The most obvious part was the rear bumper.  Mine was cracked in a few places.  My repairer said worst case it could probably be repaired, but we would get a much better result with a good second hand bumper.  The wagon bumper is different to the sedan.  They are now no longer available new and not easy to find second hand.

After a few calls, I found a friend in Melbourne had one.  It was in good shape, but missing the impact strip.  This wasn’t a big deal for me, as the insert (called the rail, rear bumper in the EPC) is still available new from Mercedes-Benz (124 885 07 21) and cost USD$200.   The cover from my existing bumper was good enough to repaired.

I also needed a few more parts.  The right hand side rear quarter needed to be repainted.  Therefore, I needed the seal for the rear fixed window to the cargo area.  This was still available new (124 670 20 39) and cost USD$160.  This is a very complicated seal which also holds a metal strip in place.  The aftermarket seals don’t have the best reputation so I was very happy to be able to get it new.

Since I needed to have the rear quarter repainted as part of the repair, I also opted to pay my repairer extra to paint the roof and the left quarter.  I therefore also purchased the left window seal (124 670 19 39) out of my own pocket.  Interestingly it was no longer available new, but I managed to get a new one from one of those Benz parts sellers from Latvia.   Due to this, It cost about USD$250.

I would encourage anyone who has a 124 wagon who has never removed the rear windows to get a set of those genuine seals while they are still available.  The biggest design flaw in the 124 wagon is the rust traps behind the seals of these windows.

In addition, there was a small crack on one of my taillights.  The wagon tail lights are also no longer available,  but I managed to find a second hand unit for the right hand side.   My left hand unit wasn’t that great, so I also purchased on myself for the left so they would match.   The new old stock seal was more expensive than the actual light!

The post W124 crash repair – parts required appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

As outlined in the article linked above, there was a fair amount of body work required on the car.   In addition, we required a good used headlight, the grille repaired and re-chromed, a NOS grille mesh and new chrome strips from the Classic Centre.   During the repair there was evidence of previous minor accident damage which is now better than before.   These cars were very solidly built, so there was nothing that couldn’t be fixed.

Obviously as well as the repair work the front part of the car needed to be repainted.  All Classic Car restorations, who did the work did a great job.  I actually got the car back a couple of weeks ago, and was planning to take a few nice photos.  However, we’re back in COVID-19 lockdown here in Sydney.  The best I can do is the car parked, ready to be used again in a couple of months. I have taken it on a few short drives to buy essentials, but that is all.

While the car was in the shop, I had them fit rear lap/sash seatbelts so my kids can ride in the car.   Despite what I was told, there were original mounting points for the shoulder belt hiding under the trim.

Of course, one of those short drives resulted in a flat tyre, so I hope any back luck I have with the car is now behind me!    I don’t think its related to the crash, but I am still trying to work out the cause of a stutter or miss that the car sometimes has.   Plugs are fairly new, although it would have been started and moved around the workshop a bit when it was being fixed.   A few good long drives might even sort that one out.   I hope I can still display the car at the MBCNSW event later this year.  Unfortunately, it’s looking less and less likely.

The post My 250SE is now repaired and better than ever appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The front chassis, wing and bonnet are now all painted and they look perfect.   The leading edge of the bonnet got a few scratches from the Kangaroo’s head.  the area of the wing just to the left of the grille took the brunt of the damage.   You certainly would not know now.

The front wing is quite an interesting shape with the headlight bucket and the front area next to the grille.   It doesn’t seem like something you could easily just ‘stamp’ out.

The bonnet is going to look really good with the repaired grille on it.   The 250SE is painted 180 Silver Grey.   You can see the difference of the colour when its parked next to a later silver like Astral Silver.

By early next week the panels should be back on the car and just waiting the grille and various bits to arrive.   The grille mesh is coming from Egypt, but it still hasn’t left there for some reason.   Possibly not as many flight options as before COVID.

I’m really looking forward to getting this car back on the road and behind the wheel again.     I’m really happy with how the 250SE crash repair is going.   They are doing a great job on the car.

The post 250SE crash repair update – paint appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

As part of the process, I helped them track down some parts.   The grille shell will need to be repaired as they are no longer available.   The two door models are different from the sedans.   However, I was able to find a new old stock mesh in Egypt, and the classic centre still sell the grille strips.     We also found a very good condition used headlight and surround.

The repairs on the car are progressing well.   They are doing a really nice job and the car is going to be even better than before.

The main damage was on the drivers side between the headlight and the grille.   You can see from the picture above that this is now mostly fixed and the bumper support repaired as well.  There was actually a little previous collision damage in this area, not really a surprise for a car over 50 years old with nearly 300,000 miles.

As well as the damage to the front of the car, there was also damage to the passengers side wing.   The area around the headlight had been pushed in and the piece that joins onto the front was quite badly damaged.

After a few final repairs, the next stage will be painting.   There is no rush as we are waiting for the repaired grille to come back as well as some of the parts to arrive from overseas.    I imagine I will be driving the car again in July.

