98 replies to this topic

[panelbeaterpeter]

Thought some of you may be interested/amused to see this. I'm going to copy and paste from the 2cv forum, up til current day, save writing it all out again.


Paid £300 for it, and then another £240 to get it to me

I love these things, learnt to drive in a Dyane when I was 10 and have wanted one ever since!

The plan is to restore it for when my girlfriend passes her test, inititally I'm going to get it running and carry out the welding so I can MOT it, then make sure it's sound and mechanically good before going nuts on the cosmetic side. I run a body shop so it should be easy enough, the exact plan for the body shall remain a secret for now..

This was my first sighting of the car on Friday Morning




I hate buying cars without seeing them first, but this wasn't too bad! Had a poke about, areas needing attention are the bonnet hinge, (as usual on these)


A panels


Rear sills


Front N/S chassis leg


Someone has badly fitted an upside down () floor pan straight over the holed floor on the N/S front, the O/S has had a similar treatment at some point, both will be replaced and repaired properly.


I tried to get it started, put a fivers worth of fuel in it and charged the battery, turned over promisingly but didn't fire. A bit of poking about and I figured the fuel pump wasn't working. Also the fuel line was leaking, so I clamped it off and a new pump and new lines have been ordered up. It fired with a bit of Easystart sprayed into the carb, which was promising.

Should get it running next week, will post updates when anything interesting happens

Have some random pics for now..



I think she likes it?

Edited by panelbeaterpeter, 23 October 2011 - 05:40 PM.

[panelbeaterpeter]

Ok, fitted new points and condenser, the old points had virtually no gap, also fitted new plugs and leads. Tested the fuel pump which I suspected to be shagged, it was, but I thought I should check the rubber pipe on top of the tank too. As had been predicted it was perished. I was also surprised to find the fuel tank was full to the brim, methinks there is an electrickery issue with the sender, earth I think. Flushed the tank, fitted new rubber fuel pipe sections, new fuel pump, refitted the tank, and bingo, it started pretty much first time, but revved like crazy.. the throttle return spring had come unhooked. Hooked it up it and it ran beautifully! Gears, clutch, brakes, everything works. First time it's driven in 2 years I think.

The grand moment was even captured on film.. Ignore the weird sound, either Satan was liquidising himself in a corner of the workshop and I never noticed, or my microphone is broken.




It's too dark to see my face, but trust me, I was grinning like a deranged baboon/buffoon.

Edited by panelbeaterpeter, 23 October 2011 - 05:42 PM.

[panelbeaterpeter]

We have a chassis.

Saw it on eBay, thought it looked good but was outbid by £6 in the last 2 seconds!
Luckily the winning sniper couldn't figure out how to pick it up, so I was told I could have it. It's a very good quality standard type chassis, looks better than Citroen to me, but who knows, can't see any markings on it. It was found in the old 2CV City premises in Halifax by a chap who was clearing it out. Thankfully it's not one of their attempts.

I left Stirling at 3:00pm yesterday afternoon, and got there for 8:00pm. Loaded it up (down?)





Left Halifax at 9:00pm, got home at 4:00 am this morning... :shock: Got 3 hours sleep last night.

Paid £226, the guy also threw in a new set of front door glass and new window catches, and donated a ratchet strap for securing porpoises. Nice chap, had an Acadiane.
It is very very sound, no rust at all, just plenty of Waxoyl. I'll be getting it down to bare metal, repainting it and then drowning it in clear wax, the black stuff always makes things look bodged. Busy with car shows for the next couple of weekends, but should get on it after that.

[panelbeaterpeter]

Woke up today and felt like taking a 2CV apart.

Last time it'll look like this.. Thank god :shock:



Bit too much flex in the chassis


Naked snail.





Found a few more rusty treats, but nothing terrifying. Much.

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

This is awesome mate!!

[panelbeaterpeter]

Got a little more done today, with everything stripped now, it was time to get the body off and strip the chassis.

Started like this,


20 minutes of swearing later..



Some numpty had welded a new bulkhead straight onto the chassis, so had to cut all that away first.


Next to come out was the engine


Then the suspension units.


