I know I mentioned this before, but I’m now the proud owner of a Citroën 2CV. This is quite literally an automotive dream come true for me; I’ve wanted a 2CV ever since I first saw them in car books from the library as a kid. They had all of the strangeness and charm of the Volkswagen Beetles I loved and was familiar with, but were somehow even weirder, which just made them even more intoxicating to me. And the more I learned about them, the more I wanted one! All the lore of being designed to replace horses and carts for French farmers, the carrying the eggs over the plowed field, the fact you can’t roll one, the astounding austerity and cleverness – I love it, openly, unashamedly.
And now, somehow, I have one sitting right there in my driveway. I still can’t believe it’s real. I’ve gone out and sat in it like half a dozen times already, just obsessing over every strange little wonderful detail, delighting in all of the peculiar decisions that went into making this car what it is. When the 2CV was introduced in 1948, a reviewer for The Autocar was quoted as saying that the 2CV
“is the work of a designer who has kissed the lash of austerity with almost masochistic fervour.”
…and I absolutely love that description. It’s true. This is a car that doesn’t cut corners, it chews those corners off with a wild-eyed, ecstatic glee. You can almost picture how each little detail that made something simpler – the way the hood hinge is just a bit of metal bent into an extruded triangle, or how the windows just flip up or how there’s not really a distributor in the engine – was met with some designer or engineer letting out a ragged, long sigh of pleasure and then lighting up a cigarette.
Oh, and again I should thank our own Stephen Walter Gossin for rescuing this thing and taking care of all the hard stuff – new glass, new roof, lots of wiring, and, perhaps most importantly, sorting out the title – and then dropping it off at my house.
Stephen made this dream real, especially because there really aren’t any 2CVs in this ideal middling state available. Everything out there is either a basket case project made of rust and hopelessness or a completely restored beauty that I can’t afford if I want to remain someone who uses the plural when talking about his kidneys. SWG got this fixed up just enough that it can be a fantastic, usable, daily driver. By no means perfect, but perfect’s never been something I’ve found that interesting. I mean, look at me up there.
As an aside, I’ve also kind of wanted a Citroën because Citroën is the only major automaker that was founded by someone Jewish, Andre Citroën. As a Jew who has spent his whole life obsessed with VW Beetles, a car with a, let’s say, checkered family history when it comes to getting along with my people, it just seemed right that I should have a Citroën in my stable to, you know, maybe bring some balance.
This 2CV I now own has the big engine, a 602cc air-cooled flat-twin beast. That makes it the smallest-displacement combustion engine I’ve ever owned in a car, beating out my Pao’s 987cc inline-four. This got me thinking about engines and horsepower, as the 29 horsepower the 2CV makes is, I believe, the second-lowest hp car I’ve ever had.
I decided to make a little chart to see how it stacks up against every other daily-driver car (meaning that these were cars that I used, for at least some decent period of time, as my primary transportation). Incredibly, I’ve never quite reached that stratospheric 150 hp level:
Wow! It looks like the most power I’ve had at the tip of my right foot has been around 145 hp, a figure tied between my old Scimitar and my F-150. The Scimitar was much faster, though. The Volvo 1800S was fun to drive, too, and I think my ’73 Beetle, when I upgraded to a twin-carb engine, was pretty quick, too. The Yugo also, was a beast with 87 hp! And of course, the Changli is at the bottom, with a horse-and-a-horse-fetus 1.1 hp.
But 29! That’s going to be fun to wring out! I’m told a 2CV with this engine should be able to hit 71, flat out. My Pao can hold 70-75 on the highway without much trouble, but that is still about 20-something more horsepower, and with a fifth gear. The 2CV’s fourth gear is an overdrive, though, and if it can hold 60-65, I’ll be happy. I can do the occasional highway with that! But I’ll likely prefer to keep this on back roads.
Okay, now for the harsh reality. The 2CV doesn’t quite run just yet, but I’m confident it will soon. So, here are all the things wrong with it I need to sort out.
What’s Wrong
The Fuel Pump
It’s down there, just above that yellow wire nut. It doesn’t suck, which in this case is a problem. They’re $40 and two bolts, pretty much, and that’s the first thing I’ll do. It should start after that? I hope?
The Driver’s Seat
The rubber bands that support the driver’s seat seem worn out, and as a result, I sink down into the seat a bit too much, which, for a short homunculus like myself, is a problem. I think I can fix that. Also, I need to get these seat covers off and clean them, especially getting out all the broken glass – and at least one dime – from the crevices.
A Bit Of Rust Here And There
There is some rust, but overall, it’s not that bad. The hood “hinge” has a good bit, there’s one Kraft Single-sized patch under the mat on the driver’s floor, and really, other than some little bits here and there, it’s not bad at all. All of the crucial chassis bits are quite rust-free, so I think I can take care of these little rust colonies before they spread.
