Project UCC

Due to the demise of my old R19 16V ph2 Hatch (L45 GYP) to corrosion issues, i obtained (K774 UCC) to replace it.

It was bought from fellow Retro-Renault member Digital Biscuit (Dave) who was selling it as he had bought himself a rather mint ph2 hatch.

So Neal and I went on a trip to bournemouth.
Neal turned up at mine at around noon, took delivery of his heater control panel, thumbscrews for rear lights and window for his pass door.

2 hours and 160 miles later and we are in bournemouth chatting to Dave

first impressions of the car made it look quite clean, no rust on the inner front arches or on the rear arches, no rust in the usual places on the bonnet.
Bonnet up and everything looks standard under there with the exception of how the throttle cable has been run, tie wrapped to the strut brace instead of the usual route round the front of the engine bay. good idea!

further inspection revealed that the drivers side front wing and the rear bumper are not original items, nor is the drivers side headlight, so i guess its had a little accident at some point.
also noticed a cable thats not normal running to the fan, its been wired up to a switch under the dash as the sender that controls the fan is not working, not a problem.
Interior of the car is in above average condition too but the drivers seat has the usual wear and tear to it, the remote plip also not working, again minor details as my hatch GYP will be donating its parts to this one.
Engine started first time on the key Smile
and for a 130,000 mile engine, it sounds very good, headgasket is defo on way out thou, tell tale signs of oil in the water and a lot of steam being produced by the exhaust.
Biting point on the clutch is very low but it has had a new clutch cable and clutch pedal.
Also the gearbox mount is knackered which caused some interesting vibrations and gear changes on the way home.
last real bad point on this car is the damn heater does not work!
the fan is fine but the heater matrix is up the creek so i froze my nuts off on the trip home.
Actual driving of the car is very smooth, suspension and brakes are spot on, the brakes are much better than GYP's and this is also a non abs r19.
no play on the column and the car ran true even if u took both hands off the wheel, no deviation to either side Smile
Pull away was very good, it accelerated quite happily and rapidly to 70 mph, althou it did have a vibration with it which is more than likely caused by the buggered gearbox mount.
only last thing about is that the rear reflector panel is non 16v, its the red one instead of the 16v smoked one, again not a problem because GYP will be donating its one.
The car is MOTed to april 2006 sand i am more than happy with it.

Thanks to Neal for the ride down to bournemouth, top fella!!





The car as it was when Neal and I went to pick it up.

Notice it has no aerial, no rear washer jet, red rear reflector plate, discoloured front indicators, standard ph2 alloys and a broken rear spoiler.

On the drive home noticed that the digi dash also did not work properly, the LCD has bled on it making it unreadable and also that a couple of the dash lights did not work, not a huge problem.

The next day i went over the car and made this list of jobs to do on UCC:

Head Gasket (its not gone yet but on its way)
Heater Matrix (+ coolant system flush)
Gearbox Mount
Change the instrument pods over
Change the seats over, leather from GYP to replace cloth seats in UCC
Cambelt, tensioner and idle pully (Dave had no idea when these were last changed on UCC)
Change the rear spoilers over (UCC's spoiler is damaged)
Sort the electrics for the radiator fan
sort the electrics for heated rear screen
sort the front fog lights out
change the rear bumper (One on UCC has had a bad spray job on it and u can see the original colour (red) coming thru under the blue paint)
change exhaust systems over (Standard coming off UCC and the stainless steel one from GYP onto UCC)
Oil and filter change