Carrying on from yesterday's post I've taken some pics of the rear valance and the fog lamp brackets. What the pic of the valance doesn't show are the holes and bolts that have been used to fix the body to the chassis









Some of you might remember that I have a different heater tube arrangement to a standard car and that the cardboard tubes weren't flexible enough. Well after a couple of weeks trying to scrounge something suitable I gave up and bought silicon ducting which wasn't cheap but is really flexible and does the job fine.



The rest of the evening was spent tidying up the sills as I didn't want to start the grill and then leave it halfway through so I'll start that next week.

looking great!!

+1

cheers dudes, she's coming together at last

I had a vision last night, of driving a road worthy Belinda so thought it was time she had some mirrors (get the pun?)

I had been looking at suitable door mirrors for some time as the car didn't have any when I bought her and wasn't that bothered about original 2CV units (partly because I'd rather leave that sort of thing for an owner who NEEDS them and partly because the tight-arse in me didn't want to buy new units). Employing my "wait until something crops up" philosophy I obtained a pair of Land Rover mirrors whose stalks have seen better days but the glass is perfect. The mirrors themselves are somewhat big for the Bedouin but actually I think they almost suit her and there is PLENTY of rearward vision so I'll be able to see how much traffic I can hold up !! I also needed to fit the inside rearview mirror which did come with the car but unfortunately there were no fixing holes above the windscreen. It was a simple job to drill and tap a couple of M5 holes and then fix the mirror with suitable bolts.





That took a couple of hours so I decided to make a start on the front panel & grill. I'll not mention anymore about that now as I want to feature its manufacture in one post.

Last night was a very successful one for Belinda and I as she entered the last stage of her facial reconstruction surgery. After a lot of umming and ahhing a while back, I decided that whilst the original bulbous nose was, let's say "charasmatic", it just didn't look right and that the flat original look was the way to go. Having started minor surgery to the bonnet leading edge last week, I decided to tackle the front panel & grill and as I'd been collecting suitable metal for it, now was as good a time as ever. Before I go any further I'll just re-iterate that both the bonnet and front panel are supposed to be fibreglass and although I intend to have these made up properly in time, I've stuck with metal for now in order to both practice my welding and to get the car on the road in time for the National meeting in August.

So, having looked around for some suitable metal for a while, I found some trusty scrap shelving units that were conveniantly folded at the edges that could form the top edge of the panel.



Using the previously made cardboard template that was posted some weeks back, I transferred the pattern onto the metal and made some minor adjustments for fit.



As the general shape of the panel is wedge shaped I folded over the side pieces so that the panel fits snugly into the shape provided by the inner edge of the wings and also to provide some fixing lugs. I'd also found a suitably shaped & sized piece of mesh which I thought would look good as an intermediate piece between the panel and the chassis so this was welded at an angle to the bottom of the top panel whilst the panel was clamped firmly and squarely to a flat workbench. This bottom piece also gives some rigidity to the top piece when the centre hole is cut out. The hole was then cut for the grill and bars were cut from another piece of shelving. These pieces were the same pieces as the top edge of the shelving/front panel, if you know what I mean. Then it was just a matter of welding the bars across and tidying everything up.







The end result is one that isn't correct to the original design, but I think it looks the part and I'm very pleased with it. A bit of wire brushing and a lick of paint will see it looking much more the part although I actually like the "raw metal & rust" look.

Oh yeh, I almost forgot - a quick visit to Mark Dunmore saw me in the possession of a wiper motor provided by Jonathan Holmes that when fitted to Belinda, now works a treat. That MOT's getting nearer

Bertie,

Your arab is looking great. I was wondering with the grill, why you didn't continue the mesh behind the three bars? This would give some protection for the plastic fan situated behind. Stop stones from demolishing the fan when you take it to its birthplace in Morocco (or where ever Bedouins come from).

Daffy Duck

Whoah there Daffy, it's not finished yet!! The mesh I used was pre-cut to the size you see it and it did look the part at the time. I did think about some mesh behind the grill as I've seen another pic of a Bedouin with it but in a way I think that unless it's done properly, mesh looks a bit tacky. I do have a proper round grill for the fan though if necessary and if I do fit it, I'll probably carry over the stripey colour scheme to that as well.

i really like that!

That looks perfect, it fits the design really well and looks like it was always meant to be like it, well done Bertie!

I think if you paint the mesh black it'll look a lot more professional than the chavvy silver shiny mesh stuff, it'll be more subtle.

I think as the front is quite open you're best off fitting the finger-filter fan gaurd.

You have an oil leak.