February 2nd, 2025
Today is the day. The car has driven for the last time and the disassembly can begin. First I want to disassemble the front suspension. The wishbones and the knuckles are to be modified by Gemini racing. I have to send these parts to Gemini Racing so that Michal can reinforce the wishbones and provide the uprights with different bearings.
In the Facebook group “Renault R5 supply and demand” I place an advertisement for “many parts”. I still have to find my way around the Renault 5 world. No idea what stuff is worth (or not). Well, I mainly have to get rid of a lot of stuff. I quickly have a buyer for the front fenders, who turns out to have a company in Renault stuff: www.renaultwerk.nl
John from Renaultwerk turns out to be an expert, he can tell me exactly what is and what is not right about my car / what stuff I still need. For example, my car has the ignition lock on the left. The rally car has the ignition lock on the right.
Without really knowing what I am doing, I start disassembling the front suspension. First, I loosen everything that seems to have to do with the suspension. The Renault 5 does not have coil springs, but torsion bars. I discover that there is quite a bit of tension on the torsion bars of the front suspension..
February 5, 2025
The disassembly of the front is progressing nicely. The shock absorbers have been disassembled, I also got the steering knuckles out quite quickly. I get the wheel bearings out of the knuckles fairly easily. The wishbones are a bit more work, that is for next time.
February 8, 2025
Today I only have a few hours. I manage to get the wishbones out . Before I can send them to Gemini Racing, the silent blocks will have to be removed.
February 9, 2025
I advertised the engine of the Renault on Marktplaats and on Facebook. Before I can sell it, it still has to be removed from the car. With my new engine hoist, removing the engine is easy. Quite a lot of stuff has to be dismantled around the engine, and how the engine is attached to the engine mounts is not immediately clear to me. But in the end, it all works out and the engine is standing next to the car.
February 16, 2025
Now that the engine is out, my Renault 5 is starting to look less and less like a car. I dismantle the filler cap and then the fuel tank. A piece of compressed air hose was used for the tank’s breather hose. The hose has completely perished, quite dangerous. We’ll have to use something better for that later.
Next up is the rear suspension. Again torsion bars, but these appear to be under much less preload. A number of bolts appear to be very tight. I apply penetrating oil and let it do its work over night.
February 28, 2025
Today, the Renault engine is being picked up. With the engine hoist I lift the engine with gearbox into the buyer’s trailer. He also wants the axles. He also wants the rear wheels that I still have lying around. That’s good, because getting rid of all the stuff that I do not need anymore costs me time and money…