Here are the first pictures of my second Renault 4, Nicolexia, following her long-deserved respray in January 2002. I'd originally intended to paint the car with a brush the previous summer, but was foiled by bad weather in the approaching autumn and had to leave it as it was (as seen in the 40th anniversary Arnhem report). Then, following two separate incidents in which idiots caused damage to two nearside wings in 2001, I was unexpectedly offered two opportunities for a free respray, one from the previous owner, and then one from the paint tutor at the college where I was studying vehicle restoration.

The dents were knocked out and filled, and I finished all the filler and repair work on many other minor sections. The preparations that went into most of the classic cars we handled at the college were far more intense, and nothing short of absolute perfection would do, however in my case I wasn't fussed and just wanted the best that could be done within reason, and without having to spend a further few months intricately touching up the car. So, the respray does show through a few minor imperfections, but these are barely visible.

The respray was done in this stunning deep blue, which was the third shade of blue that the car appeared to have been over its lifetime. Originally it was a light powder blue, quite a common shade probably found on some of the other pictures around this site. Then it was seemingly repainted with a brush in the darker blue colour you can see in earlier photos in this section, and some attempt had been made at some time in the past to colour certain sections - namely the front grille, air inlet and plastic side panels - in yellow. I wanted to stick to these themes whilst making it better and more distinctive, so I opted for this lovely rich mid blue colour and repainted all the trim sections a vivid contrasting yellow.

I believe the R4 is a fun car and is well suited to such colour schemes, and I'm clearly not alone when you notice many of the other bizarre paint jobs people have performed on them, including pictures seen on this site and elsewhere on the web. It is a different case, perhaps, with the older classic models and special editions, which are probably best restored to their original condition, but the GTLs are relatively plentiful in number and worthy of something a little more experimental. I was convinced that the final colour was a little more purple-like immediately after the respray than it appears here, and I reckon it may have changed slightly over the first few days after the paint settled. The undercoat was an aquamarine / turquoise blue, and possibly this showed through more afterwards.

The only sour point in all this is that I was stung surprisingly with a bill following the respray. At no stage was it ever mentioned that I would have to pay anything - it wasn't even hinted at - and I presumed that as I was a student at the college who had worked hard on many other classic vehicle projects, it would be covered as part of my studies, and as part of the department's work in general. The Head of Site advised me to ask the tutors for assistance with repairing the damage - which was inflicted by a student in their car park - rather than deal with the hassles of solicitors and pursuing a legal claim on my insurance, which I was all set to do. I was only interested in having the dents knocked out and filled, and I didn't actually request any repainting because I knew that the previous owner had made the offer to do it for free later in the spring. Nonetheless, the paint tutor offered to sort the whole car out for me. I was told to bring it in the following week, everybody on the course would help me get it repaired, and that it would be completely resprayed by the end of the day. I specifically asked how the costs would be covered, and was told, 'Don't worry about that, just bring it in and we'll sort it out.' A generous offer, I thought, and a kind gesture from the college, but one which seemed fair and logical considering the damage was caused on their premises by another student.

Unlike most of the other students, I could conceivably regard my car as a classic, and it was therefore a sensible idea to have it repaired by the restoration department, who were very experienced at working with classic vehicles. However, five minutes after it came out the paint booth, I was landed with the bill, which although reasonable in itself for such work and far less than I would expect to pay elsewhere, was totally unexpected and had never been discussed. If it had been mentioned even as the car was being masked up for the spray booth, I'd have stopped there and then, because I'd had that other offer to do it for free, and in my exceptionally skint state at the time (the worse financial position I'd been in) there was no way I could cover the cost.

Some months later, I still hadn't had a penny available to contribute, and had even been forced to move back to the other end of the country and virtually begin a new life because of my debts. Although the car looked great and the college did a good job, in principle I felt that I shouldn't have to pay anything towards it given the circumstances, so only time and finances would decide if I ever did.

Since these pictures were taken, I gave the plastic side panels one further spray and placed them back on the car, then washed and waxed it thoroughly. Typically for Manchester, it was raining when the R4 was photographed, but the freshly painted bodywork created that wonderful effect whereby droplets of water gathered in little globules all over the top surfaces. You may notice that the front bumper has a slight dent. This had always been there and was worse before I straightened it slightly, but it would have required considerable effort and tools that were unavailable to make perfect again, so I thought I could put up with that slight imperfection.

Thanks to Maria Cooke for the photos, which were taken in Hyde, Greater Manchester, in February 2002.

I was a little sorry to have to repaint the back door, as the old turquoise one sported a very rare stick-on logo which I had never seen on any other R4. They probably peel off too easily, and indeed mine was a little tatty, but I half wanted to keep it on. You can see pictures of the door as it was in other photos around the site, including the Technique page in the Articles section.

If anybody's wondering, that round thing in the rear quarter window is a Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior sticker already present when I bought the car. I'd noticed that it was a sort of tradition, at least in Britain around this time, for many such weird French cars to display this sticker; a sort of symbolism of the mentality and solidarity of the owners, perhaps. Citroën 2CVs often sported them too. Some might claim there is a hypocrisy inherent in such an environmental statement on a gas-guzzling automobile; you can't have your cake and eat it. Except that, as we all know, you can!