My first post on the forum, so first of all a hello from a total RR n00b to all the girls and boys hangin' around here! 
And secondly, a serious doubt if my car is worthy or old enough to be presented here. After all, the model year starts with a '2' for Pete's sake!
But my excuse is that the Twingo shape was introduced in 1992 so it's not really that fresh anymore... And nowadays my car contains even some salvaged parts, which must be a huge bonus? ;D OK, enough bull, let's cut to the chase:
I'm a born Finn living in Finland, and always been to Renaults. My very first car was a 1979 Renault 12 L back in 1991, followed by a 1982 Renault 9 GTL, then a 1983 Renault 9 TC (which my parents had bought new), then a 1990 Renault 19 GTS Chamade (=saloon). By 2003 the R19 was becoming a bit feathery around the edges, and I didn't have the time or the will to start welding it then. I kept searching the used car lots for a Mégane Mk1 Coupé with the 150 bhp engine, but all available seemed to have been trashed to death, some already (shoddily) repainted despite their youngish age. Well, what else can you expect from a hot hatch when it leaves its first owner and starts the 'round'... As rust repairs were just the thing I was trying to avoid in the long run, I had to forget the sadly unloved Méganes.
And then I happened to stumble upon this most unlikely candidate: a 3-year old Renault Twingo that was an absolute minter. Almost new-car fresh and very clean, obviously never been crashed and had done only a little over 30,000 km in those three years. I think that was love at first sight, even if the 1.2 engine with its 58 brake wasnt exactly the rocket I'd been looking for. ;D
Some cash changed hands and there she was, my baby in all her (almost) unmolested glory in 2003:
The drive was beautiful if rather pedestrian. To make sure I didn't have to lose any of the hard-earned momentum by slowing down for corners, I decided to fit a go-faster suspension:
That was a -50mm kit from Weitec with adjustable dampers. Unfortunately the range of adjustment was from rock-hard to kidney-crunching, but it sure looked the danglies:
Those are 195/45R15 Michelins on some 6½x15"
TK5 with a 37 offset. I soon discovered it needed 5mm spacers for the rear as the outside rear tyre scrubbed on the inner wing when cornering hard.
It then evolved more, me having the door mirrors and black parts of the bumpers professionally sprayed in body colour. I also threw in an OE front fog kit which meant cutting holes for their mounting pods in the bumper. The bumper also received its share of then so 'scene' aluminium mesh grille:
And let's not forget clear Lexus lights, they were all the rage back in 2005: ;D
Also performed some eye surgery in the form of post-2001 clear lense headlights:
This was my day-to-day transport, so it also had some winter tyres, here in 165/65R14 on 6x14" Etabeta alloys:
By 2006 I was slowlygetting old getting fed up with the rock-hard Weitec kit, so decided to get something a bit more softer. So a Vogtland -35m kit it was, this time with non-adjustable damping:
The ride quality improved considerably, but then the tyre-to-arch gap started to look rather agricultural:
Oh well, I guess you can't have it all in one package... I then went on to have some nice induction roar by fitting a K&N...
...and some uprated brake parts as I did some forays out to track:
My 2000 Twingo originally had unvented 238mm front discs, but I fitted 259mm vented discs and calipers from a later model. Well, those calipers actually came from a 2002(ish) Clio Mk2 1.6 16V which has the same brakes as the post-2001 Twingos. The 259mm front caliper bore is identical to the 238mm calipers, so no need to change the master cylinder.
Visually I thought the car was still rather anodyne, so enter some bolt-on pieces of plastic:
(Please excuse the rear ride height in that picture!)
To maintain aerodynamic balance ;D I had to introduce something to the front as well. Trial fitting:
The point of no return:
That was in 2007. I then felt the car was 'ready' so started looking for a new (used) car. The Twingo stayed in the family, serving my mother as her shopping car.
I then bought a 2003 Megane which I ended up 'maxxing' rather extensively, from this...
