Daphne: 1974 D Spécial purchased October 2016

If I had no other chemicals to hand, I would probably try vinegar, which is a very weak acid. Spend $1 at Woolies or Coles. Vinegar saturated with salt is more effective as a bath, but probably not needed here.

Molasses acts as a chelating agent and draws the iron out of the corrosion products - i.e. the rust. This is why people can use a bath for their rusted old parts. It's kind to the good metal and acts slowly giving good control.

A faster acting (still a slow process) chelating agent is Deox-C from Bilt-Hamber UK and sold locally by the POR importers.
Bilt Hamber Car Wax, Polish & Clay Bars @PPCCO online shop
It is unfortunately expensive, but comes as either a powder to make a both or as a gel you can paint on and then wait patiently. The gel would be most effective here and leave you with clean bright metal.

A word of caution about chelating baths is that it will leave a black residue on your parts if you leave it there too long. This is most likely carbon remaining after the iron has been stripped away from the surface. It is more obvious with a product like Deox-C as it is faster.
 
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curveball here the seats are way better without headrests, more visibility and who ever sits with their head actually resting on the headrest unless you’re 7 feet tall?

Downside whiplash in accident.

To rest a head or not to rest there in lies the legal question.

You can drive sround sans headrests then when rego inspection comes up stick them back on!
 
forumnoreason said:
curveball here the seats are way better without headrests, more visibility and who ever sits with their head actually resting on the headrest unless you’re 7 feet tall?

Downside whiplash in accident.

To rest a head or not to rest there in lies the legal question.

You can drive sround sans headrests then when rego inspection comes up stick them back on!
Click to expand...
But I was so excited to finally have head rests! You give me a very easy option, however...

Sent from my LG-H815 using aussiefrogs mobile app
 
MelanieYlang said:
View attachment 104436
Can anyone recommend a treatment for the rusted chrome headrest rails? They don't need to be like new, but I'd like to see a considerable improvement!
Click to expand...

Hi Melanie,
I've got a couple of headrest bars with no rust if you want them, no charge except for postage. I ordered new seat covers from Citrothello and they came with new headrests and headrest bars and mounts so these are excess to supply. The vinyl covers are cactus but an easy upholstery job and only requiring velcro attachment to assemble.

If you don't need them and someone else does, sing out.

SF.

SF

IMG_20180405_075423.jpg
 
I recently discovered a product called Evapo-rust that Supercheap sells - it is a non-toxic chelate(?) solution that does a surprisingly good job of converting and dissolving rust. I recently used it on my pipe loom (for want of a better description) and various other bits and pieces.

I found that the headrests in their little chrome seat tubes pushed the headrest too far forward for my comfort. I ended up making a couple of fillets out of copper that attached to the lowest attachment point on the seat, and the headrest legs then bolted to the fillet. This brought the lower legs forward 2cm and pushed the actual headrest back about 4cm. It still looks fine and was a lot more comfortable for me as it no longer butted up against the back of my head.

Headrest fillet.jpg
 
Vincenzo said:
I recently discovered a product called Evapo-rust that Supercheap sells - it is a non-toxic chelate(?) solution that does a surprisingly good job of converting and dissolving rust. I recently used it on my pipe loom (for want of a better description) and various other bits and pieces.

I found that the headrests in their little chrome seat tubes pushed the headrest too far forward for my comfort. I ended up making a couple of fillets out of copper that attached to the lowest attachment point on the seat, and the headrest legs then bolted to the fillet. This brought the lower legs forward 2cm and pushed the actual headrest back about 4cm. It still looks fine and was a lot more comfortable for me as it no longer butted up against the back of my head.

View attachment 105032
Click to expand...

That looks like a sensible modification. I know what you mean about being set too far forward and was surprised after I re-upholstered my D that this issue wasn't apparent. I suspect that once the new upholstery settles it might become an issue so will bear this adjustment in mind. Thanks.

SF.
 
This was meant to be a temporary solution until I could find (or make) a better item for the job. Ideally I'd like to be able to adjust it without too much fuss - but this worked well and other priorities took over.
 