The Fuel Gauge Doesn’t Seem To Work
The earliest 2CVs just had a stick, so maybe I shouldn’t complain. I think it’s just the sender in the tank, which drops out with four bolts. Should be easy enough to fix.
The Headlight Aiming Adjuster Needs Fixing
There’s a knob under the dash to adjust how high or low the headlights aim, so if you have, say, a large meteor in the trunk or a full grown rhino in the back seat, you can make sure your lights don’t just light up the undersides of aircraft. I think it just needs a little clip thing to hold that cable in place.
The Wiring Needs Tidying Up
Stephen got most of the wiring sorted out, but I’d like to just make sure everything is where it needs to be and bundle up that mass of wires. There are only about 18 wires in the whole car, but it sure looks like more under here.
The Dome Light Is Pretty Janky
It’s very much an afterthought, no matter what – just something some Citroën engineer found in the first eight pages of a parts catalog and stuck on there. I can likely get a replacement one cheap.
One Headlight Must Have Gotten Water In It
I need to clean out this headlight really well and see where it may have had a leak. Also, likely new bulbs for both lights, which have full headlight bulbs and small “town light” bulbs, like on my Pao. Also, I’m going to get rid of those headlight visors, because I’m just not crazy about the look.
A Broken Taillight!
Oh no! There’s a broken taillight! The good news is, I already have a replacement! Which means I can hang the cracked one by my desk, where I can readily contemplate its beauty.
I Need To Put The Fan Assembly Back On After I Make Sure The Points Are Good
I have the fan and all related parts; the sorta-distributor is in here, behind that leathern sheet, where it fires both plugs at once, every time, because why not? Sparks are cheap. So I need to get that back together after I confirm I’m getting good spark.
Okay, I think that’s all the wrongs; what’s right?
I Need To Get Bolts To Install Those Side Panels
See those gaps under the hood and over the fenders? I have the panels that fit there, but I think I need a few more bolts. That should be easy enough.
What’s Right
It’s a 2CV!
It’s motherflapping 2CV! A Deux Cheveaux! A car I’ve wanted forever! That’s what’s right about this thing.
Really, There’s Hardly Any Bad Rust
Look in the spare tire well here, normally a bad rust trap. It’s pretty damn clean! As is most of the car. It’s not rust free, but who amongst us is? It’s very solid, overall.
The Bullet Hole
A bullet hole in a car just makes it look tougher. And, I checked, it missed the fuel filler pipe.
These Little Window Clips Are So Clever And Simple
When you flip up the windows, a little peg pops into that hole, pushing aside that spring-loaded rod. Pushing that little lever on top releases it. It’s so clever, I want to spit red wine.
The Fresh Air Vent Flap
A knob opens up this flap under the windshield. You could peek through it to drive if you had to, like, say, if you replaced your windshield with a nicely-sanded piece of plywood.
I Love The Ridiculous Dash And All The Strange Controls
That’s the headlight stalk; it has an O, a V (ville, town), and an R (route or rural or something, for main headlights). You push it for the horn. The turn signals don’t even have an on-dash blinky light, because what are you, a king? I love the moped-like speedo, the strange little push buttons, the crazy shifter, everything. I can’t explain or justify it, I just do.
The Windshield Washer Is A Squirt Gun, Basically
You know how much I love the VW Beetle’s use of spare tire air pressure to drive the windshield washer? Well, the 2CV has a system that’s about as basic and clever: the washer works by pumping, with your finger, a little plunger on the dash. Basically, a squirt gun. Who needs some fancy-ass electric pump when you have perfectly good working fingers? It’s fantastic.
I’m just thrilled I finally have one of these in my life. I can’t wait to get it going and sorted and just drive the the merde out of this thing. I think it’ll be a blast!
Stay tuned for more, lots more.
These Little Window Clips Are So Clever And Simple ??Wait until you roll over a bump, the clip release the window and it hits your elbow… Don’t ask me how I know.
Gun shot ? Wait, like the deux chevaux 007 ??
6836433035_9b143cdfe1_b.jpg (1280×994)
Since I moved to the Dordogne area in France three years ago, I have been stunned to see how many of these are still on the road. Many are restored and are clearly Sunday cars, but others appear to be daily drivers. There are also still a lot of Renault 4’s as well. What I haven’t seen, and want, are Peugeot 404’s, considering how many millions were sold and how tough they were. The few I’ve seen are the pick-up truck versions. When I find one though, I’m going to buy it.
P.S. Don’t get in an accident…
In my early teens, I worked for a newspaper distributor in California who had a small fleet of 404s, most of them wagons/estates. I had never seen one before. The only non-404 vehicles he had were a Toyota Corolla wagon with a 2-speed automatic and a Ford Econoline. I wasn’t old enough (or allowed) to drive any of the fleet, but he loved his 404s.
