I've read so many of the threads here about other a-series, and thought I should post about my 2CV.

Bought in 1989 for £1500 for my mum to get to work, it also served as the car in which my brother and I learned to drive. We tried to give it a name- Muriel, after the registration plate- but it didn't stick- it was just plain old 'the 2CV' or 'the Citroen'. I still loved it- my brother hated it.

Here it is, all polished and ready to go on the London to Brighton run in 1993.


I should add that when we bought it both the wheels and bumpers were painted gold- it wasn't us wot done that!!

Rust soon made its presence known and within a year or 2 the chassis had to be plated for the MOT, and the floorpans, A-posts and rear seat box began to get holes.

So it was decided to rebuild it over the summer school holiday of 1993. Floor pans, sills and bits and bobs for the chassis were bought from 2CV Cottage near Harpenden. A stroke of luck resulted in a free Citroen chassis (it needed a rear chassis leg fabricating as one had got squashed by a forklift truck at the local Citroen dealer).

So one day at the start of the school holidays I stripped out the floor mats and all but the driver's seat and drove the car to the workshop at the college where my dad taught.

The floor pans, sills, rear seat box and the front cross-member were repaired or replaced.



The chassis and part-repaired shell were then brought back home for the remaining repairs, but that was as far as things got...

The car then sat for many years under a tarpaulin outside, waiting patiently for some more attention.

So here we are, 19 years down the line, and after much procrastination I splashed out on a magnificent Portamig 185 mig welder a month or 2 back and enrolled on a welding course at a local college. The 2CV's time had finally come for something more than just a change of tarpaulin.

The other weekend Dad and I gave the shell a good going over to see what needed doing.


It turns out that all the original repairs will need to be redone- in part because of rust, but also because many of the repairs weren't right. There were also some extra rust holes...

Here's some of what we found..






So the plan is to start at the back, and work our way forward.

Last week I went on a shopping trip to 2CV City at their new premises in Bradford and bought a boot floor, outer skin for the rear light panel, and most of the rear seat box panels. They've got a Y-reg Jade green 2CV in having the same repairs that I'll be doing to mine, so I took some photos for reference.

The first job was to drill out the spot welds and get the badly dented rear outer light panel off to see what the rust was like underneath- there is some rust- not enought to warrant a complete rear light panel assembly, but it will need some sections making up and welding in.


A little bit of tin-snipping and attention with a 1mm cutting disc resulted in this- that inner wing will need some new metal letting in too. The roof rail isn't attached to anything either!


A little bit more cutting and filing resulted in this:


A side panel from an old computer panel just happened to be the same thickness as the original steel, so a bit of measuring, snipping and filing today has got me my first diy repair panels.



Only got to weld this little repair panel into place, but at least it is one hole fewer to worry about. It is also my first bit of welding on the car and it went ok.


My dad is making the repair panels for the sides of the rear light panel, so I will post some more pics up soon.

Nice write-up... and really looking forward to seeing the progress you make! Good luck with it all!

It looks you're ready for the big thing...
The very best of luck to you.

Looks good and appreciate the effort/skill to get welds neat and tidy.

Looking good!

How do you find the portamig for this sort of work? What gas do you use? Any chance of some pictures of welds?

Keep us updated

Here's the first few tacks on that little repair piece.


The Portamig handles its fine- it's got a 15kg reel of 0.8mm wire in, but I have got some 0.6mm wire too. It is a very big and very heavy welder though! I'm using Argon/CO2.

We had the choice of fixing my dad's old Sealey, and struggling to weld on the thin stuff, or saving up and splashing out on something that does really low amps- I went for the expensive, but better option. It really gives you confidence to carry on!

Some of the metal around that little panel was really thin due to rust pitting, but with a little care I welded all round that repair, and after a bit of grinding and sanding it came up fine. Not bad for a first attempt on the car.

We've also got a proper spot welder- just need to wire the 3-phase plug to the house supply.

Any more done yet? Looks like a promising start.

We've got the LH repair panel for the lower edge of the rear panel made- the other side is in progress. I'll get some pics of these up over the weekend.

The weather is so crap- makes working on the car really hard as it is outside.

Finally had some dry weather, so carried on with fixing up the right-hand rear corner.

Job 1- the inner wing needs new metal here. Sliced out the rusty bit, then dad made up a little repair section- this is it before welding.


Afterwards- I couldn't get the grinder in far enough from inside the boot, so I'll have to wait until the boot floor comes out to finish that bit properly.


It was less awkward grinding down the welds on the inside of the wheelarch- still not great due to the curve of the wing. I won't be leaving the end of the panel that long though- it'll get trimmed down soon.


Job 2- time to weld on the repair piece that I made up a few weeks back out of a computer side panel.

All clamped in place.


Welded and sanded. It will still need some hammer action before it is time to weld on the new C-panel. It will do for now though.


I've got to get some decent flap sanding discs- the ones I have been using have either worn out, or are just plain shit (like the Screwfix ones...). Might try some Bosch ones next time.

The car is gradually starting to weigh a little bit more each weekend...

Here's another bit of new metal welded on this weekend:

New lower edge section tacked in position.


Finished!


I hope to finish this corner tomorrow with that final corner section.