1987 Renault GTA :: Gone to a new home

[PhilA]

Finally refound the thread and got caught up.  Great to read your progress and that you're finally getting to enjoy using the car, especially after all that byte wizardry you had to perform early on.

It's actually paying off.. so far it's done (mostly) everything it's supposed to.

 

I think the oil might be a bit thick for the weather lately though, the top end of the engine was noisy for a little while (worrying as it's non-adjustable, non-hydraulic).

 

We'll see. Either way, the worst things so far is it's a little bit mk1 Fiesta rrRrrRRrRRRrRRrRRrRR on light acceleration when it's cold and again when it's cold won't go into first (they all do that sir).

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

Gave the dog a bath.. seeing as the bathtub needed be cleaned, decided to make a start on the bodywork. I'd bought a couple replacement bits of the bodykit that were missing.

 

800 grit and bathtub.

 

 

Half an hour later all the old dried up cracked paint is removed and the rest is keyed:

 

 

Gotta take care with this as the plastic is real fragile. The lower bodykit trim is worse than this for breaking.. it's like chocolate.

 

--Phil

[Uncle Jimmy]

The axis of evil, Renault/AMC. Pleased to see one of these being saved. I belive R21s found their way to states too. Respect due.

[PhilA]

They did with strange Fed-spec lights and big ole bumpers, sold under the Eagle brand name, as the Premier.

 

 

I've never seen a real one.

 

--Phil

[Madman Of The People]

They did with strange Fed-spec lights and big ole bumpers, sold under the Eagle brand name, as the Premier.

 

 

I've never seen a real one.

 

--Phil

 

 

No, no, no!  The Eagle Premier (and it's Dodge Monaco twin) was, in fact, a heavily Americanised Renault 25 built in Canada.

 

The R21, imported from France, was indeed sold in America.  Initially badged as the Renault Medallion, it was hastily rebranded Eagle Medallion after Chrysler bought the wreckage that once was AMC from Renault.

 

Just today, Hooniverse featured the ill-fated Renault/Eagle Medallion as part of their "Thanksgiving Turkeys" Series.

 

http://hooniverse.com/2014/11/27/a-hooniverse-thanksgiving-turkey-the-renault-and-eagle-medallion/

 

 

The last Medallion I recall seeing was in a shopping Centre car park about twenty years ago.  I'd be shocked if any running examples have survived into 2014.

 

 

Here you can enjoy actor George C. Scott (General Patton, himself!) pitching the 1988 Renault Medallion to a disinterested American public.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLhiaj3VNzw

[PhilA]

True. I got mixed up in the Woleseley/Morris/Austin/Vanden Plas-edness of it all.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Seeing as nice day + day off and the aircon place is shut today, I made a start on a few things I'd been planning on doing.

I took the spoiler off the back of the car and also removed the decklid.



Overall it's not bad, just the lower lip where the inside and outside sections are folded over on each other and spot-welded. That section is a water trap and as such, has gone rusty.



I have some rust converter (which I've used before to great effect) and carefully propping the lid against the house meant it formed a gently curving channel along the lip.



Poured the stuff in and it's just sitting there in the warm sun.. topping it up occasionally as it evaporates.



Whilst that's working, I made a start on the window panel I rubbed down yesterday.
Set up in the professional spray-booth..



Starting with primer, applying light coats, allowing it to dry each time in the sun



..until it had a thorough coat. Left that to set until I could touch it (about ten minutes).



Once that was dry, satin black. Again, light coats.



Nice thick coat, made up from many layers. Not too much dust either.



Left that to dry in the sun, setting the box down to a more stable position.



Inbetween times, the fittings on the back of the car were missing. I had a couple of broken lugs from the old back plastic that needed to come off. Boiled some water and set them into it to soften the plastic up some as it's really really brittle.



After a short soak, gently twisting pliers between the lug and the peg liberated the lugs.



These then fit in the holes in the car where they were missing.



That allowed a trial fit. Looks good. Needs to be rubbed down and another coat applied but that'll do for now.



Waiting on the rust converter now.. slower than waiting for paint to dry.

[mouseflakes]

Wilmaaaa!! Where are my Fruity Pebbles?

[PhilA]

Unbolted and lifted off the trunk lid again as it's a nice day.



Started out the same as yesterday but took the advice of the container's labeling after and soaked paper towels in the solution, covering it with clingfilm and securing that with magnets.



Put the securing bar's thread, the nut and the plate that holds the spare wheel into the back of the car into solution also.



Also put some onto the spare wheel because it's kinda rusty also.



Decided to get all Vulgalour on the seam sealer with some 409 and a toothbrush whilst that's sitting working.





Scrub scrub scrub scrub! The seam sealer is all wrinkly and has collected grime over the years.



After a couple hours, everything's looking very clean. Well, apart from where the paint's gone through. That's next up, get rid of the surface rust and get a bit of paint inside there.








Certainly better than it was. Slow process, but worth it, as it's always looked kinda dirty in there. With the carpet back in it should be good. I'm tempted to cut a piece of hardboard to fit under the carpet.
 

[PhilA]

All packed up now, with some rust converter on sheets for the duration.

 

Hopefully it'll work

 

 

We'll see tomorrow/day after/etc

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

It all dried out so I spent a few minutes cursing at cling film in the breeze outside.

 

It's now all wrapped up like cheap sandwiches. The nuts and bolts have come up well. The rest is doing ok.

