Citroen LNA 11E
Discussion
Max M4X WW said:
Any ideas what it sold for at auction? Interested how much more it went for than the £20 they took for it!
I never did find out, but I can't imagine it being more than a few hundred quid as they're not the most desirable things and the car did look quite tatty in the pictures. After the 'history post', best get on with another with some picture content!
I've dug out some of the pictures languishing on Ph*tobucket, which catalogue a few things I'd done to the car prior to its arrival in Ireland.
Following the 8 hour drive North on the day I bought it, I came to realise that my singing voice isn't actually very good and it was probably worth fitting a radio.
When the car was spec'd new, it seems that the only box which was ticked was that for a rear windscreen wiper (even this might have been retrofitted, judging by the wiring efforts).
(Glaring gap / 'storage bin' in front of the gear stick).
Strangely, the car had speakers fitted in the front footwells which looked OEM and appeared to be wired up - It also had an aerial on its roof. A bit of investigatory pulling out of centre console panels provided the reward of speaker / aerial / power supply wiring tucked up so high behind the dash, they must have been installed when the car was built.
Rather than go for the full-on 80's option of a Sanyo head unit with a couple of Goodman speakers screwed to the rear parcel shelf, I picked up a period correct / new old stock posh VAG Blaupunkt from eBay for a bargain £30
In it goes...
Some new boots arrived and were fitted - The original tyre date codes were from February 1988, so did well to cope with the 400+ mile journey on purchase day.
(Erm...)
The plastic end cap on the OSR bumper was looking a tad careworn, however by some miracle I managed to source a replacement
Moving on to the oily bits, it really struggled with emissions during its MOT, where my tame mechanic mentioned the carb adjustments were completely seized / it was caked in varnish.
Some eBay searching found the correct new old stock Solex in France, and a deal was done for about £90 delivered, which was then fitted
An owner's handbook turned up on eBay for a fiver:
And I flogged the fJCW MINI I had at the time, making the LNA my main car for a short period...!
I've dug out some of the pictures languishing on Ph*tobucket, which catalogue a few things I'd done to the car prior to its arrival in Ireland.
Following the 8 hour drive North on the day I bought it, I came to realise that my singing voice isn't actually very good and it was probably worth fitting a radio.
When the car was spec'd new, it seems that the only box which was ticked was that for a rear windscreen wiper (even this might have been retrofitted, judging by the wiring efforts).
(Glaring gap / 'storage bin' in front of the gear stick).
Strangely, the car had speakers fitted in the front footwells which looked OEM and appeared to be wired up - It also had an aerial on its roof. A bit of investigatory pulling out of centre console panels provided the reward of speaker / aerial / power supply wiring tucked up so high behind the dash, they must have been installed when the car was built.
Rather than go for the full-on 80's option of a Sanyo head unit with a couple of Goodman speakers screwed to the rear parcel shelf, I picked up a period correct / new old stock posh VAG Blaupunkt from eBay for a bargain £30
In it goes...
Some new boots arrived and were fitted - The original tyre date codes were from February 1988, so did well to cope with the 400+ mile journey on purchase day.
(Erm...)
The plastic end cap on the OSR bumper was looking a tad careworn, however by some miracle I managed to source a replacement
Moving on to the oily bits, it really struggled with emissions during its MOT, where my tame mechanic mentioned the carb adjustments were completely seized / it was caked in varnish.
Some eBay searching found the correct new old stock Solex in France, and a deal was done for about £90 delivered, which was then fitted
An owner's handbook turned up on eBay for a fiver:
And I flogged the fJCW MINI I had at the time, making the LNA my main car for a short period...!
I say keep the boring posts coming!
If you want to find out about this cars time in the hands of the Citroen Club member, I would write to them and/or join their forum (assuming you haven’t already been down this road). They seem to be a really helpful and welcoming crowd. I stumbled across a Citroen Club event on my way back from Santa Pod last year and having always had a soft spot for the DS I decided to nip over. They looked a bit confused when I pulled up in my 911 but were more than happy for me to have a wander round and a chat and wouldn’t take any entrance fee money. I ended up spending a really enjoyable afternoon there chatting with various people about cars I’d long since forgotten ever existed. Have to say though, after discussing the pros and cons of owning anything other than a completely restored (ie massively expensive) DS, I really went off the idea and will carry on admiring from afar!
