N/S/F Door repairs

Just some photos of the cutting out the previous bad repairs and welding in repair panels.

Door before being stripped of rust and filler

Original bottom door hinge had been welded to the closing panel and had to be cut off

The bottom hinge mounting had to be repaired as the original was past saving

Front closing panel welded in place with new hinge bolted on

Trial fit of the lower inner closing panel

A view from inside showing both front and lower panels and lower hinge support

Inside view of rear and lower closing panel. I decided to joggle this panel to make the corner stronger

There are a few tack welds to hold everything in place so I can have a trial fit on the car to see if things align up properly. I will do the same with the rear door and the align the door skins as a pair to match the front and rear wings.

More to follow...

N/S Doors

Finally received a call from Ribble Technology to say my doors were ready for collection. I seemed to have been waiting for months but they have done a excellent job. They have been stripped of all paint, sealer, filler etc down to bare metal then de-rusted and phosphate coated then finally a electrostatic epoxy primer. The door bottoms have had previous (bad) repairs carried out but are in better condition than I expected. The top of the doors need the usual stress fractures sorting out by brazing, the metal is very thin here and I think I need to weld in a plate in the N/S/R inner.

I will post updates when the cutting and welding begins.

Door handles

Citroën Classics supply new reproduction door handles for the DS... and very good they are to. The original chrome on the DS models was not of the best quality and 44 years on there was not much of it left, what little was left was flaking off and becoming dangerous as the slithers are very sharp. Fortunately there were very few chrome parts fitted to the DS most being stainless steel or aluminium, apart from the door handles there were the boot lid hinges on the Pallas, door and boot lock barrels and interior lamp surrounds.

Now on with removing the N/S doors and preparing them for stripping.

O/S/R Door painting and trimming

Now we have had some fine paint spraying weather there has been some progress on the o/s/r door. The inner edges have been painted and the inners have been rustproofed. At the ICCCR I bought the top door capping trims from citro-classique which were fitted to pallas models. Just waiting for exterior door handels to arrive then I can finish building up the door with glass and door card.

New door capping trim

New lower door seal fitted and lower stainless trim polished

New door card clip inserts fitted and felt pads glued in place

Hazard Lights - update

On my previous post on the hazard light subject I was enquiring if there was an updated wiring diagram for post '74 vehicles. Well behold there is! MR510-60a. Thanks to Chris at aussiefrogs.

The wiring diagram answered my dilemma about the problem of feeding a permanent or accessory live to the flasher unit. The problems were if (1) you supplied the flasher unit with a permanent live – you could inadvertently leave your indicators flashing and (2) if you supplied the flasher unit with a ignition live – you could not use the hazards with the ignition switched off.

Citroëns answer? Use 2 flasher units one for the indicators and a second for the hazards. (If only I'd thought of that?)

The thread at aussiefrogs can be read here, and the diagrams can be downloaded (in French) from the previous blog - enjoy.

Hazard lights

Post 1974 Model Year DS' were fitted with hazard lights as standard, as this was shortly before the end of production there was no updated wiring or layout diagrams available (unless you know otherwise?) I have produced my own wiring diagrams which are loosely based on the original but simplified for ease of use.
There are various ways of making the existing flasher unit operate all four indicators with the use of a relay(s) but with the use of a correct switch there is no need for additional relays.

This is my solution.

The original flasher unit operation relied on a bi-metal strip heating up and breaking/making a connection, the speed of this depended on the battery state, wiring connections, good earths, bulb condition, etc. Adding an additional two indicators and a warning lamp will change the speed again. The solution is to replace the old flasher unit with an electronic three pin flasher unit which will flash at a constant speed in all conditions.

