We read the Facebook trash and treasure ad with interest as it has all the elements of what we want for a Nano/Mechanical blog project. So for this blog this is where the adventure starts.
The Megane was described as having a mechanical failure but well looked after in it’s life. It was about 200kms from our place which is a further away then we would like but we decided to reach out and see what this car held for us. After many months for what started out to be a reasonably straight forward Nano/Mechanical restoration ended up dishing out lots of surprises as you will read below, but we did get it finished.
We arranged to go and see the car to determine if it was a feasible project and if so buy the car, then go back and get the car on a car trailer using one of our other DIY project cars as the tow vehicle.
We left to go see the car and hit road works all the way delaying us about an hour but on getting there we were greeted by a massive great dane closely followed by 2 chihuahuas and 2 Shetland ponies who looked on with slight interest.
The Megane was sitting on a hill on it’s own. We took a look at the car and saw that the car had been licked clean in some places by a big tongue, possibly from a cow or that great dane. The body was in good condition with some battle scares in the usual spots but for our purposes these are acceptable.
We could not see the mechanical fault that was described so we spent about an hour looking at the basics. There were no faults in the OBC so we determined that the problem was more than likely the cam belt was broken. Super hard to see the condition of the belt on these engines without some effort. So we decided to buy the car anyway.
A few days later we leave pre-dawn and drive the 200kms with a car trailer using our Mazda Tribute to do the heavy hauling. Surprisingly the Tribute did the towing of the trailer very easily.
We get to the Megane, load up and head back to base. On the way we stop to check the tie-down tensions out font of a second hand wares shop that had a lychee covered VW beetle for sale out front. The owner came out to find out more about Ms Megane’s issues and fate. During the conversation he made an offer that was well above what we paid for but we gracefully declined his offer and got on our way.
The following day we decided to have a look at the cam belt and got to work. As suspected the cam belt idler pulley bearing had failed and the belt had broken as a result. We needed to remove the head anyway to see what level of damage had been caused as this is like almost all engines of this era are interference engines so the pistons and valves occupy the same space, meaning there would be some internal engine damage.
Engine damage
A few hours later we had our answers. very minimal damage had occured to the internal engine. Very, very lucky. We sent the Head off to one of the finest Automotive engineers we know in Mr. Phil Baker to recondition the head. While that is being done we will get to work on the rest of the car.
What we need to do:
- Wash and claybar the car with NDG Mega Gloss wash
- Cut and polish the paintwork and carry out paint correction
- Replace the passenger door regulator
- Remove buckle from front rim
- Find radio code
- Hyperseal the body and all other plastic parts
- Order trim clips
- Refit plastic trims that are missing screws
- Replace the water pump and other seals
- Service the injectors
- Order colour coded touch-up paint
Mid way phase
- We get to work on locating and ordering the parts we need.
- We start on the bodywork NDG DIY bodywork coating process.
- Wash and claybar the car
- Carry out paint correction on several areas of the car.
- Re-secure any body plastic parts
- Clean engine bay and apply NDG Instant engine gloss
- Recharge battery
- Check and change all fuses
Some weeks later,
We assembled the engine replacing the waterpump, idler, Timing belt and tension and various bolts and this got the Megane back on the road.
We took it for it’s first road test. 1 and 2nd gear it all sounded good then as we grab 3rd we hear a bearing growl start-up in the gearbox and this only got worse in 4th and 5th. Dam, this is not something we needed to have happen!
Out comes the gearbox and stripped down. Noisy bearing found and the search started for the bearing kit. No kits in Australia so a kit was ordered from the UK which arrived a week later.
With the Gearbox rebuilt and installed into the car we get to detailing the car and Hyperseal the body and plastics and fitting the new passenger front window regulator.
All done.
Plan is to drive the car for a couple of weeks and then put it onto the open market to sell. But, it turned out so dam nice ans so much fun to drive it is tempting to keep it!!!.
An Update to the Megane.
It is certainly a head turner and people want to know what it is, Sounds strange as they are common but not so in rural Australia, they are around but tend to blend in as most are standard looking commuters.
The car was delivered to it’s new owner Narelle in Sept 18 and, she loved the car the moment she laid eyes on it.
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Brilliant restoration!