If you want to find out about this cars time in the hands of the Citroen Club member, I would write to them and/or join their forum (assuming you haven’t already been down this road). They seem to be a really helpful and welcoming crowd. I stumbled across a Citroen Club event on my way back from Santa Pod last year and having always had a soft spot for the DS I decided to nip over. They looked a bit confused when I pulled up in my 911 but were more than happy for me to have a wander round and a chat and wouldn’t take any entrance fee money. I ended up spending a really enjoyable afternoon there chatting with various people about cars I’d long since forgotten ever existed. Have to say though, after discussing the pros and cons of owning anything other than a completely restored (ie massively expensive) DS, I really went off the idea and will carry on admiring from afar!
jamesson said:
This is absolute gold. I love the 'new' stereo. 
There was a sticker on the stereo box indicating it was of 1984/85 vintage, so in keeping with the age of the LNA - The factory option radio in the brochures was a 60's looking thing which only picked up MW & LW, so I feel posh having FM! 
Back to Ireland - I'd been titivating the car's backside, improving on the 'kwaalatie' factory paintwork
The bumper got a lick of paint too, along with the mounts, which were wire-wheeled and rust treated
I popped off all the side mountings (destroying the 30+ year old fragile trim clips in the process), masked up and painted the window surrounds in matt black, along with the plates on top of the sills.
The back end went back together
(Yes - The plates are rubbish; I really wanted a set of Serck-font plates which many cars of the 70's / 80's sported, but these just didn't look right - They were never used on the road and it now sports Irish number plates).
It was then time to tackle the front end - Buoyed by how easy the rear came apart, I started full of optimism that the nose would be the same...
...of course, it wasn't and required much grinder and Dremel action!
fluoxetine said:
(Yes - The plates are rubbish; I really wanted a set of Serck-font plates which many cars of the 70's / 80's sported, but these just didn't look right - They were never used on the road and it now sports Irish number plates).
On the contrary, the plates are rather marvellous and very '80s in style.
fluoxetine said:
Wow - I'm really surprised that the LNA is something of interest to PH - I've been a member of this forum for almost 20 years, so I'm honoured for my car to have been chosen as Reader's Car of the Week
It's also been interesting to read other forum members recollections of owning similar old tat back in the day - This type of car was pitched as very cheap / basic transport when new and most definitely not an object of desire in any shape or form.
Most were scrap fodder at just 10 years old, with a few providing the first steps into car ownership for the young drivers of the mid 90's, prior to finally being weighed in when they were beyond absolutely knackered.
[boringpostalert]
As I alluded to in my previous posts, the original purchaser of my LNA had bought it new and kept it from 1983 -> 2010 (not 2012 as I said earlier, my mistake).
I was interested to see why they'd kept such a basic runaround for 27 years, when car evolution had come on leaps & bounds during that time.
Back In 2014 you could fill out a V888 form and send it off to DVLA with a cheque for a fiver, with them returning photocopies of the original registration document, along with copies of the V5C on each ownership change. This gave me the original purchaser's address, so I composed a letter, printed off a few pictures of the car as it stood and asked if they'd be willing to share any details regarding the time they owned the LNA.
There were no guarantees that they lived at the same address as they did 31 years ago, but I struck lucky and received a response from the lady who bought it new. She's in her 70's now, but had many fond memories of the car and was absolutely delighted to hear it was still on the road
It turns out that she bought the car from G.W. Salter Motors in Oxford (long gone) back on the 26th of August 1983, and kept it till the 30th of November 2010, when she traded it in to Inchcape Toyota in Kidlington for a Toyota Yaris.
Over the 27 years she owned it, it was mainly used locally, but she had driven it over to Brittany to see relatives (she's French), hence the GB sticker on its rump.
As much as she had a great deal of affection for the LNA, she'd traded it in as she was struggling with the lack of power steering, the upholstery was deteriorating badly and she wanted a car fitted with air con. Inchcape gave her a whole £20.61 for the LNA, and she assumed they'd sent it for scrap.
She very kindly stuck a copy of the receipt from Inchcape for the £20.61 they gave her, plus a picture of the LNA sat in the drive of a house she used to own in Ipswich back in 1993. (She apologised, as she did have a pile of receipts / history relating to the car, but chucked them out when she traded it in, as she figured it'd be crushed).
(Suburbia in 1993...The BX only made it to April 2001- Was a 1.9 petrol, so perhaps one of the sportier models?)
Surprisingly Inchcape instead had sent it to BCA Blackbushe, where a Citroen Car Club enthusiast from Hampshire spotted it in the auction on the 13th of December 2010, and saved it from being bailed.
He tidied it up and used it for car shows for a couple of years, before selling it on - Here it is at the 2012 Prescott Hillclimb being offered for sale:
He did eventually sell it around July 2012, but the new owner was already trying to sell it on again by September 2012 using eBay - The chap I got the car from subsequently bought it from them in March 2013, and owned the LNA for 17 months prior to me taking it on.
