Restauro Peugeot 404 Coupé Iniezione in Canada

[Mike T.]

Last week I finished all the brake and fuel lines and installed them on the car.

Then today I had about 4 hours to get some things done, so I cut the inner rear fender protectant and trunk floor insulation, mounted it, put the rubber mat in and clipped it into place with the 4 large modern plastic clips (better than the rubber originals and easier to use!).  Then I mounted the front fuel line retainer that holds the two fuel lines at the front end of the car, mounted the cage nuts on the road wheels and finally glued the seal to the fresh air intake.

[Mike T.]

After yesterday's repair to the broken captive bolt on the foam backed lower dashboard pad, today it was successfully mounted:
Dashboard-pads.jpg

Light, horn and turn indicator controls installed, plus wheel of course:
Steering-wheel.jpg

Note the cover for the column shifter, part of the original Nardi floor shifter kit:
Steering-column.jpg

Trimmed the fresh air intake seal so the hood could close!
IMG-5720.jpg

[Mike T.]

Work over the past several weeks:

Both sill plates are mounted with the OE plastic rivets.

Stainless steel rear exhaust mounted with original Peugeot OE belts/hangers:




And the middle section is mounted too, held in place temporarily with a zap strap:




Flexible hose between floor and torque tube mounted to my homemade brake lines:




Right front brake hose mounted (the end is capped):




And left front (you can see the cap on the end in this photo):




Left front side bumper mount added. The cage nut had flown the coop many years ago and so getting the long bolt started into the nut I was hanging onto with a dab of butyl was a bit of a challenge but it worked better than my attempt with magnets!


Front part of the headliner trim was installed this afternoon, as were the wipers. Wipers took 30 seconds; headliner and sunvisors took a couple of hours to get right. Hand-built cars, eh!





New Peugeot NOS upper heater hose added. Wiper switch wired up and dashboard pad added.






And finally, today I got my 18 cleaned and tested injectors back from Nottingham Diesel Services Ltd.

The 6 NOS:
2 x DL0 20D - release at 37 bar, good jet, no drips
3 x DL0 20D - release at 35 bar, good jet, no drips
1 x DL0 20B - release at 33 bar, good jet, no drips

The 4 originals from my car's engine:
1 x DL0 20B - release at 29 bar, good jet, no drips
3 x DL0 20B - release at 27 bar, good jet, no drips

Random spare injectors:
3 x DL0 20B - release at 30-32 bar, good jet, small drip but OK
3 x DL0 20B - release at 22-25 bar, jet OK, but drips under residual pressure that could make cold and warm starting a problem.

2 x DL0 20B - defective

I'm going to use 4 x NOS injectors (DL0 20D).

[Mike T.]

As you may recall, before Christmas I put the rear window in but there were a couple of issues: the lower stainless steel trim piece was perfectly straight and the class is slightly curved, so it was constantly trying to pop the clips out.  And so it did, once the glass was in.

After pulling the trim off I realized that the problem was also that the replica clips were about 2mm shorter than the originals and so didn't penetrate far enough inside the seal's rubber slot to engage with the small channel at the end where the hooked bit goes.  So each of the 30 clips had to be adjusted carefully by hand to match the depth of the 16 remaining originals, which were cadmium plated a couple of years ago.  In doing this - they're made of spring steel - 5 of the 30 snapped but 25 survived. 

I then mounted them to the SS trim along with the 16 originals and so far it's holding well enough.  Actually the rubber seal relies upon the window aperture to keep it tight.  So during installation I'm going to have to ensure the helpers push hard on each clip as I pull the rubber seal through to the inside of the car to make sure the seal clamps the clip in the right position (fully inserted).

[Mike T.]

Today, with the able help of my two daughters I remounted the rear window of the 404 Coupé with no problem at all, and the modified clips are working perfectly.

Took 5 minutes to install and this time I started from the bottom of the seal and finished at the top. I used a smaller gauge nylon cord to do the lip service (!) this time and it worked beautifully.

YES!!

[Mike T.]

Rear parcel shelf and leather rear bench installed. For the moment there will be no speakers, because my 1981 Blaupunkts are dead.

[bassplayer]

I can't wait to see it done. Great job Mike! It is unbelivable how you put together all the spares neede for a foreign car from the 60s while I can't get a bumper moulding for my 1998 P. 406

[Mike T.]

Hang in there bassplayer! And best wishes to all in Italy.

And today, the naughty....err....dirty bits....

Removal of crankshaft, camshaft, pistons, liners...

Summary: 

- Crankshaft journals looks more or less OK: 0.3 mm should do.
- The upper (compression, I presume) rings were broken on all 4 pistons (!!)
- Lifters and peak of the cams on cylinder 4 were heavily worn (oddly, the other were OK)
- Sleeves were not too rusty in the water jacket area and the block where the seals mate is perfect.
- There was a lot of very thick sediment deposited in the lower sides of cylinders 1 and 2, especially by the block drain hole on #1.

I have new pistons, sleeves etc; however I could use a new cam or maybe get a regrind.  Need new lifters of course.

[bassplayer]

Mike I always thought that Pininfarin has been a quite clever lazy guy, reselling the same car (project) to various car makers, differenciating them with minor details.
Your 404 coupe looks in fact very similar to the Lancia Flaminia coupe.
Here some pics of the two cars.
https://www.classicargarage.com/archive ... coupe-1966" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.classicargarage.com/archive ... coupe-1963" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I know it´s nothing new, this is happening even today with popular family cars, but what is your opinion about the Lancia?

[Squalo]

In my opinion, the real "twin" of the Peugeot 404 Coupé is the Fiat 1500 Coupé: https://www.classicdriver.com/en/car/fi ... 964/713107" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Pininfarina had been really very lazy, in this case

[Mike T.]

Love the Flaminia and Fiat 1500 Coupe. They all look great.

Meanwhile....

The engine is totally apart now, as noted. The cam has bad wear so I am trying to source a new one from Le Club 404's stock. The new head and piston/sleeve kit are in the two cardboard boxes.


Today, after cleaning off the engine block and moving it to where you see it above, I made 10 spacers for the carpet snaps. These space the carpet appropriately for the thickness of the undelay, so they're not puckered.


Original Peugeot clips used for the visible ones. The rest are virtually the same.

[Mike T.]

The underlay for the rear transmission tunnel was installed along with the carpet, the rear floor carpets.... and then the passenger seat.


My wife Sandy tried out the seat for height and comfort.

[davide407-1]

Notevole !!

Davide

[Mike T.]

Drilled 3 holes in the panels to mount the new carpet in the front driver's side.  The fourth hole was already there above the accelerator pedal.  



Also mounted the new speedometer cable and the accelerator cable.  The driver's seat was a bit of a bear to install because the captive bolts in the bodyshell were not long enough to penetrate the new (thicker) seat runners and so I had to knock it out and put a bolt and (blind) nut inside one.  



The interior is now done apart from the transmission tunnel, which is still naked because I have to install the C3 gearbox and its Nardi floor shifter before final trimming. That'll be a while then.

[Mike T.]

Mounted the glovebox on Saturday. It is a drawer under the dashboard under the Pininfarina badge. I have the Italian F.I.S.T. key for its lock!



Sunday I cleaned and sorted all my nuts and bolts into the proper sizes.