The Renaults are good light cars. They are quite strong from the factory but like all mass produced factory cars they can be improved upon. Not only that but some cars will have no need for a lot of features in the cars.
Some cars that are going to be used for competition use and never to return to a road going comfy barge can have a lot of things removed which all increases performance.
All the cars come with various bracketry and sound deadening fitted to allow rear seats to be fitted and to fight off road noise. These things matter not if the car is being turned into a racer or even a fast road car that you want to improve the acceleration of at the expense of a touch more road noise.
The cars come from the factory spot weld together, theres the odd small seam weld here and there but nothing that cannot be improved upon.
The cars as they are have a certain amount of give in them. If you jack up the front corner of the car you may find the door isn't easy to open/shut, this is due to the shell flexing. Its normal so don't be worried unless opening the door makes the car fold in half. The older the car the harder its used the more the shell flexes.
A stiff shell is a good thing. It allows a better ride, as it allows the suspension to do its job properly rather than the shell being part of the suspensions flex, its stronger in the event of rolling it or smacking it.
The weight reduction from removing sound deadening and not needed bracketry is larger than you would expect, if you leave the car with only the drivers seat, gearstick, handbrake, steering wheel and a minimal dash thats a good 200kg's gone. Thats about 3 passengers worth.
Pictures are from a 19 but it goes the same for all models. The car has no interior in it at all and the dashboard etc have been removed.
Interior
This picture shows the soundeadedning thats behind the dash that runs up to the windscreen. It alos shows the clutch footrest, the black plastic box thing is the heater box and the hole on the right beside the clutch pedal is where the steering column goes. You can also see the body coloured stuck on tar like factory sound deadening.
The sound deadening can all be removed as can the heater box if your not going to run a dash etc.
This next pic is of the B pillar this is on a 5 door car, thew 3 door cars have a similar arrangement.
as you can see the metal pressings are just spot welded together, theres small 1 inch seam welds at the top of the sill. Thse areas can be fully seam welded which will increase strentgh but also weight. The better method is 1 inch of weld, 1 inch gap then another inch of weld, stich welding as its know. This brings about the strength but without the weight. You can also see where the seatbelt mounts to.
this pic shows whats under the door seal
again its all just spotwelded together, Seam welding here is fiddly but brings about strength. If you have a spot welder then for areas like this just double up on the number of spotwelds, no extra weight at all but more strength.
This picture shows the top rear corner of the drivers door, again a vertical seam and the usual 2 skins spotwelded together around the door frame.
This picture shows where the back seat lower squab clips into and the large amount of sound deadening fitted to the panel.
those brackets have no use in a car that has no rear seats so they can be removed as can the sound deadening. To remove the sound deadening by the way a blow torch and chisel are the best tools, long tedious work.
This next picture shows the where the rear seat squab sits and the start of the boot.
ignore the crease and dent in the floor panel as your car won't or shouldn't have them. The hole on the floor on the left on the ridge is where small stubby bolts go in, these are fitted to stop the rear seat squab sliding forward if the pivots not located correctly. The 2 holes with the squares in the sounde deadening around them are where the rear seatbelt clasps bolt into. These are good anchor points for harnesses. The large round hole to the left of these is where the wiring loom passes through to the fuel tank.
This picture shows the area where the rear seat squab covers beside the wheel arch.
[imghttp://www.renault-turbo.com/chris/blue%20prima/prima%20weld%2008.jpg][/img]
The black thing is where the bolts for the rear axle are. The black sheet metal acts as a captive bolt holder thingy to prevent the bolts turning whilst you are underneath tighteneing up the axle mounting nuts. The hole above it is for the lower part of the seatbelt to bolt to. The bracket spot welded to the wheel arch is for the rear seat back, this is where a pin sits that the seat back clips to. Again no rear seats remove it. You can also see the slots where a seam weld is meant to be done, these can be very poor.
this pic shows the top of the arch, and you can see the rear damper top mounting hole.
again where should be welded would seem obvious now.
This picture shows where the steering column mounts to. This comes from the bulkhead and where the dash display sits.
As you can see its just folded sheet steel spot welded together with a pair of captive nuts and 2 studs (not in pic). This area doesn't really need strengthened but it can't hurt can it.
this picture shows the front passenger side A post. Ther black plastic thing is a mount for the multiplugs for the dash you can also see how much sound deadening is actually fitted to the bulkhead.
this can all be removed.
this picture shows the rear panel in the boot where the bumper mounts to on the outside.
again lots of panels spotwelded together, stitch welding will tighten things up.
This pic shows the handbrake, it also shows where the front seats inner rails bolt through.
again lots of sound deadening that can be removed.
this picture is a vertical shot looking down on the floor panel just in front of where the rear seat lives.
shows the sound deadening and the round thing is where a metal plug is inserted underneath, if the cars flooded belt it with a hammer to drain!
This picture shows a good view of the bulkhead.
you can see the steering column bracket, heater box and more importantly how much foamy sound deadening there actually is behind the dash!
Engine bay
The engine bay theres not that many areas then need sorting. Where the suspension turrets meet can be seam welded to improve stiffness as can where the front panel meets the inner wings and chassis legs.
The subframe can be fully seam welded which should bring about a good increase is strength, its just spot welded together as standard.
Its a lot of work to completely strip out a car and then seam/sticth weld it but the difference is noticable, it is also however quite noisy so using it everyday for work fully stripped may not be advisable. However the handling will be better and the car stronger so you should feel safer in it. It will also accelerate faster due to the decrease in weight.
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