Dougs Albi blue 197

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Winner - POTM March 2018
Hey all,

I picked this 07 plate full fat 197 on Thursday. I've been looking at them for a little while after deciding to sell my money pit of a BMW diesel. Its quite a change from the BMW! Full fat spec of aircon, cruise control, steering wheel controls, Xenons and cornering lights along with Recaro's. Its on 109k with FSH and needs some attention in areas but for £3k I was happy with the condition.

It has a few modifications already, one of the previous owners fitted Eibach lowering springs, a K&N panel filter, exhaust tips and a few black details.

I have bought some items already, an RS steering wheel insert, RS mats, glass bung for a rear wiper delete and a stubby aerial. I have also just purchased a lightweight cam pulley from Raptor on here too.

It needs:
-Cambelt change
-A service
-Recaro bolster repair
-Rust on bootlid

I'm also looking at variety of other things to sort over time, remove the F1 stickers, adjust the Xenons as they are too high, put OEM silver badges and silver bullets on, colour code the door handles, remove the Cup spoiler, add on a Sprint spoiler, aircon regas, install a foot rest, clean the engine bay, add 20mm wheel spacers, Powerflex the engine and gearbox mounts, give the paintwork a good clean, de-tar, polish and wax and sort the small dent and damage. I may even remove the Eibachs and put Cup springs on if they are more comfortable! :laughing:

Enough of the talk, here are the photos so far, I have only had a chance to put on the stubby aerial and some LED 501 bulbs.

Any advice with what to do is always appreciated :blush:

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Well done for getting a progress thread up already - we're a persistent lot!
Sounds like you have some good solid plans for the car.
You may want to reconsider removing the stickers, they're pretty darn pricey and look great IMO, it if you don't like them it's entirely up to you.
I'd personally keep the Eibach's, I should think they give a better ride than the standard springs.
Add to your list some brake maintenance, the front pins should be well maintained so they don't ever become a bugger to remove!
 
Thanks Sean, its a great colour, looking forward to watching it pop after a clean and polish!

Cheers Micah, I have heard they get corroded in. Best to slick them up with some copperslip? I'm still not sold on the stickers, though I did see the price on one of the Renault parts suppliers sites and they are not cheap, you are right. I have plenty of time to decide and know they arnt going to be that easy to remove after however long of being on there.

Does anyone know the best place for OEM badges? Back Renault direct?
 
The front appears to have been sikaflexed on, I started pulling the edge to find the whole thing start coming away so I suspect its a replacement. Not sure on the rear at the moment, Ill have a good look in a bit.
 
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Either Renault parts direct will have them or try eBay..

I've seen afew breaking posts so someone might help you out!
 
Thanks Beany, Ill keep hunting :smile:

So today I attempted to fit a rear wiper bung. After a bit of Googling to find a how to it made sense. My rear wiper arm is knackered and pretty much just fell off. Due to the metal insert being rusted solid onto the motor I decided if I miss it that much Ill buy a second hand motor and arm from eBay. I still need to silicone the bung on, there is just a hole there at the moment but need to buy some black silicone from Halfrauds.
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Whilst doing all this I saw something printed to the bootlid... does that mean its from an F1/R27?
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I gave the engine bay a bit of a clean, checked oil and coolant, topped up the washer bottle and got rid of a decent amount of leaves and debris from crevices.
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The previous owner said the last garage to service it forgot to put the battery cover on and it fell down the back of the engine onto the manifold and melted it!
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Fitted the wiper bung, pretty happy with how it turned out. Its only held in as an interference fit and black silicone so can be removed at any point.
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I also thought I would see what the back end looks like without the Cup spoiler. I prefer it without, it looks squatter but Ill need to pay for the holes to be filled. I will get a Sprint spoiler on there soon enough.
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I also recieved my RS steering wheel insert, little things like this make all the difference!
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So, the Cup spoiler has been sold! Looks bare at the moment but getting the holes filled and sprayed for £80 through a local bodyshop. Then its ready for a Sprint spoiler when money allows.

I've also taken it to a Renault dealer (Vospers) who has taken photos and sent them to Renault UK. He said it would be a week so sometime this week Ill hear back.

Finally I received my new mats, had to order a fitting kit because they keep moving around. Nice to freshen up the interior!

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Lastly, I am swapping my black bullets for some genuine silver ones and am looking at putting silver badges back on but they are sooooo expensive new! Do all mk3 Clio's use the same Renault emblem front and rear?
 
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I cracked! After trying to remove ine bullet and finding it was very easy, I attempted to do the other side... bad move. One of the utter plebs who owned the car before me didn't know how to remove them. The passenger side had previously been damaged so he bonded them on with something which made it mega difficult to get off! They also did the same with the front badge because the clips were all broken.

