Citroen DS21 Rejuvenation

When I purchased my Citroen DS21, what attracted me to it was that it was the model I wanted and virtually rust free. It provided a solid foundation, but needed a bit of attention on some cosmetic items to get it where I wanted to be. This post is meant as a summary of some of the improvements that I have done since I purchased the car.

Instrument Cluster, Temperature Gauge and Radio Getting all the warning lights in the instrument cluster working Converting from MP/H to KM/H Installing a temperature gauge sender and connecting to the gauge Installing the […]

Traction Avant Wedding car

I helped out a friend today for a wedding with the Traction Avant. Tractions are not often seen as wedding cars, but they are rather striking and work pretty well. For this wedding two Light 15s were used. The big bodied cars would probably work better, but the light 15 was roomy enough for five people. You do notice the extra weight – with only 56 h.p. even four slim bridesmaids mean rather slow progress up hills.

The other light 15 has an ID motor and four speed gearbox installed which probably helps, but the slow progress is part […]

Mercedes steering wheels of the 60’s

Mercedes had rather elegant steering wheels in the 1960s. Later, safety concerns led to a change to the padded, plastic type. These were thin style, and from an era where driving gloves were the norm rather than the exception. As was the trend at the time, there was a separate horn ring. There was also an early nod to safety with a padded center.

These Mercedes steering wheels were basically the same for all W108, W109, W110, W111, W112, W113, and early W114 and W115. Early cars had a round horn ring, which was changed in the early 60s to […]

722.0 B3 (reverse) band adjustment

My 450SLC was starting to slip a little in reverse, especially under load (e.g. up a hill). The transmission was shifting gears very well other than this one area, and the fluid looked clean and at the right level.

The 450SLC uses the 722.0 transmission, which unlike the later models has an adjustable B3 band (which is used for engaging reverse). This was not something I was aware of, but I was able to find threads on various Mercedes forums outlining how people who had similar issues had been able to adjust this band to cure them. I wonder how […]

The Rover P5

I was recently introduced to the Rover P5 at a car event, and while it was always a car I was aware of, I had never really examined it in any great detail.

The Rover P5 was the higher end car offered by Rover at the time, competing with the likes of the larger Jaguars. As far as I know, it was the P5 that first had the moniker ‘Gentlemans Club on wheels’ and came at a time when Rover was at its very best – the era of the P5, P6 and Range Rover. Sadly, Rover is no […]