(August 2014 - My first time at the wheel and about to set off on a 412 mile trip North!)
[/boringpostalert]
Apologies for the indulgence of the above post - I just found it interesting to learn a little of its history / why it's still around
Congratulations on the purchase and one of the most enjoyable threads I have read in a long time. Your car got a mention in the Citroen Car Club magazine this month which is how I found my way here. It's also been interesting to read other forum members recollections of owning similar old tat back in the day - This type of car was pitched as very cheap / basic transport when new and most definitely not an object of desire in any shape or form.
Most were scrap fodder at just 10 years old, with a few providing the first steps into car ownership for the young drivers of the mid 90's, prior to finally being weighed in when they were beyond absolutely knackered.
[boringpostalert]
As I alluded to in my previous posts, the original purchaser of my LNA had bought it new and kept it from 1983 -> 2010 (not 2012 as I said earlier, my mistake).
I was interested to see why they'd kept such a basic runaround for 27 years, when car evolution had come on leaps & bounds during that time.
Back In 2014 you could fill out a V888 form and send it off to DVLA with a cheque for a fiver, with them returning photocopies of the original registration document, along with copies of the V5C on each ownership change. This gave me the original purchaser's address, so I composed a letter, printed off a few pictures of the car as it stood and asked if they'd be willing to share any details regarding the time they owned the LNA.
There were no guarantees that they lived at the same address as they did 31 years ago, but I struck lucky and received a response from the lady who bought it new. She's in her 70's now, but had many fond memories of the car and was absolutely delighted to hear it was still on the road
It turns out that she bought the car from G.W. Salter Motors in Oxford (long gone) back on the 26th of August 1983, and kept it till the 30th of November 2010, when she traded it in to Inchcape Toyota in Kidlington for a Toyota Yaris.
Over the 27 years she owned it, it was mainly used locally, but she had driven it over to Brittany to see relatives (she's French), hence the GB sticker on its rump.
As much as she had a great deal of affection for the LNA, she'd traded it in as she was struggling with the lack of power steering, the upholstery was deteriorating badly and she wanted a car fitted with air con. Inchcape gave her a whole £20.61 for the LNA, and she assumed they'd sent it for scrap.
She very kindly stuck a copy of the receipt from Inchcape for the £20.61 they gave her, plus a picture of the LNA sat in the drive of a house she used to own in Ipswich back in 1993. (She apologised, as she did have a pile of receipts / history relating to the car, but chucked them out when she traded it in, as she figured it'd be crushed).
(Suburbia in 1993...The BX only made it to April 2001- Was a 1.9 petrol, so perhaps one of the sportier models?)
Surprisingly Inchcape instead had sent it to BCA Blackbushe, where a Citroen Car Club enthusiast from Hampshire spotted it in the auction on the 13th of December 2010, and saved it from being bailed.
He tidied it up and used it for car shows for a couple of years, before selling it on - Here it is at the 2012 Prescott Hillclimb being offered for sale:
He did eventually sell it around July 2012, but the new owner was already trying to sell it on again by September 2012 using eBay - The chap I got the car from subsequently bought it from them in March 2013, and owned the LNA for 17 months prior to me taking it on.
(August 2014 - My first time at the wheel and about to set off on a 412 mile trip North!)
[/boringpostalert]
Apologies for the indulgence of the above post - I just found it interesting to learn a little of its history / why it's still around
My brother had a LNA for a little while. I drove it once - from memory there was a strange little button on the dash that glowed red or green, indicating how heavy footed you were driving. Does you car have that (i.e. is my memory playing tricks on me!) and is it the button on the left hand side of the dash in your photo?
David
Bustedmattress said:
Congratulations on the purchase and one of the most enjoyable threads I have read in a long time. Your car got a mention in the Citroen Car Club magazine this month which is how I found my way here.
My brother had a LNA for a little while. I drove it once - from memory there was a strange little button on the dash that glowed red or green, indicating how heavy footed you were driving. Does you car have that (i.e. is my memory playing tricks on me!) and is it the button on the left hand side of the dash in your photo?
David
The last car I came across that had something like that was a '95 Honda Civic saloon (of the 1.5 single-cam VTEC variety), had an economy green light in the dash cluster that went off if you went over about 3000rpm or heavy throttle!My brother had a LNA for a little while. I drove it once - from memory there was a strange little button on the dash that glowed red or green, indicating how heavy footed you were driving. Does you car have that (i.e. is my memory playing tricks on me!) and is it the button on the left hand side of the dash in your photo?
David
Bustedmattress said:
Congratulations on the purchase and one of the most enjoyable threads I have read in a long time. Your car got a mention in the Citroen Car Club magazine this month which is how I found my way here.
