Renault 6TL "Crapaud"

[RayMK]

This little car has had to fight hard to be noticed and brought back to life.  It is showing its bruises with pride.  Well done Mr V.

[Ghosty]

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

That 'weathering' is enough to make the entire of Edition38 implode in envy.

Keep it up!

[Parky]

Goodness that's turning into a nice looking little car!

 

Without going all the way back through the thread, what's happening headlight wise, any solutions yet?

[purplebargeken]

Looks like a sound job done on the roof bits - am obv impressed.

 

In Germanland but can this not be fettled in any way? Has one left! 110834872292

[vulgalour]

I've sourced a headlight but was waiting until I had everything sorted so the chap doesn't have to keep sending small parcels when I find something else I need.  Now I know I don't need anything else I can get him to just send the headlights out when I've thrown some cash at him.

[vulgalour]

Crumbs, another busy day on Crapaud. I bought some new spring clips for the sill trims so I could get those back on. The old clips had rusted out for the most part and were a nuisance to remove. The new clips were even more of a nuisance to fit but I persisted and got there. Cleaned off the rust and flakey paint on the sills and then popped one trim on which fitted well enough, pushed the end caps home which have seen better days and this side was done.

 

The other side it turns out the trim strip is considerably shorter than it should be. I only found this out after fighting with all the trim clips because I'd foolishly assumed it would be the correct length. Never mind, it doesn't bother me, just part of what this car is all about.

 

Windscreen was popped out. This has to be the easiest windscreen I've ever removed. The seal had some sort of sealant gunge which meant the top wasn't sitting flush with the frame and allowing water to get trapped. The driver's side had loads of sealant for no real reason and the passenger side practically none. The windscreen has been out before as the green repaint was underneath everything. The whole surround and the seal - which is in surprisingly good shape - were cleaned to get rid of the sealant and rust and so we could make a start on the next job...

 

Fitting the headlining. After popping all the rods into the relevant holes, the rear tension was set by putting the special plastic piece into the grip rod and then pressing the grip rod down where it was lifted from the previous headlining removal. At the front, a little bit of good strong adhesive was applied before putting the tension on and holding it all down with pegs. It works exceptionally well.

 

Once it's all dried, the excess fabric and pegs are removed and then the side tension can be set.

 

There was a couple of inches of excess fabric to remove before I could tuck it away into the grip rods and to prevent puckering on the seams, the roof bow pleats were split (on the fabric, not the stitches) to allow the new headlining to fit smoothly. Here it is before trimming and after front-to-rear tension has been set.

 

I had thought some of the fabric needed to go in the rear side window holes as when I removed the old headlining that's where it was. However, the grip rod runs all the way to the back so I put it back in there which is much neater. It also reveals where the respray was done by masking off the old headlining but removing the rear side windows. To fit the fabric for side tension you get a large, blunt screwdriver and, working from the seams, push the fabric into the grip rods. If any of the grip rods (I've typed grip rods too many times, it's lost all meaning now) need it, gently tap them down to hold the fabric. It's a really, really fast way of doing a headlining, I like it.

 

Repeat on the other side until complete. The finished article is really satisfying and it's made the interior a nicer place to be.

 

With that done, attention could turn to refitting the side windows. I managed to fit this one back-to-front on the first attempt so it had to come out to be refitted, but it was done with a little grunt by my brother and I.

 

The other side got the same treatment. This went much easier when we found a length of suitable cord but it was still a difficult window to put in due to the shape of it.

 

Finally, the windscreen went in. It sits in the frame much better than it did before it was removed. I didn't have the special tool for fitting the chrome trim but I do have a tried and tested technique using fingers and a screwdriver carefully. I also found climbing onto the bonnet of Renault 6 from the side is very difficult because it tips much more than you expect.

 

With all the glass in and the headlining fitted I faffed about refitting the dashboard and then the mirror - which I cleaned the stem on since it had too much green paint on one side - and the visors.

