Grizz’s OCD Awesome ASTRO Van 🚙 Megane SCENIC 1.5dci 🚙 MX5 JEEP For Sale.🚨 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 USA Road Trip

[grizz]

So In the spirit of randomness 

I popped in to see UncleBob the hoarder on Sunday.  He was having a smoke break while trimming the hedges at his home. 
 

All three of these are slowly rusting away and increasing in value in his mind. 
 

I blame reality television squarely for that. 
 

But it presents a nice photo opportunity. 
 

 

[grizz]

2005 Renault Scenic Towing hook bumper cap wanted. 

Anyone got any stashed away or know where I can liberate one? 

Would be another improvement

Always worth asking here  

PM or Post here please 

[Westbay]

is there a part number on the back ?

[grizz]

50 minutes ago, Westbay said:

is there a part number on the back ?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313136410052?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=hxedghntquk&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=KCW16zwOSD-&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

 

Cheap enough. 
 

I will order one. 

[grizz]

Another “fault” the car was sold with was “sunroof doesn’t work, don’t open it”

 

Of course we don’t listen to all that negativity. 
 

So when I did the first wash I probably took about 10 minutes to get the hidden rails of the full length glass roofs cleaned. 
Years worth of leaves, dirt muck accumulated up there, clearly never cleaned out, eventually ran clear of debris. 
 

So yesterday my good friend and former lodger, John, a driving instructor found himself with two lessons cancelled through the middle of the day. Leaving him at a loose end between 10.30 and 5.00pm , after which he had two students booked till 9.00pm

 

So he came over to visit and deliver a bottle of Smirnoff Tamarind Vodka. As a non vodka drinker, the stuff is weird but good. 
 

While I carried on with a load of jobs to be reported still, he chatted, had coffee etc. 

 

At one point his question of “Have you tried the broken sunroof?” Left me quietly ignoring him, so hd asked again and I said no, I had enough to keep me busy. 
 

Of course being who he is, he tried opening the sunroof. 
 

EUREKA !!!! 
 

It opened. 
 

THEN IT WOULD NOT CLOSE. 

 

Try as he might, I tried too…….it was stuck wide open, with intermittent rain forecast for later. 
 

So I went back to polishing body panels, and assembling alloys wheels. More about that later. 
 

Once done with my jobs, a coffee and chat followed by more prodding and poking around the roof and its mechanics plus pulling down the controld and lights from the roof……. 
 

NO JOY. 

 

Then I added some white silicone grease, sprayed in and  onto every moving part and rail visible in and on the still open roof. 
 

NO JOY

 

So I went off to the school of YouTube and found a Russian demonstration showing that you can reset the roof electronics by pushing and holding the centre power button. 
 

NO JOY

 

But this actually started the roof movement and closed it in a very jerky motion. 
Some repeated use of it had the roof running super smoothly like new. 
 

I then added more spray on white silicone grease everywhere I could reach. 
 

MORAL OF THE STORY ………

 

MAINTENANCE. 

 

Pretty obvious in both The scuttle area, front drains and the whole roof and glass roof area that 19 years of built up crud would result in some issues. 
 

VIDEO. 

 

 

Loads more effort on other parts still to report. 
 

drivers door controls for door glass also suspect. With passenger rear glass not working and driver side intermittent and even refusing to drop or rise on demand. 

Problem for another day. 

[Markeh]

Window modules for these and Meganes are pretty common failure points. Even after changing the switch pack and a couple of door modules, I still ended up with a rear window which whichever way you moved the switch on that door, only went down. Worked fine off the driver's door and off the global open/close (press and hold the unlock or lock buttons, it should drop/raise all the windows - often this can work if switches don't - although if you've had the battery off and not been able to reset the windows properly, this won't work - ask me how I know this...)

[grizz]

On 05/06/2024 at 10:31, Markeh said:

Window modules for these and Meganes are pretty common failure points. Even after changing the switch pack and a couple of door modules, I still ended up with a rear window which whichever way you moved the switch on that door, only went down. Worked fine off the driver's door and off the global open/close (press and hold the unlock or lock buttons, it should drop/raise all the windows - often this can work if switches don't - although if you've had the battery off and not been able to reset the windows properly, this won't work - ask me how I know this...)

 

I think that for the moment I am going to just leave ig alone with both rear windows safely in the up position. 
 

Not investigated the cost of a replacement unit because for now I need to keep an eye on the value of the car compared to fixing or upgrading. 

[grizz]

Little details.

All add up.

The car has never lacked in money being spent on it over the years.

Replacement original parts were fitted wherever it was needed by dealers over the last 19 years.

HOWEVER……

Despite the new drop links, springs, headlights, and hardly used tyres and a full dealer service history, there is a distinct lack of attention to things that affect simple enjoyment of this 61k mile or 101k km car.

Now firstly, we have to keep in mind, different people see cars as very different things. Some see a tool, some see a toy and some, a thing of beauty.
So maintenance is approached differently.

Unfortunately official dealers are there to make money or of customers. End of story.

So I bought the Scenic and drove it home.

HAPPY.

