I've been reading this forum avidly for the past couple of weeks, and now is time to start participating on it, so here's my car.

I've noticed as well that you guys do fancy a drink or two from time to time, so to set the mood right i'm enjoying a cold cachaca (that's brazilian sugar cane distillated) so bear with me if i make mistakes while writing in english...

I bought the car last year for a really cheap price, she needed a lot of work on the outside but the engine was a runner, a 602cc recently rebuilded that still has a lot of kilometers to walk.

She was originally a standard 3cv (argentinian 2cv6), but a previous owner decided to turn her into a furgonette, adding the wooden box behind. The box was huge, 190cm long, with a lote of usable space inside. It was also quite heavy...











She had absolutelly no suspension at all, rotten chasis, driver's door tied with a rope to the seat, and the wood needed to be changed because it was falling to peaces. Rust was growing freely pretty much everywhere on the car

A few months ago my mechanic got me a shell and chasis from an AZU 250 in way better shape than my car was, and even though i would have prefered to keep the wooden box, for economic reasons we decided to make the change, as we needed the car for daily use and we could not afford a full restoration.

So, new shell, new life for la Paca. Here are some pics of the new look...





And what was left of the old shell, stripped off wathever dignity she may had...





My mechanic was freakishly excited about chopping the old carcass into pieces for easy disposal, a thought that gave me the creeps. Luckily i got in touch with the guys at the local Citroen Club, and gave them the old shell, i think they want to make a service car for meetings. I would have keept it for a restoration project, but i dont have space, i live in a flat with no garage and the neighbourghs are not to keen on the idea of a rottening carcass on the block.

Here's la Paca on a small local meeting of the Citroen Club Córdoba.





And here she is showing her latest make-up, had to paint her like that for legal purposes, here is not so easy to just change your car bodywork so i had to make a few tricks to get her the legal status of "van".



I still think the wooden box was better, my idea is to use it as a camper ant the azu 250 is quite small for that and requires a lot of modifications to make it suitable. And it also looked way too cool, i recon!

It's nice to be here. Cheers!

Interesting story thanks for posting, oh, and welcome!

Hi Tio Pacha, Welcome here. Great little write up and great car. This AZU250 is a camper, viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1234

Maybe you could take some tips? Obviously you would lose out on a little head room because of the roof height.

I love the car how it is. could the whole body not be painted white?

Hi,

Great pictures, I love those argentinian front bumpers! Its a cool looking van.

By the way are you a native english speaker? - your english is faultless.

Chris

nice to see those pictures Keep 'm rolling!

Agreed. I dont think they would suit most 2cvs but the 3cvs pull them of pretty well.



I was thinking exactly the same.

Its great to have more international member like your self
your english is brillliant,better than mine
I prefer the 250 body but thats just my oppinion. Invite your friends to join

Max, i've seen that azu, lovely of course, it's an option, i'm also considering making it longer by opening the back doors and attaching some sort of roof/door to the open doors when preparing to sleep, i've seen pics of this but i can't remember where.

About the color, the white face is only temporary, we're thinking orange or green...



Chris, the bumpers were factory standard, i love them as well, originally they came chromed but mine has had a bit of a rough time...

And no, i was born here, but i always watched english spoken tv series and movies, as well as the music i like, so i just learned it through time. I worked for about a year in a hostel in Mexico, lots of english spoken there with both americans and europeans. I also dated a welsh girl for a while, such an exquisite english, and one of my best friends is from Northern Ireland, and i guess that if i can communicate with her i can speak to pretty much any english speaking person...

Thanks for the welcome!

Absolutely great van I love it!

What difficulties did you face registering it as a van? Are the authorities in Argentina very strict?

Welcome to I2F! I love your van!!