Citroën 2CV
James wonders if his 2CV will be ready for the show ‘2CVS never left the factory shiny. Even the odd paint run wasn’t uncommon’
As you read this, members of the PC team will be either toasting a resounding success or we’ll be slumped in a corner of the NEC, head in hands wondering what on earth went wrong. I’m sure you know the feeling, either way. The objective was to have the project 2CV ready in time to be reassembled and started for the first time at the Practical Classics & Classic Car Restoration Show, with Discovery – but at the time of writing, I honestly can’t say if it’ll happen or not.
We began with a car of two halves, with the body and chassis parting company again (the last time they did that was in 1975 when they went into storage). With the 2CV’S chassis looking fairly sound (more of that calamity later), we carefully placed the freshly-welded body shell into the van belonging to friend of PC, Clive Jefferson who, alongside the magazine’s Project Manager Matt Tomkins and expert fabricator Theo Gillam, went to town on the car simultaneously with their torches, resembling a budget recreation of Ghostbusters.
Once the new floors, sills and lower bulkhead had given the car some structural integrity, it was time for the top half to get a good blasting. For this, we turned to Nick Graham at Sodablast UK Limited for assistance. Based in Newcastleupon-tyne, Nick has worked in the masonry conservation business for 30 years and has tackled anything from monuments to churches and even Hadrian’s Wall. So presumably, if he can restore a 1000-year old wall, a 64-year old French peasant-wagon wasn’t going to be much of task? ‘Actually, it was a challenging car to do’ he says. ‘The body is so thin and delicate!’
Nick swears by sodablasting. The system is capable of performing the removal of anything from stubborn coatings to the gentle cleaning of extremely delicate surfaces. He gestures towards nearby projects – a Wolseley Eight, Porsche 911 Targa and a couple of Escorts Mkis. ‘Any classic car is a fairly delicate thing. The important thing about soda blasting is that it can be used very precisely, removing one coating of paint at a time, if you want.’ We watched as he
worked his magic in his roomy Tyneside workshop. ‘The next biggest facility to mine is down the road and they do oil tankers.’ A few days later, the shell arrived at Nene Valley Body Repairs in Northamptonshire, where proprietor Tom Kruger-dean was somewhat mystified when I explained how it was vital for all the manufacturing defects – spot welds etc – should still be visible and that it was okay if the panels weren’t completely straight.
2CVS never got a particularly ‘nice’ paint job either and this one was to be no exception. I focused on a nearby E-type, our faces reflecting in its deep blue metallic paintwork and I told Tom how the 2CV must not be anything remotely like it. He replied with bewilderment. ‘So, you want me to do a rubbish job?’ Yes, actually.
Grey matters
Lucy Cutler, an expert in early 2CV models from the Deux Cheveaux Club of Great Britain (2CVGB) reminded be of the car’s budget vehicle origins. ‘No Fifties 2CV left the factory looking shiny and polished. Even the odd paint run wasn’t unknown!’ From 1948 to around 1959, all 2CVS were grey – changing shade only a couple of times during the first decade of French production (2CVS built in Slough between 1954 and 1960 could be ordered in colour). When my car was imported to Britain in 1963, one previous owner had painted it a murky shade of green.
The original factory stamping, with ‘AS 16 F 4’ crudely stencilled on the engine bulkhead, gave us all the info we needed. ‘AS’ is the paint manufacturer (a company called Astral, in this case), ‘16’ is the 16th day, ‘F’ is the sixth letter of the alphabet (sixth month of the year) and
‘4’ denotes the year (1954). 2CVGB’S Lucy explained further: ‘Because your car was built and painted on June 16th, 1954, the colour you want is AC118 Gris Foncé that was used on cars built between October ‘52 and September ‘54. It’s no longer available.’ Oh, good.
It seems no modern paint coding system recognised the formula, so I eventually turned to Autopaints Brighton. The car’s unsalvageable ventilation panel had some of the original paint on the inside section so I sent it to the Sussex facility and they were able to match the colour. All 1940s/50s 2CV models got a satin-style finish, so a matting agent was suggested. A tin of finest Gris Foncé arrived as Tom and his team carried out final repairs to the body.
Mouse house
Back at the PC workshop, Tomkins and I stripped the suspension from the chassis Rustbuster whisked it away for a dose of corrosion prevention treatment. The early 2CV chassis was much better made and this one looked particularly good. It wasn’t. As they cleaned off the old underseal and carried out repairs to the floor, Ian and Chris Allen discovered hidden corrosion inside, where areas of the C-sections had crumbled and a colony of mice had taken up residence. Rustbuster’s fabricator Steve Spinks worked his magic, cutting out the rot and welding in thicker gauge metal.
Three days later, it was ready to be painted. ‘When it’s cold and damp outside, the dew point is more important than the temperature’ says Ian. He and the team are truly meticulous. ‘Sweating steel can’t be painted so you have to measure the temperature of the steel and ensure it’s around 5 degrees higher than the measured dew point.’ With a coat of Rustbuster E-M 121 applied to the chassis, the hollow sections were injected with Rustbuster Techshield cavity wax and it was ready to return to the PC workshop.
Talking of preservation, it turned out the tiny engine hadn’t fared well after 64 years. On a freezing cold Saturday afternoon at the Bourne Citroën Centre, Barry Annells and I cracked open the engine to discover it had suffered through abandonment – particularly the corroded crank. Barry scratched his head and shuffled off to a dark corner of his workshop, returning minutes later with a spare engine in his arms. ‘We’ll use some bits out of this’ he shrugs.
This was last week. And I still have no roof, seat upholstery, trim, instruments or headlights. For these items, I’m searching contacts in France and may end up having to go there to pick them up and I’m sat in the middle of a fresh delivery of numerous mystery parts from The 2CV Shop. As I write, we are just twenty days from the big NEC reveal with no working engine, panels and wheels in primer and a shiny chassis stranded on axle stands. See you on the other side… ■ james.walshe@practicalclassics.co.uk
USEFUL CONTACTS
Autopaints Brighton, autopaintsbrighton.com 2CVGB, 2cvgbco.uk 2CV Shop, the2cvshop.co.uk Citroëncarclub, citroencarclub.org.uk Nene Valley Body Repairs, nenevalleybodyrepairs.co.uk Soda Blast UK, sodablastuk.com
‘The chassis had crumbled and was home to a large colony of mice’