March 1st, 2025
Before I can send the wishbones, I will have to dismantle the wishbone rubbers. One of my neighbours has a hydraulic press. It takes quite some time, but eventually I manage to dismantle 6 of the 8 bushings. The last two are in a more or less blind hole. You can get to them from the back, but the hole in the wishbone is smaller than the outer diameter of the bushing. That will be difficult….
At the end of the afternoon I drive to John from Renaultwerk in Wolvega. He shows me around his company and turns out to be a walking encyclopaedia when it comes to Renault 4 and 5.
March 8, 2025
To get the last 2 bushings out of the wishbones, I have to come up with a trick. They can only be pressed out of the wishbone in one direction. On the other side of the bushing there is a spline with which the torsion bar is connected to the wishbone. After I have milled away the rubber with a dremel, I weld a piece of axle into the bushing. Unfortunately, the weld and/or the bushing are not strong enough. I do not give up, I make two discs from a piece of sheet metal that fit exactly in the bushings. I weld them firmly, and now even a large hammer is enough to remove the bushing.
March 16, 2025
Before I continue with the rear suspension, I first remove the window mechanism and then the glass from both doors. It turns out that the left and right doors are not the same. The right door seems to be of a later type, the type that has the right handle for opening the door. The rally car uses a later type of door handle than the one in my car. Someone once went to a lot of trouble to convert the right door to the old type of handle. That also means that I can convert both doors to the later type. Good news.
Next up is the rear suspension. Everything is still very stuck, but with the help of an extra long lever I manage to get everything loose. The splines are less rusted than I expected, with the necessary force the torsion bars come out from under the car completely.
March 17, 2025
Slowly less and less of the car is left. But the steering column and the dashboard still have to come out. The counter unit and the heater controls have to go first. Then the last of the 3 (!) ashtrays. The sun visors and the interior mirror follow. And finally the steering column also comes out of the car.
March 23, 2025
There is still some insulation against the bulkhead, and above each door there is still a handle. I dismantle the interior lighting and the antenna on the roof. The body is now completely bare.
And now the time has come, after all the dismantling work the conversion can begin!
Based on the instructions from the manual that I received from Gemini Racing last week, I draw on the floor where I have to grind later. I read the manual carefully a few times last week, so that I also know what the next steps are. With a thin cutting disc I can easily cut through the floor. Cutting through the box girders from the bottom is not a pleasant job, but this also works out in the end.
March 25, 2025
Michal from Gemini racing sends me a WhatsApp message. The stuff for my car is almost ready. What I can tell from the photo is that he has 2 sets more or less ready. There is only one set of wishbones. They have already been adjusted, but not yet powder coated.
March 29, 2025
Time to get my MIG welding machine. The first job is to weld the box girders closed. I grind 2 plates from a piece of 1.5 mm plate and weld them in place. I protect the new parts against corrosion with Inox spray. Then I make two plates that have to go on top of the crossbeam. This crossbeam is not made to transmit the engine’s driving force to the rest of the body. These two reinforcement plates should help keep the body intact.
March 31, 2025
I just have one hour tonight. I drilled the reinforcement plates with 3 rows of holes through which I will weld the plates to the crossbeam later.