meshking

So where did I get to on this ? It's been sitting unloved, but occasionally poked at in my garage. I did consider a BMW swap, and purchased an engine, but realistically I think that level of engineering is beyond me. When I removed the old engine, I realised the chassis was far worse and hence put in an order for a new one:

Then got the body up:

Before realising I couldn't get the body high enough to clear the tyres without it hitting the garage roof.  I therefore present the patented meshking wheels - OSB3. I guarantee everyone will be rolling these next season.


 
So here we are:

Now the simple task of stripping the chassis, rebuilding the bust spring can, and building the new one up. Whilst dealing with a new job. Easy huh ?

Keen to get more work done on the van since we can't go out. Many moons ago I bought some epoxy mastic converter to try and keep the chassis going a bit longer

Let get this done

quick whiz with the wirewheel...

Better. Mix up this stuff... Wearing a mask obvs..

Couldn't find my stirrers so a rawlplug will do. It says you can spray it, but I'm not sure how thin you would have to make it. It's seriously gloopy stuff. Covers well though, 400ml did the rear arms and most of the rear of the chassis

Turns out this isn't the original chassis - Rick has changed the chassis on this van before, saying that the original one was stuck to the body with mastic - they lifted the whole body up, unbolted, and the mastic brought the chassis with it. Impressive hold, but probably not the best fixings between body and chassis...
Now waiting for an ecas delivery, and for Rick to return to finish off the brakes.

Acadiane in leaving the garage shocker ( just to turn it around to work on the otherside, but ...)
 

 
Wifey seems a little too excited tbh.

So where did I get? Happened to mention this to a travelling 2cv mechanic and he swung by one evening.
After 45 mins:

He drilled out the snapped thing, tapped the thread into it, screwed a new bolt in and welded it to the back plate. 
What I didn't realise is that this has a larger bearing making the replacement drums made of unobtanium. So he kindly offered to take the drums away and separate the wear surface from the hub and replace with a set of drums he had turned on a lathe. 
Better take the other side....
Same story. No friction material left here either. Looks like it has been parked in a lake. I'll get all this cleaned up, new brake pipes going in and we should be back motoring.

So where did I get to on this?
Is currently sitting on a new chassis, engine in and running 

This work took sometime as I managed a change in job and dealt with the loss of my father. This meant that certain things left in the garden had begun to return to nature

Here, my grapevine has decided it prefers french vans to cling to. Understandable.
Spring cans were knackered, so can was replaced.
if anyone wanted to see inside an Acadiane spring tube, here's your chance:
 
naturally, separating a van from it's chassis wasn't completely straightforward but we got there.
Dirty carb into the ultrasonic cleaner helped running. 

And it's nearly there. The plan for the last month or so has been to utilise a traveling mechanic to get it into a fit state, since my spare time doesn't contain much spannering at the moment.
 

Holy moly, it's an update. 
Where were we? Ah yes, fitting the nearside rear wing:
Found some more time today:
 
Ta da!

Hopefully the etch primer I've ordered will arrive this week so I can paint it over the BH weekend. I think that is hopefully welding complete.

Popped down to Hampshire today to pick up a replacement door for the van. The man selling it was clearly a serial 2cv botherer,  and had many many 2cvs. He was also about to start making kits for a pony replica, this is one he had brought over from Greece


Looks fun!

Acadiane in leaving the garage shocker ( just to turn it around to work on the otherside, but ...)
 

 
Wifey seems a little too excited tbh.

Friday night I decided that rather than sit and fall asleep in front of the TV (up at 4am does that to me) I would go and sort the front wings.
Bit of bashing and fillering first (channeling my inner gas monkey / Boyd Coddington with filler levels) got me here:

Then here:

Saturday morning started with an attempt:

 
But the paint gun clogged with a massive paint lump because (a) I couldn't find the filters and (b) I'm not very good at this.
Tried again and got here

Needed to get the space cleared for my Lotus to return from its holiday in my mum's garage whilst we had building work done. Having seen the amount of dust on the van I'm really pleased I did that now!
Started putting it all together lightly:

Happy with my 10foot paint job. 
Next job is to turn it round and finish the other side. I have another wide ripple panel to go on the rear and need to paint the doors. That's proving to be a pain - can't get hold of another windy window door apart from the abattoir in Oxford. Might see if the club has a good slidey window door in their stores.

Quick update. Things are progressing slowly - I lost a bit of mojo, and coupled with busy work things happening I didn't get much done.
 
