Hello Fellow Sammio buiders,
I'd like to introduce myself, my name is Marcel Birkhoff, 44jrs, married and 2 kids (4-6yrs) and have imported the no.3 sammio Cheveaux body to the Netherlands. Initially I wanted to build a Burton kit car, a very well finished and popular 2cv kit of which are more then a 1000!! sold in the Netherlands. However, when I saw the Sammio I fell in love with the design and cancelled my Burton order!
I have followed this forum from time to time a bit but could not find any thing on the 2cv's but did learn some good things from the Herald based kits. However, I recently noticed that there is a Sammio 2cv builder in France - Zebre - which has made great progress and with whom i can share my frustrations and do some comparisons!
I'm at 70% of the build and have overcome the main issues and am very close to attach the body and do the final part.
Before I show you some pics, let me tell what has to be adapted to the kit, especially "handy for Andy"
Frame:
The Frame that was delivered with the kit fitted remarkably well. I did not have to change the mounting positions. However, the body would not fit over it and I had to move the rear crossmember (behind seats) back about 7 cm's.
Also it was very difficult to fit the pedal box and had to do a lot of cutting to make it fit.
When I had everything assembled at the chassis I found that I had too little legroom, although I'm not too tall (1,78cm). I noticed that the frame could be moved another 5cm forward on the chassis which is meant extra legroom!
Therefore I decided to dismount all components again and cut the frame and add 5 cm to the frame, cut the pedal box loose again and add another 2-3 cm by moving the pedal box forward.
Then when I fitted the body, the rear was very loose and not so easy to fix to the body. Therefore I have added some extra rear support - also as I want to make a booth lid that includes the two humps and opens to the back.
Also Have have made already some adaptations to the frame to be able to fit the doors - this you could actually do standard on this frame as it does not take a lot of weight and the structure is strong. Also i have added seatbelt mounting brackets.
Body:
The body is not very well finished and found that the rear was not straight and the left front is 4 cm longer as the right front. I had to cut out a piece from the front to make left and right symmetrical.
Also I had ordered a left steer model and upon delivery fond they had made a right steer body... I refused to take the body and Gary made an extra hump overnight which I put on.
For the citroen2cv a number of major adaptations have to be made, here's the list:
- replace location of alternator (to avoid bubble in bonnet)
- re-engineer steering column
- make new headboard
- Re-engineer exhaust system
- New airfilter system
- New fuel filler system
- New gear shift system
and tons of small stuff.
An advice for other 2cv builders, the burtoncar company has a lot of good solutions that will fit this build. see
www.burtoncar.com
When I started, I bought and old to 2cv, and took of the parts I could use: suspension, axles, engine, gearbox, fuelsystem, electrical parts etc. The chassis was completely rotten.
So I bought a new chassis and main cable loom and got a refurbished engine / gearbox.
Next message will have some pictures after I have figured out how to reduce the size...