS part of the UK, still ...)

on French plates for 12 months, and it has the Cart Grise, so is there a

problem then to get it registered here in the due course of time....

Or does it have to go though the NOVA nonsense as well  ???

 

I cannot grasp why there's no bids on it,  The isle of wight is part of Hampshire :-D

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The IoW car is just a Twingo.

 

Add in the cost of collection across the water, the hassle of Nova, the alterations for Mot, the welding doubtless needed for a Uk ticket, the first registration fee and compulsory tax there on, and it's suddenly not such a bargain.

 

If it had been an auto I might have been interested ( current circumstances, etc)- if it had a full length canvas roof I'd have thought about it, if it was yellow- or another premium flour - my wife might have badgered me.

 

I'd need some persuading that it's clearly a bargain.

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I have been told it can be run in UK  (I.O.W.   IS part of the UK, still ...)

on French plates for 12 months, and it has the Cart Grise, so is there a

problem then to get it registered here in the due course of time....

Or does it have to go though the NOVA nonsense as well  ???

I think it was discussed elsewhere on here but as a UK resident you have to register/NOVA/MOT it ASAP.

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The IoW car is just a Twingo.

 

Add in the cost of collection across the water, the hassle of Nova, the alterations for Mot, the welding doubtless needed for a Uk ticket, the first registration fee and compulsory tax there on, and it's suddenly not such a bargain.

 

If it had been an auto I might have been interested ( current circumstances, etc)- if it had a full length canvas roof I'd have thought about it, if it was yellow- or another premium flour - my wife might have badgered me.

 

I'd need some persuading that it's clearly a bargain.

 

 

One of the two on eBay does have a full length canvas roof - I thought it was the IoW one that did, and the Essex-ish one doesn't.

 

(Edit: No, IoW is tintop, Witham is ragtop and might actually have sold this time around. Awful paint on the Witham one).

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The IoW car is just a Twingo.

 

Add in the cost of collection across the water, the hassle of Nova, the alterations for Mot, the welding doubtless needed for a Uk ticket, the first registration fee and compulsory tax there on, and it's suddenly not such a bargain.

 

If it had been an auto I might have been interested ( current circumstances, etc)- if it had a full length canvas roof I'd have thought about it, if it was yellow- or another premium flour - my wife might have badgered me.

 

I'd need some persuading that it's clearly a bargain.

Nigel, my dear boy!  how the devil are you ?  Don't answer that, but good to get more than

an arm this time !!

Well, you have TWO Twiglets, so can afford to be Choosie   :)  

I had Wuvvums old blue one, with fabric sunroof, which is / was, eggcellent, but wish I hadn't

moved it on, but I did get double what I paid for it, so can't complain  (too loudly)....

 

But they are just SO quirky, yet practical, I really fancy an udder, and that one

was the earlier non- cum belt injin, gotta be the ones to go for, no ?

 

and the IOW ??  well, I can see it from Dorset, £50 to de - liver (to Lime ington)

was not un reasonable, but in the last 10 mins of auction, NINE more bids appeared !!! !!! !!!

and it went for a heady £ 450....

 

So whats so special about an auto Twiglet ?

 

yours Twiglety, " a box of Frogs"   :)

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Yo Chris, I'm ok. Hospitalised most of the time, but improving.

 

If I drive anything this year, it'll be an auto, sadly. My left leg is badly borked, and will take Many months to ( hopefully) repair. Other issues are keeping me in/ out of various Asylums too, with varying levels of sanity/ clarity.

Good days/ bad days etc. Boring..

 

If you still want a mk1 Twingo I know of a Uk registered, mot'd one down in Cornwall, asking £400. Might that help? He's having a clear out, more details I can't recall, but could prob track back. PM me if of interest..

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Twingo has racked up another 120 miles doing a run to Peterborough and back (yeah, the commute is a PITA). First post-repair fillup suggests 38.8 mpg, which seems about right - there's been a lot of sitting around idling in that, and I doubt the car is most economical at A14 speeds.

 

Now the little jobs are underway - today's "success" is fixing the display-less radio. I had hoped I could rebuild this properly, but of course, the way it's designed is typical cheap electronics - but clever. The mechanism/amp is dumb, all the smart bits are in the front panel, and that has a standard front-panel interface inside - internally there's a small 8 or so pin header. So had my initial mission been a success I'd be very happy.

 

eBay yielded a "new" TunerList radio from a Kangoo - presumably removed right away and boxed, then forgotten in the mists of time - which is black with an orange display but functionally the same. For £7 I figured it was worth it. Stripped down the pale-grey Twingo one, and found it had had crap spilled in it, rusting the LCD surround - and the LCD is not connected with zebra strips but the more modern, bane-of-all-S2-XMs glued ribbon. As the polariser (remember flipping those on your school calculator to have white letters on black background?) is part of the LCD sandwich, and the LEDs are all soldered on, the most rational course of action was to swap the plastics and buttons and put up with the orange LCD.

 

So that's what I did - one genuinely new-looking radio cassette - it plays older tapes without the wow/flutter/mushiness of the Twingo's original unit - with the correct plastics. Only a proper Twingo nerd would spot the orange illumination and black rather than reflective green LCD; better than having a totally illegible one.

 

And for £7 outlay I don't mind hanging fire until I find a correct replacement unit.

 

Looking forward to sorting the sunroof guides next.

 

Took it out with one of my friends, she's very impressed with the folding seats/glass roof and approves completely of it. Just needs somewhere with a nice day, clear skies and a good picnic for some stargazing-and-minimalist-motoring. But first... time to raid that big box of blank tapes and make some new mixtapes!

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but the more modern, bane-of-all-S2-XMs glued ribbon.

Tell me about it. Do you know of a cheaper place to obtain the rubber replacement ribbon? I fixed my XM but had to pay £10 for a strip of rubber from French eBay. The XM I am picking up tonight has the same issue and I would like to fix it cheaper if possible.
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