I don’t think that exposure is what drove my purchase years later of a used ’71 504. I think that was due to a “surfer chick” I met in college who had one. Turned out to be a great, reliable car.
One of the great things about the 404 was you can crank start it, much to the amazement of passerby’s.
That’s pretty cool! Peugeot had some pretty interesting engineering. I loved how the torque tube on my 504 meant you could drive over really tall grass without getting stuff wrapped around the driveshaft.
I remember your glee when you got to drive the naked 2CV and you showed us how the shifter worked
I like these. But the R4 has just enough modernity and amenities I think I could survive it as a daily driver.
Re the squirt gun wipers: ah. I remember having a tiny pedal for this near my floorboards. Next to the hi-beam clicker.
Re the broken gas gauge:
My best friend’s Uncle Hank, who lived in the upstairs apartment next door above my friend, had an old car with a broken gas gauge. He used to check his gas by holding a lit match near the filler pipe entry to get some light to see down into the tank. He also had one arm.
The two facts are unrelated, but still. Definitely fix your gas gauge. Don’t be like Uncle Hank.
My ’66 M-B 250S (which I inherited while in high school) had a rubber bulb in the footwell to pump wiper juice, which was perfect by itself but wait: there’s more!
There was a ring around the bulb that was attached to a micro-switch that turned on the wipers while pressed and gave you one swipe of the wipers if you just tapped it. Brilliant.
And it gets better, believe it or not: the wiper speed switch was separate from the wiper on/off switch. That meant that your toe-tap could give you either a stately swish-swish or an adrenalized whip-whip depending on where you left the speed switch.
The color looks great. Reminds me of a little tuxedo wearing penguin.
The best item of mystery on a 2CV is that they still included two little clips above the windshield for the outside release fabric top even though they switched to an inside release top in the late 1970s. But the real mystery is why they continued to install the two clips at the back right above the rear taillights – even though the steel trunk lid was phased-in to all production 2CVs starting in 1958… They even redesigned the rear tailight panel with the larger 2CV6 taillights and still included these obsolete appendigees…. All the way until the last 2CV rolled off the assembly line in Portugal in 1989.
Maybe you can check the Napa parts catalog and see what’s in there for your new car.
Strangely, Citroens are not included in any of the parts catalogs or websites – even rockauto.and row52.. Keep in mind Citroen sold cars in the USA until 1973, including the Citroen Mehari which was 2CV based.
Where is Matt Sexton, I bet he could get it added.
I wish. Waiting over a week for parts isn’t the most fun. Hard to iterate and troubleshoot quickly. Likely why me Citroen expert friend seems to keep one of everything handy.
A year’s time: “Here’s everything that’s still wrong with my 2CV, because I haven’t gotten round to fixing any of it”.
I think we’re all hoping he fixes it and goes on a cross-country adventure!
On the other hand, I think most of the readers are sadists!
There are several of us 2CV folks here in town with Jason. We might consider staging Une Interdiction if we see no progress on the car. These little guys NEED to be driven.
Haha Jason could repost this same post with a short paragraph at the top… “read on as I haven’t fixed anything…”
I actually spit up a sipfull of coffee when I read the kidney bit Jason. 😀 Enjoy your 2CV it in good health!
I so much envy you the car and the time and skills and tools and the space and the indulgent family required to restore it to its former glory, or at least running condition. Can’t wait to hear more!
Twin spark! I think the first thing I worked with twin (or waste?) spark was a 2000 Saturn. So, not technically 21st century, but Citroen sure was ahead of its time.
Covet!
With two cylinders, wasted spark makes for a crazy-simple ignition system. This is the greatest feature of the 2CV; it’s just so simple.
Any two-stroke Saab owner will tell you that it’s wasted strokes, not wasted spark.
I find these fascinating. Clever and simple solutions to minimize cost. The manual pump for windshield fluid for example, or the lack of a distributor since a 2-cyl engine can do without. I wish it had a magneto, making what I assume is an alternator a straight up luxury for things like a starter and headlights. In a world where glove boxes are opened by pressing icons on touchscreens, this car represents the pinnacle of engineering: getting the job done in the simplest and most efficient way. Good luck!
I think the early ones DID use a magneto?
Jason, when you get it running, can I have a ride in it? I love the 2CV and I’d love to see one IRL and learn all about it from someone who has one!
My parents owned a 1986 2CV Charleston for more than twenty decades before my newly widowed mother sold it for €8,000 in 2016.
One issue we had with 2CV was poor performing headlamps due to the older 40/45-watt R2 P45t bulb technology. My parents lived in a rural village so lot of driving on the unilluminated roads. We came across the H4 bulbs with modified Biluxsocket base that would fit 2CV headlamps. The difference is like day and night: it’s like switching from halogen to LED bulbs.
