Citroen 2CV by Landlubber Mike - FINISHED - Airfix and Tamiya - 1/24

[fnick]

Hi Mike

 

Stumbled across this on LinkedIn. An advert for the 2CV prototype!

 

 

Thought you might find this interesting.

 

Nick

 

[cog]

Funny, that's Dutch text

[yvesvidal]

6 hours ago, cog said:

Funny, that's Dutch text

The Dutch people (as you most likely know) have a passion for all old Citroen cars, including the Traction, 2CV, DS and CX. It is not surprising that this old French commercial would be sub-titled in Dutch language.

 

Yves

[Landlubber Mike]

Maybe I need to add some Dutch guys and a basket of eggs

[yvesvidal]

Talking about the 2CV, it was notorious for a very nasty leak of fuel, on its cylinders. My brother used to have one and the end of the car was pretty dramatic.

The car stalled at a Stop sign (the issue was always happening at low speed or while idling) and while trying to crank it up again, he noticed a very bad burning smell.

He had just enough time to grab his wallet in the glove box, open the door and escape the car, as it started burning on the road, near the junction.

He watched it completely surrounded by flames, from a safe distance. That was his last attempt at owning a 2 CV. He owns two Traction Avant 11 CV and 15 CV and a CX).

 

The 2 CV could be a romantic car, but you had to make sure that piece of fuel hose above the engine was changed on a regular basis.

 

Yves

[Landlubber Mike]

In case this build goes south, sounds like setting it on fire might be consistent with reality then  

[Egilman]

22 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

The 2 CV could be a romantic car, but you had to make sure that piece of fuel hose above the engine was changed on a regular basis.

A new definition of being out with your girl and getting hosed....

[wefalck]

First time I heard about that issue. But then I had mine serviced by a dealer regularly ...

[Baker]

On 6/24/2020 at 6:09 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

Maybe I need to add some Dutch guys and a basket of eggs

Nice model. The nickname with us is "geit" (goat). Have no idea why 

Can someone from Belgium also come along. Just ordered eggs from my chickens. .And I told them it is urgent 😂

 

[cog]

On 6/24/2020 at 2:51 PM, yvesvidal said:

The Dutch people (as you most likely know) have a passion for all old Citroen cars,

Strange, I like British vintage cars .. but yes, there are quite some 2CV's still running daily on our roads, with the odd Mehari as  an ugly duckling

[CDW]

Around 1966, my sister and her family moved back to the USA after spending four years in France with the USAF. Her husband dearly wanted a Citroen Peugeot. He found a new car dealership in Fayetteville, NC that sold the Citroen Peugeot line and he bought a brand new station wagon. Turned out to be a huge disappointment as it passed everything but the repair garage. I remember it being an attractive design, but it was not reliable at all. Maybe he just got a "lemon". He knew they had a great reputation in France. 

 

PS: After I wrote this, I started thinking more about it and remembered it was a Peugeot he bought, not a Citroen. Sorry, my mistake.

[marktiedens]

Remember the Yugo?   It was very low priced,but the costly part was hiring a tow truck to follow you around.

 

 

Mark

[Old Collingwood]

I have owned two french cars  a Megane  and a Citroen  ZX, both quite decent cars.

 

OC.

[lmagna]

My first car was a hand-me-down Renault Douphine. If I had been a little more car savvy and understood mechanics better at the time it would have been a much better car. I think that in many ways it was a better car than the VW bugs that many of my friends had back then. 

[CDW]

1 minute ago, lmagna said:

My first car was a hand-me-down Renault Douphine. If I had been a little more car savvy and understood mechanics better at the time it would have been a much better car. I think that in many ways it was a better car than the VW bugs that many of my friends had back then. 

I was car savvy, but the problem with many of these cars was a lack of spare parts availability. Just couldn't buy them locally and it took a LONG wait to order parts from Europe. VW's had a huge part availability network locally. That in my opinion made the VW the superior car.

[lmagna]

2 minutes ago, CDW said:

That in my opinion made the VW the superior car.

That is why you still see VWs around today and almost no one has even heard of a Renault Douphine!

[amateur]

8 hours ago, cog said:

Strange, I like British vintage cars .. but yes, there are quite some 2CV's still running daily on our roads, with the odd Mehari as  an ugly duckling

There are even places where you can rent them for a day out. Near higway A12: duckcity.nl. Rent a Duck for a party, day out, etc. 

Seems to be a nice business.... I don't have positive memories with those ugly ducklings: leaking, not wind and water proof.

 

Jan

[wefalck]

The CV (and its rather over-confident nun-driver) appears in several of Louis de Funes 'Les Gendarms de St. Tropez' films.

 

This clip shows the advantage of having 'traction avant';

 

 

The soft suspension could be rather frightening to the uninitiated, but the car was actually rather stable, also due to its low centre of gravity:

 

 

And it had a considerable (unofficial) load carrying capacity:

 

 

I once took three university colleagues including a backpack for each of us and other gear to a geological field trip into the Austrian Alps ...

 

[yvesvidal]

I love these movies. I grew up with them and enjoyed each one of them.

 

Yves

[wefalck]

They have been and still are very popular in Germany, being shown on TV from time to time still.

