Renault 6TL "Crapaud"

[Timewaster]

Question. What does "crapaud" mean?

 

It's been bothering me some this thread started.

[DS20]

Re the borked headlight, could you get a LHD one and turn it upside-down?  If the lights are regular rectangles, it might work - I think I remember doing the same for my DS's dipped lamps (although they are round, and the self-levelling mechanism gives much pitch alignment flexibility).  

[dollywobbler]

Wonderful. I am thrilled to see this being worked on. I repeat my question though - how's the Granada from this same stash Mr Junkman? Apols if I missed a previous reply...

[purplebargeken]

That is so Gallic it smokes a Gitane and has a baguette on the seat. C'est magnifique. 

[greengartside]

Crapaud is toad/frog in French IIRC.

[vulgalour]

^Correct!  I like it because the car looks a bit like a warty old toad and it has 'crap' in it.

[plasticvandan]

Personally I wouldn't silicone the gutters,became nightmare when it comes to welding/repairing,maybe just duct tape over them?

[Angrydicky]

That looks amazingly solid. Excellent save!

[MrDuke]

Re the borked headlight, could you get a LHD one and turn it upside-down?  If the lights are regular rectangles, it might work - I think I remember doing the same for my DS's dipped lamps (although they are round, and the self-levelling mechanism gives much pitch alignment flexibility).  

 

Aye, that occurred to me as well - they are rectangular and symmetrical, and as the whole grille is angled slightly downwards I imagine the beam would be roughly 90 deg. so the units could be flipped.

[vulgalour]

maybe just duct tape over them?

The shiter's friend! How could I have forgotten it?

[wuvvum]

On my R6 (admittedly an earlier round headlight version), there's a lever to switch from right-hand to left-hand dip.  I'm pretty sure my dad's Series 2 had something similar-  I remember him fitting yellow bulbs when we went to France on holiday, but he never fitted beam deflectors.  Can't remember where it was though, soz.

[vulgalour]

That rings a bell, isn't there a switcher on the back of headlight bowls in early R5s? I'm sure someone on here has that on their car or on some parts they've stashed.

[666jjp]

' I've already shown you my amazing boot floor, less amazing is the remains of the backbox.  Realistically, the Renault needs a complete exhaust.'

 

might be worth contacting this seller not too far from you

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RENAULT-6TL-R1181-SERIES-1100cc-1970-TO-1979-REAR-SILENCER-EXHAUST-/361221025461?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item541a736eb5

[HillmanImp]

' I've already shown you my amazing boot floor, less amazing is the remains of the backbox.  Realistically, the Renault needs a complete exhaust.'

 

might be worth contacting this seller not too far from you

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RENAULT-6TL-R1181-SERIES-1100cc-1970-TO-1979-REAR-SILENCER-EXHAUST-/361221025461?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item541a736eb5

 

Think this is the father of the guy I got my Visa shock absorber from, he is just up the road from me if you need me to pick it up and hold it if you until you are next passing if you are buying the full system, rather than getting bummed on postage.

[vulgalour]

Top find! It's on the watch list for now until I've had a couple of payments clear.  At £10 postage I'm as well just getting it delivered to the unit, I don't often find myself going by Leeds.

[mat_the_cat]

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.

 

If you do go down the silicone route, make sure you get neutral cure rather than atoxy cure (smells like vinegar), as the latter will rust away the steel

[HillmanImp]

Top find! It's on the watch list for now until I've had a couple of payments clear.  At £10 postage I'm as well just getting it delivered to the unit, I don't often find myself going by Leeds.

 

I was thinking of you were getting the full exhaust system. Postage will probably not be much still TBH but the offers there. We may also be able to do some sort of pony express if needed.

[capsuleboy]

I broke a rotten one a few years back...will try and get to the lock up and have a dig about for you.

[derskine]

I can't express my jealousy, I love this.

Looks a lot better in these pictures than I remembered it being when you posted pictures a while ago, good save and be great to see it on the road again.

[M'coli]

That Glynn exhaust guy is a top chap, and no too far from me too.

