Adventures

After painting the new floors inside and out, I could bolt the body back onto the chassis. I was a bit fiddly because i had to drill some extra holes, but all fitted nicely in the end. I put the freshly welded and primered seat frames in to get an idea of the space in the car. I …

After the phase of building up the chassis, it was time to continue finishing up the body. First I welded the two bottom sections of the part in front of the a-pillar in. Then it was time to attack the boot. Of course some holes occured after removing the old paint. I welded in …

I painted the chassis after I cleaned it whith a 3FM clean strip disc on an angle grinder. This worked really well for the larger areas. For the smaller areas I used a wire brush on a drill. I used Brantho Korrux paint as a primer and finish coating and applied it twice on most …

I thought that the chassis was in pretty good shape. Little did I know. There was substantial rust and rot in a few areas. Especially at the front of the car where the cabin/bulkhead rests on the chassis. So I cut all rotted parts out and welded new metal in. The first job was …

After doing the first repairs on the sills, i started to fit the new floor panels and bulkhead. At first I planned to repair the bulkhead, but soon I decided to replace the whole part. The car looks pretty bare without its floor by the way. The new bulkhead fitted perfectly, so …

Part one: the sills When buying the 2CV I already knew there would be some work on the floorpanels and sills. Back in the day in France I had seen the way the car was repaired by putting new pieces of sheet metal over the rotten areas and riveting them to the remaining somewhat …

Back in 2005 I had sold the  lovely light blue Ami 8 that I called "Lemaire". I sold it to a good friend who was asked by a filmmaker to participate in a fun movie project. It was about a car that could only drive in reverse gear. They filmed a whole day on several …

Back in 2004, the internet wasn't that popular for finding vintage cars yet. I found a nice Ami 8 Berline in the color Bleu Pétrel in Paris on a French website Anciennes.net. The car belonged to Madame Lemaire. She got it as a present from her late husband in 1976. In 2004, …

A friend of mine emigrated from Holland to France back in the early 2000's. After living there for a while, he traded his Subaru Justy for a 2CV with a local. We visited him each year and during one of those trips I shot some analog pictures of the car which was already stalled …

In between model What have i done? As if i don't have enough cars yet. I bought a 2CV that I have known for a long time. It once belonged to a friend of mine in France. And now it's mine after about 22 years I layed eyes on it for the first time. It's a 2CV AZ from january 1963. …

As the engine was ready to go into the car, I prepared the way by cleaning the engine bay a bit. Then i noticed that the first left exhaust pipe looked very rusty. I had a new one in stock, so i replaced the rusty one with a new one. Then i changed the greasy old brake pads …

After the cilinder heads had been revised I started to replace the other parts of the engine. The cilinder bores were pretty scored and the compression was not meeting the prescribed values.  What to to? I had an NOS set of pistons and cilinders in my stock from the time i …

With the cilinder heads out, I decided on an inspection and soon found out that the valves were a bit worn in. Especially the inlet valves. Also the oil rings in the camshafts had become very hard. I made the choice to replace as much as needed now that the heads were off. I …

With the GS engine on the work bench, i first cleaned it a bit to prevent stuff getting into the main block. I removed the oil cooler and was not surprised that it was a very clogged and dirty because of dried out non sealing o-rings. The cooler is the second main reason that …

It is not often that you see a Ami 8 with a renovated interior, because it’s a quiet costly affair to do it like they did originally at the factory. Because Ami 8’s are not worth that much on the market, and these cars have the reputation of being a cheap classic car, it doesn’t …

After the deception of the gearbox not working properly, I fitted the old one again. A lot of work, especially when everything is clean an freshly painted and you don’t want to damage the new paint.  With the “old” replacement gearbox back in the car, I could finally drive …

When I removed the engine from the engine bay, I noticed the fan case of the engine needed some love and attention too; the paint was faded and the metal rusty in certain areas. Because I’m a sucker for nicely painted stuff, I decided to paint this part as well. But then began …

After repairing and repainting large parts of the car's rear, I decided to renovate the front area of my Citroen Ami8. This project is alongside the restoration of the interior seats and rear bench. I started by dismantling the front. It turned out to be a bit rusty on the …