[Colin Smith]

Short answer – 38 years off the road.
I used the DS until the MOT expired and then put it in the garage.
It was always intended as a retirement project and marriage, children, moving home, grand-children, and whatever life throws at you put the restoration on the back-burner. Now I don’t seem to have as much spare time on my hands as I did when I was working – never figured that one out! Slowly getting there now when the weather allows. I’m just glad I completed all the welding whilst my ailing joints allowed, so just a rebuild now.

We live in hope 🙂

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

I love these kind of statistics.
Sometimes you look at a date and suddenly realise just how long something has been part of your life.

I bought my DS23 Pallas on 1 February 1987. At the time, I certainly didn’t imagine that nearly 40 years later I’d still be the owner!

WTJ426M was first registered on 1 August 1973, which means that as I write this, it is just over 53 years old.

I’ve now owned it for 39 years, 7 months and 24 days! (and no, I haven’t been restoring it for all that time)

To put that into perspective I’ve been its owner for 74.6% of its entire life.

So, for almost three-quarters of the car’s existence, it’s been sitting in my name.

Only 13 years, 7 months of its life passed before I bought it.

When I think back to February 1987, it’s quite hard to believe. So much has changed since then – cars, technology, roads, fuel prices and, of course, me! Yet somehow this particular car has remained a constant.

39 years, 7 months and counting…

I wonder how many more years we can add to that figure?

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

Paul.
Thanks for the info. It was the 6.2% ‘more French’ look I was interested in as I probably won’t be doing any night driving anyway. I wasn’t aware you could buy yellow H1 bulbs – but a quick search on Amazon returned plenty of options which I think I will try first.
Thanks again – see you soon.

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

Hi Paul
Can you shed a little more light on how you converted the lamps from white to yellow – pun intended 😉
This is something I would be interested in doing myself.

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

Amazing work Paul – well done.
ps. the driving lamps look great 😉

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

Grrrr rubbish!… Just out of interest if you want want to watch anything without the adverts just put a ‘dash’ (-) between the t and u of youtube like so https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=GydsYFLPPYc hey presto. Enjoy.

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

Peter, this looks great. You are proceeding well, keep us up to date with photos. Well done.

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

I’m there Saturday and Sunday, see you then Paul.

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

Good job Julian 🙂

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

When you have the complete arm assembly in the vice remove the 38mm nut and the bearing sleeve will be removed easily.

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

Leave the 38mm nut tight in place and remove the screwed ring completely and the bearing housing will come out complete with the arm.

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

Julian,
The arm should come out now. Believe me they are tight! you may need to drive a wedge in the gap after removing the antiroll bar clamp and screwed ring shown here…

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

Hi Julian.
Short answer – Yes. The rear suspension cylinder and sphere assembly is held in place by it’s own pressure, loosen the sphere by half a turn before releasing the pressure. Failing to do so could result in a damaged feed pipe to the cylinder as the assembly may twist in the housing. When the sphere is loose depressurise the system and everything should start ‘rattling’ around. Be gentle with the feed pipe they can be fragile and use new sphere and pipe seals — Good luck.

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

Have a look at this, it may help… https://citroendsrestoration.blogspot.com/2012/11/rear-suspension.html?m=1

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Colin Smith]

Kind RegarDS
Colin Smith

1973 DS23 Pallas in Beige Tholonet - Under restoration.
Citroën DS Restoration

[Author]

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