Renault 6TL "Crapaud"

[crapcarcollector]

Are you nearly there yet?

[vulgalour]

Couldn't find a RatDat or Bickle locally, I'll have to hope I can make do without them.  This is my last message before I set off.  Next message likely won't be for another 12 hours.

[KruJoe]

May the shite gods smile upon thee.

[MrDuke]

I've just watched Xantia tail-lights disappear into the night, partially obscured by a trailered Six

[nigel bickle]

10 hrs, one way! My God, that IS some trip!

[MrDuke]

In fairness, they left home around 10:00, hit major traffic on the M62 and arrived here about 4:30ish. So 'only' 6.5 hours, although the roads should be kinder on the way back.

[RayMK]

Looking forward to your triumphant, safe return with the R6.  Bet you'll be exhausted. Details eagerly awaited when you've recovered  .

[vulgalour]

We have returned TRIUMPHANT and bloody knackered.  Trip back was far better than the trip out, I'm having a cup of tea and sorting through photographs to give you all a proper update.  Xantia was bloomin' brilliant at towing and the trailer we hired was a lovely thing very well behaved.

[vulgalour]

It was an early start today, for me at least, Mike is far better at mornings than I am.  Up at 8am, at the trailer place a smidge after 9am and then on our way to Wales.  There was an horrendous jam on the M62 that added an extra hour onto our journey and was pretty tiring which meant more breaks than usual for us and for Blake-dog which meant even though we had set off at 9am we hadn't arrived until 4:30pm.  We gather from the radio that there had been a broken down lorry shutting an adjacent three lane motorway down to just one and causing massive tailbacks as a result.  The weather was reasonable, trailer was an absolute dream to tow and the weather was pretty good... right up until just after getting into Wales.  It's traditional for it to be raining when I visit Wales.

 

Never really manifested into anything serious.  We had to make a few more stops than usual as farty dog was with us, occasionally committing biological warfare on us.  Satnav took us the correct way and apart from a minor hiccup when Mike put the car onto a soft verge, and promptly started to bog it down less than a mile from MrDuke's residence.  Happily, I have some experience of unbogging cars and we were soon back on the single lane track and pulling in to see what I'd let myself in for.

 

MrDuke and Lady_MrDuke were perfect hosts, they come highly recommended, top people who even sorted some grub out for Mike and I on our arrival which was very generous.  I don't think I can ever thank them enough for keeping hold of the Renault while my life fell to bits and was slowly glued back together over the course of the last year, there ought to be more people like that in the world.

 

By the time we'd nattered and procrastinated and let Blake run around the Duke gardens and generally make a pest of himself we thought it might be a good idea to load up the Renault.  I have had a poke around the car and found it surprising in a number of ways... more on that at a later date.  Sadly, because the light was failing my Spot The Difference picture didn't quite turn out as I'd hoped.  It's close enough.

 

 

 

It was then time to make the long trek home.  The roads were a lot quieter, the weather not so bad and the Xantia was extremely competent.  After the debacle Mike had with the 16' trailer he hired from another company we came to the conclusion he must have hired a pretty bad trailer.  This one had working brakes and if it weren't for the Renault peering in through the back window all the way home you'd hardly know it was there.  There was only one stop for fuel when I put £30 in the tank, I needn't have bothered, the Xantia would have done it on the tank of fuel in the car, still annoyed that I accidentally filled up with premium diesel but at least the cost is offset by the veg oil.  You know what fuelling up means...

 

We carried on until we needed something to perk us up rather than Blake's chemical warfare.  We stopped off at Wetherby for emergency coffee and emergency cabin venting.

 

Beautiful.

 

Then on to the unit where we offloaded the trophy.  Amusingly, just as we were securing the trailer for the night Mike's brother appeared in a police van (Mike's brother is a police man) and we got a 'What is it' from the police officer with him and a 'that's HORRIBLE' from Mike's brother.  Obviously that means it's an excellent purchase.  It is the most comically bouncy car I've ever encountered too, suspension travel must be measured in metres and the seats are ridiculously softly sprung.

 

 

Once I've had a daylight poke around I'll provide a fuller update of the car itself.  The round trip was 450 miles.

[Ghosty]

I like the blue door! Sounds like a grand day was had by all.

[oman5]

Bloody brilliant thread. Well done, excellent bit of shite rescuing!

[MikeKnight]

The trailer, though not terribly long, was pretty damn wide. About as wide as the country lane from MrDuke's house. Which meant every corner taken was accompanied with a lovely scrape as the Xantia yanked the trailer back off the soft verge.

 

Have to thank MrDuke's little Fiesta for helping us get out of his paddock, the drizzle had turned every tiny bit of grass patch into a stealth quagmire which the trailer promptly got stuck in.

[vulgalour]

But we made it by using Teamwork and only being slightly snarky at each other!

[MikeKnight]

[fairkens]

Top shite-ing!

[dollywobbler]

Brilliant. So pleased to see this car finally making it to you.

[Inspector Morose]

Couldn't think of a better home for that. I'm sure that it'll get the care and attention it deserves after escaping death for so long. Much jealousness.

[wuvvum]

hi m8 how much do u want 4 offside front floorpan can colect 2nite thx

[AndyW201]

Top work from all involved.

Cant wait to see this pounding the streets of Teesside... Should stand out nicely from all those leased Audi A3s and Fiat 500s! Dont think Ive actually seen a 6 for a good 20-odd years, even then I think it was in Spain.

[eddyramrod]

Epic stuff!  Well done, all those involved.

[Timewaster]

I just about remember dad having a 6 as a courtesy car when his R12 was in dry dock.

8 year old me staring wistfully at it through the window while dad flatly refused to take me out anywhere in it.

[junkyarddog]

Glad it all went to plan for you.

 

Looking forward to your Renner 6 exploits

[purplebargeken]

Most excellent stuff.

 

I haz alcohol and chocolate and I am settled in front of the PC watching for more Renner action. Please proceed.............

[DS20]

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think one of you left Blake's lights on.  

[vulgalour]

Called it quits early today, made some progress all the same but I'm too tired and haven't had enough sleep.  Might have been a bit too excited about OMG NU KAR.

[dollywobbler]

Called it quits early today, made some progress all the same but I'm too tired and haven't had enough sleep.  Might have been a bit too excited about OMG NU KAR.

 

This happens. I hate the 'new car come down' that follows an epic purchase. It's usually where you realise that the word epic may be misplaced. Or it is in my case anyway. I've never bought a Renault 6.

[chaseracer]

Agreed.  I bought this Mercedes a while back, and.......

 

[vulgalour]

I'm still super excited about the Renault, make no doubt about that, it's just the most ridiculously comical wobbly car ever made even more so because of it's serious facelift face.  It already feels like a keeper.

 

---

 

First thing I wanted to do was deal with the flat tyre.  This is the most comprehensively knackered tyre I've seen to date.

 

The French do have this habit of putting spare wheels in cages under the car, which is fine, but you never need to change a wheel when you're having a lovely picnic it's always when you have to lie down in the dark in a wet grass verge near some dog poo.  Always.  Look at that floor!

 

The spare is an old Michelin XZX, quite possibly the original for the car.  It is probably fitted, like the rest on the car, with an inner tube.

 

It is also flat, but not completely.  I could not for the life of me get the air compressor to work and haven't got a back-up manual pump so it has to stay flat.  Let's have another look underneath shall we?  I've already shown you my amazing boot floor, less amazing is the remains of the backbox.  Realistically, the Renault needs a complete exhaust.  It looks like it's made from the steel equivalent of McDonald's milkshake straws so I doubt it'll be a pricey system.

 

Rear trailing arm mounting point appears to be really solid, this is a good thing.  Everything needs a clean out and the drums (so tiny!) need opening for inspection.  I'm really amazed by all this.

 

Inner arches are also in great condition, very well undersealed.  I guess this is the advantage of the Protectol (British and best) Vehicle Rustproofing it got early in life.

 

 

Look at these floors!

 

It is letting water in, which we know about, just a case of finding out where from.  Rolled the back seat forward and mopped out the water in there.  Gave things a vacuum too and found it all very tidy.

 

 

MrDuke had already removed the front seats which meant getting the floors dried out would be easier.  There is some blistering to the floor pan inside, I wanted to let it dry out before poking anything.