...to this:
Not very retro I admit, sorry for the three above pictures.... ;D Just goes to show I'm a divided personality that likes both modern and retro flavas!
Fast-forward from 2007 to 2010 and the Mégane in turn had been built 'ready'. Time to crack on, this time I traded the Mégane in for a brand-spanking new 2011 VW Polo 1.2 TSI which I've had as a daily driver since October 2010. Pretty much managed to keep from tinkering it too much (well, apart from some springs and alloys obviously) so I must be coming of age.
My mom's not using the Twingo much, so I've pretty much adopted the Twingo back this summer. Mainly because I currently have no other roadgoing Renault to go our Club Renault de Finlande's summer meetings.
First job since my rekindled acquaintance with the Twingo, I gave the front fogs some Lamin-X, after all French cars should always have yellow f(r)ogs, ay?
I'd given the Twingo back its original headlights at some point as the later shape, Chinese-made ones couldn't be adjusted high enough. Also swapped the original rear lights back in as those clear Lexuses were definitely passé...
Although the -35mm Vogtland suspension was softer than the previous Weitec it still wasn't quite perfect. First of all it was high as an offroader, and secondly the compression on the rear shockers was still a bit on the stiff side for such a light car.
So a few of weeks ago I took the springs and dampers out. Cut one coil from the Vogtland front springs and put them back in with the Vogtland shocks. The rear Vogtland springs lost two coils to an angle grinder and I put them back with the original ~30,000 km Renault rear shocks that I'd removed and shelved in 2003. As a result of softer rear damping the car no longer 'hops' over bumps, instead absorbing them rather sweetly. Being such a light-reared car the OE rebound damping is, however, still adequate for the stiffer lowering springs. So a succesful modification then, I'd say.
This is how she sits after the above operation:
At the moment I'm touching up the paint on the arches. There's absolutely no rust on the car, thanks to having been professionally rustproofed in 2003. It's just the paint's finally flaking of as I rolled the arches in 2003 and didn't bother to fix the hairline-cracked paint back then. There's been paint missing from some points for years, but there's not even surface rust in the exposed metal. Incredibly well protected metal that Renault put in their little Twingos!
Having spent tens of hours browsing through the magnificent rides on RR forum I decided I wanted to take the Twingo a little more retro than it now is. The 5-spoke Teknos looked great back in 2003, but now seem a little bland. My all time favourite Renault wheel has to be the Clio Mk1 16V turbine alloy from 1991-1993. So I chased down an unkerbed set but in some need of TLC.
Meet Clio Mk 1 16V OE turbines officially known as Speedline Maracanna 6½x15" ET36:
The tyres weren't exactly day one condition, so I had them removed:
Luckily the hard (read: expensive) to obtain centre caps came with the wheels:
I've been nitromorsing the living daylights out of the centres:
The original finish just won't give up! Oh well, nothing some 120 grit and elbow grease wouldn't take care of....
The backs of the wheels haven't received very regular servicing either:
But some phosphoric acid, wire brushing and steel wool later, and we're moving in the right direction:
I intend to clean and paint the backs of the wheels in silver first, but I just couldn't resist having a go at polishing one of the wheel centres. First remove the remaining lacquer and worst oxydisation (spelling?) with some 150 grit:
Followed by grits 180(dry)-240(dry)-320(wet)-400(wet)-600(wet)-800(wet)-1000(wet)-1200(wet)-1500(wet)-2000(wet) and we're experiencing our first sightings of a winner:
Then give it some more hell with the polishing compounds:
Who needs mirrors in their house anyway...
Still a long way to go, but a huge mojo boost nevertheless!
Naturally tried them on to see how flush they sit. This is the front without any spacer:
And the rear:
In fact the Speedlines are almost identical to the 5-spokes in every dimension, the only difference being the 5-pokes are offset 37 and the Speedlines offset 36. So the Speedlines come one mil further out in the arches.
