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Ok well the car hasn't arrived yet, but the title arrived in the mail today, so that's a start  The car is a 1955 Citroen CV11 aka "Traction Avant". It's main claim to fame is that it was the most popular car produced in France ~1934-1957 (later introduced, in 1949 was the smaller 2CV, aka "Umbrella on Wheels" you might be familiar with). It's worth noting that the car was designed in 1933, where cars of that era were body on frame, with solid front and rear axles, front engine, rear wheel drive. The Traction Avant (TA) was:
  (example photos, not my car) None of these are totally unique mechanical features, DKW of Auto Union (later Audi) produced some front wheel drive models for a number of years for example, but to have all these features in one car, then build 760,000 of them, makes this not a completely terrible car to drive today. This car sold so well that in addition to the Paris factory, a factory in Belgium (somewhere?) as well as a large number of right hand drive models built in Slough, England. Most of the english cars have a) lucas electronics and b) leaky sunroofs so fewer have survived. Another quirk of the car is that since it was designed in ~1933, and was in continious production (they only made one for MY1942, thanks WWII) for twenty years, you can buy a 1957 car with a moderately modern engine, but with 1930s styling. Also because they made so drat many of them, and they're pretty reliable (for a car of that period) they're reasonably cheap as far as classic/antique cars go, about $12-30k for a road worthy 4 cylinder "Ligere" (Light) model and 28-40k for a 2.9 liter inline 6 "normale" (large) model. Also most of the parts were borrowed to build the 2CV (interior parts and switches, electics), the DS (engine, rear suspension, transmission), the ID (engine, transmission) and the H Van (literally just used the TA drive train, flipped around), which sold in huge numbers; the 2CV and H Van being produced into the early 90s and late 70s, respectively. You can order any part for these cars out of a catalog, or online. ~The Story~ This car has a history. All cars come with stories, this one actually had a book written about it. It was reviewed in an Anthropology journal: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322372898_Crossing_the_Loange_Congo_Pax_Service_and_the_Journey_Home_-_A_Book_Review. There's a free copy of the book online somewhere but I can't find it right now. The physical book is ~250 pages with ~100+ color photos and hundreds of his letters written home, kept by his mom. Anyways, the story of the car starts with two men who have been drafted, for what I belive was the Korean War(? ended 1953). However, they were mennonites, sort of like the Amish, they ride around on horse and buggies, big beards, no electricity etc, and concientious objectors. So after talking with the local Mennonite leaders and draft board in Oregon, they all decide that they should end up at a Mennonite mission in the Belgian Congo (dead-center Africa) at a mission there doing work, furniture building, repair, other work for local schools, setting up a small time furniture factory etc. This ends up being a very low cost area to live, and they save their pennies. At the end of their work, rather than fly home immediately, they buy a local Citroen Traction Avant in the Congo and drive it to London. The Belgian Congo being run by the Belgians, they had a lot of French cars rolling around down there, presumably. Very few if any cars were manufactured locally. So they buy the car in the Congo, then drive it overland to Tanzania (immediate east-bordering country), load it onto a cargo ship and float 4th class, "animal class" up the coast of Africa, through the red sea and disembark in Cairo, Egypt, where they drive to see the Pyramids, the Sphynx, etc. From there they drive overland, in 1957, through Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey (via Ankara), Greece, up through Yugoslavia, down to Rome, Marseile France, Berlin, Denmark, AMsterdam, Paris, then finally London where the car is loaded on the Queen Mary and ships back to New York. From there they drive it back to Oregon where he and the car have lived since ~1959.               Other things: The car is a 1955 model, which means it has the 11D engine, which is a 2 liter 4 cylinder that made new 59hp and about 90 ft lbs of torque, was the only TA engine to come with an oil filter, allowing you the luxury of going up to 3,000 miles between oil changes, rather than 1,000 miles. The other advantage is that the main bearings are actual bearings, rather than "white metal". The original car in 1934 had ~29hp, later models had ~35 then ~42, but the 11D, as far as the 4 cylinder models went, was the best model. The 2.9L I6 had ~79hp but weighed a lot more and required a longer engine bay resulting in heavier steering (the TA is technically a mid engine car) In 1956 or 1957 they introduced hydraulic rear suspension which later made it's way into the DS, and has since been licensed by either Rolls Royce or Bentley. Also french cars up until XYZ time were required to have at least one windshield wiper that could be manually actuated by a knob in the cabin, in addition to the power wipers. Also until 1991 all french cars had yellow headlights to help spot Ze Germanz (who had white bulbs) on the road at night during/after world war 2. I'd been looking on and off for Traction Avants in the US since at least September, but it's a pretty limited market as most were first imported from Canada, or were a family car imported by a loving owner when they came