Classic Jalopy Blog

More Citroen DS de-jalopification 1

More Citroen DS de-jalopification

Today I spent more time doing small improvements to the Citroen DS.   The car originally had single side mirror on the drivers side that I think was for a later car.   This mirror was never able to stay in the right spot and would always fall back against the car over 70km/h despite how tight it was.    I also wanted to...

Light plane arrives at the garage! 0

Light plane arrives at the garage!

In other news, an aeroplane fuselage arrived at the garage today.   I’m storing it for a guy who plans to restore it some day.   Apparently his father crashed it some time ago in Germany and he would like to restore it.   He needs to work on the wings and engine first and needed a safe place to store it.

2000 Lexus GS300 Review 0

2000 Lexus GS300 Review

This was a car that I fully expected to hate, yet was pleasantly surprised once I got to drive it. Having driven more than my fair share of Toyota’s, my assumption was that this car was basically a Camry with some leather and a Lexus badge glued onto the front.   This is certainly not the case. My then girlfriend (now Fiancee) was looking...

Citroen DS radio upgrade almost complete 3

Citroen DS radio upgrade almost complete

The Radio upgrade on the Citroen DS is almost complete.   It’s taken over a month (albeit only a few hours a week).   Today I properly installed the speakers.   The DS front speaker is a 3″x7″ size which is not very common.  Der Franzose carry a drop in replacement, but it is an original paper style speaker and I wanted to go...

Citroen DS radio/instrument cluster update 0

Citroen DS radio/instrument cluster update

This evening I was able to make good progress on the DS.   First, I was able to fix a few of the issues with the instrument cluster, where the illumination wasn’t working for the gauges and the light for the heated rear window wasn’t working.   (The heated rear window doesn’t work, but at least the light does!) I also spent a bit...

Mercedes W111 Coupe/Cabriolet in right hand drive 16

Mercedes W111 Coupe/Cabriolet in right hand drive

I’ve always regarded the Mercedes W111 Coupe and Cabriolet range as the pinnacle of the regular Mercedes-Benz models.   True there were always Gullwings and 500K roadsters, but they are really in a class of their own.  They were always rare cars, but the W111 Coupe/Cabriolet in right hand drive are that rarer again. I’ve owned a 250SE coupe (LHD), and currently own a...

Installing the Retrosound Model 2 in a Citroen DS 4

Installing the Retrosound Model 2 in a Citroen DS

I’ve been working on getting the Retrosound Model 2 radio installed in the Citroen DS.    As this website points out, the DS does not provide a lot of options to install a decent radio.   The little ‘cubby’ in the dashboard is too small for most radios, and the original ones are expensive and not particularly good. I’ve been a fan of the...

Citroen Club Tech Day 2

Citroen Club Tech Day

Today I attended my first Citroen club tech Day.  The event was at Schenk & Co Panel Beaters in Lidcombe.     It was a great event.   I got a lot of great advice on my car and was able to drive two manual Safaris (a 67 ID21 and 74 ID23).   I also got my dash back in and tested a lot...

DS Instrument Cluster 1

DS Instrument Cluster

The instrument cluster of my Citroen DS needed to be removed to fit the new Retrosound Model Two radio I had purchased for the car.    While it was out, I had a few things I wanted to address: My temperature gauge was disconnected The silver circles around the gauges were peeling off There was minimal speedometer illumination, a problem in our world full...

Retrosound Model One install 1

Retrosound Model One install

The one thing about my E-Type Jaguar that stuck out like a sore thumb after I bought it in 2010 was the 80’s cassette deck that has been installed in place of the original radio. This looked like an easy thing to update.   I first looked at Ebay to see if I could get an original radio but even broken radios were going...

Sydney Shannons Auction 1

Sydney Shannons Auction

Went to the Sydney Shannons auction last week.   The Shannons auctions are a great way to see what classics area really selling for vs the tired 6 month old ads you see online with insane price expectations.    The picks of the auction in my mind were the Blue XJ12C and the Red 230SL. Somebody got a bargain on a massive Caddie, and...

Classic Jalopy