Mind the used Jonnys. Anglia 105E & G1 Honda Insight FOR SALE

[jonny69]

October 2023 update:

Insight battery is fixed and it’s back up for sale. No for sale thread because I’m hurriedly posting this while hiding in the shitter because there’s pandemonium downstairs, kids screaming etc. 
 

Aug 2023 update:

Insight is up for sale. IMA battery is dead - options listed.

 

Oct 2019 update:

Ami went off to strangeangel a few months ago. Looks like most of the hosted images are dead unfortunately. Skip ahead to the end and everything is hosted on here so should still be in place.

 

Oct 2017 update:

Got Cavcraft to merge in my Anglia and Insight ramblings from my other threads into this one.

 

Feb 2016 update:

This thread started as a build thread for my Ami 6 but by page 4 it had sort of evolved into a general discussion about flimsy-bodied Citroens. Lots of good information coming in so I've edited the title and we can use it as a one-stop thread for our rubbish cars.

 

Original post:

Figured I'd probably better start a thread about this since it's both ridiculous and rubbish. My main car is my Anglia and it'll be needing a bit of TLC soon because a few things are starting to wear out. Parts aren't quite as easy to get hold of as they used to be so simple swap things like rear shocks can take the car off the road for 2-3 weeks while they are off being reconditioned. I figured a second car would take the pressure off.

I had a go in one of those new Fiat 500s with the TwinAir and really liked the 2-cylinder lump, but I'd had a hankering for something 2 cylindered and air cooled for a while. I was originally thinking Trabant or Dyane and got a play with a Trabant at RRG, but figured the Citroen route would probably be more sensible. Then a couple of early Amis started popping up for sale which I'd completely forgotten about and the decision was basically made. Ideally I wanted a mechanically sound car but a bit tatty on the outside so I didn't have to worry about it too much and so that it didn't turn into another project. The Break was my model of choice so I could haul crap to the tip instead of using her car but I didn't get my hopes up too high since there aren't that many around. This one turned up not too far away with decent-looking bodywork but a bit kenked underneath:

Basically the floors were holed, badly patched up with fibreglass and all the outriggers were knackered. Having restored my Anglia a few years ago, I definitely didn't want to have to do all this work again so I said my thanks and went to leave, disappointed but feeling sensible. He showed me the pair of floor pans that were included in the price and all the outriggers etc are actually part of the floor and not the chassis. This meant no complicated fabrication apart from some bits around the boot floor so I changed my mind, made a deal with the guy and a week later it rolled off a tow truck onto my drive:

If you don't know the Ami, it's basically a big fat version of the Citroen 2CV from the 60's with the same suspension, similar chassis, same engine, but therefore slower and harder to get parts for. That said, there seems to be a decent supply of well-made floor and repair panels. The whole thing is comically flimsy and bendy and the suspension is like a 2CV floating in a pond.

I started digging around mine over Christmas and found it was a bit more crusty than it originally looked. Round the boot floor was the first area of concern. I could see it needed dealing with when I bought it but it was worse when I started prodding:

Up front where I thought it was fibreglassed, I took the grinder to it and it is in fact a massive wad of filler and aluminium mesh:

Urgh. It's a bit too much for me to take on at the moment so save it sitting on the drive deteriorating it's off to Dez's this weekend for him to carry out the fixorZ.

Aside from that it needed a new front section to the exhaust. One popped up on eBay as if by magic so I got that snapped up. The manifold was also blowing and a bit plugged up with Gun Gum but there was a new manifold in the boot which looked like it was the same. I stuck all that on and had it up and running weekend before last. Everything else works so hopefully it won't be too long before it hits the road.

[hairnet]

kewl as furk

 

ps yer fired for the peugeot but not if you buy one with the age numerals the other way round (shame its not a 57 or 58 )

[jonny69]

That's hers. I hate it.

[Cavcraft]

Class, from the days when Citroen made really ace looking cars.

[AlabamaShrimp]

Are these all LHD?

[vulgalour]

Lovely, even with the bumrot.