I then started 'maxxing' the offsets, here's the front with a 13mm spacer:
Now that's better! How about the rear, let's try a 20mm spacer:
Not too shabby either! ;D
Here's a wider angle shot showing what the wheel looks like on:
I personally think they're spot on and give the Twingo some much needed retro cred. Once polished and repainted I'm sure they'll look bonkers.
With those spacers there's no way I can use the wide 195/45R15 anymore. They're also too wide for the car to be honest, robbing it much of its already modest acceleration plus making parking a real b*tch 'cause there's no PS. So I've decided to take a slightly stretched approach and have some 165/50R15s fitted. In fact already ordered and received a set of Bridgestone Potenzas:
The overall height of the 165/50R15 is only 0.2mm shorter than the standard 155/70R13, so that's pretty much spot on. Fitted on a 6½" rim there'll be some stretch but it wont be excessive i.e. "in yer face"...
Last week I also managed to find and fit a front antiroll bar which the 2000 Twingos didn't have. It became standard for 2001 models, so I hunted down a salvaged part from a 2002:
One droplink had been bent in an accident so had to buy a new one. Well, actually renewed the pair for the fun of it. This is how the ARB is composed:
Introduced the brackets to a rotary wire brush and gave them a lick of paint followed by a cure in the household oven ;D at 80deg C. One mounting kit ready to go:
Fitting it was straightforward, the outriggers luckily have mounting holes ready from the factory even if none of the 2000s had one:
One bolt in...
...one to go:
That'll be the right side (passenger side where I live) bolted up then:
The left side's interesting because it shares its mounting point with the gearbox mount:
This is the ARB snaking its way round the sump, somehow looks like an afterthought really:
An afterthought it really is: Twingos from 1993 to 2000 did without one, and it was only originally mounted from 2001 to end of production in 2007.
Also decided to try another pair of Chinese-made clear lense headlights, this time by another manufacturer though and with a black bezel to give them some sharpness:
That's it for now, thanks for browsing and I hope you don't the style of my mods too modern for this forum.
BTW, I also own a 1973 Renault R4 (not roadgoing atm) which has been in the family since new. And last year bought myself a 1980 Alpine-Renault A310 V6 from Germany, having stood over 10 years in a barn so thats a bit of a project as well...
And secondly, a serious doubt if my car is worthy or old enough to be presented here. After all, the model year starts with a '2' for Pete's sake!
But my excuse is that the Twingo shape was introduced in 1992 so it's not really that fresh anymore... And nowadays my car contains even some salvaged parts, which must be a huge bonus? ;D OK, enough bull, let's cut to the chase:I'm a born Finn living in Finland, and always been to Renaults. My very first car was a 1979 Renault 12 L back in 1991, followed by a 1982 Renault 9 GTL, then a 1983 Renault 9 TC (which my parents had bought new), then a 1990 Renault 19 GTS Chamade (=saloon). By 2003 the R19 was becoming a bit feathery around the edges, and I didn't have the time or the will to start welding it then. I kept searching the used car lots for a Mégane Mk1 Coupé with the 150 bhp engine, but all available seemed to have been trashed to death, some already (shoddily) repainted despite their youngish age. Well, what else can you expect from a hot hatch when it leaves its first owner and starts the 'round'... As rust repairs were just the thing I was trying to avoid in the long run, I had to forget the sadly unloved Méganes.
