...thanks folks....


Confession over....

Makes the next meeting of AA (A series Anonymous) a bit better....

...I havent scrapped a 2CV for a few years now....kind of wish I could again buy one for fifty quid and just rip it apart and be happy to have done that...for no reason....but it was there and cheap.....(did someone mention my bad relationships with women?...about the same price!)

....next day I could go without....(ditto)

as they say...."one day at a time"...

We handed over more than that really, acad doors, 400 wings, more than one probably perfectly good gearbox and three short engines minus thier heads and ancillaries. And some ami6 wings. I don't feel in the least bit guilty because people have had enough chances to buy it in the past and as I'm fed up of paying to store it when it's of no use to me then there's no feelings of guilt attached at at. I've never been so pleased to see a trio of pikeys either, they were a godsend!

Spot the A series parts!

Is a shame, aren't good bonnets etc hard to come by ,and the more stuff gets scrapped the higher the prices go ,which people moan about .. I see you did try to offer it about though
That thought aside, why give scrap to a pikey when you can weigh it in yourself and make more money than they would ever give you

It's been on offer for about two years since I took over squeezebox's nissen hut full of parts. I offered the entire stock, which was an awful lot on eBay and got £100 for it, on top of that I invited everybody I knew with a 2cv and placed adverts for open days a couple of days where folk were welcome to come and offer me anything they wanted for whatever they wanted. I wasn't interested in the money I just wanted it gone. Nobody was interested. I'm afraid I can't warrant paying rent on storage units to store shite I'm not going use in a lifetime of 2cving. Each garage was costing me' £45 a month and I had two. The nissen hit cost me £170 a month. I broke even on the hut but with 4 years worth of garage rent out of my own pocket you do the maths. I'm better off buying something new off the shelf than storing old crap. I don't have the time to waste trying to sell bits to people, as 9 times out of ten they just want to turn up and question whether they really want something instead of turning up, making an offer or stumping up the pound notes.

Yeah, I'm sure we threw away good stuff but as nobody else was willing to rock up and clear it out 100% hassle free like the pikeys did then obviously there's not such a big demand after all. I kept enough bits to build myself another whole car so I don't feel too guilty at all, plus I'm £90 a month up already.

Oh i understand why you did it, i am just surprised there was no up take on it. I might have had a couple of bits for spares had i known or seen the ad , probably would have hardly dented it though. Surprised 2cvgb didnt want anything for their spares lock up ,perhaps it's full too.
The other thing i meant was ,you'd have made a fair bit more cash taking it to the scrapyard yourself (if you have the means),rather than letting the pikey take it.

I'm not so sure y'know. If I hadn't gifted it to the gyppos it would have meant another months rent storing all the shite in the garage and the cost of renting a van for the day plus juicing it up plus my time, for what was at best £200 of scrap. I'd rather get shot there and then and be done with it.

Let's face it though, one 24hr race will produce 5 times the scrap we got rid of if not vastly more than that... Imagine what gets binned in a year of 2cv cross, and this is the 40th year of that just in France.

Good point.

the ruskington unit is full of random bits, dont get me wrong im not putting it down, but what is in there, isnt the sort after stuff as thats all gone already!!

I must admit that reading that brought me out in a cold sweat and the realisation that maybe once in a very, very bad dream I might have been something to do with the so called Nissen Hut !

….its kind of coming back to me now!

A few years ago I had decided there really was no choice but to go back “on the tools” and do some building jobs etc. I just got myself going and sorted out when a friend of mine, who owned the “Nisssen Hut” and ran a “2CV repair business” from there decided he wanted to clear off quite promptly. Was I interested in just taking it all on?

No…I wasn’t, and Mrs Squeeze was very against it too. Anyway, I am not a mechanic, I am not a welder, I cant spray, I barely keep my own car going….I have a massive passion for the 2CV but it’s a pure hobby.

The price also was mad. Several…infact many thousands of pounds and I had just got going with a new (to me) van and set up doing something else. Anyway the “Hut owner” couldn’t get anyone interested at the original money so he and I did a deal (still far more than I should have paid as it was four figures with rent and deposit) because I just could not bear to see this stuff scrapped.

I therefore turned up about three or more days a week for 4 or 5 months and it nearly killed me just trying to cover the rent that Russ mentions above. On top of that I had to try and get back the lump sum I paid for the stuff and was loosing work by being in a rat infested, cold leaking place trying to be all things to save the 2CV.

What particularly got to me was the attitude of many 2CVers. I wasn’t then (and am not now) a member of 2CVGB…I know I should and will join again, but the fact I even go on this place is amazing….I am simply not a “club” or “group” person. Point is I took the place on not to make money, but to pass stuff around and help folk out. I listed bits on eBay and realised the forum (not this one…it wasn’t running then) were taking a few “pops” at me for trying to sell stuff for too much money. I was making a loss…It seemed like there was some divine need for me to post a bit of Dyane rubber stuff halfway around the country at a loss.

