This page attempts to document the rebuild of a Citroen Dyane and the problems encountered.
CURRENT STATUS:
22.May 2012
21.April 2012
20.March 2012
19.February 2012
18.December 2011
17.October 2011
16.May 2011
15.April 2011
14.March 2011
13.Feb 2011
12.Dec 2010
11.Nov 2010
10.Oct 2010
9..Sep 2010
8..Aug 2010
7..Jul 2010
6..Apr 2010
5..Jan 2010
4..Dec 2009
3..Nov 2009
2..Aug 2009
1..Jul 2009
0..Jun 2009
| 1st Jun 2009 |
Started stripping my Dyane after it's been sitting in my garage for a year whilst I finish renovating the house. However, the house is now completed, so to work on the car. Meachanically, it drives OK, the engine is weet enough and the brakes seem fine. It's got a lot of surface rust on the paint, as if someone has been grinding near the car. I've got the bodyshell off the chassis and got the chassis stripped of all of its useful bits. I've got a galvanised chassis from a 1990 2CV6 Special which had terminally bitten the dust - so I'll use that for this project. 
|
| 15th Jun 2009 |
The car is on its side in bits. The bodyshell will need new floors, sills, lower inner and outer bulkheads, windscreen surround and boot floor. In addition, the seat box is rotten at both ends and the inner rear wheel arches will need extensive patching. I've started by dis-assembling the ends of the seat box, drilling out the spot welds on the old sections and making cereal box templates for the missing parts. These will be cut out of 0.6mm sheets steel and plug/seam welded back in - then I'll have a reference point for the crumbly sills. The lower outer bulkhead has entirely gone, with the floor patches coming forwards towards what's left. They don't actually meet, but copious amounts of filler hide any discrepancies. 
|
| 20th Jul 2009 |
Removed the rear outer sill on the drivers side and made a replacement from scrap. Spend ages building a new jacking point replicating the old one but seam welded. Grafted in outer sill leaving inner sill in place to aid alignment. 
Cut out outer C-post and made replacment in two parts. Welded in whilst leaving inner post in place to aid alignment. 
Cut out inner C-post and made replacment in two parts. Welded in to outer post. 
|
| 31st Jul 2009 |
Cut out rust from under rear quarterlight and welded short 8" angle replacement. This will be the top anchor for the new rear wheelarch. Cut out front half of inner rear wheel arch and made replacement from scrap. |
| 9th Aug 2009 |
Installed inner rear wheel arch 
|
| 29th Aug 2009 |
Cut out rust from the boot floor surround and let in new metal.
|
| 21st Nov 2009 |
Removed the inner sill. Braced between B-posts to maintain alignment. 
|
| 29th Nov 2009 |
Made a replacement inner sill out of 1mm steel sheet. Drilled and pressed recess for seatbelt mount plate. 
|
| 30th Nov 2009 |
Before fitting the offside inner sill, I had a look at the complexities of rebuilding the front jacking point which forms part of the outer sill forward of the A-post. The original design leaves the underside of of the sill partially open to all sorts of road muck from the front wheel. I've decided to beef up the design in this area and construct an entire front outer sill incorporating a jacking point, and weld it into the inner sill before fitting it. 
I'll form a box section on the bottom of the sill and weld the original jacking pocket into that. A U-section brace will be welded above the box section between inner and outer sills just like the original. |
| 20th Dec 2009 |
Made new seat box end and welded in.
|
| 20th Dec 2009 |
Inserted one-piece inner sill and welded
|
| 20th Dec 2009 |
Folded and preped front outer sill and welded in
|
| 20th Dec 2009 |
Folded up and completed back of seat box. Still got seat-belt mount to attach.
|
| 24th Jan 2010 |
Rust and underseal removed from LHS C-post and rear sill area!!! 
