GreenBlood’s D(very)Special Rejuvenation 2009>

Geez, Chris, excellent work. Here I am baulking at doing another cam belt change on my 405.

Definitely sold that book to the right person! :wink2:

Cheers

Stuey

Stuey said:

Geez, Chris, excellent work. Here I am baulking at doing another cam belt change on my 405.

Definitely sold that book to the right person! :wink2:

Cheers

Stuey

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Appreciate the feedback Stuey - It's good to see you back online, hope all is well for you :wink2:

The book is well thumbed, but is well cared for and takes pride of place in my collection, it's been an invaluable resource. :wink2:

Cheers
Chris

Enjoying reading your progress Chris, you've done what I want to do but don't as it will turn into an epic, that is start tearing my D apart! I'm bogging rear panels at present on bear metal, after dropping the height over a curb on one side and rrversing a trailer into the other... boring activity, one thing I'm curious about is did DSpecials have boot lining? Mine doesn't and there's no evidence of any having been there.
Yep love what you're doing to that car!
Cheers Steven

It's a mongrel!!! ...but I love it :>)

forumnoreason said:

Enjoying reading your progress Chris, you've done what I want to do but don't as it will turn into an epic, that is start tearing my D apart! I'm bogging rear panels at present on bear metal, after dropping the height over a curb on one side and rrversing a trailer into the other... boring activity, one thing I'm curious about is did DSpecials have boot lining? Mine doesn't and there's no evidence of any having been there.
Yep love what you're doing to that car!
Cheers Steven

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Hi Steven,

Thanks for your kind comments...

As far as I know you would be correct, D Specials missed out on many of the 'goodies' that the more up specced models enjoyed, so I agree, I don't believe they were fitted with the boot lining.

My car has undergone some serious changes from when it was new, the previous owner fitted the 23 motor and 5 speed gearbox, along with airconditioning sunroof and upholstery.

The boot lining goes a long way in helping with sound insulation in a D (I've owned several Pallas DSs in my time) and IMO looks more finished than the original bare painted look. Practical and aesthetic :wink2:

The reason I refer to the work I am undertaking as 'rejuvination' and not 'restoration' is the car is now too far removed from original. As much as is possible I try to keep the car as close to as Citroen intended but let's face it, it is a mongrel, a mix of various specifications.

For all intents and purposes I'm aiming for the exterior to be as close to a D Special as any other, lifting the bonnet should all look like the more up specced models with the crossflow radiator and aircon compressor being the immediate givaway, but again close to original for those models. The interior again I would like to be a close match to the D Special, mine has carpet and of course the non original fabric on seats and door trims - for now I have no intention of changing as these are still very serviceable.

I guess what I am saying is I have taken a few liberties in the name of practical, reliability and to some extent aesthtic, as did the previous owner :wink2:

Good luck with your repairs, if you are anything like me you won't stop there - once those shiny panels go back on the car you'll look at the rear doors and then..... it's a never ending story

Cheers
Chris

GreenBlood said:

Appreciate the feedback Stuey - It's good to see you back online, hope all is well for you :wink2:Cheers
Chris

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Thanks Chris; all is well at the mo.

Really enjoying reading this thread - it's helping me a lot in getting my head around things I need to do also, and your photos are great & very helpful in the befores & afters.

Can I ask what the lining to a DS Pallas boot lid should be? My 74 Pallas doesn't have any lining & doesn't look like it had any ever. I don't have a lot to go on, as one of the previous owners (a few back) for whatever reason removed all of the headlining & siliconed in some crappy felt all over the place. it is hideous & is making it difficult for me to gauge where things should be, and how things should look.

As soon as I can get some pix up on flickr I'll start a resto thread also.

Any comments on the boot lining would be very helpful for a novice restorer

ali_w said:

Really enjoying reading this thread - it's helping me a lot in getting my head around things I need to do also, and your photos are great & very helpful in the befores & afters.

Can I ask what the lining to a DS Pallas boot lid should be? My 74 Pallas doesn't have any lining & doesn't look like it had any ever. I don't have a lot to go on, as one of the previous owners (a few back) for whatever reason removed all of the headlining & siliconed in some crappy felt all over the place. it is hideous & is making it difficult for me to gauge where things should be, and how things should look.

As soon as I can get some pix up on flickr I'll start a resto thread also.

Any comments on the boot lining would be very helpful for a novice restorer

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Hi Ali, I'm glad that there is some benefit (in this thread) to others going down this path... we see so many excellent restorations these days but sadly very little is documented.

