Renault 1929 RY1 Monasix

3 minute(s) of a 217 minute read

Another week gone by and not a huge amount to show for it. Our Australian Customs Quarantine Service decided that all our cars required pressure washing including under the hood. As a result virtually all six cars had drowned ignition and water in all sorts of places where water should not be. Just how it managed to even penetrate into the centre of the Lucas Altette horn completely baffles me.

A week later and the Lagonda is back to where it should be, starting "on the button". The good news is that have I managed to buy a set of four of the elusive 500 X 17 Michelin Comfort S tyres in England and they should arrive in Australia some time over the next week or two.

Meanwhile there are some small but necessary jobs being done on the Renault, exciting things like shackle plates for the front springs. The five wheels are being sand blasted and will be ready to collect early next week.

Meanwhile I am trying to establish the shades of the two tone green that the Renault Paris Taxis were painted in 1929, all 5,000 of them.

Bj.

11-12-2014

Thank goodness for e-mails and the internet. Gathering parts for the Renault would have been impossible even 25 years ago. I now have the gearbox securely stowed away in my garage, it having taken just over a week to come from the south of France. I paid for the clutch and the freight for it last night, again to another person living just south of Toulouse in south-eastern France. Hopefully it should take between one and two weeks to arrive at my front gate. I thought that the Dixie Flyer presented a challenge but it was nothing compared with the hoops I am jumping through with this Renault. At least I now have secured all the major mechanical components and I am making a start on sorting out the chassis and front suspension. My French vocabulary is improving too.

Those elusive Michelin 17 inch tyres arrived today too but they came from England. 

It must be boring restoring a car that you can buy the parts from the corner store. It is amazing how you can send thousands of dollars across the world at the click of a button. I did manage to buy eight 10mm hi-tensile bolts and 16 nuts just a dozen miles from home.

Bj.

You have to remember in the time that my car was being built France was just recovering from WW1 and the World was heading into the Great Depression. That Renault was not only making such a wide variety of models but in for then huge numbers. To give you some idea look at the conditions the workers assembled the 6CV chassis at http://www.les-renault-d-avant-guerre.com/t1753-Chaine-de-montage-du-modele-6CV.htm

Bj.

11-16-2014

On Saturday I hired a pick-up truck for the day and made the 350 mile return journey to collect the final remains of the Renault. For those unfamiliar with 1920s Renaults attached is a photograph of the hood showing the generous sized louvres for cooling the rear mounted radiator. Considering the state of the the rest of the body-work this is in remarkably good condition with just a little rust along the botton edges. Remarkably the engine turns and appears to be in good condition but will still need to be stripped down and checked out throughly.

Bj.