angel
Enthusiast
- Messages
- 2,536
- Location
- Athens, Greece
Now that the project is almost finished, it’s time to introduce it to you, fellow R4-addicts!
In May 2003, I saw an ad about two R4s being for sale as spares cars. The seller told me on the phone that they were a 1975 one and a 1982 with sunroof. The latter rang bells on my ears since I had been looking for one sunroofed donor for my (only one back then) 1975 Export.
To my great surprise, when I went to his house to see them, it was a Jogging, as it had the distinctive blue sunroof and some faded rainbow stripes still remaining on the rear wings and doors. I never expected to see one here…Even if it seemed to be in pretty bad shape with parts missing, I decided immediately to buy it, as the price he was asking was relatively low (300 Euros).
The next weekend I was there to tow it home. The majority of parts were not missing but simply removed. The elderly owner bought it in 1997 from another person who brought it from france as a spares car. Apparently he decided to start restoring it as most of the bodywork had been painted with white marine paint with a brush. Apart from this it was in fairly good shape with no rust, but some dents on the tailgate, right hand doors and rear wings. The blue vinyl roof was torn but 100% complete, all blue side plastics were there, as were the four door cards (in very good condition), the white dashboard, and the bumpers. Unfortunately, the seats were missing, already when the previous owner bought it.
The chassis was excellent with neither any repair, nor rust, the engine ran when I put on a good battery and some fresh petrol, the brakes seemed to work fine on the 50 kilometer tow to my house, and all showed it would be a fairly easy project.
I decided to replace the piston rings and have the valve seats recut, as the leakdown test I did showed losses there. Apart from these and the usual plugs/points/fluids etc the car did not need anything mechanically related, which was a surprise for me…
Now the bodywork…I decided to do all work myself since there was no welding needed. I replaced both rear wings, the tailgate with a better looking secondhand and knocked out the best of the right side dents (filling the rest with filler-I’m not keen in bodyworking…). I rubbed down the marine paint (very tiring) and then I sprayed on one coat of filling primer and two of white 2K paint (319). All done with a spray gun better suited to lacquering furniture, and on the road in front of my house. This apparently didn’t excite one of my neighbours and I almost got arrested…but that’s another story.
Anyway I wasn’t satisfied with the final result as it had some runs, but I decided I would fix them later by sanding and polishing so I painted the bumpers and started reassembling the car. I didn’t have any reference about the blue colour code so I found an unfaded part on the inside of the vinyl roof and took it to a paint matching shop, where they mixed the correct paint.
The missing Jogging-specific parts was my main issue now. The stickers were easy to make as I had the correct colours from the door cards and the stripe width from the old stickers. They are in fact vinyl sheet of the correct colour, cut stripe-by-stripe. The “jogging” badges on the tailgate and front bonnet were made by scanning the logo from the factory advertisement appearing in “Album Renault 4”.
The vinyl roof was easy to make, but no car upholstery shop could find the correct colour…Luckily, a neighbour of mine who makes balcony awnings was able to find it, and also offered to do the sewing work.The result was very satisfying!
Now the seats…After talking with some people of the 4L-R6 club of France, I made it clear to myself that it was not practical to find the original Jogging seats. From photos, it was apparent that the rear seat frame was the same as the one on basic equipment models. But finding one here was next to impossible as this model was never sold in Greece. So my friend Ingo Heitel from Germany sent me one- mille merci!. It was in average condition, but complete so I could study the construction of the cushions to duplicate them. The front seats did not appear to be common with any other R4, not even the Fourgonette. Having no other option, I decided to build them on some late 70s 2CV frames.
The cushions were entirely home-made by my mother (mille merci!), from fabric used on garden furniture, after I found the correct blue colour. The stripes appear to be vinyl on the photos, but after talking with the people who made me the stickers, it would not be a good choice since it has no elasticity, and also I could not find a way to attach it to the fabric. The answer came from my aunt, who was working in a garment factory back then, and made them out of some kind of synthetic fabric (mille merci, too!).
The rest of their construction is very similar to the Renault ones, they are suspended by rubber strips and hung on the frames with wire hooks. To date, I have not completed them yet, I must fit the sliding rails to the front ones.
In the meanwhile, I realised that the paint job could not be repaired easily, and this along with other reasons, made me to abandon the project temporarily. But last summer, my best friend Despina offered to respray it again. Judging from the paint job on her ’79 TL, I agreed that it would be a good idea. So she did, and also painted the bumpers and door plastics. By then I had found, from the official manual,that the blue colour was “bleu calanques” but unfortunately could not find mixing instructions anywhere so I stuck with the paint I had matched earlier. The final result was very good (deux mille merci!!) and that motivated me to complete the assembly of the car (that is, putting the stickers on and finishing the seats). I also had the wheels straightened and sandblasted, and I finally painted them and fitted new tyres.
