Well, there’s a couple of pieces of plastic cladding behind the front wheel wells that I’ve been putting off installing in my Renault 4 GTL for over 2 years now because of the fear of drilling into a body panel, but I’m determined to do it sooner rather than later. Maybe also finish wiring the cheap, faux-retro car stereo that’s been sitting there. But first I really, really have to deal with the broken windshield wipers.
I kinda hate how weird it looks with the missing trim bits, especially in comparison with the many fully original ones still driving around in my neck of the woods, but I just fear the idea of creating multiple rust spots, or simply fucking up the hole placement and it ending up looking crooked. I have the parts, the special rivets, screws, tools... but I just fear fucking up so badly I never had the courage to finally go through with it. And at the same time I like to think I’m skilled enough to not have to pay someone to do such a simple thing; I got used to at least trying to fix things myself before taking the Quatrelle to the shop, but at the same time I feel like this is something I may fuck up worse than, say, tearing the carburettor apart.
Although I usually prefer that older cars are kept original, I will likely paint the plastic cladding black to go with the previous owner’s aesthetic mods (blacked out wheels, bumpers, fender guards and door handles, as well as a darker grille from an older model) because I can’t afford the cost of reverting it back to original, and if I’m being honest, I never really loved the light grey accents in white ones (I think they look wonderful in contrast with pretty much any other colour). Also, if I end up being able to afford reverting it to the original look I can always repaint the plastic cladding.
Whenever I see a Renault 4 (which is not often), all I can think about is the oft-forgotten movie Leap Year in which a Renault 4 is the star.
