Today I had enough free time to take the car on a journey across my least favourite bit of road, which is the trans Pennine M62 motorway.
That whole stretch is always, but always chock a block with lane wandering HGV's and tailgating asshole sales reps, a pleasure it isn't.

The purpose of the journey was to call in at 2cvCity near Halifax, where a new front wheel bearing was put in to replace the grumbly one that I mentioned earlier. All credit goes to the lads on duty today by the way, as despite being pulled out with work they squeezed me in and had me sorted in record time. While I was there I bought one of the few remaining bits of the 2cv jigsaw still to go in - the underbonnet soundproofing.



At £25.00 for a bit of felt it's not cheap, but I have seen some advertised for quite a bit more so I don't know if that stuff is of better quality than the one I bought, or if my stuff was a bargain? Certainly doesn't seem a bargain though. I mean it's hard to look at a metre of thin felt and think '£25.00...Yep...that's money well spent' isn't it?

You do get the spray glue with it though which did a better job than I was expecting, it was so good in fact that once in contact you can't pull the bugger off again to straighten it, so mine now has a small kink in it near the washer pipe.

On the way back across the M62 I was able to converse with my passenger at 'speed' without having to raise my voice at all, which was a novel experience as before the rebuild we were shouting at each other like two submariners from Das Boot, atop the conning tower in a storm.



Today of course, has also been spectacularly hot and sunny, which leads me nicely onto the other bit of kit that arrived today. Earlier in the week I had been looking on an old French website and came across old ads for lots of period accessories that were once available for the 2cv, amongst them was this 'Tamy-Toit' sunshade.

Well thanks to Joe Ahvee from the forum I now have a 'Tamy-toit' of my very own...and it only matches my interior colour perfectly! Top man Joe! I've not tried this while on the move yet, and I think it might need some additional velcro tabs sewing on to attach it more securely before I do, but I was very pleased to find this sitting on the doormat when I got back from Yorkshire.



What I was thinking was, if this hot weather continued then using it would allow me to leave the roof open as shown, but still get some cool air to the car's interior making it less like an oven when I get in. An added advantage is that when the car is parked out on the drive (which is surrounded by trees) I won't come out to a car interior full of bird crap - result!

If your heading east its a much nicer route to go through Todmorden, Hebden Bridge etc.... Its real quiet on a weekday and you usually see several 2cvs too ..

Don't let my Mrs hear you say that, or I'll be getting a touch of the 'I told you so's'

ahh she looks good! the sun shade suits your car more than mine thats for sure.

The work that I did on my dash panel to make it different from standard has been nothing more than to respray it, and then to fit aftermarket ignition, high beam and indicator warning lights. You can also see from the photo's above that the surround of the standard warning lights were also painted grey to match the rest of the trim.



The one thing I still wasn't happy with was the speedo. Anyone that has driven a 2cv will know how dismal the speedo looks at night, with the weedy 3W bulb failing to offer much more than a feint glow, certainly not anything that could be described as illumination. Glancing down at it while driving at night was pointless, as you had to wait a few seconds for the eyes to become accustomed to the dim glow! I replaced the 3 watt bulb for a 5 watt item some time ago and that did the trick nicely.

There is a danger that if the speedo illumination went too bright then it might be distracting, so I hatched a plan to lighten the dial itself which would then make more use of the available light and so be easier to see at a glance. This I did using the same colour that I had used for the car's bodywork and it turned out rather well.



I also noticed that there were coloured 5w bulbs for sale on ebay, so I ordered a green one to complement the colour of the dial. With typical British efficiency, this turned up several days late, and was blue.

I fitted them today so you might also have noticed that the mileage on the new speedo is showing considerably less than that of the old. Well this isn't a benefit, I actually prefer the 94k miler as that will turn round to zero very quickly which would be better to reflect the 'new' start the car has had.

ask nodmoz about driving with 5w bulbs at night.

No need to ask him mate I've already done it for the last two years, this one is just a coloured one that's the only difference. Before I fitted mine I'd heard all the horror stories doing the round of reflections in the side glass and 'so bright it distracts you' tales, and quite frankly - they're all bollocks.

There you go! My speedo taken about ten minutes ago, hardly burns the retina now does it? I just wish they'd sent a green bulb like I asked. While I'm grumbling I'll mention something else.

I bought a brand new speedo cable from 2cv City and thought it looked too long, even though the connections on each end were the same. When I got home I noticed it said 'Peugot 407' on the small tag on bag. I fit it, and I was right it was too long but because the ends were the same it fit. Now I have a 'tick-tick-tick noise and a jerky speedo needle which no amount of re-routing the cable will solve.

Up early-ish this morning in time to shake off the fog of last nights alcohol and be ready to attend the first classic event in our newly prettied up Bluebamboo. As luck had it on the approach road I spotted a red special in the distance, and we arrived at the gate just behind it.



The red 2cv belonged to forum member James, who headed onto the field before me, and after a short amble showed remarkable consideration by parking several feet away from the nearest car which was a Rolls Royce. Never one to doff the cap, I slotted mine into the gap that he'd left which, I noticed was much to the consternation of the Rolls Royce owners.

I had been shot an icy glare as I pulled in next to them, one of those looks which silently said 'Good Gracious! Don't park that thing near our car' which made parking there for me all the funnier!

The weather was ideal for a show like this with plenty of interesting non 2cv stuff about, and four I2F cars that managed to attend. They were 2 red specials, a grey/grey Charleston lookalike, and my own.

I managed to meet up for a brief chat with the other owners in attendance before wandering about the show admiring all the hard work of others. Mrs. Nail has hurt her ankle last week while out jogging, and so stayed with the car for the most part, and told me on my return that the old Bluebamboo had received quite a few comments and admiring glances, and several photographs had been taken of it, which was nice to hear. The Rolls Royce next to it on the other hand, hadn't had much interest.



Above: Mrs. Nail cools her back on the icy chill generated by the Rolls Royce owners...check the body language, can't you just feel the love?
By 1pm it was up sticks and away in time to get suitably Stella'd up for the 3pm footy.