Renault 6TL "Crapaud"

[dollywobbler]

It does look ace. Wonderfully decrepit, but far better than it was when I found it. I reckon you need some anti-static straps and an aerial made from a coat hanger to give it that full shambolic 1980s look.

[406V6]

Good to see this making progress. According to How Many Left there are 20 Renault 6's taxed at present.  If it was mine I'd rub down and slap some anti-rust paint on the bare rusty bits.

[vulgalour]

... an aerial made from a coat hanger...

 

Yeah, but there's no radio, Mr Wobbler, and I have no intention of fitting one.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I have got a CRACKING new unopened oldskool anti static gizmo that would look ace on this, it's got a built in reflector and lightning flash 'motif'. If you would like it I will fetch it next time I'm up the garage & chuck it in the post. This is the perfect car for it!!!

[vulgalour]

YES.  Crapaud will wear it with pride.  My tyres just arrived too, they're small enough to look like bicycle tyres.

[Rocket88]

Deffo DO NOT PAINT...................................oily rag paint job is perfect for this lovely thing........

[PhilA]

Yeah, but there's no radio, Mr Wobbler, and I have no intention of fitting one.

 

No, that's to hang it up out of the way once you've done driving it for the day.

 

 

--Phil

[dollywobbler]

Yeah, but there's no radio, Mr Wobbler, and I have no intention of fitting one.

 

IRRELEVANT! 

[vulgalour]

There's paint over the filler, don't worry, there's no bare filler on the car.  I'm going to probably have to put some sort of gutter back on it eventually because when it really rains a lot it does overpower the door seals.

[fordperv]

do not respray, i absolutely love the street furniture look of it

[Parky]

Love it. I do sometimes wonder if a nice hand painted coat of yellow would suit but then again it's completely wonderful as is

[Cavcraft]

I've missed loads of this thread somehow. You've done absolute wonders there, Vulg, top bombing.

[barrett]

If you only ever take one piece of advice from me about anything, make it this: Ankor Wax is what you need to protect the paint and rusty bits

[Noel Tidybeard]

i think replacng the guttering is a good call as this car was dever disigned to be without and the door seals disigned thusly

[vulgalour]

Ironically, perhaps, the car having no gutters is keeping more rain out than what was left of the gutters when I got it were managing to.  Mine you, there aren't holes that go directly through to the inside of the car from the outside of the roof now either, which probably helps.

[derskine]

Liking the tatty but loved look of it!

[Mike D]

How about some aluminium J section extrusions riveted and sikaflexed along the roof where the gutters were? They should be flexible enough to profile to the roof ok and channel the rain away from your door seals

[scaryoldcortina]

Funnily enough, I have an incomplete aluminium greenhouse kit lying around here that an ebay seller didn't want returned. You are welcome to any bits you want before the rest goes in the alloy scrap bin.

[vulgalour]

I'd be up for giving that a shot.  Minimum gutter length required is 112mm (44 1/8") each side.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

How about some aluminium J section extrusions riveted and sikaflexed along the roof where the gutters were? They should be flexible enough to profile to the roof ok and channel the rain away from your door seals

 

For some reason I was daydreaming about Vulgs gutters as I drove to work this morning and that's exactly what I came up with too, I reckon it could make quite a neat job

[Noel Tidybeard]

well you gonna need something to fix the pineapple rack to

[vulgalour]

I'm going to have to think quite seriously about an MoT for this soon.  Not sure I can squeeze it in before Christmas, there's a lot on between now and then, but certainly January seems very likely.

 

Not sure where to take it.  It'll be the first MoT it's had in over 20 years and while I've spent a lot of time (and more money than I meant to) on putting it all right, I'm well aware it's unlikely to pass on the first attempt.  I'd like to take it somewhere where if it's genuinely dangerous they'll tell me but will otherwise be sympathetic towards it.  Any ideas?

 

Should mention, I'm up in TS17, Stockton-on-Tees and don't really want the maiden voyage to be much more than about 20 miles each way, just in case.

[Eddie Honda]

Take the Reliant approach and get some self-adhesive rain gutters / drip rails. It's a J-section black strip that has an adhesive backing strip.

 

 

Something similar used on Metrocabs too.

London Metrocab by Kevin Lane, on Flickr

 

X-section is similar to this:

 

 

[vulgalour]

Got some ordered earlier today, as it happens, took me a while to find the right thing to search for.  Only £25 for enough to do both sides seems quite reasonable and if it doesn't work I can just peel it off.  It should work though.

[Eddie Honda]

MOT. Any ideas? I'm up in TS17, Stockton-on-Tees

 

From this list: http://www.fbhvc.co.uk/legislation-and-fuels/historic-vehicle-friendly-mot-stations/

 

Bank Top Garage in Billingham?

[vulgalour]

That's pretty much exactly what I was looking for.  Cheers, Eddie  I'll give them a call once I've got the carb, tyres and exhaust sorted as at that point it should be MoT ready and all the rest is window dressing.

[beko1987]

Not sure that list is right, Tower Garage in Marlow is there and they are universally accepted by the locals to be a bunch of cunts. I took my 206 there for the first time I ever motd a car and came away £800 lighter... For a wishbone and an mot, but they did the work without asking me, and I was too young and naive to tell em to fro so paid. People from work often tell tales of woe from them before we tell them to to go to court motors around the corner

[vulgalour]

I'm putting the MoT off until January.  Reason being, I simply haven't the time between now and Christmas to get the car sorted, mainly because I shall be going away for a couple of weeks over the festive period, leaving Mike to hold the fort in my absence.  Not to worry.  Let's have a mini update anyway.

 

Citromatics, the garage around the corner from Mike's garage, can fit and balance the Renault's tyres and wheels because they have the proper dooberry for their machine.  I thought I'd get this checked first as I've read quite a few people having problems finding a garage that can deal with solid-centre wheels.  My missing dashboard switch arrived from Spain and accounts for all the loose wires (I hope, not tested it yet) that have been flopping around under the dash.  It's much shinier than my existing switches so it's probably not from a 6, more likely a higher spec 4 I suppose.  Importantly it fits the hole and even if it doesn't work, it's nicer than seeing wires poking out.

 

The universal guttering I ordered arrived and today is the first dry day we've had so that I can fit it.  This is not a pretty job (what is on this car?) but it's very much a case of function over form right now.  They have the stickiest sticky stuff ever on them, I just hope it helps redirect the rainwater away from the door seals so the cabin stays that bit drier.  Getting this car watertight is going to be an ongoing battle I think.  Whether or not I replace them with more proper metal gutters remains to be seen.

 

 

What else?  Oh yes, Mike offered to clean and rebuild the carb for me so I don't have to.  I'm capable of doing it myself but I'd far rather someone that actually wants to do the job does it than someone who doesn't, the end result will be better.  We got two pairs of CV boots to replace the ones on the car which, while repairable with a bit of superglue, are so cheap to replace it'd be daft not to.  Still waiting on the new radiator arriving, though it has left Germany as far as I'm aware so might be here this week.

 

After that there's not really anything in the way of spending apart from the tyre fitting and legal requirements and very little by way of things to do.  I don't particularly want to drive it while the weather is grim and the roads are salty so there's no rush for these last few jobs.

[purplebargeken]

Those gutters look almost like they belong there in a cheap French plastic trim sort of way. Like it. The switch looks fabulous.

[PhilA]

Agreed, they look like genuine Renault parts.

 

If they don't fall off, they should work fine.

 

Huzzah on the carb front. Does the car actually have a heated screen in the rear hatch?

 

Phil