[hairnet]

apparently you could ask the factory to make you one but there werent many

 

http://www.citroenet.org.uk/foreign/slough/ami6/ami6.html

[Split_Pin]

I love these. I recall seeing them in Menorca in the Mid 90s and being amazed. I've never seen one in the UK.

[jonny69]

Cor, those sales figures are pretty grim. Imagine being the Ami rep

[Joey spud]

There is a faded burgundy / grey saloon one of these being used as a daily that i see parked at a school in Westerham,i assume its a teachers ride and it is cool as fuck the kids must think the owners a total hero.

[dollywobbler]

Nice one. I'm not surprised there's some bodgery in it. 'Hairy' Dave was using it as his daily. Wonderful to have it in the fold here. Technically, these early 602cc engines were not much used in 2CVs, which were still on 425cc versions. These early engines kick out all of about 22bhp and are entirely different to the later 602 engines.

 

I believe there are three right-hand drive Ami 6s known in the world but I've a feeling only one remains in this country. The burgundy one in Westerham belongs to a pal of mine and is his daily. He isn't a teacher though I don't think.

 

Here's one pledge you can believe this year. I will own an Ami 6 this year. It may hold up my plans to get the 2CV back on the road, but it will happen.

[Junkman]

A dark green home-made pick up version occasionally passes my house.

 

Only Citroen could get away with a styling like this.

I love it.

[inconsistant]

There is a faded burgundy / grey saloon one of these being used as a daily that i see parked at a school in Westerham,i assume its a teachers ride and it is cool as fuck the kids must think the owners a total hero.

 

Is it this one?

 

[AnthonyG]

Cool. Buying a rare rusty Citroen Ami to run whilst your Ford Anglia is off the road being fettled is at the core of Autoshite.

 

"Hmmm, parts for the Anglebox are getting a little hard to find"

"I'll make myself feel better by buying a car much rarer"

 

I like the reverse rake rear window rule as well, if you ever need a luxury cruiser to use up all this cheap petrol that's around, try a 1961 Mercury Monterey, or if that is too sensible and unassuming for you, a 1958 Lincoln.

[Junkman]

The electrically retractable reverse slanted "Breezeway" window was first used on the 1957-58 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser (where it strictly speaking wasn't reverse slanted) and then the 1958–60 Continentals, not Lincolns. It was woefully absent on the 1961 Mercury Monterey, and all other 1959-62 Mercurys, but returned on the 1963 full size lineup, if so optioned, to remain an option until including model year 1966.

[wuvvum]

Fark me, 22 bhp for a car that size?  Could this be a vehicle that would be out-dragged by my Subaru van?

[MarvinsMom]

well you have to remember that it is a 22bhp engine in a bigish car that even when new weighs less than a crisp packet. that one with the holes will weigh less than that, citreon were always good at building proper feather weight chassis in the olden days. 

 

a top purchase, i love the plan, to take an unusal car thats difficult to get bit for with one thats even harder to buy parts for. 

 

i applaud you, sir.

[Joey spud]

Is it this one?

 

IMG_1422.JPG

 

Not 100% certain but there cant be many around so it could well be is that a Kent / Surrey border car ?

[inconsistant]

I was talking to the owner of that one at the Brooklands NYD thing, he uses it as a daily. I think he said he was in the NW Kent area. Funnily enuff I papped it towing a lovely aluminium caravan on a Dover ferry last year. He said he had been told that someone had put pix of his car & caravan on some weird Internet forum.

[dollywobbler]

Fark me, 22 bhp for a car that size?  Could this be a vehicle that would be out-dragged by my Subaru van?

 

They're not that big - a bit wider than a 2CV perhaps, but no longer and far more aerodynamic, which is why an Ami 6 will do 70mph. 29lb ft of torque too, so about the same as my 2CV. Kerb weight is 660kg. Problem is, while there's room for four adults, carrying that many people doesn't half affect performance!