[Noel Tidybeard]

you will prolly find a small lever that i the headlight height adjuster

when we had a renner 12 estate my dad commented on how bad the lights were- upon further investigation they were set for lhd and all they needed was to be turned upside down then halogen bulbs for good measure

[vulgalour]

I'll investigate the headlights tomorrow, when I shall also be taping the gutters up to keep things a bit dry.  I did wonder if the water is getting into the passenger footwell through the gutter seam where the outer skin has failed, taping it up before I repair it properly may well resolve the issue.

[vulgalour]

I'd brought some bits of the Renault back for a scrub before they go back in the car once it's all water tight.  Some of it cleans up really well, like the rear rubber mat.  Here's a half-and-half shot, it's now fully cleaned and vinyl treated to keep it that way at least until it goes in the car.

 
Unfortunately the front carpet-and-mat combo was beyond even my cleaning skills.  As MrDuke had told me, the pile was just coming away on the carpet when you tried to clean the black whatever-that-is off.  I've unpicked the stitching between the vinyl and the carpet and stored both parts so I've got a pattern to work off for some new carpetting, I'll likely replace the centre console carpet to match as that looks similarly too far gone.  While I do want to keep as much of the age and wear of the car as I can, I draw the line at festering carpets.

 
The rubber boot mat has fared much better and is fundamentally sound, just scruffy.

 
There are a few tears in the rubber which I've temporarily fixed with some black duct tape.  Later I plan to repair this with some relevant rubber glue and patches, for now I just don't want the tears to get any worse while the mat is handled.

 
Scrubbed up really well and being rubber it was hardly any work to clean.

 
The driver's door card and handle are faded.  I'm making no attempt to un-fade them so long as they're clean, it's all part of the car's charm.  The steering column lower shroud was on the receiving end of the soapy water too, it has a split fixing collar that I'll repair before refitting it to the car.

 
As is traditional, the result of today's labours are shown below.

 
The last bit for me to sort are the rear arch and boot liners.  These are incredibly fragile made of plastic that's really thin and brittle, it's quite scary to handle them because tiny pieces break off really easily.  When they're in situ they're nowhere near as fragile.  This is the worst of the two with a large piece missing and since I didn't want the soundproofing of the arch poking through I wanted to work out a solution to make it look tidier without worrying about it being perfect.

 
First I went around the back of both panels, taping up any cracks I could find to prevent further damage as much as possible.  More black duct tape for this.  I didn't tape over the hole just yet, instead I made the edges secure without having the tape visible from the other side.

 
Taking a piece slightly larger than the hole, tape it to the back with another piece of tape, sticky side facing you.  This can be a bit awkward because the tape wants to stick to everything.

 
Then just tape over the tape-patch so there's no sticky on this side of the panel.

 
The camera has made this look a bit more glaring as a repair than it is in reality.  The large shiny patch nearest you is the one that's now repaired.  Further back are a couple of damp patches from earlier cleaning.  This panel now holds its shape and is less inclined to crumble.

 
I won't be refitting any of this until the car is watertight, no point undoing the cleaning work.  I suspect one of the rear side windows is leaking because there were some small rust dribbles on the back of one of these panels.  Tomorrow I'm going to investigate the boxes of bits and get the gutters taped up, I might even get chance to get some engine work done.  I may also do none of this as we've been forecast for snow this coming week!

[vulgalour]

Could have chosen a better day to work outside, there's been an icy wind today turning an otherwise pleasant day into one that's been trying at times.  You know me, I'm pretty stubborn when I want to get a job done and today I wanted to at least rebuild the head and tape up the gutters.  First, I emptied out the two boxes of Stuff so I could see what I was dealing with.

 

MrDuke had the foresight to label all the bits of the engine.  This sped up the process of rebuilding considerably, if you ever take a car apart do this!  I assure you the next person that has to rebuild the jigsaw puzzle will thank you for it.

 

I wanted to get another look around the car to find water leaks as it had rained early in the morning.  I've found one point of water ingress into the boot which will be cured with some sealant.

 

That rust-stain on the tailgate is definitely leaking.  This is a rear screen out job to resolve so I can tidy the surround, paint it and refit the screen.

 

There was some more water in the footwells again, not a huge amount.  The ingress point isn't clear, it looks like it's coming down from the steering column somehow.  I also noticed the cardboard trim on the driver's A pillar was a bit soggy, removed it and the sound proofing behind was saturated and rotten.  Looks like the dashboard is definitely coming out to resolve this.

