Flares.....

[Darren65]

.....as it will have many out and out racing parts.....

....one of which being a 110 Litre Racing Plastic Fuel Tank.....



....looking well used this one has I'm told an interesting African racing past....it may look a little tired but this tank is in great order and will clean and refurbish wonderfully. Huge thanks to a fellow enthusiast for allowing me the opportunity ....

....my understanding is that plastic tanks weren't legal in the UK and why the cars came with standard steel tanks, although the racing tanks were certainly an option elsewhere and certainly fitted. This original item has a well matched date stamp....



....collected today I couldn't wait to see it in situ ....



...still a marathon list of parts to go but at least it's one item shorter!

Cheers,

[patrick911]

Cool item Darren.
Hey, is that a 2CV there next to your 911? What's the story with that one?

[Darren65]

Cool item Darren.
Hey, is that a 2CV there next to your 911? What's the story with that one?

Yes Patrick that's a 2CV, a 1980 'drummer' to be precise although I'm not building it to original spec. I actually purchased that one as an old scrapper to be used for spares, it once looked like this....



....old Citroëns, mainly vans, are my other air cooled passion......several years ago I was in the process of restoring an AK400 to use as a promotional works vehicle....a Porsche driving buddy then introduced me to a friend of his who wanted to do similar and asked if I could help her with some advice.....I offered to help find a similar vehicle although, long story short and despite my better judgement, I ended up selling her my van which she still has....



....I instantly regretted selling the van but luckily I had met a guy importing them from France and ended up buying several (very cheaply) including the car for spares....



....it was a nice idea although work got in the way and nothing happened for a number of years until I was introduced to a slightly mad eccentric mobile Citroën specialist called Rick Pembro who now helps me.....the works van finally got built....



...and found another to use whilst waiting on the builds...



...meanwhile over a few too many beers in the pub one night Rick suggested I buy one of these....



.....and do this.....



...and now with a fresh MOT (road safety certificate) it looks like this....









...and it goes like this....

https://youtu.be/kTB1l6naQuA

https://youtu.be/NqpX-ezYwY4

...a bit mad but great fun and nice to have a change from the seriousness of old Porsches

Cheers,

[patrick911]

Thanks for the update Darren, I love those old 2CV vans. When i was growing up in the seventies, my uncle had a fleet of 'm for his plumbing business. Hence the interest I think.
I'd love to buy and restore a Citroen H-van one day, but then again, life and work gets in the way, plus my current project will take a few years and quite some budget to complete.
Anyway, apologies for taking the thread of topic - love your project(s)! Will keep on following it with interest.

[Darren65]

Thanks Patrick.....always enjoyable to go off-piste occasionally

[Darren65]

I was a little concerned about what to do with the roof, obviously a different shape and my first thoughts were that this would need to cut off and a new one grafted on....





....this would have been a shame as the car has perfect original gutters...





....however after Barry confirmed that front and rear screen apertures are identical with or without a sunroof I made up a template to highlight the varience on the roof itself...



...with shows the centre of the sunroof car slightly higher in shape....





....nothing too drastic and I'm pretty sure Barry with his ability can wheel up an insert and achieve a perfect match avoiding the need to change the whole roof

Cheers,

[Darren65]

Bringing this thread up to real time, the car was taken to the workshop to be stripped prior to being media blasted.....



...on the plus side the car appeared incredibly solid in most areas.....rear shelf and rear seats pans....







...inner rear wings....





...lower screen corners....







.....

[Darren65]

........floor looks amazingly original and largely dent free.....



....sills look original.....



....and I don't think the car has ever been apart, it looks largely untouched with original glass and K-bolts etc and some nice original features......















.....all pretty academic really consider I'm going to bastardize the hell out of it!

[Darren65]

...of course the car still has a bit of rust to contend with but nothing too serious...





....and the footwell seems to have been submerged in water at some point! .....



....I was hoping this looked worse than it was, the outside certainly appears solid with plenty of shiny metal......but of course I wouldn't know for sure until the car was blasted......



Cheers,

[Darren65]

So, on to blasting....



....where the cleaning process did indeed reveal I had a nice original unmolested car.....

=



...fortunately I wasn't around to reflect!....first removal of the underseal....



...followed by blasting....



....who's a lucky boy! .....









....obviously there's rust but nothing too severe and just a tad of what I've encountered before.

....now safely collected pending delivery to Barry next week to start the metal work....



...albeit about 60kg lighter than when it started! .....



Cheers,