Yugoslavian Ami.., continuing on from 'now-autoshites-flimsy-bodied Shitroen'

[Bfg]

.

update Saturday 22nd :

 

I've started the day by sitting quietly ..to plan what to do next.  I now have just seven more working days here before I fly back to England ..and with the steering pinion, the brake master cylinder leaking, and not being able to buy parts like the exhaust or headlamp adjusters off the shelf (as I'd been led to believe), plus a growing list of other issues coming to the forefront - things are simply not falling into place.  In short : WCPGW is ! 

 

Don't get me wrong - it is NOT all bad news, far from it in fact - but simply on a long distance collection like this ; unless most things fall into place then the timescale goes to pot.  So rather than wait until my back is against the wall - we'll now focus on arranging shipping the car back ..so that over the next six months I'll have more time, and my own work space, to sort the car out.

 

As I wrote beforehand ; the shipping discussed was to have the car transported to a Belgium ferry terminal. If instead I can get the driver to deliver it to The Hook of Holland  then I can (hopefully) easily meet it, drive it on and off the ferry, and then arrange a trailer to get the car from Harwich to Ipswich.   Of course the car will need to be driving, steering and braking this week. 

 

  question re. wheel alignment :  Peter Russek's repair guide for the Ami Super says 1 - 3mm toe in.  Janez tells me that on the other A-series it's toe out.  Can anyone confirm one way or the other. 

 

 

8,315 views

[forddeliveryboy]

With movement in the steering, it's not going to be possible to align accurately, but I'd say Peter Russek is right and aim for 1 to 1.5mm toe-in. The car's handling is different from a standard A-series, with front and rear anti-roll bars and more weight out front. A bit of toe out could well induce a snap-happy tail at high speeds.

 

I reckon you're doing the right thing shipping it back, although the Autoshite way would somehow to have arranged the local docs, set off on a Grand Autoshite Tour through the finer parts of Europe in Spring, only for a breakdown at a viewpoint/bar somewhere high in the Dolomites...

[Bfg]

... the Autoshite way would somehow to have arranged the local docs, set off on a Grand Autoshite Tour through the finer parts of Europe in Spring, only for a breakdown at a viewpoint/bar somewhere high in the Dolomites...

 

^ That was the plan, but one trip to buy the car, plus two trips to work on the car ...to date,  and it's not yet road legal. The costs have mounted up and I've still got a bundle to pay out yet.  

 

The risk of Autoshite breakdown I'm prepared to take. But driving a car that's unfit for the road isn't for me.  As the man says "you've gotta ask yourself one question:  "Do I feel lucky?"   Well, do ya, punk?" 

 

..nah, things are going fair to good thank you very much, but I'm not going to push my luck any further than necessary right now. 

[forddeliveryboy]

Yup. Working at a distance on an old vehicle is always going to be a challenge, let alone in a different time zone where you don't speak the language and rely on air travel to get there. I struggle with 15 miles, at times.

[Bfg]

update 24th October :

 

The agent for 2CV & Burton here in Ljubljana was off to Italy this weekend and said that he will try to get the new pinion and a master cylinder for me.  In the meantime I wait to hear from the exhaust supplier ..but I think it will be a silencer from the Dyane and a custom made pipe for between the first and second silencers. And I'll now wait until I get back to England before I order the headlamp adjusters.  So, aside from organising shipping back to England, with the time I now have available I need to :

1) get the car reassembled (fuel filler pipe is not fitted, lights need refitting + interior)

2) running & driving (although not necessarily road-legal)

3) I have a new fuel pump and a new vacuum advance unit, plus HT lead set etc. yet to fit.

4) to get the reg docs into my name

5) protect the car as best I can from further corrosion

6) to adjust the driver's door - which is presently hitting the b-post and the front wing.

7) to recover the check straps that had been dropped inside the two RHS doors when they were removed (need to do this to prevent the doors from getting blown forward and creased)

..these and other minor in whatever order happens according to outside influences*

 

I started by adjusting the LHS driver's door. removing a shim from under the top hinge, and making a shim for behind the catch plate. It's a time consuming task but where the door was catching the b-post in two places the gap is now more correctly adjusted and the door's window frame up the A-post is sealing better. That frame is cracked where it meets the door but I'll weld that up when I get the car home. 

 

Before :

 

After :

^ spacer removed and a little hammer adjustment where the check plate bracket had been hitting the front edge of the door

 

^ ..that's better

 

 

I had to remove the rear RHS wing to sort out what's happening with the fuel filler pipe, and that meant undoing the series of bolts below the parcel shelf.. Now me being me ; I consider that black-felt covered parcel shelf to be bloody useless and even more than ugly.   I'd much prefer to have a soft cover for the luggage as and when I need it but otherwise to have the benefit of extra height under the rear window for when packing things upright (like a tent or chairs). ..so I took the opportunity to loose it..

