1981 Renault 20TS

BlackC2

Member
Fellow Frogger
Joined
Sep 17, 2005
Messages
228
Location
Hobart, Tasmania
Hi everyone,

It's been a while - I've not had a french car for a bit! But I've just bought, to keep me entertained, this Renault 20TS via GumTree (yes, the one that had a link here in the classifieds).


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It's been well loved from the way it drives (surprisingly well!) and the cosmetic work that a previous owner has obviously lavished on it over the years. It appears that no problem couldn't be solved with a tin of paint and a paint brush. Or tape. Or both.

The plan is to gently tease it back to a certain level of respectability, intially with the challenge of spending zero dollars! Once the zero dollar options are exhausted, the "low cost" approach will come into force and we'll see where we're at then.

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It's never going to be a minter - no-one is going to do the full respray it so desperately needs. But if the fun I have with it allows it to continue that little bit longer and then maybe to another loving owner, that'll be great.

I'll do a running commentary over on the projects page - always good for motivation.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear from any current owners of other R20s - especially good ones as I might need the reference!

Cheers,
Tony.
 
Good choice they are really a great car. Mine did 600,000 k's. Engine, clutch and gearbox were untouched. Used as a farm hack in the end it was finally beaten by rust. Very comfortable seats great long distance cruiser.
 
Hi everyone,

It's been a while - I've not had a french car for a bit! But I've just bought, to keep me entertained, this Renault 20TS via GumTree (yes, the one that had a link here in the classifieds).


View attachment 124424

It's been well loved from the way it drives (surprisingly well!) and the cosmetic work that a previous owner has obviously lavished on it over the years. It appears that no problem couldn't be solved with a tin of paint and a paint brush. Or tape. Or both.

The plan is to gently tease it back to a certain level of respectability, intially with the challenge of spending zero dollars! Once the zero dollar options are exhausted, the "low cost" approach will come into force and we'll see where we're at then.

View attachment 124426
View attachment 124427
View attachment 124428
View attachment 124429
View attachment 124431
View attachment 124432
It's never going to be a minter - no-one is going to do the full respray it so desperately needs. But if the fun I have with it allows it to continue that little bit longer and then maybe to another loving owner, that'll be great.

I'll do a running commentary over on the projects page - always good for motivation.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear from any current owners of other R20s - especially good ones as I might need the reference!

Cheers,
Tony.
Hi Tony,

I was waiting for this to surface, as I have been chatting with the owner for a couple of weeks now.

I took a look at this car, and you may / may not have noticed the engine needs a complete rebuild.
Its leaking engine oil out of the dizzy, and the rings are gone, heaps of blow-by.

Rust is pretty honest considering.. I'd be getting fish oil to it immediately, hope you have some dry storage for her.

I'm also keen to see what is under the home-made wood panels.

Took it for a blat, brought back some memories. :)

Keep us updated on your progress and if / when you are done with the car, let me know.. I may be interested in a full body restore in the future.

I certainly wasn't about to pay the initial $2800 asking price, I tentatively offered him $1200 but I was hoping someone else would take her on.
Not after another project after purchasing said open-wheeler :D

If I still had my R25V6 and UN1 gearbox I'd so be turning it into a mock R30TS!

Where in Tassie are you Tony?
The car was just around the corner from me.|

David.
 
Under the wood panels will be sun damaged plastic. I had mine repaired by one of those vinyl welding guys.
 
These things are pretty much 4 x door Fuego's?

Neat!
 
These things are pretty much 4 x door Fuego's?

Neat!
A Fuego is more a sporty body on an R18 chassis, whereas the R20 is bigger everywhere over an R18. The motor and gearbox are basically the same, although the R20 has a little more power than a Fuego through higher compression. Early 20s only having a 4 speed compared to the Fuego 5.
 
Hi Tony,

I was waiting for this to surface, as I have been chatting with the owner for a couple of weeks now.

I took a look at this car, and you may / may not have noticed the engine needs a complete rebuild.
Its leaking engine oil out of the dizzy, and the rings are gone, heaps of blow-by.

Rust is pretty honest considering.. I'd be getting fish oil to it immediately, hope you have some dry storage for her.

I'm also keen to see what is under the home-made wood panels.

Took it for a blat, brought back some memories. :)

Keep us updated on your progress and if / when you are done with the car, let me know.. I may be interested in a full body restore in the future.

