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Painting Plastic Bumpers & TX Wheels

malcolm

& Clementine the Cat
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Location
Bedford UK
I've been blinging the Renault 5. So far I've blinged the wheels (see photos) and want to do the bumpers then respray the sill in a matching dark grey colour.

The rear bumper was previously painted in Le Car silver and doesn't match the front which is very faded. They will need painting rather than staining.

Has anyone painted the bumpers from '80s Renaults? What did you use? I tested a light grey bumper paint from Halfords on some paper, and that is going back to the shop as the paint turns out to be brown and not grey.
 
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use some grease-solvent first,then lightly rub with half-coarse sand-paper (say 250) to rub surface up a bit.
sircular light sanding dos it.Then use matt-or semi matt-grey for best adhesion, then LIGHTLY spray on some
gloss-grey to get a silky surface.
-did this myself on the front and rear bumpers on my Fuego and it worked a charm-and best of all..made them
easy to clean and maintain after... wet-in-wet worked very nice! -Reid.
 
You are probably right to go for a proper paint system. The bumpers are fibreglass and can be stripped if they need doing again. What paint did you use? I'm thinking 2K with a matting agent, though I'm not set up to use that any more so 1K might be better.
 
As I find the job of cleaning out the paint-gun etc Very tedious, I tend to use ordinary spray-cans whenever I can.
my best tip for using them is to put the can in a warm (not hot!) water-bath for 10mins. as I think correct temp is
Vital. I just buy what's on offer. I use matt as first coat just to get the colour right then lightly cloud on top with
gloss or semi-gloss to get a nice smooth result which makes it very easy to keep clean after..

As the bumpers are fiberglass instead of ABS you won't need any plastizisers ,so straight forward,just clean with
some grease-solvent first then rough it up slighlty. Spray & Play :worms -Reid.
 
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And may I just make the suggestion of a pack of playing cards to use vertically between tyres and rims whilst spraying, best way I've found of masking the tyres up. :-D
 
I painted the wheels before I changed tyres - that's tyre fitting paste on the tyre. The colour is slightly wrong - the grey infill reflects blue sky and looks light blue in sunlight. I might repaint them again. The body was painted 5 years ago so it's about time I did something with the bumpers. I have a feeling last time I went into the paint shop they didn't have a matting agent, though good point they are fibreglass bumpers.

Still a bit of fettling to do, but with the bumpers and sills in a darker grey it should look immaculate.
 
I've been doing a bit of fettling today, mostly fitting the rear brake shoes from Paul (it was the funny looking ones and you were right about them not being self adjusting) and a new wheel cylinder. Then I had a look at measuring front suspension geometry as the car pulls to the left.

Did you know there are two types of upper wishbone for the MK1 R5? They changed castor angle for some of the 1.4L versions and I've got a different one on each side! I recall buying an arm from the motor factor as it was cheap and I didn't notice it was the wrong type. Another on it's way from eBay at vast expense. Slowly getting through the bugs.
 
as the rest of us would agree-you Britons drive on the wrong side of the road..you sure this wishbone isn't just another Government conspiracy
to keep you on that left side Malc?? :cool: -Reid.
 
Would imagine castor angle differences due to power steering on tx and not ts
This is new info for me btw
I've got loads of mk 1 5 suspension parts second hand so hope you were joking on price
Still can't find centre caps but not far away as brought loads diff ones back
 
I'm pretty sure it is the side I replaced that is wrong, which means the TX is the same as the Gordini and Turbo but different from the rest of the range (assuming the other side hadn't been replaced with the wrong part earlier). The upper wishbone tips forward on the Gordini to reduce castor and possibly gives some negative camber. Thee is a bend in the leading edge that the other type doesn't have (see pictures). The new one wasn't too bad on price and comes with the balljoint attached.

I've found one more centre cap without the metal clip so might fiddle around to see if clips can be made. Still one short even if that works.

This morning I ordered a steering wheel spacer so I can put the original wheel back on and still operate the brake. After that just the gear linkage bush to order to fix the rattle and the TX should be greatly improved.
 
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I've always assume that the gordini wishbone was reinforced on top face like 4 vans and only used that as means of identification not studied tx as not common as gordinis were at the time
 
That's curious. I do recall a reinforcement in the Gordini upper arm. Also the Haynes book doesn't list the TX as any different from the other R5s. I'll have a measure up when it arrives. I've not been able to find a LHS upper arm which would be the other way to get them to match. Here are photos of what I have at the moment - you can see the difference with the LH balljoint 20mm forwards. I wonder if the LHS one is a reproduction Gordini one fitted in the past and the TX should have a pair like the right one.
 
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I don't know if I am reading the parts number pictures correctly, though it looks like the turbo has the same part numbers as the early cars, but the rest of them changed in maybe 1981. They have correspondingly different lower arms.

All very confusing. I think I'll have a drive and see if I prefer turning left or right and then try to match my preferred upper arm (assuming the geometry measures up reasonably and doesn't do anything silly). Something random should appear in the post towards the end of the week which may or may not help.

It might help after all - 7700656409 for the 1229 TX translates to Quintin Hazel QSA225S which is what I ordered - looks like it's the later arms that point forward a bit.
 
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Surprised me too but the gordini turbo much lower and 25mm shorter shocks than 4 5 6 and even gordini
 
The new upper arm arrived this morning and is the right bit! I had forgotten how much of a pain the Mk1 R5 can be to work on, but I managed to fit the new arm without quite having to strip the car back to a bare shell. Can't test drive as my brake bleeding assistant is still at work.

The steering wheel spacer arrived too, so I'll be able to fit the original steering wheel back on the car.
 
This is superb. I have been following your restoration page with interest from France, where I now live. As you say, I bought the car on Christmas Eve from a catholic minister in Colwyn Bay for £150 back in 2006/7.

The back bumper came off a 5 in Correze, France and was attached to the roof of my Golf and brought back up to Chesterfield. The old bumper had been ripped to shreds on the gatepost of the church that the minister seemingly kept reversing into!

Is the car still around and on the road?

Best regards,

Matt (podders)
 
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