Citrogarage

[Wingnut65]

And he even rebuilds bikes! Wow, Luca, your talents are amazing and your finished projects are outstanding. And I am learning about Italian history along the way. And nice color for the paint. The Citrogarage really looks great.

And congrats to you all on your growing family. Nina is beautiful!

 

[lucajack2cv]

Tanks everybody, in facts I'll need two small motorcycles.. one for André and one for Nina! For me and Rosanna some old 50 cc. engines are waiting aslept. One is a totally unexpected gift from two generous aunts, evidently affected from love I show for the objects of the past.. I have entrusted the care and custody of a historical family heritage..

It is a Bianchi "Aquilotto" (means Eaglet) a popular motorcycle obtained by equipping a sort of beker-bike with a small engine with a roller transmission on the rear wheel. And a beautiful bike suspension fork reminding the '10s-'20s motorbikes!

It belonged to my great-aunt, bought in the early fifties for its movement from the countryside to the city and that unfortunately there was also an accident: a quite serious unfortunate event but luckly not fatal to her or to the motor, circulating occasionally until the eighties.

Not much time has passed since I've started to work. Inflating tires, cleaning tank pipes and carburetor, check the electrical system.. and finally with the intervention of two friend of mine..

This engine is full of familiar memories and is in absolute the first motor vehicle ever owned by a female person in the history of the family: my mom has always been very affectionate with her two cousins ​​and her aunt: a sort of third daughter often involved in small "post-war" trips that the dynamic woman (Aquilottized in 51-52) was able to arrange for the family and that consisted of cycling outings (or bus outings) at any resort in the area, such as the Lake Maggiore, the sanctuary of Oropa ..


.. Christmas 2011 was the first exit of "Aquilotto" in the twenty-first century: to spare it a traumatic experience I opted for a not far destination (500 meters ..) and the most "fifties" and "democristian" possible event: Christmas lunch of the village-community !! The event take place in an ex-former college seminary next to the old catholic sanctuary, here "Aquilotto" is parked at the entrance to the sanctuary dining hall, next to the equally historic school-garbage-collector..

Here are pictures of the memorable "d'antàn" event which document the kitchen staff:

and here the dining room, including diners whose average significantly surpasses the "aquilotto" age!

 

[pals444]

Luca, You seem to live the good life.

This thread makes my heartbeat slow down, shoulders relax, and the mind wanders off. The atmosphere in Your photos is incredible. Each picture is an adventure, and the stories confirm it.

Thank You for sharing this with us!

 

[madmagnus]

I feel the same, hopefully i'm going on a motorcycle roadtrip through Italy some year not to far away, i would realy love to se the beautiful Italy countryside ( only been in Venice ) please keep posting your interesting stories and pictures.

Best / Magnus from Sweden

 

[marty_p]

Luca, You seem to live the good life.

This thread makes my heartbeat slow down, shoulders relax, and the mind wanders off. The atmosphere in Your photos is incredible. Each picture is an adventure, and the stories confirm it.

Thank You for sharing this with us!

Luca:

I quote and I second that sentiment; I have always enjoyed this thread.

Thank you for sharing your journey with us here at TGJ!

Salute!

-Marty

 

[bsaint]

Ciao Luca!

Come stai? Sei vicino a Torino? Io lavoro per "PRIMA Power" a Collegno. Io lavoro per la divisione americana.

 

[andyaus]

What a truly Amazing journey, I love your home. Thankyou for sharing.

 

[fatboy99]

You are truly the richest man in the world Luca. Thank you for sharing your wealth with us.

 

[gotfromfrance]

I just discovered this garage and this man.
too cool to be true
congrats man
love the spirit of this thread

 

[Gixerfixer]

What a terrific workshop/garage some nice toys too keep up the good work

 

[Mischief King]

Beautiful!

 

[MN4x4]

Please, Please, PLEASE keep sharing?! I so enjoy your pictures and your stories.

I am fairly aggressive when I go after a project, but I certainly have nothing on you! I think your postings help me understand a little of how passionate Italians can be.

