Renault Floride project Sydney Marketplace.
- Thread starter Greenpeace
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Both floorpans are based on the Dauphine... Same wheelbase and track AFAIK. Strengthening needed!
You'll need someone to reply with seriously detailed knowledge of the hidden devils in the detail.
There are members of both the Renault 4CV Register of Australia and the Renault Car Club of Australia in your neck of the woods and there's some seriously detailed knowledge to be gleaned from them.
Good luck.
You'll need someone to reply with seriously detailed knowledge of the hidden devils in the detail.
There are members of both the Renault 4CV Register of Australia and the Renault Car Club of Australia in your neck of the woods and there's some seriously detailed knowledge to be gleaned from them.
Good luck.
If you prefer improvements over originality, the R10 donor could be a good source of suspension, disc brakes and transaxle.
Henry
Henry
Remember that the Fluoride was based on the Dauphine mechanicals and the Caravelle was based on the R8/R10. If you want to use it as a donor car as well as the engine and transmission then you will have to get rid of the fuel tank for the stabiliser bars. You will have to build a radiator in front. The R10 has double wishbone suspension in front and the Fluoride has Kingpin suspension.
I can be corrected and there could also be added points that I overlooked.
Regards. Frans.
I can be corrected and there could also be added points that I overlooked.
Regards. Frans.
And you can't use a fuel tank from an R8/10 as it won't fit. You need one from a Floride S (good luck with that) or will have to fabricate one. From memory I don't think the openings in the inner front guards are big enough for R8/10 suspension either. There is far more work involved in converting a Floride to a "Floravelle' than might initially appear.
Correct. When you cut the front cross member out to weld it to the Fluoride chassis, you need to increase the wishbone opening for the R10 arms.
A fabricated fuel tank can go in front as long as it is mounted behind the front axle.
My point of view, stay clear of this conversion unless you’re going to go full out and build something very special.
Regards. Frans.
As quite a few have discovered!
I think, note I said think, that the 10 floor pan is almost the same except for the Floride sills that are wider and the engine mounts and front wish bone mounts. There are lots of other issues as has been pointed out. Like different fuel tank mounts, heater air tube space, B pillars, and so on. My thought would be just to cut the pieces that need to be replaced and weld them in to the existing good metal. I think, again think, that the 10 sills are similar but with a different contour and definitely not wide enough. Perhaps they could be adapted but I think I would just build new ones. I know the shape of the Floride sill is different as well as wider. I do have both vehicles but the Floride is well out of reach in my packed shed. But I can give some details from a Caravelle and also a 10 if you can let me know what specific bits you are interested in.
That helps a lot. I will probably do a cad work up of super sills and form those using a cnc bender. Going to be same amount of work whatever way I go. May as well go large
Best wishes with it. Always good to have another Floride/Caravelle. The real Florides are seriously pretty. Here's a very original example from France in 2019.
The original cars were pretty flexible. Don't like being jacked up with the doors open. Always jack at the jacking points or near the A pillar or just in front of the rear guard where the edges are on the outside stringer (chassis rail). Saw a Floride jacked on the front cross member and the hard top would not fit and was 30 mm out at the windscreen because the door was not properly closed. I always fit pipe stays between the door hinge bolts and the lock bolts if I want to have doors open and jacked up. Also small cracks can appear in the body skin just in front of the air vents. But a correctly treated car will have no problems in this regard. Also it is normal to have to slam the doors they all do it even in France.
I think "pretty flexible" is perhaps the perfect way of describing it. One in Perth was driven for a while with the hard top off and they had to jack the car in the middle to get the fittings to line up when replacing said hard top!
I always found with my Floride that for fanging purposes ( using Tasmanian language) it was more fun and felt safer with the top on because it was much more rigid that way.
Sure it’s not standard, but my Floride is not flexible after a year of chassis work on the rotisserie. Lots of current engineering was applied with boxed sections, triangulation, gussets and double skin which all resulted in no measurable deflection, without a roof !
The front mounted radiator, electric water pump and efficient heater/climate control also make it run cool in summer and warm in winter.
The car would have gone to landfill if I had not saved it with some current technology.
The front mounted radiator, electric water pump and efficient heater/climate control also make it run cool in summer and warm in winter.
The car would have gone to landfill if I had not saved it with some current technology.
The r8 and 10 platforms are also very flexible once rocker skin is removed and upper body not sure it would work well with out extra reinforcement . The Manic GT uses the R8/10 platform for their running gear and suspension so in my build I ended up building a complete box tubing into the outer frame rails and adding a extra web into the existent front and rear portions. I than covered it with a 16 guage outer plate where the outer rocker would normally fasten to . The final product made a good stable frame for the car with minimum flex . Most of the doors from the Manic cars that I own you also had to slam them to get them to properly close similar to the Caravelle of years gone by that my brother owned !
I am hoping to start a few more build this year and will be looking into bending new tube frame rails . A friend has already started on pressing out new floor pans and thinks he can have the frame rails bent up as well so we may possibly be able to build complete new floor pans for the R8 /10 and as mentioned the Daulphine . The daulphine rails are the same but the floor pans pattern are different than the R8 and 10 . If you want to see my work on Manic GT 108 it should be still here on the site . Good luck and enjoy your build !
Manic gt
I am hoping to start a few more build this year and will be looking into bending new tube frame rails . A friend has already started on pressing out new floor pans and thinks he can have the frame rails bent up as well so we may possibly be able to build complete new floor pans for the R8 /10 and as mentioned the Daulphine . The daulphine rails are the same but the floor pans pattern are different than the R8 and 10 . If you want to see my work on Manic GT 108 it should be still here on the site . Good luck and enjoy your build !
Manic gt
Good you are still out there! Best wishes for 2004.
John thanks for reply 2004 was a good year ! but hoping 2024 will be better .
Hi Manicgt, good to hear from you! I had applied most of the processes you referred to in your post #75, including the additional 16 guage skin. The area around the air inlets in front of the rear wheels on a Floride provides a great area to triangulate the chassis rails and add secondary chassis rails where the rear sub frame carrying suspension, engine and gearbox attaches. All the chassis flex is eliminated completely if its done correctly, subject to local engineering compliance requirements.
If you are not too concerned about originality and want to eliminate chassis flex, there has been a lot of progress in chassis engineering since the Floride was originally built over 60 years ago.
If you are not too concerned about originality and want to eliminate chassis flex, there has been a lot of progress in chassis engineering since the Floride was originally built over 60 years ago.
There'd been quite a bit of knowledge of those things by 60 years ago too I reckon. They just were a bit too optimistic about the Dauphine floor pan, which wasn't much more than a lengthened 4CV floorpan from about 1943. They stopped Floride production for a while to sort out the worst of it in about 1958 I think. You've done a great job of what they should have done by the sound of it.
Bustamif:
You could put up a few more pics of what you did to the side rails .........
Ray