Good evening and welcome to my humble 1987 motor. I have been a member of this site for some while but never actually posted anything.

Firstly may I say what great website this is, I find it hugely entertaining and I like the broad section of members. I shall make more effort to contribute to posts. I thought I'd introduce my car first in this section.

I am a member of 2cvGB and have already posted the general story of my car on their website. So what I'll do here (to save repetition) is dig out some pictures of Olive when I first took delivery in March 2009. We all love to look a pictures of dirty, rusty old bangers.

In a nutshell I brought this car via ebay with no MOT or history for the price of some magic beans. I had no mechanical experience and little beer money to spare.


Here she is looking nervous at what's to come.


Bottom shot, you start to notice every panel has a bit of rust or a little dent.


I know nothing of the previous owner, but they did leave a trilby hat in this farmyard style interior.


the hood looks OK from here but actually has a nice slash in it.


This was her least photogenic side, I can laugh at it now, but I certainly had rose tinted specs when I brought her.


She looked like a bare knuckle fighter with broken teeth and black eyes.

Next time I'll load up some post MOT pics.

I totally agree


And thanks for contributing to it! I like pictures.... Looking forward to the rest.

So what happened next?

I did the following essential and cosmetic jobs to get her on the road, it took about a year:
Replace headlights – reflectors were rusted through
Replace hand brake and adjust it
Fit a fog light – original had been ripped off at some stage
Replace one of the wheels – corroded no longer holding air
Replace various bulbs
Replace light switch
Replace horn
Replace side repeater
Replace missing pedal rubbers
Fix broken bonnet catch
Replace missing rear seat belts
New bumpers – the old ones were sharp and battered
New front grill – to give her a pretty face
Replace missing wing mirror
Replace missing hub cap
New seat covers
New hood
Paint wheels white
Various patching up of the bodywork
And........
The welding included:
Seams of the boot floor
Seat belt mounting
Welding in new floor panels
And, gasp, some welding of the chassis - think it has the original which overall isn’t too bad.


First big run over to Brighton just after passing MOT.


In go the Mehari style seat covers.


Getting ready for a new hood. This is when you are reminded how fragile these creatures are.


Summer sun is a distant memory.


Looking much more happy now.


Now ready for travels.


English pub car parks are still a dangerous place to leave your car.

Nice! You've made it look surprisingly tidy for what clearly isn't a full 'restore'.

Cracking job.

Hi Eastbourne.....Hastings here! Found your post interesting as i have a vaguely similar story. I bought my 1982 2cv Charleston about 4 months ago from an 85 year old dutchman in Tonbridge. He bought it brand new so it is a one owner car with original purchase invoice from Brussels garage, original keys all paperwork radio etc. It was registered in England in 85 when they came here to live. So it has an immaculate pedigree. I paid a highish price for it but it was sold on a spares or repairs basis and actually i am glad i did buy it (after looking at some appalling rubbish on ebay). However my story is not as easy as yours. I knew the chassis needed welding/replacing and the front floors needed work for the MOT. I thought the best thing would be to replace chassis so i checked out a few places that do this work and and realised that the starting price could easily double or treble from the vague quotes i was given....ie 2 to 5 thousand £. I had already seen "Wessex Ducks" website where they have a tech page explaining how to replace chassis and the more i looked at it the more i thought.hang on, i can do this. So i ordered new chassis from "im up there" (ken) and within 10 lazy days had changed the chassis. As long as you are methodical and label everything it is really easy...and i say that as someone who has zero mechanical experience. But as you may know i am at an impasse trying to find a welder(you kindly replied to my post "welding") and i realise that the hard part is finding a local welder who is not going to charge rip off prices and will do a good job. Well that is going to be sorted out soon and hopefully i will be once again driving probably the best designed car in the world. TBC

What i am trying to say is that it isn't the mechanics on a citroen that are the problem but totally the bodywork as most of the geniuses on this site know. The chassis change is only the begining the hard and costly part is the bodywork, Anyway i am proud of what i have acheived and can't wait to have mine up and running early next year. I must have seen yours at brighton as i went there in my search for a car. It looks as though you have made a good job of yours from the pics. And yes this is such a great site with all kinds of weird and wonderful 2cvers. I'll keep a lookout for Olive next time im in eastbourne All the best

I really like how you've tidied her up, the creamy yellow is a really nice colour.

You are spot on there its not a full resto, I've done the best I can. The strategy was get car running then (as its my first 2cv) check its as good fun as I'd hoped it would be (which it is) then, when she really needs the chassis etc, I could make that investment safe in the knowledge its a car worth saving. Hope that makes sense.

Hello Hastings its a dam shame about your pier, I do hope it can be saved. A seaside town needs a pier.

You are lucky you have got all that history with your car. All I know is that my car was last registered to someone in Pett (near your patch I think) and that it was abandoned at (and I don't know which) MOT test centre in Hastings.

I have considered writing to the previous owner to ask them about Olive's history. But:
A) It seems a touch stalkerish (unless anyone else on here has ever done that?)
B) They could not be arsed to look after the car so probably wouldn't be arsed to write back

I am completely impressed by anyone who can swap a chassis. I hope one day to join this elite band of men/woman. So well done sir.

The colours complement each other very well.
Spotters will note she has a cream bonnet, and not the blue she would have left the factory with
The extra cream brightens the front of the car up, I have thought of changing it back to original, but I like it as it is.