The Safrane.Info Forum!

My local scrapyard has had a safrane ph2 2.5 sat there for years that nobody has been allowed to break because it belonged to the owners late father. He was very sentimental about the car but then decided yesterday after an SOS call for wheel arches that I could set to work on it. I got there and found out why... someone had beaten me to it!

Anyway looking inside it was in a bad way - green mould everywhere, the roof liner was useless, the lights were mouldy, the seats were going, the carpets were horrendous and you get the idea. It also didn't smell great. I nearly walked away thinking it was a lost cause and to be frank, much of it is beyond rescue.

So.. the wheel arches were out as the car is wedged in plus one is broken. That was my primary reason for the visit (although just in case, I'd managed to epoxy resin mine back into usable order).

the only other thing I could think of was the centre heater outlet. There are two types - one with two click positions (which I have - and they break) and one with a smooth action which is rarer than rocking horse teeth in a playground full of children in chernobyl. To my utter amazement despite being a lower end model, it had the one smooth action piece and the best bit is the yards owner (having known me and my safrane habits for years) said i could have it for just a tenner! So I set to work on getting it out, it was a bit fiddly but i got there:




I noticed it still had the drivers side wiper arm and I suspect most of you know how rare they are and how they can snap when removing them - making them all the more sought after. I had to try and grab this and luckily managed to do so without breaking it:




I've saved the best until last: While faffing about inside removing the heater outlet I accidentally looked up at the roof panel switches and found the holy grail of safrane rarities: A reading light that still has a completely black rubber part around it. We've had three safranes and all of them had a perished one that had white marks all over it where the rubber was breaking down. I've also never seen a good one in any ebay cars or other peoples safranes that I've seen / been in. I have no idea how this kept in pristine condition for so many years in a mouldy car but I was absolutely thrilled because I had completely and irrevocably given up on the idea of ever seeing a good one of these.



















You may recall that I agreed a £10 price for the heater part. As sods law would have it I realised I only had £13.50 on me but if i left those rare parts there I was going to loose them. So I went and found the owner of the yard and being a totally great guy and true gent, he let me have the lot for the £13.50 = an absolute bargain

My luck has finally come round!

Saffles

Very nice finds and have to agree they are rare bits to find in that condition and actually working as they should,the dash vent is a pain to remove and is often broken,wiper arms break or seize solid on the spindles and the roof lights turn white when the rubber perishes,nice finds,would make sure theres nothing else worth having from that car,maybe try and get some pics of it.

I wonder if it really was necessary to make a separate version of the air vent for RHD market.
My LHD ph2 has a smooth action one with the slider on the left side.

btw. it took me a few weeks to find out that the vents tilt downwards too :)

No idea but the version with two clicks is very weak and doesn't last long. I suspect quite a lot of money went through their parts departments for that... along with fitting costs for those who had no idea.