Project 1980 Citroën Acadiane | 1967 Citroen Ami 6

[Tamworthbay]

Water and scotchbrite usually sorts emulsion.

[shedenvy]

Aye, if they're off the car then soak them in as hot water as you can for as long as you can - its softens the paint so much it's easy to scrub off.

[meshking]

Thanks folks. I'll get on that next week.

[320touring]

Looking good chap - made grand work of the welding, especially the window channel!

[paulscavalier]

Excellent work

[meshking]

Managed to clean up one of the rubbers, the other is just too far gone. Luckily, just spotted that Ecas have replacements so I'll add that to my next order.

 

Started hunting for a new bonnet, but it seems that the available secondhand ones are worse than mine. Breaking out the welder later to resolve these holes.

 

Apologies for the shaky camera work...

[meshking]

Chopped, welded,grinded, err primered...

 

Not impressive work compared to others on here, but it'll do after a thin* skim of filler.

[stuboy]

keep up the great work

[meshking]

So where did I get with this?

We last saw this with paint on the back half with new doors but no glass.

Enter one wife who decided that a house extension was more important, a new job that is taking up a lot more of time than my old job and not much happened.

The van was left with a thick coat of dust, until the building plans were complete. We're still not there, but decided given the lack of travel I can now get on with it.

First thing was the window sides. This didn't turn out well on one side - the new surround I made up was too small in some places and the existing metal too weak in others. I decided to replace the entire side with a sheet. Worked out ok, need to get rid of a big dent that appeared whilst welding. 

Then I replaced the side rail and the wing with a metal one with correct large ripples. The fibreglass ones on the van weren't looking too good so I took the plunge 

Now with those wings on one side welded in, my thoughts are turning to cleaning up the engine bay ready to a bit more paint then get it running.

Stripped out the old full side:

Sized up new zintec sheet

 

Welded in and checking rail and wing for fit:

 

 

 

et voila:

 

 

[meshking]

Engine bay before and mid cleaning

 

 

[meshking]

Spent another hour cleaning the other side of the engine bay last night:

 

 

I never realised that the chassis were painted body colour, everyday's a school day!

 

The engine looks to have been breathing rather heavily - the tube visible from the oil filler in the top picture was leading to an improvised catch can (an old tango can!). Figuring that was just the reniflard being worn out I was hopeful that it would be ok - however, I found a valve fitted to the oil drain pipe that is used to repair a broken reniflard. So - the engine needs a new reniflard and probably rings/barrels too. A replacement set of pistons and barrels isn't expensive, but it does lead to temptation in replacing it with something faster.

[dollywobbler]

Yes, I quite agree. 652 kits are a good place to start, but bloody Pete Sparrow keeps dangling 720 and even 760cc kits temptingly at the moment. They require a lot more work though.

I was pleased with the extra grunt of my Burton 652 kit, and it'd certainly help with the extra weight of an Acadiane, but I still have concerns about jetting - that I was looking forward to exploring before virus stuff happened.

[meshking]

Thanks - yes I have been reading on the VGS kits. It does get expensive very quickly in all of these options. Probably the most reasonable is the 652 - weren't there issues with cooling on those or is it the 720/760 kits (which need a Visa engine as a starting point it seems - and there are loads of those kicking about!)

 

[richardmorris]

I was tempted many years ago with a sidewinder as they used to be called. Gs lump, but one thing it wouldn’t do was go round roundabouts. It was so heavy up front when I drove it, it felt more dangerous and unbalanced. Nice plumbs and custard one though.

as I get older I think that a lot of a 2cv’s charm is the sweet little engine.

 

edit,  rather like the x1/9 specialist I’ve used for over a decade who has put an Alfa v6  in one. Yes. It’s bloody fast but it cost a fortune and is unreliable.

[meshking]

I agree with the charm. I think I'll probably just go 652 if the consensus is that doesn't affect reliability.  In my care, this van will be used as a van or overnight camping - high power simply not required.

I'll go back to splashing paint then revisit engine work.

[Stinkwheel]

Regarding the engine breathing heavily, yes it always did. One of the previous owners (hello Adrian, you know how I like to take the piss) did admit to starting it after a service and running it for a minute, then realising he hadn’t refilled it with oil. Doh!!!

 

Although having said that last time I had the van on the road (2009) it took me to Cornwall and wales happily on that engine, even the hills weren’t a problem.

 

I’m really glad to see you doing such a good job on this thing.

I’ve even found the original french carte gris logbook for it. Drop me your address and I can pop it in the post.

[meshking]

Oh excellent, thank you! I'll probably just clean up the engine and get it running before purchasing more parts. Will drop you a pm now (and thank you for the kind words ?)

[meshking]

 

Where did I get to? Oh yes. I ran out of abrasives, so ebayer "Dr Abrasives" to the rescue. I thought I would firstly get some better tunes into my garage, bit fed up listening to tinny music through my phone. Rotel amp, Jongo bluetooth and B&W speakers will do the job!

Finishing off cleaning the panel between screen and bonnet and cleaned up the bulkhead enough for a simple coating. One thing I hate about cars that have had paint is when people only paint the outside. So I've painted the insides and will be painting the underside of the bonnet as well the outside ( which is currently green).

Unfortunately, I think I'll have to stop here since my plaster appears to have changed colour. Sigh.

[meshking]

Having recovered, slightly, from my finger injury I took another look at the bulkhead. I had noticed this plate before, doesn't look particularly factory:

 

So I unclipped the accelerator cable to find the tension of the cable was holding in two pieces of steel either side of a rusty hole

 

 

Not too keen on rusty holes, and definitely not keen on just painting over it. Look alike the welder is coming out again tomorrow....

[320touring]

Ah that's a bit of a bugger to find. How is access?

[meshking]

It's not too bad,  hopefully be able to let in a small repair panel. The rust is isolated to that area.

[320touring]

25 minutes ago, meshking said:

It's not too bad,  hopefully be able to let in a small repair panel. The rust is isolated to that area.

Good news:) looks a bit like the section where the MK1 Golf clutch cable goes through a single skin bulkhead. The movement weakens it over time then it rots

[meshking]

23 hours ago, 320touring said:

Good news:) looks a bit like the section where the MK1 Golf clutch cable goes through a single skin bulkhead. The movement weakens it over time then it rots

 

Yep - single skin - so just weakened and rotted through. Shouldn't be too bad a job, just need to let my finger recover for a few days and then I'll dive back in. 

[meshking]

My finger injury has recovered enough now to wear gloves.

Earlier I had cut a plate to fit

Got busy with the welder this morning:

It'll do.  Also bought some vactan alternative and went to work on the goal posts:

Time will tell how good it is I suppose

[meshking]

Snuck in some time on the van this weekend. Decided it was about time to start painting and accepting that it's never going to be show quality. 

First up, sort the bonnet. The final prime the van side:

Now get the rustoleum out and paint!

fairly happy. It was a new gun and I don't think I thinned the paint sufficiently. Hopefully it'll buff up nicely.

On Saturday I also got fed up with the dirty seats. I had pulled these out of the van when I replaced the floor and left them in my dumping ground (or conservatory as it is known elsewhere). This meant that my cats had become rather partial to sleeping on them and they were then shoved into the garage when building works started last year. 

Hoovered and used some upholstery cleaner gave this half way through:

Both seats are now done, making the interior hopefully a much nice place to be!

[Skizzer]

Cracking progress on this and love the colour - 736/10.

[RobT]

This will be so good when finished.  Mind you, looks great already.

[320touring]

Love the updates on this - good job!

[brownnova]

Excellent colour choice! It’s going to be really lovely when it’s done! 

[meshking]

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.