I did a similar thing using steel flat bar to move the seatbelt stalks forward as the longest stalks now available are about 6 inches too short to come up where you want them between the seats. For the headrest fix, copper is too soft for a permanent fix. Think what the headrest is meant to do and the copper is likely to fail in a prang. The headrests Melanie is showing are the later type that aren't meant to be removable as per the earlier system. The factory moved the top mount back via that little plate to angle the assemble back a little.

Evapo-Rust looks to be very much like the Bilt-Hamber product Deox-C, but apparently, if it's possible, even more expensive.
Evapo-Rust - Supercheap Auto
Note the bath turns orange, brown and then black as it is exhausted. The black sticky carbon residue on the parts means you are stripping good metal away and you have left it in the bath a little too long.

Deox-C comes as a concentrate and will make a larger bath for the same cost. The gel version would be more suited to the headrest job, but you can't effectively dissolve the gel to make a bath. See the link I gave a few post up:
http://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/re...l-purchased-october-2016-a-7.html#post1561283
Drop something zinc plated in it and see what happens. Fizzz.
 
ScotFrog said:
Hi Melanie,
I've got a couple of headrest bars with no rust if you want them, no charge except for postage. I ordered new seat covers from Citrothello and they came with new headrests and headrest bars and mounts so these are excess to supply. The vinyl covers are cactus but an easy upholstery job and only requiring velcro attachment to assemble.

If you don't need them and someone else does, sing out.

SF.

SF

View attachment 105019
Click to expand...
Thanks very much for the offer, Scot, but please let them go to someone else.

Cheers,
Melanie
 
Hello all,

Daphne had a service last week at our local garage. We discussed the choke-out and pump-pump pump-pump routine I do to start her when cold, to get fuel up to the filter and into the carby - it does work well, now I've got the hang of it, but he thinks perhaps there's a valve which should prevent the fuel from draining after being garaged. Can anyone here advise whether that sounds like what's happening?
 
You can get non-return valves to go in-line with the fuel pump. Even with a new pump, our Citroen CX wouldn't hold fuel up to the carburettor and we've just fitted an electric pump to get around the problem. It's not a good idea to have to use the starter motor to pump fuel!

For the rear-engine Renaults, you can get new pumps with a hand-priming lever, but I don't know about the DS pumps.

So, there are three thoughts...
 
Yes - you can get get them. My friend here in the UK had a similar fuel starting problem with his 1972 D Special. He fitted a fuel pump with a priming lever that he bought from US Ebay. It was advertised as being for a DS. He reports that the car runs fine with it, so in terms of cam operation and amount of fuel delivered it seems to be okay.

Paul
 
JohnW said:
You can get non-return valves to go in-line with the fuel pump. Even with a new pump, our Citroen CX wouldn't hold fuel up to the carburettor and we've just fitted an electric pump to get around the problem. It's not a good idea to have to use the starter motor to pump fuel!

For the rear-engine Renaults, you can get new pumps with a hand-priming lever, but I don't know about the DS pumps.

So, there are three thoughts...
Click to expand...
Thank you John, I appreciate your suggestions.
 
Budge said:
Yes - you can get get them. My friend here in the UK had a similar fuel starting problem with his 1972 D Special. He fitted a fuel pump with a priming lever that he bought from US Ebay. It was advertised as being for a DS. He reports that the car runs fine with it, so in terms of cam operation and amount of fuel delivered it seems to be okay.

Paul
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback, Paul, very helpful.
 
whats wrong with the choke? See if the fliter on the carby is clean. Big bolt on the end that holds the filter, 16mm or somehing. I remember I used to pump the throttle to get it to cheer up but now I just turn it over every couple of days if not driving.
 
Hello everyone, Daphne and I are still here! Today we went to our first car show together, in Horsham Victoria, where we had the good luck to meet Colin and Denise from Melbourne. A quick search on the Internet told me their surname is Bates - if anyone knows Colin's user name here I'd be grateful if you could let me know.

As a long-term DSpecial owner, Colin spent some time looking Daphne over and was complimentary about how things seemed, which was a relief - due to my own relatively short-term ownership, and lack of mechanical knowledge, I'm always anxious about this wonderfully peculiar vehicle.
 
Hi Melanie
Glad things-DS have settled down for you as i know your early ownership seemed to be one surprise (and bill) after another. Enjoy your car(s)!

Budge
 
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