Nah,
should go the whole hog and have "Mon vieux bleu deux cent cinquante AZUUUU"...

You and me both; all I need now is someone who isn't as idle as me to put the thing together

I did however make a small amount of progress. I acquired some side rails with the van when I bought it many moons ago. These come as an U section and are unfinished. Since I thought I ought to do at least something today I decided to put the curved ends on them.

Fortunately I had a piece of rusty side rail from which to scribe the right curve. It is always good when I don't have to go all artistic. First step then is to scribe the correct curve.



Shortly followed by cutting the shape in the U section with the trust air hacksaw. A padsaw would work too but I like air tools...



I then simply welded the corners together. The rails that came with the van are proudly stamped SPOG, and appear to be made out of the discarded foil from the afore mentioned Gauloise packets. I like that dedication to reproduce true Gallic tat. I suggest that if you're not used to welding thin metal you get yourself a brass block to use as a heat soak; it makes it easier not to blow holes every where. I know welding gloves are for wimps, but wearing one while holding the heat soak is probably advisable!



I welded the corners on the inside, less cleaning up of welds that way.



And so it came to pass that I had 2 rails cut to length with curved ends on them.



The Citroen ones BTW aren't done like this, the joint on the corner is partially open. This method however stops water from creaping into an open seam.

I've got a feeling I'm going to really enjoy this thread...

Yeah, just think of the fun you could have had

A spanking new black rubber cased 6 volt battery from Lincon and a box from ECAS landed on my doorstep this morning. As you can see from the photo below I have most of the mechanical bits. Hopefully adding a battery to this fine set of grubby bits will have the engine growling and the van eagerly pawing at the ground as only raw 425 power can achieve.

Clearly the unleashing of that many horses all in one go need some means of restraint. ECAS stepped up to the plate with new hydraulic cylinders. The only question now is whether reading out a credit card number over the phone counts as actual work?

It's a start. What I would do if I were you is get yourself down to Aldi or similar, somewhere that sells those fingerless gloves, as we're heading into cold territory rather quickly and they proved a lifesaver for me working through last winter.

twofity azu wrote:
The rear bumpers look fine to me, they're meant to tilt up a bit and be positioned towards the top
because the panel is for a ak 400 and the holes are put higher in the pannel
i had the same problem

The pictures of the grey van I posted has its original back panel, below is a photo of the same van before it got taken to bits and restored.

I'll have to have a proper look to see what Notsmartcar meant. It doesn't look far off to me. I'm probably missing something.

Originally they were on the other way round I just assumed the other way was the correct way but it may have not been the way they left the factory