My DS will be painted Rouge Massena

I have landed on a colour.   My DS will be Rouge Massena.   I prefer this colour to the Rouge Carmin for such a big car.   It is less ‘pink’ in the sun and the darker red will look rather classy.   Generally I prefer to keep cars original, but in this case it wasn’t really a good option.    My DS was originally white and I don’t like white cars.   The car has been red nearly all its life.   It was already red when purchased by a previous owner in the mid 80’s.   This car had far more history as a red car than it ever did a white one.   Secondly, Citroen never offered a red colour in 1970.   The closest is Bordeaux which is a red/brown colour.

I wanted to stay with a proper DS colour, but I had already ruled out the original colour and I wanted to keep the car red, which ruled out a year correct colour.    The car had been painted Rouge De Rio, a 1971 colour.   I found it too orange.   Rouge Massena is a 1972-1973 colour.    I have also decided to paint the roof Rouge Massena too.   Generally late D’s (in the 70s) had the same colour roof as the body, with the D Special sporting a white roof. Earlier cars generally had a different colour roof to the body.  My car being a 1970 model was on the cusp of these changes, so I could have gone either way.   I think a black roof would have looked great, but is impractical in the Australian sun.   The other option would have been metallic silver, but I am not sold on that option.   The car will therefore be Rouge Massena all over.

Painting will start soon.   The doors are almost ready for paint as are the rear wings.   It is just the front wings that need preparation and the process can start.