The end of March 2003, and Nicolexia revealed some rather sorry facts about her true condition. I took a trip up to Bedford to visit another Renault 4 owner, Malcolm Vardy, whose red GTL, Rosey, is pictured here with my car. Upon seeing the red car advertised on this website, Malcolm went to investigate but found the car had major problems with rot in the usual areas, most notably around the suspension mounting points. Given the short life span any R4 has once it reaches this condition, he acquired the car for a cut down price, but being an expert at repairs and car restoration, he was able to perform some major operations on it and bring the car back from near-certain doom.

So, I decided that I would ask Malcolm if he could perform what I expected to be some routine welding work on my own R4 chassis, since I was aware of some holes under the sills which were mentioned at the previous MOT. However, upon his more thorough examination, I was shocked to learn just how bad some of the rot was, and how far it had spread. Although the rear areas of the chassis had been painstakingly restored by the previous owner (as documented on my Technique page in the Articles section), the rest of the chassis had seemingly not been treated to the same degree of attention. Basically, entire lengths along the sides of the chassis under the sills had rotted badly, and the decay had gone inwards by up to one foot at the rearmost part of the central floor section.

I was faced with a tough decision as to whether to bother having the work done. It would take three or four days' solid work to weld huge sheets of metal into the affected areas, and the main problem was that access was needed to the vertical parts of the box sections behind the sills. This would mean having to either remove the chassis from the body (impractical other than for a full restoration), or cut the full length of the sills in order to gain access, then weld these parts back on, which is a very messy job. The cost is also prohibitive; perhaps justified if the car were a classic or special edition, but not a regular GTL.

However, it seemed a shame to abandon Nicolexia at this point, after all the other work that had gone into keeping her running. The rear chassis was already sorted out and a proper conversion to unleaded fuel completed, with hardened valve seats installed by the previous owner. Then, the car had been fully resprayed just over a year earlier. This R4 had been through quite a lot over the years and was rather tatty inside, but if the central chassis welds could be sorted out then it still ought to last for some considerable time to come.

When I originally typed up this page in May 2003, with the MOT having expired two months prior, I hadn't made a final decision on what to do with the car. There were a lot of complications involved, with money - or the lack of it - being the main factor as usual. My original plans to go travelling around Europe in Nicolexia during the summer of 2003 were certainly up the spout, although I always intended to go interrailing as a back-up plan anyway. But this meant I didn't have the cash both to fix the car and go travelling as planned. Decisions, decisions.... bloody Renault 4s, who'd have them? Er, well.... me actually, obviously, but unfortunately the realities of owning an old car do start to bite on occasions.

The final photo below was taken on my journey home from Bedford during which I mulled over all the above problems, and stopped for a breath of fresh air up on Reigate Hill in Surrey.