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Early(ish) Renault 4 preservation candidate
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Rick
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005
Posts: 22429
Location: UK

PostPosted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 10:20 am    Post subject: Early(ish) Renault 4 preservation candidate Reply with quote

Morning all,

I quite like the idea of a Renault 4, especially an early-ish example like this '67 car. It's in very original faded condition, and would clean up very nicely I think. It has the "Fred Flintstone" floors which would need sorting, and the rest would need going through after a lengthy lay-up. But if the price remains around the £1k mark, it'd be an interesting buy for someone.

http://ebay.to/2CFzdnZ



RJ
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badhuis



Joined: 20 Aug 2008
Posts: 1390
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 12:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great little cars. I remember when most were rotten to the bone. Lovely to drive (trash) around town and in the country, not so great on motorways (of course).
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ukdave2002



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 4100
Location: South Cheshire

PostPosted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 3:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I used to drive my mates 4 in the early 80's great fun and practical within it. The gear linkage route thorough the engine bay always made me smile Smile

Dave
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Salopian



Joined: 05 Jan 2010
Posts: 354
Location: Newport Shropshire

PostPosted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 4:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My family got through 5 of these 3 from new. All covered over 100,000 miles but did they rust! Our last one (EJW 999J) broke a rear suspension pivot off at 6 years old and repairs ran the whole length of the car underneath. As it happened in Somerset I drove it up to Shropshire with a piece of fence post cut to length and wired across. Quite an interesting drive with no rear suspension at all.
The UK cars were originally 850cc I recall but France enjoyed(??) a 747cc powered version which this seems to be.
I'm not sure when the grill changed to the one on this car as the earlier one did not encircle the headlamps - I thought it was after 1967 but could be wrong.
Far superior to a 2CV and many more sold.

Edited to add a joke from the period - Why is a Renault 4 like a rotacut mower? Answer was the wheelbase is not the same each side due to the rear suspension torsion bars crossing one behind the other.
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Jonathan Butler
Alvis SD 12/50 1928 MG TD 1950
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alastairq



Joined: 14 Oct 2016
Posts: 1950
Location: East Yorkshire

PostPosted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 4:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had an S-reg 4 for a few years..initially bought as an act of revenge on the family, who had previously 'forced' me to give up motorcycling!

I loved it..simple, no frills [I don't 'do' frills...which is one reason why I loathe moderns?].....could do 70 mph....on he M62, going westbound [towards the setting sun!] it would struggle all the way up to the top...but, much to the annoyance of countless lorry drivers, would fly down the other side!

ALways returned 40 mpgs, no matter how hard it was thrashed.....to overtake, meant 'charging the tailgate' of whatever was in front.....hoping to arrive at their backside just as the oncoming gap appeared....quite an art, really.

On single track roads [round hereabouts] could overtake by charging along the grass verge!

The choke was eventually a wire coat hanger.

Seats could be removed easily....loads could be got in the rear.....but the rear shocks always needed changing once a year...for some reason.

Always 'my' car..[the then-wife had her own]...amazing how many times it came to the family's rescue.
Eventually sold to fund the buying of an amazingly cheap VW type 2 caravanetttte. Sold to a local pig farmer, who liked the idea of being able to get a crate of pigs in the back!

The gear change was a sweetie....simply, a rod from the dashboard hole, right across the top of the engine...where it linked up to.....a gear lever, sprouting from the top of the [front] gearbox. Handbrake on the front wheels..it could pass an MoT without any back wheels at all!

These are marvellous machines...having, as they do, a proper chassis...which is why I am a little concerned about the floor rot?
That floor is part of the [punt] chassis.....how far up the length of it does the rot really go?
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Rick
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 4:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mmmm collectively you're making it look quite tempting, potential rust issues aside Wink

RJ
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alastairq



Joined: 14 Oct 2016
Posts: 1950
Location: East Yorkshire

PostPosted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

'Twould need the body splitting from the chassis....
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Rick
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

alastairq wrote:
'Twould need the body splitting from the chassis....


(Temptation suddenly dissipates)

RJ
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alastairq



Joined: 14 Oct 2016
Posts: 1950
Location: East Yorkshire

PostPosted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 5:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.renault4.co.uk/

Piccies show the chassis, and some links to R4 specialists?

Depends on how deep one wants to go? As a 'banger', a simple plating job would suffice?
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Salopian



Joined: 05 Jan 2010
Posts: 354
Location: Newport Shropshire

PostPosted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 8:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm not sure with respect it could be described as a "proper" chassis Alistair I recall welding an inverted very thin perimeter U channel with a thin(ner) floorpan across the bottom boxing it in. A period bodge on a rusty one I heard of from a trader was to buy a new floor pressing from Renault which cost very little and cutting it up/welding it around the suspension etc underneath to give the impression of a sound car. Could be applied to the R6 as well which was much the same underneath.
Anyway a great design and mechanically bombproof with that wet liner engine.
Think it only weighed 12 cwt or so so not much scope for thick panels.
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alastairq



Joined: 14 Oct 2016
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A chassis is a chassis, surely? Whether a punt, tubular, girder, or whatever?

VW beetle chassis are much the same.....in effect.
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victor 101



Joined: 03 Apr 2009
Posts: 446
Location: East Yorkshire

PostPosted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 11:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's a bit like the VW Beetle chassis in its design.
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Rick
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 5:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

No-one's bitten as yet, although there are a couple of days left.

RJ
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PAUL BEAUMONT



Joined: 27 Nov 2007
Posts: 1281
Location: Barnsley S. Yorks

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 8:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In my student days I worked on a placement in west Wales. The foreman at the company had one of these that was suffering from the Fred Flintstone floor problem, so he rolled it onto its roof on a load of hay bales, visited a local boat building concern and acquired about a mile of fibreglass matting and 2 gallons of resin and fibreglassed the entire floor before undersealing it well. It passed several MOTs like that apparently with the examiners remarking on how sound the floor was!
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