'84 Talbot/SIMCA 1100 pickup

THe Rancho was even worse rust wise. The structure of the pickup with parts missing to link up to the fibreglass bodywork meant even more rust traps. Many Rancho owners only realised the scale of the rust problem when there was virtually no structure left to hold the fibreglass bits to. One of the worst bits is the short extension added to the picrkup's rear chassis legs to mount the Rancho's bodywork...MATRA seemed to have found some even dodgier steel than SIMCA used to create those.
THe SIMCA craze for us started in the mid 80's with the rear engined 1000. Then they could be picked up for £50 or so. Since then we've had 35 or more 1000's plus a numbers of the FWD 1100's and the mid engined 3 seater MATRA Bagheeras (an even bigger rust problem) that use the same parts. Over the years as cars rusted away we saved the vital bits and now that's paying dividends keeping our current SIMCAs running.

Inner sill recreated with some decent box section. Arch repair panel temporarily in place to show where sill needs trimming to. Next job is to remove remains of rear crner panel and fuel tank.

One of the major rust areas on the SIMCA 1100 range (and the Horizon that followed on from it) were the rear inner wings/shocker turrets. The pickup shares exactly the same panelwork there as the hatch and estate. the O/S was a mass of past patching, so, as I'd got a NOS panel, I cut the lot out. Photos show panel cut out and new one ready to fit. Luckily chassis leg below all this has survived well.

NOS inner wing panel was for hatch model but only differed at rear where it lins to boxed in area. A bit if trimmimg cured that. Edge of pickup bed rusting away from chassis leg seems to have preserved the channel section.

[img src="http://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/i347/wardsim/100_3571_zps403c184f.jpg" alt="
New panel trimmed to fit. Will certainly save a lot of patching. Before welding everything up have to make up the underside of the top rail so there's something to bolt the rear wing corner up to.

some structure back into this side ready to fit new inner wing.

Current thinking is doing it back in the Beige/dark green scheme it was but with the pickup bed done green right to the top and then some bolder striping dividing the two colours round the cab but ideas may have changed by the time it's all together.
Engine wise it will be getting a 1294 built to Ti spec (the twin DCNF vesion of the 1100). I got a NOS short 1294 engine on ebay and a new camshaft. Ive a head off a low mileage engine and a pair of DCNF Webers + manifold off a 'dead' MATRA Bagheera. All that will go on a box with a final drive more suited to the pokier engine. This should give me mid 80's bhp in place of the original 50.
My 'daily', the Honda HRV in some of the photos sets me thinking. My brother has just got one of his 1100's back on the road.... a 1204 Special hatchback. He's added the same amount of metal as I'm doing but he's fitted a SOHC 1590cc Honda D series engine (similar to the one in the HRV) along with its 5 speed box. It's given him a SIMCA 1100 that goes like a rocket with something the 1100 never had...a decent gearchange....!!!

The top half is still the original colour. Although it looks white in some photos it's actually Peugeot Antelope Beige. The 1100 pickups in the mid 70's were available in the same yellowy green / greeny yellow, 'vert acide'/ 'jaune rallye' (bitter green on Chrysler Uk cars)as my 1000 Rallye 2 (see avatar). That could be a choice...?

I've got much more of the 'weldathon' to go before I have to think of the finishing paint job. I'll avoid going the way I did on my Mother's Herald convertible back in the 80's, which had the same rusting properties as the SIMCAs... I painted that in a sort of rust brown, for obvious reasons.