[cog]

I have quite a few of "Le gendarme de St Tropez" movies on DVD, I love Louis de Funes, "il est vraiment phénoménal", and the nun in her 2CV

[Ringadingdong]

'Nein' - 'Doch' - 'Oh!' 😁

Mom hated him, but these films were an enjoyful part of childhood

[Landlubber Mike]

I've been fitting in some work on the Citroen over the last few weeks while primarily working on the F3F builds.  I've got the chassis set up with the engine, and have a lot of the other assorted parts painted.  Just need to start putting things together.  I think I shared some of the pictures before, but here are some current ones.

 

 

I've used light and dark grey washes to break up the solid sections of black, and brown washes to add depth to the seats and interior.  I'm wondering about doing that for the body of the car too.  If I do, it will have a different look than a "showroom new" model, which I think I'm fine with.  The Tamiya dark yellow looks nice, but kinda plastic.  I was originally thinking of spraying on a few layers of gloss clear coat and then buffing it to a nice shine, but I'm not sure that would really fit with this kind of car.  So, I might just add washes and then use a semi-gloss or gloss clear coat and call it a day.  I have some other car models where a buffed out clear coat would be a lot more appropriate.

 

One part of the kit that I've been thinking about modifying is the grill.  The instructions have you painting it black and picking out the gratings and frame in grey.  What I'm thinking of doing is actually cutting out the plastic between the gratings so that it looks more realistic.  Could be a disaster, but I might as well try.  I have some generic PE grills from Modelcargarage.com that could be a last resort if it's not working out.  The piece is a bit thick, so it might be a little tricky.  I'm thinking of using my micromotor to route out as much as possible, and then use an X-acto to clean things up.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nirvana]

Oh my cutting out with a rotary tool, you are bold.

But you gave me an idea for my Mustang and the solid grill.

CV2 is coming together in a rapid pace.

[wefalck]

At least on the later models the grills were stamped and pressed sheet-metal in a light grey plastic frame, independent of the colour of the car. Before the frame was also stamped and pressed from sheet-metal - remember very well, because at some stage I repainted mine. The very first models did not have a separate grille, but just slots in an inverted chevron-pattern stamped into the pressed bonnet. The Citroen inverted chevrons were chromed, if I remember correctly.

 

Will you be adding still the connecting rods to the suspensions ? The 2CV had a rather unique suspension cum shock-absorber arrangement. The longitudinal pipes under the chassis are the spring cum shockabsorber elements. The arms on which the wheels sit are connected to these by long rods. In this way the suspension for wheels on one side is not completely independent. The suspension overall was very soft, but safe, even when taking bends at high speed (relatively to the 2CV that is) - one just had to get used to the swaying of the body of the car. One of the design criteria was that a farmer should be able to safely take a basket of eggs from his farm, across unmade roads, to the market town

 

The first models were sort of painted in sort of satin oil-paint, I think. But since the mid-1950s or so normal painting procedures of the day were followed, resulting in a gloss finish.

 

The quilted leather upholstery is rather posh for a 2CV. Usually they had a sort of velvety fabric, the same as used on the larger Citroens. The seats were rather soft by modern standards, but very comfortable - I could sit in it the whole day without circulation problems.

 

 

[Landlubber Mike]

It's probably hard to make out in the pictures, but there is a bar that attaches from near the firewall to the tops of the suspensions.  Interestingly, the kit part didn't include long enough bars so I had to replace them with longer rods.  Interesting info about the suspension of these cars!

 

The upholstery seems to be used in the "Dolly" models in the mid-80s (this kit is the Dolly version).  I believe these cars were marketed primarily to women with the two toned body colors, but maybe they also had to add more comfortable seats than the traditional fabric draped over a steel frame.  Here are a couple of interior shots for Dolly versions that I found online.

 

 

 

[wefalck]

Actually, the fabric looks very much the one on mine, but the stitching was different.

[CDW]

Cute little cars, but I imagine they nor the passengers would fare well in crash tests.

7 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

It's probably hard to make out in the pictures, but there is a bar that attaches from near the firewall to the tops of the suspensions.  Interestingly, the kit part didn't include long enough bars so I had to replace them with longer rods.  Interesting info about the suspension of these cars!

 

Are the bars you mention ones that can be seen in the photos that precede your last post? They must be the upper control arms, but something looks odd about this arrangement and not correct. Have you compared photos of the real car's suspension with the model kit?

 

My brother-in-law told me about compact Citroen cars in France that were very popular, but prohibited from import to the USA due to safety standards. Wonder if these were the ones he spoke of?

[Nirvana]

CDW, 

The modern Citroen have a high safety standard otherwise they wouldn't be able to sell their cars at all.

[wefalck]

Well, the car was conceived in the late 1930s, when there were not too many other cars on the road and mainly for use in rural areas. That it became so popular in the 1960s to 1980s particularly with non-conventional urban young could not be anticipated. The lack of passenger protection was one reason, why it was discontinued.

 

 I have a late 1970s repair manual, which shows a lot of cross-sections of the parts of the suspension, but no GA drawing unfortunately, but I found this site with a lot of useful photographs (albeit in German): http://www.entmontage.de/fahrwerk.htm. And the animated graphic from that site: