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

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

Rear door

Work has started a little later than expected as I needed to do a bit of re-work on the front door. This rear door in particular has previously had poor repairs with lots of filler. The door has been chemically stripped and phosphate coated so I can now see what I am working with.

Body filler concealing the corrosion on the bottom of the door skin

Corrosion on the seal holder and closing panels

Door in place to check fit before cutting

Bottom of door skin cut away

Replacement repair panel held temporarily in place with clips to allow for any adjustments