 

^ That's more airy   Parcel shelf was cut out with a grinder (while Jan held cardboard up to protect the surrounding glass from grinding splatter).  It's surprisingly heavy despite the four speaker holes.  I did make a few enquires regarding whether I'd loose too much body stiffness with this chopped out but as one chap pointed out the estate version never had it. And now that I've left a flange all the way around I'm sure it'll be fine.  

 

^ I've left a ledge to rest a soft parcel shelf on, and have turned the inboard edge down as a flange.  I'll trim it straight when I get the car home. The parcel shelf (now ledges) include the captive nuts for the upper seat belt mountings (even though Janez forgot to fit the lower outer ones through the wheel arches).  I'll personally not fit rear seat belts unless current legislation forces me to. 

 

 

As it happens, Jani and Barbara's daughter - Larisa along with her boyfriend Jan wanted to play this weekend - so I focused team squirt's attention to cleaning off the surface rust of bodywork scabs and treating these with rust-convert acid, making a point of wiping this stuff into as many overlaps of double skin construction as we could.  Most of the scabs were around the doors, from where they'd be carelessly manhandled off the car over the years, from where the edges had been chipped (hung poorly - so hitting the door frames or wings, or from old parking in a garage knocks) and of course the scabs typically starting to break through along the inside bottom of some doors.      

 

^ Larisa and Jan removed the inner door panels, cleaned out best they could with wire wool, a scraper and vacuum cleaner, and treated the inner door with rust converting acid. 

 

^ And again  on the RHS, Larisa was able to reach in to recover the lost door check straps, before scraping, wire wooling, and treating the door inner skins. Somewhat ironically the RHS front door check-strap bracket (on the A-post) is 10mm too high.!

 

^ There are dozens of areas like this.. far too many to copy here. Surface rust removed along with surrounding chipped paintwork until back to clear metal, then treated with rust converting acid.

 

^ Likewise where a ski roof rack had taken the paint off.

[Bfg]

nothing today

 

..I was changed and about to work on the Ami when Jani phoned to say he'll be back in 20 minutes, and we'll go into Ljubljana to collect the pinion & master cylinder, that was at 9:30am.  Jani was with his father at the doctors, and then he phoned to say father needed tests. Not knowing whether he would be here in 30 minutes or when.., I waited.  After 3:30pm we finally left and even then had to divert. Got back at 7pm disappointed ..as the pinion he found was a fatter diameter, and the brake master cylinder was 17mm bore rather than 19mm dia.  Apparently the one I spotted in the catalogue was not for LHM.  I've borrowed the 17mm master cylinder ..but before I fit it I'd thought I'd ask what you guys think.. Smaller bore master cylinder ?   

[RayMK]

Pedal travel will increase slightly, but this should not be a problem if the brakes are fully locked well before hitting the floor.  People sometimes fit a smaller bore master to increase the mechanical advantage and thus reduce pedal force i.e. it takes more pedal travel to expel the fluid around the system than the previous larger bore.

 

PS: and, of course, I'm assuming the smaller bore master cylinder has sufficient stroke.....

[Bfg]

^  That's generally what I was thinking. I estimate the smaller bore would necessitate around about 12.5% more piston stroke to move the same volume of brake fluid - but I haven't yet had a opportunity to work out what distance that would relate to at the pedal.  Conversely the pressure would likewise be 12.5% less effort at the piston.. but I don't know if that is needed or even desirable with this car's GS front brakes and the extra brake shoe area on the rear drums.  Road tests of the era never complained about braking performance nor suggested the car needed a servo.   

 

The cost is two & half times more - when I need to buy a new reservoir as well, and there will be a few (minor) hassles in mounting the 17mm master cylinder.  I don't yet know if its longer length and also longer twin-feed reservoir will foul the under-bonnet stowed spare wheel. And its mounting bolts are 10mm rather than 8mm.  Drilling out the pedal is not a problem but the throttle pedal mounts on one of those bolts.., so do I change that also ?  It makes more sense to sleeve the master cylinder holes.. if I can find a bit of 10mm pipe with 1mm wall thickness  ..in someone else's non-mechanical workshop.   

 

Tomorrow I have a look to see what the ratio is between the pivot and the push-rod, and the pivot and the pedal. I'm guessing it's something like 5:1, so 10mm extra pushrod travel would amplify to 50mm (2") at the pedal. And I can't see that's a workable proposition. One bubble (which would normally hardly be noticed or at worse pump up) verses brake pedal hitting the floor !

 

Bfg

8,510 views

[Bfg]

..it's been a pretty shit day today (regarding working on the Ami). Aside from being the first day with warm weather.. WCPGW did..  I needed to get the fuel system connected, but the fuel filler & its breather pipe were not attached to the tank.  It's a 1 minute job to attach these pipes (which had previously been fitted) when the body is off the chassis.  But.. due to they now being inaccessible ; the rear wing had to come off, car had to be jacked up, and the tank dropped again.

