T12's Monaco Blue 172

[T12]

Hi all and welcome to the project thread for my Clio 172 in Monaco Blue (Reg. DL03 YHM).

I purchased this car in August 2015 with a total of 71k on the clock. It came almost completely standard, with the only notable modification being the twin-exit exhaust system that was fitted at the time. On inspection the interior was pretty clean and tidy and the bodywork surprisingly tidy for a 12 year old car. The picture below shows exactly how the car sat when I purchased it, before the long drive back to Kent from Birmingham.

I have plenty more updates to come (with loads of pictures) so be patient and I'll do my best to bring this thread up to date with everything I have done so far -stay tuned!

Thanks
Tony

 

[Daz.]

Love it already! Best wheels for a Monaco

 

[T12]

Love it already! Best wheels for a Monaco

Thanks mate, I loved the car and the colour but unfortunately the 172 alloys aren't for me. You wont like the first update coming shortly... :smile:

 

[T12]

First update is here! Now naturally the first thing I did after the 2+ hours drive home was get the car cleaned of all the bugs and crap that was picked up along the way. Now this actually gave me a rough idea of what marks/dents/scratches were on the bodywork of the car. Only notable marks were front end stone chips, a few tiny dents on the nearside and a pretty deep scratch (around 10cm's long) behind the rear passenger window. Other than that, the bodywork was actually surprisingly clean and tidy! Now im not a detailing expert, so the pics below are after a quick wash, polish and seal.

Now a few things that some of you with an eager eye may have noticed; curbing on alloys, heavily clouded headlights, cracked fog light, melted(?) rear number plate bulb holder and a very poorly fitted Skoda front splitter. These all went on the list of cosmetic issues I wanted to sort first.

I also decided to get the car into Matt and Terry at Two Techs in Dartford (highly recommended!), to sort out a few smaller trickier tasks. I had the air con re-gassed and a new reverse light switch fitted on the gearbox, amongst other things. This would be the cars first trip of many to them! :smile:

That's all for now. Next update will come as soon as photobucket lets me upload my photos.. hopefully later on tonight!

Thanks for reading,
Tony

 

[T12]

Once the car was back from the garage I decided it was best to get a little money back from the road tax and SORN it until it was going on the road December (not the best time but it was insurance renewal time). This gave me a couple of months with the car off the road and an opportunity to do any major work to the car it needed, whilst still being able to get to work.

Now after just a few days of owning the car I decided to purchase a set of good condition 182 alloys, all wrapped in rainsports, at a very reasonable price. I never really liked the 172 alloys to much, but I think the style and anthracite colour of the 182 alloys suit the Monaco paint a lot more. Before they went on I gave both the front and rear arches a good clean and took a quick couple of snaps. The alloys were primarily bought as winter wheels, so the odd kerb mark didn't bother me too much and they certainly looked the part.

I personally think they improved the aesthetics of the car massively, but I know opinions will vary so leave the comments below. :smile: The closer I looked at the front bumper the more imperfections I found (pic 3 shows a scrape by the splitter for example) so I made the decision the front end would require sorting. Stay tuned to find out why a minor front bumper respray became a lot bigger job then I ever expected :astonished:

Thanks for reading,
Tony

 

[T12]

Next up on the to-do list was tackling the awfully clouded/scratched headlights. They truly were bad and looking at the front of the car was almost unpleasant so I got hold of an 3M polishing kit and come the weekend I cracked on with it.

Not too much to be said with this one. I followed the instructions, made ALOT of passes over both headlights and refused to stop until I was happy with the finish I had achieved. The kit was very easy to use and did exactly what I wanted so no complaints here, would certainly recommend. Ill let the pictures do the talking now:

Before

After

As you can see they turned out great and almost look like a brand new set! I was very pleased and I didn't regret the extra time I spent making sure they were as good as they could possibly be.

Next up I thought i'd quickly pop the pedals off, give them a good clean and polish and then fit my foot plate as well. It took a lot longer than expected (even though I had done this before!) but I did eventually manage to get them all back in and fitted. Unfortunately no before photos and you'll have to ignore the dirty universal mats that came with the car! :smile:

Thanks for reading,
Tony

 

[dann2707]

Looks great dude, love monaco blue one

 

[T12]

Looks great dude, love monaco blue one

Thanks mate, is certainly one of my preferred colours for these!

 

[cjgower]

Nice so far mate, getting the 3M kit on the headlights made a huge difference!

 

[GavC]

Great work on the headlights. Really suits the anthracite 182 cup wheels too :grinning:

 

[Gearinator]

Very good job with those lights mate they do look brand new. Can I ask where you got the kit from to clean them?

 

[T12]

Very good job with those lights mate they do look brand new. Can I ask where you got the kit from to clean them?

Thanks mate, they came up a treat I was really happy. I used the 3M kit which I've linked below -really easy to use and i would definitely recommend.

http://www.3mdirect.co.uk/3m-headlight-restoration-kit-39073.html

 

[Gearinator]

Thanks mate, they came up a treat I was really happy. I used the 3M kit which I've linked below -really easy to use and i would definitely recommend.

http://www.3mdirect.co.uk/3m-headlight-restoration-kit-39073.html

Thanks very much mate I really appreciate that.