The first was in orange with rectangular headlights. We had it for about 4 years in the late 70s/early 80s and loved it. Transported our newborn daughter happily for thousands of miles initially lying in a carry cot across the back seat and later in a home made seat secured by a couple of straps to the floor - no safety rules to worry about then Completely reliable and really economical but corrosion began to show so it had to go.

The second was a low mileage Dyane in the 80s (so strictly speaking not a 2CV) which had been rolled. Initially I thought I could fix it cheaply but the bodywork repairs required were beyond my capabilities. So months afterwards a Lomax kit arrived and was fitted to the rolling chassis. Seem to remember the body was the first produced by Lomax as their demonstrator, and it used two wheels at the back. Didn't like that so I used just one but didn't know which side of the suspension to connect to. Flip of a coin and it was joined to the driver's side. Flew through the MOT so I went for a blast on local side roads - and terrified myself. It handled like a pig. Never did find out why so it soon found a new home.

Spent about 15 years then flirting with Beetles, pre war Austins, London taxi, Merc softtop, Stag, DS21, !!B and others but fast forward to August 2011 and the 2CV "hankering" was returning with a vengeance. So with money in my pocket from taking early retirement and a couple of life insurances maturing meant I was soon the proud owner of the 88 D*lly pictured below.



Described as "serviced annually by a Citroen specialist for the past 15 years and waxoiled from new" I reckoned it was a bargain at just over £2k. Since then I've discovered a couple of things which make me question the service history but overall I'm as happy as a dog with two tails.

We've already visited the 2CVGB National at Witney. acouple of village fetes, and the CCC Midlands Rally at Stratford where we've met some great folks. Special thanks to spanners and gaz602 for their warm welcome and great advice - I learnt a lot guys thanks.

I've fitted 123Ignition, overhauled the carb and set the valve clearances (on the left hand side). Also helicoiled the L/H cylinder head to repair the spark plug thread (see where I said earlier about service history doubts ). I've also managed to fix a bad scrape in the nsf wing see pics below. Took ages because I am very rusty at bodywork repairs but I enjoyed it. Also used some G3 to fetch back the shine - amazing stuff





Hoping now to get a few more trips out before the dark evenings arrive. Just can't stop grinning whenever I'm at the wheel.

Cheers

Keith

Hi Keith it was nice to meet you its good to have another localish 2cver,i think you have a tidy car there

Thanks gaz, as I said I learnt a lot talking to you and spanners.

Took this pic on the day. A trio of plums and custard .

Was yours no.2 or 3?

Mines number 2!number 3 belongs to Geoff a long time CCC member from Broadway