 

^ the arrow shows the stub onto which the breather pipe fits.. and jubilee clip ! It's a little disappointing that the body mounting clamps weren't painted at the same time as the chassis & body. They'll all have to come off again.  Two clamps are missing on the rear out riggers. And although Janez fitted the missing bump stop brackets into the inner rear wings, no rubbers were fitted ! ?

 

The fuel filler pipe cracked when I tried to straighten a kink out of it (bollocks - I should have left it alone !) and Jani couldn't find anything but a straight pipe (radiator hose) of the right diameter, which he bought on my behalf.  Had to fit it (which of course kinked even worse than the original)  because I've run out of time and need to get the car drivable at least on & off the ferry or roro.  Don't know why but breather pipe was too short by 6" ..and Jani couldn't get that dia of pipe this morning.  I bodged it with a scrap of old pipe simply pushed into the other.  He came back this afternoon with the hose, by which time I'd refitted the wing.  It'll all have to come off to repaint the underside of the wings anyway but bodging a job takes fives times as long.

 

I'd bought a new fuel pump, but when I removed and checked the one fitted it seemed fine, so I replaced the gasket and refitted it.   In doing so I turned it around and re-routed the fuel pipe so it's no longer running over / close to the carb heater exhaust pipe. 

 

I wanted to fit a one way valve to prevent back siphoning, but only had 6" of decent pipe to fit it with (..just one of the many joys of working away from your own garage). I needed cut it in to two pieces - so measured it up to get a nice curve ..but then fitted the longer piece to the wrong side of the valve .. double boollcks !  Impossible to get that bit off intact ..and having no more pipe - it's another job I have to redo when I get back home.  

 

Anyway the bodged fuel pipework is now fitted, and the rear wing refitted. I did a bit of subtle panel reforming (hammering) to tighten the top flange plate = close the gap between the top of the wing and the body side.  That wing now has a better fit and alignment  ..And then it started to rain and get dark early - so all in all a couple of hours work took all day.  

 

I checked my mail when I came in and the e-mail I sent yesterday enquiring about roro bounced back.    

 

Three working days left before I pack up..

 

Brake Pedal : I measured this afternoon, and it has an almost 7:1 ratio for the pivot to pedal : pivot to pushrod. Therefore an estimated 5 - 10mm extra push-rod / piston travel possibly needed with the smaller bore master cylinder (to move the same volume of brake fluid) would equate to 35 - 70mm extra travel at the pedal. 

      That may work when everything is perfectly set up but imo it leave too little a margin for things not being perfect, ie., a tiny bubble in the system or whatever.   Now.,  I'm going to have to refit the leaky old master cylinder again just to get the car on and off a ferry or roro.  Bleeding brakes with a leaking master cylinder will be a delight !

[Bfg]

update 26th Oct :

 

^ view from the driveway where I'm working under the car porch.. Skofia Loka is a rather nice old town river crossing with palace for an Austrian Pope of old. 

 

I had a much better day today   ..refitting the engine bay (using photos I took back in February as an aide memoire). Working right to left across the bulkhead... I first had to work out how the jack was mounted ..sitting over the inner wheel arch. I then made a bulkhead mounting bracket for the regulator, which had been swinging loose (it was originally clipped onto the battery).  I fitted the new battery and then remounted the old brake master cylinder, after freeing up the throttle pedal which was almost locked up on its spindle. And with the help of youngest Team Squirt  member Matej.. bled the front brakes.

 

The brake pedal pumped up easily ..and so bleeding the rear brakes wasn't necessary at this time (for purpose of getting the car onto a ferry or roro).  Btw I got a RoRo price today from Zeebrugge to Essex at just short of £150 +FAT.  That'll work with the driver this end, so all I need to do now is to find a kindly soul with a car-trailer (up to Ipswich).

 

^  The wiring & cable runs on this car are something else. I'll be spending an evening or two cutting to length and otherwise tidying those up ..sometime over the winter months. 

 

Also connected the bonnet stay, the bonnet release cable and am freeing up the throttle cable & carb linkages.. which just need a little oil to penetrate.  And I removed the distributor to fit the new vacuum advance unit.  Went on to refit the coil and connect that up (once I worked out which wire went off to the carb's fuel-stop solenoid). It's all cobbled but it worked before so I'm hoping it'll do to get the car driveable at the dockside. 

 

 

In the meantime Matej was down under painting the underside of the front inner & outer wheel arches with the rust converting acid. It'll not stop corrosion on it's own but I'm hoping it will hold it back long enough until I get some serious paint on them. Brilliant job done  

 

I finished up the day (in the tiny workshop ..because the light had gone outside) with making a substitute headlamp bracket.  Using a discarded picture frame of oak (found in the wood pile) I played around..          

 

 

 

 

^  That'll do for the next 40+ years

[Bfg]

yesterday :

 

It was a morning of administration and collecting the exhaust.  Admin involved transferring the the car's registration into my name (going into the Slovene equivalent of the local DVLA office) then to a municipal office to get the transfer endorsed - which may aid my importation procedure. 

