Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 8

The seat covers project is now complete! This evening I finished the back of the drivers seat (started in part 7), and installed it. I also did the hard task of putting the centre arm rest in place too.

I didn’t fit the ashtray back as it was black for the Targa seats and should be white. At some point I may find a white one, or paint mine, but in the meantime it is kind of funny to own a French car sans ashtray.

I took the car for a drive to ‘test drive’ the seats – the additional […]

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 7

Removing the seats from the car is an easy way of cleaning underneath them, and the trim underneath my seats was rather dirty. A good clean showed the original vinyl trim in good condition, which was great to see. Shame about the blue carpet, but that will be a project for the future.

I found that it was easier to remove the drivers seat before I tried to re-install the passengers seat, not only to get a good clean, but also in terms of access to the four bolts that hold the seats down.

In part 6, the passengers seat […]

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 6

The passengers seat is now complete! In part 5, I was able to remove the old targa covers and get the seat down to foam. After a test fit of the covers, I felt they were too baggy, so I bought some additional foam from Clark Rubber. I went with the 25mm high density foam and bought four pieces. 2 61x52cm for the bases and 2 61x77cm for the backs. While the addition of this foam made it hard to get the covers on, it was worth it. I am much happier than the baggy appearance I had before.

I […]

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 5

Now the rear seat is complete, it is time for the front seats. I started with the passengers seat, so I can still drive the car if necessary, as I expect once i’ve done the passengers seat I will be faster on the drivers seat. The seat rails are bolted onto the car with 4x11mm bolts, and the rails are held to the seat also with 4x11mm bolts.

The front seat foam was in good condition and had been replaced by foam from a company in Sydney, at least after 8 digit numbers came in. Interestingly, even though this […]

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 4

In part 3, I was halfway through installing the covers on the upper part of the rear seat. Today I was able to complete the job – the rear seat is finished, in the car and looking great.

To finish the job, I had to insert the final hog rings on the upper part of the seat. The foam and springs were quite delicate from age, so I had to be quite careful. In an ideal world I would have replaced them, but that isn’t possible at the moment.

I also had to fit the rear arm rest. My rear […]

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 3

In part 2, I was able to get part way through removal of the old Targa seat covers for the upper part of the rear seat. Today I was able to complete the removal of the old Targa covers and start fitting the new ones.

I was helped by a website created by an owner of a DS20 Comfort who has documented the same process using the same covers from Citro Toon. The website is in French, but pictures are universal and Google translate helps with the rest.

Despite the website, this part of the seat has been the most […]

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 2

Today I made good progress replacing the seat covers in the DS. In part 1, I had removed the old cover from the bottom of the back seat. Today, I was able to fit the new seat cover. I’m really happy with the result – it looks great!

I found that using lots of small bulldog clips to get the cover in the right spot was a big help – I could position it and check it before I used the hog rings to actually secure the cover. I had purchased a set of hog ring pliers for the install […]

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 1

While I was In Europe in September, I purchased some new interior pieces for the DS. This included a set of seat covers, door cards, headrests and armrests. While there wasn’t anything wrong with the seat covers, the door cards were in poor shape, and I wanted to go to a cloth interior from a targa (vinyl) one, which is not correct for this car and not breathable in the Australian heat.

I started with the bottom of the back seat, as I figured this would be the easiest (it is just a big rectangle and one piece), and […]