"Serial Renault Deviant" Adey's current Renault R8 adventure

[adey]

been messing about like a child trying to get it poping flames with launch control.... it hasnt worked yet

 

[adey]

Managed to get out of shopping but only for a few hours.... in the morning I tacked the 36-1 trigger to the bottom pulley, this allows me to keep the timing wheel fixed and not have to adjust it every time I remove it. Whipped everything off and gave it a clean. Used the "shopping" time to allow some wrinkle black paint to dry. Came back to it in the afternoon and refitted everything with a fresh lip seal, bottom seal and added a cork gasket to assist. Have given it a little test drive this morning and cant see any issues as of yet so will keep an eye on it.

 

[adey]

Decided with some spare time to give the rear of the car some light prep/treatment. Gave it a clean and then inspected the area. Found 2 small holes by the wing tops which I will address in the future. Hit any rust with a wire wheel and then coated it with Fertan. Gave it 48 hrs dry time then gave everything a quick wipe and then coated with Por15. Used this in the old dauphine and it gave a very good finish. The chap who did the welding has some blue left over so I will hopefully drop it with him sometime next year and get him to paint over it.

 

[adey]

 

[adey]

Been putting some limiter bashing miles on the car over the last few days. Been a blast, the car gets loads of love from others on the road and I think it actually shocks them (plus me and the wife) at how well it gets up and goes! once it gets on cam It'll shoot up and clip the limiter in 3rd with relative ease (nearly80mph) Might have to put the draggy in there and measure its performance lol.

Anyway timing cover doesn't seem to be leaking now, well there's no oil sitting on the back box anymore 🤷‍♂️

[adey]

Went to take the car out to caffeine and machine today, and it let me down..... my fault it seems. One of the wires snapped off from the crank sensor plug, my poor workmanship in the past coming back to haunt me . Luckily the wife was driving the support Clio with the kids in, I had the laptop in there that allowed me to see the ecu wasn't seeing a crank signal. Limped the car home after finding the issue using a plaster to hold the wire pressed into the back of the sensor. I may go back and investigate/correct everything I've done previously. Shame as I really wanted to get the car out and about for some use.

I also trailed some new stickers for the car. Need to get back in and do a better job now I have the factory info on where to place them, kind eyeballed it this time. Let me introduce to you, the Faux Gordini
 

[adey]

After seeing the real Gordini measurements for the stripes I got annoyed with my work. Its now redone to spec (y) also received my springs and ball joints from meca parts France, so now just waiting on the shocks. On a side note I cancelled my order for over fenders and am now trying to order complete wider arches for the car.

 

[adey]

We are up to Jan 9th now. Not too much left to post. 

Hopefully you are enjoying the build and the videos aren't too annoying

[dozeydustman]

10 hours ago, adey said:

We are up to Jan 9th now. Not too much left to post. 

Hopefully you are enjoying the build and the videos aren't too annoying

By no means are videos annoying. Sometimes they help with descriptions in text etc.

I tend to go through threads and binge watch attached videos

[adey]

Today did not go to plan....

I needed a little "me" time to clear my head so thought id give my self a day to tinker on the car. The plan was replace as much of the suspension gubbins as I could.

Started on the rear. Drivers side rear, flew in in about an hour. Bit of grief removing the shock top nut but nowt major. Faff with the new brake pads that are million miles off the shape needed, so scuffed up the pads that were there and refit as they still had 90% of their material, bleed of the calliper, job jobbed.

Moved to the pass side and this is where it went to crap. Top nut would not budge and the rear shock mount bolt was seized in the shock. On inspection one side of the shock mount was completely dethatched too!!! the other side was also very thin. With the shock pinned top and bottom I had to get brutal with a hammer and angle grinder. Got it all out after about 2 hrs of messing about.

Soooo, can some one in the know tell me if I can just replace the shock mount and/or cup. Or am I now on the hunt for a complete rear trailing arm/axle tube??? please say its the easier of the 2 options.... @Turbell @Steve Swan @Wheelers Workshop

 

[adey]

Sorted, bit of angle chopped and welded to suit. Its also now on the car and the rear group a springs and gaz shocks are now on (y)

Ill leave the front for another day.....

Thanks again for the quick reply and advice @Steve Swan (y)

 

[adey]

hocks and springs out at the front and I managed to get one sides new ball joints completed before the rain set in. If there's no rain tomorrow I will hopefully get it wrapped up with all the new stuff back on. Looking at the length of the front springs the front may be worryingly high again...
 

[adey]

We are back on all 4 wheels. I tried the springs and didnt like them so took 15mm off 😁🤣

Car drives so much nicer now, will let it all settle for a few weeks then get the alignment done.

 

[adey]

 

[adey]

So it seems I have made a bit of an error..... So looking back at my shocks order I asked for some a chunk shorter than OEM. This works at the front where there is a huge drop in height.

The rear on the other hand isn't that much lower than stock even though it looks it. Oem springs are around 270mm and mine are 240mm

I have had them made too short..... I can bounce the car and it will lock out the shocks in their full extension. So with that in mind, I have ordered up some normal length items. Mildly annoying and expensive mistake.... but best to sort as it could potentially cause a quite dangerous situation

[adey]

Insurance time again. Not as cheap as usual but adding in the engine swap bumped it a little. Still through Lancaster insurance as a broker. Mods declared, SDPC, 5k miles and 2 x sp30s for £144.

