Clio 220 Nav CAT S repair

[DaveL485]

My partners son, lovely kid (well, man), driven a VW Fox since passing his test. We have done a couple of track days in my 220 and i've let him use it a couple of times on the road, he really seemed to like it. A lot. So I suggested we look at getting him one. Had a shop around and the ones within price range were crap colours, high milers etc so when this cropped up on Copart I nabbed it. 66k miles, CAT S side impact. Its ruined the doors, as you can see, and has pushed the outer sill edges in a bit. Also clipped the rear arch. Sideskirt is OK though and missed the front wing.

Good side - clean car.

Not so good side

Doors off, damage to sill, this is supposed to be straight

So I had a mull over what to do and was preparing to cut a chunk off another car to weld in, but in the meantime saw a youtube video of an almost identical (but much worse) type of damage and decided to try that... I bought a slide hammer and made a fitting for the end

With metal tabs to weld to the sill that fit to the end of the slide hammer

That allowed me to pull the sill out, and I have to say, quite effectively.

(While you're here dont forget my myraid of other active threads... the Phase 1 R9 Turbo thread, the 21 Quadra thread the Clio V6 thread, and the 220 Trophy thread the MK4 DCi repair thread, the completed grey R21 turbo thread and the completed red R21 turbo thread)

 

[DaveL485]

I am no bodywork specialist but I was quite pleased with this.

With the skirt offered up

It will need smoothing and painting at a bodyshop, I can't paint for toffee.

I had already bought 2 doors for it for £80, one blue and one black. I couldnt find anything LY, its an RS colour only so what are the chances... not much! I was talking about the car to a mate over a coffee and explained the same, this is maybe 3 weeks after I bought the doors, and when I got home from the coffee I just had another look around for LY parts. Because you never know.

And low and behold guess what I found on eBay less than an hours drive away. Two Liquid yellow MK4 Clio RS doors. I was in the car and on the way to get them before the dude had hung up the phone lol. They were stripped out so I rebuilt them with the original parts from the damaged doors, everything was fine to reuse including the glass and regulators.

Then I dropped the axle off and knocked the dented arch out from behind to the point it could be skimmed with filler - again I was tempted to cut in a new bit of panel but given the sill had straightened OK I thought this a bit extreme and knocked it out. This bit of arch is double skinned also so I had to stretch the inner skin a but to push the outer skin out.

Once that was done I sealed the arch up with seam sealer and gravitex, and got the car rolling, I spotted a water drip up front, so off came the bumper

One of the bottom rad hose spring clips had failed - common issue - so got those both changed for jubilees.

I thought i'd have a bash with the old P38, as mentioned before I am no bodywork specialist but again, didnt go too badly! First pass.

Third pass

Thats enough for me, I will let the bodyshop take it from here.

I bought a LY rattle can set from eBay to cover up the area for now until the proper paint job, but the colour match is so good you can barely even tell its been painted 😂

View attachment 236734

 

[DaveL485]

Quick road test and all seemed good. So I serviced it, Air filter, Oil, Oil filter, Aux belt, gearbox oil, spark plugs...you know the drill.

Picked up a phase 2 gearknob so fitted that also (yes I know that stereo surround is on the list!)

Picked up a set of wheels with PS4's on for a bargain, so sent them off for refurb as the wheels on it were nasty. Will keep them and the ditchfinder tyres as mutual spare wheels for me and him. New wheels fitted with PS4's and the TPMS sensors moved over. I find there is something quite satisfying about finishing off a rebuild with a nice set of refinished wheels.

I've done a few miles in it to make sure the fluid levels are settled, and there are no surprises - it seems good and drives really nice although compared to my 220 I am definitely glad I have the Akropovic exhaust....!

I have just sent it off for detailing now, bodyshop wont be until July. I think he is keen to use it even with the "paint match" wheel arch!