I certainly wasn't about to pay the initial $2800 asking price, I tentatively offered him $1200 but I was hoping someone else would take her on.
Not after another project after purchasing said open-wheeler :D

If I still had my R25V6 and UN1 gearbox I'd so be turning it into a mock R30TS!

Where in Tassie are you Tony?
The car was just around the corner from me.|

David.
Hi David - thanks for reaching out! Your local perspective will be useful. And it sounds like your offer to him may have softened him up for me! So thanks! :)

I agree that a rebuild would definitely be the ideal, but it still runs very well. Starts on the button every time and the run home to Geilston Bay was much better than I was expecting. It's been a quarter of a century since I had my Fuegos and I'd forgotten how smooth that engine is (for what it is). It was raining heavily all that day so the drive home was going to be, I thought, I bit of an adventure. As it turned out it ran beautifully all the way - my wife with her modern wagon (and two and a half times the horsepower) didn't feel held up - and it was quite stable in the driving rain on the tight "freeway" bends south of Kingston.

So it's quite useable for now, but I'm looking forward to tightening it all up bit by tiny bit.

Cheers,
Tony.
 
A Fuego is more a sporty body on an R18 chassis, whereas the R20 is bigger everywhere over an R18. The motor and gearbox are basically the same, although the R20 has a little more power than a Fuego through higher compression. Early 20s only having a 4 speed compared to the Fuego 5.

Yes I was surprised to find only four gears, as I was assuming it would be the same as my old Fuegos. (It was a bit late in the piece to be offering four speeds in 1981, especially at the price in Australia at the time). Ironically, though, my memory of the 5 speed in the Fuegos was that it was a bit short geared for the freeway, but the 20 seemed quite happy to pootle at 100-odd in fourth.

And, yes, I think Renault Australia claimed about 2kW difference between the two IIRC...

Cheers,
Tony.
 
Yes I was surprised to find only four gears, as I was assuming it would be the same as my old Fuegos. (It was a bit late in the piece to be offering four speeds in 1981, especially at the price in Australia at the time). Ironically, though, my memory of the 5 speed in the Fuegos was that it was a bit short geared for the freeway, but the 20 seemed quite happy to pootle at 100-odd in fourth.

And, yes, I think Renault Australia claimed about 2kW difference between the two IIRC...

Cheers,
Tony.
No problems Tony. So glad it has a good home. ( and an accepting family )


Don't think of this as criticism, at a guess the motor has done atleast 300,000kms from experience with Fuegos.
The engine will do another 10k I recon, doesn't seem to blow smoke.

I would guess the engine would be leaking in other places, but I'd be removing the oil sodden rags from under the battery and dizzy before driving any further!

I did also notice a tappet noise in the top end that didn't go away when warmed up, you are more than likely aware.
To me it sounded like just 1 of the tappets.
You can do some simple audio analysis recoding engine noise, and looking at the waveform for patterns in the timing.

I'm looking at putting one of my older Renaults on the road as soon as my teenage daughter has her licence and is driving the RX4.

I really liked the car and I'm sort of glad my offers weren't accepted.
I would have been in trouble bringing the R20 home, I have a x3 RX4s, and a sad Hyundai Sonata in the driveway at the moment.

I told him I'd take it if he's stuck with it, just hoping someone else he had lined up would take it.
So glad it was an Aussiefrogger who will give her the love she needs!

BTW I have a few Fuego 5 speeds stashed away in VIC.. The R21 / R25 gearboxes have longer legs.
If I was making the perfect Fuego or R30 I'd try and source one of these unobtainiums.

David.
 
I would guess the engine would be leaking in other places, but I'd be removing the oil sodden rags from under the battery and dizzy before driving any further!

Already on it. The battery tray is in the garage soaking in Metal Ready as I type! ;)

T.
 
Didn't the late model 20's have a 5 speed.
Sure did and a better interior and dashboard . I think the first series may have been assembled in Australia, while the 82/83 was fully imported. I stand corrected as I am not sure . Great touring car . Hope you enjoy it . I loved mine.
 
Hi Tony,

Great to hear about another 20TS on the road. I have an early series 1 (1979) which I have owned since 1984. It has done 380,000 and is still going strong and used almost every day of the week. It was a 4 speed but I was able to find a 5 speed box some years ago and changed over. A great improvement but especially on a country drive. I know of only a few 20TS's still around. One is in Queensland and another in Hobart but I am sure there are more around. It would be interesting to know just how many are still going.

