The SLC blows again!

I had been unable to use the blower in the 450SLC for the last couple of weeks as it was making a terrible scraping sound when I would run it.

About two years ago I ‘rebuilt’ the blower with a new motor, but with my existing case and fan cages. A new W107 blower motor from Mercedes is prohibitively expensive, but you can get the internal motor on ebay.

The problem with this, is that the fan cages are friction fit on the blower motor shafts so once you have removed them and put them on the new blower motor, […]

The DS rides again!

After suffering the humiliation of a ham fisted owner the DS is back on the road thanks to Jason Hantos. It’s also all ready for another year of rego, success! Quite a hassle to have it towed

DS on a two truck

450SLC – ready for another year

The 450SLC spent the last two days at Arthur Rizzo Motors getting ready for the next year on the road. The car was hesitating a bit, and not idling quite right, but a new set of plugs seems to have fixed that. (#1 was a bit coked up). The steering was feeling a bit floppy – so a new tie rod end has somewhat improved it, although at some point I’m going to need to have the steering box removed and resealed as there is no more adjustment left in mine and there is a slight leak. At 288,000 this […]

The DS is going to need a tow

But at least it won’t get dust in the gear selector.

I obviously stuffed up in my repair of the carby fuel inlet as I noticed fuel leaking from there, and in trying to tighten it a little, broke it off. It’s a good lesson as amateurs will make mistakes from time to time and they can cost money.

Broken Carby – stuffup

As luck would have it, the car is already booked into the shop for later this week for its rego, it just won’t get there under its own power.

Given the car won’t run, I […]

Citroen DS bumpers polished.

The bumpers on the Citroen DS were a bit scruffy, so I used the autosol metal polish to shine them up. They were not nearly as bad as the C-pillar trim, but they came up really nicely with a bit of polishing.

The front bumpers (the rears were pretty similar):

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Citroen DS major production changes

I spent a lot of time researching the Citroen DS major production changes when I was buying mine. For easy reference I put the details in the table below.

Citroen DS major production changes

Obviously there were many more changes during the production run, but these were the major changes that make a difference when buying a car. This table is for the DS range, not for the IDs that had other changes and at different times. The DS range is quite complicated and it took me to some time to fully understand it.

My car being a […]

General Maintenance on the DS

Today did more maintenance on the Citroen DS, including:

Oil and filter change Rotate tyres Cleaned all the dirt out of the space behind the rear wings Changed the small ID style hubcaps on the rear for the correct DS type

Still a bit of work to get this car where I want it, but getting there slowly.

For future reference on the oil change:

Sump plug: 22mm Oil filter housing: 11mm Oil filter: 12mm

easiest when you use an extension on the ratchet.

Preventing a DS Flambé

While the Citroen DS can be a rather hot car due to the engine being right next to the drivers knee, it is generally not a good idea to let it get even hotter through an engine fire. The weber carburettor that is used on the DS has the fuel inlet fitting press fit into the top housing of the carby, which as these cars age means that it can work its way out and have fuel spraying all over the hot engine. Not a great idea.

However, on a recent thread on the AussieFrogs forum, a well respected member […]

More Citroen DS de-jalopification

Today I spent more time doing small improvements to the Citroen DS. The car originally had single side mirror on the drivers side that I think was for a later car. This mirror was never able to stay in the right spot and would always fall back against the car over 70km/h despite how tight it was. I also wanted to get a mirror for the passengers side as I park this car against the wall on that side and it can be quite handy in Sydney traffic. I had previously made a template for where the hole needed to […]

Light plane arrives at the garage!

In other news, an aeroplane fuselage arrived at the garage today. I’m storing it for a guy who plans to restore it some day. Apparently his father crashed it some time ago in Germany and he would like to restore it. He needs to work on the wings and engine first and needed a safe place to store it.