And finally about that big dinner picture - can I be adopted? Just for one meal?

 

[anthony73]

Great to read your story and watch the restoration of your home and shop and growth of your family! Please keep updating the story. I may take a vacation to Tuscany next summer to visit family and I will try and come by and visit,if thats ok?

 

[Jacko]

I rarely post - generally only look and drool at everyone's great efforts but I gotta say this is without doubt the most wonderful thread in any forums I've frequented over the years. Thanks for posting, this thread has made my week!

 

[Dennis Cavallino]

This thread hit the front page. Congrats to u Luca!

Ciao!

 

[lucajack2cv]

Thanks everybody and special thanks to admin Ryan for this touching evidence for Citrogarage, he really encourage me to keep on sharing..
http://www.garagejournal.com/
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=163111

Hallo Bsaint, yes Citroanch it's about 60km south of Torino, if you travel by train in direction Cuneo or Savona.. you can't miss it!

 

[lucajack2cv]

In order to complete the 50cc. motorcycle dotation of Citrogarage, here's our Velosolex, a french kind of "Aquilotto" with a front-wheel roller transmission. I had it from my friend Bruno (I wrote somewhere about his Garage Descevò in Modena) and it reached Citrogarage in 2009 having fresh air on the top of our 2CV furgonette..

It's a 1966 model called 3800.. according to Advertising it walks uphill too!

Velosolex generally likes french actresses but not only..

Citroen fans and Velosolex fans has something to share.. probably francophilie and front-wheel drive lifestile. Here's the italaian Velosolex website http://www.solexmania.it/ and here's one italian great Velomaniac, Commander "Ferdinando" her pictured in a vintage picture-story commandins a platoon of solexists at Vallelunga autodrome during ICCCR 2008 near Rome..

Meanwhile, our old Solex spends the days waiting and resting in the attic, in the company of other cycles in disarmament, talking of epic climbs, unfortunate punctures and fall over..

 

[lucajack2cv]

Third and last 50cc. motor-bike is an old Ducati I saved from distruction many years ago, actually nothing more than a picturesque garden-ruin..

 

[lucajack2cv]

This thread can't miss the complete chapter of 2010 Citrogarage windows restoration:

An initial stock of old windows had already been restored, painted in Vert Tillieul colour, equipped with the necessary hardware and sent to the glazier, where they will receive -when possible- a contemporary double-glazed low-emissive windowglass. 12 mm (K=1,6) * and partly laminated glass (6 mm) or in the case of the oldest windows a single glass thin (2-3 mm), both around K = 5 (but the stratified at least reduces a little the railway noise..)

Here are the tree windows coming from Sixties, ready to recieve the double glass: their destination will be the two bathrooms and the attic sleeping room..

This one (mixed oak-larch) is instead an original '20 window, and refers to a room on the ground floor..

The first installment takes the path of the glazier, with a practical transport vehicle..

The frames adopted we receive from various eras. I learned that the oldest, from the beginning until the end of the eighteenth century, in this area were made of wood such as poplar or read similar in the case of interior doors in walnut or oak for windows.

In both cases were paintd with mysterious paints based on fatty substances that we receive battered and multi-layered, to remove.. In one case there was also a layer of paper handwritten, type pasted wallpaper glued on the wood..

And if a window has been in place for decades without glasses, parts are not completely deteriorated (in this case can be replaced by removing the pegs that hold the joints can be disassembled and reassembled incredibly well centuries later), you can use body-repair techniques (such as fiberglass..) and then grouted.

Over the past two centuries, I suppose the improved railway network permitting the use in plain some mountain-woods: larch and pine prevailed for exterior doors. Especially in the case of frames, larch or spruce ensured a greater resistance to moisture present in ground-floor walls.

In some cases I have made every effort to save and finish with walnut glaze the oldest windows. Even the original handmade hardware is specific and wonderful ..

