1988 R4 F4 restoration made in France

[Snoopy1974]

Hi everybody,

Today I bought my fourth R4: a F4 of april. 14th 1988, it has the 1108 cm3 engine, and the chassis is in very good condition, I will show you photos as soon as possible:

For 500 € I have a 1988 F4 with a nice chassis, and only some small bumps ont the body, only the right front wing has to be changed. But... in more the owner allowed us to recover all we wanted on his old same F4

The "only" and "little" problem is this afternoon I went to Dijon in Bourgogne to pick up the car (125 km from home), me and my brother wanted to drive the car on the road to come back home... but it was impossible
Friday, when I saw the car for the first time the engine seemed to work very well, but today, if every time it started very well... every time it stalled



I checked all that I could, but I wasn't able to find what it was, so I have of to give up coming back home with the car, I'm really disppointed

If somebody has an idea to explain this problem...

 

[DavidN]

Alexandre,

finally you got yourself a van. Nice !!!
Make sure that you got all the F4 special parts out of the donor car!

You know that addressing your problem is like reading the crystal ball.
But it seems to be fuel related. If the engine starts, runs, and then dies it could be bad fuel, a faulty fuel pump, clogged fuel lines, a clogged carb or a bad fuel filter.

For the pick-up I would bring a (working) GTL carb and a fuel pump.
Both parts could be changed in less than 15 Minutes and would eliminate some possible culprits.
Check the fuel lines, exchange the fuel filter and replace the old (?) fuel with fresh one.
What about the ignition parts?
Checked the points, the rotor and the timing?
And change the sparks!

That's all I could think of right now ...

GOOD Luck !!!
And say "Hi" to your brother!

Cheers,

David

 

[Snoopy1974]

Good evening everybody

for a week amany things have changed, I also discovered some good surprises, but unfortunatly also bad ones... I went to pick up the car with my friend Sylvain, he managed to make the engine start, the carburattor and the fuel pump was so dirty, this is the reason why the car didn't want to work well. Afterthis day my lovely new car was at home with my others cars


As I already did when I bought my last GTL I started to verify all the critic points on the body and chassis; concerning the chassis it is in very good condition except one of the "brancard" (hum, what is english for this word ) which is rusty. The floor is also almost like a new one:


The body has got several "bumps" but no rust except this classic one, only at the left side:

And few rust under the side glass-seal:

The engine is a C1E, 1108 cm3, with 107000 km:

Yesterday I went to the car wash to clean all the mud under the car, when I went back home I made a special thing, to avoid rust at the extremity of the right rail: I drilled a 20 mm hole and with a screwdriver I removed all this s--t in the rail

 

[DavidN]

So I was right with the fuel system.

Congratulations on the newest addition to your R4 family!

Keep us (or me) posted on your progress!!!

Cheers,

David

 

[Snoopy1974]

Many things have been done these last three days

Protecting the floor against rust:




Cleaning of the left inner wing:



Polishing the body:

 

[alewis]

Nice !
Paintwork is looking really good

 

[DavidN]

Very good work!
Alexandre where the heck do you find all these cheap but nevertheless in very good condition R4s?
It's a miracle to me!

Cheers,

David

 

[Snoopy1974]

The common speech here in France is that the R4 prices tend to be more and more high, some peole say to have a nice R4 you have to pay more than 1500 €, or more. Personnaly I'm sure if you take your time and carefully look for all the ads on Leboncoin, for example, it's possible to find a car in very good condition for a moderate price

 

[Snoopy1974]

Hi everybody,

I continued to work on my F4 to make it a beautiful car, on thursday I changed the fuel tank which was drilled by rust (I've never seen that before ), at the left of the picture, just above the exhaust tube, you can see the only problem on the chassis:

I finished to clean the engine bay, it looks like a new one

I also fitted these "things" (vide-poche, seuil de porte ???) taken on an old GTL, the passenger compartment is now ready to receive the news seats:


Yesterday I went to my favorite scrapyard to buy 2 good seats for the F4, when I arrived I really didn't know what seats to choose, I walked across the wrecks and looked inside during more of one hour... I had to find nice seats but also mountings simple to adapt in the R4. Contrary to most people who fit R5 or Twingo seats, I decided to buy these seats taken on a Peugeot 206 XS:

The center distance of the 206 slides is 465 mm, that of the R4 moutings on the chassis are 479 mm:

I simply fitted the 206 slides on the R4 chassis in the existing holes along the rail, I just drilled 2 new holes in the center moutings of the R4 to have the good center distance, I took 3 of the 8 mm torx-head bolts of 206, but I had to take a 6 mm diameter bolt at the rear of the slide to keep sufficient steel in the R4 mouting:



Very simple isn't it ? BUT I'm going to have a problem...

