by darrenbiggs » Tue Jan 22, 2013 8:40 pm
4th vote for Lee here too.....
I know a lot of other garages (for other marques) deliberately avoid forums for the exact reason that if you show the world what you do, warts and all, you end up exposing yourself to all sorts of flack.
Lee's never shyed away from this and has been active on the site and community for all this time. That includes the developments and sometimes 'experiments'.
The cars aren't that valuable any longer and have the classic problems of low volume and age.
Some of the things we've collectively discovered in the past few years have been because of this - wheelarch pockets being a prime example where everyone claimed they were non-structural. That included the 'experts', wider community and even El Presidente himself. We just didn't know. Would a shiny suited Renault dealership man have known, or indeed most of the staff at the old Alpine factory? Probably not, it was designed 30 years ago and all that knowledge has long since gone.
Net result of all this is that we don't have a glass, air-conditioned, marble floored garage to go to with these cars. Would they even want to see one anyway - not really, most Renault dealers see them as a hassle and best avoided!
That leaves us people like Lee, who are prepared to engage with people on the forum, are prepared to get their hands dirty and often do have to 'bodge it' with a second hand bit of kit as it's all we have left to use. Again I'm sure Lee would love to have all brand new shrink wrapped components to work with as he wouldn't have half the problems but it's not going to happen.
Main point is Lee does approach all his work from an actual engineering perspective and attention to detail - in as much as you can with something 25 years old. That counts for a lot in my book and is the only realistic way of keeping these cars going.
Second main point (no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition) is that surely this individual car has now got more chance to be saved and put back on the road. And that's got to be a good thing whatever your personal viewpoint on a few people is?
I'm just here for the gasoline.