I did get the new sill fitted, then realised I'd cut out a strengthener for the upper door hinge.... Luckily I realised this before I fully welded it in.
 
Pics below show the progress. Not sure what to do with the window lip at the moment, no repair panels so I'm going to have to put my creativity hat on.
 
Inner sill
 

 
Bulkhead repairs and triangle strengthener tacked in

 
Rusty side window lip

 
 
My thoughts are with the eventual colour. I quite like this:
 

So where did I get to on this ? It's been sitting unloved, but occasionally poked at in my garage. I did consider a BMW swap, and purchased an engine, but realistically I think that level of engineering is beyond me. When I removed the old engine, I realised the chassis was far worse and hence put in an order for a new one:

Then got the body up:

Before realising I couldn't get the body high enough to clear the tyres without it hitting the garage roof.  I therefore present the patented meshking wheels - OSB3. I guarantee everyone will be rolling these next season.


 
So here we are:

Now the simple task of stripping the chassis, rebuilding the bust spring can, and building the new one up. Whilst dealing with a new job. Easy huh ?

So where did I get to on this?
Is currently sitting on a new chassis, engine in and running 

This work took sometime as I managed a change in job and dealt with the loss of my father. This meant that certain things left in the garden had begun to return to nature

Here, my grapevine has decided it prefers french vans to cling to. Understandable.
Spring cans were knackered, so can was replaced.
if anyone wanted to see inside an Acadiane spring tube, here's your chance:
 
naturally, separating a van from it's chassis wasn't completely straightforward but we got there.
Dirty carb into the ultrasonic cleaner helped running. 

And it's nearly there. The plan for the last month or so has been to utilise a traveling mechanic to get it into a fit state, since my spare time doesn't contain much spannering at the moment.
 

So where did I get to on this?
Is currently sitting on a new chassis, engine in and running 

This work took sometime as I managed a change in job and dealt with the loss of my father. This meant that certain things left in the garden had begun to return to nature

Here, my grapevine has decided it prefers french vans to cling to. Understandable.
Spring cans were knackered, so can was replaced.
if anyone wanted to see inside an Acadiane spring tube, here's your chance:
 
naturally, separating a van from it's chassis wasn't completely straightforward but we got there.
Dirty carb into the ultrasonic cleaner helped running. 

And it's nearly there. The plan for the last month or so has been to utilise a traveling mechanic to get it into a fit state, since my spare time doesn't contain much spannering at the moment.
 

So where did I get to on this?
Is currently sitting on a new chassis, engine in and running 

This work took sometime as I managed a change in job and dealt with the loss of my father. This meant that certain things left in the garden had begun to return to nature

Here, my grapevine has decided it prefers french vans to cling to. Understandable.
Spring cans were knackered, so can was replaced.
if anyone wanted to see inside an Acadiane spring tube, here's your chance:
 
naturally, separating a van from it's chassis wasn't completely straightforward but we got there.
Dirty carb into the ultrasonic cleaner helped running. 

And it's nearly there. The plan for the last month or so has been to utilise a traveling mechanic to get it into a fit state, since my spare time doesn't contain much spannering at the moment.
 

So where did I get to on this?
Is currently sitting on a new chassis, engine in and running 

This work took sometime as I managed a change in job and dealt with the loss of my father. This meant that certain things left in the garden had begun to return to nature

Here, my grapevine has decided it prefers french vans to cling to. Understandable.
Spring cans were knackered, so can was replaced.
if anyone wanted to see inside an Acadiane spring tube, here's your chance:
 
naturally, separating a van from it's chassis wasn't completely straightforward but we got there.
Dirty carb into the ultrasonic cleaner helped running. 

And it's nearly there. The plan for the last month or so has been to utilise a traveling mechanic to get it into a fit state, since my spare time doesn't contain much spannering at the moment.
 

So where did I get to on this?
Is currently sitting on a new chassis, engine in and running 

This work took sometime as I managed a change in job and dealt with the loss of my father. This meant that certain things left in the garden had begun to return to nature

Here, my grapevine has decided it prefers french vans to cling to. Understandable.
Spring cans were knackered, so can was replaced.
if anyone wanted to see inside an Acadiane spring tube, here's your chance:
 
naturally, separating a van from it's chassis wasn't completely straightforward but we got there.
Dirty carb into the ultrasonic cleaner helped running. 

