Citroen LNA 11E (more beige)
Discussion
I seem to have developed a habit of buying French oddities. Latest purchase a couple of weeks ago is this: a 1984 Citroen LNA in a splendid shade of beige. This being my 2nd beige car (I've a thread on my beige Mk2 Escort in 1100 L spec elsewhere on here).
Brief history on LNAs - easiest summarised as Citroen's version of the 3dr Peugeot 104, sold in the UK in the early 80s. Now quite rare with 3 I think on the road but a few more in enthusiasts hands.
History of this one - bought new in Pembrokeshire by a lady and used by her until she had to give up driving approx 20 years ago. Her family put it in their garage incase she got back driving but it sat there for many years until they decided to list it on a certain auction site. It used to be started periodically but hadn't been started for about a decade. I bought it in-effect sight unseen and took a trailer all the way from here (Highland Scotland) down to Wales to retrieve it. First impressions: very solid underneath with no signs of welding being needed, mint interior, many superficial appearing rust spots above where water has dripped. Photo for now of car newly loaded on to trailer. Will update this thread as time goes on/when I have time!
Brief history on LNAs - easiest summarised as Citroen's version of the 3dr Peugeot 104, sold in the UK in the early 80s. Now quite rare with 3 I think on the road but a few more in enthusiasts hands.
History of this one - bought new in Pembrokeshire by a lady and used by her until she had to give up driving approx 20 years ago. Her family put it in their garage incase she got back driving but it sat there for many years until they decided to list it on a certain auction site. It used to be started periodically but hadn't been started for about a decade. I bought it in-effect sight unseen and took a trailer all the way from here (Highland Scotland) down to Wales to retrieve it. First impressions: very solid underneath with no signs of welding being needed, mint interior, many superficial appearing rust spots above where water has dripped. Photo for now of car newly loaded on to trailer. Will update this thread as time goes on/when I have time!
One of my early cars was a Talbot Samba, which I think was based in the same platform.
It used to ferry me and various mates to Uni's around the country. Was a hoot to drive IIRC, and could really be chucked around.
Coincidentally, given your cars, a Mk2 Escort preceded it - a 1300. That was also decent fun, and would oversteer at very low speeds.
Neither of mine were beige though. The Mk2 was red until it was more P38 than red. The Samba a light metallic green...mostly (I replaced one wing due to rot that remained forever more grey primer in my ownership
).
It used to ferry me and various mates to Uni's around the country. Was a hoot to drive IIRC, and could really be chucked around.
Coincidentally, given your cars, a Mk2 Escort preceded it - a 1300. That was also decent fun, and would oversteer at very low speeds.
Neither of mine were beige though. The Mk2 was red until it was more P38 than red. The Samba a light metallic green...mostly (I replaced one wing due to rot that remained forever more grey primer in my ownership
).Nice one, looks pretty tidy. I had a drive of one owned by a friend a few years ago, he doesn't have it any more and I'm not sure if it's survived.
I've seen the odd one or two in France over the years, this is probably the nicest of them:
Citroen LN/LNA by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
I've seen the odd one or two in France over the years, this is probably the nicest of them:
Citroen LN/LNA by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
sjabrown said:
I seem to have developed a habit of buying French oddities. Latest purchase a couple of weeks ago is this: a 1984 Citroen LNA in a splendid shade of beige. This being my 2nd beige car (I've a thread on my beige Mk2 Escort in 1100 L spec elsewhere on here).
Brief history on LNAs - easiest summarised as Citroen's version of the 3dr Peugeot 104, sold in the UK in the early 80s. Now quite rare with 3 I think on the road but a few more in enthusiasts hands.
History of this one - bought new in Pembrokeshire by a lady and used by her until she had to give up driving approx 20 years ago. Her family put it in their garage incase she got back driving but it sat there for many years until they decided to list it on a certain auction site. It used to be started periodically but hadn't been started for about a decade. I bought it in-effect sight unseen and took a trailer all the way from here (Highland Scotland) down to Wales to retrieve it. First impressions: very solid underneath with no signs of welding being needed, mint interior, many superficial appearing rust spots above where water has dripped. Photo for now of car newly loaded on to trailer. Will update this thread as time goes on/when I have time!
Excellent purchase sir! Love to hear more about this as you get to grips with it. If I can ever justify a second classic car it would be something like this or a 104/204, R4, Autobianchi 112 etc. Alas SWMBO sees it differently… Brief history on LNAs - easiest summarised as Citroen's version of the 3dr Peugeot 104, sold in the UK in the early 80s. Now quite rare with 3 I think on the road but a few more in enthusiasts hands.
History of this one - bought new in Pembrokeshire by a lady and used by her until she had to give up driving approx 20 years ago. Her family put it in their garage incase she got back driving but it sat there for many years until they decided to list it on a certain auction site. It used to be started periodically but hadn't been started for about a decade. I bought it in-effect sight unseen and took a trailer all the way from here (Highland Scotland) down to Wales to retrieve it. First impressions: very solid underneath with no signs of welding being needed, mint interior, many superficial appearing rust spots above where water has dripped. Photo for now of car newly loaded on to trailer. Will update this thread as time goes on/when I have time!
Nice work OP: stuff like this deserves to be saved.
Years ago I used to work for a cottage industry car importer. My boss would frequently find himself in some random part of Europe (this was immediately after the introduction of the Euro as a single currency), having been to look at some car / house / business proposition and in need of a ride home. He'd often rock up a day or so later in whatever he'd bought to get home in. Memorable examples were Brabus V12 Mercedes S-Classes, a Ferrari Mondial Cabriolet and one of the first Smart cars.
