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PREVIOUS PAGE   Restoration, continued August 21, 2006 During summer 2006, I didn't work so much on the car but I did a lot of thinking and I took an important decision! Because there are some defects on the body, I decided to give it to a professional body shop. The important decision is that while having the body in a shop, I'll took the opportunity to launch the final paint work. Since the beginning of this restoration, I think about doing the final painting before reassembling to be able to reassemble everything. Usually, final paint is done after reassembling, so many parts cannot be put back on the car before painting is over. By painting everything before reassembling, I think the result is optimized because there are less chances to have freshly restored parts with undesired paint on them. But the big problem of this method is keeping all painted panels safe before putting them back on the car. It will not be easy but I'm ready to try. So, here am I during August 2006, starting to disassemble some body parts to give them to the body shop. This body shop has been recommended by some members of my local antique car club, the "VEA". I plan to bring all body parts to have them prepared before bringing the body itself. My goal is to complete this work for the end of the year 2006, but it could be longer ;-) Here is the front right fender. As usual, it seems not too ugly... ... but when I begin to check more in details, I depress ;-) Tar everywhere, to hide bad news This section has been "repaired" After disassembling both front fenders, I bring the left one to the body shop. It seems to be the better one. And here begin the bad news: I'm told that 40 hours of work will be required to achieve good results!!!!!!! After a quick sanding, we see that the steel sheet magician who worked on the body also "repaired" the fenders Approximate welding, ugly steel sheet replacement and plastic filler to hide everything Bad work is not limited to the bottom part, no, no! The bottom part has been "redesigned" following unknown specifications ;-) I don't panic and I go ahead with the doors! Here is the left door, before disassembling There are a few parts to remove Removing the window has been very hard, I had to use a hammer, which is quite stressful with glass ;-) Here is the empty door, now a lot lighter, after a few hours of work One more time, I first bring to the body shop the door I think is in better shape, it' s the right one. The result is just a bit less depressing, I'm told that "only" 30 hours of steel sheet work will be required ;-) What a nice welding :-( Inside, this is even worse, a nice repair at each corner :-( Detail of the front repair... ... and same thing to the rear So I see three solutions: - I can ask the body shop to not do artistic work and just do his best to fix the awful repairs done in the past - I can cause my ruin by asking him to correctly repair both fenders and doors. But other parts are still to be done like the hood, front grill, rear hatch, rear fender under panels, and these parts will bring their own bad news for sure - I can search for fenders and doors in better shape and that would be less costly to repair I chose the third solution. So I begin searching for body parts in good shape. If one day I meet the cow-boy who did the so-called steel sheet work on this car, I'll torture him with a welding machine while forcing him to eat plastic filler and fiberglass ;-)

November 27, 2006 During September 2006, I see someone having 2 fenders and 2 doors, but they are not in better shape than mine. Here is a first track to forget. During November 2006, I do a very interesting finding, a brand new door! I didn't think I would find such a rare part here in Montreal, a few kilometers from my home. It's a member of my antique car club who had that door in stock for years. I was not searching for a new one, but I obviously didn't miss the occasion ;-) Here it is, new for a couple of years now ;-) It's a late model, with the lock separated from the handle, but it's no big deal, the extra hole can be filled It will certainly need less steel sheet work than the one shown before on this page ;-) Did you noticed the inside reinforcing bar? My doors don't have this reinforcing feature. It's cool but ideally I now have to find an identical second door   Here we have a better look to the reinforcing bar. Although, this door is heavier that my two other ones Here the original bottom rail, which seems to have disappeared on my other doors