 

Then we went off to get the exhaust, but the company had problems with one of the hot-spot tubes to the carb because it was a smaller diameter than they generally work on (car exhausts) and was so weak with rust that they feared they couldn't weld it.  After some discussion (perhaps only 10% understood as I do not speak Slovene) they sleeved the offending parts (x2 halves rather than slide on) and mig welded it. It looks fok ugly but it'll do for now. Most likely I'll find a moped or scooter shop when I get back to find the right dia exhaust tube bends and cut n shove them to shape, or else find & use flexi pipe .  

 

.the pipe from the first silencer to the second was shot.. and Ami-super exhaust pipes are rarer than hen's teeth in Slovenia.  Predictably the exhaust centre neither had a the flaring tool nor the correct dia of pipe. So, the new pipe of slightly larger diameter reuses the original flared end and also the tail piece (which goes inside the silencer). It's neither good quality bending (nor SS which is what i would have liked) but it's robust and should do the job well enough

 

..and That was morning gone

 

In the afternoon I fitted the exhaust. One support bracket under the rear mudguard hadn't been refitted (mounted along with the rear bumper) and there are no holes drilled nor support plates for the silencer mounts in 2cvKaza's new floor pan.  The front mount of this silencer falls half way across the body mounting outrigger so I couldn't mount that one at all.  But again " it'll do until I get home.!"

 

Young team member Matej came out to help me after school, but with a school friend present his mind wasn't on the job so just two body mounts were taken off cleaned up with a wire brush and treated with rust converter acid.   

 

Barbara (wife of Jani) also came out to help and refitted the rear LHS light unit and front indicators, but after you try to explain the concept of putting the fasteners back in the same holes they came out of so they don't get lost or mixed up - four times ... I had to say 'thank you but no more jobs today as it's taking me too much time in supervising.. and I really need to get this exhaust fitted'  It was way after dark before I finished up and put the tools away for the night.  

 

Anyway progress made

 

[Bfg]

.

update 28th October :

 

Ami's running again...

 

..generally working systematically day by day..  fuel system,  exhaust..,  today's task was electrics & cable runs in the engine bay.  ie., connect everything up and get her running.   Thankfully I take a stack of photos as I dismantle & work - otherwise the jigsaw puzzle (rather more like snakes & ladders) of cable & wiring in this engine bay would have taken a week to suss out.  Zooming in on numerous photos I got it all back together - a little neater than it was but still reminiscent of spaghetti. below..

 

^ the bulkhead in grey is rubberised paint (underseal), and the inner mudguards look a mess because I've not had the time to paint them with anything but the rust convert acid.

 

^ unable to get the correct steering pinion, the old one with totally knackered bearing has to go back in.. It'll do for getting the car on n' off the ferry.

 

Even with five litres of fresh petrol in the tank I knew the pipes were dry and so the engine mechanical pump would be sucking air,  so instead I pulled the pipe off the carb and attached an electric fuel pump to it. Half a minute later of whirring and the fuel system was primed.  Reconnect the pipe to carb, and ignition on..  look out for smoke from wiring .. 'check'.   choke out.. 'check.'   Crank the motor over .. check .. nuffing !  Crank the motor over again .. nuffing !  Barbara enthusiastically bellows in my ear  "pump the choke"  .. "huh !?  the choke ?"  before I knew it she reached over and was pushing & pulling the choke lever in & out.. "Father taught us to do this" ..bugger me and the very next crank it spluttered. It didn't start but even a splutter was encouraging.  I pumped the choke a few times more, cranked the ignition and she started easily & without fuss.

10 - 15 seconds of running on choke and I progressively eased the lever in.  Ami sounded smooth and unconcerned, as if she'd been in regular use on a daily basis ..rather than engine out, body off and kicking about in the back of a workshop for the past six months ..and before that run only a few times just for a few minutes ..and prior to that, buried under household garage clutter for sixteen years. 

 

undramatic (thankfully) the car now starts easily.  The throttle cable is still a tad sticky &/or the spring is weak - resulting in a fast tickover, so I'll need to tension the secondary spring a little more.

 

 

In the evening, after having refitted the car's seats and tidied tools away, I made the other two headlamp pivot supports (these are lightly sprung against the left / right adjuster screws. Having worked everything out the other evening - these took half the time. below..

 

 

 

the other lights are fitted. This is the last.. and the boxes of bits once removed are now down to just a handful of items like seat belts & air filter

.                Bfg

 

 

Question : I have a little smoke coming from the regulator when the car is running (charging).  I've not yet investigated further but any have an idea why this might happen ? 

 

195 replies

8,773 views

[dollywobbler]

Getting there! Smoke from the regulator sounds bad. How is the voltmeter reading?

[Bfg]

^ Yes getting very close now.. it was showing over-charging with the engine running.  The smoke was coming from the middle winding on its base.

