Citroen DS rear indicator repair

As part of my DS restoration I had already replaced one of the DS rear indicator housings.   I wasn’t particularly impressed with the quality of the reproduction part.   It had been suggested to me that these are actually quite easy to repair.   Instead of paying good money for an inferior part, I decided to give it a go.   I’ve never soldered before, and the repair entails soldering the live wire back to the housing.     I found a rusty old soldering iron in a box of old tools under my house and managed to get the job done.   The solder was probably the messiest ever attempted, but it seems to work.

All that needs to happen is the rubber protector is folded back and the live wire soldered to the housing.   I drilled back the original hole as I thought it would be stronger this way.     After that it was a simple matter to re-attach to the car.

The indicator trumpet is a bit fiddly to get back on as everything has to line up properly.    Getting the indicators working was the last thing preventing me from taking the car for a test drive.    I also swapped over the side rear view mirrors while I was there.

For the first time in over 18 months, the car was out for a proper drive on the roads.   After a fresh tank of 98 octane, the car ran well and it was great to drive it again after so long.    I saw that I needed to further adjust the mirrors, but it ran well.     I’ll need to take it for a few more drives to make sure there is nothing else that needs attending to.