March 8, 2008 2007 has been pretty calm for this restoration because I've been mainly busy on my other SM. But I gave the fenders and the driver side door to a sheet metal specialist and he offered me to find other fenders and doors, which he did. I don't have pictures for now, but these parts are in pretty good shape and need only minor sheet metal work. I hope these parts will be ready for spring 2008. During January 2008, with a huge delay regarding my initial planning, I start preparing the body parts I have for the paint work, hoping it will happen this year. I plan to give the body and all body parts to the shop, so I think that the best way to do so is, temporary, putting back everything on the body. I currently have in my hands the passenger door (new), the rear hatch and the engine hood. I start with the rear hatch. The goal is to remove the glass and then put the hatch back onto the body. I start by trying to remove the trim pieces I need to cut the sealing between glass and trim pieces, and then between trim pieces and the hatch itself The result is not nice, nothing barely moves and it damages the hatch, hopefully it will get a new paint I go ahead with a air powered cutting tool, to try to remove the glass with the trim pieces still in place But it doesn't work, the glass moves but the trim pieces still sticks to the hatch and avoid removal. So I try a cutting steel wire With a wooden piece, I push one of the trim pieces joint With a little screwdriver, I remove all sealing in the area and I install the wire through But the wire brakes after only a few centimetres, and does so multiple times After some time for reflection, I decide to sacrifice the trimming pieces to remove the glass I can remove some of them, which probably will not be reusable... ... but on the left side, I can't remove them, they are blocked by the glass and too well sealed I even tried to brake the glass, but I didn't succeed ;-) I eventually succeeded in removing the glass by leaving the remaining trimming pieces into place Even without the glass, I had to use a cutting wire to remove the trimming Finally, I just have to grease the holders, nicely zinc plated, to put the hatch back onto the body And here is the hatch temporary back into place I'm not proud of this result! The trimming pieces mounting is that it seems not possible to remove them without damage. But the Citroen documentation just say that they should be released before the glass itself. The best solution certainly was to remove them with the glass and then separate them from the glass, but I don't know why I've not been able to cut the sealing correctly with a cutting steel wire. This sealing was extremely hard and sticky, it caused me a lot of troubles. Everything seemed so simple on the documentation ;-) After this bad experience with the rear hatch, I go ahead with the passenger door. I'm alone, so I have to pay attention not to damage anything when putting it back onto the body. I start by preparing the holders and the associated bolts I put the "female" holder pieces onto the body I finally put both parts of the superior holder onto the door, because the shape of the door doesn't allow inserting the axle afterward Then I use my crane to lift and present the door It all goes well but it's a bit stressful Here is the door in its place. I don't do any fine adjustment because it's only temporary and the car is in stands I'll have to put back the door lock to have a correct standing point for the rear of the door This time I'm happy with the result ;-) It was the beginning of the preparation work. If everything goes well, I should be able to get the fenders and the other door for April (2008). I will then be able to go ahead and finally plan the paint work.

May 12, 2008 During April 2008, as planned, my sheet metal specialist calls me but not to tell me that both fenders and the door are ready, he rather tells me that he did almost nothing on these parts and he will not be able to do anything in the future. Cool! He just took time to do a quick sandblasting on fender sections for which we had doubts. And guess what, doubts have been confirmed :-( Let's start with the right fender As usual ... ... initially it seems not too bad But here, after a little sandblasting work, it's ugly I insert the camera in the lower box, and here is what I find Let's go ahead with the left fender   Once again, the lower box suffered The interior is also ugly And the front section is not nicer The wheel arch is damaged Don't panic and go ahead with the door     It's very nice inside Really impressing, it's very good The only bad news come from the lower base... ... which is quite rusted... ... but at this point, I think it's not so bad ;-) So I'm not ready to start the paint work! Thanks to my sheet metal specialist, he found two fenders and one door but then he left me in this shit. I'll not begin to lose my motivation now, I'll see if I can find better fenders and if I don't, I'll give these ones to a specialist, another one of course. As I'm not near being able to do some work on the body, I decide to store it where I currently rent a space for my SM IE. This way, I'll be able to have the SM IE in my garage, thus enjoying it more and also to be able to work on it more easily and inside the garage. To achieve that, the body has to be rolling. For the front axle, I use rubber pieces to lift the body I cut the rubber pieces from a plate initially made for exterior stare steps It gives a correct height, something like the regular driving position For the rear axle, I find no tricks, so I put back the suspension cylinders, with plastic studs inside and aluminium plugs made by Éric (thanks) At the other end, I put back the rod, ball and ball cage assembly And I get a comfortable height, almost the highest position She's ready to move A tow truck and she'll go elsewhere to clear the garage On May 1st, a member of the VEA club and towing professional comes with his truck and together we transfer the body to the parking space I rent for the SM IE (and the 2CV). The body will wait here until further notice.