 

...fortunately, very soon after team member Jan spotted the whift of smoke - I turned everything off and disconnect the battery until I had a chance to investigate.  I looked on the interweb last night and again this morning for a potential cause or advice, but aside from 'there may be a short in the wiring somewhere' or 'the contacts are possibly sticking closed in the dynamo'  it really wasn't a whole lot of use (not least because this car has an alternator).

 

Furthermore, the two repair books I have on the Ami Super with wiring diagrams illustrations didn't help much as they disagreed regarding wiring colours, and each illustrate the wires going into a loom ..so aside from Mv going to the ammeter I never did find out where the other two (white and grey) wires went to.!   In any case my wires have no colour collars ..and white or very light grey wires look much the same after forty years in an engine bay,  and my Mv (mauve) is clearly blue !

 

^ from Peter Russek's repair guide, which further emphasizes that the grey wire goes to the middle of the regulator..

 

This morning was a late start, it being Matej's 14th birthday an all, but I removed the offending article (the regulator caught in the act of smoking behind the battery box). I set it down on the bench for a good talking to ..and removed the plastic lid.  see below 

 

^ inside is all in very clean condition and the contact points were not obviously burnt nor corroded.

 

And then I looked at the other contacts...

 

^ I'm sure you can spot the offending piece of debri (..when set against a white background).  I have no idea where this wafer-thin flake came from (the screw to the seal lid was rusted up so it hasn't been open for many years) ..only that it is just magnetic enough to stay in place ..and to electrically bridge across the solenoid as if the contacts were stuck closed. 

 

With this removed I set the wiring to what it had been when I bought the car (after zooming right the way in on my aide memoire photos)..

^ white, grey, mauve or possibly yellow (?) according to the wiring illustrations

 

Thankfully the regulator was undamaged and the ammeter's needle, when the motor's running - now points nicely in the middle of the charge range. 

 

Bfg

 .

[Bfg]

Update 29th October (yesterday) :

 

At last...

 

..

 

.

 

I drove the Ami around the block - aside from maneuvering in the garage and on the driveway (again yesterday) this was the Ami's first drive in 17 years ! 

 

My dear friend Jani took pictures so I'll ask him for a copy so that I can upload a couple

 

Bfg

 

[forddeliveryboy]

Great progress, it's always good to get a restored car up and running even if not to the standards needed to use on the road. 

[Bfg]

^  Thanks..  Was in conversation today with a political radical this afternoon who could very much relate to and understand my frustration in this country.  As Jani says perhaps we were naive to accept "yes we can supply that part to you - no problem" (from an independent Citroen parts supplier), only to find out when we went to collect that the parts they had were parts for the 2cv and Dyane.  As I understand it.. this culture is so used to making do with whatever parts they can get their hands on that the thought of their not being the right didn't even cross their minds.!

 

I had tried to anticipate the supply situation when I spent a small fortune on brake parts (all new calipers, slave cylinders, brake shoes a& pad, etc.) and fuel pump etc., even though I didn't know if they would be needed.  But what does one buy and carry on the plane as 'spares' - the whole car ?  The reality is, unless you're very lucky, then even a couple of two to three week visits isn't enough.  Not least when you work for two weeks only then to find you need something crucial ..and that would need shipping from France or Germany, and you've only got a few days before you fly home again.  Of course, repeatedly coming & going was never in the budget. 

 

Once the car is back in England then I hope to source the parts I need (the seven gear 25mm dia steering pinion & a 19mm brake master cylinder in particular) and to get the car roadworthy, inspected and registered asap.  I'll then drive it as it is and have the rolling restoration I had hoped for when I first bought this car.

 

 

I'm still chanting "In the end it'll be worth it" three times a day.

And even just from the quick drive around the block I can see that the car will be fun ..in a supercharged even uglier than a 2cv sort of way    I like it again   

 

 

p.s. Jani recorded a short MP3 video of the first drive ..but I don't know how to load / show it on here as it's 134mb in size.  ..can anyone advise ?

[forddeliveryboy]

 

And even just from the quick drive around the block I can see that the car will be fun ..in a supercharged even uglier than a 2cv sort of way    I like it again   

 

 

 

Ha! It's a while since I drove a Super, but do remember there was something a little mad about them, in a good way. You can't throw them into a fast corner with quite the same abandon you can a good small engined Ami - mass centres - but if you can pedal a good 602 quickly enough to sail past modern traffic on winding B roads then these are seriously quick, from A to B. 

 

The Super-chassied Dyane I knew a few years ago was a proper hoot once sorted, the ride height (and the relative height front to rear) was critical to fast cornering. It was a 1220 engine, so I could try most of the bends I know well at a variety of silly speeds and once you learned how to feed it in, nothing fazed it. Surprising given the chassis is a modified version of the standard, but they did know their onions - you've only to peel apart an old 2cv chassis and see the beauty of design, if not simplicity. 

[Bfg]

Larisa has uploaded the Yugolsalvia Ami super's first start onto u-tube < here >          

 

And then ..

