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1927/9 Renault Monasix parts wanted


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Hello Phil

Yes, I have attempted to purchase parts from advertisers on Leboncoin on several occassions, replying in my best French, I have even had a French friend living in France reply on my behalf, yet I still have to make a successful purchase. Perhaps other people have more luck, charm, perserverence, than I.

Both my wife and I love France and have spent probably more time touring in France than any other country, probably more that a year in total. For the past 30 years I have owned and driven Peugeots, I learnt to drive 60 years ago on my father's then new Citroen Traction d'Avant and have owned and restored three Citroen 5CVs but still I have never been able to purchase anything advertised for sale in France.

I am about to abort my present Renault restoration and attempt to dispose of the parts I have. Sadly I think that most of it will end up with the scrap metal man.

Sorry about the tirade. This morning has not gone well! I have spent the last three hours trying to navigate the "Renault d'avant guerre" forum.

Bj.

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I've also failed to make any deals on this French site. I assume they think I'm a spammer, even though ma femme speaks french. The best solution is to get a French contact who can make deals for you, then forward them to you. My friend Georges Cognard, a Peugeot Quadrilette buff, did that for me until his untimely passing. I would send money to him via PayPal, and he would make the purchases. I knew another great guy in Germany who helped similarly. Hopefully, you can find someone like that. Perhaps if you join a French car club? By the way, Bonhams sold an NN in Philadelphia last week for $1100. It was a real rusty "project" car; even I avoided it. However, I think it was restorable.

Phil

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Hello Phil

I looked at the Bonhams car too. It has been bought by an American who has just joined the, www.les-renault-d-avant-guerre.com/ website.

I have one French contact but seem to have difficulty in convincing him that I am "for real" despite having excellent credentials. Earlier this year we spent 6 weeks in France (unfortunately) looking at things other than car stuff.

Bj.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Slowly but surely the Renault restoration is gathering pace, Depanoto have advised me by e-mail that my first parcel of goodies is on the way. The Renault Avant Guerre Forum ( Renault before the war) has also proved its worth providing a owners hand book, a clutch assembly and a gearbox and lots of support.

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Not only was the New Zealand engine incomplete but it turned out to be a very expensive pile of rubbish. It is easy enough to understand someone wanting to rip me off to the tune of three or four hundred dollars but to then pay even more in freight charges to bring their junk, including a broken con-rod and a smashed piston, across the sea to Australia is just infuriating! I guess it comes from trusting other people, dare I say "enthusiasts" to live to the same standards as yourself. Even the heavily greased crankshaft prooved to be a dud! Under the "protective" layer of grease the journals were rusted beyond either use or belief! All I can say is "Beware of the Kiwis" !!!!

On the brighter side I have now found, with the help of two or three French friends, another engine this time complete and having been inspected. It should be on its way to me in a week or so as soon as it is collected and packed for transport.

Bj.

Edited by oldcar (see edit history)
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Finally the good ladies at Depanoto have found a "NOS"clutch shaft and a second hand outer tube that I should be able to modify to suit my car. The 1929 RY1 engine should be on its way from South Eastern France to Australia early next week. Meanwhile I am keeping busy painting wheels and other small parts.

Bj.

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  • 5 months later...

Merci Beaucoup Sabastien

My affair with my Renault is very mixed and very difficult, as you will see in the folowing:-

 

http://forums.aaca.org/topic/242424-renault-1929-ry1-monasix/page-15

http://www.les-renault-d-avant-guerre.com/t6075-Wanted-to-buy-RY-Monasix-engine.htm

 

When you have absorbed the above, if you wish to assist in some way please send me an e-mail.

 

Bernie J.

twooldlags@gmail.com

Edited by oldcar (see edit history)
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Hello Sabastien

I have one or two friends from the Renault d'Avant Guerre forum who live near Toulouse if you send me an e-mail with some more info I could put you in touch with them. Looking at our well used Michelin road atlas we have never driven through Toulouse but driving in our 1934 Lagonda Rapier we try to avoid large cities. We have gone through  Revel, Castres, Mazamet and Vabre to the east  but not very much to the west until Morlaas, Azzacq-Arraziguet, Geaune, Eugenie les Bains and Grenade s-l'Adour. 