And then I happened to stumble upon this most unlikely candidate: a 3-year old Renault Twingo that was an absolute minter. Almost new-car fresh and very clean, obviously never been crashed and had done only a little over 30,000 km in those three years. I think that was love at first sight, even if the 1.2 engine with its 58 brake wasnt exactly the rocket I'd been looking for. ;D
Some cash changed hands and there she was, my baby in all her (almost) unmolested glory in 2003:
The drive was beautiful if rather pedestrian. To make sure I didn't have to lose any of the hard-earned momentum by slowing down for corners, I decided to fit a go-faster suspension:
That was a -50mm kit from Weitec with adjustable dampers. Unfortunately the range of adjustment was from rock-hard to kidney-crunching, but it sure looked the danglies:
Those are 195/45R15 Michelins on some 6½x15"
TK5 with a 37 offset. I soon discovered it needed 5mm spacers for the rear as the outside rear tyre scrubbed on the inner wing when cornering hard.It then evolved more, me having the door mirrors and black parts of the bumpers professionally sprayed in body colour. I also threw in an OE front fog kit which meant cutting holes for their mounting pods in the bumper. The bumper also received its share of then so 'scene'
aluminium mesh grille:And let's not forget clear Lexus lights, they were all the rage back in 2005: ;D
Also performed some eye surgery in the form of post-2001 clear lense headlights:
This was my day-to-day transport, so it also had some winter tyres, here in 165/65R14 on 6x14" Etabeta alloys:
By 2006 I was slowly
The ride quality improved considerably, but then the tyre-to-arch gap started to look rather agricultural:
Oh well, I guess you can't have it all in one package... I then went on to have some nice induction roar by fitting a K&N...
...and some uprated brake parts as I did some forays out to track:
My 2000 Twingo originally had unvented 238mm front discs, but I fitted 259mm vented discs and calipers from a later model. Well, those calipers actually came from a 2002(ish) Clio Mk2 1.6 16V which has the same brakes as the post-2001 Twingos. The 259mm front caliper bore is identical to the 238mm calipers, so no need to change the master cylinder.
Visually I thought the car was still rather anodyne, so enter some bolt-on pieces of plastic:
(Please excuse the rear ride height in that picture!)
To maintain aerodynamic balance ;D I had to introduce something to the front as well. Trial fitting:
The point of no return:
That was in 2007. I then felt the car was 'ready' so started looking for a new (used) car. The Twingo stayed in the family, serving my mother as her shopping car.
I then bought a 2003 Megane which I ended up 'maxxing' rather extensively, from this...
...to this:
Not very retro I admit, sorry for the three above pictures.... ;D Just goes to show I'm a divided personality that likes both modern and retro flavas!
Fast-forward from 2007 to 2010 and the Mégane in turn had been built 'ready'. Time to crack on, this time I traded the Mégane in for a brand-spanking new 2011 VW Polo 1.2 TSI which I've had as a daily driver since October 2010. Pretty much managed to keep from tinkering it too much (well, apart from some springs and alloys obviously) so I must be coming of age.
My mom's not using the Twingo much, so I've pretty much adopted the Twingo back this summer. Mainly because I currently have no other roadgoing Renault to go our Club Renault de Finlande's summer meetings.
First job since my rekindled acquaintance with the Twingo, I gave the front fogs some Lamin-X, after all French cars should always have yellow f(r)ogs, ay?
I'd given the Twingo back its original headlights at some point as the later shape, Chinese-made ones couldn't be adjusted high enough. Also swapped the original rear lights back in as those clear Lexuses were definitely passé...
Although the -35mm Vogtland suspension was softer than the previous Weitec it still wasn't quite perfect. First of all it was high as an offroader, and secondly the compression on the rear shockers was still a bit on the stiff side for such a light car.
So a few of weeks ago I took the springs and dampers out. Cut one coil from the Vogtland front springs and put them back in with the Vogtland shocks. The rear Vogtland springs lost two coils to an angle grinder and I put them back with the original ~30,000 km Renault rear shocks that I'd removed and shelved in 2003. As a result of softer rear damping the car no longer 'hops' over bumps, instead absorbing them rather sweetly. Being such a light-reared car the OE rebound damping is, however, still adequate for the stiffer lowering springs. So a succesful modification then, I'd say.
This is how she sits after the above operation:
At the moment I'm touching up the paint on the arches. There's absolutely no rust on the car, thanks to having been professionally rustproofed in 2003. It's just the paint's finally flaking of as I rolled the arches in 2003 and didn't bother to fix the hairline-cracked paint back then. There's been paint missing from some points for years, but there's not even surface rust in the exposed metal. Incredibly well protected metal that Renault put in their little Twingos!