 

the first drive in 17 years < here >         

9,014 views

.

[dollywobbler]

Nippy!

[Bfg]

26th Oct : 

 

...Btw I got a RoRo price today from Zeebrugge to Essex at just short of £150 +FAT.  That'll work with the driver this end, so all I need to do now is to find a kindly soul with a car-trailer (up to Ipswich).

 

 

update :

 

I'm hoping this will be sometime next week..   ie., sometime between the 7th & 11th November ..if anyone can help me with car trailer and towing vehicle I'd be very grateful  ..from Purfleet Docks, Essex to IP6 near Ipswich  ..naturally all expenses paid.  

 

p.s. Unfortunately my old Voyager doesn't even have a towing hitch so I can't just hire a trailer 

 

Bfg 

 

CIMOS-Citroen Dream Team : Jan and Larisa (Left),  Barbara (right), with Myself, Matej and Jani (top to bottom centre)

[Bfg]

.

update Thursday 3rd November :

 

I returned home (flew in to Stansted) yesterday and as previously arranged went straight to the near Colchester e-bayer who has a 19mm brake master cylinder.  Unfortunately despite being only 2:30pm he'd gone home ! ?  It's a 35mile round trip from here ..but as I need it I'll just have to try again some other time.

 

The Ami is all packed up, awaiting collection.  I was concerned about my tools being pilfered en-route back, so I've buried them in folded cardboard, in the floor of the boot with all the old (replaced) parts piled on top.  I've then left that uncovered so would-be thieves can see the 'junk' and hopefully be dissuaded from delving deeper.

 

Today is a day of  r. & r.,  washing clothes, haircut, opening post, etc.  I've also sorted out a few photos of Slovenia which I took with the Canon SX700 recently bought off shiter bramz7  ..Big Thanks to that man.   It's a great pocket camera which turns on & auto focuses very quickly, and has a stabilizer - to capture shots that might otherwise have been missed.  Easy to use, but I need to play around with settings just a little more - as it's not a sharp an image as my usual Panasonic DMC- FZ. I'm sure that's more user ignorance than the camera though.!  I'll post just a couple here (as it's not Ami stuff).., but Slovenia is an incredibly beautiful country.. 

 

Bfg

 

^ Jani and Matej (photo is a composite of two photos & the join is pretty obvious - but it reflects the mood nicely)

 

^ you don't have to drive many minutes out of town to find clear roads and great countryside

 

^ This is the town of Skofia Loka where Jani & family live. It's an ancient town with small industrial centres, but the bigger industrial towns are Kranj (20 minutes away) & of course the capital city of Ljubljana (40 minutes away)

 

Slovenia is on the Sunny side of the Alps.  North is Austria (Vienna is I believe about 6 hours drive away), south is the Adriatic Sea and Croatia. West is Italy (Trieste is nearest coastal city, but Venice in only a few hours away) and to the east is Hungry.  Talking about hungry the food served in Slovenian is generally from fresh produce and is very tasty - sharing some of its neighbour's cuisine, and also it being a crossroad of trading routes. 

 

^ And not at all far away is the Austrian Alps and the road across Southern Germany.  NB this photo was taken on day two of my trip (three weeks ago) ..The others were taken at the the end of my trip (a couple of days ago).. the change to stunning autumn colours over this short period was quite apparent. 

 

^ just 15 minutes from Skofia Loka..  and again below..

 

 

I could provide hundreds of such photos showing the country's beautiful rural countryside. But this is probably not the place.., so I'll provide a link (later this evening) to a Autoshiter's photo topic.. for anyone interested in seeing a few more.   Edit  < here > posting # 249.

 

9,186 views

[Bfg]

13th Nov :

 

no news is not always good news.. 

 

I've been physically inactive this week because since from the beginning of the week I pulled my back and have been struggling to move around.  Worryingly I'd also heard nowt about the car coming up to Zeebrugge as planned  ..so I couldn't book the ferry. 

 

And No offers of help from anyone with a trailer or A-frame on this side of the channel either.. 

 

..instead my Chrysler failed it's MOT ...£510 later  

 

I took out insurance through Footman James, which was good price but is now likely to be a hassle because for agreed value I must supply them with F & R head-on, both sides, under bonnet and also an interior photo - which I don't have (..since work was done and the lamps were refitted).  All I have are a few candid three quarter shots and a file full of details ..and yet I need to provide those within 14 days..  I also need to provide details of the condition & its value.  I've now added up all the parts bought and other direct costs to date, excluding expenses of my visiting to friends or as a 'holiday'  (I'll keep that £-figure to myself, but it was worsened by the Brexit driven 25% devaluation of the GBP).  Needless to say that I should have cut my losses and scrapped the car when I first realized what work really needed doing.

 

Had it been in England then I would have done that. It's only because the car was on the other side of Europe and I feared the cost of trailering it back to England (and I was stubbornly determined not to throw money away !) have I found myself facing this huge deficit. 

