Amazing work there Faulksy. Is that inner part of the boot lid an avaliable repro part or has your shop made that up for you too?
Resurrecting a Goddess.......Twice
- Thread starter faulksy
- Start date
Its a reproduction part from CitroenClassics but I think all the usual suspects stock it. Turned out to be easier and much cheaper to ship it out here along with a new fibreglass valance than to have my panelbeater patch what was left of the old parts. A previous owner had made extensive use of fibreglass and when we chiseled it all off there was very little steel on the back edge of the boot lid.
I' m looking forward to see the results on that boot edge as, to my way of thinking, that's complex shape. But probably bread and butter to a panel beater I guess.
So am I, you can see how many wooden templates they had to make just for that one panel. I'll have to talk to them about the badge mounting holes which seem to have been lost. Failing that, does anybody have measurements for where to mount a DS21 IE badge?
I’ll measure mine for you when the time comes and make a template
Thanks Peter. I'll take you up on that, hopefully soon.
In the mean time many small jobs have been taken care of. Starting with the ashtray for the dashboard. Have a guess which one was int he car when it caught fire...
You can see the black plastic fascia hiding in the top corner. Turns out it's held on by a single screw inside the ashtray. A good going over with metal polish yielded a surprising result.
Despite a serious polishing, the new part on the right remained pretty dull. The part that went through the fire came up much better with a near mirror shine. As with all the other dashboard parts, the chrome trim was replaced and its looking like new. Seeing as I had the polish out it seemed like a good moment to clean up the old heater control trim.
A hammer had to be brought in to smash off the loop of melted plastic with bonus glass shards.
I ended up swapping this on onto the car as there was a rather large gap between the plastic heater panel and trim with the new one. Who knows if there was a minor adjustment to the control panel shape of if the plastic has just warped over the years. Either way it's now fitting much better. Whilst on the topic of dashboards, I find myself in need of the plastic plate that holds the switches on the left side of the dash. If anyone has one they'd be willing to part with give me a shout.
The hydraulic tank was also treated to a a brand new filter still in the factory wrappings. Possibly due to both front spheres blasting 900PSI of nitrogen into the tank, the old filter had absolutely no mesh left on it.
An ongoing task is sorting out the headlight buckets which haven't been touched in 18 months. There's a nice coating of soot and oil vapour all over them.
They have been given a bath and good grub with steel wool which shifted most of the grime but the plastic is still pretty discoloured. Next step is to break out the wet and dry.
In the mean time many small jobs have been taken care of. Starting with the ashtray for the dashboard. Have a guess which one was int he car when it caught fire...
Despite a serious polishing, the new part on the right remained pretty dull. The part that went through the fire came up much better with a near mirror shine. As with all the other dashboard parts, the chrome trim was replaced and its looking like new. Seeing as I had the polish out it seemed like a good moment to clean up the old heater control trim.
A hammer had to be brought in to smash off the loop of melted plastic with bonus glass shards.
I ended up swapping this on onto the car as there was a rather large gap between the plastic heater panel and trim with the new one. Who knows if there was a minor adjustment to the control panel shape of if the plastic has just warped over the years. Either way it's now fitting much better. Whilst on the topic of dashboards, I find myself in need of the plastic plate that holds the switches on the left side of the dash. If anyone has one they'd be willing to part with give me a shout.
The hydraulic tank was also treated to a a brand new filter still in the factory wrappings. Possibly due to both front spheres blasting 900PSI of nitrogen into the tank, the old filter had absolutely no mesh left on it.
An ongoing task is sorting out the headlight buckets which haven't been touched in 18 months. There's a nice coating of soot and oil vapour all over them.
They have been given a bath and good grub with steel wool which shifted most of the grime but the plastic is still pretty discoloured. Next step is to break out the wet and dry.
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some 400 and 1200 grit wet and dry and many hours of sanding later and we have a result!
Next of the hit list is the sun visors. Citroen really didn't want people taking those things part! You have to pull the visor out as far as it will go and then pull like hell to get the barbed nylon fittings free or the internal structure.
There is a pice missing off the arm on the left. It's stuck inside the visor so I'll have to go fishing later.
The arms are steel but the brackets are the typical pot metal. All of the parts need to be rechromed so they were dropped off at the local electroplater today. Should be ready in a few weeks
Next of the hit list is the sun visors. Citroen really didn't want people taking those things part! You have to pull the visor out as far as it will go and then pull like hell to get the barbed nylon fittings free or the internal structure.
There is a pice missing off the arm on the left. It's stuck inside the visor so I'll have to go fishing later.