over from Europe. There's probably a couple hundred to a thousand in the US but they don't change hands that often. I found mine, mislabeled on a Portland craigslist ad, with a bad first photo. I ended up talking to my cousin's boss' auto friend, who suggested I talk to a french guy, Serge, who exports Ford Mustangs to France as his full time job. Serge has a thick french accent and he went to go look at it. He gave it a thumbs up, but there's an issue with the the blinker, the horn, and the shifting linkage, which is just a rod-end adjustment that needs to be done since the engine came out and went back in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCIIUI2Z8U8 Jay Leno has a good overview of the car, his of course is a 1949 six cylinder "Normale" (large) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jld1E50Xw8k Some downsides of the car: The "heating system" is literally a tube that runs from just behind the radiator, into the cabin. Many, many people have done a heater core retrofit, and that will be on my list of to dos when Fall arrives. The three speed transmission is really a two speed with a granny gear. The granny gear/first gear does not have a synchro, so you have to come to a complete stop to shift down from 2nd to 1st. Top speed in the 4 cylinder is ~65mph so it's best suited for in-city trips, but is happy to wind up to 45-55mph on major roads so long as you're not planning to drag race it. It's old and stuff will break. It's 67 years old. It has about 66,000 miles on the original engine and transmission Plus sides: The guy I bought it from took the engine and transaxle out of the car, took the valve cover off, cleaned everything, freshly oiled/greased everything, steering and drive boots are new, replaced all the hydraulic cables for the brake system, adjusted the drum brakes, other stuff like reupholster the interior, new headliner. The car has been repainted ~30 years ago and when he gave it to the restorer, it was nice and greasy on the bottom which implies the owner kept up with the grease points. Also the engine uses press fit cylinder sleeves, which makes rebuilding the car pretty straight forward, new piston rings and cylinder sleeves can be bought and replaced without any fancy tools. There's a small chance this has been done at least once but who knows. There doesn't seem to be any particular weaknesses to the car/engine, it's a low revving (3600rpm red line) long piston travel engine you might see out of a toyota hilux so it's not especially stressed, suspension was designed to deal with rural/agricultural france and in fact the commerciale variants were just limo variants with no rear windows and a hatch back door. By 1945 they had worked out all the crippling design flaws and proceeded to make them for another decade (pre-1940 models are pretty rare to find, a lot of them got eaten in WW2 by the french resistance (FFI) So what's this about nipples? Well being a 1930s design, all the moving parts, in particular the suspension is all manually greased using a grease gun, which connects to a "grease nipple" which is sort of like a ball hitch with a spring loaded ball bearing that is a one way valve you can squirt grease into, and then you keep squirting until all the old grimy grease comes out and you see new clean grease. You have to do this every 1000 miles. Where is it now? It's near Salem, Oregon. I've contracted an enclosed carrier to pick it up and haul it to Washington DC, where I'll either transport it (somehow) by enclosed carrier to North Carolina (~300 miles away) or just drive it (~8-10 hours on country roads, avoiding I-95). I haven't really figured that part out yet. It's supposed to arrive "before the middle of april" as there's only one guy who does Pac NW -> NE route, and he's taking a load of cars west this week (probably) More other stuff: they made 2 door versions, convertables, limos, a three row seating "familiae", a three row seating with a farm animal urine draine "comerciale" and all the other repurposed stuff you can imagine. A lot of Normale were pressed into Taxi service in france as well. Repowering the car is a bit of a trick, as the front subframe is only ~11" wide and the transaxle is quite narrow. A VW transaxle (the most obvious donor transaxle) won't fit the stock subframe, although supposedly a hilux front transfer case/differential is said to probably fit but I've not seen one in the wild. There's at least two electric repower projects I've seen but no info on them.       Grease nipples galore:     
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Mar 23, 2022 03:13
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Car has loaded in Oregon, ETA April 7 to the East Coast  
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Mar 28, 2022 23:08
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Car delivery guy called. He will be ready for drop off in DC 9am Sunday, approximately 8 days early 1) it's about an 8 hour drive home from DC to my house at Citroen speeds, assuming absolutely 0 issues on an unproven, 70 year old car 2) wife scheduled her international business trip to leave our home town about noon on Sunday, around the delivery of car happening next weekend or later 3) I'm responsible for our toddler who requires a car seat while she's out of town 4) even if I were to hop on a plane with the toddler and car seat, I don't have the aftermarket seat belt to install 5) driver requires cash on delivery Going to see if I can fly to DC with the toddler, park it in my buddy's garage for a week, then fly back same day, then fly back the following Saturday and drive it home? Maybe?
