Hello!! I thought I would share with you some progress pictures of my Meg 225 that I bought for my winter project and coming from a Clio background the Megane was the next step for me and as I felt I was getting to old for the Clio and wanted something bigger. Anyway a few pics of the Clio 182 ( that I spent a small fortune on! ) unfortunately I never did a project thread for this but I have many pictures ha! So that's enough of the Clio time for the Megane! I bought this about 5 or 6 months ago, it came up at the right price for the mileage and number of owners although it needed some work doing to it. A few pics of when it was for sale: Once I had it in my garage I could then access what's what with it, it needed a few things cosmetically and mechanically so I set about with the front end first taking off the bumber and the front headlights that had badly faded New headlights were purchased although I had to drill out the rivets on the bottoms of the old light to swap over that plastic trim that locates the bumber on Also updated all the headlight bulbs with day breakers
Next on the list was to sort out the brakes, I took the Brembos off along with the discs and stiped out the pads, now the pins on these Brembos are a nightmare to get out! Held on by the devil himself! So took some heat and a few drills with alot of WD40 and they managed to come out, so I replaced these with some nice Mr Pink pins ( he's on Facebook ) along with some new stainless steel nipples to replace the old ones, the Brembos had a good sand and a decrease then High temp paint put on and some lacquer I then bought some genuine cup discs and some DS2500 pads to put in there. Next up was the front suspension, I was just going to get some lowering spings but Kam racing had an offer on for a refresh of the current shocks so I bought the full package along with new genuine top mounts Old: New: I then bought a stud and nut kit from PMS along with some spacers for the fronts It's starting to come along nicely now
I hear on these Megane's that the swivel hubs tend to go so I pulled the hubs out and bought some new stainless inserts for them along with new genuine wheel bearings while I was there
this looks like tidy work mate. how did the swivel hub bearings look when you got them out? you have done the right thing in getting the turrets as well,as they can be badly scored. Hows your gearshift?....a shortshift mod is available for these,and is THE best cost effective mod for these cars. Anything else you need to know..ask.As we have some knowledgeable chaps on here.
thats R26 dampers you have there with the green sticker..225 dampers have a yellow sticker. R26 dampers are the way to go anyhow though.
Funny you should say that pal that's what I did next! It's just taking me time to upload all these photos I have to show ha!
So next up on the front end was the short shift mod, I hear people complaining saying gear changes are a little sloppy and this mod makes such a difference, so I had mine sent off to Phil Watkins ( Facebook ) who mods them and it came back looking brand new! I also got told this is the later design gearshift selector so that's a bonus I guess New one fitted While I was working that way i also purchased a K-Tech induction kit as I wanted a little more sound from the engine bay
Next was to build the front end back up again Before After I also added some braided lines and while I was looking for a replacement arch liner ( cracked ) I cut the end off that pipe that people say blocks up and fills that inside of the cab up.
Onto the rear now! I already had the rear springs and shocks ready from the kit I bought so then I ordered up some genuine cup discs and pads with some PMS 18mm spacers to give the rear end a little width Old spings and one had snapped Fitting the rears was alot easier than the fronts! So I got it all bolted on and decided to have some nice new axle lines for the calipers too! But when I went to fit them they ended up being 2inchs to short they were for a Ph2 caliper as the line fixes on top and the Ph1 fixes on the back of it but Pro line ( changed name now ) were great they replaced the lines with longer ones and I got to keep these ones! New lines that are short Cutting across the sping I also replaced the dodgy exhaust rubber that was held on with cable ties ha I dont have any pictures of this but you get the idea
After doing the suspension refresh and all the brake lines i cleaned up the archs and replaced any that were cracked so now that was all completed i decided to have a go with the interior, started off with the steering wheel, I messaged my friend Snappy and dropped the old wheel to him to work his magic! Believe me he doesn't disappoint Onto the seats! Now as I wont have passengers in this car as I have access to other vehicles I thought I would strip the back seats out and put some nice new bucket seats in, so some seat subframes purchased and over Christmas I found 2 nice new seats I also at this stage fit a new gear knob, got the kit from someone selling them on Facebook, and bought the knob from Ebay All fitted I put them on seat runners so if others want to use the car they can alter to what suits them as I'm 6' 5", the runners are a little tricky to set up but after lots of swearing I managed to get them working well, I also took a trip to Demon Tweeks and bought some harnesses ( these had to be MOT friendly ) Onto the rear! I purchased a rear bar powdercoated in orange ( again from someone who makes them on Facebook ) and also fitted the harnesses to the original fixing points of the seatbelts, I used stainless steel plates and rock climbing anchors for this ( these can take 400 stone of abrasive pressure ) also bought a brand new genuine r26r cargo net to finish the look off
