Renault 1929 RY1 Monasix

4 minute(s) of a 217 minute read

Hello Terry

Thank you for your interest. Looking at your friends blogspot it would appear that his approach to steel tube body frames is very different to mine. I have been using the same basic approach for years but that does not mean that there are not alternatives. I have a very simple basic tube bended which will give me wrinkle free bends without applying heat in square tube with a wall thickness of 1.6mm and up to 22 X 22 mm square. I made a mistake and ordered some 1.2 wall thickness tube and found that it was impossible to bend without cutting "snipes" at about 3-5 mm centres. No doubt the purists will be horrified that I use steel tube instead of the time honoured "English Ash" but a very long time ago I discovered that I did not have the right temperament for wood working but I can do very satisfactory gas welding of thin wall tube.

The end result is at least as strong and much lighter. I can carry a completed body frame by myself which is important as I work solo 99.9% of the time.

Bj

8-24-2015

It seem that everyone is too polite to ask about my trusty if aging Peugeot in the second photo. This is a 1996 405 SRi. As such it is among the first front wheel drive Peugeots. It has a 2 litre single overhead cam motor with fuel injection coupled to a very smooth five speed all synchro manual transmission. It has all the modern European features, cruise control, anti lock bakes and etc. It even checks the oil level in the sump without opening the bonnet (hood). Every time you start the engine from cold it shows the oil level in the sump on a little gauge on the dashboard. I cannot remember when I last found it necessary to add oil. The odometre shows 248,621kms. We bought it when it was 12 months old as an Dealer executive driven car. As such it was among the last of the model to be sold locally. I have only recently sealed up the electric sun-roof as it had started to leak and the cost of importing a new seal from France was prohibitive. It has a multi function am/fm radio with a tape player and a six stack cd player. It was originally bought for Helen to drive, it was then passed on to our eldest son who eventually decided that after being rescued two or three times from "out back" 4WD only tracks it was time to give it back to me albeit with a slipping clutch. He then bought a Land Rover Discovery.

The only real problem I have had was when it decided to eat its accessory belt and bent all the valves in the process. I decided that it is such a good car that it was worth repairing. I only drive it two or three times per week mostly local drives. It is such a pleasant car to drive in every way, its typicaly French velour seats have a huge range of adjustments including lumba support and  are wonderfully supportive and comfortable, I can see no possible reason to replace it any time soon. I think that I will probably wear out long before it does. Prior to this one we had a 2 Litre 505 sedan that provided wonderful family transport. A very long time earlier I had a very rough 203 for a short while as a badly mistreated, teenaged boys hack.

Bj.