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Apr 1, 2022 22:49
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My wife's work trip left at noon on Sunday, so loaded up the kiddo Saturday night and drove 6 hours north to Alexandria VA, slept for like 3 hours in a hotel, then met the guy at some riverfront park near my friends house Promptly stalled out the engine going up a hill with the choke fully out. Finally got it moving and visited my friend a couple blocks away. Drove it to the airport parking garage and called it a day. Car runs and drives pretty good, starts right up if you know what you're doing. Having a manual choke and adjustable ignition timing is pretty interesting, still figuring that out, it's been probably 25 years since I drove a carbureted car Also did a great job of running down the battery running and running the starter. I now know why it's called an ignition switch. Flipped the ignition switch to "on" fired right up     In the last photo you can see it next to a model 3 which gives you an idea of how big it is. The top view shows off just how drat shiny it is I guess next weekend I'm flying up to DC and then towing it back on a U-Haul, probably over two days, taking side roads because gently caress everything about I-95 But uh yeah, runs and drives remarkably well for a car that's largely all original and 70 years old, had no issues keeping up in Sunday morning traffic at 35-40 which is all I'm ever going to ask of this Transmission shifted great, not sure if Serge was really rushing the shifts or what but I drove across Alexandria and Arlington VA and through a parking garage only lightly grinding the gears once or twice, I think the restorer guy got in there and fixed it properly before it shipped out Got the car parked at the airport and then took a nap and drove 6 more hours south on i-95, gently caress that highway Hadlock fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Apr 4, 2022 |
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Apr 4, 2022 16:17
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Advent Horizon posted:The top AAA tier includes 200 miles of towing. I would seriously consider signing up for that and driving it - as long as you make it within 200 miles of home you’ll have a story to tell! I'm reasonably confident I can drive the car for 150 miles so that AAA is looking pretty interesting as the platinum tier is a) probably cheaper than the cost to tow it the full distance and b) almost certainly gonna take advantage of the 4x tows per year, that sounds like a slam dunk for my situation Also I ran across this video and watched it to the very end, which was a tremendous mistake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW-WtwdC1uY Basically every problem he has, besides the rings finally giving out, was a seal problem, and all the seals, carb, distributor, fuel pump have been replaced/rebuilt in the last six months, so I now have all sorts of false confidence that my car can do this trip. Also my car is roughly thirty years newer, not that age counts for anything after 50 years
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Apr 8, 2022 01:29
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Hadlock posted:I'm reasonably confident I can drive the car for 150 miles so that AAA is looking pretty interesting as the platinum tier is a) probably cheaper than the cost to tow it the full distance and b) almost certainly gonna take advantage of the 4x tows per year, that sounds like a slam dunk for my situation Bought a plane ticket to DC gonna attempt to drive it back tomorrow    Supposed to be in the high 70s low 80s and sunny If you're 5 miles east of I-95 tomorrow keep an eye out for me cruising along at ~40mph
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Apr 24, 2022 00:58
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Pumped the fuel pump three times manually, pulled the choke all the way out, cranked right up on the second try after sitting for three weeks It can only go downhill from here
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Apr 24, 2022 15:07
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Me  : well it's running, I'm just gonna leave it running at the gas pump so I don't need to worry about starting it againAlso me  : what is vapor lock and why don't I have enough power to pull back into trafficCurrently about a mile south of Potomac river into Virgina on 301, gonna give it ~35 min to cool down with the hood up. Did a couple of laps around Arby's earlier but I think it was still too hot. Climbing out of these drat river valleys is hard on the engine makes it really heat up No issues with the cooling system, seems to just be fuel from idling I'm the sun too long? I hope? As with a lot of things with old cars just let them chill out and they'll start working again 
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Apr 24, 2022 18:42
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Moving!
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Apr 24, 2022 18:54
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Forgot to take my steroids for this persistent cough thing, was feeling really rough, also hadn't eaten and was dehydrated. Ate and drank just north of Newport News va The car on the other hand, besides a persistent vapor lock issue, has been cruising along at 45-50mph in third without an issue. Might have an exAuSt leak, get light headed when the wind comes from the right direction Somewhere on 32 South in 
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Apr 24, 2022 23:58
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Sunset
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Apr 25, 2022 01:19
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Lighting situation getting grim. 11 miles north of Greenville 
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Apr 25, 2022 01:29
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Got pulled over by some suspicious cop, told him the whole story, he was like lol whatever, I'm not even gonna write you up a warning, I don't even know what is call this thing. Rear tail light is out Passenger side headlight is working intermittently. The blinker switch lit up for a while, then did not. Fed the car a quart of oil at about the half way mark Arrived 
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Apr 25, 2022 05:40