“Have you got a *****…ok I will have that then as my spare Dyane has only got 27 replacement ones of those and they cost £20 from ecas…if you could post it to me and include a fifty pound note then I might reply to you nicely on the forum…”

Don’t get me wrong I would help a 2Cver out anytime and have been given parts, advice and help from many and would return likewise…but the hassle I got from people seeing stuff in the pics I posted and then thinking they had some right to own them was dreadful

Some people were of course excellent and just turned up and paid what I asked. Some who I don’t think are here on this site were utterly a pain in the D*lly. Weirdly the “traders” gave me a fairer price for some things than certain others. I expected to have some “horse trading” banter, but not to the level of unpleasantness I found it to be. Also to be “bad mouthed” on 2CVGB….admittedly indirectly, but by people who were quick to accept the freebies I gave….hmmm…

….a bad experience.

The worst of it was selling an item for a mere £15 to someone I knew as a friend as he was local. He asked if I had a windscreen….we agreed £15, I cancelled work early and he turned up late. He took the windscreen and “drove to the cash point” (knowing what I wanted in advance and hadnt brought the money)….I didn’t see him again until the following London to Brighton. So I went up to him and reminded him and he was very sheepish said he would get me the money later in the day but he didn’t. Frankly I don’t care about the fifteen quid, it’s the principal…..he had the bloody nerve to camp near me and not even buy me a pint in the evening. I also had a couple of cars outside and once someone turned up when I wasn’t there and took some bits and afterwards texted me to say they took them, and would replace or pay for them…..they never did….its more commonly know as theft. Again I would have given them the bits (and I guess I did anyway) had they asked or been in need.

Anyway, I did meet some good folk when having the hut and of course as Russell mentions, he took it over because he turned up one evening and brought some bits (including a starter motor that didn’t work…oooppps!) and for a few quid more took on the rest. Also Russell just paid on the dot at what I wanted. Nice one….but I do feel guilty and think I tried to be honest with you ? Russ, you and I will one day get nominated for the Nobel prize for charitable work to the 2CV…when we get it we can take it to the scrap yard together.

What is this thing some of us have anyway ?…if I have something I no longer need I might try and sell it. I state my price…..its my price…if someone wants it they can pay my price. If they don’t then why offer me another price ?….that’s then NOT my price….so if I choose and I own the item and can freely just chuck the item in the pikeys scrap bin…..end of……..cheers Russell for being one of the few “good uns” I met with the hut, I would willingly name and shame the people who gave me hassle…..but I don’t think they are on I2F anyway…..mainly because I think they then went on to cause Russell the same dam problems.

But I reckon I am still about £100 down on my experience. Glad Russ is about even, because I did worry mate…I hoped with your mechanical and welding skills you could have made a few quid. Also I knew nobody in the 2CV world and I hoped your contacts might have helped…….but I am glad you didn’t make a storming loss either…..

…..point is… I (and Russ) tried to do the right thing and save all this stuff. I totally appreciate that these should be cheap cars and all that…..but again do the maths….a garage at £45 the Hut at £170 per month…loss of earnings and general sodding about when someone doesn’t turn up on time to buy a door for and then askes you to pay for their petrol home because the window catch is broken. Especially when you hadnt realised the window catch was included,

Just before Russ came along and gave his energy to the 2CV charity that seems to exsist, I had given up and I was driving a transit van of stuff to the tip every other day….scrap values weren’t bad, I got £60-£70 for dumping engines and boxes, wings and panels…sadly people wouldn’t pay £40-£50 a time for an engine (and wont now) and with all the hassle of eBay, and selling stuff ……I must admit that picture and this memory is quite amazing.

Good for you….although would have been interested in the Flymo lawn mower…..I didn’t see it advertised on any forums and wonder if you have one from 1993 that has the height adjuster on the L/H side. What I really want is the rubber cover on the handle, but I want one that has the “checker” pattern not “stripes”…I know they are rare, and until I turn up and give you hassle for it and leave bad eBay feedback, I don’t care about its condition. Then of course when you have paid me four times the price of Kate Middletons honeymoon suite I will tell you and the world just what rubbish it is because it is dirty and that I had to beg you to take away …You should look after the Flymo and give the spares away, because if I don’t get bits for nothing I cant sell things at a huge profit myself…..and don’t forget the flymo are not machines….my Flymo is call “MoMo”….its is a living being …how can you dump poor “MoMos” twin sister in the back of a truck ?


OK…I’m off down the pub now….think Ive just been a very grumpy old man!!