 

The burgundy one is a later Ami 6 - spot the rear lights which went on to be used on 2CVs. These used the later engine design with a whopping 32bhp. I think it's one of these I want, even though I like the earlier rear lights.

[Joey spud]

The burgundy one in Westerham belongs to a pal of mine and is his daily. He isn't a teacher though I don't think.

 

 

 

I have just had a look on google street view and the Ami parks at a Building consultants premises based in an old school house in Westerham,does that fit your man ?

[jonny69]

Lol, it's a fair bit bigger than my Anglia and weighs over 100kg less. Whatever way you look at it, acceleration is going to be abysmally slow. I'm not too bothered about it though, as long as it can haul itself up to 50 and sit there comfortably I'll be happy. The Anglia is there for chucking round corners.

 

I don't know my Citroen engines too well yet, but this one is apparently a newer 2CV centre section with the Ami 6 heads and manifolds. Pretty sure that just means the crank case is newer, cc and power output are going to be the same.

[barrett]

Jon, you know how I feel about this one already. When it's all welded up you'll have to come down for an the unofficial flat-twin meet we're planning at some point.

 

For those aghast at the performance figures on paper, these go much, much better than they have any right to. Like all flat-twins they need to be hustled along to keep up the momentum, and acceleration from cold starts is abysmal. Luckily, they have probably the quickest, easiest gear change of any car, and once you're into overdrive top they will cruise all day at 70mph with no compaints. Add the most comfortable seats of evah and you've got a surprisingly capable long-distance motorway cruiser. We did 1000km driving the white berline back from Bordeaux, in one and a half days, and it was super relaxing. The driving position is fab, visibility is great, and you are guaranteed to be the coolest car on the road whenever you go out.

[dollywobbler]

The only problem is trying not to get distracted by the WTF faces on everyone as you drive past. 

 

Moar 6 loveliness.

[jonny69]

What quite surprised me is how bright the lights are. Considering it's a 6V system I was expecting them to be really dim. It seems to crank over quite well too. Not sure what it's going to be like on a freezing morning like today though, the Anglia was really reluctant to get going. I'll see how it gets on, but it might be up for a 12V conversion and alternator if the battery starts to struggle

[inconsistant]

DW, I see what you mean about the different rear lights now. 

 

Here's a hatchback Ami I spotted in it's natural environment a few years ago:

 

 

 

Apparently Citroen used the rear window of the yet to be designed Lynx Eventer for the Ami. That's what I heard anyway.

 

 

---------------------

 

 

Edit: OK, I've Wikipedia-ed it and I see my rookie error. This is a later Ami 8 saloon. I have done a learning.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Absolutely amazing !

 

I should point out that Flaminio Bertoni, who had also designed the TA and DS, considered the humble Ami to be his "grand oeuvre" ! Having said that, Citroen always employed somewhat strange individuals as designers... If more evidence of that is needed, look up Robert Opron.

[Asimo]

I was given an Ami 6 when I was sixteen, but it was 90 miles away from home, I had no money and couldn't drive so eventually I had to say "thanks but no thanks". Regretted wimping out on that ever since

 

Always preferred the reverse angle rear window to the pseudo-hatchback look of the Ami8 / Ami Super. However, quite a lot of soft luggage would go in the space in front of the rear window.

[dollywobbler]

What quite surprised me is how bright the lights are. Considering it's a 6V system I was expecting them to be really dim. It seems to crank over quite well too. Not sure what it's going to be like on a freezing morning like today though, the Anglia was really reluctant to get going. I'll see how it gets on, but it might be up for a 12V conversion and alternator if the battery starts to struggle

 

Pretty much the first car to have non-circular headlamps. And if it is reluctant, you can always get the starting handle out! Have you got a grille muff for it? Essential when it's chilly.

[jonny69]

Good tip with the grille muff. It's got a pair of clip-on fine mesh covers over it at the moment if that's what you mean?

 

It didn't come with a starting handle, or at least I haven't found it yet. I shoved everything in the boot in a crate, but I don't think I spotted anything that could be used as a cranking handle.