Welcome to my listing for my 1986 Citroen 2cv6 Charleston in two tone grey. The car is 40 years old this year and will be Mot exempt from May but will be Mot’d around the 1st April for a year. It will become tax exempt next year. It has 73k miles on it which I believe to be correct as it has it’s original book pack, and a good sheaf of bills with it, plus a July 2010 2CVGB News where it was on the front cover having attended a meeting to the Ace Cafe. It was sold new by Worleys Citroen in High Wycombe and still has the fob for them on the keys. I bought it in 2009 so have owned it for 17 years and I am the seventh owner.
I have had something like fifty four of them and while others have come and gone I have held onto this one as I think there is something quite special about it. It’s appeal for me is just how original it is like they were when they were ten years old. It is on it’s original chassis (verifiable as it has it’s VIN no. stamped in the front chassis leg by the factory) and original body. I don’t believe that the body and chassis have ever been separated and the chassis has never been welded. It also has it’s original engine and assumed to be it’s original gearbox as I don’t think they have ever been separated or out of the car either. It has original beaded edge front wings, and what appears to be original paint on all the unboltable panels with the exception of the front vent flap. It did come to me with the original light grey flap which was rusty underneath and was changed early on in my ownership for the one in dark grey along with the various welding completed on the body shell in the front floor pans and either side of the rear seat box / sill ends visible in the pictures which is the only welding that the body shell has had (plus the rear seatbelt mounts).
It is also very unusual for being a UK car but is taking on a patina’d paint look akin to some of the 60’s cars that come in from Southern France with highly distressed paintwork. This is rare as UK cars tended to just rot long before the paintwork ever started to wear off and our sunlight isn’t strong enough to really burn through the paint like in the Med. Some of what looks like patina on it is actually Dynax UC (clear rust preventative wax coating) that is slightly matt in finish and was applied the best part of ten years ago and is starting to lift off in places. It will come off fairly easily with car polish applied to it and the panels underneath will come up brighter and shinier than they currently look. I toyed with taking it off before doing the listing but figured to leave it as is as it is still helping to preserve the original panels. The patina is heaviest on the bonnet that is worn down to the black transport primer in places and has quite a few orange pin spots along the bonnet ridge lines and corners. The bootlid is also starting to get quite a few pinspots across it at the lower half.
It is therefore something of a real survivor in a UK context and a big part of that is the fact that since about 2015 it has never been driven in the wet, is only used between April and September, it is stored undercover continuously. There are various surface rust spots on various areas of the body and the panels but I would say no active rot in it anywhere and the care mentioned above is what has held it in a kind of stasis with no deterioration in the body condition of it over the last decade or so. Early in it’s life it looks like it had a replacement tail panel and offside rear sweep up to above the rear door though again the paint on these areas has aged similar to the rest of the car.
It’s quite an unusual 2cv and not necessarily for everyone. People either love it or don’t really get it if they are the kind of people who think classic cars should be restored to bright and shiny with new paint. I love it as the cars life really shines through even though there is some kind of dent, mark, rust spots or other character on every panel. I would go so far as to say that if you look at this car and think it would be lovely if it just had a repaint then frankly I wouldn’t really want to sell it to you…
Having had so many 2cv’s and been around them for the last 25 years or so I have amassed a wealth of rare parts and accessories, some I suspect to be unique in the UK as I spent a good few years mining eBay France and Leboncoin for the ultra rare stuff you can only find in France and cajoling reluctant French sellers into selling me the parts and shipping them here – pre Brexit). It is therefore a sort of 2cv ‘greatest hits’ of what are my favourite bits from each era of 2cv’s from the Sixties onwards so a list of the modifications I have made to it are as follows:
– Suspected unique in the UK front and rear aluminium bumpers. These came from France and are rare aftermarket accessory bumpers for pre 1963 2cv’s. They are using Dyane rear bumper mounts and custom modified front bumper mounts to make them fit.
– a narrowed headlamp bar to emulate the pre 1974 cars where the front lamps were closer together
– Custom made late headlamp lenses with the glass stripped out and Sixties 2cv SEV Marchal Equilux lenses fitted to them plus yellow bulbs
– A five bar grille
– French style pressed metal number plates
– Sixties AZAM window rubbers and aluminium trim fitted to the windscreen, rear door and rear quarter windows
– ‘Curly’ door handles and boot handle. It uses two sets so that both front doors retain the ability to be locked and unlocked from the outside.
