Renault 11 TL - la boîte à merde rouge

[FruttyFrutty]

Hello all,

This one started as a pub conversation, something along the lines of 'can you still get a rare MOTd 80s motor plus tax and insurance for under £1k?'

That then led to lots of ebay, gumtree, marketplace scouring which then led to a bid or two. Admittedly a number of those bids were made after a the odd rum and coke.

Then one Friday evening, whilst in the pub, I threw in a  bid for this and won. 

Great I thought, at first. Then I thought… How am I going to get it home? Where am I going to store it? How am I going to let the wife know? (when I already own 3 other cars)

Anyway, I arranged to collect it the following weekend from East London, turns out it hadn’t been used for 18 months (which was not stated in the advert!) other than a trip to the MOT station.

The old boy I bought it off was a lovely chap as was his son (turns out he has a couple of R11s himself, more on that at some point later). It had been in their family for 18 years, they told me about trips to France and the memories they had shared in the car, so it just had to come home with me to start another chapter of its life.

So onto the car.

Here’s the advert…

1987 Renault 11 TL .I have owned it since 2004 & sad to see it go..  181000 miles,  I have regularly  serviced it, so the engine and gearbox are in excellent  condition.Being a 34 year old car, there are things that will need doing. It has dents & the lacquer on the roof & bonnet it showing its age. Feel free to view or ask any questions. It has been 1 of only 2 TL models left in the UK.

And the pics…

 

  

And my first impressions…

Wow, it’s dirty inside! Looks like it’s been used for runs to the tip

Bodywork is scruffier than the pictures make out, dents in drivers door and rear boot/bumper, front OS wing crumpled and corroded, front panels round grille corroded, roof and bonnet have serious lacquer peel with the paint having cracked, various small repair patches here and there. All that said, it looks pretty solid.

God, it really is dirty inside.

Drivers door closes occasionally but mostly bounces back open.

Engine is dirty but looks like it’s been well maintained.

Is that mould on the switchgear??

But all that said, after speaking to the old boy I bought it from, there was no way I was not taking it home. 

It drove back the 161 miles to South Staffordshire without missing a beat and of course I ended up loving the little thing.

So that’s the start of the R11 adventure, more to follow soon.

Shaun

 

[tooSavvy]

👍...... Don't be sheepish >> tell us moar.

Honest workhorse.... Give it care + maint.

Lavverrlie, m9

[PrinceRupert]

Cool thing.  Right type of seller too - in family for 18 years, must be a decent car.  Bit of a scrub up and should be a nice car?

[500tops]

I remember someone posting that in the eBay thread a while back. Well bought!

[D.E]

Excellent purchase! Another ULEZ refugee iirc.

[Kringle]

Should have said you was bidding, I was on there also. Could have saved you a few quid.

[wuvvum]

Spectacular.  I was tempted by this one myself - glad it has entered the fold.  Three randoms when it comes to the roffle.

[Rocket88]

Watch the diff bearings…..

[Tartan58]

Well bought.

I'd love an 11, pre facelift though.

My folks had a Broadway edition in metallic beige with beige interior, that would be the holy grail for me - it's the first family car I really have many memories of (had and R14 and BMW 2002tii prior to that but I was too young to remember much).

I still have the Haynes manual and original dealer front number plate.

1 on the road and 9 on SORN according to howmanyleft so there's a small chance I might find one one day.

[Tartan58]

Shit - now look what you've made me do...

https://www.theparking-cars.co.uk/used-cars-detail/renault-11/renault-11-1-4l-68cv/ZC8988F4.html

Rubbish photo and no information but I could easily live with that price and Normandie to Edinburgh isn't too far is it?

[FruttyFrutty]

Liking the love for this one so here's progress report #1

This was all mainly done over the last weekend in October and early November

As the interior was so grubby I decided to give that a clean up first, here are some images to show what I was up against;

Some filth...

  

That seatbelt, that grime...

  

The debris...

 

So it all came out and much to my joy it revealed a lovely solid floor

 

Oh, I forgot to mention I caught the 'rona picking it up - 4 days after my trip down sowf I tested positive. The upside of this was I had to isolate which meant I locked myself away in the conservatory and took most of the interior in there with me along with lots of cleaning products. After some scrubbing and refitting it started to look a lot better...

 

I jet washed the carpet, came up much better than expected. The rest was tackled with a cocktail of random cleaning products until it was as clean as I could get it. Really please with most of it other than some of the tan coloured panels, these are very fragile so had to go carefully.

That's it for update #1, watch this space

[FruttyFrutty]

22 minutes ago, Tartan58 said:

Shit - now look what you've made me do...

https://www.theparking-cars.co.uk/used-cars-detail/renault-11/renault-11-1-4l-68cv/ZC8988F4.html

Rubbish photo and no information but I could easily live with that price and Normandie to Edinburgh isn't too far is it?

Nice, go for it and pick me up some parts whilst your over there 😉

[DVee8]

That's quite an entrance, lovely car and welcome along.

Now more photos please, as we all like photos.

[MJK 24]

Damn, you did effective work with that interior!  The seatbelts nearly gave me a funny turn.

[Tenmil Socket]

I’ve got this if of any use for the cost of postage?

 

[FruttyFrutty]

16 minutes ago, Tenmil Socket said:

I’ve got this if of any use for the cost of postage?

 

Absolutely, will message you - many thanks 

[mk2_craig]

Ace purchase! To be fair these weren’t too thick on the ground back when the PO bought it, most Renner 11s didn’t live anything like as long as their fifteenth birthdays (in the U.K. at least) so this must have been in pretty decent nick at that point. 

[brownnova]

As introductory posts go…. That’s a pretty strong start!

Always loved the 11, would love to own one one day! Well bought! 

[ETCHY]

Epic motor. Well bought.

Welcome btw !

[DoctorRetro]

Wow, I love it!

I'm starting to really like French cars, what is wrong with me?!

[AnthonyG]

That looks great. Good colour, and pretty rust free by the looks of it. 

It also looks like TL was very base spec by this point -  with the minimal door trims,  all the blanking plates instead of buttons etc. I assume TLs were the bottom of the range by ‘87? In the 1970s TLs seemed to be mid-range for Renault. 

[wuvvum]

I think the TC was the base spec on that year.  That had no rear wiper, a 4-speed 'box and the 1237cc engine off of the R12 (albeit turned through 90°).

[hairnet]

^^

so. much. nerd.

you too frutty lol

[FruttyFrutty]

47 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

I think the TC was the base spec on that year.  That had no rear wiper, a 4-speed 'box and the 1237cc engine off of the R12 (albeit turned through 90°).

I don't generally associate with TC owners, what with me having a rear wiper, 5 speed box and a 1.4 engine 

[High Jetter]

Snob! Lol. Iirc the R14 dad had was blessed with those. Much like for your 11 tho.

[RobT]

Lovely, and good to see a high mileage survivor too.

The door bouncing back must be an 80s Renault thing.  My old 11 and the Skizzer Espace does the same. Lubricating sorts them for a while, but then it starts up again.  Probably need removing and a proper clean.

[DavidB]

Jet washing a carpet gets it as good as new again, they hold most of the bad smells in a car too I reckon.

[Split_Pin]

Lovely, I really like Renaults from this era. 

Great job on the interior too!

[FruttyFrutty]

9 hours ago, DavidB said:

Jet washing a carpet gets it as good as new again, they hold most of the bad smells in a car too I reckon.

Agreed

Love your profile pic! 'A succulent Chinese meal!'

[mcmolloy1]

There's a R11 on copart at the moment if anyone's interested