Carpets

The carpets I bought at ICCCR in Holland have to start going in the car sooner rather than later. I didn't want to leave it too late and come across a problem which couldn't be resolved. Having said all that, the carpets are of great quality and good progress is being made. The original soundproofing/underlay is in good condition and is being re-used.

Original carpet... well rotted

New carpet section with original foam being used

This is the section that is fitted underneath the front seats with runners in place

The piece shown at the bottom of the photo is the original section for the rear foot-well and serves as a good comparison of the colour and quality match.

Front ¼ panel

These small pieces on the front ¼ panels are more involved than at first sight. A slot has to cut into the carpet to accommodate the welded bracket and then you have to figure out how to remove the bonnet release.

Front bulkhead

To install the front bulkhead carpet the heater control panel had to be removed, the red section is notorious for fading away. A bit of careful masking and my daughters red nail varnish makes it look a lot better. You can buy stickers for these but are expensive at about £20.00.

2mm foam strip fills the gap formed by the reinforcing plate on the inner sill

Trim piece for brake pedal

Refitting the trim piece for the brake pedal is a tricky job, there are 6 small bolts securing it to the support for the pedal gear and into the floor.
Naturally nothing lines up properly.

N/S/F footwell, the tricky part is aligning the screws with the original holes

N/S/F sill section

N/S/R heater outlet

N/S/R sill section

Rear bumper woes :(

Now here's a lesson learned in how not to check the ‘softness’ of your Citroën DS suspension! Use something solid to kneel on like the rear panel of the boot and NOT the top section of the rear bumper; they are a great deal more delicate than they first appear.

Rear bumper damage after kneeling on it!

So after much cursing I decided to remove the bumper to see if could be straightened. After removing the bumper it revealed a few more problems, namely the bumper support brackets were badly corroded, the support rubbers were worn and the rear lights were misaligned, these additional jobs would be sorted while the bumper was off.

Corroded rear bumper bracket

Rear bumper removed, back panel re-painted and wiring connectors cleaned and greased

Rear light panel had seen better days, a good clean up and repainted gloss black

Rear light panel repainted gloss black

New bumper brackets painted and waxoiled, these should last another 40 years

Rear light panel refitted with number plate and rear lights that are now straight

Checking the rear lights all work

eBay to the rescue which sourced a quite good top bumper section, the original was far too damaged to be repaired, The part was in Holland at a price of £35.00 and had a small dent which was repairable.

Trial fit of the new bumper section

All refitted and polished up and all new stainless steel fittings were used as the old mild steel bolts had to be cut off.

Note to self;
Well worth the effort as it now looks much better that it did originally but don't kneel on the rear bumper again.

ICCCR2016... Come and say Hello!

Anyone in Holland in a few weeks time? Come and say Hello, it would be nice to put a face to a username or email address. I will be in the camping area in the white C5 Tourer with this flag flying... bring a bottle if you like ;)

See you in Holland!

June updates and rear indicators

Not too sure if a couple of previous posts have somehow been deleted. Not a lot of progress on the rear door but it’s looking good, I will post some pictures later. I purchased a couple of brackets that had disappeared from the rear indicator supports, made from mild steel they soon rust away. The brackets support the outer trim and spring clip in place, without them everything just falls apart. The earthing point for the indicators was badly corroded so I decided to renew the wiring to the indicator and relocate the earth point to inside the car, the same earthing point was used for the heated rear screen.

New bracket as seen from inside

New bracket seen from outside

New earth wire and connector on indicator

Rear indicator refitted

Rear indicator refitted

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 

Boot lid

I needed some space in the garage, which is at a premium, to continue work on the doors. The boot lid has been off for a long time now while I welded repair panels in the top corners of the boot aperture. Water collected in these corners and finally rotted through allowing water ingress to the boot floor causing a lot of unseen corrosion which can be seen here. Now these repairs are complete, the boot lid has been stripped back to bare metal and is quite good condition, there was only a small amount of corrosion along the inside bottom edge which holds a black nylon trim in place, I guess this holds moisture in place also? A coat of rust convertor cured this nicely and a coat of etching primer for the rest followed by first skim and flat and another coat of primer. That’s it for the boot lid for now, it is temporarily refitted so it is out of harms way and gives me more work space. You may notice Gradulux blinds in the back window – more on these later.

Boot lid in final primer coat

Painted in base coat and clear with new badge and original chevrons

Heater valve

Heater valve finally started leaking this week so a straight forward job of removing the matrix and swapped for a new one. I took the opportunity to flush out the matrix with a weak caustic solution. Good water flow now and a substantial amount heat being blown into the car.