R26 Adventures with interior trim - R26

Evening all,

While still waiting for some other components for the intake build - I thought I’d tackle some of the not so pretty interior bits.

Turns out the wonderful plastic/rubberised coating Renault put on in 2008 has not stood up to the test of time very well. With most of the interior centre console having a soft sticky feel which is just crap.

So I thought I’d start with the piece of trim that houses the clock and looks like a bonnet scoop... as the undulations of the piece would be a challenge, it’ll be good to cut my teeth on.

Also, as tech has moved on since 2008 - the use of sat Navs like Tom Tom and Garmin are now non existent. I use google maps if ever I’ve got to go anywhere so I wanted to make a little mount that would hold a Belkin phone holder/charger.


The start piece was in bad condition but for £7 I couldn’t complain


I tried sanding the bugger... but the paint finish just clogged the paper... so I tried a Stanley blade to scrap it off... which worked but was gonna be time consuming and damage the plastic underneath.

So after a little head scratching my eye was drawn to some Dot 4.1 brake fluid - perfect... well not perfect but it’ll get the job done.





Quickly cleaned down with some isopropanol alcohol the piece was back to naked plastic.

A good key with some 320/800 grit, some plastic adhesion primer, and a few coats of plastic primer and this baby was ready for paint





I’d cut a little slot for the mount to get bonded to the underside of the plastic with some JBweld.

I made a Alu bracket for the phone holder and shaper it into a wing profile.



This was finished and sanded smooth, primed and sprayed satin black to contrast to the dark anthracite colour I’d chosen for the clock trim.



So much prep is worth it when you start putting the colour on.

And with the bracket held near to it it should provide a nice stable platform for it to hold onto. The hole drilled through will fix the phone holder to the bracket and make sure it doesn’t go anywhere.



The workshop air was thick after all this spraying! It looked like a stripper bar with the metallic flecks everywhere... what will the wife think???

Plenty of drying time needed and some coats of lacquer. I’ll do the air vent in a satin black to match the bracket and the radio surround in the same dark anthracite to match in with this.


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Very nice!

I did the same process on my Clio 200 - all the vents and dash in gloss black and that looked really good for 2 years, no bubbling. Same steering wheel trim too!




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Fair enough! Colour choice is a personal preference I guess, I was going to use some Matt lacquer to cut down on any glare - but I guess I’ll have to see how that goes.


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Yeah I do have some concerns with using brake fluid or any harsh chemical to remove the weird plastic rubber. I’d hoped the alcohol would neutralise any effects of the dot fluid on the plastic but I did start to notice some small craze lines in the plastic. Which is why I bought a second hand unit in the first place to experiment with.

The dot fluid worked really well, really quickly. Used some nice rubber gloves and applied a small amount to an old duster cloth - wiping over the whole surface gently. Left for 1-2 min and then wiped again and the stuff just started coming off onto the cloth which was handy. But this was only last resort and because I was fed up... I’m not sure this would be my go to method in the future. If I’d be more patient I would’ve gone for some ‘clean slate’ plastic safe paint remover (https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/pr...tgsIpL20I3il1ZrcjluQ-jnxR1djsurAaAkMiEALw_wcB)

Once all removed quickly sprayed with isopropanol alcohol to remove the dot fluid. Inspected the small crazing... didn’t seem too bad. Used some upol raptor adhesion spray to assist with the primer stick - then used plastic primer and the rest as you see above.

I’m gonna leave it for a little while and see if any reactions happen with the plastic. So far it’s fine, no issues but only time will tell.


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So the adventures continue…

This time experimentation comes in the form of forged carbon skinning. After investing in some materials and gear I’ve started to work on some spare interior parts I had for the R26.

Stripped off the rubberised paint from the vent surround and coated with epoxy resin, layered up with chopped carbon tow and repeated - curing times are quite long so progress is a little slow. Another coat of resin goes over to top it out.

Once fully cured, flat back through all the grits of wet and dry - I went from 120 upto 2500. On my test piece. Just waiting for the lacquer to dry. I’ll be doing half in gloss and half in Matt to see which finish I prefer.

Also coated up some door pulls too. Waiting for them to cure before I can rub back.

Good to have something to work on.














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