Hi there, I am new to the forum, and I have decided to just post once in here instead of here and the welcome thread.

Me and a friend have just got this lovely (ahem) Grey/Grey Charleston as a restoration project. My friend bought the car without seeing it, only seeing a picture of the rear. It was described as needing a new chassis, and some attention to the bodywork. Without further ado, here are some pictures:



As you can see there seems to have been some er, strange thoughts when it's come down to replacing parts. Front bumper is new, front wheels also look fairly new.



The paintjob from another angle.



Here you can see the back light panel is a bit worse for wear.



And the boot floor. Not as bad as it looks in this photo. Although does anyone know where I can get an original wheel brace/jack handle? Can't seem to find them anywhere.



Air conditioning. Also these seats seem to have been changed at some point.



Random bits of trim have been replaced with these blue ones, there's also some more bits in the back.



And the heart. What is missing from this picture...

Aside from the obvious things in the picture, like the rust, there's a few other things wrong with it. The car didn't come with a battery, but was driven onto the transporter. This seems to have been accomplished by pouring fuel into the air filter housing, as the air filter is soaking, along with the base of the housing, and it seems to have run all down the side of the carb. We chucked a spare battery we had in and put the jump leads on, but all we could get was a couple of slow turns from the starter before it died. All other power seemed good. As we don't have the proper starter handle, couldn't try that either. After about 30 minutes with variations on the jump leads, we were beaten by the light for today. The car has also been sorn since 2004, so not entirely sure how well it'll run, if at all.

Aside from that, wipers don't work, and there are a lot of wires hanging from under the dash, where it looks like there was once a stereo. And the handbrake does nothing, clicks up nicely, but the car doesn't hold.

On the plus side, it came with a load of new trim pieces in that snazzy blue, and a new bonnet with an invoice from SLC. It came with 2 123 ignitions, one on the car and one in a box. Also has full service history, including the original receipt.

Well, apologies for the long intro thread. I will keep on updating this as we make progress, unfortunately due to university progress won't be super fast. If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

Welcome!

What a great car. Where did you find it? Sounds like it needs a fresh battery and a decent service. Seats appear to have back adjustment? They're also not Charleston style, but seem to have 2cv runners, not sure what they are from. What are you going to do with it?

Cheers Russell, been lurking about for a while reading up before buying one.

Found it on ebay a couple of weeks ago, we had been looking for a 2cv for a while. I was woken up by a phonecall from my friend the morning after I found it saying he'd bought it and was arranging transport.

Yeah, gonna try and get a good battery onto it asap. Also get some new heater tubes/dump tubes.

The seats do have back adjustment yeah, this is how the seller managed to get the bonnet inside, both seats right back and put it through the roof. They also have headrests, but theyre a bit worse for wear, something seems to have chewed the corners off.

The plan for now is to replace the chassis which seems to have partly collapsed, and strip the rest down to see what needs doing, with a hope to getting it restored back to original-ish condition. Then hopefully hang on to it for a while, unless I get the urge to look for another one.

Adam,
is this invoice supposedly for the bonnet?
Bit strange if it is, as I don't recall ever having sold one...
Ken

Hello and welcome, that's certainly an 'interesting' looking car. Looks like it needs a good clean, and then you can assess how much welding is needed. The welding and chassis change will be the big jobs so I'd suggest sorting them first, the rest is relatively easy by comparison.

My mistake, the invoice is for the bonnet hinge repair panel, I just flicked through too fast.



Interesting is one way of putting it.

Yeah, plan is pretty much that, quick clean then onto the chassis change.

Great to see this. Look forward to seeing this car get well again!

You are in the right place....keep posting !

An early grey/grey Charleston. Very nice, and rare! Nice front end paintwork:-) Good luck with the resto - keep us informed!

Small update - had a few hours free earlier, managed to get the engine to fire. Well I say fire, fart is a better word. It sounded like it wanted to go, then got worse to the point where the engine seemed to be firing against the starter, so stopped there for now. I'm thinking probably timing, but will give it a good going over sometime in the next couple of days hopefully.

Also after clearing the interior a bit, the floor doesn't seem as bad as it first appeared. Although I probably just cursed what's underneath by saying that.

Also discovered first electrical fault - the horn has taken a vow of silence.

Update on last post, after a bit of fettling yesterday and blowing in the tank, the fuel pump decided to randomly come to life just as we were about to give in. Engine runs beautifully now. It was a good feeling finally getting it running on it's own.

Got two weeks holiday coming up so some proper progress should start being made.