We tend to use the"white" roads on the map. 

 

Regards

 

Bernie J.

Edited by oldcar (see edit history)
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Hello Sebastien

No our car like us lives in Australia. Up until last year (2014) we have shipped the car to England every five years usually sharing a 40ft Container with other like-minded enthusiasts. Last year we had four other Lagonda Rapiers and a Riley (all pre 1940) packed double decked into the one container. This helps to make it less expensive. We go by ferry to France and spend approximately two months in France/Europe. Our favourite activity is driving in the Alps and other mountainous areas. Last year we spent 7-10 days in the Pyrenees. The Fougeres Rally is an old favourite and we also try to attend one or two other (local club) rallies. We also enjoy touring in the main wine districts. We have a quite impressive list of European Alpine Passes that we have climbed in the Lagonda. I am not sure if we will manage another big trip as while our car remains young, age is catching up with us. Travel Insurance becomes impossible after age 80 years and I will be 83 by the time our next visit is due in 2019.

 

Bernie j.

The White car is our Lagonda two seater seen here on the cross channel ferry. The Green car is the same model but with a four seater touring body being loaded into the lower level of the container.

post-94860-0-07164100-1446016030_thumb.j

post-94860-0-52036900-1446016083_thumb.j

Edited by oldcar (see edit history)
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Hello Sebastien

It would be nice to think that we could take the Renault to France for our next visit but a lot has to happen before then. We have so many good memories of all our previous visits. Somehow I cannot imagine driving in your beautiful country in anything other than a open car. Sadly only people who have enjoyed touring in a 1920/30s sports car can understand this.

Have you also looked at   http://forums.aaca.org/topic/183184-lagonda-rapiers

 

Bernie j.

Edited by oldcar (see edit history)
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Thank you for the thought, I sold the Renault some months ago. It had BOTH radiators. Being one of the last Renaults with the radiator(s) mounted one on each side behind the engine it had two radiator cores linked by a common header tank. The bottom outlet pipes were joined at the back of the engine. Sorry I do not have any photographs now.  My current project is a 1912 Humber 11hp. You can see all about it on "Our Cars & Restoration Projects" at the start of the Forum.

 

Bj. 

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  • 3 years later...

24252932_IMG_4006copy.thumb.JPG.72d9cd4a6b59516b393b860cc18e2fd0.JPG

 

Four years later and I have just agreed to re-purchased the Renault Monosix. I am now anxiously waiting for it to be delivered, As far as I can tell despite going through two or possibly three different new owners absolutely nothing seems to have been done on the car. This time I am detirmined to at least complete a cosmetic restoration. It is  such a shame to see such a rare car languishing untouched. This photo  shows the car about to leave our home in May 2016.

Edited by oldcar (see edit history)
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I find it almost unbelieveble BUT the last owner actually used the photographs I had taken almost five years earlier for his "For Sale" advertisement. It is now due to arrive "home" sometime later today.

Somehow apart from travelling a couple of thousand miles around the southern parts of Australia this Renault seems that it will not have progressed at all. I fail to understand why or how these wannabe "enthusiasts" even bother buying a car in the first place. Sadly this does not seem to be an exclusive "Australian" complaint, you need to look no further than the pages of this forum to see examples from all around the world.

 

Bj.

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The Renault arrived home safely yesterday and all the boxes of "stuff" unloaded. Now here is a funny thing that carries on form my earlier comments.

The car has passed through the hands of two subsequent owners  and approximately five years have passed us by.  Now looking at the boxes of parts thay came with the car I have had that funny feeling. As I unpacked all the stuff to put it onto the shelves in my garage I am certain that NONE of this stuff had been unpacked since I placed it all into the  various boxes and cardboard cartoons five years earlier.. 