In other cases them were patched so that it was better to paint them, as this walnut french door. We can see the signs of the oldest metal hinges and note the larch frame:

Same painting for this eighteenth window, also walnut ..

.. with beautiful pre-industrial hinges, now screwed:

Et voilà!

Painted the whole thing:

* Coefficient K: coefficient of overall heat transmission indicating the amount of heat that is transmitted from one room to another through the glass. Kw=K espresso in Watt K cal=K espresso in chilocalorie. Kw = K expressed in watts cal K = K in kilocalories. The heat transfer coefficient of the wall is determined by the amount of heat per unit of time, expressed in watts, transmitted through a square meter of surface for each degree of difference between inside and outside.

 

[lucajack2cv]

During windows works, I modified the workshop metal door: 1x2 meters, fairly robust as was in the past had to stand up to the horns of bulls. Sad, grey and dark.. one day I thought of remodeling and on impulse I removed the blind panel on top that you see in the foreground.

Serving me of some T shaped iron bars 3x3cm and of an angle grinder I ventured in the construction of a metal structure fitted for glasses. It 'pretty simple, and if you are fairly precise cuts in the plot is very strong and does not need almost any welding, except to secure it to the frame:

The door closes only internally with a sort of heavy latch prison. Most of the time it happens pear to have to open and close from the outside so I took the opportunity to practice editing, just raw and hard, not suffer neither rust nor frost:

The color chosen for the finish is always from the seventies stock nitrocellulose Astral-paris. While the Peugeot Vert Tillieul is reserved for windows of a house, is for the workshop, the choice fell on the Renault Vert Celeadon similar but more dynamic and sporty..

We just have to fit the glazing. Since the glass-cut is an operation that even the most stubborn do-it-yourself-man leave to glass-maker, and having some scraps of plexiglass, I opted for the latter, which is easily cut with a jigsaw (the heat melts a bit 'and be passed back to the bench grinder). With the common silicon can be fixed in position but it's too ugly for the final sealing..

I will use old specific mastic with specific spoon-tool..

But the putty is not easy to apply without the advice of the master glassmaker... Fortunately, in town we have a special one available.. another of those monuments to human craftsmanship it deserves a special chapter, one of those that when you enter his cave-lab (unchanged since the fifties) and immediately understand to be in the right place: wherever scraps of wood and cardboard (the scraps of glass luckily in a secure barrel), alongside his half of "nez "delivery (a 1976 Fiat 238 model..) the dusty 1961 wheeler Lambro at rest ...

His instructions in the use of mastic and spoon are clear and preceded by a preamble that the material is no longer what it once was (it "has become toxic", containing lead..) but, wanting to use, putty must be hand-warmed well, spread in rolls or fingerprints, and then cut the excess with spatula tool-specific: the handle of a spoon.

Ahem .. in practice the putty is too damn mushy and sticky, probably because of the summer temperatures!

in one way or another you get to the end and that's an acceptable image of the final effect:

 

[lucajack2cv]

The back door of the house, while fascinating as the rest of the historic building in which I reside, complaint always been two serious limitations: poor thermal insulation (it is an interior door, very thin and already suffers from exposure to the north) and low resistance the break-ins (with a kick to go through)..

A simple walk for Huns and Visigoths! It was decided to remedy this situation with the adoption of a new double door (even the existing frame was not salvageable, consumed by rising) and an external grate to be closed as dark falls, after the bell rings...

Let's start with the grate. Fortunately kept for years, dragging from garage to garage, a sturdy gate a dear friend gave me: He has a construction company and made me this gift having found it during the renovation of the old prison in the city of Alba:

.. I went up to the object for a quick review: the bars was fixed a plank, planking was nailed to the practical inspection door / hatch that has certainly a specific name in prison-slang but luckily I don't know..

The main bolt is respectable ..

