Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

KerryDwyer · Joined: 01 Dec 2011 Posts: 13

Hello.

For those of you who helped me chose this lovely car for my story on restoration, a big thank you. I now need help to fill in the blanks.

What parts would I need to buy for it?
Where would I look for them? Ebay or another forum?
What is likely to be the most difficult part to find? - I need one that will take nearly a year of searching.
Is it correct that I need 15 coats of paint?
Which part needs to be welded under the car so that I can kill my garage owner?

Many thanks

Kerry

Handyman · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 1:14 pm Post subject:

Very nice cars once you get them up and running, but looks like you have set yourself a real challenge if you do not know much about Citroens. But fear not, there is plenty of help around, as there are quite a few Citroen based forums on the net for help and advice, notwothstanding the help you will get here.

What model TA have you acquired and in what state?

Parts in the UK do tend to be mostly secondhand and are usually held by garages or collectors of this marque. I travel to France quite regularly to hunt for spares for my Citroens as I own several of them and spares are available in better quantities in France,

However, dealing with the French and secondhand car parts has many pitfalls and can be problematic, if you do not speak the lingo, comme moi! They tend to think every spare part is in factory finished condition, worth more than their asking price and that the English have very deep pockets and so can afford to pay over the odds. After all, they are granting you the privilege of owning one of their classic marques!

Post up some more info about your car. You can PM me if you want more advice or help.

Handyman

KerryDwyer · Joined: 01 Dec 2011 Posts: 13

Hello Handyman

Thanks for your reply. I don't actually have one. I am an author writing a story and my unfortunate garage mechanic blows himself up with one after a year of restoration. I want to make my story realistic and so asked for help. This car was suggested in another thread and I thought it would be a good one as my 'garagist' is French.

I need advice on what parts he might need to look for and which would be the most difficult and how to blow him up.

The car was found in a shed doubling up as a chicken roost and at the end of the year he has it all painted and looking great and then blows himself up. This is not the main part of his story but it is necessary as a back story to explain why he was under the car on Christmas eve and how he killed himself.

It is funny what you say about the French thinking everything is as good as new. I live in France and have the same experience with other second hand things. Second hand cars over here sell for a fortune.

Can you help me?

Thanks

Kerry

Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22777 Location: UK

The easiest way to blow yourself up by being under a car is with welding, perhaps with a leaky petrol pipe nearby. However you mention that the car is already all painted up so the welding would (or should) have already been taken care of by then. A lit Gitanes could also do the trick, especially if he chucked the glowing tab into a pit below the car, which had filled with petrol fumes ... I feel a story coming on here too Smile

Another popular way of doing yourself a mischief under a car is to work underneath without adequately supporting it. If you go under with the car on a jack only, you risk the car dropping on top of you if the jack fails. To prevent this you should always use axle stands, they support the car mechanically and don't rely on hydraulics, or a single wobbly jack, to keep the car off the floor. So perhaps the hero could be squashed rather than expire through explosion?

I never thought I'd find myself contributing to a thread on here, about the most satisfactory way to see off a character in a story, who happens to be working under a car Smile

RJ
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JohnDale · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 4:27 pm Post subject:

Hi Rick,I think some of us will expire under a car just due to old age(ours not the cars). I guess there are worse ways,regards,JD.
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KerryDwyer · Joined: 01 Dec 2011 Posts: 13

Hello Rick

Thanks for the advise. I hadn't thought about that, he shouldn't really be under the car if it is all finished. My thoughts were that this last piece took so long to find that he had done everything else. He finds the car and then spends a good year working on it before he dies.

He doesn't really need to blow up, he could be squashed to death. There is a violent storm on the night he dies and this could blow open the garage doors and if the car isn't supported properly then it could fall on him and squash him. This might be quite a poetic end for him. I am sure his wife and his mistress would find it just.

So what part could it be? Difficult to get hold of and under the car.

Thanks

Kerry

Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22777 Location: UK

He might be installing a replacement gearbox, or back axle, when it falls off the jack or stands. I don't know the specific availability of Citroen Traction bits, but realistically it might take a little while to find a good, secondhand replacement for either. He'd have been able to do the remainder of the restoration while looking perhaps for a better gearbox or back axle to fit, replacing worn the worn original example(s), before it was put back on the road.

Things with restorations is, even if you think you've covered everything, there will be plenty of things that might need ongoing adjustment, or fail shortly after the car goes back on the road, so plenty of opportunity to re-visit the car's underside even when you think you've done it all.

You could have the door bang open in the storm, knock the handle on the jack, releasing it, he hadn't used axle stands so the car drops down and pins him underneath the car Smile

RJ
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Penman · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4850 Location: Swindon, Wilts.

Hi Rick
Is there a "back axle" on a Traction Avant???????
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Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22777 Location: UK

KerryDwyer · Joined: 01 Dec 2011 Posts: 13

I love this forum. It's a whole other language.

47Jag · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 8:19 pm Post subject:

Kerry,

I have a possible scenario for your explosion that actually happened (not to me but a friend). I was an apprentice auto electrician and a friend of my mother's called me to tell me of a vacancy at the Ford dealership that he worked at as a panelbeater (body repair man).
On the day of my interview I was with the service manager and he asked me if I would like to see around the place. As we walked towards the panelshop the was a loud boom and everybody started running towards the noise. When we got the, there was Ben (my friend) lying there, sans eyebrows and half his hair. He was about to start work replaceing the front chassis leg on a car. The engine had been removed the night before to allow this work. The pipe that went to the fuel pump had drooped down during the night and syphoned the contents of the tank into the pit that the car was sitting over. Poor old Ben goes down into the pit, lights his cutting torch and out he flew, lucky to be alive.

Art

traction39 · Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 399 Location: South Wales

How about working under the car while smoking a Gauloise...leaking fuel tank/ hose, (or better still sabotaged) catches fire and the rest is history!

Most of the parts for these cars are available, or repairable. Bodywork usually requires welding although some parts are available.
As for "hens teeth", I cannot think of many pieces for the standard cars (BN BL). Maybe the very early cars will have scarce/unobtainable parts. One piece that comes to mind in the specially designed original TA radio. Shaped as the glove box and are very, very difficult to find... search the "brocantes" will not produce one..

PM me if you want some more info...

Alistair

PS Gearbox is removed from front or with engine out....a b**ch of a job with the engine in...but then it wouldn't be fun, would it!

KerryDwyer · Joined: 01 Dec 2011 Posts: 13

Thank you all so much for the great ideas about killing someone in a garage and for the information on the car. I have discovered that the cashier at my local DIY store has one of these that he has restored so I am off to chat him up this weekend and see if he will let me look at it and tell me about the restoration. I think I need to take my husband with me for that as he can talk 'car' - a language I never mastered.
You are all wonderful. I will be back with more questions I am sure after the weekend.

Thank you

Kerry

Kelsham · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:40 am Post subject:

Bear in mind most people on this forum would take at least two years to carry out a restoration without sourcing difficult spares.

Some of us probably take two years to start.

Pits are dangerous places, people have died in them from exhaust fumes never mind petrol leaks.

Regards Kels.

KerryDwyer · Joined: 01 Dec 2011 Posts: 13

Thank you Kelsham for that information. It is not a problem for me to extend the man's work to two years. My story only covers one year but he could have found the car and have it as a work in progress at the beginning. The story about him finding it just needs to alter slightly to make it a memory rather than an action.

The pit and fumes does seem to be the most popular way of killing him off.