In Paris (well near)!!

Hi guys,

A quick summary for you all:

Firstly, the car passed the MOT!! Unbelievable achievement from Richard Hollis and from Richard Harmer, Nigel Hollis and Matthew Hollis. The car successfully made it from Hollis Motorsport HQ to an MOT Centre in Rushden. Congratulations to all involved!! Particularly Robin Swannell and Pete Sparrow. Fantastic stuff.

We are currently in the suburb of Paris at Florriane's house. Fantastic hospitality!!

It took us 10 hours of driving through fog, wind, severe rain and at one point a flood to arrive from Northampton!! Big shift. Plus one 'minor' problem with the regulator but in Rich's words "not major!"

Rich is currently doing a bit of minor work and will are then to embark on an exploration of Paris!! Quiet night!

Both videos 1. MOT 2. Trip to Paris will be online soon!!

Thanks for reading.

Stuart.

15 weeks work in 5 minutes!

Just for you all a nice 5 minute video that summarises our work over the last 15 weeks!!

Pre-MOT video

Pre-MOT video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4QxmLYvxXI&feature=youtu.be

Will be online by 6.30!

MOT Today @5pm

Hi guys,

Before the car goes in for ‘the MOT’ later today we just wanted to upload our last two videos. One of last week where Richard and his brother Matthew along with his dad Nigel Hollis attend Hollis HQ to support Richard in car construction. Nigel salvaged and reconstructed the engine (as you see in the video). In addition, Robin Swannell (of Swannell Builders, Northampton) also attended. If it wasn’t for his support over the past few weeks the car quite simply would have had no chance of passing the MOT (which is scheduled for 5pm today).

The second video was filmed on the day before the MOT. 

Let’s see what happens! Fingers crossed.

Whilst we are traveling the best way to keep in touch with us is to follow us on Twitter @Citroen2CV2012 we will send regular updates from our phone to keep all posted. My Twitter account is @stuemac and I will also be sending out regular tweets! 

Other ways of following us are included beneath...

Remember to please forward the video/s to others and consider supporting us at http://www.justgiving.com/2CVedgeofworld/

Remember to also find us on Twitter @Citroen2CV2012 and follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/162155887240141/.

Finally, you can find our schedule beneath!! Looking busy!!

Stuart. 

10 Days to go! - Its going to be a push - can we do it?

Last week we dragged back the shell from the lock-up where it had stood for the last 6 years. Closer inspection showed we needed to repair, floors, sills, boot floor, inner and outer bulkhead, bonnet hinge panel and inner wings. Not an easy task especially when we are against the clock like this! Basically Saturday became of full welding and a donor lower half of a shell was cut back to leave the main parts we needed (mainly just the seat box section and the sills).

We obviously could have bought new sills, but we have pretty much no budget and I had some left over bits of second hand sill so grafted them on and it was now ready for the original body to sit on top. I winched it up on a ratchet strap from the roof beam and lowered it on to the sills and seat box. Some minor magic angle grinding later and it fitted!

There are very slight differences of course to the old type panels and sills and the new ones but these are minor and could always be changed again at a later date to make it 100% original. One advantage is we will have better seat belt mounts rather than the seat belts just being bolted through a hole in the floor! Another couple of hours of welding and jacking out the bent pillars tonight saw the door pillars all alined and the doors fitted to check.

So whats left? Well a good few more hours welding to put in the floors, bulkhead and the bonnet hinge panel. I'll do some of  that Thursday, and tomorrow me (Rich) and Robin Swannell will hopefully install all the brakes. Can't do any work Fri, Sat or Sun so that leaves big shifts for all of next week but i'll have my right hand man Stu Mac on the case and I'm sure I'll be helped by my brother Matthew, my Dad (who has the reworked engine), Jess and Rob! Oh, and the MOT is booked Wed 4pm! - Optimistic but I really want to meet that deadline if we are going to make the start of the trip! Wish us luck and remember all this is to raise more awareness (and some extra funds) for Motor Neurone Disease Association MNDA in the work that they do to support those suffering and the research they do looking for the cure! Visit our Just Giving web page  - http://www.justgiving.co.uk/2CVedgeofworld

Don't Panic!!!

Hi guys,

This is our most recent video that was uploaded to Youtube earlier.

If the video doesn't work for any reason it can also be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBeIM-2hPBE&feature=youtu.be

Anyway, as you can see a lot still needs to be done.

Just to remind you all the 2CV will be driving from Northampton to Gibraltar (and back) in just over two weeks. The car that you see is the car that will be drove and no, there is no plan B!!

Remember to please pass on the video people and consider supporting us at http://www.justgiving.com/2CVedgeofworld/eurl.axd/6174e05867c86944964e901b2904127b

Remember to also find us on Twitter @Citroen2CV2012 and follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/162155887240141/.

Finally, you can find our schedule beneath!! Looking busy!!

Thanks for looking at the blog.

Stuart.

3 weeks to go...

Hi guys,

Only 3 weeks to go... Seriously, a lot to do with only a short period of time left!!

The most recent video has just been created and is now live on Youtube - please when you can have a look and forward to anyone who may be interested (obviously everyone is)!!

Please support us. If you know anything about our trip to Turkey a few years ago it was a real challenge. This will be even more of a challenge. Please consider sponsoring us at JustGiving any financial support no matter how small is greatly appreciated. With ALL funds going to MND.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Stuart. 

Official Test Driving - Car moved 1 metre = success!

22 Days to go!

Big progress made but lots of work still to do. This Tuesday saw a massive push to crack on and actually start to assemble the car at last! Newly graduated Engineer and Hollis Motorsport mechanic Rich Harmer voluteered and built up the suspension along with the mighty Rob Swannell again. The original spring cans were refitted, along with the front and back axles so the car can now support itself. Jess and Stu offered up the floors and bulkhead and we gave it a little test drive (roll) sat on a wooden chair. We are far from finished but this was a massive achievement. Stuart went mad with the black gloss and Jess sorted the priming of the original wheels. We nipped over to France to pick up some ebay bits and all the brake parts we need (thanks to Floriane for the parts storage and collection!) so we now have everything think except the 3 tyres that we can't afford and a 6 volt battery!

So the following things we need to do are; clean gearbox and hope it works, strip all brakes and re-fit with the new parts from France, fit engine which has now been finished by my Dad Nigel, get the body from the garage over and go mad with the welder on it!, make the seats, wire up the car, fit the tank, fuel pipe, exhaust, doors, bonnet and boot (which all need welding), repair the lights and make them work, MOT and that's just the jobs I can think of off the top of my head!

Basically massive shifts from now on - I've already spent at least 2 hours each night in the garage this week. Although it looks unlikely, this project is still possible though. We just hope we can get a chance to test the car, and that the first time we get to drive it isn't Day 1 of the trip to Gibraltar!