The post W111 Kangaroo damage repairs appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

I found a photo of the car with this damage when I purchased it funnily enough.   It was in the back of the glove box.   I had assumed they must have replaced that front wing but it looks like it was repaired.   The car has much better panel fit in that picture than when I purchased it.   This will be rectified during the repair.

you can also see the valance looks like it had been repaired previously regardless of the crash.

The openings shown are for the air intake for the radiator and also for the inboard front brakes.    For this repair, I sourced most of the parts from Citroen Andre in Europe and the bonnet I found locally from Continental Cars, the Citroen dealership.   It was the last one, held by the owner for own personal car.    Both vendors went above and beyond to help me: Continental cars loaned me a van to transport the bonnet and Citroen Andre sourced all the parts new and used and packed them extremely well.   You can tell they are vendor of Citroen parts as they used Posidriv screws in the packing!

The post Citroen DS crash repair, pt 5 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

There are a few areas of the car that are still having minor repairs done, such as this corner of the roof.

Of the red colours available for the DS, the two we can find on the computer are 411 Rouge Carmin and 423 Rouge Massena.   I need to make a final decision and I am leaning towards Massena (left).   Carmin is more striking, but a bit pink in the sun.    Carmin was normally sold with a different colour roof, but Massena was normally single colour.

The post Citroen DS crash repair, pt 4 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The doors were in pretty good shape.   They had much better paint than the wings and the boot/bonnet.   There were a few older dents and so on and a bit of filler, but no real damage.  At some point in its life, the car had some rust removed from the bottom of the doors.    This repair is noticeable but not as obvious as others.

As well as the previous rust repair, I know the car has previous collision damage on the front right.   This can be seen with the front wing now it has been rubbed down.

The main consideration is to choose the final colour.   The car is currently painted AC424 Rio Red.   I find this colour too orange for the DS.   It was only offered in 1971 and more popular on the GS.

The other colours under consideration are:

• AC411 Rouge Carmin
• AC423 Rouge Massena
• AC419 Rouge Cornaline
• AC421 Bordeaux
• AC403 Rouge Corsaire

So far we have tested AC411 Rouge Carmin and it looks nicer than AC424 Rio Red, but perhaps is a bit pink in the sunlight.   We couldn’t find the formula for 419, and the other one I will probably test is AC423 Rouge Massena.   I think 421 Bordeaux is too brown and AC403 Corsaire is too bright.

The early 3rd nose models had a unique cross member that was changed for 1971 and on.  Luckily I was able to find a good used unit.   As can be seen, mine did not fare well in the crash.

The post Citroen DS crash repair, pt 3 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The restored bumpers and NOS bonnet look great!  It looks like a car again.   The reproduction undertray and number plate panel also fit well and will look great once painted.

The old bumpers now lie twisted on the ground next to the car, having taken the brunt of the impact.

The car seems to have sprung some kind of oil leak during the collision that will need to be rectified some time in the future.   As well as fixing the crash damage on the front of the car, work has commenced on preparing the rear for painting.   While the car is basically rust free (surprising for an old DS), the paint job was poor and there was minor surface rust underneath the paint.   This needs to be removed properly before the car will look nice.   There are areas all over the car, but the rear wings were probably the worst and will have to go back to metal.

This car continues to offer up surprises.   The poor paint job was nothing new, but I discovered on disassembly that the car has an aluminium boot lid.   These were only fitted to DS19’s until May 1957 to my knowledge.   The later boot lids were steel, much heavier and rusted.   I would imagine the boot lid was replaced at some point with a used unit.

On most DS, the roof is made from fiberglass.  However, my car has an aluminium roof.  These were normally fitted either to cars with black roofs, or cars made in countries like Australia from CKD kits.   The exception being South Africa, which used fiberglass roofs, and in any case never built anyD S21’s.   My car was not built in Australia as local production had finished some years earlier and was contained to the ID19 model.   My car was painted white when new (probably with a Gris Nacre roof). This means it should have been fitted with a fiberglass roof from the factory.   My assumption was that the roof was replaced at some point with a used unit from a Australian built ID19.

The final step will be to settle on the colour.   The colour I originally had in mind was AC419 Rouge Cornaline.   However, that was not in the computer and the similar AC411 Rouge Carmin was.   I will check out a sample of Rouge Carmin on Saturday to see what I think of it.     Both are original DS colours, with 419 offered in 1966, 1967 and 1969 and 411 offered 1963-1965.    The wheels are currently painted body colour which is incorrect.   They should be AC140 Gris (Grey).   They will be painted the correct colour.

The post Citroen DS crash repair, pt 2 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Last week the repair process began and they have already made good progress.    On disassembly there was some damage to the chassis, and you could see where a previous repair had been done.  (I had a photo of the car with damage to that side of the car from some years ago).   This is now being repaired properly and then the new parts I found will be put on the car.

In addition, the door handles have been removed to start preparing the rest of the car for paint.

Next update the car will probably be ready for paint.  I’ll probably be able to look at a sample in the new colour and see how it looks.

The post Citroen DS crash repair, pt 1 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.