Bonjour , Guten Tag , Hello
Just signed up to your Forum after doing some R4 Googling,
It all Looks certainly right up my street and i look forward to sharing ideas and photos.
Im an irishman but Living in France for three years now , Am a fitter by trade for about 12 years now, I work all over the world on TBM,s and Road headers, ( two types of tunneling methods )
it gives one the advantage to see that everything really is possible no matter how heavy or awkward it, much like building a ship or flying to the moon , maybe .. !
We are mid swing doing up an old stone house here so forgive me if updates are not always forthcoming as some other topic religious members can be !
I wish i could be as good with a camera, some have so many photos i wonder how they can build and i admire that as it is indeed an incentive to to a better standard and skip the short cut you were about to take at the end of a long day. Voila
The Car.
i found my car advertised close to Bordeaux and headed off with the trailer for it, Turns out there are two villages with the same name,the wrong one being 2 hours more south.. You can guess which village i picked.... a burst wheel on the trailer - and then another whereby a bystander pulled an R4 wheel out of his garden to fix.. and we eventually got to the right address and home that night with trailer lights that failed. a short day turned long..
1967 850 cc i think Renault 4 totally original pulled from a barn as they tend to be in France. it is ... Bordeaux Rouge from origin and has faded so evenly all over it is almost a shame to paint it, kind of a flat purple all over, minor surface rust nothing serious,
bench seats still in it and a funky clear orange steering wheel...
Engine was seized so i never drove this car, its sat in my shed for 1 year now.
My parents had one of these when they were very young so it might be in the genes a little, This is in fact my first Renault ever.
The project...
I have a friend in Niort that seems to be a magnet for old 4s and 6s and 2cvs, one day in his yard i spotted an old 5 Alpine turbo down the back - 1983 vintage.
Alex i said, does that go . oh oui oui ca marche tres forte ca..
So on closer inspection - where he put a forklift prong through each open window and hoisted it up by the roof to get it out.. we found the metallic blue Alpine 5 turbo to be complete yet the carosserie- body ate with rust from bad past crash repairs..
Rats had nested on top of the coil / map sensor thing, but there was still green coolant in the system.
A deal was made and to cut a story short i got a very good deal of everything i wanted on the car and he kept the shell for scrap. So 6 months later and and a day of mechanics in the snow- Foie Gras - 1 bottle of red, 6 Chimays and 2 busted knuckles and we had every conceivable piece off the 5 and in the flatbed of the transit.
Alpine turbo rims, Alpine steering wheel gauges clocks wiring loom, all the engine and box and every bracket bolt nut you name it.
rear disc axle front 'tri angles' anti roll bars, the interior , fuel tank and lines, the lot.
The Engine ran but we didnt drive it. the little T2 Garret has minimal play and a -31 actuator.
Alex is a bit of an expert on old French cars and is of the opinion the first 5 and the 4 are essentially the same chassis sauf pour the the Front of the gearbox bracket for the 5 vitesses.
So the plan is basically to build the R4 once with all the Alpine running gear, then take it apart and paint it, iv built a mk2 gti 16v Golf from absolute scratch in the past and painted it first ... and then had to cut here a bit,,, weld there a bit, and at the end of the job it looked tatty again, so i think a trial build is worth the effort.
What i want with this car is a mint R4, Totally original on the exterior yet run it very very low to the ground and of course the Turbo alpine Eng and box and the 4 discs and anti roll bar struts etc.
I have Koni Adjustables for it already.
I wouldnt mind actually keeping the bench seats rather than the 5 alpine beige buckets which will make it look like its trying to hard,
even the alloy alpine wheels im not sure of , i have though about cutting the original on a lathe and adding a 1/2 inch or an inch to them to get the stretched tyres happeing.
there is 3 litres of paint sitting in the shed for it too, but it is perfect Rat look right now if thats what one wants, but herself will also be using this too so i think it will need to be neat.
One thing i do need is all the window rubbers / rubber seals , there a must even if i dont paint it, i had no success finding an online 'boutique' for these rubbers etc if anyone can point me in the direction.
( the 2cv is easy to get stuff for even seats can be bought online)
I have some photos of the car already but in its original state as it stands,
I presume they need to be 'hosted' first which takes a lot of extra time but i will get a few up as some will be interested to see it.