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Yeah I'm gonna have to go over the electrical system, probably worth replacing everything if possible. Swap in LED where practical, the rear tail lights are tiny and I need as much nighttime rear visibility as I can get The guy who restored it is really handy with mechanical things, I don't think he touched the electrics beyond the ignition and starter The oil dip stick has a well defined notch on both sides and the oil was exactly in the middle when I found it cold in DC. I was kind of woozy from gas fumes (tank overfilled and pooled up gas somewhere, I think? I'll enjoy getting blood cancer later I guess) and it looked slightly low so I just dumped the quart in there for good measure in a "let's just get home, I'm loving exhausted, engine probably won't sieze if I do this" probably a mistake for fuel efficiency but don't think it did any permanent harm? Gonna rain tonight, will have to move the car so I'll check it then Checked my stats, looks like my trip was about 420 miles all in, and averaged about 18mpg, probably averaging 41mph(?) I subscribed to the 2CV thread, will have to check that out looks very info dense with similarly detailed description Edit: engine holds 4.5L which is 4.75 quarts of oil Hadlock fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Apr 25, 2022 |
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Apr 25, 2022 16:49
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 Went to go park it in the garage and the lighting was perfect   
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Apr 26, 2022 01:18
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Hadlock posted:. I was kind of woozy from gas fumes (tank overfilled and pooled up gas somewhere, I think? I'll enjoy getting blood cancer later I guess) and it looked slightly low so I just dumped the quart in there for good measure in a "let's just get home, I'm loving exhausted, engine probably won't sieze if I do this" So I've been taking Vick's 44 cough medicine which is real DXM which is the active ingredient. I bought some Walmart brand cough medicine which was also labeled DXM, and took two full shots of it, because that had been working out for me with my really ugly and persistent cough (been to a doc, not covid, just awful though) Anyways I guess there's DXM hga and... DXM... some variant that's six times as powerful that they put in store brand cough medicine. So I guess I was robo-tripping down the highway at 45mph which might explain why I forgot to set my ignition timing back to normal after starting the car and it was running kind of rough and low on power
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Apr 27, 2022 02:47
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I'll have to add that to the OP Apparently the woozy was a mix of cough medicine and the crazy steroids I was taking. Turns out there is a small gas leak on the drain plug for the gas tank, nothing serious but gonna tighten that up Also there's a leak where a... Cable? Maybe the speedo cable comes out, looks very minor. It's coming out of the top front of the transmission. The engine is bone dry which is nice Also looks like the whole exterior of the bottom of the car is coated in some intense anti corrosion, including the suspension etc so that's contained and not an issue. Inside of the car doesn't appear to have any rust and well preserved. This is the first chance I've had to really look at the car in good daylight when I wasn't racing to get back home so nice to see it looks as good as the inspection said it was Getting rear seat belts installed today at some random jeep 4x4 shop, so I can put a car seat in the back, and also haul around my nephew when he comes to visit 
Hadlock fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Apr 29, 2022 |
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Apr 29, 2022 21:25
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Apparently you can order custom euro plates online, what novelty plate (s) should I order? I think you're limited to 9 characters https://www.customeuropeanplates.com/eec-france-license-plate-yellow-p-135.html?category_id=1  
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Apr 29, 2022 21:33
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spankmeister posted:OP I came across this and I do believe it belongs in this thread: 
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Apr 29, 2022 22:31
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Finally had a chance to check the oil and it's showing on the low end of the notch. Maintenance manual says should be at the top of the notch. This is after adding a quart of oil ~250 miles ago on the initial drive down from DC. Also there are three 6" dots of oil stain (not puddles, thankfully) forming on the garage floor so I'll need to get under there and dig around, figure out what's going on. Will order plates tomorrow
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May 3, 2022 04:59
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PainterofCrap posted:Go go go, baby! And take lots of photos/video! Turns out I took almost exactly 30 minutes of video, here is a link to the youtube (which is probably DRM/DMCA's to the moon with all the music in the background). It's 99% just driving through country roads, so if you have half an hour to kill this week maybe watch this, or something. Other than the first 15 seconds there's no narration. Buyer beware. Fake edit: ok, Sort of looks like youtube let me upload the video and forced me to auto-swap one song. Youtube has gotten really advanced. Looks like it might actually upload minus the one song. Made a lovely youtube card for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HWmUriO3LY Here is a link to the video privately hosted, with tunes and no DCMA fuckery. I think you have to download it, otherwise chrome just treats it as an audio file: https://hadlocks-bucket.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/citroen_traction_avant_dc_to_nc.mp4 Also I realized my trip was roughly the same plot as the lyrics to Wagon Wheel Top moments: 4:05 summer time song, pretty much encapsulates the whole drive, if you watch nothing else this is the part to watch 17:45 long shot out the back window 20:44 interior shots of the dash, seats etc 21:41 wagon wheel First 6 min involves cruising through some twisty stuff in SW maryland down 301 Real quick I think my route is Alexandria VA Waldorf MD Port Royal VA Tappahannock Newport News Suffolk VA Winton NC Greenville NC Further south At one point I ended up on "shortcut road" for what seemed like 30 miles. In retrospect that was super dangerous because a) my taillights predate modern retroreflector standards and even if they didn't, are tiny tiny dots b) there's no shoulder to pull off on to, it just dumps directly into swamp and c) no gas or services of any kind Hadlock fucked around with this message at 07:52 on May 9, 2022 |
