Just discovered this site by chance - sums (maybe/almost/probably) everything up visually

It's the 'A rough guide to Vans' link, 2nd from top http://tiny.cc/kbkqu

Maybe someone can help me with a few ideas about my van.



It's an ex French post office van. In the picture you may be able to see four tapped holes on the sides where the post office would have mounted advertising boards ("post early for Christmas" - that kind of thing).

I know nothing about its real history as it looks very much as if the person who imported it to the UK did so using the identity of another van - the builders' plate says it's an AK series B. The body is clearly an early-ish AZU 250, and there are quite a lot of traces of the original yellow paint. But the motor is a disc-brake 602 unit (though with the older metal shrouding), and for what it's worth the engine plate says AK2 0507046596.

The pyramids for the seat belts look very professionally fitted:



with neat domed bolts on top, and a well-reinforced additional plate underneath:



And under the dash there's a neat aftermarket fitment for the brake fluid warning light, which doesn't look like the kind of thing an amateur might do:



The pedals look reasonably professionally replaced - I think the original manufactured version would have had the clutch and brake floor mounted:



So - my question - is it possible that the conversion to the 602cc/disc brake engine was done by the French post office themselves, probably as part of a bulk change, with other upgrades? If I remember rightly, the drummers used a different brake fluid, so the change to disc might have led to the installation of the warning light too. The pedals would be changed too. Seat-belts would have been a good idea, even for postmen.

There is even some evidence - slightly obliterated and difficult to photograph - that originally the van had the postman's bike-carrier. There are drilled holes, now filled, and I think reinforcements, just below roof level, that look as if they corresponded to the carrier mounts.

And, another question - what date would the van be? It's post-suicide doors (was that 1961?) but small ripples and curly handles. It's papers say 1969, but they are for another van entirely (one with a poids total en charge of 1065 KG). However, above the builders' plate which was presumably removed from another vehicle, there's a smaller purple plate saying Andre Citroen/Ste Ame Paris/ 4027 111666. This looks a bit like a chassis plate, and I wondered if it might be original.

Finally - what can one legally wire up to the teddy-bear ears? I have side-lights and indicators there at the moment, but showing a white light forward for indicators isn't - apparently - allowed.

So M28-powered 350. Which it definitely isn't.



They look "right" for the pyramids in late vans - don't know when they started, but our '74 400 doesn't have any belts or pyramids, so later than then.



But the big question is "Why...?" Is there no space on the dash for an additional warning light? That's a '60s-early-70s style charge warning light.



Don't think so. The change from chassis-mount to bulkhead-mount was (IIRC) at the same time as the change from "old-style" to "new-style" engine. Those just look _right_. Is there any real sign of the whole lower bulkhead being replaced at some stage? If it has been. it's been done VERY well.



Late dual-circuit drummers had a low-fluid warning, too.



If they're red/white then tail lights.
If they're orange, then indicators.

But they wouldn't have had duplicates. Ears went at the same time as they appeared on the back panel.

Other than a minimum import date, there's no real clue from the French registration - Cantal had only got to HH by 1999.
http://plaque.free.fr/f_tab19.html

My money's on it being a mid '70s van that's had a lot of pishing about at some stage. The rear wings are the only small-ripple bit that are welded on, and they're easier to replace than the rear lower sides. Do you know anything of it's UK history?

Sorry, I should have explained about the current French registration - it was imported into the UK sometime round about 1999 I think, I then re-exported it to France. That Cantal number plate is one of the very last before they introduced the new French registration system - JA were the last letters issued by the Cantal.

The warning light wouldn't fit on the old small dash anywhere, and yes I can see that the fitting is the same as the charge indicator which is on the dash....

The ears look as if they are original - and they are red behind and white/clear in front.

I thought that the later vans all had the larger ripples - although my rear lower panels are replacements, they replaced previous small ripple panels (I had them done as there was a lot of rust). But the rear doors, fuel tank cover and spare wheel flap look reasonably old and are small ripples.

The van has been modified by an English owner, but it's mostly cosmetic stuff (plastic steering wheel, that kind of thing). It's hard to say whether the lower bulkhead is original, though.

Not heard of the ears being dual as in front and rear sidelights before, neat idea though. On my 71 azu 250 they are indicators with just rear lamps on the back panel.
Your pedal set up looks just like my old 74 AKS400 with the two hanging pedals and the organ pedal, that had the drum brake dot 4 set up and the earlier 602 engine i think (single choke solex heavy flywheel 90 kph on a good day -although it was rather worn to be fair.) I was of the thinking that the larger ripples came in on the smaller vans around the 73 period although i haven't totally swatted it up tbh.

The 350 got hanging pedals by 1968, whilst the 250 soldiered on with the old style mushroom pedals.

It wasn't until 1972 that the A series with the small ripples got discontinued for large corporations. I wonder if this is one of these very late A series vans? Being Ex post office it clearly could have been ordered, but I've never personally seen one.

The pedals certainly look factory original.

Ben

I'm not sure if my ears are any different from yours. They contain a single dual-filament bulb, and show white forwards and red backwards. If they flash (for indicators) or show a brake light, they show it both forwards and backwards. And as a sidelight they do the same. To me it looks as if the indicators on the rear panel (the ones by the back doors) were a later addition, rather than the ears.

Can anyone help with that chassis (?) number I mentioned?

I take it that the AK2 (= M28/1) engine I have would be OK in any late 2CV, but these engines were actually fitted to the AK350 in 1969 which is what my offical papers say the van is.

The SCVGB Members Handbook says that small ripples were discontinued on the AZU in February 1969, at which time it was renamed the AZU250, but the pedals remained floor-mounted. I imagine like most definitive statements about 2CV production, this one was subject to a number of exceptions! I have a drivers handbook for a small Citroen van, apparently dated November 1969, which manages never even once to mention the name of the model on any of its 52 pages, but whose front cover says "2CV AZU": it shows a small-ripple model in the illustrations, but of course these may have been older photographs.

No, they look perfectly normal & original.

Our '74 400...




I can't figure it - but since the van definitely isn't the 350 the chassis plate claims it to be, I don't think that's massively important. We know that plate does not belong to that van. End of.
http://www.cats-citroen.net/citroen/serialnumbers.html

The engine number's 1977, though. (fourth digit says year-in-decade. Black plate, 70s - but a single-choke-tin-cowling AK2 is '70s or very early '80s anyway)
AIUI, 250s never left the factory with 602 - and certainly never with disks.

Sorry, I'm not explaining myself very well. But a picture is worth a thousand words:



The bottom, grey, plate is definitely not a good description of the van. What is the top, purple, one?
Is it a chassis plate? As normally fixed to the chassis?
If so, what might it belong to?

Don't know what the purple one is.

The other plate started off life on a '69 AK B (350), before moving at some stage to your van.

I reckon your van was scrapped at some stage - once into the scrappy's paperwork, the identity is a goner as far as the French paperwork's concerned. Quick swap from a thoroughly dead but legally alive van, and it's exportable to the UK, MOT and register here.