I still have trouble understanding what motivates people to buy a vintage car "project" and not even unpack all the bits to at least look at them.

Perhaps it is me that has this owning and retoring vintage cars all wrong.

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DSCN6848.thumb.jpg.2f4db98f624b469de3e0b0cfb18da631.jpgDSCN6849.thumb.jpg.ad37a8204b78cda940eac5fcbd22b4b0.jpgDSCN6850.thumb.jpg.c0e4acb3d9841413f66fef40cd9cfce9.jpg

 

 

With the Renault safely in my garage, I have spent a "pleasant Sunday afternoon" mentally going through what needs to be done and where to start. The body has survived all the moving around extremely well, looking at it today you would think that it had never left my "work-shop". With very little more work it will be ready to go to the painters. Likewise the windscreen frame  can go off to be nikel plated almost at once. It has to come off before any paint can be applied so it may as well be plated. I need to lower the rear suspension. It has just the one transverse spring at the rear  which makes this much easier and lowering the rear will vastly enhance the appearance of the car. The timber dashboard needs a light sandpapering and another coat of stain and some clear satin finish then a gentle polish.

The front seats frames need a little more work and they can go to be upholstered. While this is being done I can cover the interior trim panels. I had cut out these and trial fitted them before selling the car five years ago.  It is all very much as if I had never sold the car and had perhaps just gone away for a week's holiday.

The  only down side is that I am five years older but the good thing is I do not feel a day older.

 

Bj.

Edited by oldcar (see edit history)
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Bernie,

 

An unbelievable find on your part. To have the Renault go through two owners and make it back to your "shop" relatively unscathed is another amazing story.  Your original thread on the restoration of this car was something I followed with a great deal of interest...just the idea of taking on such an old car, so far from its home country takes courage.  Glad it made its way back to you and hope you get it on the road this time around.

 

Cheers.

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Thank You Dr Data

Not all, but the more interesting cars that pass through my hands as "Another Project" are very memorable, or at least to me.  Even if I have put them out of my mind, it does not take very much to refresh my memory. Of course for most of these I do have photographs so that I can always refer back to them.  Next to my family my cars, "Basket case rescues" have tended to take over.   Over a 60+ year period as an "old car" enthusiast, a lot of memorable cars have owed their refreshed or renewed lives to me.

I find it tremendously satisfying to be able to breathe new life into my "basket cases", so it is not entirely a one way street. The Renault is not unique in this. Some people will tell you that it is a form of madness but to me it is very normal.  It has brought me into contact with people from all around the world. 

For example I do not find it unusual that I, living in Australia, am having this conversation with you in the USA!  

 If it had not been for the "1922 Dixie Flyer", I would have never thought of the AACA or of this Forum. Somewhere buried within the Forum there is another Basket Case Rescue story dealing with it, even more remarkable than this Renault.

With the Renault I probably needed a breathing space, now I can go back to it refreshed and hopefully finish what I started, some years ago.  Without being too sentimental, I am glad that the opportunity to do so has now arisen.  Having said that I did have another "unfinished project" that I could have just as easily gone back to. It will have to wait, I just hope that I can livge long enough to finish it too.  If I don't no one will even notice!

 

If you can understand all that, you are doing well!

 

Bernie j. 

 

Edited by oldcar (see edit history)
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Hello Sebastien

It is one of those unexplained mysteries. Not just the one but the two people, the one that I originally sold the car to and the second person who bought the car from the first and then in turn sold it back to me. Pre WW2 Renaults are a very individual car, just the placement of the radiator(s) makes them different but then mechanically they are also quite different! The connection between the motor and the gearbox is like nothing else. This and the general layout of the chassis and suspension asks all sort of questions.  There seems to be just the one answer to all or any of these.  "Oh, but it is a Renault! 

Even little things such as the steering wheel. Why FIVE spokes?

 

Bj.

 

DSCN6849.thumb.jpg.01e12067af449faf99448367c2a01427.jpg

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