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1990 Renault 4 GTL

MarioZg

Enthusiast
Messages
146
Location
Zagreb, Croatia
Well... where to start?
My Renault 4 journey started when I was born back in 1990. I got home from hospital in my father`s white GTL. First years of my life I spent playing in it, pretending I was driving. When I get my drivers license logical step was buying my first 1990 R4 GTL. It was a great car. Fun to drive, all girls wanted a ride, friends were laughing until they saw me driving away with their secret loves :D Anyway, I was young rocker with wild soul and I wanted more. There were many cars since then, but always, somewhere in the background was R4. I was searching for car that could give me that feeling, but I couldn`t find it. There were R5, 1997 soft roof Twingo, 2001 Clio RXT, 2002 Clio sport, and some German products but... there was no love for them. They were great cars but it`s hard to maintain relationship where love isn`t mutual.
Until now I had 7 GTLs, and 2 TLs (one for pieces).

Year ago, I found my lovely white 1985 GTL with just 79000 kms on the clock. I drove it until late August when I decided to "refresh" it. Body and chassis were great, but there were some spots that needed to be fixed. Now, it is waiting to get a paint job. Here are some photos.

Before it was like this:
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Then I covered every bare metal with rust converter and protective paint
 
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And then, it was moved to the painter where is last two months with very slow but quality progress

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This is situation with the white one... Let`t move on...
 
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One day, I was looking for some parking spot, saw this one and left message to call me if it`s on sale because I was looking for some "winter car". Few days later, I received phone call from the son of the owner who told me he saw my message and that his father wants to sell car because he is 86 years old and can`t drive anymore.
1990 GTL, first owner, at the moment of buying with 160500 kms on the clock (it`s about 163800 now), with classic rust spots, but nothing to much worry about, never repaired, stuck in time.
Car was out of road for a few months, I brought the battery, run the engine and pass the MOT :cool:
Next week I went to Slovenia on R4 meet (about 420 km), then I went at the seaside (400 km). Beautiful
Here you can see it. I don`t have photos of rusted spots, but believe me, it`s not that bad.

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This reads like a love story! :hug: Fabulous - looking forward to further instalments - you clearly know what you are up to with these happy little cars
 
In the meantime, I decided to renew my old roof rack. This model was extremely popular in former Yugoslavia, made by firm Fadip from Bečej, Serbia. Before any interventions it was like this...
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Then I disassembled it and send it on sanding
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When it came back, sanding showed rotten spots, so now I had to buy new tubes..

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Then all together was galvanized, new inox screws are bought, and reassembly could start...
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Result is fantastic, but now it`s shame to put it on the car :D
 
Nicely restored, and when your car has been painted, they will look beautiful together.

My cars are under cover for the winter, no snow, ice or mud, can't wait for summer:)
 
While the car is at paint job, I`m having fun with spending money on NOS parts :D Some of them I got with red R4, and some were bought... anyway
First of all, brand new Zenith 28IF
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Rear license plate light
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Few days ago, this box came from France...
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Galvanized screws, jack handle, locks, glass liquid holder, tailgate door mechanism, and some other items...
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I painted glass frames and headlight holders
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That`s all so far, I hope you like it... :D
 
There is nothing much new with the white one since last time.
But, luckily, I`m not in deficit with R4s :D
This weekend I made quite a long trip. With my girlfriend we went to visit her friends in Jošan, little village in Lika, Croatia. We went on Friday afternoon, and stayed to Sunday. It would be too much for me to spend whole weekend with 3 women so I arranged a trip for myself and visited our member petak in Vodice :D . We talked about little problems, about huge fun we have driving them, and went on a short ride comparing these 2 old Quatrelles :D It was great trip, great weather and great spent day. There was no problem (why it would be, I`m driving R4 :D ), old road and landscape were fantastic. Anyway, you can see by yourself ;)

On Velebit
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Turning to Vodice
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Two little giants
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Traffic jam
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R4 in front of Velebit
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I made 671 km with 36.13 liters of fuel what shows consumption of 5.38l/100 km or 52.5 mpg if I calculated mpgs correctly :D That is why, along with everything else, I love this car so much...
 
Stunning photos! Thanks for sharing them with us :hug:
 
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