With regard to the boot lid, there is no lining on any of the various specifications. Just the large foam seal that runs around the inner edge. So, it remains painted in the body colour.

The interior roof and trim lining on your '74 pallas should be a light grey velour - most auto upholsterers will carry a good match to the original fabric used by Citroen.

A very good reference source is "Original Citroen DS' by John Reynolds - keep an eye on ebay, it can be expensive but occasionally a bargain comes up.

Also this site >>> http://www.citromuseum.com/index.php?id=160&L=1 <<<
It shows a 1973 DS23 Pallas in all but original factory condition.

Look forward to your restoration thread, you know you can upload your images directly to Aussiefrogs via 'Manage Attachments'?

Cheers
Chris

It appears I am a novice at more than citroen restoration! Thanks for the prompt Chris! I'll try and start something up here tonight.

I bought a headlining set from Citroworld (arrived today) so that's going in the "slightly more important things to do at the moment, but soon..." pile of bits & bobs. not sure if I can do this myself yet, and the entire outside needs respraying first.... anyway you'll get the scope shortly of what i'm working with

ali_w said:

It appears I am a novice at more than citroen restoration! Thanks for the prompt Chris! I'll try and start something up here tonight.

I bought a headlining set from Citroworld (arrived today) so that's going in the "slightly more important things to do at the moment, but soon..." pile of bits & bobs. not sure if I can do this myself yet, and the entire outside needs respraying first.... anyway you'll get the scope shortly of what i'm working with

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Ali, if I knew then what I know now :roflmao: :roflmao:

I certainly would have taken a different approach to my car, the mantra is that the only thing that will kill a D is rust, rust and rust, has now been drummed into me. The mechanicals are robust and for the most part bullet proof.

Michaelr's approach was far more sensible...
[ >>> http://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85118 <<< ]
Remove all panels including roof, front and rear glass, and attend to the rust, replace with metal and cure the source of any water ingress i.e. the roof seal a major contributor/ Windscreen frame/ Door seals etc.

Making your car pretty is very secondary IMO, you need to remove the outer C pillar trim and the inner roof and C pillar trims and determine that water has not started the rot before you think of fitting a new head lining... :wink2:

Anyhow, start a thread and you will have a wealth of advice and support, you might surprise yourself as to just what you are capable of.

Cheers
Chris

first thing would be to work out HOW to remove the linings.... as i say, i think they are either siliconed on, or with a hot glue gun, it's a bit hard to tell

30th October 2011

This was a bit of new ground for me, and something I hadn't foreseen...

This is my left hand passenger door, until a few weeks ago it was the only panel left on the car. I removed it to start my panel preparation and was horrified to find just how rusty it was, on removing the inner door trim I found a rag about the size of a T-shirt sitting in the bottom (I can only think that has been there since the car was last painted or re-trimmed) net result is the door is all but useless

The door didn't look too bad from the outside, a quick repair to the lower skin and ready for paint - not to be :nownow:











My options were to find a better door, or fix this one. Good secondhand doors are in short supply and expensive and not always as good as they may appear.

I opted to have a go at repairing, I bought in repair panels from Citrowold - Lower inside and outer skins.

I drilled out the spot welds that hold the lower rubber seal panel and made an exploratory cut to see just how bad the bottom was.



Pretty bad, so cut as much of the inside bottom out so as to remove all rusty metal.





I have then welded in the repair panel, firstly half a dozen plug weld along the top edge, then stitched at around 10mm intervals. Then again at around 5mm intervals, I did further work on this stage but it shows the process. I'm just not capable of laying a good bead of weld so stitching was a safer approach.



For now I have just laid in some seam sealer, once I get into final preparation I'll use a little filler before priming for paint.



...and the rubber seal panel ready to plug weld.



Once the frame was solid, I cut away the lower outer skin, and at this stage have fitted but not fixed. The panel is joddled to fit under the existing skin, the plan is to use panel adhesive, drill and use self tappers to hold whilst the adhesive sets, then remove the screws and plug weld the holes. Hoping to minimise any heat and distortion.





I'm very happy with the fit of the repair panels, and so far at a total cost of around $150.00 it has certainly been worth the experience. Once the sides have been folded and a few spot welds the door should be good to work on. The outer skin will of course be filled at the join, but once finished there will be no rust to speak of - I'll paint the inside of the lower panel before doing the final fit of the outer skin.

