James:

I have a similar Charleston, and I'm the second owner. I have the original purchase documents showing that it was fitted with a dealer- (rather than factory-) supplied radio. The little padded pod for it sits on top of the parcel shelf in front of the passenger seat.

The telescopic aerial was normally fitted to the driver's side A pillar: the driver could reach out through the window while driving and pull it out or shut it up. 2CV owners usually got through a number of them as each one was successively broken off by the local children.

I have seen a few where the wiring inside the windscreen pillar has been damaged by drilling and winding in a screw for the upper support.

i have an special 2cv arial that goes over the windscreen, no drilling neccesairy. But they are hard to find.

My VW Type 1 aerial arrived yesterday.

I would like to mount it in this location, then run the cable through the bulkhead. Otherwise I need to take into consideration that the window may not swing out and will hit the mast.



The cable unscrews from base which is unusual. So if I need to remove the gray portion of the wing to service the engine, I could easily detach it without having to unhook it from the back of the radio.

I can't tell if the mast is going to conflict with the bonnet opening (kind of looks like it) because of the mounting stud and the cable connector is placing the based away from the bonnet. I guess I could measure the length of the stud then subtract.



It also looks like my radio pod should fit under the dash tray with a bit of notching on the box. There is what seems to be sqaure tubing underneath the dash tray that does not allow the pod to fit flush. Hopefully the bar won't conflict with the radio!

Wouldn't recommend placing it on the filler panel as you need to remove it every time you take the wings off which you will do regularly to adjust tappets etc Put it on the triangular A panel behind......

Ditto.

I first looked mounting it where you recommended but wondered if the mast would conflict with the window opening. I'll take a second look. I guess as long as it runs up along the windshield frame, pillar (or whatever it's called), it wouldn't conflict with opening the window.

I guess I could always mount it vertically?

One reason I thought about mounting it in the location in the photo was, the cable would exit the side panel, make a 90 degree turn then enter the bulkhead through a grommet which might be less likely to leak instead of going in through the kick panel. And less conspicuous.

On the other hand, I guess if I mount it high enough, it could enter the cabin above the dash tray.

Actually the cable unscrews from the base of the antenna. My guess is there is a similar reason why you would need to remove the front wings off a VW Type I for some sort of maintenance even though the engine is in the rear? I've never owned a Type I so I don't know.

One of my Trabant buddies who has a Dyane told me about removing the wings for doing engine work. He says it's not that difficult.

Is he talking about just the gray side panels or the entire wings? Including the large black ones on my car?

Actually if any of you guys with radios, a close up shot of the antenna mounting location would be great!

On a 2CV, it's even easier than on a Dyane:
Remove the triangular panel above the wing (3 screws, M5 with 8mm hex heads).
Disconnect the indicator (turn signal) live connector (near the headlight bar) and it's earth (ground) cable: Originally this would have been from the back of indicator lamp mounting, to one of the bumper mounting bracket bolts on the chassis but on many cars the earthing point had been changed to a more convenient position, like the M5 (8mm hex head) screw that you have already removed from the front of the triangular panel.
You may need to remove the heat outlet "dump" tube*.
Then there's just 4 big nuts to remove (M12, 19mm hex): One where the wing is held to the sill, one where it is attached to the bulkhead (firewall) and two on the upright support for the headlamp bar.
The horn is held by the top nut on the headlamp bar on the driver's side (on a LHD car), so pull off the single connector.
Then pull the back of the wing slightly away from the bodyshell and tilt the wing outwards at the top. Then just feed it carefully past the headlight bar and the front bumper to avoid it scratching the paint on the wing.
(*If the dump tube came off with the wing, it can touch against the tyre and make it a little more awkward to manoeuvre the wing out).
When you do it for the first time, I suggest you jack the car up a few inches to give more clearance. (Same when refitting). Once you've got used to doing it, you won't need to jack the car up.

it's a 19 hex for the front wings. You can use the starter/jack handle. To protect he wings from scratching on the bumper you can put a piece of cloth over the bumper or an old sleeve of a jacket or something..
the arial one the triangular plate can cause interference because it is not fixed well to mass of the car.

Ooops! I don't know why I put 12mm! (Edited now). I did it on my phone so I'll blame predictive text. (Apparently the inventor of predictive text died last week and his funfair is next Monkey).