Original 74MY switches are not readily available, I was lucky to find one for sale in Holland at ICCCR2016, it matches the existing dash switches and has four arrows on it depicting all four indicators. Other switches are available; the seven pin 2CV switch doesn’t look out of place and are available from ECAS or Burton, other ‘period’ switches also look good. Therefore I will be describing two options; the astonishingly simple DS option (4 pin) and the 2CV option (7pin)

The parts you will need;

• Hazard switch
• 3 pin electronic flasher unit
• Coloured wires (yellow, brown, green, red and black)
• Dash warning lamp and holder
• Spade connectors and insulators

First and foremost DISCONECT THE BATTERY you don’t want any sparks, burnt fingers or melted wiring. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

You will need access to the flasher unit and indicator switch by removing the dash binnacle. Replace the flasher unit as per wiring diagram and using a black wire add an additional earth to pin 31.

Next you will need to fit your hazard switch, where you fit this is up to you. The original one fitted in the metal part of the dash next to the choke cable (carb.model), if you don’t fancy cutting the metal part of the dash use the plastic facia panel that houses the other switches; I think that’s close enough. The aperture required is 30mm. x 20mm.

How the switch works. (DS option) This has one feed in from the flasher unit and three feeds out to LH indicator, RH indicator and warning lamp. Told you it was simple.
(2CV option) The switch is basically two sets of contacts joined by the action of the push button. Set 1, this redirects the ignition live to a permanent live so you can use the hazards without the ignition being switched on. Set 2, this has one feed in from the flasher unit and three feeds out to LH indicator, RH indicator and warning lamp as per the DS option. The good thing about this layout is (a) your hazard lights will operate with the ignition off and (b) you won’t leave your indicators flashing all night by mistake.

Wiring the hazard switch depends on your switch, unless you have the switch diagram you will have to use a meter to establish which contact does what. If you only have a six pin switch you will have to use a four pin flasher unit for the warning lamp (I will come back to this later)

Either way the principle is the same,

2CV option; (Set 1) the original yellow wire from F3 goes to the normally closed (NC) contact and the common contact now goes to pin 49 of the new flasher unit. This will allow normal operation of the direction indicators with the ignition on and a new permanent feed from F5 which supplies the normally open (NO) feed for the hazard lights, you can alternatively us a feed from the +ve accessory post. Next (Set 2) supply the common (NO) contacts with a red wire which connects to either the red wire on the indicator switch or pin 49a on the new flasher unit whichever is the easiest, this will feed all four indicators and the dash warning lamp when activated. The (NO) contacts feed the indicators via a new green and yellow wire which are spliced into the existing wiring from the indicator switch. Finally the last feed is for the dash warning lamp.

DS option; as per Set2 on the 2CV option.

On the white plug that connects onto the dash binnacle there is a spare connection in the middle row this supplies the feed to the hazard warning lamp, connect a black wire to this from the switch and fit a new lamp holder at the very lower blank space in the binnacle (Hold it up to the light and you will see a red lens with the four arrows on it) The earth for the warning lamp is already in place. Reconnect the battery, rebuild your dash binnacle and test your new hazard lights.

If you only have a six pin switch you will have to use a four pin flasher unit for the warning lamp, the last feed for the warning lamp comes from the fourth pin on the flasher unit (marked C)

Last thing, you will be drawing extra load on the indicator circuit with the hazards lights switched on, so if you find yourself blowing a fuse just up the rating by 4 Amps for the additional 2x21W and 4W bulbs.

Wiring diagrams can be found here, feel free to download.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByRsL7HMnnc5alNxRF9XZ19yMGc

Front of original DS hazard switch

Rear of switch

Rear of switch showing colour coding for wiring

2CV switch
(courtesy of Burton)

2CV switch
(courtesy of ECAS)

3 pin electronic flasher relay
(courtesy of vehicle wiring products)

4 pin electronic flasher relay showing pin C for warning lamp
(courtesy of vehicle wiring products)

This is the section of the metal part of the dashboard where the hazard switch should fit

Here we have an alternative position with the easier to cut plastic facia panel

At the rear of the warning lamp lens cluster showing the hazard lamp position
(courtesy of aussiefrogs)

Zinc plating

The Winter months are fruitless in a cold garage so not much progress going on here. However a little bit of zinc plating is always fun to do, not only does it make components look good it provides suitable rust prevention. Some components have received a yellow passivate as original.

Anyone know what these are?

Center arm rest before...

...and after