1970 Peugeot 404 ute Restoration

[marty 404]

I wagged work and went to school
A good friend is a tech teacher at a local public school with his help and a lot of machinery we where able to make my 404 floor pans.
The process was to make a die from hardwood weld a strong back onto a steel bar then using a 30 ton press ,press the ribs into the steel panels ,we did some test samples to measure how much the steel would pull so we could align the ribs correctly .
After the ribs it was a matter of using the metal folder creatively to get the 4 other bends needed.
Robbie finished the panels off using the fairmont method of heating and hammering to flatten the steel.

 

[Demannu]

Great work!

 

[Dano]

Very clever.

 

[marty 404]

A day in the shed
I should have mowed the lawns ,fixed the pavers that are falling into the drainage ditch that needs fixing but I can only watch my ute quietly rust and take up space for so long I did the only sensible thing I could locked the door and welded in the floor pans made previously.

 

[marty 404]

Fuel tank

Today I messed around fitting a non standard fuel tank
There seem to be some advantages its about a third bigger and its new old stock never had fuel in it so no mess rust flakey residue, I think it is from a late model 404.
The disadvantages are there will be more work to fit it to the ute, it sits lower than the floor pan and to make the filler tube line up with the hole the tank sits very close to the spring mounts
Does anyone know or can look at a ute to see if the spring shackles ever angle forwards thanks.
I am hoping the exhaust will clear it.
Marty

 

[marty 404]

I have made some progress in the last few weeks .The left side inner guard has been replaced with a new original part and new sole plate welded in then the whole lot sent off to the sand blasters for blasting and priming this was a very satisfying day.Although it did reveal the drivers side door is damaged beyond repair it looks like at some stage it was forced to far open and has cracked and bent the frame. Does anyone have a good spare door .
I have started on repairing and getting all the panels in final primer ready for gloss before the car is primed .
Lots to do the tail gate is still very sad I have had a panel pressed to line the inside which will stiffen it up and give it flat surface to sit on when its down.The last photo shows a warning sticker on the panel next to the radiator does any one know if these stickers are available .

 

[GreenBlood]

The last photo shows a warning sticker on the panel next to the radiator does any one know if these stickers are available .
View attachment 101266

Marty,
If you have trouble sourcing the sticker I'd be happy to make a reproduction - I'd need a clear image and measurements.

Cheers
Chris

 

[marty 404]

Thanks unfortunately I did not measure it before removal by thousands of grains of sand I can enlarge the photo and scale it from there.
Marty

 

[GreenBlood]

Thanks unfortunately I did not measure it before removal by thousands of grains of sand I can enlarge the photo and scale it from there.
Marty

Marty, email what you have with your estimations of sticker size etc. greenblood(at)aussiefrogs(dot)com

If anyone watching this thread has better copy that could be useful too :wink2:

Cheers
Chris

 

[Dano]

Marty,
from time to time, they appear on eBay France. From memory, I think Serie04 have them as well.
Dano

 

[marty 404]

Hi Dano have you got one I did,t see it on your list of new parts

 

[robmac]

Marty,
from time to time, they appear on eBay France. From memory, I think Serie04 have them as well.
Dano

If you post an image and detail the overall size.

Greenblood can reproduce them for you and and anyone else restoring a 404.

His prices are excellent and the profit stays in Australia.

It seems to me this is the best option.

 

[GreenBlood]

If you post an image and detail the overall size.

Greenblood can reproduce them for you and and anyone else restoring a 404.

His prices are excellent and the profit stays in Australia.

It seems to me this is the best option.

Hi Rob,
If the sticker is not available or difficult to obtain I am happy to do this work gratis - it's more to do with preserving the history and cataloging these stickers.

Cheers
Chris

 

[robmac]

Hi Rob,
If the sticker is not available or difficult to obtain I am happy to do this work gratis - it's more to do with preserving the history and cataloging these stickers.

Cheers
Chris

You can't get a better demonstration of AF spirit that that.

 

[marty 404]

I totally agree Robmac I will get the details to Green blood the spirit is strong.
Marty

 

[Dano]

Marty,

I do and I can drop it off to Chris.

Chris, if you read this and you don't mind, would you please PM me your address.

Cheers,

Dano

 

[marty 404]

Thanks another part of the puzzle falls into place thanks to an AF team effort.
Marty

 

[Andrew Watkins]

Very generous offer to do this , sez a lot for the spirit of AF

One thing that has struck me looking at a few cars, including my latest "barn find" 4CV is that the stickers are often the first to go/die/get damaged a) in life and b) in the enthusiasm of the strip down /respray etc.

Then when one wants to reproduce it is hard to find the right one and requests such as Marty's do come up from time to time

Would it be worth starting to collect ( ? on AF ) a database of such stickers, photographed in a standardised way with measurements, to allow later reproduction ( also to help those trying to be authentic to a particular year )

I shall be photographing the 4CV collection before putting him back into service ( am NOT stripping/repainting, but they will suffer the inevitable wear and tear in use). I am now regretting not doing this with previous cars and wonder whether others might feel the same

Would a central repository be useful? One of the few things I like about digital photography is the ability to do stuff like this ( and for clever folk to make it speak to a computer )

It would be a fairly standard, generic database task

Andrew

 

[marty 404]

Another day in the shed sanding and painting panels, the process is
Get sandblasted and epoxy primed by sandblaster
Sand primer with 180 grit
Fill any obvious dents with Jota Fair epoxy filler and sand filler with 80 grit
Apply 3 passes of 2 pac high build filler primer
Sand with 180 grit fill again if required
High build prime and sand with 320 grit
Ready for gloss
The sill panels and ute fill in panels that are in good condition will just get high build and sanded with 320 prior to gloss.
I was able to find a very good drivers door near by to replace the original to far gone door.
Marty

 

[marty 404]

Hi I little more sanding and painting over the Christmas break One step forward and one backwards ,Unfortunately the sand blaster wrecked my good recently found drivers door the skin is badly stretched and bent in. Luckily Dano has come to the rescue and given me a used door skin to replace the bent one, it just makes more work.
I headed south to the town of Mary J and magic mushrooms and bought a ute load of Peugeot parts including a 5speed gearbox set up for a 404 and a 504 ti engine. I plan to use the 5 speed gearbox and set it up for column gear shifting if anyone wants the floor shifter let me know, the ti engine I plan to set it up on a test bench and get it running although I,am not sure it will be used in my ute as I like simplicity .