Citroën 2CV4: a complete base found in the Doubs

This 2CV4 did not reach the workshop by chance. It was first noticed in the Doubs while searching for missing 2CV parts, then bought a few months later as a serious restoration base.

Purchased in August 2023 for the workshop owner’s father, it was complete but not running, with badly weakened floors already visible, yet with enough of the car still in place to justify the trip and the return on a trailer.

A car first spotted while looking for parts

The story of this 2CV4 starts very simply. The workshop was first trying to finish an earlier restoration on a blue 2CV. Some parts had already been ordered elsewhere, but a few were still missing and were needed quickly. That is when a seller in the Doubs, known for letting go of a large stock of 2CV parts, came into the picture.

The first visit therefore had nothing to do with buying a car. It was only about collecting useful parts to finish an existing project on time. Yet while looking through the stock and the cars that were still for sale, the possibility stayed in mind. There was a lead there for later.

A second visit, this time to look at the car itself

A few months later, contact was made again to ask whether there were still cars for sale. That second visit is when this 2CV4 was truly discovered. The first conclusion was quite clear: the car was complete. The wings were there, the engine was there, and the whole still formed a readable base. It was not running, but it had not been stripped to the point of losing all interest.

That matters a great deal on a 2CV. An incomplete shell quickly becomes a scattered, costly and uncertain project. Here, despite obvious fatigue, the car still made sense as a whole. It could still be read as a car, not as a loose pile of parts to rebuild from nothing.

Bad floors, but still a legible base

The weak point appeared quickly: the floors were badly eaten away. There was nothing surprising in that for a two-cylinder Citroën, but it had to be stated plainly. Even so, the visible corrosion was not enough to rule the car out. After the first full walk-around, it still seemed sound overall, or at least coherent enough to deserve a proper inspection back at the workshop. That is often the decisive threshold on a popular older car: everything does not have to look good, but a sensible restoration logic still has to be possible.

The context also mattered. The price was considered fair and, just as importantly, the car was not on the other side of the country. There were not six hundred kilometres to cover in order to bring back a doubtful shell. At that point, the 2CV4 looked like what one often hopes to find without saying so: an imperfect base, but a complete, nearby and still honest one.

Back on a trailer, then into a slower reading

Once the deal was made, the car was collected and brought back to the workshop on a trailer. That is where a slower and more precise phase began. What had looked promising on site still had to be checked point by point, with body and chassis separated, in order to distinguish normal 2CV wear from what would require heavier structural work.

This 2CV4 is therefore not the result of an impulsive purchase or an over-romanticised find. It is first of all a work base chosen for its completeness, its proximity and its reasonable potential. The next stage, involving dismantling, underbody work, mechanics and reassembly choices, is covered on the page devoted to the restoration of this 2CV4.

To place this car within the Citroën line, it helps to start again from the general history of the 2CV, then move on to the page devoted to the restoration of this 2CV4.

Sources

1. Internal audio transcript: first assessment of the 2CV4, SAVA workshop, August 2023 acquisition.