Why do people love the Renault 4 so much?
For a lot of reasons: it has an amazingly smooth ride, and impressive grip—despite the noticeable body roll when you take corners a bit too enthusiastically. The spacious interior with flat comfy seats, flat floors, and flat glass gives it a cozy, roomy feel.
QUIRKY WITH CHARACTER
The modest 1.1 litre engine had a characteristic roar when you pushed it to its limit, and though not particularly fast, it was a lively drive. Its quirky design is full of character, from the shoulder-height gearstick to the knee-high pull-out handbrake, sliding windows, and basic radio with no FM and no wiper delay. Everybody loved it and farmers loved it, too, since the roomy footwell allowed them to drive comfortably in wellie boots. The perfect car?
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SMITH’S WEXFORD
Noel Shanaghy from County Waterford holds many cherished memories of the Renault 4 from his own younger days. It was his very first car back in 1965, and after he got married had a number of others which featured in family holidays as his children grew up. In recent years he has gone back to R4’s and currently has an original 1979 R4 Waterford registered car as well as the van detailed in this story.
Over 8 million Renault 4 cars were built worldwide, with production in Ireland beginning in early 1960’s when Motor Distributors in Dublin assembled them. From 1965, Con Smith and the Thompson Motor Company in Wexford took over, where 200 employees produced around 35 cars a day.
It’s estimated that up to 60,000 vehicles were assembled at Smith’s Wexford plant between 1965 and 1984, mainly Renault 4 cars and vans for the Irish market, but also including Renault 6, R8, R10, R12, and R16 models. The factory also produced Aro Jeeps, Hino, Berliet, and even Polski 125s, with some batches destined for the UK French and Italian markets when there was over production for the Irish market.
CAR RESTORATION COURSE
After retiring, Noel had more time for his passion for vintage cars and enrolled in the 5-day-per-week Classic Car Restoration Course at Waterford Wexford Education and Training Board (WWETB).
During the course, Noel focused on metal cutting, bending, and bulkhead fabrication, all with a particular project in mind. He had long dreamed of owning a Renault 4 pickup. Although the 7cwt van was featured in the Smiths of Wexford R4 brochure, as far as Noel knew, no pickups had ever been assembled in Ireland. So, he decided to take on the challenge of building his own.
RENAULT 4 PICK UP
Noel’s first step was to buy a 1983 olive-green delivery van from a contact in Gorey, County Wexford. Interestingly, this van hadn’t been used by P&T (Post & Telegraphs) or later by An Post for mail delivery around Ireland, as many similar vans once were.
The donor van, originally imported from France in 1983, was in good condition but had sat unused since the 1990s and needed some care. After completing the WWETB course, Noel felt equipped to tackle the van to pick-up rebuild and the left-to-right-hand drive conversion. In Noel’s words; “getting motivated to work on it was tough until Pat Bolger, my instructor on the course really put the pressure on to have the pick-up ready for the end-of-course show in June 2024.”
Noel divided the project into stages: dismantling the bodywork, cutting off the van’s rear section, fabricating the new pickup bed, reforming the cab, installing the RHD conversion and finally, bodywork prep and painting.
PRECISION WAS KEY
It was a big undertaking, and he knew precision was key. After careful measuring—”measure twice, cut once,” as they say—Noel made the first cuts to the roof of his donor van, now fully committed to the transformation. Thanks to the skills he’d honed-in his five-day-per-week coursework, he felt confident as he worked through each step.
The fabrication of the bulkhead was a challenging endeavour for Noel, as he needed to cut steel sheets to cover the rear footwell and create a flat load bed. He carefully removed the rear window from the back door for reuse in the new rear bulkhead. The process of fabricating and fitting the rear bulkhead was particularly tough, especially since replicating the sloping outward design of the original bulkhead proved to be quite difficult.
Noel was fortunate to find a mechanic in Holland who had purchased a British Renault 4 and brought it back with him. However, unable to adapt to driving a right-hand drive vehicle in Holland, the mechanic decided to convert it to left-hand drive himself. After completing the opposite conversion that Noel was aiming to do, as it turned out he went above and beyond by packaging all the right-hand drive components into a box, creating a perfect, ready-to-use conversion kit.
After a purchase was made and the parts shipped to Ireland the right-hand-drive conversion was relatively straightforward. That is apart from the handbrake lever which after repositioning had to stay on the left-hand side of the gear lever so it would operate properly. With the help and advice from Sean Doyle, a fellow member of the Waterford Estuary Men’s Shed, the replacing of the LHD wiring loom with the RHD Dutch one turned out to be less problematic than expected. The original van windscreen was cracked but Noel was able to source a used replacement in Clare and Fergus Walsh from Mr. Windscreen in Waterford did an excellent job installing it and refitting the rear window in the reformed cab.
PAINTING & ELECTRICS
Shane O’Keefe from O’Keefe Autobody Repairs in Waterford handled the preparation and painting of the car. The 1983 donor vehicle had been painted in army green, but traces of blue paint were found in various areas. A quick check of the paint code on a panel under the bonnet revealed that the car was originally Renault B72 blue, prompting Noel to repaint it in its original colour.
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FIRST PRIZE
Noel was thrilled when his cherished Renault 4 pick-up won first prize at the end-of-year show for the 2024 WWETB Classic Car Restoration Course.
In a conversation with Noel, he shared that the Renault drives smoothly and covers ground efficiently. However, since the body, like most cars of that era wasn’t dipped or galvanised, it could potentially rust “like hell”. As a result, Noel prefers to take it out only on sunny days, avoiding any inclement weather and when at home is stored in a de-humidified garage.
Sources of Information and Photo Credits:
Brian Manning
Clementine’s Renault 4 Garage
Geo Cities
If you have an idea for a story, email Kevin Reid [email protected]