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| 20th Dec 2009 |
Rolled car and swept garage in preparation for dealing with LHS. 
|
| 11th Apr 2010 |
Repaired seat box area and started to replace front edge of rear inner wing 
|
| 20th Apr 2010 |
Folded up and fitted new inner sill with seat belt mounting plate. 
|
| 17th Jul 2010 |
front jacking point on nearside 
|
| 18th Jul 2010 |
New sills cut from 1mm sheet, marked out and folded before getting jacking point welded in. Fitting sill in three parts - front jacking point, read sill with rear jacking point, and front sill. 
|
| 19th Jul 2010 |
New sills finally complete 
|
| 1st Jul 2010 |
Fitted seat box section base as a one-piece assembly (original was in two bits). This was welded in after trial fitting and was a direct mirror image of the same section on the other side of the car, which fitted without any trimming. |
| September 2010 |
Fitted new boot floor. This was seam/plug welded with new corner pieces fabricated. The floor was only modified slightly along its front edge to allow it to fit. The front of the floor was also modified to incorporate the two bung holes from the original which meant shrinking some of the swage lines in that area. Fitted the rear exhaust hanger bracket whilst I was welding in that area. Also tidied up the C-posts by seam welding the area around the sills and fitting the top-hats near the bottom for the rear wing fixing bolts. drilled and fitted the top-two wing mounting holes/clips also. Stripped the nearside rear wing using a chemical stripper and sanded way all of the rust pits. The wing will need some splits welded up but is in far better shape than I thought. It's amazing what a coat of primer will do. |
| 1st October 2010 |
fitted the remaining seat-belt mount on the offside wing (new inner wing) and tidied up welding in that area (where I first started off). |
| 12th October 2010 |
Fitted SPOG replacement outer toeboard after pulling remains of bodged floor out (pop-rivetted and filled). 
I cut the old one about 10mm below the 'fold' and splug welded the old bulkhead to the new SPOG part. From there, I could run a bead between each of the swages until the majority of the seam was welded. I then shrunk the swages flat and selded these up forming a continuous seam weld from one side of the car to the other. Either my welding is getting better, or the bulkhead metal was more forgiving, and I only had a single blow-through in the hole process. |
| 13th October 2010 |
Made a new inner toe-board from 1mm steel sheet. Hammered and shaped this using the remains of the old one as a template. 
Discovered that the inner toe-board will not fit into place without bending it in the middle to squeeze it in! |
| 14th October 2010 |
Seam welded inner toe-board into place. 
Whilst the SPOG toe-board fitted without any adjustment, it doesn't cover the front of the sills to my satisfaction. I'll need to weld on a small section which can be folded round and seam welded into the front edge of the sills to create a completely sealed environment. I'll drill this and fit a sill plug later for waxoiling. |
| 2nd November 2010 |
fitted floors and chassis top-plate to ensure that everything was square and all of the fixing holes lined up. 
|
| 3rd November 2010 |
Pickled and primed the Zintec floors. Seam sealed the rear end of the car both inside and out using a polyurethane sealant. |
| 7th November 2010 |
Removed all of the underseal from the back of the car, de-rusted and primed metalwork 
|
| 10th November 2010 |
Made a panel slapper from an old file and started to remove all of the dents and creases in the rear wings using 'on dolly' technique. Using Poundland primer as a guide coat then rubbing back every so often to reveal the high and low spots. Both rear wings now looking a lot better. |
| 14th November 2010 |
Cleaned the bulkhead and assessed rust damage. Most damage is under scuttle seam. Removed scuttle to reveal holes under both drainage pipes and centrally over heater ducting.
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| 15th November 2010 |
Removed windscreen inner and outer and seperated from the top of the bulkhead.
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| 21st November 2010 |
Having removed the lower windscreen surround, I found the inner section to be beyond repair. Easier to make a new one from scratch! 
New windscreen inner section folded out of 1mm sheet. dashboard fixing clips and wiper captive nuts also fabricated like the original. Primed and painted inside in readiness for welding to windscreen outer (SPOG part) before bing trial fitted to car. The top of the bulkhead needs some metal replacing especially above the vent apertures. |
| 15th December 2010 |
Fitted the replacement windscreen surround (inner and outer). It was not without its problems. The SPOG part is well built and fits perfectly, but I had to do some adjusting on the top of the bulkhead to get it to sit low enough to preserve the 395mm window aperture. 
