A snail’s pace

Lockdown opportunities for James and his 2CV

I’m lucky to have two cars from my cherished fleet on my driveway and still in active service, when the scenario permits. My Smart Roadster, despite begging to be taken on some twisty roads somewhere, is happy to perform shopping duties each week – although the carpets are currently out due to a leaky roof. It’s a job I plan to tackle soon but in the meantime, I saw the lockdown as an opportunity to give my 2CV a good seeing to. It’s a little on the shabby side and I’m acutely aware that there’ll be things required for its MOT this year – not least some attention to the bodywork. The question remains as to whether I patch it up or take it off the road for a full-on restoration, so I seized the chance to spend time stripping the car down for inspection while giving it some routine maintenance. The car was dragged from the brambles last year and I have been using it almost every day until March when the Practical Classics team began working from home. From frosts to lashing rain and wintry gales, it has performed beautifully, with only an aged HT lead and a couple of carb issues causing trouble. Its mechanical simplicity and surprising snugness through the cold season – like being tucked up warm in a flapping tent – allowed me to fall further for its charms and partly as a result, I’m now set on keeping it for life. The commitment is therefore strong.

Rotten luck

Whipping out the rubber floor mats and unclipping each of the seats takes seconds, and so it wasn’t long before I had a view of the entire floor. Winter had not been kind. Where previously there had been evidence of rot, a couple of small holes had opened up in the lower front bulkhead, there was now a short tear between the boot floor and the rear panel and part of what was once the rear seat belt mounting had crumbled to reveal a fine view of the rear wheel. (The car hasn’t currently got rear seat belts – something I would like to fit, once the shell is sorted).

I unbolted the wings and whipped off the doors to peer further and began to realise this was not the total basket case I had feared. The boot floor and rear quarter panels to the rearmost side windows would need repairs and the rear panel revealed signs of future corrosion issues. I began to make a ‘bucket list’ of required sections as ultimately, removing the body would make all of the necessary work a whole lot easier.

That’s not as scary as it might sound, by the way. You start at the front end, sliding the bonnet straight off the scuttle and unbolt the