Here is it, at the time, more photos to follow…
In May 2003, I saw an ad about two R4s being for sale as spares cars. The seller told me on the phone that they were a 1975 one and a 1982 with sunroof. The latter rang bells on my ears since I had been looking for one sunroofed donor for my (only one back then) 1975 Export.
To my great surprise, when I went to his house to see them, it was a Jogging, as it had the distinctive blue sunroof and some faded rainbow stripes still remaining on the rear wings and doors. I never expected to see one here…Even if it seemed to be in pretty bad shape with parts missing, I decided immediately to buy it, as the price he was asking was relatively low (300 Euros).
The next weekend I was there to tow it home. The majority of parts were not missing but simply removed. The elderly owner bought it in 1997 from another person who brought it from france as a spares car. Apparently he decided to start restoring it as most of the bodywork had been painted with white marine paint with a brush. Apart from this it was in fairly good shape with no rust, but some dents on the tailgate, right hand doors and rear wings. The blue vinyl roof was torn but 100% complete, all blue side plastics were there, as were the four door cards (in very good condition), the white dashboard, and the bumpers. Unfortunately, the seats were missing, already when the previous owner bought it.
The chassis was excellent with neither any repair, nor rust, the engine ran when I put on a good battery and some fresh petrol, the brakes seemed to work fine on the 50 kilometer tow to my house, and all showed it would be a fairly easy project.
I decided to replace the piston rings and have the valve seats recut, as the leakdown test I did showed losses there. Apart from these and the usual plugs/points/fluids etc the car did not need anything mechanically related, which was a surprise for me…
Now the bodywork…I decided to do all work myself since there was no welding needed. I replaced both rear wings, the tailgate with a better looking secondhand and knocked out the best of the right side dents (filling the rest with filler-I’m not keen in bodyworking…). I rubbed down the marine paint (very tiring) and then I sprayed on one coat of filling primer and two of white 2K paint (319). All done with a spray gun better suited to lacquering furniture, and on the road in front of my house. This apparently didn’t excite one of my neighbours and I almost got arrested…but that’s another story.
Anyway I wasn’t satisfied with the final result as it had some runs, but I decided I would fix them later by sanding and polishing so I painted the bumpers and started reassembling the car. I didn’t have any reference about the blue colour code so I found an unfaded part on the inside of the vinyl roof and took it to a paint matching shop, where they mixed the correct paint.
The missing Jogging-specific parts was my main issue now. The stickers were easy to make as I had the correct colours from the door cards and the stripe width from the old stickers. They are in fact vinyl sheet of the correct colour, cut stripe-by-stripe. The “jogging” badges on the tailgate and front bonnet were made by scanning the logo from the factory advertisement appearing in “Album Renault 4”.
The vinyl roof was easy to make, but no car upholstery shop could find the correct colour…Luckily, a neighbour of mine who makes balcony awnings was able to find it, and also offered to do the sewing work.The result was very satisfying!
Now the seats…After talking with some people of the 4L-R6 club of France, I made it clear to myself that it was not practical to find the original Jogging seats. From photos, it was apparent that the rear seat frame was the same as the one on basic equipment models. But finding one here was next to impossible as this model was never sold in Greece. So my friend Ingo Heitel from Germany sent me one- mille merci!. It was in average condition, but complete so I could study the construction of the cushions to duplicate them. The front seats did not appear to be common with any other R4, not even the Fourgonette. Having no other option, I decided to build them on some late 70s 2CV frames.
The cushions were entirely home-made by my mother (mille merci!), from fabric used on garden furniture, after I found the correct blue colour. The stripes appear to be vinyl on the photos, but after talking with the people who made me the stickers, it would not be a good choice since it has no elasticity, and also I could not find a way to attach it to the fabric. The answer came from my aunt, who was working in a garment factory back then, and made them out of some kind of synthetic fabric (mille merci, too!).
The rest of their construction is very similar to the Renault ones, they are suspended by rubber strips and hung on the frames with wire hooks. To date, I have not completed them yet, I must fit the sliding rails to the front ones.
In the meanwhile, I realised that the paint job could not be repaired easily, and this along with other reasons, made me to abandon the project temporarily. But last summer, my best friend Despina offered to respray it again. Judging from the paint job on her ’79 TL, I agreed that it would be a good idea. So she did, and also painted the bumpers and door plastics. By then I had found, from the official manual,that the blue colour was “bleu calanques” but unfortunately could not find mixing instructions anywhere so I stuck with the paint I had matched earlier. The final result was very good (deux mille merci!!) and that motivated me to complete the assembly of the car (that is, putting the stickers on and finishing the seats). I also had the wheels straightened and sandblasted, and I finally painted them and fitted new tyres.
Here is it, at the time, more photos to follow…