One morning we heard an odd warbling sound approaching. We ran out of the barn to see the boss (who was a large, rotund character) alighting from a metallic pink LN. Apparently he'd fallen for the colour: the car was all original, low kilometres and ran without fault. The LN was the 2-cylinder, 652cc base model, which he'd driven overnight from somewhere mid-France.
It got parked in his barn (next to his Renault 4) and, although I often had to move it about to extract other cars, I lost track of it when we had a significant disagreement and I left.
It's probably still there, somewhere in rural Essex.
Years ago I used to work for a cottage industry car importer. My boss would frequently find himself in some random part of Europe (this was immediately after the introduction of the Euro as a single currency), having been to look at some car / house / business proposition and in need of a ride home. He'd often rock up a day or so later in whatever he'd bought to get home in. Memorable examples were Brabus V12 Mercedes S-Classes, a Ferrari Mondial Cabriolet and one of the first Smart cars.
One morning we heard an odd warbling sound approaching. We ran out of the barn to see the boss (who was a large, rotund character) alighting from a metallic pink LN. Apparently he'd fallen for the colour: the car was all original, low kilometres and ran without fault. The LN was the 2-cylinder, 652cc base model, which he'd driven overnight from somewhere mid-France.
It got parked in his barn (next to his Renault 4) and, although I often had to move it about to extract other cars, I lost track of it when we had a significant disagreement and I left.
It's probably still there, somewhere in rural Essex.
Time to catch up with some updates on progress so far.
Pic below of it on the trailer for my overnight stop with friends in Wales. Interior is best described as pristine - seats have been covered for all of its life until I collected it. My friends were keen to see if it would run so we set about it. Jump back on to the battery and the electrics came to life. First turn of the key and the starter motor was turning over too! With some petrol dribbled in to the carb it coughed and ran briefly. After removing and refitting/bodging the mechanical pump it then started and ran... on 20 year old fuel. Good times, then the long slog 400 miles back north.
interior pic showing the brilliance of a single spoke steering wheel
Pic below of it on the trailer for my overnight stop with friends in Wales. Interior is best described as pristine - seats have been covered for all of its life until I collected it. My friends were keen to see if it would run so we set about it. Jump back on to the battery and the electrics came to life. First turn of the key and the starter motor was turning over too! With some petrol dribbled in to the carb it coughed and ran briefly. After removing and refitting/bodging the mechanical pump it then started and ran... on 20 year old fuel. Good times, then the long slog 400 miles back north.
interior pic showing the brilliance of a single spoke steering wheel
Once home one of the first jobs was to drop the fuel tank to drain out the stale fuel and clear the line. 3 bolts hold the tank up, and a few tiny screws secure the filler neck. The photo of the bucket is the fuel drained from the tank: rust coloured and absolutely stinking. I spent ages cleaning the tank out, learnt that one of the best crap-removers is fresh petrol swirled about.
On to the next jobs. Brakes needed surprisingly little work to make them good. Rear drums disassembled, checked and reassembled. Fronts (fancy aluminium calipers too!) simply cleaned. Old fluid flushed through and that was that. All the brakes lines are untouched as they were all looking pristine. Photos from before a good clean.
And whilst in about the brakes it was a good time to remove the rear suspension, clean it and check it. I'm not sure why I only seem to have taken "before" photos... probably to remind me how it all goes together. Anyway, looked a bit flaky/crusty but cleaned up really well and the only things I replaced were the dust covers. Top of the suspension tower completely free from rust, so happy days there
Just over a week ago I put it in for MOT, and it's a pass! New tyres all round as much as there was plenty tread the tyres on it were very very hard, and the rears were the original ones, so at 37 years old fit for the skip only. The garage is 10 miles from my house and it was a nervous drive up to the MOT as the most it's driven since I acquired it was about 100 yards along my access road here.
Total list of jobs done to return it to get it to MOT stage:
drop, clean and refit fuel tank
add in-line fuel filter and replace fuel hose from pump to carb
clean and unstick rear brakes
strip, clean and reassemble rear suspension
reattach a couple of loose bits of exterior trim
grease throttle cable
give it a quick clean
lightly sand and lightly spray wheels (far from perfect but makes it more presentable)
new tyres all round
clean contact for one sidelight bulb
new battery
Photo of it after MOT time. It's pinking under load so I'll need to look at that before it gets much use. First thing to check will be the carb. But that will wait for a while as it's Mull Rally next week so I'll be doing other things for a while.
Total list of jobs done to return it to get it to MOT stage:
drop, clean and refit fuel tank
add in-line fuel filter and replace fuel hose from pump to carb
clean and unstick rear brakes
strip, clean and reassemble rear suspension
reattach a couple of loose bits of exterior trim
grease throttle cable
give it a quick clean
lightly sand and lightly spray wheels (far from perfect but makes it more presentable)
new tyres all round
clean contact for one sidelight bulb
new battery
Photo of it after MOT time. It's pinking under load so I'll need to look at that before it gets much use. First thing to check will be the carb. But that will wait for a while as it's Mull Rally next week so I'll be doing other things for a while.
Took Elena for a run up to Inverness today. Behaved impeccably until 2 miles from home where she conked out for several minutes. I suspect still crap in fuel lines/carb so the carb will be coming off for a clean and check before she goes any further.
Quirks of this car: no cig
lighter, and even with the seat all the way back I’m a bit hunched over the wheel! (my 104’s seat goes a lot further back).
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