The old girl goes in tomorrow to an old-car electrics expert in Chislet (Kent village, near(ish) to Grove Ferry and Canterbury). I know these guys are good, but they may not be that familiar with 2CV's specifically, so we've assembled a number of helpful items -

1) Llew, our 2CV doctor who can be on the end of the phone

2) Some pics of the car we took while we had her stripped out.

3) The book "How to Restore a 2CV" by Lindsay Porter, which also has lots of good dynamo pics and

4) A special tool - basically a long thick bolt with an unusual thread, which you wind down the middle of the armature and keep on going till the end strikes the end of the crank, where-upon something's gotta give, and the armature slips neatly (you hope) out of its tapered hole into your hands.....

Watch this space

The dynamo is proving to be a pain in the neck. Tests on the bits off the car seem to indicate that she it should be working, but tests on the car reveal no charging activity. JJ (with whom she currently resides) must therefore either get his man to come out to her, or get her (on the trailer) round to his workshop. Like everyone else, JJ is currently fairly busy on other things, like going with a gang of other 2CV owners to the Cliftonville car show near Folkestone.

Ah well, I expect we'll get there soon. Meanwhile I am still waiting for the 2CVGB website to wake its blogging bit back up. Our Mademoiselle-ing activities were so intense through the winter, from November on, right round to April, that I was able to put something new up almost daily, and it made for quite an interesting blog. Now, frustratingly, I can no longer get at it.

I've been away on hols (narrow boating on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal), but JJ tells me he's been busy while I've been gone. He's our main body-work man and has been playing with filler, sanding and spray paint. He's also touched in some of Mademoiselle's heraldic coats of arms, and has, I gather, added a small red pin-stripe along the length of her, though I've yet to see that.

Frustrated though, by finding thet the old girl's old-fashioned dynamo (mounted at the front of the crank) is not putting out any current, so needs removing and the special tool needed for this is was not to hand. (Ian has it, we think). Once that is off, JJ can take it to his old-car-electrics expert to get it diagnosed, and if necessary, re-wound or re-commutatored. This guy is a whizz, and has impressed us with his repairs of JJ's 1920's Citroen CV5.