I did try a few others, tried that new custodian insurance but they came in at nearly double

[adey]

So whilst waiting for the shocks to be manufactured I gave them a call to find out the thread size, 7/16 unf. Had a look for something suitable to extend the shock tops similar to steves suggestion and found these



Have fitted them and have no banging when jumping on the car, need to give it some test miles but if all is good I can start using it again. Gaz take about 4 weeks to manufacture shocks if they aren't on the shelf and I want to get some use out of it. Will update over the next few days

[adey]

The car drives amazingly in comparison to how it was. I didn't even think it was bad! Loads smoother and soaks up the shitty roads nicely. Even took it for a blast on the M50, noisy but will sit at 70mph with little stress (y)

Will give it some more use then get everything aligned

 

[adey]

Still not received the replacement gaz shocks but the "bodge" is working perfectly tbh. I "adjusted" the rear ride height after a few miles use. Loving how it rides now. Took it for a run out to Hereford to a little Sunday morning coffee meet up. Had a very spirited drive home.... alignment and some rack height adjustment is next on the list. Apart from being noisy its such a nice place to be now

 

[adey]

And you are all now up to date with my build thread over on TurboRenault. 51 pages condensed into 7. 

[adey]

Decided to add the wheel decals back on, Wheels are defo next on my hit list, one is buckled and the others are starting to show their age and need stripping and powder coating.

Also gave the dash a quick wrap, couldn't figure out how to remove the air vents (any tips?) so its not the best job but not having the fake wood there looks loads better in my eyes.

 

[adey]

Decided to take the 8 out for a run to a car show this weekend. Its been sat for a few weeks whilst away but started straight up and drove an hour each way with ease. The car was actually used in some promo material and now features in a top trumps set for the show. Here are a few pics taken by others. I failed to get many at all as i was smashed by jet lag and not really functioning. 

 

[adey]

How to waste about 20+ hours of time and be in a worse position then when you started.....

 

The car has been running fine, very well in fact. The only major issue I had was the brake lights intermittently sticking on. The easy options would have been to wire up a new switch, or replace the original. perfect time to upgrade the master cylinder to an AVP kangoo MC and braided lines all round that has a new brake switch included (y) whilst there I wanted to replace the steering joint. 

 

First up was to drain the fluid then remove all the old hardlines and MC setup. bit fiddly but not too hard to do, just time consuming on your back. Once that was out of the way I was then able to disconnect the steering column and remove the rack. Angle ground off the original fixing and replaced with a sub standard piece of chod! I've genuinely had tougher souls on my shoes than this feels.... any way, the old one was destroyed so it'll have to do for now, even though the column now has some flex up and down   frustrated so added a reinforced replacement to my basket and refitted the rack, that's about 5 hours work for me

 

Next up was to fit up the new MC and adapter, tight squeeze but again not too bad. braided lines laid in place and connected up to the already braided flexis to the calipers, rear was a pain to do, mainly for the removal of the compensator valve. Once I had swore at it a few times I was able to replace it with a T piece and connect up the rear of the car. I then mounted 2 new reservoirs to feed each side of the MC. Topped off the fluid and started with a few rounds of pressure bleeding. Everything came through nicely so I thought I was onto a winner. Concludes another 5.5 hours. 

 

The next job was to get the MC rod setup. There are a few lengths available and they are also adjustable. This needs setting somewhere close to .5mm according to the manual, but basically close with a slight gap so that the MC can be completely disengaged and the fluid can go through the return port.  Got this done and went to give things a try. Flexed the brake pedal from underneath but got next to no movement on the front caliper. Did this a fair few times, assumed id not got the rod set correctly or bled it properly. A few more times on both making sure I was happy and still got the same result...  found it I stomped on the pedal to the bottom of its stroke I could get some pressure at the caliper but did note that when pumping it never built anything up. Dropped the car on all 4 wheels and gave it a test drive hoping that it just needed some "use" this was not what it needed... also found that the throttle cable had gained length, likely due to me changing its routing slightly under the car then laying in the new brake line. The end then needed some angle grinder action to get it to the right length to remove the floppy pedal and get full opening at the carb. Anyway, pushed the pedal so far that i knocked the MC feed pipes and adapters out! Made a big mess on the drive as I didn't realise 6.5hrs

 

A bit of reading and some back and forth with good old chat gpt, it suggested a few things, the MC wasn't bled properly and could need doing on the bench, it was a complete miss matched part (though its sold as an upgrade and others use it) or the MC was faulty.

 

Decided to give bench bleeding a shot, removed the MC and the adapter after draining all the fluid again. Have never done this so didn't know what I was looking for or feeling for, it actually took a fair amount of fluid internally and "moved" fluid around so set back on refitting it all. Followed by multiple rounds of pressure bleeding and rod setting. guess what.... still the same issue. Even if I over set the rod I still didn't get force enough to stop me spinning the discs by hand or with a bar. Starting to lean towards a failed MC now.... Took the front calipers off the discs to see if I could build pressure and move the pistons, expecting them to pop out quite quickly, got next to no movement. Now I was starting to question myself, how well it braked previously and if the front pistons had seized (thinking back id still expect to build up some pressure in the pedal wouldn't I?) so next I whipped off the calipers, boots and checked for corrosion, looked clean and I could lever the piston forward a few mm and then compressed them back easy enough, slapped back on and now I have walked away. Probably another 4.5 hours there

 

So now I have an immobile car, with no working brakes, and worse steering than it already had and I'm meant to be driving it to Goodwood for Retro Rides in 2 weeks. All I want to do is burn the thing. I should have got onto a lot of this sooner but have now ordered up a new MC which should be here early next week and just for good measure the steering joint (could possibly get one made from solid ali?), yet more brake fluid and 2 new front calipers and new pads, just because. Will any of it be here in time, I doubt it...... To make it worse I've been sick as a dog the last week so haven't been thinking about it much, should have got onto ordering a week ago but genuinely thought I had a month or so to go till Goodwood 

 

 

[Matty]

You could have had a rake more likes if i was any good at keeping abreast of things. Absolutely love the car. Reminds me of mine. Brilliant work and keep updating us 👍