As I had been told would happen, the nuts wouldn't budge, got one off but that was it. A bit of savagery with a panel chisel sorted them out, then 10 minutes of confusion ensued until I realised there was a slot in the front mount to put the tie rod through for removal.. :roll:



Might be needing a new one of them then.. make it 4 actually :|


Wasn't sure how important the position of the tie rod end was, so took pics of current measurements just in case, but if I'm thinking right, this is how you lower the suspension, so these measurements might go out the window


Put it on it's side to remove the rear arms


Rear came off easy, along with a tow bar


Mmmm krusty the clown


Front was a different kettle of fish. new "floorpans" had been welded straight over the bolts. so a bit of excavation was needed. After that only one bolt was still bolt shaped enough to remove conventionally, all the other three had to but cut through the side, and the bolt shaft removed with self grips.


One wouldn't move so a nut was welded on the end and removed that way.


I must stress the importance of a tidy work area.


All is now stripped, chassis ready to be weighed in and parts ready to be refurbed. Got to save the pennies now for a load of chassis black, next step is to clean up all the parts and get the chassis stripped and repainted.

[panelbeaterpeter]

Todays progress, axle refurb. They looked to be pretty good, king pins are fine, I have a recent ish invoice for having them sorted, so it was just a case of cleaning them up a bit.

Crusty, covered in underseal and grease.

A while later, following some aggression with a twist knot wire wheel in the grinder, and a load of degreaser.


And front


Then spring cans and a few other bits.


Started masking up in the oven..



Etch primer on..


Rust preventative primer


Then on with the shiny shiny.






I wanted to get the chassis painted too, but time got the better of me, it'll be next weekend for that now.

The mini doesn't quite know what to make of it all.

[panelbeaterpeter]

I got sick of giving myself a hernia every time I moved the engine, so I gave it some wheels.

You can do it if you B&Q it..


A bit of hacking and welding later..



I was seriously considering mounting the engine on the trolley and fitting the body over it, but someone pointed out that due to the wheel size, the speedo would be out, so I decided not to bother.

In other news, Got the chassis cleaned up and repainted. I don't have a before pic, but it was smothered in underseal. Cleaned off the worst of that, and set about removing any flaky or dodgy looking paint. Discovered some funny foamy type rubberised paint on the inside floor section, which made me think it might just be an original Citroen chassis..


This confirmed my suspicions..


I shone a torch inside one of the top holes, and it looked like it had been brush painted INSIDE and waxoyled.. which was a bit mystifying until I realised that someone had cut off the lower belly pan, painted inside, then welded it up again!



I goes against the laws of physics for an original chassis to stay this good..



I then soaked the whole thing in Gunk degreaser, to remove any remaining underseal residue


Prepped and hung up in le Auvergne.


Etched..


Stone chipped the inner floor section..


Primed..


Painted




I set my gun to pinpoint setting and squirted some chassis black right up the legs


It'll be getting thoroughly drowned in Waxoyl as well, so should last a few years yet.

[panelbeaterpeter]

Started on the body.

Got it on it's side


Mmm crusty


Started stripping old underseal, mud, stonechip, and paint. With the assistance of FIRE


Bare metalled the rear section of the underside



Found a couple of bits needing a tickle from the metal fairy.



Put a bit of etch over it to protect it before I do the welding.


Modified the track rod ends to make greasing a bit easier


Cleaned up the engine

Before


Loads of Gunk, and alloy cleaner later..


Also painted up the heat exchangers and other bits n bobs, I'm yet to build it all up.

[panelbeaterpeter]

Wanted to get all the rust around the boot floor area sorted today, so started with the worst bit, at the back.

Started with this..


First thing was to remove the chassis leg brackets


I then made a repair patch..


I then cut out the area


I found when I cut away the corroded area, that there were more delights underneath. The two layers under the boot floor needed cutting out, new peices making and welding in before I could go further.


Inner repaired


Outer repaired


I then offered up the repair section, clamped it in place, and tack welded it all round.


Then I seam welded it, doing 10mm at a time



Plug welded the rear edge


The brackets were a bit past thier best so new ones were made


And welded on. I took a lot of measurements prior to removing them, to ensure they went back in the right place.