 

Another shot with flash, so you can see the rabbits.

 

Mike was in briefly and ran the wiring for the reversing lights, we just need to wire up a switch to operate the existing ones or find some that work from the non-powered switch in the Renault's gearbox. The wiring is at least in for the reversing lights now which makes them easier to sort in the future. Happily running out of jobs to do now.

[greengartside]

Absolutely heroic effort here Vulg. Cannot wait to hear this little buzzbox firing up and moving under it's own steam for at least a couple of decades.

[DeeJay]

Nice neat job on the headliner but those sun visors will annoy until you recover them.

 

Or are you waiting for the rabbits to start breeding and populate the vacant space?

[mouseflakes]

I've typed grip rods too many times, it's lost all meaning now

 

At least you've saved a bit of time on the topic title by using the abbreviation 'Headling', which I think should be adopted by all. In the same vein (though a bit late now) I'd like to suggest 'grods' for grip rods.

 

Nice work with the grods anyway - headlining looks great. You've managed to (lago)morph it into something quite special.

 

Regarding the trim strips - could it be that one is short because of the odd wheelbase side to side?

[purplebargeken]

Headlining rabbits rock!

[vulgalour]

@DeeJay:  They don't bother me, they match the white plastic of the mirror plinth, the interior light and the white stitching of the rabbits.  Also, sunvisors are almost impossible to retrim so they can stay as they are.

 

@Mouseflakes:  I did think that with the trim but no, one's just loads shorter than the other, possibly related to one end cap being all bashed up and mostly useless.

[vulgalour]

No, I haven't got it running yet.  I did some other things instead, easy things since I'm just shattered today after the mega long, mega late stint yesterday.  Namely, for the first time in  while, Crapaud went back outside now that the weather can be kept out.  Very, very dusty little car and in desperate need of a scrub and clean out.

 

There wasn't really anything left in the boot; an exhaust system, a mud flap, the side trims.  It did need a clean out as it was full of filler dust and grinder dust and mud.  Same with the parcel shelf and supports, I still have the bits of carpet for the supports, they were just put safely out of the way when I took the picture.

 

I'm still delighted with the headlining.  It's settled out nicely now the fabric has had chance to relax out the few wrinkles there were.

 

Once outside I could get the hose and the soapy water and give the car a bath.  That probably seems ludicrous when you look at it, but it felt pretty horrible to touch with the chalky paint and all the workshop detritus.  I don't mind scruffy, but I can't abide dirty.  This did highlight the windscreen does have a couple of minor leaks, exaggerated by the cloth headlining wicking the water up.  I'm going to put some Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure in as it seems to have a 100% satisfaction reputation by all who have used it.  I suspect the windscreen frame is slightly deformed which is causing this small amount of leaking which became apparent after I'd taken a toothbrush to clear off some moss on the seal and thrown really quite a lot of water at the windscreen and seal to find out how leaky it really was.  Interestingly, the leaks don't correlate with the corrosion I did find on the screen or any visible damage.

 

 

I tried out a few different cleaners on the seats but they were actually really clean, just sun damaged.  They got pretty hot when I was cleaning the car in the sunshine, there's a thing that brought back some childhood memories!  All the glass got the once over inside and out and the whole car ended up feeling far nicer and less inclined to transfer dirt onto clothing and hands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will get around to drilling out the old rusted bolts from the mudflap brackets so they can be refitted properly, I've got to cut through the one bolt holding the mudflap on wonkily to get it off the car.  The only thing I couldn't clean was the last of the mud out of the arches, I didn't have high enough water pressure at the unit and I didn't want to subject them to the terror of a pressure washer, just in case.  Instead, I screwed the washer foot pump back down and gave it a go.  I've never tested this, I didn't check the lines or unblock the washer jets, just tipped in some water to see what would happen.

 

Crikey, it works!  It's about as feeble as the wipers, but it works.

