404C Super Luxe

[Pugknut]

About 30 years ago I was introduced to the world of Peugeot by my school mate Damo and his pug mad family. Since then I've always had one or more pugs in the drive, or the shed or in the paddock. Mostly 404's but the occasional 205 GTi and a 206, the 404 was always my true passion. Cheap to buy, easy to fix, fun to drive and really hard to kill. I soon discovered that Peugeot made a 404 Cabriolet and was absolutely in love. Knowing they are scarce and never believing I'd ever find one in my budget, this car went on the list alongside a 205 T16 and the gorgeous Alpine A110.
Lo and behold, many years later I found one for sale in Brisbane. It had been imported directly by an aussie chap living in Paris in the early 2000's as far as I can tell, the car has been in storage for about 15 years. Quick trip to Brisbane from Melbourne and even though it needs work, I had to have it, so here it is.

Is it a restoration project? Maybe not. Hopefully it's a rolling resto, but I'm sure there will be plenty to see and do in the coming couple of years, so here's a starting point.

Alpine white, 404 Cabriolet Super Luxe, 1964? with a 1967? KF2 injection motor. Has had some rust repairs (of course), but fundamentally pretty straight and seemingly pretty original apart from the dash which is a later three round rather than the strip speedo. Yes it runs and stops and it appears there has been quite a bit spent on repairs during her time in Australia.

 

[Steven King]

Congratulations - this may be of interest:

Peugeot 404 injection - help in Brisbane

I was wondering if anyone knows of someone around the Brisbane area who has mechanical knowledge of peugeot 404 injections. I have recently restarted a peugeot 404 injection that has been stored for 10 years. I went though a few preparatory steps before starting (changing all fluids, filters...

www.aussiefrogs.com

 

[Pugknut]

And the first job is to try and get the wipers working. Power to the motor? Tick. OK, remove the motor and check continuity. All good. So what's the problem? Actually the SEV Marchall is a really interesting arrangement with an electromagnetic brake forming the electric field and providing power to the rotor. No permanent magnets at all.
Stripped the whole motor down for a through clean. Cleaned and regreased the gearbox (side note, these motors have a tiny brass grease nipple on the bottom surface. Imagine being the guy so confident in the wiper motor design that you expect soemone will have to grease it during it's lifetime.)
Anyway, it's instantly apparent that the reason it doesn't work is because the spring and clip the pull the brushes together has broken. Knowing that I will never find another plastic clip, and that even if I did it would be the same age and useless, I scratched around for an alternative. See if you can spot the repair piece in the pics.

 

[dacia4x4]

Cable tie used to anchor brush spring and doubling as insulator..?

 

[dacia4x4]

Lucky you ,I saw it advertised and told SHMBO it was a bargain,and could visit brother in qld when we pick it up…crickets..then a definite NO…jim

 

[FIVEDOOR]

Lucky you ,I saw it advertised and told SHMBO it was a bargain,and could visit brother in qld when we pick it up…crickets..then a definite NO…jim

Did you consider the seek forgiveness option rather than seeking permission?

 

[Pugknut]

Lucky you ,I saw it advertised and told SHMBO it was

I used the old “imagine how beautiful you’ll look going down the road in this”.

 

[dacia4x4]

Now that’s a winner,don’t think that will work with SWMBO with my rusty Fred flinstone style floride ss (storage shed)..jim

 

[alpine]

i have a spare early instrument cluster if you decide

 

[Pugknut]

Thanks for that. It’s a fair way down the list, I’ll give you a pm when I’m getting closer to that job!

 

[Mike Tippett]

Congratulations, fabulous car! I'd recommend Le Club 404 for parts, they have a large selection of NOS parts and reproductions.

Updated it in the Register already! https://recensement.leclub404.com/vehicle.php?serie=4593550

 

[Pugknut]

Congratulations, fabulous car! I'd recommend Le Club 404 for parts, they have a large selection of NOS parts and reproductions.

