The transformation from a duck to a swan 

The Citroen H van is a panel van/ light truck, and used by the French automaker Citroen between 1947 and 1981. It was developed as a simple front wheel drive van after World War II. A total of 473,289 what produced in 35 years in factories in France and Belgium. Citroen teams worked on eight projects and only the last one was developed giving its name H. Most H vans are sold as model HY, other models include H(early versions), HX (lesser load capacity), HP (flat bed pick up)

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When we collected her On 29th September 2018, it took us eight hours to drive from Cheshire all the way home to Devon.  so we decided we needed to sort the engine issue out as we wanted to keep her running and not put her on a trailer like a lot of H vans out there today.

​The wonderful guys at GRANTS OF WELLINGTON  found and put in Passat  1.8 L engine and gearbox with power steering , which is an absolute blessing as she never had power steering before and it makes life so much easier. We’ve also gone from a 3 speed gearbox to a five speed and we can now get speeds of over 70mph  Not that we drive over 50mph because anything over 50 it’s a very scary ride and also very noisy as the engine is inside the cab with you , it took a lot of blood sweat and tears, late nights and cross wives. to get this engine to fit but these guys were amazing and can’t thank them enough

​We also though that the original grey colour was very dull. And she deserves a wonderful new paint job of cream and burgundy which was done by DB BODIES  of Hemyock. they did comment that the corrugated bodywork was something they’ve never done before and  no wish to try again but they enjoyed something a little different than just car doors and bonnets

We had a nonslip burgundy floor sprayed on the inside which makes it easy to clean this was done by A&M COATINGS of Cullompton 
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This sort of flooring is used mainly for pick up trucks so it’s hard wearing and easy to clean so that makes life a little easier.

Many evenings were  also spent rewiring all the electrics and plumbing because the power and water  just wasn’t there for what we needed. this was done by a very good friend Dan.. And as he is a qualified electrician I have complete faith that everything was going to work to the high standards it was all put in.

Here we are today a fully working family bubble waffle van. We like to think we are something very special And unique. Our Journey which you’ve just read, is what makes Margaux a very special van and is very close to our hearts.  
Again I would like to thank every single person who has and still are involved in getting us here today. 

Especially my husband who has patience of a saint for letting me run with this idea. And doesn’t roll his eyes too much when I say could we do this thing here instead ...