Re-trimming a DS

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cocoelguapo

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Fellow Frogger
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Mar 16, 2017
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Location
Melbourne VIC
Hi,
I wanted to get your opinion/personnal experiences on re trimming a DS. Is it better to get the trim and carpet from specialized places such as Der Franzose or try local trimmers?

I am weighing up getting the whole interior from overseas at a cost of $4300 landed or doing the rounds and seeing if I can get a better deal but equal quality.
 
I've had the same issue but after quotes from local upholsterers came in at much the same, if slightly higher price. For that kind of coin I went with 2 different suppliers of DS bits rather than something that looked nice but wasn't quite correct.. Citronpieces for the seat covers and Sassen's for the carpet, underlay and headlining. Door cards are easy to replace so that will be done some other time.
 
cocoelguapo said:
Hi,
I wanted to get your opinion/personnal experiences on re trimming a DS. Is it better to get the trim and carpet from specialized places such as Der Franzose or try local trimmers?

I am weighing up getting the whole interior from overseas at a cost of $4300 landed or doing the rounds and seeing if I can get a better deal but equal quality.
Click to expand...

Retrimming just the seats on a little Peugeot 205 cost me over $3,000 and the result, even after a couple of goes, was not as good as some of these DS kits seem to offer. I would be surprised if you could get seats, carpets, door cards to a high standard in Aus all for $4300. The sad fact is that Australian tradespeople seem to be expensive by international standards. I only wish these sort of kits that you Citroen guys have access to were available for the 205!
 
Hello, the modern replacement seat cushions are much harder than the originals. You're like a pea on a drum with your eyes level with the cant rail.
My DS specialist recommended I keep the original front seat foam cushions and just replace the covers.
 
Just been over to the 'Citromobile 2017' meeting in Holland. A friend was after a set of seat covers for his 1972 D Special. He spoke to the Citro-toons guy. They had an impressive display of seats in various colours that looked very original. They would have looked great in cars. Cream coloured vinyl on Pallas door pockets, seat backs and arm rests looked less well stitched though. My mate was on the point of spending 1000 Euros but found the Citro-toons guy disinterested and difficult to talk to. He kept stopping to talk to other customers. My mate was not impressed. In the end he only bought a set of black vinyl door cards (100 Euros) and voted with his feet. He went to Citro Pieces. Nothing on display to look at but bags of covers readily available there and then. The guy was easy to talk to and seat covers only cost 550 Euros! Set includes all seats, seat backs and an arm rest cover. And the guy also threw in a new repro arm rest! I compared it to my original rest when We got home and it's a very good copy. So it all felt like a successful bargain. Admittedly my mate now needs to fit the covers himself. The proof of the pudding will be when my mate (and I?) go to fit them........


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Budge said:
Just been over to the 'Citromobile 2017' meeting in Holland...
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Apologies for going off-topic, but did you by any chance see the 16 inch CX Turbo wheels at Citromobile? Someone has posted photos of them on the Citroen CX unofficial fan club Facebook page and I'm hoping to get some more information about them. Apparently they're going to be sold from June this year.
 
Good to hear your mate came out of the venue with a satisfactory purchase, you don't need attitude from vendors when you are shopping!
 
CX wheels: sorry, wasn't looking but can ask my mate.

Citro toons. Last year at the 2016 Citromobile event my same mate ordered a fibreglass front wing from them, to be picked up at the ICCR in the summer. No cash changed hands. Citro toons came good and remembered to bring the wing - so they can deliver great service when they put their minds to it.


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So the Citrotoons guys are actually good blokes. Having owned a retail business I know from experience customers turn up in waves, no one for two hours then 10 people at once, sounds like the guy was just getting swamped and trying to prioritize in a Fawtly Torwes fashion!
 
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forumnoreason said:
So the Citrotoons guys are actually good blokes. Having owned a retail business I know from experience customers turn up in waves, no one for two hours then 10 people at once, sounds like the guy was just getting swamped and trying to prioritize in a Fawtly Torwes fashion!
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Well, with the fibreglass wings last year, my mate was very impressed that they dragged two heavy wings along to the ICCR prior to any payment. They even recognised him as he walked up to their stand at the ICCR and told him they had his wings! This year i think he just found them hard to communicate with. He struggled to make eye contact. The recovered seats they had on display - maybe 20 different styles/ colours - all looked great. Not sure if Citro-toons just sell the covers or re-upholster seats and then you do a part-ex with them on your old ones? Only thing i wasn't impressed with was the quality of the finishing of the cream vinyl fabric around the door pockets, seat backs and arm rest.They just looked hastily put together with some poorly finished, lumpy corners. Of course it could be exactly the same stuff that Citroen pieces sells......
 
badabec said:
Looks like your friend needs one of my cup holders....
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We will both be at Little Horwood.....

I once made a Targa-covered DS armrest with a flip top that concealed a car radio and cassette player :) It was a tight fit but looked very convincing.
 
Citrothello has posted some snaps of the citro toons guys displays, that is why I suggested them as a source for Cocoelguapo. I expect they both sell covers and reupholster by looks of it. They do look rather good! Maybe your mate should have had a few beers and started yelling at them!
 
As i said it is very hard to make out what you are getting with Citro Toons. There are no photos of what they're selling, by that I mean you get small square pictures of the fabric which depending on colour settings on your screen will give you the wrong impression. They would really benefit, in my opinion, by including pictures of their sets in their entirety aka mounted.
I don't know what their prices are like but I am not interested in asking as I really don't know what I'd be getting.
Franzose has better pictures, a 360 feature and you can really get a sense of what you'd receive. Kind of a side question: What colour velour interior would suit the Gris Palladium A108a? I am thinking about going red but the dark blue looks good.
 
My car is AC108b. Gold (Viell Or) looks very nice as it's not too dark and heavy. If, judging by colour, yours is a pre 68 car, then it would have the lower seat backs operated by a lever. Originally these were covered in Jersey rhovyline. It's like velour but thicker and more like felt. It's no longer sold but Citro Toons were selling covers for those early seats thAt looked very close to Rhovyline. The colours looked great to me. If you to the La Nuancier website ther is a section that tells you the seat colours originslly sold against AC108a and pics of actual cars with those combinations


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My car isn't a pre 68 but I've always loved that colour. I will be going a little against the grain with my build. I will be using LED lights all round including headlights. Supercharger. Dynamat throughout the interior. A modernisation of the wiring.
I've named her Josephine and as Alain Bashung sang "Osez osez Josephine"
 
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