Renault 5 Express Van

This Renault 5 extra came in to the workshop having survived remarkably well considering it had been rescued from being overgrown in someone’s garden. Despite a period of being slightly unloved the car was in regular use and even had an mot.

Starting work on the car was a standard service. Filters and oil change etc.

The car has been suffering from some idling issues. Having already serviced the cars ignition system the next logical place to look was the fuel system. A strip down of the carburettor revealed some slightly off colour, milky looking fuel. The carburettor was cleaned out and new jets, gaskets and diaphragms were fitted.

The fuel tank was also drained and refilled with E5 petrol.

The next problem to sort was the speedometer. The speedometer is driven by a thin cable that plugs into the gearbox via a square drive. In this case the square drive on the cable had worn down into a circle and was not being gripped by the corresponding drive in the gearbox. The ideal solution here would be to replace the cable but after finding the replacement didn’t fit I decided to repair the old one. This was done by welding the end of the cable and filing the excess material into a new square that fits the hole. Not ideal but it has solved the problem.

As is often the case at KJClassics, the Renault came with one or two welding jobs. The first was this floor section. A nice easy panel to weld in as it was mostly flat.

A more challenging repair was the rear axle mounting points. This repair required the axle and fuel tank be removed. Upon removing the axle, the original steel brake pipes running along the axle were not going to reusable and so were replaced at this stage with copper lines.

Next was the rear axle mounting points and its fair to say they had definitely seen better days.

As always the rotten sections are cut out and a weldable zinc primer is used to protect internal cavity from further rust.

The new sections are then made up and welded in place and are finished off with seam sealer and underseal.

The last big job on this one was the front windscreen scuttle. A common spot for rust on any car is under the windscreen rubber. Rain water gets into the gap and sits for prolonged periods causing problems just like this.

Angled sections of steel are shrunk and stretched into the shape of the screen aperture before being welded in place. Being a visible repair the welds must be ground flat.

The scuttle is the filled and primed ready for paint.

The scuttle, a-post and roof sections are all resprayed to give a seamless repair.

Another car finished and back on the road.