gave a friends black R26 a clean up today. a few of you may have seen this car before as the last owner was also an rsmegane forum member. the car is currently having a bit of work done to make it perform as a trackday car so now has newly fitted DS1.11 pads with braided lines and 5.1 fluid and thanks to the R26R washer bottle it has cold air ducting into the arches to help cool the brakes via the fog light holes. as you can see for the before pictures it isnt a daily driver. hopefully it will be under cover soon though to help keep it tidy through winter. the interior wasnt to bad as it hasnt done many miles since i last cleaned it. just the usual dust etc the engine bay was cleaned with G101 @1:10 before dressing with auto glym rubber care the interior was given a fully vacuuming out before cleaning the upholstery and trim with autobrite FAB @1:10 and dressing with auto finesse spritz. the glass was cleaned with valet pro glass cleaner. as i said the interior didnt need much of a clean due to the limited mileage.
next the car was foamed up to help loosen some of the grime the car was then rinsed and the cleaned with wheels woolies and fallout remover and bodywork with gtechniq Gwash shampoobeofre a final rinse and dry. the car was also coated with gtechniq C2V3 to help to stay clean and give it some gloss. tyres where dressed with sonax tyre gel and wheels again were sealed with C2. finished car im sure i'll be giving it a full machine polish soon but for now its made a big improvement in the finish and overall look of the car. hopefully the coating will help keep it clean as well between trackdays thanks for reading though Dave
Cheers Dave. Car has come up well (as mine always do in your hands). Time to start driving it and buying bits!
I have only done about 1k since I've owned it in the last 4/5 months so couldn't give a proper review but they are ok. Not the worst and Not as good as the eagle f1s on my daily hack. Will see how they hold up on track before they are replaced with some semi slicks over winter.
I have the same tyres I've been very impressed with them for the price. I found them better than the Michelin ps2's tht where on beforehand.
Dave , you fancy a coffee at mine one weekend, oh and bring your engine cleaner stuff, do you jet wash it off after mate
If you ever fancied a week in Scotland im sure there are plenty of guys that would pay for a Detail up here lol
Can do steve yeah. I dont use a pressure washer have a steam cleaner and an powerful air blaster to dry anything off. This megane was just a quick wipe over really. Sure ill be around your spot at some point to pop over. Dave
I'm intrigued about the fog light removal, and r26.r washer bottle idea. does it need cutting away at the arch liners?
Ah bless, good to see my old Megane back on the road again. I wouldn't try the Maxxis on the track though if I were you!!
Shes alive but not been driven much! We will see about the tyres. Car is going in to see Mark Black possibly this week with a view to do some track prep, flush all fluids and some maintenance/preventative maintenance etc. Will see what the outcome of that is before I know what I'm doing next, although Dave is sorting a set of polycarb Windows in a couple of weeks from someone on here I think.
As promised... Then the cooling. Using some ducting and trumpets I routed through the old fog light’s in through the arches behind the wheel. Bumper off and fit r26 washer bottle which is considerably smaller due to the fact that it doesn't hold a second pump for the head light wash so is about 5 inch smaller. Now the trumpets, painted part of them up black and attached to the bumper through the existing fog light mount. Attached half a metre of silicon hose to feed through. Spy my brothers r26 sneaking into the background. Then I cut out a section in each of the arch lining to feed the hose and ducting through. You can see the ducting through each side. It was a little tight so needed some trial and error to get it right, but now both vent into the wheel arch and don’t obstruct the wheel. Where i have position the ducts you can get full lock both sides without it interfering with the tyre. Some suggest its not a worth while mod, I can't see how it can be a bad thing, myself and Dave tested it with his 'air blaster' and the airflow was very noticeable so it should do a job of filling the wheel well with cold air when at speed to help cool the brakes. I could of done it a bit cheaper now I know what is what (i.e. less clips, not use a reduction pipe, different ducts etc) but I think it should return value. If anything it gives it a more aggressive stance!