And it's nearly there. The plan for the last month or so has been to utilise a traveling mechanic to get it into a fit state, since my spare time doesn't contain much spannering at the moment.
 

So where did I get to on this?
Is currently sitting on a new chassis, engine in and running 

This work took sometime as I managed a change in job and dealt with the loss of my father. This meant that certain things left in the garden had begun to return to nature

Here, my grapevine has decided it prefers french vans to cling to. Understandable.
Spring cans were knackered, so can was replaced.
if anyone wanted to see inside an Acadiane spring tube, here's your chance:
 
naturally, separating a van from it's chassis wasn't completely straightforward but we got there.
Dirty carb into the ultrasonic cleaner helped running. 

And it's nearly there. The plan for the last month or so has been to utilise a traveling mechanic to get it into a fit state, since my spare time doesn't contain much spannering at the moment.
 

I hope you felt privileged to be in the presence of greatness. Two years? Wow.

So where did I get to on this?
Is currently sitting on a new chassis, engine in and running 

This work took sometime as I managed a change in job and dealt with the loss of my father. This meant that certain things left in the garden had begun to return to nature

Here, my grapevine has decided it prefers french vans to cling to. Understandable.
Spring cans were knackered, so can was replaced.
if anyone wanted to see inside an Acadiane spring tube, here's your chance:
 
naturally, separating a van from it's chassis wasn't completely straightforward but we got there.
Dirty carb into the ultrasonic cleaner helped running. 

And it's nearly there. The plan for the last month or so has been to utilise a traveling mechanic to get it into a fit state, since my spare time doesn't contain much spannering at the moment.
 

So where did I get to on this?
Is currently sitting on a new chassis, engine in and running 

This work took sometime as I managed a change in job and dealt with the loss of my father. This meant that certain things left in the garden had begun to return to nature

Here, my grapevine has decided it prefers french vans to cling to. Understandable.
Spring cans were knackered, so can was replaced.
if anyone wanted to see inside an Acadiane spring tube, here's your chance:
 
naturally, separating a van from it's chassis wasn't completely straightforward but we got there.
Dirty carb into the ultrasonic cleaner helped running. 

And it's nearly there. The plan for the last month or so has been to utilise a traveling mechanic to get it into a fit state, since my spare time doesn't contain much spannering at the moment.
 

So where did I get to on this ? It's been sitting unloved, but occasionally poked at in my garage. I did consider a BMW swap, and purchased an engine, but realistically I think that level of engineering is beyond me. When I removed the old engine, I realised the chassis was far worse and hence put in an order for a new one:

Then got the body up:

Before realising I couldn't get the body high enough to clear the tyres without it hitting the garage roof.  I therefore present the patented meshking wheels - OSB3. I guarantee everyone will be rolling these next season.


 
So here we are:

Now the simple task of stripping the chassis, rebuilding the bust spring can, and building the new one up. Whilst dealing with a new job. Easy huh ?

I hope you felt privileged to be in the presence of greatness. Two years? Wow.

So where did I get to on this?
Is currently sitting on a new chassis, engine in and running 

This work took sometime as I managed a change in job and dealt with the loss of my father. This meant that certain things left in the garden had begun to return to nature

Here, my grapevine has decided it prefers french vans to cling to. Understandable.
Spring cans were knackered, so can was replaced.
if anyone wanted to see inside an Acadiane spring tube, here's your chance:
 
naturally, separating a van from it's chassis wasn't completely straightforward but we got there.
Dirty carb into the ultrasonic cleaner helped running. 

And it's nearly there. The plan for the last month or so has been to utilise a traveling mechanic to get it into a fit state, since my spare time doesn't contain much spannering at the moment.
 

In an ideal world they'd take the moaners who complained about them picking up immigrants and do a mid-sea exchange.

So where did I get to on this?
Is currently sitting on a new chassis, engine in and running 

This work took sometime as I managed a change in job and dealt with the loss of my father. This meant that certain things left in the garden had begun to return to nature

Here, my grapevine has decided it prefers french vans to cling to. Understandable.
Spring cans were knackered, so can was replaced.
if anyone wanted to see inside an Acadiane spring tube, here's your chance:
 
naturally, separating a van from it's chassis wasn't completely straightforward but we got there.
Dirty carb into the ultrasonic cleaner helped running. 

And it's nearly there. The plan for the last month or so has been to utilise a traveling mechanic to get it into a fit state, since my spare time doesn't contain much spannering at the moment.