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My R4 Story

ilocke

Enthusiast
Messages
15
Hi, I'm Ian, just registered as a user, I have been driving Renault 4s for over 20 Years, at present i have a 4F6 1108cc Van that i bought in 1987 for £2700, with 3000 miles on the clock, many years have passed and she is still used daily and has just passed her MOT today. She has covered an amazing 180,003 miles exactly (same engine/Gearbox with no repairs to either!).
I also had a 4GTL on an A plate, but alas a drunk driver finished that off whilst it was parked, he knocked it 153 feet down my road one night.
I have a Meganne 16v, with all the extras, but i choose to take the 4F6 most of the time as i just love them.
The van is starting to show her age now, and has had quite a lot of welding in previous 3 years(chasis) , but passed test today with none required this year. eventually if i can get some help i would really love to restore her like clementine did with ermintrude, hint hint clementine!!.
She is still used daily for my work as a gardener.
I have always done all the maintenance myself as i used to be a qualified mechanic/auto electrician, so if anyone may need some advice please feel free. I would love to hear from anyone who wants to talk R4,s.
 
Hi Ian, welcome to the forum.

20 years driving the same Renault 4 has got to be close to a record. You must be pretty attached to the van now. It makes wonderful ecomonic sense to keep the same vehicle running for so long. I tried a modern car for a year and it cost me £2500 in depreciation and repairs. Imagine that every year.

Are you thinking about carrying out a restoration yourself? The cars aren't tricky to restore, just the welding around the rear chassis is a bit of a pain. The only thing to be careful of is to get really organised and be ready to start the restoration as soon as the van comes off the road. It's common to see cars that have stood in back gardens awaiting restoration for years until it's too late. Everyone here would be glad to offer help and advice with the project.

:clementi:
 
thanks clem

Thanks clem, yes i am very attached to the van, it's like an armchair that has worn to fit only me, I would like to do the restoration myself, but i have 2 downfalls, 1, i only have a small driveway with no cover and 2, i do not have any welding equipment, and i'm not really any good at welding.
Mechanically i can do anything and do have the help of a local garage who restore their own cars anyway. But the welding is a little speciallised as i really want to get the Chasis to a condition where it can be forgotten for 5-10 years. It has had quite a bit of work already, especially round the rear shock absorber box section mounts, but this work was mainly for mot standards and not really to restoration standards. The floor pan has had some welding on the rh driver side and in both areas where the tubular box sections from the rear run through to the floor pan. I believe these are pretty common areas anyway. I presume a starting point would be to remove the body to easily access the chasis sections, but i cannot imagine anyone round here wanting to cut complete sections out and renew like you did with Ermintrude. PS My Van we named 'Blue Bertie' several years ago, The inner wing needs a new insert welded on the passenger side, though it's not too bad at present, suppose i will find a way eventually as these cars i believe are fantastic.
 
I'm not convinced the body needs to come off the chassis for chassis welding. Certainly the inner rear suspension mounts can be done with the body in place. The body does get in the way of the outer mount repairs, but it might well be easier to cut away the body (to weld back on later) rather than lifting the body.

It might be possible to come to an arrangement with chassis welding. Most of the time is in removing the suspension and other bits, cutting away rusty metal and making repair sections. If you could do all that yourself then we could maybe do chassis repairs pretty cheaply.

:clementi:
 
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