Fitted I had ago then at cleaning the engine bay and fitting a new bosch battery as the old one died on me
Next up was the rear bumber, common proprob I've seen is the exhaust hanger snaps and then the exhaust rubs the bumber then it looks a mess, so I got some 1mm aluminium plate and I made a template to insert into the bumber, coated in high temp wrinkle paint ( hard wearing ) this saves me 300 - 400 to spray the bumber I also got some carbon 3m sheet as when the boot closes it rubbed some of the paint on the top edge of the bumber, cut to shape and I think it looks well, at least you wont see it when the boot is closed and serves a purpose
Spoiler time! So I ordered up a R26R spoiler from Ktec so that along with my bonnet, bumper, rear plastic boot thing that fades on every orange Megane I've seen and the plastic side strips ( 4 in total ) sent off to the body shop, 3 weeks later they were ready! And the job he did is the best I've seen! Not the cheapest guy but hes worth the extra money Few pics any way Snapped the old spoiler trying to get it off, I followed a guide on here somewhere to remove it and let me tell you that sticky stuff they use to hold it on is a nightmare to get off! Held on by the devil himself!! Any way I left tissue paper on top of it all and soaked in in tar remover ever few hours along with white spirits and left over night and this did the trick thank god! I then went and purchased a r26r clutch kit and single mass flywheel along with a full cambelt and service kit
you are doing a fine job. It does make me wonder why you didnt buy a R26 for the serious amount of money you are spending. Not a criticism,as its your money and your choice. Handling wise,the 225 cant match the R26.But it depends on what you want from the car i suppose.
I know! I sometimes wish I did but then again I got this 225 cheap where as a r26 would have been 5 times as much ontop and then I would start to refresh the parts so in a way it's cheaper to do what I'm doing and I went past the point where to stop spending on it so now I'll just finish it and hopfully be one sorted car I can keep for years, also I'll put a quaife diff in too so hopfully match an r26 on track
The 225 has a 20mm front arb where the r26 has 21mm from what I remember. The r26 has a rear arb but the 225 doesn't. You can weld the mounts onto the existing axle or swap the whole thing with the r26 but you will need the r26 brakes etc too. The r26 has the diff as standard but the quaife will be very similar. Like you, my 225 was far cheaper than an r26, I've used the money on upgrades similar to what you have done.
Exactly pal that's what I thought in the end it will hopfully be one of the good 225s out there for the same price as a r26 but everything is new on it!
Small update After seeing another project thread on here and someone putting fog light blanks in I liked the idea so ordered these up Cheap mod and if you get bored of them you can just pop the fogs back in. Bumper off Fogs in Results Only picture I have as I need to pull it out of the garage to take a better pic
what tool do you use to release the bumper from under the headlights?...I hate trying to get it on and off on my own without scratching,or breaking something!
Cracking effort on this! Love the Rock anchors! I really need to get a wheel done like that Love the orange stitching.
I just feel in love with your Clio, what a fine job did you with it!! Same with the Megane by the way. I like too much this "little by little" threads, so just take a site for watching.
Cheers pal I did love that Clio but I was to old for it and felt silly, so I bought a bright orange Megane Hoping to have a few updates soon I just need to upload the pictures
These updates are months old so I’m trying to remember! fitting was ok but a little tricky to fit in at first
After I fitted this I decided to upgrade all the rubber bushes to powerflex ones so I have to strip the subframe out and while I was there I changed most of the parts ha!
While everything was off I decided to have a go fitting the clutch, never done one before but I had ago! And while the box was off I sent that away to have a Quaife fitted
New drop links, anti rotation links, inner tie rods, track rod ends, steering rack bush, maybe other things I forgot but here is a pic
Decided to change spark plugs and in taking off the coil pack plugs they fell apart in my hand so did a quick search and J2Z one fit so I ordered a few of them and fitted away
