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My First Renault 4

Jnr-Renospeed

Enthusiast
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171
Location
Newington
Here are some of the pictures of the Renault 4 that my Dad [Mr Renospeed] has got me for my 17th birthday which is in October this year, it's a bit behind schedule but lots of work has been done to it so far, with assistance from me in my free time, and it is coming along nicely.

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Plenty more pictures and updates will follow in the near future.:)
 
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Welcome Jnr, a R4 GTL :clapping: can't wait to see more (restoration) pictures.
Regards, Joop
 
Looks good. Are you keeping it left-hand drive? And what about the engine? Keeping the 1108cc?
 
Hello Harry, welcome to the forum. Looking forward to updates on your project car. Cheers Brian.
 
The original plan was to keep the 1108cc engine that was already in the car when we got it, but unfortunately it had a reading of only 50PSI compression! (likely due to being flogged relentlessly in the past). When the rocker cover and sump were removed they revealed that the oil had not been regularly changed and it all looked as if it had been really abused.
We decided to fit a good replacement 1108cc engine from a Portuguese GTL, we have kept the original French transmission (after a good clean up). The Portuguese engine has received new oil seals and ancillary parts, plus a coat of black paint.

Additionally after dismantling the body, some unpleasant corrosion was found in the offside rear window, front footwell and in the boot floor, all of which have been repaired since, pictures on their way.



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The rear window's corrosion was repaired using the green section from another car, pictured in the first photo, then bare metaled and given a healthy dose of red oxide to future proof it from the lovely British weather. As well as repairing the window the wings of the car were removed and it received a full set of wings fitted with some difficulty, grrr reproduction quality :mad:. These wings were also gifted with a healthy coating of red oxide underneath, especially on the sharp lip where the rust spreads from if not protected properly.

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Mr Renospeed also repaired the boot floor of the car cutting the damaged section out and replacing it with the new section and straightening out the existing floor, which is more trouble than it seemed to be at first as the floor must line up correctly with the tailgate. The new section has been rustproofed as well as the front floor which was sanded down and received some red oxide and a coat of black paint
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The eagle eyed will notice the new boot hinges which have been fitted in the first photo, which will be shown in a future post. Despite some more setbacks than expected the car is coming along well.
 
[Photos of the boot floor being taken back to the bare metal as previously mentioned above]
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Dad had been toying with the idea of replacing the weaker designed GTL hinges, which I'm sure many of you know are notorious for breaking and shifting position, to the stronger old style TL hinges that are far better. This again was difficult as everything must align together perfectly, especially as the boot floor had been cut away at the time. As well as the new hinges a fetching new tailgate has been fitted as the old one was perishing and had some cracks starting to develop in it. All this has been done to future proof the car from all the Renault 4 gremlins that like to appear and to make it the best vehicle possible using the best parts and designs we can, as it is not one that I plan to be getting rid of any time soon.

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That concludes the last of the major work on the rear end structure of the car, posts about the front end work soon. :laughing:
 
Smart move with that hinges, as they do deteriorate quite fast even if you renew them from scratch
 
The main floor area has now been completed. There were a some unpleasant corroded patches in the usual places (a few more than desired/anticipated) and they have now been cut out, welded and treated with some rust protection.

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The cars original underseal was flaking and peeling off, so it was decided that it was to be entirely scraped off and to be repainted in 2-pack gloss black. It was an entire day of hard work scrubbing and scraping with a wire brush and scraper and lots of dust, despite having previously been heavily hosed down underneath. But it has come and gleaming and will look great with some nice shiny paint on it.

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Now the floor is looking nice and shiny with some paint and all that work in a sea of dust pays off with a gleaming floor and protection from water. :laughing:

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And here is the rear floor nice and clean, ready to be painted with a good load of rust protection just to be safe and with a nice wire brushed and painted fuel tank.

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The front end work below had been done prior to the majority of the rear end earlier in the year.

All the holes for making the car right-hand drive had to be completely accurate, so a very high-tech template made using a donor vehicle and the box from some CrunchyNuts was used to make the holes for the cables, column etc .A reinforcing plate was also added to make sure there is no flexing of the pedal box area. The cutouts were then rustproofed with some red-oxide and the appropriate bits fitted.

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We also tackled the the floor sanding away at the white and black paint, repairing rust as seen in previous posts, and to our noses displeasure a big load of rust protection and a couple of coats of two-pack gloss black, We also fitted the steering column and peddle box at that time which does highlight the difference in wheel position with the left being at an askew but the right being nice and straight.

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Like the steering column the throttle cable on the left hand drive car had been incorrectly aligned from the factory, if you look closely you can see it has buzzed through the years and has eventually cut and sawed its way through the bodywork simply due to being misaligned.

The lovely photo of yours truly below shows the results of the change with the steering on the right side of the car and the red metal showing the process of the surgery involved. A new set of front doors (one white and one red) have been fitted as well, as the original ones were not worth keeping for a full restoration. Also to help with future maintenance holes for shock absorbers and steering gaiters were widened to allow easier access and improve clearance.

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Now onto possibly the most important thing in a custom restoration, the colour. We both wanted something classic styled and 70's looking but with enough oomph to stand out on a nice summers day and not be drab when it's miserable. The four main choices were purple, green, blue or yellow, we ruled out purple as it would have been difficult to source the correct shade to fit a 4, and ruling out blue (Saviem Blue from an F6) because it is a fairly common sight on a 4 and was a standard colour so we were left with green (Limeflower from an original Mini) or yellow.

In the end we decided to go with Countrypolitan Yellow from a modern Fiat 500 'Colour Therapy Edition', a colour which we had seen a few times in our area on 500's and always thought 'that looks nice' whenever one passed. We also feel that nice chrome pieces and a shiny engine will look great with it. The grimy bulbs of the garage do not do the colour justice as in the sun it warms up and really stands out, even though we have only painted the engine bay in preparation.

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The whole picture is coming together nicely now and looks great with the nicely painted tower of power 1108 engine fitted, with pictures coming soon.
 
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