 

I'm sure you'd love to see a video of it in action.

http://vid845.photobucket.com/albums/ab16/volksangyl/Renault%206TL/20160605-14.mp4

 

With Crapaud tucked up next to the Princess it seemed the perfect opportunity to get a picture of the whole gang together at last.

[Parky]

WIN

[wuvvum]

The washer pump really isn't the 6's strongest point is it?  I'm pretty sure my dad's later Series 2 had an electric pump.

[Jifflemon]

Re: sun visors. What about a fine black marker and drawing the rabbits on them?

As for the cleaning, I thoroughly approve! I'd have probably clay bar'ed it too but I'm that sort of crazy.

[purplebargeken]

I have an unused all electric generic washer set up in the cupboard if required.

[vulgalour]

It's tempting, PBK, and if it were my daily I'd say yes in an instant.  Thing is, I'm taking the approach that if it isn't broken, it doesn't need fixing.  I'm also concerned an electric pump might be so effective the wipers won't keep up and then I'll need to upgrade *those* and then it'll just snowball and I'll want to repaint it shiny all over.  It's a problem, this barn find lark.

[MikeKnight]

You've managed to (lago)morph it into something quite special.

 

[DeeJay]

First glance I thought you'd put a big Barry Boy exhaust on the bugger.

 

[plasticvandan]

Vulg in shock turd polishing incident! (sorry,get it running and you will get nothing but high praise from me

[dollywobbler]

Every bit of progress on this car is fabulous. I'd normally try and get the car running first and foremost, which then tends to mean I end up ignoring pretty much anything else. I will demonstrate this very keenly with the 2CV I reckon.

[wuvvum]

It's tempting, PBK, and if it were my daily I'd say yes in an instant.  Thing is, I'm taking the approach that if it isn't broken, it doesn't need fixing.  I'm also concerned an electric pump might be so effective the wipers won't keep up and then I'll need to upgrade *those* and then it'll just snowball and I'll want to repaint it shiny all over.  It's a problem, this barn find lark.

The wipers on mine are ridiculously quick.  Even when I don't want them to be.

[vulgalour]

There was an attempt at a tow-start of sorts today.  Wanted to see if the engine would turn in first gear when towed.  It does.  Then it jumped out of first into fourth and was just dragged across the floor because, well, it's fourth gear and the car doesn't weigh much.  I'm going to get some fresh gearbox oil in since I haven't done that yet and then we can try again.  Spark plugs were put in the order the book says (this may or may not be correct) and the points are opening and closing but I've not yet set the gap as I've not had the engine in the correct position yet.

 

Very, very close to starting things up, just a case of having the time and all the pieces in place.  Not had a lot of time today as I've gone and injured myself so it was pretty painful just walking around.  Well done me.  Nothing serious, I just need to keep off my feet for a bit, which is something I'm useless at.

[RayMK]

Are the engine mountings in good shape?  If not, it may just be the engine kicking around too much which knocked it in to a different gear.

 

Edit:  Thinking about it though, this is an in line oriented engine and front wheel drive, so may not suffer much from torque reaction like a front engine rear drive car or a transverse FWD set up.   

[vulgalour]

Engine mounts are in good order.  It could just be I hadn't selected first as well as I thought I had, or I'd selected a different gear.  Gear selection makes the Princess' gearbox seem sporty and precise.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Great work to date. However...

[mouseflakes]

Vulg, just a thought. I'm fairly sure you'd be better off turning the engine that way with it in a high gear wouldn't you? In first, every revolution of the wheels will be trying to turn the engine many times, while in fourth only a few, so a gentler process. If you're trying to turn the engine from the wheel end, then the gear ratios are reversed.

[DeeJay]

I've always used 2nd for bump starts (or reverse).

[vulgalour]

Terry:  I'm trying!  That's what today was about.  I'll try using a different gear next time.

[Parky]

Wouldn't you want a few turns on the starter first to build up some oil pressure?