Cheers
Chris

Very bloody impressive! :headbang::headbang::headbang:

Nicely done Chris! Looks like it went together well. Nice small welds and as little heat as possible eh?

You are a brave man doing it with the window glass still in position though

absolutely brilliant. How did the fit of the patch panels work out?

seeya,
Shane L.

UFO said:

Very bloody impressive! :headbang::headbang::headbang:

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Thanks Craig, I really need and appreciate the feedback, this is now such a long and drawn out process it sometimes becomes daunting. There is no way I could or would have attempted some of the processes without the encouragemnt of members here.

michaelr said:

Nicely done Chris! Looks like it went together well. Nice small welds and as little heat as possible eh?

You are a brave man doing it with the window glass still in position though

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My welding skills are really poor, I hadn't touched a welder of any kind before this project, so I work within my skill level - slow and steady.

Yeah, I really should remove the glass, I'll no doubt do that on all doors once I get into the real paint preparation.

DoubleChevron said:

absolutely brilliant. How did the fit of the patch panels work out?

seeya,
Shane L.

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Shane, I'm really impressed with the quality of the repair panels. I took off about 5mm from the inner panel to butt fit it to my cuts (lapped it at the top by about 10mm. If I had used the two end pieces supplied it would have been pretty spot on for length.

The outer skin is just sitting in place at the moment, but it too is just about a perfect fit. Once the folds are crimped and the skin is joined I can't see there being too much work to finish to a reasonably high standard.

I hate rust, it's so good to know the bottom is now solid, I'll reinforce the left and right joins to the inner panel from the inside before the final fitting of the outer skin.

Cheers
Chris

Wow it's truely amazing!! I feel like giving it a go myself on my EFI, impossible to get rust free panels so I will have to do patch repairs, may aswell try it myself.

The patch panels are very well made, I got some of those panels for a friend and it fitted without much difficulty

Cheers
Corne

I've just re-read this thread and I don't know what else to add apart from saying what I first thought, it looks fantastic Chris!

This D very Special certainly has a good home.
I can not wait to see this at future CCCQ events.

Wow - that is a really neat job.

That welding is quite impressive.

As usual Chris - seeing your work progress is inspiring us all to get moving with our own cars..

keep up the posts and the photos.

regards

Ramon

Back to Black

...my last post was dated 30th. October 2011

The weather in Brisbane has just been too hot/ humid/ and at times the rain looked like it would never stop. I decided I'd have to wait before continuing with the body work, no point in stripping paint only to have rust forming the following day.

The good news is that Brissi is turning on fabulous weather at the moment and should stay like this for a good while. I spent the last few months collecting bits and pieces, the wait whilst frustrating has yielded some gems many NOS parts that I can't wait to fit.

I took advantage of Richo's upgrade to lovely Tabac leather for his Safari and bought his Black vinyl trim, of course his back seat was of no use to me and I had to buy back seat trim new from Citron Pieces.

I removed all the seats, painted the seat bases and gave them a good grease up, they appear to have been painted with a wrinkle finish so stripped and painted the with VHT Wrinkle Plus.

Out with the old...



VHT Wrinkle Plus



Re-fit seat bases...



Front seat re-covered





Rear seat re-covered



Finished and installed...







It was never my intention to do anything with the upholstery but this seemed like an opportunity not to be missed, the car now is back to black the original colour and style - it certainly changes the personality of the interior which I've quickly become accustomed to. The door trims are the DS style and will set it off nicely in combination with the cars body colour. Hot for Queensland? Probably but I will tint the glass and get that aircon working at it's best.

Whilst I had the interior stripped out I fitted a new fuel sender, the old worked but only if the car had half a tank or more.





I'm getting a clearer picture now of the way forward, the roof is the next big hurdle - paint, re-line and fit sunroof, and back on the car. The whole car can then be moved out of it's temporary shed I can again get into panel and paint.

BTW, anyone contemplating fitting their own seat covers, can I say it is one of the most tedious backbreaking tasks I've so far undertaken with this project - I'd gladly pay someone if it were to happen again

Cheers
Chris

Chris... thats absolutely superb work... like it a lot...

Touch of mercedes Benz MBtex design about the seats... very very classy...

How do you like the VHT wrinkle plus... its great stuff in my opinion... the finish has that "quality" feel about it...

Keep at it... you are doing great work... and that Dee will be a "deelight" to all senses...


I can not wait to begin on mine... after the holidays...



dino