 

Just need to leave it now

 

 

--Phil

[Parky]

You are Phil A Vulgalour III and I claim my five dollars!

[PhilA]

Bought some new 320-grit paper today and rubbed down the back quarter of the car.

Wiped it down with petrol and applied etch primer:



Got three coats on, then applied a coat of Chrysler Bright White and ran out. Put the trim on behind the window, that looks nice. Didn't do below the petrol filler because the paint there's still good and it's got a piece of bodykit to cover it up.



Going to work my way round the car in white, then add the yellow once that's dry enough to mask off.

Need to find some fine-line tape. Nowhere round here sells it.

--Phil

[Parky]

I am enjoying this thread very muchly. Your Neighbours must think you are some crackpot Limey eccentric to go to so much trouble over something like this - keep it up sir!

[vulgalour]

That's looking superb, I'm quite envious of the range of auto-potions you can get in the States compared to the UK.  I didn't realise you were changing the colour from silver to white, what's the end plan on that front?

[PhilA]

That would be telling.

Neighbors thankfully don't care so long as they don't get paint on their truck. Hence doing it down the side of the house in the wind tunnel/paint booth.

 

Phil

[Felly Magic]

Careful now, we can't have it looking mintola, that isn't the shitter's way. It needs much pogweaselness!!! LOL, Just kidding, looking well mate

[Ghosty]

White with yellow accents sounds awfully like old Renault team colours to me!

[PhilA]

Careful now, we can't have it looking mintola, that isn't the shitter's way. It needs much pogweaselness!!! LOL, Just kidding, looking well mate

I made sure there are a few runs in the paint.

 

White with yellow accents sounds awfully like old Renault team colours to me!

Dern, you might have just uncovered the secret. Or read back to the beginning of this thread.

 

 

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

Put the car up on the ramp tonight, to have a bit of a look around and also see if it'd fit on the lift points.

 

 

Back end's fairly clean still

 

 

Passenger side looks good

 

 

Driver's side is good also, despite a dent in the sill where it's been jacked up in the wrong place.

Brake lines need redoing also, the steel is not liking this climate.

 

Slack in the steering is in the inner ball joint. Going to dig up the spares and get them changed out.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Haven't had much chance to do anything to the car lately.

 

However, I had found the original shift knob in the glove box, but it was all really nasty.

 

Difference being, the base model cars had a shift lever with white lettering, the GTA had red.

 

Rubbed it down with 800 grit and water, then polished it with a towel.

 

 

So now, better. Shiny red knob.

 

Phil

[Asimo]

Wow! you drive a stickshift? Wow!

[PhilA]

Wow! you drive a stickshift? Wow!

Three pedals and one of them isn't the parking brake!

 

Phil

[Felly Magic]

It's not a strange shaped bit of wood, you phail in Autoshite Knob stakes

[PhilA]

It's not a strange shaped bit of wood, you phail in Autoshite Knob stakes

It did cross my mind to use a random piece of joinery but I prefer the current fittings.

 

--Phil

[Parky]

Is this now to be immortalised as KNOB_GTA ?

[vulgalour]

While admiring your KNOB I found myself wanting a jacket made out of that seat fabric.

[PhilA]

Had a moment today where it was warm and dry enough to think about taking a look at the car.

 

Drove it to work and stuck it up on the ramp:

 

 

Took a look, and sho' nuff, there's a lot of slack in the balljoint on the rack end.

 

 

Some plank has put the clip on in a position that's only accessible with an 8mm spanner through the hole in the subframe.. turning it three degrees at a time, rotating the spanner, again... until you die of old age.

 

 

Managed to pull the gaiter off. Yup, the bearing has a nylon cup inside which has collapsed. It's still securely attached to the car which is good because I need a drill that'll fit in the space and a large wrench also to undo it..

 

 

Being as I had neither, it all went back together again but this time with the clip in a sensible position.

 

 

Took a moment to photograph the gear linkage and put a temp patch on the exhaust at the back with tinfoil and zipties, which has shut it up considerably. Also need to bring bug spray because I see far too many brown widow nests and webs.

 

I'm going to see about the tools then after that it'll need an alignment. Cheapest place here is $89.99 to get it done. Fun.

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

After having had the indicators die on me yesterday, I decided (upon having hit the steering column shroud where the blinky unit lives and brought the blinks back for a few moments) to purchase a replacement rather than dick about repairing a twenty-something year old blinker unit.

 

 

As I waited to turn into Auto Zone with no blinking device operational, a Lincoln Town Car pulled out of McDonalds with great haste and went into the side of a Chevy Suburban. The suburban then gracefully ended up on its side (fook knows how, yay America). I turned into Auto Zone. the two incidents were unrelated.

 

$6 later and I have an electronic blinky unit which is considerable amounts less crap than the original bimetallic one, though it now flashes faster with TIK TAK TIK TAK TIK TAK rather than the original somewhat more dour PIK toink PIK toink PIK toink

 

I CAN HAS TURN SIGNALS AGAIN

 

 

The front one works

 

The back one does too. Just at the other end of the car.

 

The ones on the other side work equally well. Huzzah.

 

Other than that things are running fine, which is good

 

 

 

--Phil

[Felly Magic]

I bet the lawyers were on the scene quicker than the emergency services with that prang. Happy New Year to you, and keep us posted on this thread of Yankee Frenchness