 

[DavidN]

...
BUT I'm going to have a problem...

The "vide-poche" touching the seats?

Again nice work!
What will you do about the left rearframe?
Some welding or just seal it?

Cheers,

David

 

[jjad]

I think for "vide-poche, seuil de porte ???"

we would say 'door pockets', which I guess might be 'poche de porte' ?

Looking great!

 

[iMacThere4iAm]

Very nice work! I have the exact same rot above my exhaust pipe, but on both sides.

 

[Snoopy1974]

jjad, thanks for the word "door pockets", I thought it could be the good term... But "seuil de porte" is another thing: the plastic part, fitted with 3 screws, which protects the rocker panel...

iMacThere4iAm, I asked some people if this problem is dangerous regarding the solidity of the chassis, it seems that this part is less important than the extremities of the rails...

And finally, no David, it's not this problem... be patient

 

[RichardIRL]

Lovely F4. It is great you got one without reverse lights.

Door pockets are great! I had them installed in my van too as they are very practical

 

[Lobster]

Wow! Great work and that looks like a really nice van.

Like the seats, I'm considering replacing the seats in my F6 so if it looks like Peugeot 206 seats are a straightforward fit, I might have to consider them myself.

 

[Snoopy1974]

Richard, your F4 is really a nice car, I just saw again your restoration... waouh, I would want mine being as beautiful as yours

Now, end of the story of my new seats... After fitting the 206 slides on the chassis, I screwed the 206 seats on the slides... BIG problem: even with the seat back adjusted at most, I was still too close to the dashboard, with knees in the sterring wheel, and head in the windscreen :eek: :eek:

This is the reason why I decided to use R4 slides, I just adjusted the bar between the slides:

The only modification ? I had to shorten the adjusting lever of 4 cm to leave enough space with the seat:

The Peugeot 206 was fitted on the R4 slides, I just had to ovalize a hole of the slide with a round file:

And now... look at this beautiful result




The space with the door pocket is not a problem as you can notive below:

My steering wheel was too damaged, I found a Supercinq steering wheel with the new Renault Badge...

... new badge, that we also have on the front grille


Next step: the rims... Alpine rims

 

[iMacThere4iAm]

Those seats look great! Thanks for the detailed photos of how they fit too

 

[Snoopy1974]

Thanks iMacThere4iAm

This afternoon I made something I really hate because according to me it's really difficult to do it whithout defects... I remind you at the beginning I wanted a F4 without side windows behind the doors, but... as french people usually say "we do what we can, and not what we want... regrettably" So I find this car in very good condition not far from home, BUT there were these little rectangular glasses...

Today I learnt on the french forum that these glasses were fitted by the french Renault dealers when the buyers wanted them, they cut the side panels to fit these glasses... with no rust protection after cutting this is the reason why many cars are rotten behind the seals... as mine

So I decided to make something: fitting something called "film teinté" in french on the glasses to prevent seeing through the windows. I carefully cut this "film" at the exact dimension of the glasses and fitted it...





Today I also receive a parcel with something inside for my little and lovely F4:


Good night everyone

 

[Snoopy1974]

Hi everybody, few news of my F4 which passed the french CT 2 weeks ago, just to repairs have to be done: adjustment of the left front light, and rear bumper to fit because I dismanted it when I went to the CT...



Also several pictures of my F4 with its new Alpine rims, the result is exactly what I was looking for when I bought it, the only urgent thing to do is finding a rear bumper, mine is really so damaged and cannot be repaired.







I also have to make littles paint-repairs where I applied my red antirust primer, and the car will be finished...

 

[DavidN]

Lovely !!!

I also thought about adding alloys to my van.
What do you think of these Dunlop rims?

I could get a full set of 5, freshly blasted with glass beads. Unfortunately the center caps are missing.
But I am kind of undecided if they will look good on my F6. :roll:

Cheers,

David