The arms are steel but the brackets are the typical pot metal. All of the parts need to be rechromed so they were dropped off at the local electroplater today. Should be ready in a few weeks
And those sun visors: have you got them back together yet? Did you use the old nylon fittings or buy new replacements. If new replacements, do the visors stay folded up or flop down? I'm asking for a friend. No seriously - another Aussiefrogger.
Me either Peter, I was expecting to have to paint them. They’re not perfect but have just the right amount of character for 50 years old. In theory the paint should be just as durable.
I only dropped the parts at the plater yesterday and don’t expect them to come back for a while. Fixing and plating the alloy is not a quick process, every spot of oxide has to be drilled out and filled with solder. I’ll be reusing the original nylon parts. Getting parts from Europe isn’t an option at the moment due to shipping restrictions.
I only dropped the parts at the plater yesterday and don’t expect them to come back for a while. Fixing and plating the alloy is not a quick process, every spot of oxide has to be drilled out and filled with solder. I’ll be reusing the original nylon parts. Getting parts from Europe isn’t an option at the moment due to shipping restrictions.
Episode 34: The eternal quest for bounce
In a post a while back I was trying to figure out why the front suspension seemed stiff, or at least stiffer than I had believed a citroen should be. To that end the drivers side anti-roll bar ball joints were dismantled, cleaned and greased. This loosened things up but now the passenger side seemed stiffer then the driver's.
The time has now come to look at the passenger side suspension linkages. Everything was given a bath to get rid of all the accumulated grease and dirt. Now able to see what was going on, a special tool was made up to undo the ball joint retaining collars. By special tool, I mean a piece of 3mm flat aluminium bar bent into a right angle about 10mm from one end.
Undoing the collar releases the spring and ball cup so that all the old grease can be cleaned out.
The end of the special too is just visible at the top of the photo. As the workshop manual often says, reassembly is the reverse of disassembly. Some new grease pumped through the grease nipples and things were starting to improv albeit not as much as I had hoped. Although both spheres were degassed with new diaphragms in September they were now called into question. Throwing them onto a tester revealed on was holding just over 900psi while the other was down at 400psi. Aha we said, herein lies the problem. Onto the gassing rig and it was soon brought back up to 900psi, much better. This was confirmed by putting it back onto the testing rig and sure enough the gauge came up to 900psi, lovely. A quick dunk into soapy water showed no leaks so all was good to go. The spheres were dutifully spun back onto the car and the beast was coaxed into life. Despite everything, the side with the recharged sphere was still solid. In desperation a GS sphere was spun on and low and behold, both sides were now supremely floaty as they should be.
Here we have the offending article. All looks as it should be. Thinking that I may have stuffed up when assembling the damper I took it out and discovered something dd. What you can't tell from the photo is that it was much heavier than it should be and tapping it with a hammer produced a dull thud. Both bad signs.
Turning the sphere upside-down caused nearly a litre of LHM to fall out. The fill port was undone to confirm that the sphere was indeed totally flat, evidenced by a total lack of gas escaping. Spot the problem......
Somehow 900psi of nitrogen had left the building minutes after being invited in. I do have a spare front sphere and it even happens to be the right one for an EFI 21 however they need to be fitted as matched pairs. Seeing as the damper is removable on both versions I thought perhaps Citroen would be kind enough to use the same lower casting for both.
No such luck. Under the riveted damper assembly is a single hole whereas under the screwed damper there are 5 holes arranged around a central threaded one. Current plan is to swap the top halves or at the very least fill port plugs and try gassing again.
Another side project has been trying to track down an EFI139 owners manual. There is a PDF floating around the web however it is missing pages and rather fuzzy in places. Late one night a thought occurred. Why not crack open adobe InDesign and Illustrator and make one. 3 nights later and the whole thing had been retyped and the images had been straightened. Just as I was about to stock up on paper for test prints a message arrived from England. A month later this turned up in the mail. Printed in Slough for the 1970 model year only this is the very first edition of the DS21 EFI owners manual. I've only ever seen 2 come up for sale in 10 years and the usual suspects don't know it exists let alone have a copy.
If anyone out there wants a print ready PDF with crisp text and images send me a message
In a post a while back I was trying to figure out why the front suspension seemed stiff, or at least stiffer than I had believed a citroen should be. To that end the drivers side anti-roll bar ball joints were dismantled, cleaned and greased. This loosened things up but now the passenger side seemed stiffer then the driver's.
The time has now come to look at the passenger side suspension linkages. Everything was given a bath to get rid of all the accumulated grease and dirt. Now able to see what was going on, a special tool was made up to undo the ball joint retaining collars. By special tool, I mean a piece of 3mm flat aluminium bar bent into a right angle about 10mm from one end.
