Hi all, this is my first post on this site. I have owned my 2cv for around 15 or 16 years and used to be a member of the 2cv-l group on yahoo.
This is "William" My Bleu Celeste,


I've finally got around to his restoration with much encouragement from my son Olly, I suppose it's overdue as I parked him in my garage (William - not my son ) with a broken chassis some time ago- the tax disc in the screen ran out in Jan 2001
I'm lucky in that whilst he languished in the garage I managed to accumulate plenty of spares thanks to a donor car, another rolling chassis and other bits and bobs


The donor car with my willing helpers

I've got plenty of pics and will keep a running update on progress if any one is interested, but now it's time to pop out for some cutting discs for further surgery on the crusty bits.
Dean.

Definitely interested - keep it coming!

great stuff dean everyone will like too see your progress

Welcome Dean. Yes please, more pics as and when you can! Good luck.

Welcome to the forum, we like restoration threads with plenty of pictures.

First task was to strip the donor

I flirted with the idea of a convertible conversion, until I looked outside at the rain falling yet again..


The donor looks reasonable in the pictures but it wasn't on closer inspection

2cv diy kit anyone ?

and there was even time for fun

This was the first time in many years that I had seen so much of my garage!

More to follow folks !
Dean.

With the wings off it's obvious the chassis isn'y very well, note the front leg dipping down on the right of the photo.

I knew the body was rough in places such as this window surround, but I had cut out the corresponding area from the donor car to replace the rot.

The bottom of the c post was obviously going to give problems as well.
As usual the more you poke and prod the more you find but it's what I expected after all this time.

After stripping the body off the chassis showed it's true colours, as I prepared to strip the rolling chassis I stood on it to get to the other side and it promptly folded in the middle and touched the garage floor!

This rebuild is a typical yorkshiremans version - on a tight budget of course..
All welding will be done by myself in old school fashion, that means oxy-acetylene - a true form of masochism on a 2cv with such thin metal. The bodywork and painting will be done by me as well, in fact I won't be paying for any outside help apart from food and drink to keep my helpers Jordon (nieces fiance) and Olly my 14 year old son happy. There's no time limit set for completion, I think setting dates can lead to rushed jobs and too much pressure. It's going to be a labour of love, in some ways the donor was a better shell but William was given to me by a very good friend (Ollys godfather) who is sadly no longer with us. As a result the car has become part of the family and will run again one day.
Dean.