December 5, 2025
Today marks one year since I found a bright red Renault 5 on leboncoin. And it’s also one year since I first wrote something on this website. Over the past year, I’ve been able to do a lot to the car and, above all, have had a lot of fun converting my Renault 5 to a Renault 5 Maxi Turbo. To celebrate, the bodywork for the car is being delivered today. That can’t be a coincidence, can it?
Five enormous boxes containing the polyester bodywork parts from MCRacing arrive in a large truck. Fortunately, everything is very securely packed, because as you can see in the photo, the transporter wasn’t very careful with one of the boxes. The stickers with the words “haut” and “bas” apparently don’t mean much to the transporter either.
The boxes aren’t very heavy, so it takes me little effort to bring them inside. The parts look great. It’s to be expected that some adjustments will still be needed here and there, but the first impression of the quality is excellent. I’ve noticed that the front bumper is much larger than I expected. My reference is the front of the car as it sits in my workshop without the front fenders. The new front fenders will be much wider than the originals, just like the bumper.
The packaging is up to standard. Not a single part is damaged. The adhesive from the tape used to package all the parts remains on the parts sometimes. After a few hours of cleaning, that’s resolved. I’m taking all the parts I don’t need immediately to the attic of my workshop. This way, I have space downstairs to work.
December 12, 2025
I came across a new book about the Renault 5 Turbo online. Unlike most publications about the Renault 5 Turbo, this book is written in English. Sounds like a nice Christmas present. It arrived today. Unfortunately, it’s not Christmas yet.
December 13, 2025
The next job on the Renault 5 is a difficult one. I’ve been putting it off a bit, but I really need to get started on the rear fenders. I have the polyester rear fenders now, so I can check where the steel inner fenders need to go.
I start by roughly marking out the inner fenders. My plan is to create some space first, and stay a few centimeters away from the final shape.
Step by step. First, I remove the right half of the fender.
Then the other side. On this side, too, I stay a safe distance from where I ultimately need to be.
Then I turn the car around and make a template of the inner fender profile. I use a laser to mark the template’s position. Then I transfer the template to the fender and trace the final shape. This is going great!
December 14, 2025
I carefully measure the shape I’ve created in the fender. Unfortunately, it’s almost perfect, but not quite. The good news is that there’s still some more material to be removed. But no matter what I do, I can’t achieve a consistent result. I’m making a mold for the fender, but that doesn’t fit well either, and that’s important in this case.
Perhaps it’s better to continue working on the front of the car first. I got a bit stuck a few times when building my GTM Libra. In those cases, it helped me to focus on something else for a few days. I’ll do that this time too.
Ultimately, this fender needs to be mounted on the car. The exhaust will exit just in front of the right rear wheel. The air intakes on the Maxi Turbo are much smaller than those on the road car. An oil cooler will be mounted on both sides behind the air intakes.
December 20, 2025
Because the rear fenders are giving me headaches, I’m going to change my focus to the front of the car. I need to significantly modify the current bodywork at the front. The fenders will be replaced with wider ones. But before that can happen, I need to make space for a larger radiator.
The muffler was located under the fender on the left side of the car. This took up quite a bit of space. The Renault 5 Maxi Turbo had a polyester inner fender that extended much further out. So I need to replace the metal fender with a polyester one that offers more space for the radiator.
First, I remove all the sealant and underseal, and then I cut the fender out of the car. I leave a considerable margin first; I can always cut away a bit more metal later. The other way around is more difficult.
December 27, 2025
I have a visitor today! Last summer, I helped Pim de Jonge with his beautiful Lancia 037. Today, he’s coming to see what I’m working on. And Pim brought me a really nice present:
We take a closer look at my car. Pim also restored an Alpine A110, so he’s quite familiar with Renaults. We’re both looking forward to the day we can go out together in our cars. 🙂
December 28, 2025
Today, the right front side is being worked on. The right inner fender is pretty close to the width that is needed to install a 70 cm wide radiator. But the spare tire was located on top of the inner fender. There’s a large bulge in the top of the inner fender to accommodate the spare tire. You guessed it, this side is being replaced too.
It’s still a bit of a guess what I’ll find under the plate where the battery was located. At first glance, everything looks absolutely fine.
The left side is also easy to remove. The majority of the work is in finishing the bodywork. After I have cut the fender off the car, there’s still a spot-welded flange left on the bodywork. Of course, I want to get rid of that too. Under the plate where the battery was located a surprise appears…