Having cut the aperture sides, I inserted a 'sleeve' at the top cut and puddle welded it to the sides of the surround. This allowed the replacement side section to fit more simply and made subsequent welding easier as it's almost impossible to get to the back side of the weld. This is the one area of the car where I will use body filler to skim these welds to smooth the lines of the windscreen surround. I need to weld the windscreen inner to the A-posts (all prepared) and then use seam sealer down the outside edge of the windscreen surround to blend into the rain gutter. Then I have to re-attach the repaired scuttle, weld in the floors and then the bodyshell welding will be complete. |
| 1st February 2011 |
Fitted floors after trial. 
Took the decision to spray underseal the entire bottom of the car. This is a rubber-based overpaintable stuff which screws onto a gun. Adapted a diving regulator tp
drive the gun and successfully emptied 1 litre of sealant onto the rear. Painted with a chassis black enamel after 5 hours. Still have the other wheel-arch and
the seat box and floors to do. Will use this stuff to coat the inside of alll of the wings also.
|
| 5th February 2011 |
Trial fitted the front wings and adjusted the bulkhead brackets to sit flush. Also trial fitted the bonnet and will need to
remove some material from the SPOG hinge to allow this to fit correctly.
Made a start on one of the front wings. Found a surprising amount of filler around the dented area. Must have been resprayed, as I couldn't tell
that this area had been worked on previously. Need to weld some metal into the headlamp aperture as it's badly pinholed here. Also need to remove the dents
with my newly-gained panel beating rudimentaries!
|
| 27th February 2011 |
refitted the scuttle and tidied up the inside of the bulkhead. Also, rewelded in the handbrake support bracket into the parcel
shelf where it was starting to tear out.
|
| 1st March 2011 |
Undersealed the rest of the bottom of the car including the remaining inner wing. Overpainted with a chassis black enamel after 6 hours. 
Worked on both front wings. Dismantled fully and then split each inner wing into its five constituent pieces. The front wings required metal letting into the headlamp surround
as well as metal being let in around the indicator aperture. Both wings had splits to the edges at the front and along the outer edge. Where the wings parts
are welded together (at the seam) I had to weld in a new brace to stiffen the wing and keep the sides flat.
The inner wings were completly dismantled, repaired and re-assembled. I had to remake the lower rear part on each wing, as the
originals had rusted beyond use. These were made from a single sheet of steel, cut, bent and then hammered to approximate the original shape.
Hand-formed swage lines provided the final stiffening function.
The inner wing rear fixing brackets were both showing signs of rot and so were replaced with new items from 1mm steel. All five bits were then primed
before puddle welding back together and sealing their seams.
|
| 1st April 2011 |
Bonnet. Although a bit chipped, the bonnet appeared to be in reasonable condition. How wrong can you be! Closer inspection revealed that the rear re-enforcing strip at the rear of the bonnet hid hideous rust and rot around the hinge area. The only solution was to cut the back of the bonnet off, remake it from fresh steel and weld in back on invisbly. This also gave me the opportunity to rethink the bonnet hinges. As they were, they are of poor design, where they trapped through the seam at the top.
As I had to replace one of them anyway, I made two new hinges from the old hinge panel that I replaced from below the windscreen. This is of a
slightly different shape with the hinge slit on the underside. These were welded into the original positions and the SPOG hinge panel modified slightly to make them fit.
It seemed sensible to modify the SPOG panel, so that in future I can replace the bonnet with a standard one and it should fit right in.
The rest of the bonnet had all of its paint chips rubbed down and filled. The rear bonnet braces were remade and welded in with the front of the car re-assembled
to ensure that bonnet edges lined up with the fron wings and in-fill panels.