 

To me a car is not about being an investment, it's about being a car which I can afford to do with it whatever I like, where-ever I like !  The truth is that this car is now neither a good investment, nor is it a cheap car that I can do what the fuk I like with.. 

 

 

Anyway, one day moved on to the next., and this damp & dreary week - when this 'rare' car was supposed to come across to the UK was fast disappearing into the annual of non-history..  

 

I tried texting my dear friend Jani in Slovenia, but all to no avail.   I suspected the chap who was to bring my car up to Zeebrugge had let us down., and Jani was too embarrassed to reply.   I then wrote to say  ' don't worry, just park the car in the lockup (..plan B.) put the cover over it ..and we'll forget it until next year (or something else crops up).'   .. no reply.

 

Days later .. I feared I'd said or done something offensive before I left Slovenia..  What I'd done or said ..I had no idea ..But I really don't mean to upset anyone.   I tried emailing an apology, and left a message on skype.    .. still no reply.  

 

In the meantime, because of my back,  I didn't get down to visit the guy who said he has a brake master cylinder for the Ami.   And when I searched for his contact details (on ebay) all those auction listings were gone !  I traced back through an email I'd previously sent ..and he's away. So I sent him another email saying I want it. 

 

No joy in getting a steering pinion yet.  I'm told it's unobtainable.   I'd quite like to find someone with a Citroen GS/GSA  steering rack because its 7-gear pinion looks the same*  ..but amazingly (considering how commonplace they once were) ..they're also rare cars nowadays, and nobody seems to be advertising used spares.   (*note : Rob at Chevronics has enquired and he thinks otherwise)

 

I've otherwise been corresponding with the Mod-Con Registrar at 2cvGB  re. a car I built c.1987 using the Ami super chassis / mechanicals and the GS's flat-four OHC 1298cc motor, as he now has one which was never finished. 

     I drove mine down to the 2cv world meeting in Portugal (in '88) hence the camping box on the back ..way back when some of you guys were still in diapers !   With an all up weight of around about 500kg  she was a quick car   But with next to no weight in the rear half of this car - its weight distribution between axles was not exactly ideal for high speed tight corners (like Mallory Park's hairpin ).   I also sent Jani  a copy of the 35mm piccies I found & scanned .. Again no reply ..Something was very wrong here..

 

Then.. yesterday I got an email from Jani saying he'd been kidnapped ..by an ambulance to hospital .. again.   

 

My thoughts and prayers are with you bro.. Take care of yourself and get well soon    

 

 

(Below) for those interested in kit cars :  here's the Ami-Super based one I built almost 30 years ago.! It's a Falcon XS  of 2+2 configuration (I had a very pretty redheaded girlfriend & two black Labradors at that time).

 

^ note bottom right the bonnet split (opening the nose cone) for better engine access. The eagle eyed enthusiast might also spot that I reversed the exhaust manifolds (which normally sweep forward before coming back), so as to lessen their external presence. The rest of the engine, alternator, oil cooler & engine fan ducts all remain close to original.

 

 

   NOTE :  If anyone has an Ami Super V5 (log book) I might lay my hands on - I've recently bought another Ami-super chassis (without documents) onto which I'm now rather keen to build another special.

NB. For those not subscribed to this forum and so unable to send me a message, my email address is :

Peters Snailmail

at G mail

. communication

 

Thanks Bfg

9,384 views

[forddeliveryboy]

Never expect things to work out as planned if you lead an interesting life, that's the trade off for not sitting in an office 40 hours a week slowly decomposing! Old cars always frustrate at times, it's just their way of making you appreciate them all the more when everything's going well, daylight hours are lengthening and the sun's out. 

 

Perhaps these prices will cheer you up a little? 

 

https://www.classic-trader.com/uk/cars/search/citroen/ami-8

https://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/1038532490.htm?ca=12_s 

[Bfg]

^  404 - Page not found

The page you requested was not found.

 

 

..but I did find on www.leboncoin.fr  this < ami super >  for  a mere 15,000 â‚¬   ..with 40,000 km more than my own ..which may be what you were pointing to ? 

 

..which does suggest some margin yet to my budget.  But who would buy such a car for such a price ?  No mad rush of buyers it seems as the photos are dated in September  

 

< How many left ? > suggests at least nine Ami-supers are left in the UK (though it seems as if some might have fallen below the radar). 

[Bfg]

.

15th Nov :

 

Thankfully Jani's home and recovering well.   I spoke to him yesterday on Skype and it seems the problem was not as before but rather a virus (nasty stomach bug) that was going around, causing him first to not be able to hold any food down and then to dehydrate.  ..but I know it was all my fault because I wasn't there to force feed him beer ! 

 

Anyway while talking, I asked if he would have the team pull the car out and take some photos for the new agreed-value insurance policy.  They had decent weather this afternoon so family all pulled together (or would that be pushed ?) to get the car down their driveway - enough to stand back and take clear front / back / each side shots.  Additional shots required included interior and under bonnet, plus one of the odometer reading. 