I went up there with a shiver, to be honest: this is the first opportunity I have to handle an object that is not designed "to serve" but "against" the man. Does something to think about is how to hold a firearm or stabbing or an instrument of torture. How many human beings have suffered isolation, beatings, deprivation, disease behind these bars? Tens? Thousends? People accused of heresy, witchcraft and the most abhorrent crimes with the fury and the arbitrariness characteristic of the Dark Middle-Age, for out of it to make the few steps leading to the gallows...

...In the nineteenth century republican conspirators, bombers regicides covered of chains .. anarchists, thieves, troublemakers of every social kind.. Or just poor mentally ill or died-of-hunger without culture, without family and without piling ..

...In the twentieth century dissidents persecuted by the fascist dictatorship, partisans of the liberation war imprisoned and tortured by the occupier after being captured in the hills of the Langhe.. In the town of Alba italian partisans drove away the Nazi-Fascists for 23 days in October 1944, some of these knew eventually the town prison, then anti-fascists come behind this grate again until 25 april 1945..

Reflecting about it's history and observing the sad grate, I realized that because of its function it can be opened only from the outside ... so need to be converted or the lock or hinges to make it useful to my goal. The lock is rather complex, sure it would be difficult to fabricate a key able to operate it so is not question to modify it in any way. I decided to concentrate just on its hinges.

 

[lucajack2cv]

My heart bleeds to do it but I must cut these parts that seem growths forged, that I will stitch it on the opposite side giving you a nice frosted welding because they do not appear just like a punch in the eye:

The counterpart of the pivotal, at time brutally cut with a blowtorch, is welded to a huge rod twisted ..

.. For it we prepare a huge cavity ..

.. for a massive masonry ...

Same punishment for the hinge above, here completed with the reconstruction of the wall texture surface:

Small digression: in fact this gate came from some hallway or closet of the penitentiary and guaranteed standards of safety lower than that of the cell doors themselves. I have no photos but I can describe them perfectly to the saw as: size 2.00 meters tall by 1.00 in width, as is this, consist of three layers of boards that intersect (to a thickness of about 10 cm) joined by nailing a square mesh, say 15x15, plus three (3) horizontal metal beams that all end in a hinge as big as the fist of a great man. These beams where fixed to the planks of the door with three loops nails each, clinched hot on both sides. The three hinges of each door, two were facing up to support the door while the central one was turned down because it was impossible, even in the open position, remove it from the wall. Completed the door the inspection hatch as well as a lock applied on the outer side entirely similar to this, of about 3 cm in diameter which penetrate the wall for 15/20cm.

At this iron gate is instead simply applied a board with jumpers clinched metal, I decided to dismantle temporarily to clean up the iron from multiple layers of enamel that damn gray rubbery "igenical" that covers any wall, iron or wood you find in old public italian buildings such as barracks, schools, hospitals, gyms, public toilets and just prisons..

To remove it you first need to set it on fire and then scraping and consume a dozen brushes..

Finally here is the "cage" ready. Even the battered wooden beam has been removed to be replaced with one in oak recovery, placed so that when closed the door can not be removed:

 

[lucajack2cv]

As mentioned above, an intervention part is the wooden door. I have no images at the beginning of what I have chosen to replace the old kitchen door, it is another old door in walnut with two panels. Excluding some preliminary steps not documented, that the door during polishing, strengthening of joints and construction of the new frame:

The hinges, placed for convenience with Phillips screws then replaced by the more aesthetic cut-screws:

And various trials of antique locks: key and nothing else, and latch-key, and then choose a simple handle "knob and lever" in use in houses since the Middle Ages and even earlier. I had in my disposal almost all the necessary elements, I had to build only the vertical sleeper that limits the travel of the "lever"..

Here the handle installed. Conclude the discussion images of the door mail operates with "cage" in position. When I'll have reinstalled the boards on the grill the interior lock will result inaccessible to the besieging ("Stop! Who goes there? Password!") and I might as well give up on the run lock. In the penultimate photo you can see the stone step in place of the concrete block above while still missing the beautiful squaring plastered to mask the hole in the wall and make a stop at the grate.

... And the last one close the door!

SLAM!!!