My brother had a LNA for a little while. I drove it once - from memory there was a strange little button on the dash that glowed red or green, indicating how heavy footed you were driving. Does you car have that (i.e. is my memory playing tricks on me!) and is it the button on the left hand side of the dash in your photo?
David
Thanks - I did see Mike H mention the thread in the CCC mag.My brother had a LNA for a little while. I drove it once - from memory there was a strange little button on the dash that glowed red or green, indicating how heavy footed you were driving. Does you car have that (i.e. is my memory playing tricks on me!) and is it the button on the left hand side of the dash in your photo?
David
The 'Econoscope' is located on the left hand side of the instrument binnacle:
It's a vacuum sensor which indicates low / high vacuum - The owners manual states:
Seemed to be a fad in the late 70's -> mid 80's - It's more of a throttle position indicator
I continued with the front end - Stripping it down revealed some surface blebs, but thankfully no holed bodywork. A bit of wire brush action and the application of Vactan rust convertor was all that was required (it converts / primes, which is handy).
The battery tray was pretty crusty, so it also received the Vactan treatment and a lick of some Hammerite direct to metal paint I had lying in the garage
(Not the best, but will keep the grot at bay for a while)
The front end was prepped and primed
And given a lick of the factory white, via a rattle can I had made up at a local car bodyshop supplier
The front valance had a parking ding, so I beat it into shape and gave it a skim of filler, before also painting it to match
Then I cleaned its face up a bit, and reattached it along with the repainted front bumper
Around this time, I turned my attention to the interior - I'd hand applied a coat of white to the floor pan to brighten it up / cover the blebs I'd wire-wheeled and treated, but the seats were in very poor condition.
I'd investigated having them reupholstered, but quotes were coming back around the price I paid for the car and no-one could match the original material exactly (perhaps a good thing, given how flimsy it is )
By chance, I was contacted by a chap breaking a rotten LNA - "Did I want any parts?" - Having established the car had a matching blue interior with no rips / tears, a deal was done for 20% of the costs of reupholstering and included door cards, a centre console plus a new dashboard / set of clocks
The battery tray was pretty crusty, so it also received the Vactan treatment and a lick of some Hammerite direct to metal paint I had lying in the garage
(Not the best, but will keep the grot at bay for a while)
The front end was prepped and primed
And given a lick of the factory white, via a rattle can I had made up at a local car bodyshop supplier
The front valance had a parking ding, so I beat it into shape and gave it a skim of filler, before also painting it to match
Then I cleaned its face up a bit, and reattached it along with the repainted front bumper
Around this time, I turned my attention to the interior - I'd hand applied a coat of white to the floor pan to brighten it up / cover the blebs I'd wire-wheeled and treated, but the seats were in very poor condition.
I'd investigated having them reupholstered, but quotes were coming back around the price I paid for the car and no-one could match the original material exactly (perhaps a good thing, given how flimsy it is
)By chance, I was contacted by a chap breaking a rotten LNA - "Did I want any parts?" - Having established the car had a matching blue interior with no rips / tears, a deal was done for 20% of the costs of reupholstering and included door cards, a centre console plus a new dashboard / set of clocks
The new interior was in pretty good shape in terms of any damage, however the fabric was severely faded from sun exposure.
Enter this stuff, which seems to offer a fairly close match to the tones when the car was new:
I had two different shades to experiment with, and plumped for the darker spray dye for the carpet, to better hide any marks. The seats / carpet were thoroughly scrubbed and wet / dry vacuumed, prior to being allowed to dry fully in the attic.
The dye went on:
And the interior went back in:
It’s by no means perfect, but I’m quite happy with it – Very much a 70’s / 80’s vibe with the colour scheme.
The steel wheels got a quick & dirty tart up with a rattle can:
And I thoroughly cleaned the arches / underside before applying some more underseal
And the side trims were re-fitted with new clips.
Next it was time to tackle some of the oily bits…
Enter this stuff, which seems to offer a fairly close match to the tones when the car was new:
I had two different shades to experiment with, and plumped for the darker spray dye for the carpet, to better hide any marks. The seats / carpet were thoroughly scrubbed and wet / dry vacuumed, prior to being allowed to dry fully in the attic.
The dye went on:
And the interior went back in:
It’s by no means perfect, but I’m quite happy with it – Very much a 70’s / 80’s vibe with the colour scheme.
The steel wheels got a quick & dirty tart up with a rattle can:
And I thoroughly cleaned the arches / underside before applying some more underseal
And the side trims were re-fitted with new clips.
Next it was time to tackle some of the oily bits…
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