1955 Traction 11B "Barn Find" Project

Yes, exactly like the photo from CTA above.

It looks like I have the 11D crankshaft in a perfo crankcase.

Right, this is the baffle unit I have and my engine is a Perfo engine but from the 12th April’55 – so citroen did mix up the parts towards the end of the Perfo it seems.The previous owner did not do any work on the car from 1967 so if the original owner had any repairs down it was in the first 12 years of its life. Very strange 😯

I was sent this through by Peter Larsen of CTA explaining the procedure on fitting – if only I knew before it would have been finished – but you have to learn somewhere, right 🙂

I am going to try and get it repaired as I cannot find a replacement anywhere at present – hopefully a few phone calls tomorrow might find something but the per equivalent is in excess of €100 so maybe 30mins in a weld shop might be cheaper.

[attachment=0:498ll68x]crank-oilbaffels-IDS19.jpg[/attachment:498ll68x]

…………..

I even got the wife in helping – we scraped all the bitumen off the inside of the floor, under the rear seat and the boot. What a crappy job.

I have found some cracks in the base where I think the last owner overloaded the car with his mates. He boasted to me that they had 11 in it when they visited the local ski station. He was so happy to tell me the exhaust manifold was glowing red 😮 He came around this evening to have another look at the car he learnt to drive in. He asked me when it would be ready to drive again, adding 2 to 3 years… he was little shocked when I said my goal was before April 😀

Julie has already named the car 😆

[attachment=0:1dkmlqag]P1070085.jpeg[/attachment:1dkmlqag]

I remember doing most of that Ian and like you, didn’t go back to completely ‘clean and shiny’ and used Hammerite ‘smooth’ to paint the floors etc. after making sure the seams were filled

Before you start putting things back together, make sure you remove the rear window, clean the glass and aperture and bond the glass back in otherwise your likely to get water leaking in which will eventually get the car back to where it is now…… Mine had rotted the headlining and wood surround

I used modern ‘Sikaflex’ windscreen/glass bond to secure mine back in, others have used fish tank sealant………….

When advised, do it straight away 😀 Just learnt that from the French TU forum when I got hammered by a member for not responding to his post within the hour. He went mad and deleted all his posts to me. Subsequently I told him that we were meeting up this Sunday for the 1st Regional TU meal in Toulouse – he has calmed a little, but wow, I was surprised by the reaction as to why I had not rushed home, opened the garage and measure the diameter of my main bearing within minutes of him asking the question 😆 😆 😆

So, just took out the back window, which was not at all how it looked. It was tatty but not sure it was letting in water, just yet (although it has been dry for the past 45 years). It was quite tough and a couple of sharp blades later it is out, cleaned and the frame has been treated with antirust.

[attachment=2:7zaa0xkt]P1070104.jpg[/attachment:7zaa0xkt]

[attachment=1:7zaa0xkt]P1070112.jpeg[/attachment:7zaa0xkt]

[attachment=0:7zaa0xkt]P1070113.jpeg[/attachment:7zaa0xkt]

The frame on mine to attache the headlining was actually thin plywood, but the bottom half was gone.

I bought a new one from CTA ( Product Number 6920027 @ 33.82 EURO) http://www.ctaservice.nl/product/22316/ACHTERRUITLIJST-HOUT

but if you have a jigsaw and some 2/3mm ply you could make your own

That horizontal ( I put “vertical” before for some stupid reason 🙄 ) strip below the window can be made out of very heavy cardboard as original. One thing you must all do is caulk the seam where the rain gutters attach to the body above the doors. Water will leak in here as the gutters are sporadically spot-welded. I left mine, like the rear window to a pro who can do a far better job than I can. I tried gluing in the rear window on my Light 15 but gave up after it fell out for the third time and I had the glue all over me and the interior. Not fun! 👿 Some jobs are best left the pros and these are 2 of them.