I see the owner of this site has a non Turbo alpine already done so i will no doubt be looking to that for inspiration ")
A Plus tard :wink:
Just signed up to your Forum after doing some R4 Googling,
It all Looks certainly right up my street and i look forward to sharing ideas and photos.
Im an irishman but Living in France for three years now , Am a fitter by trade for about 12 years now, I work all over the world on TBM,s and Road headers, ( two types of tunneling methods )
it gives one the advantage to see that everything really is possible no matter how heavy or awkward it, much like building a ship or flying to the moon , maybe .. !
We are mid swing doing up an old stone house here so forgive me if updates are not always forthcoming as some other topic religious members can be !
I wish i could be as good with a camera, some have so many photos i wonder how they can build and i admire that as it is indeed an incentive to to a better standard and skip the short cut you were about to take at the end of a long day. Voila
The Car.
i found my car advertised close to Bordeaux and headed off with the trailer for it, Turns out there are two villages with the same name,the wrong one being 2 hours more south.. You can guess which village i picked.... a burst wheel on the trailer - and then another whereby a bystander pulled an R4 wheel out of his garden to fix.. and we eventually got to the right address and home that night with trailer lights that failed. a short day turned long..
1967 850 cc i think Renault 4 totally original pulled from a barn as they tend to be in France. it is ... Bordeaux Rouge from origin and has faded so evenly all over it is almost a shame to paint it, kind of a flat purple all over, minor surface rust nothing serious,
bench seats still in it and a funky clear orange steering wheel...
Engine was seized so i never drove this car, its sat in my shed for 1 year now.
My parents had one of these when they were very young so it might be in the genes a little, This is in fact my first Renault ever.
The project...
I have a friend in Niort that seems to be a magnet for old 4s and 6s and 2cvs, one day in his yard i spotted an old 5 Alpine turbo down the back - 1983 vintage.
Alex i said, does that go . oh oui oui ca marche tres forte ca..
So on closer inspection - where he put a forklift prong through each open window and hoisted it up by the roof to get it out.. we found the metallic blue Alpine 5 turbo to be complete yet the carosserie- body ate with rust from bad past crash repairs..
Rats had nested on top of the coil / map sensor thing, but there was still green coolant in the system.
A deal was made and to cut a story short i got a very good deal of everything i wanted on the car and he kept the shell for scrap. So 6 months later and and a day of mechanics in the snow- Foie Gras - 1 bottle of red, 6 Chimays and 2 busted knuckles and we had every conceivable piece off the 5 and in the flatbed of the transit.
Alpine turbo rims, Alpine steering wheel gauges clocks wiring loom, all the engine and box and every bracket bolt nut you name it.
rear disc axle front 'tri angles' anti roll bars, the interior , fuel tank and lines, the lot.
The Engine ran but we didnt drive it. the little T2 Garret has minimal play and a -31 actuator.
Alex is a bit of an expert on old French cars and is of the opinion the first 5 and the 4 are essentially the same chassis sauf pour the the Front of the gearbox bracket for the 5 vitesses.
So the plan is basically to build the R4 once with all the Alpine running gear, then take it apart and paint it, iv built a mk2 gti 16v Golf from absolute scratch in the past and painted it first ... and then had to cut here a bit,,, weld there a bit, and at the end of the job it looked tatty again, so i think a trial build is worth the effort.
What i want with this car is a mint R4, Totally original on the exterior yet run it very very low to the ground and of course the Turbo alpine Eng and box and the 4 discs and anti roll bar struts etc.
I have Koni Adjustables for it already.
I wouldnt mind actually keeping the bench seats rather than the 5 alpine beige buckets which will make it look like its trying to hard,
even the alloy alpine wheels im not sure of , i have though about cutting the original on a lathe and adding a 1/2 inch or an inch to them to get the stretched tyres happeing.
there is 3 litres of paint sitting in the shed for it too, but it is perfect Rat look right now if thats what one wants, but herself will also be using this too so i think it will need to be neat.
One thing i do need is all the window rubbers / rubber seals , there a must even if i dont paint it, i had no success finding an online 'boutique' for these rubbers etc if anyone can point me in the direction.
( the 2cv is easy to get stuff for even seats can be bought online)
I have some photos of the car already but in its original state as it stands,
I presume they need to be 'hosted' first which takes a lot of extra time but i will get a few up as some will be interested to see it.
I see the owner of this site has a non Turbo alpine already done so i will no doubt be looking to that for inspiration ")
A Plus tard :wink: