Hey,

Firstly i shall introduce myself. I'm Nick i am 'gay joe's' fiancee as he is apparently known lol. I have just sold my 1.8 Vauxhall Astra Cabriolet for a project. Yes a Citroen Dyane. I do not know as yet if im a convert but we shall wait and see lol

Hopefully going to pick the Dyane up in the next week or so i think i shall be naming her 'Wilma'. What i know so far... She was purchased by the lady i'm buying it off of late husband in 1995 and has move around about a ft in that time so yes Wilma has been sat in a field for nearly 20 years. However despite being in all weather seems to still be fairly solid. From the quick 10 minute poke around i had there needs to be a small amount of welding to the front floor and a general tidy up on the bodywork.

The car doesn't seem to be on its original chassis but is on an 'original' chassis no galvo. The car was owned by someone previously in 1994 for around a year where i think a fair amount of work was done including chassis.

I have paid £250 for Wilma and look forward to the 'minor' restoration project planned. Going to try and keep her as original as possible i have a company car so she will mainly be used for the odd trip around town.

The roof is in a sorry state being shrunken and torn most just general weather damage. So if anyone knows of a good value second hand roof id be grateful just to get her back on the road

Bare with me on the technical terms and info i might need although Joe will be most helpful i've only had the modern cars one of which being a Citroen C4 so this i'm sure will take a bit of getting used to!

So im sure people would love to know what she looks like so pics to follow.

Welcome here, Nick!

Joe text me last week asking if I recognised the number plate - but unfortunately I didn't! Am I right in thinking Joe got tipped off about it's location thanks to a customer? How did they take you knocking on the door?

Best part of twenty years parked on grass, blimey. Although, on the face of it, it doesn't look *that* bad! Always nice to see another Dyane saved and the fact that it's a Vert Jade makes it all the sweeter! Looking forward to the updates...

Great save Nick - look forward to updates :0)

Thanks Chaps,

Yes one of Joe's regular's in BP said he found a 2cv we went for a drive and i shouted to Joe i can see it its not a 2cv its a Dyane!!

Through his customer at BP we arranged to meet the owner and went from there really. Hopefully going to go and try to start her sometime this week check she's not seized up hopefully not. Put a little bit of air in the "tyres" just so she can role then arrange to trailer her to her new home until she is back up and running.

Here's hoping we don't find anything too dramatic we'll hopefully have her on the road in the next 6-8 weeks and the fiddly little bits (making her look pretty) i can do bit by bit.

Will post pic's regularly will most likely film the initial start-up of a very well rested Dyane

Thanks for the welcomes,

Nick

Well done on the giving a Dyane a go and well done on what, is in my biased opinion, the best colour too. You will have fun im sure

Hey,

Not really seen the original color yet as its covered in green mold and moss, so very much looking forward to giving Wilma a good scrub! and then obviously i will also see the extent of what i've let myself in for lol!

Well done Nick..

Hopefully another Dyane saved, and a sensible price paid too!!
Let's hope 20 years in the element have been kind

And just one letter out on the Reg Plate from being classic modern abbreviation...

Hey,

**UPDATE**

Went over today with Joe and paid for her so £250 lighter now took 2 batteries a few liters of fuel a can of easy start and most important of all a hammer LOL and i used it for the reason i thought i'd need to as well (a small tap on the starter motor)

Good news is she wasn't seized.. Bad news she didn't start.. Starter motor has seen better days and after many years of non using and weathering wasn't up for the job very sluggish. However we did manage to get her to fire a little bit and she was picking up some speed on the turn over. Organizing a trailer to get her out of the field later this week will wake a new starter on it and see what she does.

No fuel was getting through so we cam to the conclusion that the fuel line has perished. All electrics fired up no problem all lights worked apart from front indicators.

Had a bit more of a chance to have a poke around too. Needs a bit of welding for the time being on the top of the bulk head just a few scabby area's which don't require to much poking before you put a finger through. Also the bonnet hinge is non existent on the drivers side. Top of A-Panel needs a small plate. Apart from that we already knew the rest tiny bit on front floors. Small scabby area on bottom of a door and a bloody good clean and polish.

Gutted we didn't get her going but i know by the weekend with Joe's expertise we will have her firing on all 2 cylinders

Pictures to follow you can see she has tried to bury herself in the ground a bit enjoy!

I had one that's been stood outside for decades. It also turned over sluggishly and barely fired, that wasn't a dodgy starter. The barrels were full of rusty shit and detritus, the valves couldn't close fully and it was virtually all scrap inside. I'd be tempted to open it up before trying to start it if that's what it's doing, otherwise the eventual fire-up will probably fuck it. That said, you might get away with it.