Having spent tens of hours browsing through the magnificent rides on RR forum I decided I wanted to take the Twingo a little more retro than it now is. The 5-spoke Teknos looked great back in 2003, but now seem a little bland. My all time favourite Renault wheel has to be the Clio Mk1 16V turbine alloy from 1991-1993. So I chased down an unkerbed set but in some need of TLC.
Meet Clio Mk 1 16V OE turbines officially known as Speedline Maracanna 6½x15" ET36:
The tyres weren't exactly day one condition, so I had them removed:
Luckily the hard (read: expensive) to obtain centre caps came with the wheels:
I've been nitromorsing the living daylights out of the centres:
The original finish just won't give up! Oh well, nothing some 120 grit and elbow grease wouldn't take care of....
The backs of the wheels haven't received very regular servicing either:
But some phosphoric acid, wire brushing and steel wool later, and we're moving in the right direction:
I intend to clean and paint the backs of the wheels in silver first, but I just couldn't resist having a go at polishing one of the wheel centres. First remove the remaining lacquer and worst oxydisation (spelling?) with some 150 grit:
Followed by grits 180(dry)-240(dry)-320(wet)-400(wet)-600(wet)-800(wet)-1000(wet)-1200(wet)-1500(wet)-2000(wet) and we're experiencing our first sightings of a winner:
Then give it some more hell with the polishing compounds:
Who needs mirrors in their house anyway...
Still a long way to go, but a huge mojo boost nevertheless!Naturally tried them on to see how flush they sit. This is the front without any spacer:
And the rear:
In fact the Speedlines are almost identical to the 5-spokes in every dimension, the only difference being the 5-pokes are offset 37 and the Speedlines offset 36. So the Speedlines come one mil further out in the arches.
I then started 'maxxing' the offsets, here's the front with a 13mm spacer:
Now that's better! How about the rear, let's try a 20mm spacer:
Not too shabby either! ;D
Here's a wider angle shot showing what the wheel looks like on:
I personally think they're spot on and give the Twingo some much needed retro cred.
Once polished and repainted I'm sure they'll look bonkers.With those spacers there's no way I can use the wide 195/45R15 anymore. They're also too wide for the car to be honest, robbing it much of its already modest acceleration plus making parking a real b*tch 'cause there's no PS. So I've decided to take a slightly stretched approach and have some 165/50R15s fitted. In fact already ordered and received a set of Bridgestone Potenzas:
The overall height of the 165/50R15 is only 0.2mm shorter than the standard 155/70R13, so that's pretty much spot on. Fitted on a 6½" rim there'll be some stretch but it wont be excessive i.e. "in yer face"...
Last week I also managed to find and fit a front antiroll bar which the 2000 Twingos didn't have. It became standard for 2001 models, so I hunted down a salvaged part from a 2002:
One droplink had been bent in an accident so had to buy a new one. Well, actually renewed the pair for the fun of it. This is how the ARB is composed:
Introduced the brackets to a rotary wire brush and gave them a lick of paint followed by a cure in the household oven ;D at 80deg C. One mounting kit ready to go:
Fitting it was straightforward, the outriggers luckily have mounting holes ready from the factory even if none of the 2000s had one:
One bolt in...
...one to go:
That'll be the right side (passenger side where I live) bolted up then:
The left side's interesting because it shares its mounting point with the gearbox mount:
This is the ARB snaking its way round the sump, somehow looks like an afterthought really:
An afterthought it really is: Twingos from 1993 to 2000 did without one, and it was only originally mounted from 2001 to end of production in 2007.
Also decided to try another pair of Chinese-made clear lense headlights, this time by another manufacturer though and with a black bezel to give them some sharpness:
That's it for now, thanks for browsing and I hope you don't the style of my mods too modern for this forum.
BTW, I also own a 1973 Renault R4 (not roadgoing atm) which has been in the family since new. And last year bought myself a 1980 Alpine-Renault A310 V6 from Germany, having stood over 10 years in a barn so thats a bit of a project as well...
[*]
[*]