– Rear mudflaps
– The hubcaps are from an early Citroen GS with the centre mounting system carefully ground out so they can accept a 2cv centre bolt into the wheels as per normal. The wheels are powder coated gunmetal grey and have decent Michelin X’s all round with a Toyo on the spare.
– Ami6 rear lamp clusters with the alloy trim surrounds
– A complete grey and black custom carpet set I had made for it to my spec and was circa £400 in about 2010! It fully covers the main floorpan, then covers the full seatbox top and over the boot well. There is a another piece then in the boot well floor.
– The dashboard and steering wheel are done to match late Sixties / very early Seventies AZAM Export spec (not sold in the UK or in RHD) so it has a black Quillery steering wheel (may be the only one in the UK?) and custom dashboard to take the stainless metal plate on the right hand side. By mix and matching various eras of switches has managed to retain the full 1980’s dashboard functionality and incorporates all the warning lamps not normally fitted to UK cars. It looks factory, though did necessitate putting a powered washer pump and bottle in as there was nowhere to put the manual washer pump in the dash. The cars original odometer and speedo panel were carefully dismantled and the blue face fitted, then a spare glass was part cleaned of the back stamped white speedo readings so the top half is correct UK mph but the bottom half has a sticker fitted to retain the thin white stripes and fuel / battery voltage indicators that is correct for blue dash cars. Little adapter wires were made so that the cars original 1980’s wiring loom is intact and unmodified behind the dash so like every mod done to the car it is 100% reversible.
– Pool ball gear knob
– Plastic over covers for the front door hinges
– The front door openers are in chrome.
– Old school lockable chrome fuel cap with Citroen embossed on it
– Boot hinge stainless piece with Citroen stamped on it
– It has an original Gradulux rear window blind.
– There is probably more I have forgotten
The cars is also highly unusual in having a near perfect / excellent set of original grey diamond seat trim front and rear with close to zero UV damage (though a previous owner clearly let their dog sit on them so despite multiple hooverings still have dog hairs on them). I haven’t seen as good a set of original upholstery as this anywhere for 20 years! In truth they have been in dark dry storage for the entire time I have owned the car and a different set of seats in it. I can supply / fit a period set of seat covers on the seats to protect them which you will have to do if you want them to last as they were notorious in period for self destructing within about five years if left exposed to the Sun.. The roof is an original rubber type (when did you last see one of those?) in excellent condition, oddly internally opening but with external opening metal hook pieces over the B pillars. Was fitted to the car like this when I bought it.
Mechanically I have always serviced it and repaired it myself so there is a decent sheaf of ECAS bills with it for stuff done over the years. More recently it had a set of Burton shock absorbers fitted all round to get the ride as compliant as possible and it has a 123 electronic ignition and solid state ECAS resin coil. It also has air horns fitted and a side exit exhaust plus a narrow rear foglight so it looks hidden from the rear. It drives really nicely and feels tight compared to shagged high mileage ones that can feel a bit loose and sloppy which tends to convince me the mileage is genuine. The front kingpins are pretty tight with minimal play and it has a fairly recent set of Michelin X tyres with circa 6mm tread all round and no cracks in the sidewalls.
I don’t really want to sell it but I have spent the last nine years restoring a listed cottage and could do with the money to get the rebuild over the line, plus the cottage has nowhere under cover to store it once I move in and I don’t want to see it deteriorate by being left outside.
Over the years I have also collected a near complete set of decent condition, original paint grey Charleston body panels that includes a pair of rear wings, two pairs of rear doors, a pair of front doors and a pair of beaded front wings that I will offer by separate negotiation to a buyer. I also have a custom made 1960’s type Le Portex (similar to O.L.D) roof rack modified to suit a 1980’s internally opening roof car that I may consider selling again by separate negotiation.
The car is currently in rural North Hertfordshire in the village of Kimpton (SG4 postcode). If you want to view then I am on 07765 713967. Preferably cash or bank transfer as payment. Thanks.