The infill panels were in reasonable shape - I only had to weld a single patch into the front curved edge of one of them. A skim of filler and a bit of primer left it looking reasonably presentable. |
| 14th May 2011 |
Painting. Had a go at finishing one of the rear wings in readiness for paint. This was sprayed with rattle-can filler primer and rubbed down to a smooth finish, allowing any blemished to be stopped and rubbed down again. 
Bought some 2k filler primer and resprayed the rear wing. Not enough pressure in the bleeder gun to atomise the paint properly, so ended up with a beautifully textured finish! What's more, it hardened harder than a hard thing and took ages to flatten! Have switched to a 2 bar air supply and will have another go soon. Started to refurb the mechanical side of the rolling chassis. Both spring cans had crust ends, so they were removed and replaced
with better items off rustier cans. Both cans were primed then treated to two coats of chassis black enamel.
Next up were the suspension tubes and donuts. I've got plenty to choose from so chose the best four. Front hubs next. These were seperated from their uprights before being wire brushed, degreased, primed and painted. When I dismatled this car, I found that the
track-rod end swivels were original 'hard' Citroen items and in near perfect condition. These will be brushed and repainted ready to go back on again.
Front arms. These were the original off the car. Covered in flakey green paint and covered in surface rust. These cleaned up surprisingly well
in the rotary wire brush and were primed and painted in the same way as the hubs.
|
| 23rd May 2011 |
Dis-assembled the front axle and stripped the steering rack. This axle is very rusty, but the rack is in good condition, so I'll use this rack in a different less rusty axle. Got the axle clean ready for primer. Rear swinging arms. These originally came off the car without undoing the rear hub nuts - Doh!, so had to go back onto a chassis in order to loosen them off.
a 12 foot length of scaffold pole is kept for this singluar purpose, and undid the nuts with minimal effort. With both nuts off, the drums were pulled
and read brakes dis-assembled. Both sets of snail adjusters were in good conditon and turned freely. However, the shoes were seized in their
eccentric adjusters and needed considerable wiggling to free them off.
The rear brake cylinders show signs of having DOT brake fluid in them - it's not green! When pickup up this car, I found a partly-used tub of DOT 4 brake fluid in the boot, and the top of the master cylinder reservoir contained a clear liquid. I was hoping that the last owner had merely topped up the brake fluid, and it hadn't mixed. I'm still hoping that this is the case and that the seals in the master cylinder and rear cylinders are all OK. If not, I'll have to cannibalise one set of the three rear axles that I have to find some useable brake cylinders. The rear axle had to be cut off the old chassis by removing the head of one of the axle bolts. This would not come out of the axle bracket despite heat
and penetrating oil etc, so was cut, drilled and tapped out in the end. This, along with the rear arms and drums needs to be stripped and repainted.
|
| 31st October 2011 |
Lots done since last update (Where has the summer gone?). All of the suspension has now been painted and ready for assembling onto the rolling chassis. I've got new rear shoes, cylinders and a brake fixing kit, as the originals were a bit ropey. The armacune brake pipe set arrived from France and is ready to fit also. The headlamps shells have been cleaned, repaired (plastic welded) and are ready to go. I've also finished all of the wings (inner and outer) with the exception of painting them and trial fitted them to the new windscreen hinge section. the bonnet has had a couple of coats of filler primer and is nearing completion. The fuel tank and sender have been cleaned and checked and are ready for fitting. I've finally stripped all of the interior bits out of the car in prep for painting. Bulkhead. This has now been sprayed with the 3M textured coating and the original factory 'finish' restored where I had cleaned it off for welding and painting. Hard to see how this will look until the colour coat goes on, but initial signs are encouraging. Chassis. I've taken a break from the bodywork to have a good look at the chassis and see what needs doing.
As this is a 2CV replacement chassis, of course, the Dyane battery tripod won't fit without some major mods. Welded some brackets and
rotated and angled the other two feet to pick up the existing handbrake mounting hole onthe cross-beam. Hope it now clears he inner front wings!
Valance. Time to rescue this out of the greenhouse and see what's what. At first glance, it looks pretty rubbish, but most of
this is surface rust and will clean up fine. Had to cut out four main areas of rust in the valance and patch these with new metal.
