Looks good!
Nice job!

So... A full weekend's work.

That nice Mr Russell "Shedspeed" Higgs headed up on Saturday morning, after getting a "very thorough (they kicked all four tyres)" MOT on his Marrakech taxi Merc.

First challenge - move van shell from my garage (tiny, dingy, crowded, no electrickery) across the road and up the hill a bit to a very kind neighbour's carport.


We damn near had to restrain Russ, who wanted to live in the carport.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? No. It's amazing how much heavier a van shell is than a 2cv car. Four of us were making reasonably heavy weather of carrying it.

So - on to work.

This is why we're here...


A good look over it all, and a clean up of the seams, and we were fairly quickly at...


The seam-sealer is definitely structural. Seriously. Digging that out with a knotted wire brush in the drill, and there was very little welding to actually separate.

So, before too long, we got to...


No, that's a lie. Before too long, we got 90% of the way there. The seam at the back of the sill was a _nightmare_. Trying to unpick that, whilst leaving the reinforcer on top... Horrible, horrible.

Still. Once it's got to that stage, it's only a small step to...


PUTTING NEW METAL IN!

The psychological effect of that on our morales was amazing. After that bloody sill, just test-fitting nice shiny new tin really does make an immense difference to the mood.

I'd tried to hire a spot-welder. HSS (large hire chain) were about the only people who stock them - but the price wasn't horrible. Great. Book that. Half an hour later, having a little read of the data sheet off their website... Hold on a mo. 240v 32A supply needed? Umm... Phone back. Yep, it is indeed a big supply. Bum. Generator? Yes, we can hire one of those. But the smallest with a 32A socket is a 10kVA. Over three times the price of the spot welder, and nearly 400kg...


Umm, p'raps not.

So - a little thinking, and we came up with these...

A spot-weld attachment for an Arc welder. Worth a crack.

Testing, on the old Cassis bodgepanel, showed it was actually very effective (once we'd figured out how to use it). Unfortunately, the reality of Citroen tin soon surfaced - it just wasn't possible to do anything but blow holes through the Kit-Kat wrapper. Hiho. MIG it is.

Whatever you use to do the welding, though, you've got to make sure the panels don't move - and these little tinkers were superb in doing that job.



Clamp the two panels together with moles - great, but a bit "in the way" - drill a 3mm hole, and slap one of the fasteners in with the pair of pliers supplied. Release the pliers, and those panels are staying together. Quick squeeze once the welding's done, and they're out.

We kind of ran out of time at the end of the weekend to get any pics done - or, even, to properly finish the job. At the moment, the driver's side sill is just tacked in, the bottom edges of the A-panels need more work, and some more metal's needed in the bottom of the A-pillars themselves. But it's a damn sight further on than it was on Saturday morning.

And it's a lot easier to carry the shell downhill and back home...

The man himself...

Higgs the MIG. Cheers, mate. Owe you bigtime.

Now i see, good work I2F people

just 14 weeks to the French national... will fleabag be ready?

Ask me in 14 weeks...

(Russ... You got a free weekend once the weather improves a bit?)

I've said it once before, but it bears repeating... I'm seriously impressed by the metal working, fabrication, and general engineering skills that exists in the 2CV world. Russ - genuine hero!

wow, nice work, it's always amazing what some pieces of new bodywork do! keep up the good work!

greetzzzzzzzzzz

Well, something's happened. Not much, but something.

I dragged the rear suspension out of the garage, and attacked it with a knotted wire brush in the drill. It became very shiny in very short order. The factory paint really was utterly laughable. Just a nominal blow-over.

Then I took a bit of a finger off. No, not on sharp spinny things, but squidging the tip of a finger between suspension arm and bench. Ouch. Nothing too serious, but it's a bit leaky.

With any luck, and some elastoplast, I'll get the back suspension cleaned up fully tomorrow, and painted, and get started on the front.

The rear arm bearings felt a little less than smooth yesterday, hence asking about them in another thread - viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1433

So - off came the arms this morning, to see what they were really like. And the answer appears to be "perfectly good". So, just a quick clean and re-assemble, once the shiny new paint's dried.

Arm retainer before I started :-

Last person to have that apart was in the factory, back in 1974.

And the rear suspension as it sits now...


That Rustoleum 769 is lovely paint to use. Flows on very smoothly, and covers beautifully. A good thick coat on both rear arms and the axle, and the litre tin doesn't appear to have gone down at all. The Chocolate Brown colour I went for - RAL 8017 - looks to be almost exactly "Citroen engine cowling brown". We'll see how well it protects once the van's in use - but it's fish-based, and I've never seen a rusty fish.

RAL 8017 you say? Hmm - I've cleaned up my engine cowlings, and did briefly consider powder coating. Considering I need more black rustoleum, I might pop a tin of this colour in the order too.

The van's coming on though - on the road by summer?