1988 R4 F4 restoration made in France

[Snoopy1974]

Today there was a traditional meeting (first sunday of each month), considering my Lotus was absolutly impossible to get out the garage for that


I took my white sportscar, which is naturally nicer and more interesting than this awful big black thing by my side


I was in a hurry today, my top speed has been 116 km/h (GPS), I even overtook an Alpine A310 which was so slow for me

 

[Rutger-peer]

Hahaha, I make fun of that all the time when driving my R4, talking about all those people driving "those old wrecks", saying I can't drive 30 km/h since my car won't run that slow etc. etc. I laugh a lot in my car

 

[Snoopy1974]

Hi everybody

time passed since my last visit and I did some little things on my lovely F4; first of all, during the autumn 2013 I decided to change the rear right bearing which made a terrible noise during driving, especially in the left bends, so I opened the rear drum to change it... bad surprise

So I decided to change ALL the rear brakes parts and the TWO bearings, pfffffff, as every time you think you're going to repair and finish quickly, it became a real big job to do... So I dismantled all the parts:


I gave my drums to a local company which made an epoxy coating, and I changed all the parts:


These days, several months later, I decided to apply a black cover on the rear window, as I did on the side windows, sometimes I have my mountain bike or tools in the car, I want to avoid people see what there is in the car...

What you see on the last picture in the window is not air bubbles, but a reflect of a tree with pink flowers

Hope you appreciated this... Have a nice evening

 

[Azazello]

Liriodendron tulipifera?

 

[Tripyrenees]

When you send your drums for epoxy coating did you have them skimmed inside too - they look like new.

 

[Snoopy1974]

Good evening

Azazello, it's a Prunus cerasifera Pissardii Nigra !!! Anyways, the company I usually give my parts made an enormous mistake on these drums for the first time !!! They made the epoxy coating outiside... and inside too :eek: I was so disappointed, before asking a friend in another compagny with lathes to sand the inside perimeter of each drum, this is the reason why they look like new ones

 

[Azazello]

The "Nigra" subvar has a darker red foliage of the usual Pissardii?

 

[Snoopy1974]

Azazello, I'm not very good in this subject, sorry But I took a picture for you today, I have the pleasure to introduce to you THE tree, I'm sure you'ii be able to tell me the exact type

 

[Azazello]

From this photo I can tell you for sure that... you have a beautiful garden!
Very cute tree, indeed.

 

[Snoopy1974]

Hi everybody !

Azazello yes I'm very pround of my garden, but with spring coming back now, I can tell you that it takes most of my time to take care of the 2153 m2 around the house

I finished this morning another little thing on my F4, contrary to some ones, I didn't have a panel on the rear door, inside the trunk, so I decided to build it myself, I bought a 3mm piece of plywood (not "plywood" in reality but I don't know the english word for "medium" ) cut to the general shape of the part, then I took many time to carefully adjust and cut it to the exact shape...

Last monday I visited my friend Patrick who is an awesome saddler and he sold to me imitation black leather...

I sticked the panel and the imitation leather with "neoprene" (which is really difficult to work with...) and I waited for about 10 minutes before assembling the two pieces, I pressed the panel with a paint roll to avoid air bubbles between the panel and the leather:


And I made little notches in the leather to improve the form in the edges of the panel:


I chose to use visible staples from "Restagraf" and I fitted the panel on the rear door, the result is really good

 

[Tripyrenees]

I am about to do the same thing for my 4GTL. I know it is not original but it does finish them off.

Looks good.

 

[Snoopy1974]

I am about to do the same thing for my 4GTL. I know it is not original but it does finish them off.
Looks good.

I believe -but not sure- that there was never such a panel on the sedan R4s but I agree that it looks better with it What I don't understand is... why the 1984 F4 (845 cm3) of one of my friends have got this kind of panel, and why my own F4 (1988, 1108 cm3) didn't have one ???? I usually thought the cars had a better finish year by year...

 

[Snoopy1974]

Hi everybody

I didn't talked about my lovely R4 for a very long time 8 years !!! I still have it, naturally, and still enjoy driving it, only during nice and dry days I make about 2000 km per year since I bought it, and it's still in the same condition than when I bought it.

No problem with the engine, even if there is a very strange phenomenom, every time I take the car (it's parked about 15 km from home), when several months passed, the coolant liquid has disappeared ??? There is no visible leak, the liquid stay in place when the car is running, but I have to fill the tank each time I want to take the car ??

I fitted an accessory I wanted for a very long time: a clock from a GTL on the dashboard It matches very well with the rest of the dashboard and it looks like a genuine equipment.





The only problem I've ever had with the car is a failed ignition capacitor, I had to call a friend with his tow truck !



I don't know if you know the problem, but in France, wherever you buy a new ignition capacitor, it fails very quickly, it's better to fit an old one, found in any junkyard, instead of a new one.... Personnaly I think that the quality of the parts sold new for olds cars is not really good, when it's possible I prefer restoring instead of changing.