I still miss that car and its traditional French eccentricity…
20 Decades is a helluva commitment to one automobile 🙂
Agreed. I had my TDI for 23 years, a personal record. But that’s nothing compared to Eric’s folk’s 2CV. Which I’d have happily purchased for 8K Euros, whatever an Euro might be. 😉
His parents only drove at night…you know what I’m getting at…
Do you have to troll everybody with dumb comments? No wonder your parents called you “Dummyhead”.
Actually, that’s second longest they’ve owned. They owned a 1977 Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL from 1982 to 2017 (35 years). My father had planned to fix up his 450 SEL when it turned 25 and get it registered as a classic car (road tax and insurance would be almost nix along with the exemption from the emission test).
However, he passed away before he could get round to it. My mother was “persuaded” that his 450 SEL wasn’t worth fixing up (despite the body having almost no rust and everything in very excellent condition). She gave it away to two guys (the same ones who “helped” her sell her 2CV).
Two years later, this same car showed up in the classified for €6,400. We recognised it instantly due to the little dent on the rear bumper. We couldn’t do anything to recover it unless we had €6,400 to buy it back. That put a lot of strain on our relationship with her.
That’s why everyone SHOULD draw up the testament and last will! My father didn’t.
If I could have a weekend plaything, this would be on the list. Enjoy and keep us posted.
Congrats on the new ride! Look forward to more adventures from the slow lane. Otto’s going to be so popular ‘cause you know he’ll want drive it to prom or whatever when he’s old enough.
Sidebar: If you haven’t seen it yet, watch “I’m Still Here.” Bummer of a film, but an absolute Brazilian VW smorgasbord.
This reminded me of my departed friend Charlie MacArthur. He had a 2CV that he attempted to travel cross country in in 2004. The car had an issue midway and he put it in a Uhaul to bring it back to Maine. Was a great car, unfortunately he was not mechanically inclined.
His dream was to have an alternative transportation museum in Maine.
He did this after being successful with a trip in 2003. He had a video made Sea to Sea 2003 and made that trip across these United States in a Reliant Robin!
He was a character, but then aren’t we all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTIr4Ab6AbY
Congradutions. I always thought these were cool little cars. I would take one over a beetle anyday. That said, I would keep the headlight hoods. . .I kinda like them.
Yah, I like them too. Very 1920sish to me.
Swap in a BMW opposed twin motorcycle engine.
not for nothing, regarding the inop fuel gauge, the fuel sender might be okay. Check if it might be an electrical issue…a loose ground somewhere.
Apologies if I’ve missed a comment where someone’s mentioned it, but –
…would seem to be ignoring the 23-foot big-block elephant in the driveway.
Also, I’m glad you finally have a 2CV of your own! This thing indeed appears to be in exactly the right “needs a little bit, but nothing too daunting” condition.
Isn’t that a smog-choked dog of a big block?
Are you talking about the F150?
Because that’s in the chart with the 300 I6.
Unless I missed something, which is entirely possible.
I like the fact that all 11 cars in that chart combined total 1.1 more horsepower than the original Dodge Demon.
And when you get tired of that 29hp of fury, there are kits out there to swap in R-series BMW Motorcycle motors. WHEEEEEE!!!
Congratulations Jason, is it wrong for me to think you had a replacement for the taillight because you collect taillights and this is one in your collection? I myself get a smile seeing a 2CV and would love to ride in one maybe if there is no traffic. But to me they look like they are built with the quality of Homers Bear Protection Armor when he is accosted by a bear at the dump and the video shows up on the news. And they 29hp makes me think it’s spirit animal is a possum. Not the good one with Granny’s lizards and gravy but the slow moving ones that play dead anytime something spooks them. I had a buddy Bart used to be in the Army and according to him he was one of the GIs who test drove the first H1s. But back then they only had one model so it was the Humvee. Back in the day you could buy one for 4 rutabagas which was the currency at the time. Well old Bart was told by the folks who designed it that it couldn’t be flipped. He tried almost everything and it looked to be true. But old Bart wasn’t one to be told he couldn’t do something. So late in the day when hands were being shook and champagne was being popped and the upper level people forgot about Bart and giving him specifics to test he took that Hummer drove it down a reasonably steep hill at full speed and before he got to the bottom he turned the steering wheel as hard to the right as he could, you do that because if you are flipping a vehicle you want to be on the bottom of the flip not the top, ask me how I know, and sure enough he flipped the Humvee. Of course it still passed because it was outside the terms of the contract but still… I bet if you take that CV2 down a hill at 70+ miles an hour and turn the wheel hard it’s flipping.
The lesson I learned don’t ever tell a Jarhead he can’t do something especially when it is fun trying.