The end of the special too is just visible at the top of the photo. As the workshop manual often says, reassembly is the reverse of disassembly. Some new grease pumped through the grease nipples and things were starting to improv albeit not as much as I had hoped. Although both spheres were degassed with new diaphragms in September they were now called into question. Throwing them onto a tester revealed on was holding just over 900psi while the other was down at 400psi. Aha we said, herein lies the problem. Onto the gassing rig and it was soon brought back up to 900psi, much better. This was confirmed by putting it back onto the testing rig and sure enough the gauge came up to 900psi, lovely. A quick dunk into soapy water showed no leaks so all was good to go. The spheres were dutifully spun back onto the car and the beast was coaxed into life. Despite everything, the side with the recharged sphere was still solid. In desperation a GS sphere was spun on and low and behold, both sides were now supremely floaty as they should be.
Here we have the offending article. All looks as it should be. Thinking that I may have stuffed up when assembling the damper I took it out and discovered something dd. What you can't tell from the photo is that it was much heavier than it should be and tapping it with a hammer produced a dull thud. Both bad signs.
Turning the sphere upside-down caused nearly a litre of LHM to fall out. The fill port was undone to confirm that the sphere was indeed totally flat, evidenced by a total lack of gas escaping. Spot the problem......
Somehow 900psi of nitrogen had left the building minutes after being invited in. I do have a spare front sphere and it even happens to be the right one for an EFI 21 however they need to be fitted as matched pairs. Seeing as the damper is removable on both versions I thought perhaps Citroen would be kind enough to use the same lower casting for both.
No such luck. Under the riveted damper assembly is a single hole whereas under the screwed damper there are 5 holes arranged around a central threaded one. Current plan is to swap the top halves or at the very least fill port plugs and try gassing again.
Another side project has been trying to track down an EFI139 owners manual. There is a PDF floating around the web however it is missing pages and rather fuzzy in places. Late one night a thought occurred. Why not crack open adobe InDesign and Illustrator and make one. 3 nights later and the whole thing had been retyped and the images had been straightened. Just as I was about to stock up on paper for test prints a message arrived from England. A month later this turned up in the mail. Printed in Slough for the 1970 model year only this is the very first edition of the DS21 EFI owners manual. I've only ever seen 2 come up for sale in 10 years and the usual suspects don't know it exists let alone have a copy.
what a great find. The planets are aligning.
Episode 35: From Rust to Riches
Small update as progress has basically come to a standstill. It occurred to me the other day that I hadn't heard from the electroplater. A quick check of the diary revealed it was just on a month since dropping off the parts. After a bit of confusion over the phone it transpired that the parts were ready for collection. A time was booked, money exchanged and I am now the proud owner of some pallas sun visor brackets that look as though they just left the factory.
Turns out chrome this shiny really messes with my camera"s ability to focus and judge exposure. The rods came up just as nicely. Now to find some time to paint the matt black and slide the nylon bushes back onto the rods.
Small update as progress has basically come to a standstill. It occurred to me the other day that I hadn't heard from the electroplater. A quick check of the diary revealed it was just on a month since dropping off the parts. After a bit of confusion over the phone it transpired that the parts were ready for collection. A time was booked, money exchanged and I am now the proud owner of some pallas sun visor brackets that look as though they just left the factory.
Nice details. I was thinking about having mine done here in the UK, but it's hugely expensive. I will definitely repaint the black areas though.
The 2 brackets and rods cost the princely sum of $160. I was expecting it to be more than that given the work involved. The labour involved in sanding and filling all the pits is what ratchets the price of plating pot metal up.
Hi Faulksy
They look great - makes a big difference to that corner of the car.
Did you plate other interior stuff like the indicator wand etc and trim aound the steering binnacle etc ? - mine have all been painted black.
Or are they polishable..
Ramon
They look great - makes a big difference to that corner of the car.
Did you plate other interior stuff like the indicator wand etc and trim aound the steering binnacle etc ? - mine have all been painted black.
Or are they polishable..
Ramon
Hi Ramon, I only had the sunvisor brackets plated. I'm still looking for a set of interior lamp lenses and other odds and ends. All the stalks and trim around the steering pod swapped to black in line with the ADR change towards the end of production. Something about not having reflective objects in the driver's line of sight.
Prior to that the steering pod trim was stainless and the stalks are chrome. It's possible to dismantle the switches and have the stalks plated if you're up for a project. Taking the know off is pretty straightforward but getting the stalks out of the switch internals is a bit more tricky.
Prior to that the steering pod trim was stainless and the stalks are chrome. It's possible to dismantle the switches and have the stalks plated if you're up for a project. Taking the know off is pretty straightforward but getting the stalks out of the switch internals is a bit more tricky.