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May 9, 2022 07:47
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Yeah and it's in absolute liters, which really confused me at first "so am I just expected to not worry about fuel until I get to 50%?!" which given everything else Citroen does, seems not completely out of the question* 50L is about 12 gallons but in reality it holds closer to 13 Apparently the gauge cluster can be backlit, and I found what might be the switch but it's either rusted or activated in some weird way. Driving this car is like playing the first 30 minutes of bioshock There's a chrome.... Stick under the dash that I think is the parking brake but haven't figured that out yet, still using a rock and 2x4 scrap The P switch is the dome light (maps to ceiling light or similar in French) while E is windshield wipers which are actually quite vigorous for their age. The knob is the manual wiper knob, required by French law for a really long time. It spins on the dash at about 10rpm when the wipers are going  *"Locking" the door involves a mechanism that disengages the handle from the door and now it spins freely. That might be worth a video. Apparently this is how they do it on the 2CV as well. The first time you do it, you're like ... Did... Did I just lock myself out of my car and the only door with a lock has a non functional door handle, very disturbing Hadlock fucked around with this message at 16:28 on May 9, 2022 |
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May 9, 2022 16:25
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Made my first parts order. Picked up a full set of 6v bulbs for the entire car, looks like 23 bulbs all in. At only $1-3 each pretty cheap but adds up, and the yellow hi/lo beam french socket bulbs are pretty pricey at $25, as are the parking/position lights. Not sure if I need all of these, but a) most of them don't work, haven't pulled out the multimeter yet but probably a safe bet and b) i'm ordering them from germany might as well ship in bulk cut down on costs, and don't want to wait a week or two more to order more. Ordered an oil pressure switch because that seems like a good thing to have a new, functional one of. Also ordered all the blinker assembly stuff, I think. Not sure what is wrong with my blinker assembly, but it's ~$75 for everything and I really like having working blinkers if I'm gonna replace the bulbs and lenses. Also ordered a new gas tank drain plug and washer because supposedly that is leaking. Also ordered new windshield wipers because the old ones look.... well I just have no idea how old those things are. They're crispy looking single blade rubber things, and they're only $3 each to replace. I will probably end up building my own modified from a silicone bosch wiper later. Also also ordered a new fuel tank sender as mine appears to be sticky until you put at least 3/4 tank then it works ok. The TA 11CV has a really nice access panel in the trunk that lets you get to the top of the gas tank to swap that stuff out. All in parts were about $300 including $70 flat fee international shipping Other news Drove the car six short blocks to the gas station that sells 100% gasoline (0% ethanol) what I think is the low oil pressure light came on again. Put in three gallons of gas and bought an outrageously priced $9.50 quart of 20-50 SAE oil in. This brought the oil level from exactly the bottom of the notch on the dip stick to exactly the top of the notch, which apparently is where it should be at, and also tells me that notch is exactly 1 quart of oil. The suspected low oil light came on for about 5 seconds so I'm eager to see if the new oil pressure switch fixes that problem. Although thinking about it, that light doesn't come on when the ignition is on and the car is off so I guess it's time to play trace-the-wire. Also also, apparently there's a starter switch in the engine bay somewhere(?!) ordering a cylinder pressure tester so I can get some baseline. There is a blog somewhere called "old jalopy" or something, he seems to think 90psi is about the right reading for a healthy cylinder. The TA has a compression ratio of ~6.5:1 which might explain why these engines last forever. I think the Ford Model A (that came after the Model T you were thinking of before I said this) had a 4:1 compression ratio and produced about 80% of it's peak horsepower even with totally blown rings. Want to validate the cylinders are healthy and then work my way through the fuel system and see if I can recover some power/improve idling characteristics. It has a solex carb which I guess is sort of the chevy smallblock of 2 liter engine carbs BalloonFish posted:The backlight control should be a little black plastic stick on the right-hand side of the instrument cluster. It's a rheostat, with an 'Off' position and then an adjustable range. The silver round control next to that will be the adjuster for the clock. Ok I'll give it another shot. Mine might just be rusted in place. Another part to find/buy. Weirdly Jose Franssen didn't have this on their parts page. 6v rheostat shouldn't be hard to find though. Hopefully. Hadlock fucked around with this message at 21:54 on May 10, 2022 |
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May 10, 2022 21:51
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My schedule is all hosed up because of a project, and I live near a beach, please enjoy:
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May 18, 2022 11:26
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First daycare pickup was a success. Toddler's first time with the wind blowing in her face but she adjusted pretty quickly. Coming up on the 1000 mile mark, making preparations for Operation Nipple Clamp 
Hadlock fucked around with this message at 23:24 on May 21, 2022 |
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May 20, 2022 21:53
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The french give learner drivers a literal scarlet letter?
