The first task was to attach the hinges to the boot lid.   There are four bolts and some rubber gaskets between the hinges.   I had already polished up the hinges as best as I could.   The DS hinges are polished aluminum on the non-Pallas models like mine.   While mine are pitted and in average shape, I wasn’t able to find any better ones.  The Pallas ones are chromed, but the metal underneath is fairly poor quality and the chrome flakes off.   Many owners of DS Pallas models try and source the non-Pallas hinges!

The hinge attaches to the car with one bolt each side.   I did a test fitting and it all seemed to fit quite well.  With a few adjustments on each side I was able to get it to latch properly.   The top seal is not a great fit on the drivers side, same as before I disassembled the car.

When I removed the boot lid from the car originally, I first removed the C-pillar trim and then the boot hinges.   Trying to use the same method to-reassemble proved impossible and I lost a few hours.  it was much easier to remove the boot lid again and fit the trims to the hinges.   I purchased a brand new one for the drivers side, and for some reason they don’t come pre-drilled for the indicator ground.   I had to drill a hole in the top for this before fitting it.

Once the trims were fitted to the hinge, the the whole assembly could be offered up to the car.   It was a bit fiddly to get it all lined up, but much faster than trying to add the trims after the boot hinges are in place.   Once the assembly is sitting properly, the trims are screwed into the car, and the vertical chrome strip attached.   Both use small screws straight into the body work.   I’m really liking how these new trims look on the car.   Much better than the wavy old ones with bad overspray.

The indicator trumpets go on next.   These mostly just slide on, there is one screw that is used to hold in the indicator light.   First the main trumpet slides onto the car, then the embellisher is screwed in as part of the indicator light bracket.   Unfortunately, one of the ground wires came out of my indicator light when I was fitting it.  clearly it had already been welded once before, so it is probably better to buy a new one.

The final step is installing the actual indicator light and lens.   Since one of them is broken, it will have to wait for another day.   I did refit the rear wings as they only need to be removed to bolt the hinges to the car.    I feel like I made a lot of progress today, with the boot lid mounted, new c-pillar trims etc.   Next step is mounting the door cards to complete the interior.   I would like to get the car back on the road before the end of May if possible.   The DS is not much fun to drive in the heat of summer, but the rest of the year it is great!

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The latching hardware and handle goes on quite easily if you have a 36mm spanner.   The only fiddly bit is getting the drainage tube through the two holes in the lid.   I used a pair of dental picks to accomplish this.

The standard Citroen DS boot lid seal is a very thick rubber that squashes down as the boot is closed.   Unlike in most cars, the seal is attached to the boot lid.   This seal has mixed reviews in the DS community.   The original ones retained water, causing many boot lids to rust out.  This is probably what happened to my car as it is now sporting an aluminium boot lid from an early DS19.   The reproduction ones are closed cell, but can make the lid sit higher.     The D Special and D Super didn’t use this seal at all, just some simple rubber pieces on the lip of the chassis.   These don’t cause rust, but don’t always seal all that well and let dust into the car.

Based on a recommendation from Aussiefrogs, I used a sikaflex product to glue down my seal.    It is not a flat channel, so I am using a set of clamps to hold it down as the glue dries.   So as not to damage the paint, I am using towels to stop scratching and cardboard to spread the pressure.  I hope this works!

The only thing left will be to fit the rubber seal that sits between the top of the boot lid and the window glass.   This is very easy as there is a channel in the boot lid it fits into.

Today I also fitted the carpets and rear seat to the car.  Progress has been very slow – my aim is to get the car back on the road in the next two to three months.

The post Preparing the Citroen DS boot lid appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

However, the DS19 had an aluminium boot lid until May 1957.    The previous owner mentioned it was Aluminium, but since these boot lids are so rare I didn’t believe it.    However, on the removal of the trim, it looks pretty clear it is in fact Aluminium.

For the repainting I am removing all the badges, seals etc to ensure a good job.   It is clear that they were not removed the last time the car was painted.    This is not surprising given the quality of the job.

It also looks like a previous owner used some generic foam pieces in place of the normal seal.    I may simply purchase the proper seal instead of trying to re-use this.   In addition, the seal underneath the boot button looks in poor condition.    Generally reproduction rubber on a DS is not very good quality, so where I can reuse it I will.   In this case, I don’t think I will.

The picture above shows how poor the last paint job was, with major over spray on the boot seal.    The model insignia shared this fate and has been removed.   Unfortunately one of the posts on the ‘2’ was damaged so not sure if I will be able to re-use it or not.   It might just be long enough as only the very tip broke off.

I am individually labelling and bagging everything removed from the car to make sure that I have minimal problems on re-assembly.

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