here's the current state



Needs a bit of welding, some real tidy up of the previous owner's 'enthusiastic' wiring additions...

Some modifications...

and a new paint job yet to be decided.. what could be easier?

interesting! is that passenger front door full of well known cartoon characters?

Neil, the whole body was full of well known 'toons! not to mention flower power stickers and slogans.

So there was in no particular order: Betty Boop, Taz, Scooby, Tin Tin, Bart Simpson, Roadrunner, Yo Sammity Sam, and so on.

All off now as they were all the previous owner's vinyls.

The door you see is totally shot so we didn't remove those ones - be replacing door, but all the others cam off leaving little glossy silhouettes if unfaded paint! check out the front wings for example - will be looking for new or good S/H wings, and some good doors at some point.

It doesn't look too bad, Keep us updated with progress! What kind of paint scheme are you thinking of? a standard one colour jobbie or something wild and crazy?

Mot sure matey, possibly a two tone affair but perhaps a one colour thing. Quite fancy just simply finishing it in a nice pale blue - not an offical 2CV colour. I am also right up for a matt black kind look much like some of the cars I saw at the 2005 WM in Kelso. I really dig the matt look on 2CVs. I am more focused on the little bits of welding needed at present as the repaint will be getting done by someone else not myself as I have no experience in painting a full car. The guy I know teaches vehicle spray painting at a college here and does private jobs for cheap if you supply the paint. He repainted my CX Pallas 2 years ago and it looks really nice - and I still have some paint, hardener and lacquer left over.

The 2CV will take a bit less paint than the CX though.

My fave stock colours are: all yellow (like 007 2CV), white, Matt black, all green (like the bamboo).

Not too keen on all red.

I'm not too sure I'd go for a 'fancy' paint job as the repaint will be done on the cheap. Well prepped for sure but not going to be a crazy iridescent type of thing or anything..

Will update in future..

Little bit of work update.

Generally she's very solid - the sills are very good as is the bulk head and battery tray. The rust problem is all concentrated around the near side rear 1/4 panel and window.

Here's the present state of affairs:

And here's myself in my new over alls what I got for my birthday innit.

So the corner where the 1/4 panel and rear lights panel meet is totally corroded.

But first i wanted the rear bumper off. If the front was anything to go by then the mounting bolts would all be rusted solid - they were
The cross- head of the screw is quite small and after some work with the ratchet screw driver they were each and all totally mauled - I think they're made of plastiscine coated in chrome..

I hit their asses with a grinder ftw

Began some grinding of the rust to see just how far under the paint it hid..

As you can see there's air in there..

The corner itself is seemingly composed of mastic and rust.


So the plan here is to grind and cut out as much of the grot as possible and then form a little plate for it, tack it in and finally weld it. Hopefully I'll make a good enough job of that to grind it neat then primer, filler to smooth the profile and high build primer all before the (as yet undecided) paint job.

The 1/4 panel (sorry, isn't it 3/4 panel? ) has holes through to the back awkwardly at the rear corner 'Jelly bean' window that will need to come out.

As you can see, it had been taped with duct tape by the prev. owner.

Inside:

And fore and aft of this bit there is really hard to reach rust in annoying corners...

^^there, it's right next to the rear belt mounting so guaranteed MOT fail there. The little patch repair behind it had never been rust protected and so is going too..

The rusty corner from the inside - and the mess of added wiring by the prev. owner complete with 2 random new earth points in the middle of the boot floor


Rear inner wings and bump stop mountings are a favourite for rust. Although solid on Bella, they're going to get the full clean, and sealant work. There's superficial corrosion along the forward mounting row of screws of the rear outer wing just needing ground and treated.

T'other side..

much the same - solid now but give it a year or so with no attention and it will go browner than my dress sense.

Front floor is solid but shows sign of water getting in - you guessed it! via the worn wiper spindles!


This bit works very well! starts and runs very strongly but when hot it will sometimes have trouble restarting.


That's all for now as it's just little bits being done as and when. Bella was driven in to this garage with a full MOT - new king pin on the driver's side and such so I reckon it will be a reasonably mellow project

Yea right.

Here's a little 2CV shout out to 'Aphrodite' my '77 CX who provided some camera tripod duties.


Next time!

Thanks got the update fella, would you say that was a photo of your birthdat suit then? The rot doesnt look too bad on it really does it? I think you've got half the battle won cos you're using a car that doesn't seem to have been repaired before, the one I'm doing at the moment has been bodged right up, panels not removed properly, everything seam welded in (the whole length of the floors along the sill) which has left a long bead of weld held in by naff-all! It's always easier when you've got something unmolested to start with. Looking at yours though, I'm not too sure you aren't better off changing the back panel as well? They are a bit tricky but you get a chance to stop all the rot on the sweeps and under the number plate panel next time round, once it's started there, its got a one-way ticket!



The CX is looking sweet too, I've never been brave enough to buy one yet, but I'm sure I'll take the plunge at some point.

Good work mate!

- yes I would!

The CX is one of my dream cars just down a peg from the DS, H, GS and such. It's fabby beyond belief - just like the 2CV wherever you go people are always looking! The hydraulics don't scare me - I've had 3 CXs, a GSA, a Xantia and 2 BXs and never had any hydraulic problems that were so bad that I was put off. In fact the only thing I had was a BX with a leaking front strut. The CX interior has to be experienced as does the float on air ride!!

Well Bella has had some repairs in the past - just the odd little patch - ideally I'd be well up for replacing the whole 3/4 panel but I feel it's a bit hefty labour wise and cost of part wise. I think i can repair the rust holes but we'll see... The back panel I think looks worse than it is - I'll be grinding the nuts off it to see what the rust situation is like for real.

It has had a replacement chassis by previous owner - 2CV people are always asking "oh what chassis does it have"? - and I have no idea! It's a rust free chassis!

I need some advice on the bulk head. I am going to take a layer of paint off, repaint and use black underseal over it (also for a little bit of sound deadening) but wonder if anyone on here knows of a better protective coating to use?

There you go, have a work in progress sig.

Graeme,
that's about the most awkward corner to repair on a 2CV, not helped by Citroen's ploy of wedging a handful of seam sealer into the corner during assembly.
My MOT fellow always checks that area closely as well, since he reckons it's within 300mm of a body to chassis mounting point.
Mind you, it's a good idea to catch corrosion there early, as the surounding panels will be affected badly if water is allowed to enter from 'wheel wash'.

Looks like a Fromey chassis to me, judging by that wavy top plate...

Maybe try these people for material to replace the original sound deadening;
< http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/c-15-sound-deadening.aspx >
I've used both their 'Hardura' and 'Heavy Hardura' on various A series cars.

Pound to a penny that you will find some welding is needed to the inner bulkhead panel when the original sound deadening has been chiselled off.

Ken