Hi all, introducing my 2cv, known as ‘Noisy’ my long suffering 1979 2cv myosotis club. My uncle bought this car brand new for my aunt, I still have the original Citroën invoice somewhere.

It was passed to a couple of my cousins as a first car before coming my way in 1992 after I passed my test and dad wanted his mini back! I wasn’t keen on the 2cv to start with, but the fun motoring and 2cvgb club scene won me over.

I went on Raid Morocco in 1994 which is where all of the stickers and numbers came from.



It remained my daily driver throughout College and living in France for 2 years, and all that scruffy student time. Went to the Slovenia and Holland WM amongst many other meetings.




Also had a very tatty Acadianne and Bamboo for a time whilst Noisy was sitting at my parents with broken chassis #3 waiting to save enough money for #4.

I took it off the road in 1999 ish for a couple of years rest, whilst I had adventures in an incontinent black CX and then a succession of boring cars until I got the 2cv legal again with some rusty bits fixed and with fewer stickers to become my weekend car, and my current week day car which is a 2000 Smart (599cc!).




‘Noisy’ was named by my daughter Anna who is 5 and its name has stuck. As you can see the car has smartened up (a bit) over the last few years, kind of like me! When I was taking those back door draught excluder strips off because I had an urgent need to drive round with back doors off, I never thought I’d have a kid and be searching for some plastic rivets to put them back on again.

The most recent instalment was a rather impressive engine explosion whilst driving to my new house up the M4, due to a sheared off head stud. But I have new heads, barrels and pistons to put in very soon and get back on the road!



Chris

PS. Jonno, do you still have that old picture of my car you freaked me out about?

Welcome to the Forum, Chris. what a great story & history your car has! i have a picture of it from the 1997 International at Uttoxeter. It was parked close to another Myosotis blue T reg that had big 'Swatch' decals down the doors. i think it was WDK 821T & if it is then that one too is still taxed!

I like how you've painted the front adventure bumper up!

Good grief, Neil...
'Total Recall' has nothing on your memory, as WDK 821 T has been known to me for many years.

It's just been rebuilt last Autumn, including a new chassis so it should be around for a while longer, even if its colour has changed...

ken.
( Chris, I'm very surprised that your engine was damaged so badly by a broken head stud. When that happens, it's usually possible to wind in an replacement stud and be back on the road in no time.
Unless you decided it was high time for a major bit of fettling?
Btw, don't let anyone near those head nuts without a torque wrench, since over-tightening is what triggers the failure. )

weird init, i can remember stuff like that, yet if you asked me what i did yesterday i'd struggle to give you an answer! isn't WDK owned by a chap called Chris that lives in Dave Edens neck of the woods?

Neil,
in 1997, WDK belonged to Chris's son Russell, but when he didn't want it any more Chris kept it.
Unfortunately, its care was entrusted to my former associates (aka 'The Dangerous Brothers') who swapped the body and got rid of the drum brakes 'cos they c.b.a. to learn how to work on them.

Chris also has an aks400, which will be rebuilt eventually, but first he's going to learn how to weld, rather than let me loose on it...

ken.
( Still pretty amazing that you could pull that reg. number out of the air from 12 years ago.
It gets really worrying when you cannot remember which day of the week it is, but that's another problem, possibly linked to working 7 days a week. )

Hi Chris. It's great to see you on here, and the car still looks cool.

Please remind me, what picture do I have of your car?

Hi Neil that is quite a feat of memory there! do you have that picture? I see that Will has also joined the T reg myosotis club club too - thats a class machine with the 'patina' and lovely wheels, I saw it at the national a couple of weeks ago for the first time.

The bumper is my experiment in stopping people pulling out on me, black and yellow is supposed to subconciously mean danger like a bee or wasp does, you can actually watch cars pause as the driver thinks twice before pulling out!

If you look closely the front bumper it has a tube built in so that you can still use the starting handle, Matt Concannon made it once upon a time. Its also reinforced and has a towing hook as a retaliation to French parking habits.

Ken, I could have just changed the stud, but all of the manifold bolts were also sheared on that side, and the oil supply had stripped its thread as it also came out with a bang. But as you rightly guessed it was partly an excuse to rebuild another and really get a properly fettled engine. It had been making worrying other noises for some time as well.

Jono, first time we met at a L2B camp you told me you'd had a picture of me in my car as your desktop for ages? Quite freaked me at the time, like I was being stalked!

Ah right, I think that was one of it speeding along in the desert. I can't remember where I got it from - maybe Matt C posted it on 2CVGB or something. I'm afraid I don't have it anymore. Somebody I didn't know apparently had my Dyane as their desktop too!

Chris, yes, i do have the picture, but where i'm not sure! I've been actively looking for that set of pictures recently - god only knows where they are, but as soon as i find 'em i'll wang 'em up!

Hi some updates to my poor old car for you all, following some work happening over the last few weeks.



'Noisy' still sitting most dejectedly in the lockup garage. The oil patch under the front was bigger than you can see in this picture.



Some evidence from the outside of the engine of the breakdown - Exhaust manifold bolts have been blown off.



And inside the left jellymould - one head stud merrily jangling about with the end of the stud still wedged in it!



The oil feed is also blown out of its housing, with a thin spirally bit of aluminium still in the thread.



The guilty sheared off head stud. Two good ones outa three ain't bad I suppose, though its the first time in 17 years of 2cv ing that this has happened at all to me.



With the help of Matt C got the whole engine out of the car and started stripping off the ancilleries to go on the replacement engine.

Note the use of axel stands to support the gearbox below



A bit of a panic when I couldn't find the valve stem seals for the new heads and valves and had to borrow the orange trabant to go back and search my shed at home

Haven't got a picture for it, but we got the new heads pistons and barrels assembled, Matt brought a valve compressor tool so I had a first go at doing the dreaded 'collets' - I didn't really find them all that difficult compared to what I was expecting after the horror stories.

Certainly not a patch on a speedo drive cable for difficulty fiddlyness and sheer frustration, I was hoping for better from Citroen (and why do you think we left the gearbox in the car?)



We eventually gave up as it got dark, with the engine and gearbox still resolutely unmated. Went back the next day and with a bit more energetic wiggling of the engine we got the two together.

Matt said something about how a bit of grease is sometimes needed to ease the way. Dirty boy that he is.

Next installment will be rest of the bits on and (fingers crossed) start up of new engine. Blimey I'd better get my skates on my new son is due to be born in 3 weeks!!