Citroen DS front end wiring – part 3

Before I can get the DS back on the road, I need to sort out the front end wiring. This controls the headlights, indicators, horns etc. There is obviously something wrong here as I had been seeing strange behaviour in the lights. I spent some time on this late last year, and made only minimal progress. I had some suggestions to check the grounds. At the time I cleaned them and while they did look dirty it did not seem to make much difference.

To test properly, I bought a proper test light. This did allow me to more easily […]

W107 windscreen washer pump

The windscreen washer has not been working on my 450SLC for a couple of months. The wipers started up, but no water squirted on the windscreen. On quick inspection, I assumed it was the pump as it was rather rusty. The W107 windscreen washer pump is a poor design in my view. It appears that the motor is below where the water is sucked in, so any minor leakage gets into the mechanism and it rusts out.

Since I purchased the car in 2003, I am now on my 3rd pump. They are not expensive, at around $60, but […]

Citroen DS boot struts

When I completed the boot lid last week, I forgot an important part. The boot lid struts! I was going through my parts box last night to mount the window cranks and noticed them. The boot struts keep the boot lid open. They are quite simple, consisting of a spring inside a tube. This means the Citroen DS boot struts do not wear out like gas struts used in modern cars.

They are quite easy to fit, just two bolts per side. These are the same bolts that hold the boot lid to the hinge. The spring tension keeps the […]

The car stylists behind my Garage

Today, I was reading an excellent article on Curbside Classic about the legendary Paul Bracq. Bracq had a long career with Mercedes Benz, BMW, Peugeot. He also worked at an independent styling house. Part one covers his time at Mercedes-Benz and part two the rest of his career. I highly recommend this article.

Bracq was responsible for one of Mercedes-Benz most elegant designs of the post war period, the W111 Coupe/Cabriolet. He was also integral to the W108/W109, W114/W115 and the W113 Pagoda. Later in his career he also styled the E24 6 Series, another favourite of mine.

This article […]

DS Door trim after paint

Today’s job was to work on the DS door trim. Most importantly, re-mounting the door cards. The door cards were new in 2014 and still in great shape. The grey velour goes very well with the darker shade of red. Before I mounted them, I took the opportunity to spray the inside of the doors with some fish oil and lubricate the window mechanism.

I also decided to fit new moisture barriers. The previous ones were not in good shape and new set was not expensive. Unlike in other cars, the moisture barrier is one one big sheet, but small […]

Mounting the DS boot lid

The DS is finally looking more like a car, now I have mounted the boot lid. A couple of weeks ago I prepared the boot lid for mounting. This involved adding the seal, locking hardware etc. Today, I added the top seal and then fitted it to the car. The top seal has metal clips to hold it in place. Its much easier to add the seal with the metal clips attached rather than trying to remove them.

The first task was to attach the hinges to the boot lid. There are four bolts and some rubber gaskets between the […]

Halogen Headlight Upgrade

About 18 months ago, I had my E-Type upgraded from sealed beams to Halogen headlights. Last night, I took the car on the first extended night drive since the upgrade. What a difference!

The Halogen upgrade also included relays and wiring directly from the battery to the lights. Before this upgrade I never felt particularly comfortable driving the car at night. With this upgrade both the dipped and main beams really illuminate the road.

I took the car on a drive through Galston Gorge and then up the Old Northern road, almost to Wisemans Ferry. Hawkins lookout is a nice […]