1975 Renault 6TL

[ekjdm14]

Oh, so close now

As far as the brakes go, if the discs/pads were brand new (I don't recall now :/ ) then the tightening may just be that they've picked up a bit of surface rust through standing. You know how sharp and generally great disc brakes are for the first mile or so on a car that's stood a while, until the rust wears away... The 2-channel ABS brakes on our Escort cabrio are *almost* good after it's sat a couple of weeks but then once things are back smooth again they're as bad as ever!

Hopefully something simple like that but as you say, the wheels are off, so worth giving everything a double check under there. Cheers

[CitroJim]

Oh, so close now

I'm getting really excited now

Are you planning to respray it or preserve the lovely 'patina' it wears now? I know what I'd do, being a great lover of the 'rat look'

My 1.9TD wears it's patina and 'rat look' a treat but like your R6, it's in bloody good nick and belies it's rather dog-eared appearance!

[ekjdm14]

Call it patina/ratty/tatty/a shed or whatever you will, it looks right & that's how it should continue to look. It's won those battle scars over years of use/abuse and disuse and it'd be a shame to lose it. I do seem to recall earlier in the thread that a decision was taken to preserve what's there now and make essential repairs in a sympathetic manner, so with luck the car will continue to be shown "warts & all" (also quite apt in that the little 6 is about as far from a Cavalier* as you could get )








*oh Gawd, that's terrible! The poor little Renault is nothing like Cromwell!

[CitroJim]

Call it patina/ratty/tatty/a shed or whatever you will, it looks right & that's how it should continue to look. It's won those battle scars over years of use/abuse and disuse and it'd be a shame to lose it.

I do so agree with every word

[vulgalour]

Absolutely we're keeping the look it has right now. So long as it's solid and watertight (as much as it ever will be) there's no reason to change the appearance. As mentioned above, the scars and age it shows have been earned over the course of a very hard life, it's remarkable the car has survived so long and they're testament to its resilience against all odds. With the brakes it is probably just that it's been sat about so long now after having them done, it's all new up front but not at the back because the rear drums were working perfectly fine so I never bothered to investigate them. I will investigate the rears because brakes are important, I just had a *lot* of other things to sort out ahead of them.

Just a little job today. Went and picked this little lot up.


One of the rims needs attention. Going to give it a good going over with a power tool, paint the bit the tyre sits against and pass it back to them to get the fifth tyre fitted. Not mega important just yet.


Looks better for new tyres. Annoyingly, I have found that one back brake has now joined the party and stuck on so I only have one functioning rear drum now, the other three are all stuck on. I've not had chance to do anything about it.




I went for Kumho Solus tyres as they were middle of the road on price and ratings. Engineered in Korea is proudly printed on the label, though what that actually means is really anyone's guess. £7 per rim for fitting, balancing, new valves and disposal of the old tyres and inner tubes. Plus VAT.

[mickeymoon]

The Kumhos are a good tyre. I've put them on a few cars.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

[CitroJim]

So pleased to hear the lovely patina is to be preserved Excellent!

[Hell Razor5543]

I love the fact you are keeping the patina. May I suggest that (once everything has been done, and she is complete) you apply a good coat of clear lacquer. That way you keep the look, but protect the car.

(I know, you probably already planned on doing that!).

[vulgalour]

I'm actually going to use Ankor Wax rather than lacquer, it's better suited to the purpose and is widely used for these sorts of preservation jobs.

[CitroJim]

I'm actually going to use Ankor Wax rather than lacquer, it's better suited to the purpose and is widely used for these sorts of preservation jobs.

I must look into that stuff. It might be just the job for preserving the patina on my two as they both have to live outdoors...

[ekjdm14]

I've always thought it a shame to see lovely patinated old cars (especially so with dry-state yanks) where they've been lacquered. it preserves the current state of decay/patina alright but I always feel it's A) too shiny and B) too permanent. Will also be looking into said wax in the near future. Thanks for the tip, and all the best for getting the ol' girl back to life soon.

[vulgalour]

Managed to get the front brakes unstuck fairly easily, just removed the pads. Then the car tried to roll away because I hadn't put the handbrake on so that's the rear drum freed too. Had to move the Renault to make space for a new visitor.




Hoping to get some tinker time in over the next week, weather permitting. I'd like to get the carburettor back together and the throttle and choke cables connected back up so I can get it running. Time during daylight hours is at a bit of a premium of late.

[vulgalour]

Today I got the choke cable fitted, finally. It's been a bit of a faff and I've had several attempts at this only to have the cable vanish once it was pushed into the guide in the dashboard. Today, with the help of a knitting needle, I bested it!


You have to sort of fish around through the flaps in the scuttle section until you hook the cable and then you can feed it through the grommet into the engine bay.




That's a job off the list. I also did a first-assembly of the carburettor that Mike cleaned up. Final assembly will be done now I know everything is there, this is just to show how nice and shiny it now is so not everything is present in these shots.






The guttering on one end has twisted and peeled a bit for some reason. I'll likely just glue this back down with some PU adhesive at some point, it can wait for now.


My thanks to Mr_Bollox (from other forums) for his contribution to the project in the form of this important period accessory.

[CitroJim]

Excellent I love that 'period accessory'

Every car must have one - hence the fluffy dice dangling from the rear-view mirrors in both my Xantias!

I used to have a set in my erstwhile C1

[ekjdm14]

Here, fishy fishy... haha don't you just love fishing for cables through awkward little gaps? That carb looks like new now, let's hope it performs a site better than it did as well. Don't let that sexy Italian redhead distract you too much though lol