Renault 6TL "Crapaud"

[lisbon_road]

I would never use a ball joint breaker - just tap the forging and apply downward pressure with a bar or something and they come apart easy.

 

Great car, and well done for working on something so unglamourous and so autoshite.  Respect!

 

Sorry - I just read through the whole thread.  This is a fantastic achievement and no praise is enough.  Thanks for keeping us informed.

[wuvvum]

It does look good.  Your scuttle panel in particular is in way better nick than mine (although I do have a NOS one to go on if I ever develop the bodywork skillz to do it).

[purplebargeken]

Each time I see this car the more I like it. The more I like it, the more I haz need of it.  Bloody marvellous stuff so far. Seriously.

[vulgalour]

Original ball joints are rivetted in (like the ones on this car), replacements are bolted in.  DRILL TIME!

[alf892]

You can hold one against the joint and sharply strike the opposite side with the other. If your timing's good you can use both to strike simultaneously...

 

 

I believe the sudden blow momentarily distorts the hole that's holding the pin so breaks the contact of the 'interference fit' joint here.

One hammer (or sturdy drift) applied on the end.........so at 90 degrees to your pic......very easy and effective

[PhilA]

One hammer (or sturdy drift) applied on the end.........so at 90 degrees to your pic......very easy and effective

The automotive version of squeezing out a zit.

[MikeKnight]

I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the solidness of the car and am greatly enjoying helping out with it.

 

Ideally need to buy an engine stand for when the engine comes out, but can make do with the plastic engine trolley thingy on wheels we have for now.

[vulgalour]

I thought I was carrying the engine home under one arm and rebuilding it in the sink.  Is that not the plan now?

[Christine]

[Shep Shepherd]

I like the colour of that Wilko paint. You ought to paint the outer body in a similar hue

[derskine]

I broke a scissor splitter on a Volvo 340 lower ball joint, bit of heat will help with a fork splitter.

[twosmoke300]

I've never used a balljoint splitter , the one or two hammer method will always work .

[panhard65]

I've never used a balljoint splitter , the one or two hammer method will always work .

That is true in nearly 30 years working in the trade I have never owned a ball joint splitter or needed one. Just hit it with a hammer works every time. Just don't hit the thread.

[Lankytim]

I've always undone the nut and battered the fookA out of the joint with a hammer. Always shocks it loose eventually.

 

I've got read admiration/envy of this project. I can't believe how solid it is, I don't think I would have taken a chance on it!

[Mr Lobster]

It does look remarkably sound considering its a Renault 6 thats spent ages off road and sitting outside in Wales. 

 

Looks like you're doing a great job on it.

 

Incidentally, if you are struggling for headlights or any obscure bits, we're going to 4L International in July which usually has a boatload of R5s, R6s and the like as well as a thousand R4s and has a pretty good autojumble, so if theres any bits you need then let me know and I'll keep an eye open.

[vulgalour]

The only two bits I know I need are a door lock rubber gromit and a headlight.  Other than that, everything seems present and correct.

[Parky]

Sometimes worth trying an older Renault dealer in case they have something obscure on the shelf. There is one not far from me, South Hill Garage in Basildon which is now an independent and I wouldn't be surprised if they have all kinds of old stuff out back.

[vulgalour]

Most of the local area was flattened in the '60s by t*wn pl*nn*rs so there aren't really any old anything left around here

[vulgalour]

Was at the unit today so it's time to have another go at getting this engine out along with some other jobs. Car was still nice and dry inside and as a bonus there was no longer water getting in under the rear seats, just one little puddle on the boot floor from the tailgate. I'm happy that I'm resolving the water leak issues as a result of that.

 

Even so, I did notice there was a drip of water clinging to the inside of the rear passenger door surround inside the car. Prised the trim off and got busy with the wire wheel on the gutter to explore more fully. At the front it was still as bad as it was, drier now and more stable by the look of things.

 

Above the drip of water what started as a small hole became an explosion of rust dust and a large portion of the gutter disappeared. That was a bit disheartening.

 

I spent some time on the driver's side gutter too, that had the same perforation to the flat surface but the majority of the vertical portion of the gutter and roof were still intact. I applied some paint to keep things stable and the hole that had appeared in the roof edge on the passenger side now has a duct tape patch for the short term.

 

Not too bad though, it's repairable. Our neighbouring mechanic and general car fettler had a good look and a prod and seemed confident it was all repairable just fiddly and time consuming. He also had the inspired suggestion of using seam sealer to protect and stabilise the gutters until I can get them properly repaired, it's not a long term fix but it should prevent water getting in where it's not wanted in the short term.

 

 

Foolishly, I then wanted to explore what I suspected was some filler on one of the rear door jambs. I know better than to prod but I prod anyway.

 

Hmm... rivets. There was a smell too, I've encountered it a couple of times on ex-farm cars. There's this bizarre habit of mixing dung with filler to get a stronger repair but in very small quantities, the smell that comes off is quite unique. Quite a lot of filler was scooped on this side.

 

When it was cleaned back it look like the car had been armour plated. I'm guessing there's not a lot of metal left under this patch and it will need repairing properly in the future. For now it's solid enough, I've chased some rust out and applied paint, but not before investigating a suspicious bleb on the rear arch adjacent, revealing a large shallow dent and more pin holes.

 

 

 

Right then, let's check the other side because there's cracks and strange circles over there. Same story, but no dung-filler this time, just unadulterated white resiny powder. I did have one large problem in that I couldn't remove the latch on this side which has had the strange star head fittings replaced with regular cross head bolts, one of which just turns and turns.

 

 

It wasn't unexpected to find repairs like this on this car but I still wasn't happy about it because it gives me that bit more work to do further down the line. It could have been a lot worse, normally when you chase out a lot of filler there's nothing underneath bar some brown lace. The other big job today was the engine removal, this could have gone better if the instructions in the Haynes book had been better than "just take out the engine" because we ended up unbolting the mounts in a really stupid way and added more time to this job than we should have.

 

 

 

The engine bay looks nice and solid and tidy and the car is comically light without the engine and gearbox in there. Since all the ball joints are worn out the easiest way to remove them was to saw through the posts on them to get the driveshafts out. One had been replaced at some point but the other three were all still sporting rivets and all the boots had perished or split.

 

The engine and gearbox is tiny and weighs very little, a welcome thing for moving it from outside to in the unit. I'll find out if this engine is any good when I get it taken apart and find out what exactly is stuck. I've had a surprising number of offers for replacement engines if need be and depending on cost it may make more sense just to replace this unit rather than rebuild it, we shall see.

 

That's all for today. Not sure when I'm working on the car again, contracted an absolutely killer cold just as we were getting the engine out so I'm taking things a bit easy for the rest of today and tomorrow.

[Guest benno]

Enjoying the updates on this, keep up the good work mate

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Good work Vulg!!!!! Even that roof looks less daunting now. I reckon I'd just chop out the wrinkly bit, joggle the edges and make a new square with a 'lip' on it to replace the gutter itself. It looks do-able!

[mouseflakes]

Bugger those rear door latch repairs - my old R6 had the same

[HMC]

Wow!  Your not hanging around with this! Great progress, Did I read somewhere you were contemplating having its roadworthy by Shitefest?

[vulgalour]

It's only the roof-side of the gutter that's shot, the body-side is still really good and appears to be a slightly thicker steel.  I was thinking the best way to do it is just cut out the really bad bits and let sections in, like a super-sized version of... er... I've forgotten their username now.  Whomever it is that did all the work on the Stellar.

[vulgalour]

Shitefest last year was the original target.  I was going to drive the red Princess I sold to Philibusmo there... two stubborn cars and a whole world of crap meant that didn't happen.  Unlikely the Renault will be ready for this Shitefest but if it is I'll definitely bring it.

[DS20]

Was the car blue at one point, or is that a trick of the light / some sort of undercoat?  I prefer the green topcoat.  It's more...erm...countrysideish and soothing - both of which make me think Renault  

[vulgalour]

Originally it was metallic blue.  In fact, it probably looked like this once upon a time.

 

 

 

 

But I'm keeping it green.  So far I've learned that the passenger door, passenger front wing, passenger front inner wing and bonnet were all metallic green at one point, everything else was metallic blue.  I'd like to go for something like this green one day.

 

[DS20]

^ That green suits it perfectly  IIRC, my foster-parents had a 6 in a darker, 'woodland' green - but in far rattier condition.  It was mega-comfortable.  

[wuvvum]

If that engine's fecked, you could try to track down a 1289cc lump out of a 5TS.  Should be proper nippy in a 6. 

[KruJoe]

I'm happy to see you took my advice on the vacuum cleaner situation.

A beige Henry is a machine for winners.