 

Thanks guys & gals - The photos were great and didn't need Photoshop enhancing* at all.   

And they have been sent to Footman James Insurance this very evening, well within their 14 day prerequisite. 

 

I hadn't noted to take any finished (to date) shots of the AMi super before I left Slovenia, so here's a few of those they took today.

 

^ inner arches are covered with dried on rust convert acid, so look shite, but when these are painted body colour and the spare wheel is cleaned up and fitted with a new tyre - all should look much brighter.

 

^ Repainted wheels and new tyres will add to the car's transformation. And likewise - paint chips, scratches and any scabby bits are emphasized by having their surrounding paintwork wire brushed and treated with the rust convert acid.  I explained to the insurance company - this was work in progress.   

 

 

^ speaks for themselves

 

^ love the shite colour ..but I couldn't live with the nylon covers ! New carpets to be fitted 'as and when'.

 

And then just for fun  ..a bird's eye view \?/

 

Transport to here in the UK is 'pending' but at least now the urgency has past. 

Thanks again guys and ladies.

 

Bfg

9,501 views

[trigger]

I love the patina on this.

[forddeliveryboy]

I remember a test drive in an Ami Super with my Dad, when I was about 2. It was other-wordly, sadly he didn't purchase. The noise remains in my head to this day - only knowing cheaper English stuff at that young age, the smooth revvy engine was amazing.

 

In the early 2000s I had a saloon Ami which was fast, it was if it created low density air around it. On the level it would hold a steady and true (well, satnav) 85ish, which I was always amazed at for a body which seemed as roomy as an 80s Cortina and which was powered by a 600cc engine designed in the war. I remember the flywheel was heavy enough to make you wonder if it was a solid lump of lead, it actually limited acceleration in first but if you didn't wait between gears, the seemingly lost energy was suddenly restored when you engaged second and it surged forwards to try to keep up with the flywheel.

[Bfg]

.

  ADRIAN fLUX Insurance 

 

today's email ..

 

" re. letter 25/11/2016 ..your latest in the series of correspondence asking for further details.  Please see attached photo of chassis number and also the VIN plate.  Please note that this/these  WERE  NOT  ASKED  FOR  in the seven photos requested (in addition to which I sent you five others to show its recent chassis-off restoration)  nor in your subsequent correspondence.

And also Please Note that  I  HAVE  ALREADY  SENT  YOU  a photo of the interior  EXACTLY AS REQUESTED  ie., through the passenger door showing the condition of seats, steering wheel and dashboard, in good light  ..in the email of 15th of this month.

Quote : " Interior (1 photo).
For most vehicles the interior shot should show the state and condition of the key elements within the vehicle. For campervans and motorhomes, therefore, we request that the interior shot is taken towards the rear of the vehicle toshow the living accommodation. For other vehicles it is best to show the interior at the front of the car. It is a good idea to shoot through an open passenger door and try to include the front seats and steering wheel/dashboard in the picture. Again, make sure the picture is sharp, not blurred. There should be sufficient light to show all details of the interior "
 

You might also like to advise customer services &/or your managers that after three weeks of  your not providing the insurance cover I asked for (ie., at the agreed value), with your telephone sales being terrible, and after your having not sent the paperwork in the first place - then I am not a happy customer.  I have been a customer in the past but right now I would not recommend your company.  And as I have just bought another elderly Citroen, then I shall not even ask Adrian Flux to quote for insurance on that car, nor for any other insurance I have.   Not only POOR SERVICE but really frustrating as well !

 

Peter "

 

 

...vent of frustration over

9,829 views

[Bfg]

.

  ADRIAN fLUX Insurance 

 

after almost a month, and eight or nine correspondences, 13 photos and a spreadsheet of my spending to date, plus examples of prices, and an explanation of this car's restoration to date and of its rarity..  I've received a letter to say that their agreed valuation is 60% of what I was quoted for (..and what I've paid for the car, parts and services to date). !  However they have not suggested a lower premium for insurance cover to the lower value.

 

Interestingly..,  the day after I agreed to take the insurance out (and paid for it).. the sales agent phoned to say that he had forgotten to tell me that I could not cancel the policy..   I've never tried it but I'm wondering whether to write to the insurance ombudsmen, or else just to cancel the policy, to right off the amount and never use them again for the next thirty years.?  I'm worried that all insurance companies all talk to each other and it would be a right pain in the wallet if I was black listed.  

 

Conversely, if I have this much hassle just getting them to insure a standard car for an agreed value, what hassles would I face should I have changed anything (even to mildly modified the colour or interior) and then have to claim for an accident or theft.?   

 

ADRIAN FLUX  have lost my confidence.  I have motorcycle insurance with them (with different underwriters) but I'm not a happy customer..

 

 

Correction :  My classic motorcycle insurance is with Footman James   who insure my bikes at an agreed value over the phone - no hassle,  no photos,  no forms to fill in,  simply an agreed 'insured value'.