A little peak inside the maintenance of our beautiful cars.
Often on tours and when chatting with strangers about Sebastian people will ask, “So who does the maintenance on your cars?”
I always chuckle and say, “The same guy who drives them!”
Owning and operating Savannah Vintage Tours is fun in so many ways but one of the aspects of the business that we don’t often talk about is the maintenance of these beautiful old French machines. Luckily, as mentioned in previous posts, there were millions of these cars built from 1948-90 and since they were sold just about everywhere there are fans and clubs scattered all over the planet, including here in the United States.
What that means is that parts are cheap and plentiful… if you’re patient! Generally I source parts from Burton 2CV Parts in the Netherlands but of course the turnaround on shipping can be unpredictable and the “supply chain” issues that we hear so much about in the news are even affecting classic car parts. Who would have thought that the pandemic would make buying vintage car parts more difficult!?
Many of the parts for these cars are reproductions which are manufactured in, you guessed it, China. This includes the new carburetor I’ve just ordered for Wally (pictured above).
While the 2CV and its Dyane sibling are known for being incredibly durable and resilient cars, especially in the later 600cc versions like ours, they are still mechanical creatures and always have their quibbles. Sebastian luckily was treated to a full restoration about ten years ago in Belgium but Wally has led a harder life since he was born in 1982 and so has quite a bit of deferred maintenance that I’ve been slowly addressing.
Most things are easy fixes on these cars and I’ve replaced many parts but have finally come against a difficult one. The complex little double choke carburetor that works so well to make a 2CV engine purr appears to be too far gone to rescue in the Dyane. During an attempted rebuild I found that it included incorrect jets, several “rounded out” non-oem screws and as a result some inaccessible parts. And so… We start a two week wait for a new carb from China and hope for the best.
Hopefully we’ll have Wally back on the road soon!