Great tool...do you have by any chance more pictures or plans for the bender Peter ?

Sorry I don't have any more pictures or plans, I made it up as I went along. If you study the picture you should get the rough idea, get a load of steel and have a play!

So it's been a year and 3 months since I last worked on this car. Around the time I was finishing off the bodywork and painting it, I was also building a VW camper for myself and my partner to go off travelling in, which caused the 2CV build to pretty much grind to a halt. I had handed in my notice at the garage I was working in and the plan was to finish my camper and the 2CV, put the 2cv in a lockup and bugger off into the sunset for a while. As it turned out I never got any further than painting the car, so resembling something like a massive Airfix kit, it was wrapped up in copious amounts of blankets and bubble wrap and bundled into a lockup with all of my other worldly possessions. My partner and I spent a year living in our van driving around Europe, returning May last year. This is our blog which may amuse those who have literally nothing else to do with their miserable lives. http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/ti ... /tpod.html

On our return the the UK, I had a brief slip back into the world of air cooled VW's, helping out a mate with a backlog of about 10 restorations. At this time we had to sell the our van in which I was still living, before buying a £400 BMW estate and heading to Edinburgh with all our stuff to search for jobs and somewhere to live. We eventually found a place and I started my own joinery business which eventually brought in enough money for me to rent a small workshop, which is where the 2CV ended up, and how I am now able to continue the build.

It had become almost unbelievable in my head that I would ever finish the car, but after saving up and spending £400 at ECAS on the bits I needed to build up the chassis and suspension I now have a rolling chassis, with great thanks to Martin (Smyth602) who came and helped me out on Saturday.

Loads of space in a Luton!


Chassis set up on trestles


This is what £400 gets you from ECAS..


Started off by fitting the front axle, this plan quickly went downhill after remembering I had chopped up the front axle bolts when I originally removed them, but with a bit of ingenuity from Martin the axle was temporarily fitted with some spare axle bolts and a bolt from each of the brake callipers. They're a bit long but will do until the next round of parts arrives.





Someone has at some point been far too enthusiastic with a grease gun.


Oh how we laughed at my skilled rear axle tube brake line installation. I'll be removing this and re bending it around a broom handle or a scaffold pole or something. I don't know what I was thinking


Next we fitted the spring tubes




I decided to use longer tie bars as I needed some new ones anyway and these seemed like a good idea as the car will be a bit lower than standard. 2 of them fitted very nicely, 2 of them were faulty and would only thread on an inch or so, more have been ordered. Annoyingly this meant that for the N/S I had to use my "schoolboy error" rod eyes that I had tapped for grease nipples in a stupid place.



This is my new favourite tool, Burtons 9mm tie rod adjustment Spaniard. I've bought one to save me stealing Martins.


It was utterly brilliant to get the chassis rolling, albeit minus the shocks as I forgot to order shouldered washers. I had lots of fun jumping up and down on it, watching the spring tubes do their thing!



Does anyone know what purpose this sticky outy bit serves? It's the rear chassis bump stop on vans but I don't see what purpose it serves on a car, It's welded on, but hasn't got the "shoe" bit like the front bump stops.


Til next time!

Very tidy. Like the build a lot.
Stick Out Bit...... limits the "droop"

Peter,
as Subarupete has advised, stops on top of the chassis, both front and rear are 'droop' stops.
Front bump stops are on the side of the chassis.

Have you got another photograph of that rear droop stop, since it looks a bit odd, as though it's been distorted in an accident?
During a heavy front-ender, the inertia of the rear arms makes them swing forwards, trying to tuck underneath the chassis.

Also, the alloy shim/packing piece between the rear crossmember/axle and the chassis is the wrong way round.
There should be a section projecting towards the rear, onto which the droop stop bears...

Re. that blob of grease, it's probably where they hid what should have gone on the bearings.
This is typical of what you'll find when those bearings are checked during a chassis change.

IMG_3002 by slcchassis, on Flickr

Hi Ken, thanks for that, I checked the stops tonight, both are exactly the same and appear to be original, no bends, cracked welds or distortion. I'm pretty confident they're ok. A bit pissed off I have to undo my beautifully peened over lock washers to remove the axle bolts though! Och well, I've always thought the best way to learn is through fixing my own cock ups...

I'm not sure I follow you re; the grease, what should have gone on the bearings? I'm assuming the bearings are ok it's a low mileage (50 thou) so I never checked. Or doesn't it work like that?

Cheers

I'll hold my hands up to that one too - i never realised

Hi Peter,
whenever I do a chassis change, I always remove the suspension arms, not just to check the condition of the taper roller bearings but also to give them the amount of grease with which they should have been dosed at the factory.

The picture below is the inner bearing at the other end of the axle on the same car as that which I posted yesterday and there are two possible reasons for the lack of grease.
1. Grease was a very expensive commodity in France in the 1980s.
2. The fellow whose job it was to assemble the arms onto the axles was a right lazy b@gger.

Bearing in mind that the majority of these bearings which I've had to replace have been damaged by corrosion, it seems to make sense to give them a better chance of survival for the sake of a 500g tub of grease.
Also, the grease seals will probably stand a better chance of fulfilling their designed purpose when working against a smooth surface, instead of one which is rusty.

I know that others claim to carry out a chassis change in about 9 hours, presumably by skimping on details such as greasing these bearings and other components such as fasteners, but if I'm going to do a job, I prefer to do it properly...




IMG_3001 by slcchassis, on Flickr

Subaru Pete would say...... Put a grease-nipple on it....

Not Preaching....

Ecas Bearing £35 each

Centre Punch_£5 + Drill_£4 + Quality Tap_£8 + Nipple (10)_£3 = £20

Time 30mins