The Dark Wob

Looks like there is a scrap car in my garage right now. Roof is nearly in primer. I'm typing this while the last bit of filler is drying. Normally I leave filler overnight, give it a chance to shrink slightly but this is only a tiny bit. Was going to prime the back wing but some fool parked the car 1cm too close to the workbench and now I can't open the boot which I need to do to remove the badges Anyway here is a picture of my first Renault 16 50k from new. I bought it off the original owner. Really nice elderly Polish gent. Instead of a cup of tea we drank whisky in the afternoon. Say to say he is probably not about anymore. Victor Buzderwicz I think he was called. I tried to restore it but after poking the rear sill ends and seeing the car drop an inch made me call it a day. No garages wanted to touch it and I wasn't confident enough to fix it myself so it got stripped. I sold the engine to a chap in Tamworth who was going to put it in a Europa. (Amazing the shit I remember as I cannot tell you where !t wallet is) Technically I still own the rolling shell, I don't think it was ever actually scrapped

Junkman has the front bumper by the way.

My second R16. An auto

I do indeed.

The white one was an interesting find. As soon as I got my driving license I was gone. I explored everywhere and one day in North Gloucestershire I found the white Renault in a garden. I slowed down, looked at it then thought no more of it until a few years later when I had got rid of the blue one. I managed to find the place again, and knocked on the door. It seemed solid enough underneath and a deal was done. It has been there about five years but it started up and drove fine. I trailered it home though.

I started work in it in my own arse about face way. I stripped down the front end and threw away the rotten wings. I bought new fibreglass ones from Smith & Deakin in Worcester. They weren't quite a simple bolt on job as I thought they would be so I moved on to the back end started painting that. Then I had a good poke at the rear suspension mounts. Crunch... I did an mot style bodge on them I had read about where you could weld the end mounts straight to the body, rather than remove them.

Then when I moved out of the family home I had nowhere to work so rented a space in a yard where I was allowed to work on it but never did get chance. If it's not at home, I can't seem to get stuff done. I tried to sell it but even twenty years ago it was a very rare car albeit a worthless and unsaleable one so I put it in the free classics section of Practical Classics. It ended up going to a chap in Kidderminster I knew of already called Crazy Dave. I filled it full of the bits I had stripped off the blue one.

I agreed to sit in it while he towed me the ten miles back as it wouldn't start for whatever reason. It was a very short rope and he had a Rover SD1. He was not a slow driver. I never heard anymore about the Renault or Crazy Dave, although he should be on here. I doubt the Renault still exists. Shame. I have learnt a lot in the last twenty years and both of those cars could be fixed now.

What attracts you to the R16 as a car?

The first car I ever drove was a Renault 6 on Pendine Sands when I was 7. I loved that little car. Not sure exactly why but it is the only car from my childhood I look back at fondly.

Also, I had a pack of Top Trumps from the seventies and loved the look of of the 16. Not what I would call pretty but distinctive. Even then as a child in the early eighties they had all vanished. I still have the pack although my son is the new custodian.

As an adult I am just drawn to the oddball cars that nobody else has, but these Renaults are such a good piece of engineering. Way ahead of their time and never really bettered. Amazing to think that my example is only nine years newer than my Wolseley

Actually we love them because they make us look as if we understood French art house films and wear sunglasses even indoors.

Painted the roof today. It's not that good but it's good enough.

Last week I welded up the other front wing. It needed a new lip And a patch on the sideIt's in its first coat of filler now Oh and while I was priming the roof I noticed some rot underneath at the back. It wasn't visible before... Well I suppose the next job is to get the tailgate off to sort that. It needs surgery anyway Although it isn't that bad on the outside, there is a fair bit of rot underneath That is the wrong tailgate trim by the way. This is a GL, not a TL. I do have the correct earlier trim somewhere.

Hello my name is Carlos, I wish to buy beautiful Renault from you. You will use my wife for a week in return yes?
She very fat but kindly.

Hi Carlos I thank you from the heart of my bottom. I will only accept payment of £3000 plus wife by Western Union only upfront. Thank you please.