Good luck with yours and I hope it goes well for some time.

Cheers

John
Clarendon SA
 
Hi Tony,

Great to hear about another 20TS on the road. I have an early series 1 (1979) which I have owned since 1984. It has done 380,000 and is still going strong and used almost every day of the week. It was a 4 speed but I was able to find a 5 speed box some years ago and changed over. A great improvement but especially on a country drive. I know of only a few 20TS's still around. One is in Queensland and another in Hobart but I am sure there are more around. It would be interesting to know just how many are still going.

Good luck with yours and I hope it goes well for some time.

Cheers

John
Clarendon SA
Rare cars now Mr Gats. But one of the great saloons, so under-rated. The only one I've seen in many years is in Q'ld and probably the one you know of.
 
G'day,
mine had a leaking dizzy also, as I recall the bearing places couldn't help at the time with a direct fit seal. But there was a close fit available with minimal machining of the body. This dizzy also needs an earth strap for the action plate. An impulse petrol pump gives good value for money.
It's also encumbered with all the rubber hoses that the Fuego has, and an EGR that falls apart, your conscience dictates your actions.... :)
Nice cruiser, particularly with the 5-speed.... :)
cheers,
Bob
 
I had a 1981 4 speed. One of the last Aussie built ones.
I bought it from a Renault specialist mechanic who got it from a long term customer who "upgraded" to a Commodore.
I had aircon fitted and asked him about changing to 5 speed box but his advice was the 4 speeds are a stronger box and 4th is overdrive any way.
I stuck with the 4 speed and absolutely loved the car.
I got it to 480000 km and it was still mechanically very healthy, though had some rust. It had another life after my ownership. Engine/clutch/gearbox had no work done except for timing belt changes. I had it on LPG which was fantastic.
The original owner contacted the mechanic and asked if it was still available as she hated the Commodore. It was already mine by then.
These are a fabulous car. Good luck with yours.
 
Zero Cost Job 1: Wash engine bay

(I will say I'll cheating with the "zero cost" thing - I'm allowing the use of "shop supplies" and anything left over from other projects. ;))

A good place to start - will be useful to help track where the various leaks are if there's a good lot of the old oil removed.

First job was to disconnect the battery and remove it completely as I wasn't planning on being shy with the pressure washer. Which, of course, immediately exposed what was about to become "Zero Cost Job 2". As David correctly recalled (above), the battery was sitting on a T-shirt. As you do. What I hadn't realised was that there was nothing actually holding the battery down!

And then I removed the T-shirt:

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The white stuff is about 10mm thick and essentially a clay! (I can't remember my high school chemistry - is it Calcium? I know one of you will know).

Scraping all that off revealed a rusty mess of a battery tray, so it became:

Zero Cost Job 2: Paint battery tray

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The underside still had a fair bit of paint on it so it was paint stripper on both sides to take it back to bare metal (top left). Then it was left to soak in Deox C solution for about 45 minutes in the end (top right). This removed all the rust, so it was rinsed of and then soaked in PPCs Marine Clean (not pictured). Final prep was to spray it with PPCs Metal Ready to convert any remaining rust (not needed in this case) and give it a light zinc coating (bottom left). Finally it was 3-4 coats each side with a satin black rust paint that was lurking in the back of the cupboard.

In the meantime I went ahead with degreasing the engine bay with four degreaser cans from same cupboard, two different brushes and the pressure washer. It's still not immaculate - that's a lot of caked on and very old oil, not to mention every painted surface has been "touched up", has surface rust, or most commonly, both.

This is the area underneath the battery tray:

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Once the paint had dried, the tray went back in. The pitting as a result of the rust makes it less than pretty, but it's only in the surface and it's now all well protected. I'd been hoping a plastic tray and tie down parts I have left over after ordering the wrong parts for another car would work here - which would have been brilliant! But, alas, they didn't fit this application either.

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So for now I've got a threaded bar and nuts leftover from a head removal tool I made recently, large washers from the "used washers" box and a seat mounting spacer from a Rover 2000 to hold down the battery. Not ideal - I'll need to make a little bracket for it. But it dosen't move (much) and is way better that what it was.

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Needless to say, the whole enterprise through up a range of jobs that need doing (as was the intention), so plenty of work to come!

Jolly good fun, isn't it! :D

Cheers,
Tony.
 
Har Har! Painting the battery tray is one of the.most feel good things you can do!

Love it. :)
 
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