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May 23, 2022 03:42
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Boring work log incomming: Giant box of parts arrived. Mostly lightbulbs, festoon bulbs etc. Pulled apart all the lights. They are just plastic shells held on by a single screw in the center, and some kind of rubber "gasket" to keep the worst of the wet out. Extremely simple. Turns out (pun not intended) most of the bulbs were festoons with corrosion problems with the contact areas. Rotating them slightly brought them back to life. So now I have running lights and brake lights again! Hooray! Replaced the headlights. This one was out, probably new old stock, but perilously close to the original build date. Oddly, made by Mazda? I guess a lot of these cars came with a Zenith made solex carb. The other one was a Philips. The replacement bulbs are also yellow, but they're a different less intense yellow, more white. So sadly I swapped out the functioning bulb so I'd have two mostly matching bulbs. New bulbs are also 40/45w instead of 36/45. The other was a philips bulb with a sept '59 date stamp and really elaborate glasswork. Note glass is truly yellow, not tinted after the fact; headlight bulbs (not blinker bulbs) like these haven't been manufactured since the mid-1990s and hyper rare, even the tinted ones avalible today aren't as amber, and cost $45 each. But at least they're period correct     Position light wasn't lighting up for some reason. These are itty bitty little red lumps of translucent plastic about the size of a dice, with a giant festoon bulb behind it. The festoon bulb shines upwards through a 1/4" hole in a copper clip, and also shines forward through a small slit in the forward reflector. I guess these are supposed to be your parking lights, or whatever. You would have trouble seeing these from more than about 30 feet away, especially at anything over 15mph. I think lighting was pretty grim up until the late 90s/early 2000s when LED finally became usable so safety lighting was mostly an afterthought as incandecent bulbs are pretty thirsty.    Was being perilously held in by a loose copper clip. Re-bent the copper clip and seems to be holding fine. I think it's missing a gasket, I might try and print one in black TPU? Holding the copper clip in place was a very ancient piece of duct tape that had more in common with paper than tape at this point. The blinkers use a different style of bulb mount. Looks like the collar of the bulb connects to the chassis (ground) and the screw + spring connects to the pin... but also connects to the chassis? On closer inspection, looks like there might be a piece of wool acting as an insulator, with that square.... rivet head thing, passing the connection through. This is the first design choice I've run across that seems ill advised, I'll have to find a diagram and figure out what the hell is going on here, on the front fender blinkers at least, that square rivet is threaded on the other side that connects to a power cable. For the rear blinkers, that piece is probably hidden behind some upholstery at eye level when you're sitting down. The interior upholstery has all been replaced pretty recently so I'm loathe to start taking that apart if I can avoid it.   The exhaust manifold has a white, powdery finish to it? Not sure if this is... ash? From the Exhaust? or what. I know a lot of owners get their exhaust stuff ceramic coated to cut down on engine bay heat (note the heat shield attempting to protect the carb). Brilliantly the intake manifold is bolted to the exhaust manifold. You can see some white stuff flaking off in the bottom right off the exhaust pipe, but doesn't look... ceramic-y. Also of note is the mystery inspection port in the bottom left, it has an odd shape to it, curious what's in there. On either side of the engine are two giant uh, pyramidal box sections that support the front wheels/most of the engine/all of the transmission so I think these are empty. I thought maybe it was an access port for more grease nipples, but nope they're all way forward of this   Engine and chassis tags. On the left of the engine tag is a patented engine mount that andre citroen bought a licence to from.... plymouth? it I think is called an "engine isolator" and does a fantastic job of preventing engine vibration from entering the cabin. When people talk about this being the birth of the modern family car they're not joking, riding in this vs a model A is night and day, which is amazing considering they were only designed about five years apart.   I think this may be contributing to the heat build up, slightly? The "heating system" in this car is a plate that blocks off the radiator, and a literal funnel that also literally pipes a meager amount of forced air into the cabin. The car apparently originally came with a plate that ran across the entire bottom of the back of the radiator and covered the bottom third, to help improve airflow into the funnel. I live in a hot humid area, and this appears to be removable with two bolts, so good chance this is coming off soon, and staying off through October. Full size index finger for scale. Second shot of said heat pipe. Note bottom center, the engine compartment has a dedicated spot with spring-mounted clip to hold a permanent ~1 liter oil can, next to the oil dip stick and fuel pump. The gas evaporates out of the carb overnight so to save the starter (and embarrassment with guests) it's just easier to pop the hood, give it about 10 good pulls of the manual pump, double-check the oil while you're in there why not.   The number on that belt (for me reference) sayd SICA No 183 21 Oh yeah this was interesting. Mine are badly UV-degraded, I guess they're also position lights. Apparently the positive end of the bulb is a screw, and it just has spring clips that double as negative ground  The old bulbs use a ~M5 or M6 bolt, and my replacement bulbs use a blade, so uh, not sure what to do here. What's left of the (probably original) wiring loom doesn't have enough cable left to splice on a blade clip, so either I bolt a blade clip to the existing cable, or.... solder a (the?) bolt to the blade. The blade is just small enough that I can't safely drill out that tiny existing hole, although, thinking about it, I could get a tiny ~M2.5 bolt and just bulk up on washers? I really want to fix this as it's highly visibile and and at eye level, and clearly in need or replacement. Also unfortunately, the replacement is also plastic, the shiny metal is just cheap reflective paint, not chromed brass or whatever. Also they have weird poorly sealed rubber uh, I hesitate to call them gaskets, washers, that are intended to minimize water inflow. This is directly below the drip-gutter thing so not a huge problem, but also a noted source of corrossion. Not that I plan on driving this in the pouring rain all that often. Maybe there's some kind of "make your own compound-curve gasket" silicone kit on the internet. Because I destroyed at least one rubber washer getting this bulb out. And the other one isn't far behind. Very interesting light patterns O.o && -- . _ https://i.imgur.com/sBBfCW2.mp4 Near the end you can see me pointing out the tiny tiny tiny red position indicators at the top of the light ...pods. The headlights are roughly in line with the wall, no idea why they look so different. Going to pretend I didn't see that and lalala I can't hear you Finally, the car came with a sort of dust cover, I noticed that the engine bay was starting to get dusty and decided to try it out, please enjoy my car's halloween ghost costume, 4 months early:    
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Jun 1, 2022 02:13
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HELP: my exotic french car is covered in nipples, 
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Jun 6, 2022 22:41
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It's super humid coming back from the beach, this was the least amount of smeary I was able to get the lens, but I think it worked out ok Also apparently the 3 gallons of gas I put in a month ago was not enough, ran out of fuel driving home but managed to coast into the only ethanol free gas station in town, had to push it the last six feet or so
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Jun 18, 2022 02:21
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Yeah it's like those Marvel "What if?" comic books What if Ford introduced the Taurus in the late 80s, but instead they used the BMW E38 as their design brief?