Updated it in the Register already! https://recensement.leclub404.com/vehicle.php?serie=4593550

Thanks Mike,

much appreciated. The car came with a number of le club 404 magazines and parts lists so that will be helpful I guess. I'm also wondering if anyone supports these locally these days for more run of the mill parts (suspension bushes, gaskets etc). I have a few leaks and some pretty ropy suspension bushes that need sorting.

 

[dacia4x4]

Have you tried Hayden at pug wreck in Bayswater?9720 7521

 

[Peter C]

Would Lewin Partidge be a possibility?

 

[Mike Tippett]

For the suspension bushings, try to get original Paulstra units as opposed to the Sasic replicas. Sasic is OK but the originals are better. Likely available from European supplies like Joern Haarmann at Passion Peugeot, or Immo Schwarze at Loewendoctor.

 

[Pugknut]

Thanks Mike. L’aventure Peugeot seem to have some NOS parts which I’ve ordered.

 

[Pugknut]

After a week of tinkering we are getting closer to a road going proposition, but a couple of nasties came out today in the first proper road drive. The drive was still awesome though.

What we've been doing
- Replaced the speedo cable (the one that was in there had the wrong end arrangement at the gearbox). That now works sometimes if you give the dash some percussive persuasion.
- Repaired the High tone horn. The low tone horn is dead so looking for a low tone Mixo horn unit if anyone has one spare.
- Repaired the DS wing mirror. That was fun making the replacement part and working out how to compress the spring while installing the little roll pin. Some pics attached of the jig which allowed me to use a big screwdriver to compress the spring while installing the new roll pin. Amazed it worked.

She's headed off to my old mate Gary at Renno workshop in Frankston for a "safety check". Let's see what the list looks like when he's done, but I already have a list of my own started.

Known issues remaining:
- Slipping Clutch - maybe adjustment? it seems very high on the pedal and I was assured it had been replaced.
- Alternator not charging - it's a Japanese thing anyway so it can go in the bin
- Exhaust system - rusted from end to end
- Front end bushes (and wrong bolts in some places which is scary)
- Oil leaks (sump gasket, sump plug and maybe others like the rear main). Thinking I can replace the sump gasket in situ if I support the engine from above, drop the front cross member and do all the suspension bushes at the same time.
- water pump leaks (unsurprising after long storage)
- maybe a brake master cylinder leak.
- Tyres are ancient, seemingly from pre import.
- Soft top is no longer soft. Afraid to put it down until we have given it some conditioner.
- Wiring is awful with lots of crappy corrugated plastic slit tube

Plenty to keep us busy and greasy for the next little while.

 

[julian c b]

It would good if it was going by sunday 22 october for the french car display in auburn rd hawthorn [very close to where i live]. maybe see you there

 

[Pugknut]

It would good if it was going by sunday 22 october for the french car display in auburn rd hawthorn [very close to where i live]. maybe see you there

Hi Julian,
definitely maybe. The safety check went quite well, not too much to do before I can get it registered and nothing we didn't already know about so that's nice.

 

[Pugknut]

When you want to replace the sump gasket but don't want to hoist the engine out you get fabricating. More strange things with this car that simply don't make sense.
- Wishone pivots were bolts with double nuts, not the correct pins with nuts and split pins
- One of the bolts holding the engine mount to the front crossmember was the wrong thread form! For the record they are supposed to be M12 x 1.5, but one odd one was M12 x 2. I have spares so no big deal.
- One of the conrods looks to be new, the other three are the colour you would expect.

The last couple of nights in the shed and we made an engine support, dropped the front crossmember, removed the sump which got a thorough clean and respray and then put it all back together. Hoping the new cork gasket holds up better than the last one, which was probably re-used by the look of it. Time is tight to get it back for the second roadworthy check, so no time for a complete strip and rebuild of the front suspension, at least I know it will have the right pivot bolts and the bad bushes will be replaced.

The slipping clutch couldn't be repaired by adjusting the pedal, so looks like we will be back under here in a few weeks anyway, so I'm expecting more surprises