 

[lucajack2cv]

It was now the middle of winter and three windows were still missing the call, fortunately all concentrated in an unused room.

The reserve was exhausted windows be restored, at least for the format you need (80x120 cm) when suddenly stroke of luck: a series of windows will be replaced in an old school and I obliged the masons to deliver me the last two frames of the series, already loaded on the truck along with the rubble and leaving for the landfill.

The chassis had been partially destroyed but the doors (4 per window!) Are still intact. Under the innumerable coats of rubbery enamel is a very hard wood (larch? Douglas? Pitch Pine?) That has endured for over a hundred years to the elements. That school is in fact known the date of construction: 1877, enlarged in 1909.

The height of the doors is perfect, the width, however, is excessive. Must be removed and reduceded (for a real carpenter than a bit 'boring but not hard) but I do not know where to start. Whwn begun, the series of operations is suggested by itself: Just remember to always think before sawing at random the various elements, and slowly proceed:

And here is the first reduction effected:

 

[lucajack2cv]

The removal of the damned "ministerial" rubbery enamel and sanding operations are long and boring..

Then finally the hardware touch:

The three windows are basted and frames assembled, so ready to be walled up on the spot.

The definitive sanding follows while the final painting will be done on site, with the windows already installed.

One of the walled frames with his windowsill, obtained by gluing three beads larch here still to be filled:

.. and the three windows finally in place:

 

[lucajack2cv]

A further improvement is provided by a railing along the corridor overlooking the staircase. Having two iron railings and cast iron (arising from the demolition of an old hotel in town) and only one external balcony to fit it (in the future ..) I decided to sacrifice one of the two for internal staircase railing:

At the front part with the two angular frameworks have been added, by welding in line the flattened wires in iron, two clips suitably derived from lateral flaps.These remaining stumps that could one day serve as a parapet for a french door-balcony ..

You notice the cast iron elements (they are coupled columns-one would turn-centered in the upper and lower strips) that mimic the work of wrought iron: the transversal cuts mimic a spiral process, the various curls simulate the blades are fastened with pins clinched fake .

And here it is walled and cemented into place:

Below on the left is a bar handrail obtained with a simple iron pipe (five meters) polished and welded the rods curved set in the wall with the resin component. At the top, two pieces of threaded rod was screwed an old brass knob:

 

[GGB]

Luca,

Grazie for taking time to share your restoration and renovation stories with all of us. I'm enjoying following your journey. Very nice work!

GGB

 

[bidouchon]

wow!!
Citroen fan and now you tell us that you are velosolex fan, do you have some french DNA ?

it seems that the building license is curently in the eastern Europe, and velosolex is still builded.

 

[autobon7]

Totally cool. Thanks for sharing and keep it coming.

 

[lucajack2cv]

It seemes to fit the belle epoque railing a couple of brass plate appliques in a little Titanic-style and other little brass parts..

Come at this point it was time to empty the bottom of the treasure box and place in the main room two lanterns that I preserved for decades: it is no less than two lamps in green bronze coming from the times of gas-lighting (note the connection to the "floral" pipe gaz robinet) then converted to electricity system..

I think is not necessary to explain.. Here's the final effect:

 

[lucajack2cv]

While the automobile restorations continue to languish, citrohome is enriched with the pavement restoration on the ground floor.

Between the building materials recovered in the back yard cluttering the yard I take out this old flooring hexagonal "cementine" (coloured concrete flooring elements diffused between XIX and ** century instade of bricks) and, on the day of the celebration for the 150th anniversary of italian national unity, I tried to restore the original "tricolor" decoration (red white and black) that graced the big room from which they were removed:

Actually, tree-colour decoration is not so visible because of '"modernization" that paving suffered in the seventies of the last century, with the adhesion of a layer of carpet

Fortunately, a few years of exposure to the elements (sun, water and ice) have pulverized the glue used and passed with the pressure washer is able to eliminate 90% of the tracks and to bring out the old decorative splendor ..

Ahhh..

