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Renault 25, the bank's behind me, Mrs Doblo's behind me, John can sod off!


Dobloseven

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IMG_20210905_145640.thumb.jpg.267f302f9438a4626123e0311b0da125.jpgWelding pretty much finished today, at least that corner anyway. Just need to dress welds, most will be hiddeen behind trims. Then prime and seam seal. The joint on the sill will be blended in with filler where it is on show. Probably use stonechip and finish in satin black so it looks as original as possible. The bottom of the wing is now bolted on since I took the photo. Have managed to keep the repairs below the paint line so far. The closing piece for the sill end which hopefully will never be seen again, hidden behind the wheel arch liner, took longer than all the other repair pieces put together. Please, no Father Ted references! Trouble is I haven't done anything like this for over 8 years, and by the time I'd got the knack again, the job was done. IMG_20210905_182702.thumb.jpg.e84480bd1096663c709c0f35980a5984.jpgIMG_20210905_182850.thumb.jpg.fc3900ac7bc4f6109125bd84e305b150.jpg

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IMG_20210906_191533.thumb.jpg.a939af56a62a7ef171cfae85e0d9d3f3.jpgIMG_20210906_192729.thumb.jpg.f079adc62601f2a1a5b2a3ae574f520c.jpgOnly a small amount of progress tonight. Finished dressing the welds. Drilled holes in the new metal for the sill finisher trim. Test fitted the wheel arch liner and checked the jack would fit in the slot I'd had to remake  in the sill repair. It's only a location, the weight is taken by a thick metal jacking point fixed to a big box section. Didn't want to get it all painted and then have to start drilling and modifying bits to suit. 

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9Well, it's taken me just over a fortnight,though I did have five days away in the caravan, but seem to be on the home straight. Just got the trim to fit, which will cover a multitude of sins. Probably leave the other side for now. Can see a few flakes of rust behind the wheel arch liner and the sill trim but nowhere near as bad as this side was. Was a bit more involved than I first thought,with four layers of metal, if you count the wing bottom, to line up. Can perhaps see now why it had been crudely bodged up with what appeared to be bathroom sealant. Anyway it's metal again now, thank goodness. 

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2 hours ago, Low Horatio gearbox said:

A superb car. A friends dad had one in the early  90s a Monaco in dark red/brown with a 2.9 V6,  and to young me was a quite exotic, I have pangs of envy.

Sterling work on the wing, sure the trim will cover any sins but it looks a tidy job as is.

 

The Monaco isn't brown.  It's bronze. 

Looked lovely in the sun, a lot of red in it.  Browns aren't a colour I'm usually a fan of but I loved the colour of my Monaco. 

Out of the forty or fifty cars I've owned there are only three which I truly regret selling/passing on.

My yellow 81 MiniMetro HLE, my Lada Niva and the Monaco.

I think the latter stings the most because I fully realise now how eminently sortable it was and that I never even got a proper drive of it!  Plus the decisions were all made for me without any input from me really.

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On 9/7/2021 at 10:55 PM, Dobloseven said:

9Well, it's taken me just over a fortnight,though I did have five days away in the caravan, but seem to be on the home straight. Just got the trim to fit, which will cover a multitude of sins. Probably leave the other side for now. Can see a few flakes of rust behind the wheel arch liner and the sill trim but nowhere near as bad as this side was. Was a bit more involved than I first thought,with four layers of metal, if you count the wing bottom, to line up. Can perhaps see now why it had been crudely bodged up with what appeared to be bathroom sealant. Anyway it's metal again now, thank goodness. 

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Superb work 👍

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Well, haven't had much advice yet, so thought I'd just follow my nose and get on with the timing belt. Got the radiator out, which gives a lot more room to work and get the Dewalt impact wrench in for the crankshaft pulley. The timing belt was quite loose and the power steering belt along with the alternator belt were badly cracked so I've ordered replacements. The tensioner in the kit is completely different to the other so will go to parts place tomorrow to see whats what. A tentative feel of the old one doesn't show any roughness or play, so might well be ok. Worryingly, while the radiator was out, I thought I'd flush out the cooling system and found the long hose from the overflow container completely blocked. Would have made refilling the system impossible. Flushed the radiator and blew through the core with compressed air to improve airflow. All in all, a day of mixed success. Will hopefully put a photo up tomorrow of the naked engine front. 

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All done. Parts place had the alternator cum waterpump belt in stock and picked up power steering one from a local bearing type place. Took belt kit with "wrong tensioner" back and turns out that the original type has been superseded. Fitted ok once I knew what was what. Had a lot of trouble filling and bleeding the cleaned out cooling system, think I've got all the air out now, but keep checking the level. IMG_20210911_101620.thumb.jpg.87b674b1d8d5599cf64385c4ee945f94.jpgIMG_20210911_132328.thumb.jpg.cb6569869d06ae19bece5823796b7c1e.jpg

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22 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

