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| THE TALES OF THE LION QUESTINDEX 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
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In February 1967 I was a 27 year old history teacher setting off to Europe for twelve months on the "Arcadia". On voyage, I met my future husband - John Grant. He was returning to England to visit his family and had arranged to pick up a new fuel injected Peugeot 404 at the Croyden agents.
He assures me that there is no truth in the claim that the first reason he noticed me was because I not only know what a Peugeot 404 was, but I could also pronounce it properly. By 1967 he had already had ten years of experience driving Peugeots in NZ. He bought a 203 in 19S6 which had done 40,000 miles and over the next few years he used it to tow a racing car and then in the 1960's, competed regularly in the various reliability "trials" in both the North and South Islands. By the end of that period, the car had done over 2SO,000 reliable miles and made John a life long Peugeotphile. In 1966 he bought a 403 from a deceased estate. This cherished car had done 70,000 very slow miles and needed to be eased gently up to normal road speeds. It was a lovely car, which only confirmed his desire to acquire a brand new Peugeot 404 while overseas.
My experience of Peugeots was marginal. My brother-in-law had bought a 404 in 1965 and I had driven it on one memorable occasion. With my brother-in-law heckling from the back seat, I had driven it back to his farm and then over farm roads. You know what I mean. A strip of grass up the middle and a couple of ruts with varying depths of loose metal in them. At one point, I had to stop on a steep slope while a gate was opened. Thirty years later, I still savor the memory of that perfect smooth hill start and the compliment from the back seat. It prejudiced me in favor of Peugeot immediately.
Back in NZ the following year, our married life proceeded to an accompaniment of Peugeots - 404, 504 and 505. At the present time our Peugeot stable consists of a 1955 203C, a 1965 404SW and a 1981 5O5 STI. This is the story of Olivia, my olive green 404SW. There are still good older model Peugeots around if you are lucky enough to find them. I had driven a diesel powered 404 family estate for years until rust in the chassis rails made it an uneconomic proposition to repair. John took the diesel engine and all its appurtenances out in case we ever found another good 404. Nearly a year later, Don Hadfield put me in touch with one of his old customers who had had a 404SW up on blocks for seven years and had now decided to part with it.
The car was in excellent condition considering its age. It was a 1965 model with the early pattern gearbox where first and reverse were opposite each other, as were second and third with fourth out on its own as an overdrive. The paintwork had suffered quite a few chips and minor scrapes during its years in the garage, but the panels were straight and rust free. There was a slight problem when it came to getting the car delivered safely, as the garage where it was to be worked on is at the bottom of a' steep slope and the car had neither brakes nor clutch. Fortunately the car transporter had a long wire cable and we were able to roll the 404 controllably downhill into position.
The handbrake had been applied while it was up on blocks and forced the shoes hard onto the drums where they seized- into position. The braking system had to be totally replaced as all the wheel cylinders had rusted up to the point where they could not even be hydrauliced apart. The cost of resleeving wheel cylinders, (two double acting ones on each front wheel), master and slave cylinder and booster would have come to close on $2,000, before labor costs were calculated. Luckily we still had the old 404 and John was able to do a straight transplant of the entire braking system.
The frozen mechanical clutch was a lesser problem. A block of wood held the clutch pedal down for the day while the brakes were exchanged and once the car was fired up, the clutch broke free at the first try.
Another problem caused by its long spell off the road was a series of petrol blockages. Fortunately the carburetor had evaporated or leaked dry and it caused no problems, but the petrol in the tank had gone off and turned into a virtual shellac which had sealed the fuel pickup. Blowing compressed air into the system failed to remove it. Poking a wire down failed to remove it. It proved necessary to connect a piece of flexible inner speedo cable to a drill and drill the deposit clear. This initial solution was not the end of the problem. Thinners in the tank dissolved most of the thick petrol and thanks to Peugeot's commonsense engineering which provided a drain plug at the bottom of the tank, most of the old. petrol was able to be flushed clear. However enough remained on the sides of the tank to be a nuisance as it flaked loose. There were two or three occasions in the first couple of weeks, when the car glided to a halt on the way to work and I had to summon John to the rescue. The pickup and the inline filters clogged frequently and the tank had to be drained and the petrol filtered dozens of times before it was possible to drive the car normally. John finally added a fuel filter with a sediment bowl at the bottom of our fuel injection 504.
The major problem however, was not mechanical but official. Because the car had not been kept registered, it was necessary to register it again from the start as if it were a new car. Fortunately we were just able to start the process before the new regulations came in on the 1 September 1994. First it had to go to Vehicle Inspection NZ in Bond St, Auckland where all imported and restored cars have to go to get a certificate of roadworthiness before they can be registered at NZ Post.
This is a very rigorous check designed deliberately to make getting an old car back on the road as difficult and expensive as possible - in line with government policy. They also required a declaration of ownership signed in front of a JP before they would even look at the car. Registration papers/receipts/change of ownership forms were not enough in their eyes to prove that we were the new legal owners.
The new VIN number was stamped onto the chassis and etched onto the rear window, but they failed the car initially on two counts. The pinhole in a steering rack boot was no problem. The chassis "rust" was.
Someone had used a jack in the wrong place - under the strengthening buttresses. The jack had crunched through the under seal and allowed rust to start. Their policy was to have the inspectors attack any suspect spot with a sharp punch and a two pound hammer (nearly twice the weight of a normal claw hammer). Naturally it perforated.
It was no surprise to find that the part needed was not in stock at the agents but could be brought in. However, we were not prepared to risk waiting for it to arrive, as we would have had to pay another $80 fee if the car was not ready to recheck within four weeks. We knew a panel beater who had worked on this model so frequently that he actually had a pattern ready to make this particular part. BLJT it was not enough to get this fixed and take it back for a recheck. We had to get a letter of approval from an approved structural engineer. We were given the names of the four firms in Auckland authorized to issue such approvals and rang the nearest in Manukau Rd. He discussed what needed doing with our experienced panel beater, got him to provide engineering drawings of the reinforcing buttress to be replaced, decided what grade of steel was to be used, inspected the car beforehand, watched the new buttresses welded into place, and when it was finished he said, "I'm not going to pass that. It's not a genuine factory part."
Incredible isn't it!
The next day we took it to another firm on the list and explained what had happened. He examined the repair and said the panel beater had done an excellent job and had no hesitation in approving it. The Vehicle Inspectors then passed it and gave us the necessary papers to take to NZ Post to get it registered. Then to the testing station for a normal WOF which it got with no trouble.
At last SW3234 - ex FD3677 was on the road again. Quiet, rattle free, smooth running and handling as well as ever. Her mileage is unknown as the speedo turned over enthusiastically and put up about ten miles for every one actually traveled. She had the early linear speedo gauge, which has now been replaced with a similar one showing only 12000 kilometers. The speedo reads in miles per hour while the odometer reads in kilometers. The original engine runs so sweetly, that we have felt no urge to replace it with the diesel John salvaged so carefully.
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