Our latest acquisition (s)

[paulandpat]

Just thought we would post some pictures of our latest acquisitions which were delivered this weekend. The F6 we are intending to keep and use in place of the 4 saloon, as it will be even more useful for lawnmowers and bits of gardening equipment. I wanted to get some tractor enamel and take a paint roller to it but the OH won't hear of it. Our friend Kevin has first dibs on the blue F4, but we await his decision, he still has to have a proper look at it.
Both were obtained via the good offices of Clementine's garage, I recognised the name of the poster as living in neighbouring Mayenne.
The F4 is apparently a runner, but the F6 needs a carb and distributor cap before we can get a tune out of it.
Also in the background is a 1970 Eriba Puck caravan which will be for sale in a few weeks time - easy to pull with a 4 as it weighs in at under 500 kg, POA as they say, there is also the back end of our Visa decouvrable, one of less than 5000 produced.

 

[mick-1964]

Hi

I have just bought a van as well ,it has the same roofrack as well....

Also my house has also got scaffold up...

I like your little caravan...

 

[paulandpat]

In the course of mucking out the F6 I was interested to find that both vans had a folding passenger seat - I had a Kangoo a while back that had a similar facility - and wondered whether this was a standard fitting or not.
I'm sure it will come in very handy when I need to add to my moped collection!
The only thing it does not have is a towbar - are they the same as the saloon ones or do I need to go rummaging on www.leboncoin.fr for a van specific one?

 

[angel]

There are many towbars that use the four through-bolts of the rear bumper as mounting points. These should fit all R4s as these holes are all at the same place.
There is, however, at least one towbar type (seemed to me like an original option) that has one strut that extends to the inner right hand suspension mounting. This will non fit the F6, as the rear overhang is longer.

Is the F4 an ex-La Poste van, or was that small side window fitted to other versions as well?

 

[paulandpat]

Suspect the blue one is ex EDF, that's the sort of colour they tend to fade to.
Thanks for the towbar info.

 

[mick-1964]

mine is the same blue ,so i am assuming it is ex edf ....

I take it yours is petrol?

do you know the size of the engine?

 

[paulandpat]

They are all petrol!
The F6 is 1108 cc, the F4 is I think 845 cc, its certainly got the umbrella handbrake.

 

[mick-1964]

mine is gpl , ex edf/gdf....

thanks for the engine size....

 

[paulandpat]

Should be cheap to run then, presumably you need to start on petrol and change over.
Have seen the odd one advertised with GPL. We have a GPL car type tank here, but I suspect the authorities would not take kindly to aftermarket conversions!

 

[paulandpat]

Have had chance to fiddle / play with these 2 vans today. Having charged up a battery the blue one started up and ran really sweetly - despite the oil breather? in the top of the rocker cover not being connected to the manifold!
The beige one still needs a carb and distributor so only able to check that the lights etc worked on this one, the heater fan only seems to have one position, is that correct or is the switch jammed? Also discovered a hole in the floor under the accelerator pedal, so as we have plenty of ongoing projects I will weld a plate in for now, and get the van up and running and do a 'rolling restoration'.

 

[french connection]

Good luck with your restorations. Nice to see more cars being saved. One of the great things about having a bit of space around you is you can indulge yourself and buy all the things you want !.

 

[paulandpat]

Manged to get a tune out of the beige one today, the blue car is beyond economic repair (back suspension mounting problems) so transferred the carb and distributor to the beige one, and off it went.
Later in the week its going off to Alain our local 2cv guru, and a thoroughly good bloke, to get a plate welded in the floor.