FRIDAY I started by giving it a first wash.

Getting a feel for a car is made easy by running your hands over it, washing it, poking fingers into holes, grooves, every opening.

So I found a few things.

The sunroof took a while to clear of grit, leaves, detritus from the last 19 years.
I was told by the seller the roof did not work. Ultimately it was just that nobody had ever done any cleaning up there.

Door handles, trim, window rubbers, door sills, wipers, everything had a load of hard, green and black moss of different kinds attached.

Using different brushes to get into every groove I cleaned away most of the moss. Some would not move.

I went back a few days later with some Elbow Grease and it easily removed the rest of it. Amazing product.
This was my second wash of the car.

I also took the Elbow Grease to the alloy wheels and centre caps and sanded back and painted the retaining bolts, painting them silver.
Whats amazing is just how much cleaner the already washed Wheels became after washing and scrubbing with the Elbow Grease.

I am incredibly happy with the progress so far. 

Next report will be around what to do with the damage on the passenger side where the skip truck scraped by. 
 

[grizz]

Wheels

 

Oh, and result

[grizz]

So when I bought the Scenic the seller had told me the remotes were not working and to lock the door you needed to do it manually from the passenger side after popping a cover off and using a key stuck in the remote. 

I tried them all when I got home but failed. 

Also, after testing the batteries fitted to the two remote controls. One problem presented itself. 
Meant to be 3 Volt, both read 0.3 Volt.

So on Saturday I went to the not so local motor parts store and got some correct sized batteries. £7.50 for two so £3.75 per remote control. 
I also found a small 12ml paint touch up brush and pot. 
Remember that the passenger side had lost a fight with a skip truck. 
So the scrapes were a combination of yellow, grey, scuffed paint. 

With the new batteries the remotes both worked perfectly and the car has a close proximity sensor that allows you to have the keys in your pocket and unlock the doors or tailgate (alone if you are at the rear) so another problem solved.

 

 

 

[grizz]

 

  I am spoiling you all. 

 

Way too many pictures for those who don’t read words and way too many words for those who take the time to read them. 

 

Still, sitting at Sallys house after delivering the free BBQ I collected and cleaned yesterday and getting a load of her older plastic garden furniture collected after she was given a used hardwood  set from her uncle who died…….

 

Using her fast broadband and uploading photos at a decent pace makes sense to catch up on the last weeks activity. 

 

 

So on to the next update. 

 

Had the car a week now and its been valeted once, washed once. 

 

I always think that washing a car gives you a good feel for the damage and things that need attention. 

 

I will be honest here, I did not read the advertisement properly. And I am not one to zoom into pictures like so many people do. 

 

Quote from the ad:

 “Big scratch along the near side where she didn’t quite squeeze through a gap with a skip lorry, inside door handles and dashboard are sticky, it’s a bit scruffy here and there. But well worth £700.00”

 

So when I collected, I realised just how big the scratches and dents were. “Buyer beware“ springs to mind. Seller was 100% upfront in everything they declared. But I didn’t zooooom in. 

 

Despite the ugly scratches, yellow skip paint, grey primer and bare metal, the car was worth the money and effort I had put in. 

In my world cosmetics are less important than mechanical issues. The seller had told me when I bought and paid for the car the day before, that if I was unhappy, he would refund me. I bought the car because I liked them and the car. 

 

So on Friday after collecting it, and after washing it the first time I looked at all the damage closer. 

Varying degrees of damage, from hedge or shrubbery “parking”damage and scuffs through to scrapes, gouging and dents on the passenger side doors, rear wheel arch and lower rear passenger door sill from the dumpster/skip. 

 

So I fetched some G3 polishing compound and a coarse rag and set about to polish out as much of the scuffs, scraped etc. 

 

Pictures don’t do it justice really. 

 

But trust me, an improvement. 

 

On the rear arch some surface rust was sanded back and i then used Vactan paintable rust converter on that exposed part. Followed by some paint from the almost colour matching paint. 

All the gouges and scratches plus worse damage in places were painted over. 

 

Drying time 20 minutes and hardened by 24 hours. 

I will wait a week and then run water paper at about 2000 grit or whatever over the rough patches, followed by G3 compound and finally some of the same polish I used on the Astro and front half of the Scenic. 

 

I am not going to repair any dents but if someone has a pair of complete colour matched doors to GIVE me, they can be fitted. 

 

The one trim piece on the rear door is deeply gouged too, so needs replacing outright or maybe I will spend £22.00 on a small aerosol can of matched paint to try repair it. 

 

Unfortunately some pics will seem out of sync. 

 

But they are different as I progressed with the polishing. 

 

Sorry. 

 

[grizz]

So……..

 

Next job is a log of smoke and mirrors. 

 

But it works for me. 

 

And for now……. That’s just fine. 

 

Buffing etc over, I proceeded to add two coats of the almost matched color paint. 

Filling some of the grooves. 

 

A weeks wait shoukd see it really hardened enough to go over with water paper, compound and polish to improve the matching. 

 

Abra Kadabra !!! 

 

MAGICAL DIFFERENCE. 

