that is slick!, I want a tartan interior NOW!

I need to have a new Carte Gris issued first for the original owner as they have lost it (he died a few year back). So I have all the documents required for this EXCEPT the Contôle Technique which is a problem at the moment and will not be possible for at least another 9 months of work. So for now, I should be able to get a Fiche de Vehicle which is basically a print out of the existing Carte Gris. I can then use this to take to the test centre when ready so they can do the CT using that as the registration document.

I am investigating now if I can get a replacement Carte Gris (due to loss) without a Côntrole Technique, but I am not holding out much help.

Once I get the replacement Carte Gris for the original owner I then request a new Carte Gris in my name and present a document saying I bought the car. Already having the CT (I hope).

So I do not envisage a problem getting the registration but it may take a year. This is OK as the family who gave it me have not moved from that house for the past 300 years so I don't think they are a flight risk

If it was a stranger giving me the car and I was to never see them again - I would not touch it at all.

Tripyrenees... Did you know that this story will end like this ? You have some great neighbours there... May luck, force and good sun be with you in future fight with bureaucracy

Not at all - I was helping him move it from his cousins barn and was expecting to put it in his barn (he is a retired farmer). But when I went to get him to see where to put it, he said if I wanted it I could have it.

I took the rear wheel to get the inner tube replaced yesterday at my local Norauto store (it is like halfords, but one thing I have learnt about living in France is, Familiarity Rules - so I use this place all the time for generic bits & bobs and they are now starting to do me free favours and give me pretty good discount, plus two of the guys there love 2CVs and 4Ls.

Anywhoooo, they started to blow up the inner tube out of the tire to check it and they were a little surprised when I hid behind the wall. I mentioned to them that it was 59 years old.... it didn't phase them. They replaced the valve and put it back in the crappy old tire.

So now I can at least push the car around the drive as it sits on its own rubber again.

Took the rocker cover off today (it was sunny outside). It looks a little furry

Squirted a mixture of diesel/Oil into the cylinders and onto of the valves, just to see if anything budges.

All the documents have had to go off to the big city in Toulouse as the car is a little old and not in the modern computer system. So hoping when it comes back it will all be OK. Then I take it on the trailer to the MOT centre and get a total fail BUT a certificate that is valid for 1 month - I then will register it in my name that is the plan... will have to see if it works.

That looks really nice, but it's particularly good that it comes with a complete history.

And I'd say you were very lucky to get a late model like that -though precisely which model is now a little difficult to see, as the link you originally posted to Le Bon Coin is now as dead as a dead thing!

Do keep us all informed of progress: I'd be surprised if a good squirt of diesel into the bores won't free the engine up eventually, and if the bores are already really rusty it won't matter that much. Rather than trying with the starter, how about jacking up a front wheel and turning that, with it in gear?

After all, you may well decide to keep it.....

Excellant idea - why didn't I think of that instead of trying to weld up and make crank handles that just bend and split.

And, yes, I think we are definitely keeping it now. The local prefecture sent off the documents to Toulouse yesterday and I will await the temporary Carte Grise.

Very happy

Hmmmm!!

Just jacked it up, put it into gear and turned the wheels. Both wheels turn but not the engine.

It is turning very easily, not like the clutch is slipping or anything. Tried all 3 gears and reverse.

When I crank it from the front handle, it is solid until I depress the clutch (disengaging engine) and it spin fine.

So wheel cranking is not working here, any ideas

You only have to jack up and turn one front wheel. If you jack up both, the differential will turn other wheel (in opposite direction) and no drive goes to gearbox/engine.

If you can turn engine with crank only with clutch depressed then it sounds like gearbox jammed, but tractions are a bit strange. Starting handle connects to end of gearbox, I think.

Might not be what you want to hear, but given the amount of rust which is visible on that rocker gear, I'd advise against making any attempt to turn that engine, never mind start it.

The last thing you'd want to do is destroy the engine's bearings and oil feed system by feeding them with engine oil laced with powdered rust...

ken