Citroen DS crash repair, pt 2
The repairs to the DS continue to progress well. The crash damage is now repaired and the new parts I was able to get for the car have all been fitted and seem to fit well. They will now be removed for painting.
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.
