Classic Jalopy Blog

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 4 1

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 4

In part 3, I was halfway through installing the covers on the upper part of the rear seat.   Today I was able to complete the job – the rear seat is finished, in the car and looking great. To finish the job, I had to insert the final hog rings on the upper part of the seat.   The foam and springs were...

Wrapping the Citroen DS steering wheel 3

Wrapping the Citroen DS steering wheel

The Citroen DS is known for its single spoke steering wheel. It is one of the many things that make this car so unique. The steering wheels up to the 1971 model year were thin wheels wrapped in black plastic tape.   (I understand some very early cars had a different system).  Later cars had the soft ‘safety’ steering wheel.   My car, being a...

Citroen DS rear interior lights part 2 2

Citroen DS rear interior lights part 2

Regular readers may recall that I started installing the missing rear interior lights for my DS21.   These interior lights are only found in the DS Comfort – they do not exist in the Pallas model, nor the ID models such as D Special, D Super etc. After a few questions on the Aussiefrogs forum, and a lot of adjusting in the car I finally got...

1999 BMW E39 523i Review 2

1999 BMW E39 523i Review

In my opinion, the BMW E39 is still hands down the best looking 5 series BMW have produced.   It significantly sharpened up the looks of the fairly boxy E34.   It was later replaced by the bulbous looking E60.  The current model still follows on too much from the E60 aberration. The BMW E39 has now depreciated to the point where they are an...

Fitting new Citroen DS door cards 0

Fitting new Citroen DS door cards

Citroen DS door cards are quite simple as the door handle etc is above the actual door card.   So all it comprises of is the arm rest and a small hole for the window winder mechanism.   The door card is held onto the door through a series of metal clips that attach into holes drilled into the door.   The holes are...

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 3 2

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 3

In part 2, I was able to get part way through removal of the old Targa seat covers for the upper part of the rear seat.   Today I was able to complete the removal of the old Targa covers and start fitting the new ones. I was helped by a website created by an owner of a DS20 Comfort who has documented the same...

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 2 1

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 2

Today I made good progress replacing the seat covers in the DS.  In part 1, I had removed the old cover from the bottom of the back seat.    Today, I was able to fit the new seat cover.   I’m really happy with the result – it looks great! I found that using lots of small bulldog clips to get the cover in...

Removing Citroen DS door cards 2

Removing Citroen DS door cards

Removing door cards on a Citroen DS is quite simple.    The door cards are held on by the window winder and a series of metal clips.   The metal clips attach to the back of the door card, and align with holes in the door that have plastic ‘cups’ that the metal clips slot into.    The window winder is removed by pushing...

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 1 1

Citroen DS seat cover replacement part 1

While I was In Europe in September, I purchased some new interior pieces for the DS.   This included a set of seat covers, door cards, headrests and armrests.   While there wasn’t anything wrong with the seat covers, the door cards were in poor shape, and I wanted to go to a cloth interior from a targa (vinyl) one, which is not correct...

New coil, cap and rotor bring the SLC back to life 1

New coil, cap and rotor bring the SLC back to life

As outlined in a previous post, the 450SLC broke down a week and a half ago and the NRMA helped me diagnose it down to a bad coil.   Yesterday, my new coil, cap and rotor arrived so I got down to getting fitting them t the car. A quick test of the new coil had the car roaring back to life, so I...

Mercedes W111 Coupe/Cabriolet RHD Manual vs Auto 4

Mercedes W111 Coupe/Cabriolet RHD Manual vs Auto

I recently had a question on my previous post around RHD/LHD 111 Coupe/Cabriolet about the numbers of Automatics vs Manuals. This is an interesting question and not one that I have the answer to.   However from my own observations of RHD models for sale and at shows,  manuals are fairly common in the 220SE, rare in the 250SE and 300SE and then extremely...

After 10 years of ownership, the SLC finally leaves me stranded 1

After 10 years of ownership, the SLC finally leaves me stranded

During the 10 years and around 40,000 kms I’ve owned the 450SLC, it’s proven to be extremely reliable.   Sure i’ve had a flat battery once a couple of times, and a fuel pump that would cause the engine to occasionally stall until it was replaced, but it has never left me stranded, until this weekend. About 100 meters from my driveway, the engine...

Auto Collections Las Vegas 0

Auto Collections Las Vegas

The Auto Collections Las Vegas bills itself as the worlds largest Classic car showroom.   It is basically a classic car dealership that also allows the general public in to ‘view the collection’ for a fee.   This means that the cars are changing (except for about 10% that are not for sale), and it is a nice escape from the smoky environments of...

450SLC gets a new blower 1

450SLC gets a new blower

I’ve had issues with the blower on the 450SLC for a few years now.   I would get all sorts of noise and irregular operation from it.     Unlike in some models, the blower is actually pretty easy to get to in the 450SLC, but the problem was new blowers were very expensive (I was seeing them for over $1,200) and used units...

Citroen DS rear interior lights 2

Citroen DS rear interior lights

The Citroen DS Comfort (non Pallas) has four interior lights.  Two on the inside of the B pillar and two on the inside of the C pillar.   The DS Pallas has two lights on the B pillar, but upgraded ones from the regular DS.  The ID Models (and D Special, D Super) have the same B pillar lights but not the rear ones....

Autoworld Brussels 0

Autoworld Brussels

The last museum I visited while in Europe was Autoworld Brussels.    It is a large museum right in the middle of Brussels and has a large collection of interesting cars, including former royal cars of the Belgian royal family. It was a very nice museum, although not as good as the Louwman Museum.  If you’re in Brussels it is worth a visit.   ...

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