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Jun 19, 2022 21:28
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Wife wanted sushi, drove the family downtown Been driving the car about twice a week, this week drove the kiddo to daycare and back three times. The car feels like it really wants to GO but it's being held back. A carb rebuild kit and bottle of carb cleaner might be in my future? Dunno last time I owned a carbureted car was an f-350 and I was 16 and my dad did all the maintenance on it 
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Jul 29, 2022 23:48
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There's actually a knob to adjust the timing in the cab. Makes cold starts a breeze That's not to say the 84yo guy who restored it did an adequate job on the timing before he sold it to me. I should probably check that out Still having some issues with vacuum lock. I looked into it, ethanol free gas boils at 94° and it's been in the low 90s here so even a few degrees above ambient under the hood seems liable to trigger it. Especially since the fuel pump is on one side and the fuel line runs over the front/top of the engine to the other side, where the carb is shielded from the exhaust manifold by 2 inches and a thin piece of sheet metal Getting better at managing vacuum lock though, haven't stalled out in weeks, can navigate traffic fine, but start to get antsy at especially long lights
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Jul 30, 2022 03:36
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Ok Comboomer posted:gotta add the ironic “Student Driver” tag for maximum car douchebag points Just to clarify, that's a car seat in the rear window, is a "functional" baby on board sign, as that's pretty much the only thing this car is used for
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Aug 5, 2022 05:27
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Yeah she definitely identifies it as "car" but beyond saying "hot" a lot (no A/C) doesn't yet distinguish it well from any other car yet. All the ladies at daycare know who I am now, though  
Hadlock fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Aug 5, 2022 |
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Aug 5, 2022 06:44
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Had a weird day. Got the house and yard pest sprayed, wife took the car into the office today, took my cat with me to avoid inhaling a bunch of poison. Also the neighborhood was having an extended power outage. As I was pulling the car out of the garage, my neighbor who has been wanting a ride for a long time pops his head over the fence. His power is out too so me, my cat and my neighbor take a trip down to harbor freight to get some parts for a go kart build I'm almost ready to build It's hard to understate the number of honks, smiles and thumbs ups I get. "What kind of car is that?" rapidly followed by a frown and "what's a citrus?" I should just start telling people it's a baby rolls Royce or a Bentley or something that's what they want to hear Anyways park way far away from everyone. As we come out of harbor freight, this guy runs across six lanes of traffic and starts live streaming an interview with me on social media about me and my Guy live streaming was just on top of the world, seeing my car just made his whole day, was beaming and handshakes all around Stopped dropped off neighbor, and stopped for a late lunch  On the way back, while driving down the road some teenager rolled down the window in their dad's Honda, leans out the passenger side to give me a big thumbs up and a "legit cool car, old dude" grin. If teenagers think it's cool, it must be a cool car. Teenagers don't think hardly anything old dudes do is cool Hadlock fucked around with this message at 12:40 on Aug 25, 2022 |
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Aug 25, 2022 04:58
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Washed and waxed for the first time since spring. Mostly the same   Engine bay got a very light wash down to knock any grime loose Temps are starting to come down, car idles great when it's not 88-95F outside, vapor lock problems have disappeared as we move away from warm weather. Considering the boiling point of gas is ~93F, no surprise I was having issues The carb secondary still seems to be sticking, occasionally I'll feel the car jump forward as the throttle finally opens up. Car does fine without further tuning, probably a next year problem. Gives me plenty of time to find a rebuild kit. It's a solex style carb, so I don't think they're exceptionally hard to find.