 

[lucajack2cv]

It was not so easy to go back to the original design, not unique, given the multiple possible arrangements of hexagonal elements. The correct interpretation key was finally an original economic reason: having to manufacture and sell cement tiles, which will be the cheaper color to produce?

Bravo light gray! Most of the elements will be therefore of this hue. Immediately after the dark gray and finally, as little as possible, the red pigment that was certainly the most expensive.

It was thus reconstructed the entire floor, then reporting on autocad tiles and size of the floor (a small bedroom, a bathroom and a hallway) here is a handy map printed:

In addition to scraping the bottom, (six..) sides for every element are to be cleaned thoroughly by the remains of stucco (then simple cement grout) because these tiles were originally laid very ravvvicinate without the large joint used in the last decades of ** century. Operation also long and dusty but finally here is the first historical poses..

Fortunately, the man who has put down the elements is not me but my trustworthy builder.. he of infinite manual skills. As well as one who works as a thousand, I can just document the work done and filled:

But I managed to find the time to complete something left over. Do you remember the old gate of the prison? The one on the back of the kitchen? Non I am not referring to a common past guests of the State, but the former leads to the cell that I adapted to domestic backdoor few pages further upstream...

... I finally had to rebuild the wooden partition makes it unassailable outside piazzandoci an oak planks:

.. as well as the practical peephole:

 

[lucajack2cv]

Back to enligthment: "minor" light-points are solved with simple ceramic lampholders:

The wooden bases on which are screwed are made by cropping with a hole saw a strip of oak 1 inch thick. To finish them sideways I fixed with a bolt to the spindle of the drill press and sanded in rotation. Good results with no effort and consequent serial production...

The bathroom light, fixed by two screws on the wall:

What you see is a cabinet under construction (masonry gas-concrete and cedar wood). The carving round is for the semi-recessed basin, the framework for a practical drawer:

 

[-Brent-]

Beautiful.

 

[lucajack2cv]

Allow me a digression on the town-gas. This water/gas meter found in my town and manufactured in Turin in 1908, although it seems a dresser clock was probably used for delivering town-gas, since no traces of limestone, ubiquitous in the water pipes in the area. Inoltre In addition, the counters of drinking water (municipal aqueduct was put into operation in 1880, provided that the water was so recognized from the beginning ..) that I happened to find during the renovation of old buildings are all very smaller and attached to the network with an adaptation of simple lead pipes not screwd as those that are on the top of this counter:

These two stoves were used in an old bar-restaurant in the center.. I could take advantage of it's technology to power a future gazogen car.. I could even do it with twin carburettors!

In this case there are the remains of the pre-electric lighting of that restaurant and bar, partly in the oil and gas, I think, unless this was not actually a carbide lamp or something else..

But the most strange and interesting piece is perhaps this floral bronze arm made for fitting on a pipe: the leaves at the bottom is a tap and flame blooms from the bud at the top, while the additional growth judging by the thread probably welcomed by an electric bulb holder, whose wires sticking out of a hole, really special..

En passant, who can tell me something about the mysterious case USQM Corps?

Who is behind this acronym?

Why dispatched in Italy canned beef from one of the city-slaughter of the old west in 1918?

It was a matter of supply for the support of the allied troops in Italy in the final stages of WW I?

Maybe humanitarian aid during the Spanish flu that became even more victims of the war?

Mah!

 

[smschriefer]

USQM Corps is the United States Quartermaster Corp. They were responsible for supply and distribution of goods to the troops.

Excellent job on all of your work and I do enjoy rereading your posts to refresh myself on all you have done and continue to do!

 

[Sunbimmer]

I'm not into antique stuff but this I must say is stunning

 

[bidouchon]

what about this DS? is it a 23 ? will you restore it in the future ?

 

[Okie Pete]

WOW . You are doing a great job . You are keeping history alive .

 

[same_me]

I have looked over this entire thread and I'm truly amazed. the way you have repurposed things is amazing. I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed looking at all the pics and will continue to keep up with it. Thanks for sharing....