Albi R27 452/500 (UPDATE - 19.02.2017 - The end)

[Jmax]

UPDATE 12.06.2013

At the start of the week I had decided to spend a bit of time cleaning up and dressing the plastics on the car. This was all done once again using Auto Finesse Revive.

As promised a picture of the fixed cat. It was welded and polished a bit, although we didn’t want to take it down too much as we wanted to keep as strong a bond as possible.

It was then onto fitting me new engine torque link.

Old vs. new

So with the new torque link fitted I have to say the car feels so much better to drive. Yes there is increased vibration but I feel its now the way a Renault Sport should feel. It feels rough around the edges and its like its just begging to be driven hard.

I woke up this morning to be greated by this…

I’ve no idea what had caused it as the car had only been exposed to rain water, so I decided to set about correcting it.

I started off with a simple wash..

and as you can see it seemed to be doing the job of sorting the stickers out.

So after the car was dried off the stickers seemed to be back in the condition I would expect them to be. I decided to leave them as they are, although I may apply a layer of Auto Finesse Revive the next time I clean the car.

The finished product…

John

 

[Rogue]

I 'think' that colouration on your stickers is from wax. The same things happens to mine and I can only assume when it rains it runs down the car...

 

[Jmax]

I 'think' that colouration on your stickers is from wax. The same things happens to mine and I can only assume when it rains it runs down the car...

Its strange as the car has been out in the rain plenty of times before and its never happened. The only thing that I can think is different this time is the outside temperature, as it was reaching 32 degrees here last week.

 

[Fezsi]

UPDATE 06.06.2013

So following on from my previous update about the cat having split, the car has been into the garage and had it repaired. I have chosen to leave the second cat in place, as I don’t feel there will be any significant change to warrant taking it out.

When the car was in the garage the mechanic said there was a bit of movement at the bottom of the engine and this might have caused the cat to split, he advised me that I should think about purchasing an ENGINE TORQUE LINK. So I went hunting online for the best deal and I found it at Spoox.

Hopefully I'll get it fitted in the next week or two.

If only the golf had have been as good as the car looked I’d have been happy.

John

Mate what mechanic are you using?!

 

[Jmax]

Mate what mechanic are you using?!

A fella called Johnny Armstrong, he used to run AI Autosport.

 

[Fezsi]

Aye yeah I've heard of him.

Where is he based now?!

 

[Jmax]

Hes based down in Carrickfergus now, will mail you a contact number for him.

 

[Fezsi]

Nice heads up with the revive stuff, got some ordered there!

Very interested in this torque link, what do you notice over driving it from standard?

 

[Jmax]

Nice heads up with the revive stuff, got some ordered there!

Very interested in this torque link, what do you notice over driving it from standard?

Theres more vibration through the car, but the car just feels a lot stiffer. I see your from Moira, I'm from Dromore direction, we could maybe arrange to meet up and you can see what you think of it.

 

[h4rry]

Fancy one myself John, I would imagine hard gear changes must be vastly improved.

 

[Jmax]

Fancy one myself John, I would imagine hard gear changes must be vastly improved.

Yea they seem to be, I haven't had the kangarooing since it was put in the car either.

 

[shubz197]

Would it not be better to do the gearbox mount in polyurethane (race grade)? That way less stress on the other mounts, and you don't really feel the vibration in the car...

 

[Jmax]

UPDATE 15.07.2013

So I know I’ve been a bit quiet recently but that’s because there hasn’t really been much going on with the R27 lately. The mileage has dropped through the floor and I’ve just been keeping a low profile.

That was until Saturday morning when I woke up to be greeted by this…

A neighbor of mine had decided to have a rather large bonfire as part of the 11[SUP]th[/SUP]/12[SUP]th[/SUP] July celebrations and forgot to mention this to us. So on Saturday morning I woke up to fine the car covered in ash and dust from the bonfire.

So I decided I would spend a bit of time tidying the car up.

First off was a quick rinse, just to blow as much of the debris off as possible.

I then applied some Elite alloy wheel cleaner to the wheels to break into small amount of break dust that was on the rim.

Followed by some Elite Blizzard snow foam.

 

[Jmax]

The snow foam was left to dwell on the car for about 10 minutes

Before being rinsed off and washed with mitt and Meguiar's Gold Class Shampoo.

The wheels were washed using my old favourite, Fairy Liquid (yes I do know to keep it away from the body work).

The car was then dried off.

And the engine bay plastics dressed.

A couple of reflection shots.

My attention then turned to the plastics surrounding the windscreen and scuttle panel.

Which were quickly dressed using Auto Finesse Revive.

That brings us up to today which was me deciding to basically repeat the whole process. To be followed by a full clay treatment and polish with Auto Glym Super Resin. This was then followed by a quick coat of Maguire’s Gold Glass Clear Coat Liquid Wax.

Here are some of the reflection pics

And one to show off the pop of the paint.

I’ve also spent a lot of time touching in the small stone chips around the front of the car and along the bottom of the skirts, so I think its safe to say I’m over the moon with how its looking at the moment.

It would be nice as always to hear your feedback.

John

SaveSave​

 

[shubz197]

Sparkly! Damn those neighbours though!

And read up at my post... I'm interested to know, as my gearbox mount is proper shot!

Peace

 

[Jmax]

Sparkly! Damn those neighbours though!

And read up at my post... I'm interested to know, as my gearbox mount is proper shot!

Peace

Thanks very much.

Would it not be better to do the gearbox mount in polyurethane (race grade)? That way less stress on the other mounts, and you don't really feel the vibration in the car...

I'm not honestly sure, the mechanic suggested the mount to me as he said there was up to an inch movement and that would stop it. I don't mind the vibration as I very rarely notice it now.

 

[shubz197]

Oh I see. I've driven a 200 with the ktr mount, and it only really vibrates when the car is idle. Once you start driving its super smooth.

But according to my mechanic, he says if u get new stock engine mounts, and a poly gearbox mount, u will have a smooth, solid drive, with negligible vibration... And the stock engine mounts will last (unlike my current situation...)

Sorry for off-topic!

Loving this thread, bud.

Peace

 

[LukeRS]

Very nice, love the colour.

 

[Jmax]

Oh I see. I've driven a 200 with the ktr mount, and it only really vibrates when the car is idle. Once you start driving its super smooth.

But according to my mechanic, he says if u get new stock engine mounts, and a poly gearbox mount, u will have a smooth, solid drive, with negligible vibration... And the stock engine mounts will last (unlike my current situation...)

Sorry for off-topic!

Loving this thread, bud.

Peace

Yea well the KTR mount is the same one I have. I dunno I just loved the vibration from the moment I had the mount put in, to me the car just felt like it always should have. An RS to me shouldn't be smooth, it should be a bit rough around the edges.

Very nice, love the colour.

Thanks very much Luke.

 

[Jmax]

UPDATE 17.07.2013

I’ll start this update with a couple of pictures of products I used in both this and the previous update.

Snow Foam

Clay

Polish

Wax

I decided to give the rear of the car a second coat of polish and wax as I wasn’t overly happy with how it was looking, but I’m a lot happier with it now.

Although it isn’t all that clear there was a bad bird dropping mark on the roof.

Thankfully it came out with some Poorboys SSR 2, which was simply applied by hand.

I’ve noticed recently my passenger door handle is looking a bit worse for wear. I wonder if I chanced my arm would this be covered under paint and bodywork warranty?

Being at a bit of a loose end in the afternoon I thought it would be a good idea to polish up the passenger side sub frame

I’m not sure if it was a waste of time or not, and I’m not sure if it really looks any better, but it did pass a few more minutes lol.

John