 

Mike demonstrated the valve I'd missed on the compressor so I got the tyre inflated.  20psi on the front and 24psi on the back as per factory.  You can also just about make out my duct tape gutter, a temporary solution to hopefully keep the cabin drier.

 

Checked out the front lights to get to the bottom of what was possible.  There is no obvious sign of a LHD/RHD switch and while the user manual - amazingly that's survived being in the car all this time - does instruct there's vertical alignment for use when towing I wasn't sure where this is.  I will need a right hand light of some description at some point.  It will be easy to bodge something from another car into the hole if I can't get a proper R6 unit.  I forgot to measure the lens to see what other square lights are available out there.

 

Rebuilding the head was easy, ridiculously so.  Again I was glad for things being in labelled envelopes because the collets are two different sorts for inlet and exhaust.  There's no stem seals on this engine so I expect it will consume some oil in normal use.  I didn't take any pictures of the valves, it was such a quick job to clean them up I was done and they were back in the head before I even thought to do it, a far cry from the Princess valves I did.

 

All the rockers were reinstalled and the head bolted down before refitting the pushrods.  All the tappets need adjusting and I'll hand-crank the engine before trying to fire it up.  I did find the points are completely worn out, the plug leads are very stiff and the distributor cap has heavily corroded points.  Given the affordability of electrical components I'll get points, condenser &c. to refresh what's fitted now, I see no point in going for electronic ignition and would appreciate it if people hold back on suggesting I must do that.

 

The exhaust manifold was refitted, or at least I attempted to.  It lines up nice and easily but the two lower nuts are almost impossible to access, I managed to drop two nuts into the engine bay somewhere and given how cold it was I could not be doing with rummaging about for them.  I'll be sure to fish them out later.  The front of the exhaust is more solid than I'd expected too.

 

Fitted a new gasket to the rocker cover and got that bolted on.  Really awkward thing to slot in, everything seemed to be in the way of it.  This is just to keep the head internals clean and free from anything falling in.

 

 

The lovely thing about this engine is that all the components are light and small, it makes it so much nicer than having to lug massive lumps of metal about the place.  It's not the easiest engine I've worked on, being pushed so far back in the engine bay makes access  on the awkward side.  Happily, the liners hadn't budged and the pistons looked to have fared particularly well thank to the oil bath MrDuke had kept them in.

 

Still a lot of things to put back on and adjust before I attempt to fire up the car.  I'm also on the lookout for what laid the car up, there are hints at an electrical issue (oh, Renault) in the scraps of history with the car, that won't be much of a problem since there's so few electrical items on this car to deal with.

[panhard65]

You can get valve stem seals for these engines and I would certainly fit some. They also have a lot of valve trouble, the Estafette I did last year needed all 8 valves as they were very heavily worn. They have a few different makes of distributor and most of them can adjust the points from the outside whilst it is running to set the dwell correctly.

[Lankytim]

Hidden manifold nuts can be a right bastard. I usually bolt the manifolds on before fitting the head to get round this. 

 

Great motor BTW!!

[vulgalour]

At three years old the car had  'new piston rings, bearings, etc. clutch" which sounds pretty serious.  This was back in 1978 at 45,000 miles and that's really the only history I've got for the maintenance side of things.  I assume no harm will come of me not fitting the stem seals, it's not mentioned in the manual and they didn't come in the gasket kit.  I expect once the car has been running for a little while I'll have to rebuild the engine to clean everything out fully.  I don't want to wade in too far unless I have to, all I need at the moment is another car snowballing like the Princess has.

 

@Lankytim:  agreed!  I should have thought ahead and done the manifold while the head was off the car.  I will get the nuts on when I'm at the unit next (probably Wednesday) and I'll use a short socket this time instead of my fists of ham.

[captain_70s]

I'm envious of your levels of motivation... Also at how solid your car is considering it's Frenchiness.

[michael1703]

Try the windscreen wiper spindles for your water getting in

[vulgalour]

I wouldn't have thought of the spindles!  That makes a lot of sense for where the water seems to be appearing.