Fantastic stuff

Had the wheels sandblasted yesterday. They are quite pitted so will need a lot of paint.

I left them with the paint shop to be sprayed, a bit more expensive than I wanted but they are in a worse state than I thought too.
Before

After

You got the car for FREE ! So do not complain about the price of the tyres please !

You are like a bloody Dutchman complaining about how expensive things are.
And I know, because I live in the Netherlands among all these Dutch arsholes

I lived in Den Haag tooooooo long

But come on €200 each, not cheap.

So you know what I mean then ?

I have been watching some tutorials on You Tube (Le Mecano Du Dimanche) for various jobs on the Traction. I am now thinking he makes it look bloody difficult.

I prepared myself for the worse taking the castle nut off the front drive shaft / drum. Made up the various supports and tools and put a 2 metre bar on the ring spanner, went to pull down and "slip" it just un wound without a hitch.


It was then the task of removing the drum which you need a special removal tool. I managed to find one on Ebay and won it for half the going price and it arrived yesterday. So put it on (after going out to buy a suitable size spanner - everything seems to be getting larger).

Put it on and clunk, hub drops off - Very pleased with myself.


The previous owner told me that he would drive this up and down to the ski station close by with 11 people in it. Well the brake shoes are down to the rivets and the rivets have made two nice tracks in the drum surface. So it will need to be skimmed a little. But braking system looks to be serviceable - so I will get the slave kits and get them rebuilt. I will also get the shoes relined too as less them a mm is not too good

I had a go at welding yesterday. I need to make an engine stand before I took it out.

In hindsight , the rear bar needed to be lower But not to worry.

So I got a little carried away last night (we have clients now so I have to do the car in the evenings.... darn this having to work lark )

I took off the other wing and light assembly and stripped off the cables and tubes connecting the engine to the car.


This car is just a big 2CV and the body parts are stacking up just the same.


Then out it popped - the engine hoist is bloody heavy on your own with this one. For the AZU I don't bother with the hoist and just lift it out. No way this was happening here.


Engine stand works a treat - not so sure of the table beneath so will take the gear box off toute suite.


Vinnie (I know, but the wife thinks it is a gangster car) is now looking a little naked.


BUT bloody filthy. So far under this crust of grease and mud the structure has been well preserved. It is like digging a body out of a peat bog - I have even seen patches of original green on the engine. No joke there is at least a 1cm thick coating of grease and mud on everything.


On y va - gearbox is next.

Right - got the gearbox off.

I love the Citroen instructions on how to do this.

1. Remove gearbox

Was on my own so had to use the engine hoist again but not so heavy this time.


Cleaned out some of the gunk - looks like a mixture of oil, grease and straw.


But it looks like it has done a good job of protecting it for the past 60 years.


Got bored of cleaning so back to the engine and thought I had better take out the oil (forgot totally to do this although even in the Citroen manual it says to empty the oil afterwards. Bit daft as I had to cup it out.

But I am sure you are not supposed to go through the water layer first before striking oil


But finally I got to the oil, which in factwas a good 5 litres of gloopy black smelly stuff.


I will have to hoist the block up again to get to the sump and hopefully turn it over to start releasing the pistons and sleeves. Not a job I have done before.