Actually, the Honda-stuff that's fine by me! I had a CB 100 N when I was 16, and these pictures brings back memories. Specially that front brake picture reminded me of how I really wanted a proper hydraulic brake and not that original crap. That Honda engineering dude that came up with that solution should have been kicked in the ding-ding. But the rest of the bike was great

I come to Hondas from 3 years of mobylettes and their exquisite French engineering, it's like heaven!

If I remember rightly the bits that you're missing are like 2 discs with indentations, and 3 ball bearings which sit between them. I think I remember breaking my spare one with a pair of molegrips, can't remember what I was trying to achieve at the time though.

These mechanical calipers don't have a particularly great reputation, I think the drum brake on my Yamaha was better. If you're going to keep this a while, or are looking for things to modify on it, I'd recommend swapping to a modern hydraulic caliper.

A very helpful chap from the honda owners club (I know, I know ) has just sent me all the old brake components from his scrap 100n, which fit perfectly!

I've rebuilt the top end of the engine, and it runs, unfortunately I was a complete numpty and put the base gasket on back to front, so it spews oil everywhere. I'm in no particular rush to get it road legal though, saving all my money for the 2cv so I can't really afford insurance for it right now. I'll leave it till I'm feeling less cross with it.

Back to the 2cv, I've more or less done that nasty corner above the drivers door. The old repair was horrible, I cut all of that out and some more that had rusted away, and some rotten bits of roof.







Then I tried making up a replacement section of door pillar, cutting it and welding it up again like last time. Annoyingly, this bit seems to curve in slightly as well as down, so it wouldn't quite fit.



Since it curves in the plane of the red line, I thought I could cut through everything except the blue line (Which is perpendicular to it), clamp the red flangy bit at whatever curvature I wanted to something flat, then weld it up again. Anyway, it was close to fitting like that, so I just ended up hitting it in lots of imaginative ways until it did fit perfectly.







Then it just needed the roof and gutter section welding on - structurally I'm fairly sure that repair is sound, but I'm not so good at making it look pretty. Hopefully with a few more passes of welding / grinding down again it should be reasonable,and those flap discs make life loads easier.







I'll never get it perfect, it'll probably need a thin skim of filler before painting. I've been rather put off filler as it's been used for plastering over rusty holes everywhere, but in these circumstances I think I might be allowed to use a little.

I really want to get the whole front end of the van finished off and tidied up before the end of the holiday, don't know if it'll happen or not. Feel free to poke me if I'm not working fast enough

George

I filled these places with tin.
It was used in the TV-series 'A Car Is Reborn' .
We have a suppier in Holland who sells the stuff www.rustbuster.nl
The Rustbuster-site also shows how it is done.
It is quite easy if you get the hang of it.
http://www.rustbuster.nl/Solderen_enzo/Vertinnen.htm

Good work as ever George, just thought I had to comment on what a big pile of baguettes you have in the background waiting to be loaded into the van.

Lead loading, of course! I'll have to try my hand at that. All the kits seem seriously expensive for a bit of lead and some flux, I might have a nose around Frome industrial estate on Monday and see if I can get anything that will do. Thank you!





Took me a while to work out what that really was!

You need special lead, not the one that melts at once, but the one that starts getting soft before it melts to a fluid substance.
When it is soft you can apply it to the van and flatten it with a wooden spatula .
After that you have to make it in shape with a sort of file!

The basic kit from Frosts is £40 or so. There is also a "how to" on there.

It isn't really worth working lead to a perfect finish. I don't like creating fine lead dust for one thing. Normally I'll take the highs off with a body file and fill the surface. It will seal welded joints like that permanently. It's the only long term way of the seam not showing through the paint.

http://www.frost.co.uk/automotive-fille ... r-kit.html
http://www.frost.co.uk/how-do-i-load-lead

Wow you've done loads of work, keep it up the end game of driving it will be worth it!!!!