The goal-posts needed the bottom of the feet replaced and stripping back to bare metal.
Panel fit. In an attempt to fit everything back together again, I've re-assembled the car on the chassis to check front-end
panel fit and make any adjustments where necessary. So far, everything lines up and the door fit looks fine. I'll dis-assemble everything once more
before painting.
Paint. I've been rubbing down the LHS of the bodywork and the interior in prep for etch primer. I've now got almost all
of the car in etch primer with the LHS in three coats of filler primer, rubbed down between each coat. I can practise my spraying technique
with the primer, as I can always sand out any mistakes at this stage of painting.
I'm at the stage where I'm thinking of taking the body off the chassis again and building up the rolling chassis to completion. I can then re-mount the body and do the final paint with the chassis in place. This will give me the abilty yo make the project more mobile in terms of moving it about etc. |
| 31st December 2011 |
As I was struggling to get access to the offside of the car for spraying, I took the decision to concentrate on building the rolling chassis and mounting the shell to make the car more mobile. 
The chassis has been cleaned and drilled for some 'extra' fixing points before being built up with all of the refurbished
suspension components. New armacune brake pipes have been fitted with all new rear braking components (except the drums).
The original shock absorber spacers were a bit past it, so turned some new ones from scrap brass bar in the lathe.
Bodyshell mounted on chassis and fixed down in under an hour. All of the fixing set screws fitted in the correct place with just a little persuasion
and a lot of patience. Also screwed down the chassis through the boot floor near the rear.
Next job is to prep the RHS for paint and blow an etch primer over it. |
| 20th February 2012 |
Started refurbishing gearbox. Staked selector ring, drained and refilled box, stripped and cleaned calipers and replaced piston seals. Fitted armacune brake pipe kit.
Worked on RHS bodyshell, sprayed with etch primer and filler primer. Seen here with guidecoat. Turned six headlamp adjuster pegs out of stainless hex bar and totally refurbished an early ali grill, taking the steel frame out and repainting it before removing all of the dents from the grill, polishing it and re-rivetting it all back together.
Created Chassis wings out of stainless sheet to hold bottom of inner front wings. Will also use fixing points to secure brake line and fuel line on either side.
Bonnet in filler primer having been flatted countless times. This should be the last coat before final flatting. Undersealed the inside of all of the bolt-on panels with terotex 2000 shutz. The rear wings have been overpained with chassis black enamel, but the front panels will be speayed with topcoat. Started wet flatting back the front inner wings with 1000 grade wet&dry. Nice gloss finish - ready for colour Next job is to finish the filler primer and start wet flatting the entire shell back. |
| 16th March 2012 |
Lots of rubbing down...lots and lots. Lots of scooshy water, lots of wet & dry - Lots and lots (and the occasional dab of etch primer to cover up the inevitable bare patches ;-)
Started playing about with my top-coat - spraying several test panels to check for surface finishes etc. |
| 17th March 2012 |
Masked up and sprayed the interior of the car. |
| 18th March 2012 |
Masked the bulkhead and sprayed the ouside of that and the scuttle
Also sprayed the inside of the front inner wing and valance over the terotex underseal. |
| 21st April 2012 |
Exterior painted. followed by days of flatting compounding and polishing.
Made new bulkead interior trim from sound-deadening closed-cell foam faced with vinyl to match original finish. This is mainly glued in place with a high-temp contact adhesive.
Started to re-wire the car. Worked out most of the wiring just need to remember how it is routed. |
| 2nd May 2012 |
Interior bulkhead trim completed and wiring loom being fitted. Tested and fitted wiper motor. Fitted gearstick and handbrake mechanism. Fitted both rear quarterlights.
Gearbox and engine in, bulkhead furniture being fitted. Still too cold to finish painting wings and doors etc.
Fitted and adjusted rear door closer and hinges - using re-cycled front door seal with rusty ends trimmed off. Also fitted front windscreen with new seal. |
