The last one looks like it should have come flat-packed from Sweden!

This one looks almost an Ikea company car!!

Bit of a bummer - I can't find that bit of roof material to make the winter muff colour-coordinated with the car. I'm sure that I have it somewhere, but like a bad penny it'll probably turn up too late.

What I did have however was a kind of black seat upholstery vinyl, out of which I've cut two back to back grille shapes, I figured the double thickness would make it stiffer. I'll get the Mrs to machine stitch them together properly tomorrow, then all I need to do if buy one of those eyelet makers and put some proper eyelets in it to accept the cable ties.

Since I couldn't do that I've sat and written a part chapter of the book I've been working on instead, it seems to be flowing along quite nicely, although I'm writing as disjointedly as my temperament dictates. Things are being written as they occur, thus putting them entirely out of sequence, so there's something else that will need stitching together later.

Lawd, that Jag is just....

Yes, the red one does look metallic or pearlescent - it has that depth and shimmer in the colour. Just about gets away with it - who'd have thought. I suspect adding black metallic to make it a Charlie would also work in this case.

The more I see, tho', the more I feel that Charlies and their ilk are just trying too hard. I fully take on what you say about the lighter interior (which is a turn-around for me as I usually prefer dark interiors as being more 'cosy'), and along with a nice all-over pastel - perhaps the lighter shade of your colour - it's where I'm being drawn at the mo'.

The only reason why I'd go the lighter shade is that - your colour has been done, and it's yours!


(The book order surely doesn't matter at the moment - the important thing, I'd have thought, is to just get down on paper (pooter) the way it comes to you and you feel about at the time. I suspect the editing process takes at least as long as the writing malarkey.)

It isn't my colour it's anyone who wants it. I know what you mean though, it's been done now and so that's not unique any more except to me.

The book editing will be longer than the writing I fear, I find that when writing it just flows out, it'll probably end up being a case of condensing it further while retaining the essential bits. I'm trying to put together a smooth transition by explaining how skills learned in one area have become useful in another.

It's hard to conceive how skills learned as a Doorman translate into other fields, such as sales, but they have done.

I don't mean "it's been done" as suggesting the reason that I wouldn't use 'your' colour is because it would no longer be unique - not at all; if there were 100 of your colour running around out there, I'd still be chuffed to be in one of them. It's just that it would be too easy - 'cheap' - to simply pinch your ideas.

Ditto the 'gris' side flash - inspired. Very envious of that touch, but again I wouldn't copy it as I see it very much as 'yours'. And it is. (I might put a Devon flag there instead... )

But looking at your car, and the many tips you've given (eg a light interior), will definitely influence the direction I plan to go. So, ta very much

I don't think you would regret the light interior, I honestly don't. You have to actually sit in the car to appreciate the difference, in 'real life' it has far more impact than the photo's might suggest.



Pastel colours for the outside, or if not pastel shades then at least subtle ones certainly aren't for everyone. I only advocate them because I genuinely think that they give something unexpected to the car. We are so used to seeing the colours of the 1980's on modern rebuilds, or at the other extreme the original greys on the ripple rebuilds that there hasn't been much room for experimentation other than the 'painting it whatever colour you want - and what the hell' type stuff.

It's nice, I feel, to have reached a place where the restorations are increasingly becoming that bit more than bodging on a shoestring and brush painting, and that creating the 2cv that YOU WANT is now seen as a reasonable thing to do.

Amen.

I'm sorry folks.

I've just looked back at my recent posts on this site, and in one of them I'm actually talking about the relative merits of chocolate FFS.

Time to leave I think, onward and upward as they say, or, as is typical for me 'onward and - straight into the F*kin inferno'.
What-ever, it's the way I've lived, and it's the only way I know.

During my time in the 2cv world I have virtually 'met' some genuinely friendly people. I have also learned skills that previously I honestly and truthfully would never have either considered to be, nor believed to be, worthwhile. I thank you one and all for that.

Thank you, notably to: Ken, Sean, Viking, and many others that were actually decent enough to offer help to me during my restoration, I also hope that those of you who have followed the honest trials and tribulations that I have documented here for you, 'warts an' all' as they say, might also find that they have learned from it.

I've just made a winter grille for a 2cv, and as I came to write about it I realised that what a sad f*ck I'd become, I shouldn't be making winter grille's and moaning about f*cking chocolate - I'm not ready for this yet.

So it is with a heavy heart, (and I mean that) that I have decided to pack up this friendly but ultimately fake computer lark and get back to real life with all it's interesting ugliness. I'm a true product of my era, so in parting let me say -

"Son, I'm 50
I only went with your mother 'cause she's dirty,
And I don't have a decent bone in me
What you get is just what you see yeah
I see it so I take it freely
And all the bad piss ugly things I feed me
I never help or give to the needy
Come on and see me.....
Yippee-ippee-ey-ey-ay-yey-yey
I had to crucify some brother today" [/b]

See you on the other side fella's - don't be late!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvJoW3SvSRU&feature=channel

You will be missed Pete! it has been a pleasure.