 

 

Once it had dried out I vacuumed it and found the blistering was paint flakes, the metal while thin (all the bodywork metal on this car is SUPER thin!) appears to be solid and not pitted, I'm absolutely blown away by this.  As soon as feasible I'll get it de-rusted and repainted to keep it solid.

 

The parcel shelf under the dashboard is damp, Still investigating where the water is getting in.

 

 

MrDuke has done some work on the dash, particularly the stylish metal trim, and it's in really good condition, it needs a detailed fettle, which it will get.

 

With the floors having dried out a lot more it was evident that this was an exceptionally solid bit of the car.  There's no evidence of patching or repairs, just some seam sealant round the edges over what looks like original black paint.  It's possible it's had replacement floor pans early in its life.  You can just see the car's original colour peeping out under the dash which isn't green but rather a nice metallic blue.

[DS20]

That isn't as bad as it might be; although it's a long time since I've seen anything as rancid as that tyre (easy fix, though )

[vulgalour]

After all that it was time to go water leak hunting, a job I dislike at the best of times and not one I fancied doing today, needs must as it's easier to do it now with the car interior in bits.  Rust stains are really useful here, they give a visual clue, that meant I could easily find the most likely route water is getting into the boot.

 

Quite a bit of water is getting in and sitting in the passenger side front.  This one is a bit confusing, there's no obvious route I could see for it so I carried on looking.

 

If you look on the leading edge of the driver's door here (door card removed) you can see a rust stain running down from the door card holder rail.  Water was getting in between the moisture membrane and the door card, running down the rail and into the foot well, or at least that's what the rust stains hint at.

 

So, when you're getting water in the front footwells it pays to check the scuttle section.  Sure enough, the drains that should go down the A pillars behind the wings were completely blocked both sides.  These wings are coming off anyway so I'll clean up behind them even better at a later date.

 

All cleaned out and tidy again.

 

Bit of cleaning on the interior.  The seats are in REALLY good condition but filthy as anything.  I had thought the parcel shelf wasn't, it look seriously badly faded.  Amazingly, it was just a thick layer of dust as you can see from this half-and-half.  The parcel shelf is by no means perfect underneath the dust but it's far better than I'd hoped for.

 

Stuck the seats back in.  It might look like two single seats but you can scootch across the car side to side like it has benches, there's only just enough space between them for the seatbelt stalks thanks to the gear lever and umbrella handle handbrake being dash mounted.  The seats are also phenominally comfortable.

 

 

It's been a stunning day here today so the car got really well aired out and was almost bone dry when it came time to pack up.

 

The paint is hilariously bad.  At some point this car was metallic blue, repainted with flat green, done inside and out but prepared badly.  However, the spare front door appears to have been metallic green, painted metallic blue and then painted a different metallic blue on the outside again.  Sadly, the overpaint on the car is quite fragile, you can brush it off without trying too hard so I'm not sure how much of the current patina will survive, perhaps it will develop into something even more interesting?

 

 

 

The big job I needed to do were the gutters.  Where the roof is crushed the gutters are in bad shape on the outer skin but happily not on the inner skin.  They can be repaired, I'm under no illusion it's going to be difficult.  I got them both a lot straighter and I can probably salvage the damaged stainless gutter trim which is badly kinked and dented in places.

 

 

I did get some of the bad passenger side dent out when I straightened the gutter.  I'm going to have to remove the headlining, which is annoying as it's perfect and well fitted.  If I remove the headlining I can get the hammer and dolly out and get the metal back to shape properly, it reshapes really easily so this damage isn't as bad as it seemed.  The problem is that this side the gutter has started to erode the roof and the two skins have separated.  Again, it's repairable but it is going to be difficult.

 

 

 

I found a spare set of keys in the Stuff that came with the car, the rusty one is for the blue door and works, the brass one I think is an old AA phone box key.  The workbench wire wheel thing worked a treat on the rusty key and I shall keep it this way rather than getting a new one as it works perfectly well.

 

 

If anyone has a spare headlight do let me know.  I suspect that's going to be a very difficult part to source as I need a RHD one.

 

 

 

 

That's your lot for today.  This is a super little car that's far more solid than expected.  The roof repairs are scary but not impossible, I'm considering getting some silicone sealant to plug the gaps until the car is otherwise sorted so that water doesn't get in where it's not wanted.