Front of the spare wheel well was pitted and holed, so cut it out



And new section made and welded in. I cut a swage section from to soon-to-be ex floorpan, and welded it in.


There was a hole either side of the well at the rear.


Both repaired



Primed repaired areas using anti corrosive primer

[panelbeaterpeter]

Rear seatbelt anchor points were a bit rough.. I shall let the pictures do the talking.







Same for the other side..



C pillars were fun too..







Read more:http://retrorides.pr...2#ixzz1bd2wqsLA

[panelbeaterpeter]

And t'other side



And then there was the rear of the N/S/R arch, and the tail end of the rear N/S quarter.






The O/S is perfect, strangely.

Also fixed a broken bit on the lamp bar.



Only worked til 2:00 today, the weather was too good to be stuck in the garage getting showered in sparks.

Read more:http://retrorides.pr...2#ixzz1bd34hc2w

[panelbeaterpeter]

Ok so while I'm saving moneys for new floors, sills and bulkhead, I thought I'd get on with some "free" things.

Decided to commit suicide.

Scrounged a pair of B pillars and rear door hinges..


And proceeded to unpick the door hinge first of all



Welded it to the edge of the front door


Dressed


Unpicked the hinge section of the pillar


Cut it down the length to remove the section


Positioned and tack welded to the front of the existing B pillar, clamping it to the rear hinge, using a nut as a spacer to obtain a uniform gap


Then seam welded down the length


Welds dressed, catch bracket removed, and all etch primed.


Fitted the door and it wouldn't shut fully so I cut a sliver off the edge of the door and welded it up. On looking at the rear doors, they are like this too. I won't be fitting the rubber to the rear of the front doors, same as the front of the rears.


It works and EVERYTHING!!



Blanked the old handle hole, keeping the hole to relocate to the front. Will figure out the latch and handle at some point..



Also shortened the lamp bar by 45mm each side.



Considering deleting the rear quarter window.. likely would use metal though, and not masking tape.

Edited by panelbeaterpeter, 23 October 2011 - 06:12 PM.

[panelbeaterpeter]

I've got the suicide door finished on the other side, and been peeing about figuring out the handle and latch shenanigans.

Decided to use the old locks latches and catches etc, all be it in a chopped up form.

Started by cutting the latch assembly mount area out of the N/S door to use on the O/S, and plating over the hole.




Hung the door and figured where the latch needed to go, and marked it out. Annoyingly it landed exactly where the old hinge was mounted, so I had to redesign the area to mount the latch and handle assembly.





Mounted the striker on the A post


And after a few measurements and messing around, fitted the latch to the door.

[panelbeaterpeter]

Due the the fact that I had to avoid fouling the dash, the handle is slightly lower than the rear, which I'm not happy about but it's a bit late to go back and redesign. Also because the latch was at an angle to match the striker, the handle was at an angle..



Needed sorting as it looked stupid, so I filed out the locating lugs from the inside of the handle


Drilled and tapped holes in the underside of the handle


Figured out what angle the barrel needed to sit at, marked it and drilled a couple on indents to line up with the holes in the handle (Slipped on the one nearest the camera )


Replaced the barrel in the handle and secured it in place with a couple of stainless grub screws. Used Locktite so they shouldn't go anywhere.


Bobs your real dad


Tried it about 20 times and seems strong enough, I guess time will tell.

I then fiddled about with making an interior latch release, using the original handle mechanism.

Firstly the lever on inside of the latch was at the wrong angle to be pulled at an upwards angle, so I cut the end off it and welded it 45 degrees round.



Mocked the lever mech' up and figured where the handle needed to go, so cut the new pivot and handle holes


Shortened the old latch release bar and put a blob of weld on the end to hold the little washer in place.


Fitted the handle mechanism and it worked to an extent, but needed about 10mm more leverage to open the catch, so I cut and bent the lever to give more leverage



That sorted it, now works very well. Needs a bit of tidying and I need to strengthen the pivot point, but the tricky bit is done, and I have a reference point for doing the other side which will make it alot easier.

Edited by panelbeaterpeter, 23 October 2011 - 06:13 PM.