The Fun Has Begun

Two weekends ago we met a local 2CVer by the name of Chris Isles. His 2CV is a little different to ours... well how does 4WD sound to you? His Mum had sent him the article from the T&A and he has offered to help us with any work we need to do. Neil went for a ride in his off-roader to 2CV City in Sowerby Bridge, and we dropped off some details of the rally and sponsorship forms to see if we can drum up some money there. Chris also said he would have a word with a man who builds 2CV engines for race and raid cars for any advice on running Marvin on the rubbish petrol we are likely to find on our travels.

After spending five years parked up in his previous owners drive, we didn’t really expect the engine to run without some work, but to our amazement Neil recieved a call from Carl at H&H Autos to tell him the engine was running like a dream.... it even ticked over! All they had done was put some petrol in the tank and used some easy start. So thats one less worry.

So last weekend we got down to doing some real work on him – we spent the weekend stripping him down to his birthday suit or chassis as he prefers to call it. The engine is now out, all his body parts piled up in a corner of the garage.The task took us about 10 hours in all and was pretty easy and very successful.

He has a little more rust than we first thought so we will probably be replacing the right hand side floor pan, sill and repair the B post, but there isn’t much more work to do on him. Which is extremely pleasing, especially to me, a newly qualified welder (HA HA) who is terrified of doing any welding on him in case I burn my way through his INCREDIBLY thin shell. However if we run into problems there is a classic car restorer on the premises who has said he will help us.

Next weekend we are going to a rally, (not in Marvin it’s motor-bike rally), where we aim to get a number of sponsors, so the work will have to wait until the weekend after, when we will start to clean up his engine and replace any parts that are required.

Neil has renewed his passport, which is a relief, not because it is out of date but because he looked like an active Arab terrorist on the old one – now he just looks like a retired terrorist. He still has to take his driving test as he is only licensed to drive up-to a 3 wheeled vehicle, and I refuse to do ALL the driving, then again – I think that’s preferable to going in his pig.

I am waiting to start my next welding course, I’ll be doing Oxy Acetylene this time and while typing this update I got a call from my poor suffering tutor, telling me that it starts next week and that the rumours I have heard about the college increasing it’s insurance cover in preparation for the beginning of the course are all true!!