renner 2 litres can be an absolute cnut to bleed the air out of

Seems ok now, though it did get a bit scary at one point, with noisy eruptions coming out the overflow bottle when I was running it with the cap off. Certainly the worst cooling sytem I've had to deal with. Good to have it back on the road again though. It's a nice old thing to drive round in, very relaxing, the auto really suits its character. Next port of call will be the brakes. They work really well, but would like to change the fluid. That'll give me the opportunity to check everything as well. Surprisingly, it's got drums at the rear, yet my late father had a 1969 Renault 10 with discs all round. Think the V6 25s did have rear discs though. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, got the brakes inspected and fluid changed on Friday. Front pads are well, but evenly worn. Discs Ok. Rear drums shoes and cylinders are fine. Bleed nipples all came undone easily. PO has coated the pipes with some black sticky stuff that has preserved them well. Fly in the ointment is a handbrake cable with a badly corroded outer. Have found one on ebay for about 8 quid, so might risk it and shrug my shoulders if it's not right. Drove it to the FoD on Saturday and went very well apart from the tickover speed. Since I've had it, it's never ticked over properly though. It's always been lumpy and the speed never seems right. Get it right when it's cold and it's much too fast when hot. Get it right hot and its too slow cold. None of this is helped by the autobox. The automatic choke is operated solely by a bimetal coil which is heated by the cooling system. Noticed that the hoses going into the choke heater were cold, even when the engine was warmed up. The choke unit was clear, as were the hoses. However the choke unit, the carb mounting flange and the inlet manifold are plumbed in series. Found the heated flange was blocked up solid. Only way was to poke it out with a thin screwdriver. Putting it back together, the hoses to the choke warm up very quickly and the tickover can be adjusted, whereas previously the idle speed screw was fully in, and turning the mixture screw did nothing. Will try a cold start tomorrow. Might have to adjust the fast idle a bit, but need to let it cool down completely. All in all, a productive evening. 

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The GTS models used a twin choke Weber carb. The GTX and all the V6 variants were injected. Surprisingly, of the 45 left, the GTS auto, like mine is the most prolific, with 7 surviving. Think the last car we had with a carb was an L reg 1994 Rover Metro, back in the late noughties. Hopefully my ministrations have solved the problem as it was spoiling the use of the car for me. Makes me realise how good modern engine systems are though. The Renault tickover slows a bit if you put the lights on and of course if it's in Drive, being held on the brake, so getting it set right is a bit of a balancing act. Still, onwards and upwards. Plan has always been to keep it running and usable whilst gently improving it and preserving its originality,giving it the best chance of surviving as long as possible. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Haven't done a lot since I got back on Thursday. Had an infected tooth on holiday and had it out today. It stopped me feeling like doing much. Boot is slowly filling up with parts that need fitting. Have however tested the towing electrics. All is good. Have found an unused towball and cover in the shed. Just need a numberplate and it's ready for towing the trailer tent I'm buying. 

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IMG_20211008_114432.thumb.jpg.0d7aee02a034071914166d7467bc4722.jpgHad quite a fruitful day today. There's been a bit of a blow from the exhaust for quite a while, worse when the engine is cold. Guessed it was coming from the flexible joint between the first two sections. Soake the bolts in WD40 in anticipation an bought a new ring joint thingy for 2 quid from GSF. Everything came undone easily and old ring was somewhat broken.Got it all back and it sounds vastly better. The engine had been running very lumpily with the choke problem, which probably hadn't helped. Flushed with sucess, I tackled the handbrake cables I'd bought a few weeks ago for 30 quid., one being badly rusted. Thought I wad being a bit lavish buying two, but it made adjustment much easier having both the same. The old ones were quite imbalanced. Tested it on a local steep hill in both directions and all is good. Finally fitted the towball as well. Two things have pleasantly surprised me, everything has come undone easily enough, and so far I've not had any trouble getting parts. Have however found a bit more corrosion, on the drivers side sill at the rear, behind a plastic cover. Should be a fairly easy repair. Hopefully keep below the sill line, so black paint finish and mostly hidden behind the plastic cover. IMG_20211008_162529.thumb.jpg.e494ec31a94cc37b36e62ae37e4ebb1a.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Noticed the accelerator cable was a bit floppy even with the outer cable at the limit of its adjustment. So much that under some conditions it could possibly come off the lever thingy on the carb, leading to a distinct lack of go. Bought a new First Line branded cable off Ebay for 11 pounds. Certainly The same make as the handbrake cables, which were fine. Turns out to be a kit of parts with different fittings for different models and has to be built up to suit, cutting the inner and outer cables to length. New outer cable is just a stiff plastic tube. Being a bit wary, I removed the old cable carefully so it could be refitted if it all went wrong. Cut the outer cable to length and assembled the grommets etc. Bit tight on space as it dissappears behind the brake servo. Got round it by threading the inner cable through from inside the car, via thick insulation and metal skins, and sliding the outer down it from under the bonnet, then pushing the grommet into the hole with a plastic stick. Fitted the end of the inner to the pedal, and now flushed with success, located the outer in its fittings with the adjuster in the midway position. All that remained to do was to put a suitable fitting on the end of the inner cable to fit the lever/pulley arm on the carburettor. WCPGW? Kit came with a thin metal ferrule which could be crimped on and bent easily to suit, which I did after carefully working out the correct position. However I'd done it with the pedal in the flat to the floor position, there's no return spring on it, relying on the spring on the carburettor to pull it up. Bugger! Fortunately it was so far out, I could cut the cable end off and still have enough  to have another go. But I needed another fitting. There was another one in the kit that looked hopeful. It had a blind hole and a flat heat like a nail. But I've got a Myford lathe in the garage, so I drilled the hole right through, and turned the head down. All good till I realised it was made of some kind of aluminium type stuff and soon as I tried to bend it, it snapped. The other one was made of brass with a shiny coating. Found a 6mm brass set screw, turned it down to 4mm,drilled through with 2mm drill and cut it to length. Noticed some evidence of work hardening, so annealed it with a blow torch on a firebrick. Checked and double checked this time before bending and crimping and hopefully job jobbed Certainly the pedal feels more positive and there's plenty of adjustment now. Bit of a faff, but I suppose those with completely obsolete or modified cars must do this sort of thing all the while. IMG_20211016_111356.thumb.jpg.d96ce2f2b90eb1e72cd0d4aba2e5871d.jpgIMG_20211016_112031.thumb.jpg.1006357506991d60d738f26a79df981f.jpgIMG_20211016_112455.thumb.jpg.d403634f9b4e013d04fc25c45217bfee.jpg

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