 

NOW ZOOM IN ON THAT…….

 

I am liking it.  

 

.

[grizz]

Another quick fix, as seen on the Peugeot 206CC was using some black satin vinyl on paint damaged on the rear tailgate. 

Looks like acidic bird poop and was deep, through to metal of primer. 

 

So a quick fix. 

 

Visually it looks like a continuation of the lower rear glass or a factory stripe. 

 

I am happy with that too. 

 

Illusions. 

 

 

.

[grizz]

So the Caddy is sold but now living it’s best life. 

 

Part of the VW Scene, it has become a mini camper with cooker, bed and small cassette toilet 

 

New owner Paul also has a full size camper, ex-horsebox on a VW LT35 so he has a sense of humour with his cars. 

 

Yesterday’s update included the roof being painted black. 
 

Ultimately, not my monkeys  not my circus  

[grizz]

Back to the tidying up of the Scenic. 

 

The rear door trim sustained some damage as well. 

 

Just deep scratches and a few scuffs. 

 

I would like to replace the trim piece but I suspect it’s going to be less than easy to find a painted, colour matched one. 

 

And a can of colour matching paint will probably be near enough £25.00

 

So polishing the scuffs and living with it is on the cards. 

 

.

[Homersimpson]

Love the repair to the tailgate paint, there is a lot of pleasure in thinking out of the box to fix things in a more straighforward or less expensive way and then achieving a great result.

[grizz]

On 09/06/2024 at 21:16, Homersimpson said:

Love the repair to the tailgate paint, there is a lot of pleasure in thinking out of the box to fix things in a more straighforward or less expensive way and then achieving a great result.

 

Thank you. 
 

The thing is, the car will probably never generate more than £1k so spending a ton on it makes little sense to me. 
 

If someone wants to restore it for some reason it changes the game. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another little thing to address. 

 

Rear discs. 

 

Straight replacement or bodge it with a flap disc??

 

 

Fronts are perfectly fine. 

 

 

.

[jim89]

2 hours ago, grizz said:

 

Thank you. 
 

The thing is, the car will probably never generate more than £1k so spending a ton on it makes little sense to me. 
 

If someone wants to restore it for some reason it changes the game. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another little thing to address. 

 

Rear discs. 

 

Straight replacement or bodge it with a flap disc??

 

 

Fronts are perfectly fine. 

 

 

.

Quanta costa?

[grizz]

@jim89 what does Quanta Costa mean? 
In what context. 

[grizz]

PS

 

 

@83C has a great Roffle going. 

 

 

Low mileage 100pd goodness 

 

Go buy one now so we can get it won. 
 

 

 

[jim89]

40 minutes ago, grizz said:

@jim89 what does Quanta Costa mean? 
In what context. 

Italian for how much are they?

(Slight auto correct mung from quanto to quanta)

Rear discs 🤷🏼‍♂️

[grizz]

51 minutes ago, jim89 said:

Italian for how much are they?

(Slight auto correct mung from quanto to quanta)

Rear discs 🤷🏼‍♂️

Price ranges  

They’re mostly £50-70 each at Euro  

But typically the offer at £15 each is out of stock  

 

 

 

52 minutes ago, jim89 said:

Italian for how much are they?

(Slight auto correct mung from quanto to quanta)

Rear discs 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[Westbay]

If there's one thing you should never bodge is brakes ...

 

They appear more expensive because most include the wheel bearings ...

 

 

[grizz]

On 12/06/2024 at 07:48, Westbay said:

If there's one thing you should never bodge is brakes ...

 

They appear more expensive because most include the wheel bearings ...

 

 

 

Well……….

 

I think you can. 
 

 

But it could also end up in tears. 

[grizz]

Speaking of ending up in tears. 

 

I saw this and was wondering what unusual, 16” wheels would bolt straight on.  
 

Especially wheels from other makes.  
 

 

 

 

[grizz]

PS. Yes. I do have a problem with wheels. 

[Westbay]

https://www.wheel-fitment.com/PCD/4x100 /60.1.html

[grizz]

Some not so random photos for a not so random response. 

 

I was asked elsewhere about the rear seats and cargo configuration options of the Scenic. 

 

So tried to take a few pictures of some options. 

 

I could not be bothered about removing the rear row of seats, but suffice it to say that they also can be removed. 

 

The car has a bunch of useful cubby holes under the floor in all four corners as well as large trays or drawers that slide in and out under the front seats. 

 

Another useful feature for the rear passengers is fold away picnic trays built into the rear seat backs. 

 

And my favourite secret weapons are the retractable sun screens built into the rear doors. Genius.  

 

So a bunch of photos to try figure out. 

 

 

.

[GlenAnderson]

Our old Skoda Yeti had rear seats that folded, rolled forwards or lifted out entirely too. It makes the vehicle very versatile indeed.

[grizz]

9 minutes ago, GlenAnderson said:

Our old Skoda Yeti had rear seats that folded, rolled forwards or lifted out entirely too. It makes the vehicle very versatile indeed.

 

I would have a cheap one any day. In 2wd. 
 

I think.