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Sep 16, 2022 04:48
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Period-correct and model/manufacturer-correct hood ornaments are on sale this weekend, should I splurge? Or is it just going to get stolen by some teenagers Current status:  Proposed upgrade:  This is called "motive virgin" I'll have to consult my traction avant book to find out the whole backstory but it's different from the one you're probably thinking of, "spirit of ecstasy" which is, Rolls-Royce, I think Edit: examples    The last one is from the larger 15cv which is very slightly different grill but not significant enough to matter Double edit: one more, it's important to note that my car does not have the chrome headlamps, just regular black 
Hadlock fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Sep 16, 2022 |
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Sep 16, 2022 10:38
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Ok I have been convinced. It is on it's way over from germany Ran across this just now for... $6,000? It's like a disney land reproduction of the real thing, scaled down and electric drive train https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/OEM-Pizza-Coffee-Snack-Cart-Mobile_1600492040266.html  On the top is what appears to be a genuine Citroen H Van, on the bottom is... a stainless steel and fiberglass 70% scale copy? And it's electric. The original H Van was made 1947-1981 and was kind of famous for being extra easy to convert into a food truck since it had a flat floor and 6' standing head room (back when 5'10" was still considered tall), but relates to this thread because it shares the same drivetrain with the Traction Avant and DS (+ evolutions) Put another quart of oil in the engine. The odometer appears to be still working, need to double check but I think I'm at ~1500 km since purchase, which means I am burning... about a quart of oil every 350 miles? I think if I put 1000 miles a year on the car, $27/yr for oil is way, way cheaper than redoing the piston rings and I have no catalytic converter to gently caress up. Need to do a compression test at some point. Found out a couple months ago there's a starter button in the engine compartment, that makes this extraordinarily easy to do solo. Of course if you troll internet bmw forums there are lots of people complaining their (11:1, turbo) bmw are burning a quart or more every 1000 miles, so uh, I should be happy my uh, naturally aspirated 6.5:1 engine is only burning 3 quarts in the same distance. Maybe I should stop using 5w-30? Actual content. It is getting dark now that fall has arrived. Headlights have this neat pattern.  At least one license plate light exists/is working. Will need to investigate to see if there is a second, and replace it, right side is dark. Women have started coming up to me at bars now. "Are you 'Ooh La La'? I saw your car in the parking lot, that's amazing".  Desperately need to check the transmission oil level, soon. Nipple servicing might happen next weekend, will post all the  nipple photosEDIT: ALSO, ran into a mechanic that actually worked at the now-defunct Citroen dealership in Raleigh, NC back in the 1970s. He was working in the garage across the street to where I was fueling up and walked over to shake my hand, said "there was a traction in the back against the fence, but was rusted out and never moved. This is the first Traction I've ever seen moving under it's own power." He worked on a lot of DS and... I forget the one after that, the CX? He said won motor trend car of the year three years in a row? I guess his dealership got eaten by the IRS and turned into a saab/citroen/subaru repair shop "since they already had all the specialized tools". Might take the car there to get a compression check. Seems like he would take good care of the car. Hadlock fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Oct 3, 2022 |
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Oct 3, 2022 03:08
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Thanks for that diagram. I had run across it before it arrived but lost it, I think that's how I ended up getting the oil I did on the drive down, trying to roughly match it. Maybe because it was late spring, or I was way the gently caress out in the country but couldn't really find any heavy oil at the autozone I stopped at during my first vacuum lock issue driving it down from DC, the only stuff I found was this ludicrous 20w-50 racecar oil. Probably if there was a tractor supply co I would have found what I was looking for. Since then I've just been grabbing a pint at the generic corporate minimart gas station as needed. They just have 5w-30 pennzoil. Due to the piano hinge hood there are clearance issues getting oil in the filler with a larger bottle without a funnel. Should probably order a 5 pint bottle of 15w40 and see how that works. It gets cold (upper 20s/low 30s, with a couple hours ovenight once a year of 15-19F) here for a couple weeks in the deep winter, but I won't be starting or driving the car then. There's no heater block in the cabin so driving it below 40F is highly unlikely The horrific swarms of mosquitoes in the back yard/barn have finally gone dormant with fall weather arriving, so I can finally tackle some of these diagnostic issues without being bitten so much I need an antihistamine after IOwnCalculus posted:I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that was considered typical oil consumption when the car was new. Yeah. It's worth noting the car has a factory oil can holder, so I suspect oil consumption was quite high even from the factory. This particular can holds 3L (2,5L maybe? i forget) , is metal, french writing, quite old by the looks of it and doesn't leak miraculously. Afraid to use it for regular duty though. 
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Oct 3, 2022 21:30
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Hadlock posted:This car has a history. All cars come with stories, this one actually had a book written about it. It was reviewed in an Anthropology journal: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322372898_Crossing_the_Loange_Congo_Pax_Service_and_the_Journey_Home_-_A_Book_Review. There's a free copy of the book online somewhere but I can't find it right now. The physical book is ~250 pages with ~100+ color photos and hundreds of his letters written home, kept by his mom. Here is the online version of the book, if anyone is curious https://issuu.com/mennonitepressinc./docs/crossing_the_loange Edit: it's abridged down to  but gives you an idea at least
Hadlock fucked around with this message at 22:24 on Oct 7, 2022 |
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Oct 7, 2022 22:20
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