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After some searching I bought some 2nd hand bullets from Gordini on here and a brand new genuine badge from an German eBay seller. I also received the new battery tray and window seals near the rear quarter glass.

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All small bits at the moment! Booked in for service, thermostat, cambelt, waterpump and Raptors lightweight cam pulley next week though. Time to start injecting a bit more performance into the car!

I see a lot of people change the engine mounts for Powerflex jobbies, whats the pros and cons of doing swapping these out?
 
So, I had the lightened crank pulley fitted when I had the cambelt done recently. Also waterpump, service and thermostat. What a difference it makes! Pulls better and no adverse affects, would recommend it. All of that was just shy of £800 plus £140 ish for the pulley itself. So far the total is around £1200.

I also decided to remove the F1/R27 vinyl too, easier than I thought and looks better without. Still loving the little car, very enjoyable and addictive to drive!

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The mods are continuing! Since the last update I have been on a mission to remove all of the black badges and replace with OEM silver, and fix lots of little niggles such as the boot opener button, which was intermittent at best. Just ordered an OEM rear badge tonight, looks much cleaner with silver badges.
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I've had some play in the drivers side Recaro for as long as I have owned the car so I got an engineering mate to have a look. He noticed that the bushes in the height adjustment linkage were worn, he inserted a few bits of plastic to bridge the gap and its sorted. I am also looking at getting a sub frame made up by him to replace the standard hefty subframe and to drop the seat down roughly 5cm lower. Having looked into the option of the kit from Poland (advertised on here) I believe a complete subframe can be made for the same price which should work out lighter and stronger.
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I also decided to fix the standard front splitter as I couldn't justify the cost for an RS one! Bit of a bodge but its holding up well. Took the pins out of these picture hooks and pushed them up inside the bumper, pinning the splitter lip in place.
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Lastly, I changed the numberplate lights for some LED units and dash vents for silver to brighten up the interior.
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Theres still plenty to look at:
-Replacement nearside bottom joint
-Securing bracket for the MAP sensor
-Pressed plates
-Exhaust tips
-Secondary decat
-Phenolic spacer
-Acoustic valve modification/removal
-Remap
-Lighter alloys
-Powerflex engine and gearbox bushes
-PMS 10mm rear stub spacers
-10mm front spacers
-Removal of vinyl strip on the doors
-Possible removal of rear seats and a mat

What do we think so far?
 

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Keep chunking away at the niggles....there's always 'something'. Looking good though :smile: Seen mixed reports on the n/plate LED's. Yours fitted good I presume ?

I had a go at the radio signal booster today. What a non starter that was....

Is your mate / you building an initial lower seat frame ? Thinking about it ? Pricing one up or.....?
 
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Keep chunking away at the niggles....there's always 'something'. Looking good though :smile: Seen mixed reports on the n/plate LED's. Yours fitted good I presume ?

I had a go at the radio signal booster today. What a non starter that was....

Is your mate / you building an initial lower seat frame ? Thinking about it ? Pricing one up or.....?

Yes they did. The second pair did anyway, the first pair were more expensive and poorly designed. I've asked for my £16 back!

There definitely is lots to sort! Forgot about the radio booster, I take it its a waste of time? I also would like to 're-engineer' the broken hinge on the glovebox lid, not sure its possible yet though.

Yep, they are going to remove the sub frame and measure it up. The idea is to have something very similar to the passenger side, just lower down. Recaro do a frame for their Sportster CS seats, the option is still there to modify that as I can't imagine it would be too difficult but if they can create a kit that looks good, works well, saves weight and is a complete replacement for less than £175 then I may put up a post to see who would be interested. :grinning:
 
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Radio booster not a waste of time. Just what you've bought wont 'fit' in more ways than one i doubt (Not sure if 197 is any different). It's on my build thread.

If I need a lower subframe after next week I for one would be interested. If I can wait for your man....

Do you have an (eBay ?) link to the led's that were good ?
 
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Radio booster not a waste of time. Just what you've bought wont 'fit' in more ways than one i doubt (Not sure if 197 is any different). It's on my build thread.

If I need a lower subframe after next week I for one would be interested. If I can wait for your man....

Do you have an (eBay ?) link to the led's that were good ?

I did think there may not be space behind the radio when it arrived! Im not too bothered by the lack of signal, it is only on the motorway it suffers so I chuck a CD on or use the Aux input.

Not sure when I am getting it measured up, but Ill keep you updated once I have something in the pipeline! :wink: I can imagine several people would be interested if it worked well.

These are the ones I have fitted that work well. Only criticism is they are really bright, but they do the job well. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172692756251
 
i quite like when people buy one of these and immediately start with so needed maintenance..
still a long way to go from seeing your list..
keep it up :thumb:
 
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