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Is that the light blue metallic one that lived in Provence and Holland?
I think that if it had been in the back of the Citroenian at 20K, and sold at auction for 17K, nobody would have batted an eyelid. It’s selling for 17K having been advertised at 60K that is raising eyebrows. Are we all guilty of assuming – since it was advertised at 60K- that it must somehow be worth 60k and that, selling for 17K the market must have collapsed? It’s quite the opposite isn’t it? It probably only ever was worth about £20K and the 60K was completely unrealistic. Asking 30K would probably have been at the cheeky end of the optimistic scale.
the seller might have spent 40K on the car – but they were never going to see that back. I caught the end of a Ford Capri restoration on ‘Bangers and Cash’ this week – or a show like that. Something like 15k to buy, 4K on parts and 16k on LABOUR. At the end, all agreed it was a very good example, clean interior, lovely under the bonnet (unlike the Bonhams DS) and original paintwork and original transfers – not resprayed. It sold at auction for about 17K. The investment in time and effort killed the price. It was never going to sell for over 30k simply because that is what it had cost.
In terms of ‘who’ – I’ve seen PallasAuto down in Kent advertising interiors and posting pictures of re-trimmed cars. However whether they will rebuild or just want to swap out your door cards is a question for them.
The original backing cards are fibreboard. water gets in behind the doors and warps them. Trouble is it also rots out the edges where the clips fits. I realise your question is ‘where’, but there is also a ‘how’ to be considered. Options:
Just add extra screws around the perimeter to hold the buggers flat and on the door. Small countersunk stainless screws and cup washers can look almost as though they were meant to be there.
Just buy the cards and transplant all the leather and trim. Fiddly, but others have done it (and I’m facing that myself). make sure you buy the right ‘blanks’ for your model/ age of car – as they do differ.
As above, but get someone else to do it. A furniture upholsterer would have the skills – but may not be familiar with how a Ds door card is put together. You will have to pay for labour of course – dismantling and re-assembly.
use your old ones as templates and make yourself a set of new ‘blanks’. You need to be handy with a pencil, jigsaw and drill. plus sandpaper. You could choose fibreboard, MDF, plastic sheet or marine grade plywood. You’d need to cover them yourself, or get an upholsterer to do it.
Buy some second hand ones. Chances are they are available and discarded because they are already deemed to be past it. See below.
the other problem you may have is the ‘L’ word – leather. That shrinks and adds to the curling problem. You might struggle to get your old leather to wrap nicely round a new card. In this case, an option is to bBuy new complete door cards – complete with leather. You may have to p/x the ones you have as the suppliers want things like the pockets and silver trim. Your worn leather colour/ condition may not match the new cards.
The usual suppliers here and in Europe will sell you complete door cards to just the backing pieces.
Hope this provides food for thought. It’s a problem I’m also facing – old warped leather door cards.
UPDATE:I was at a gathering of Citroen people last week and got chatting to a chap. He said he had researched the subject and also favoured Esso E5 over other fuels. I’m not sure if he’s wore of esso’s change in policy late last year.
…..and of course there is this video.
Adie Pease does the same as Peter in terms of just leaving a few threads at the top.
Couldn’t find what i thought i’d seen, but I found this…… courtesy of an American colleague/ group by the looks of it.
I read somewhere recently that ‘early’ and later mounts have longer bolts and more/ fewer threads! Mind you i think ‘early’ means very early in DS history. I may have downloaded a crib sheet for setting heights…..
As Peter says, there are a couple of different techniques. I can’t speak from experience because my engine was out when i removed the mounts. And i didn’t replace the rubbers!
You will certainly need to jack up the engine to some degree. don’t overdo it. And use something under the sump to spread the load. Also think about the throttle linkage at the top end and make sure that doesn’t get bent.
Logic says to just remove the mount from it’s bracket but, like Peter, I’ve heard of some who say it’s easier to remove the triangular brackets from the engine block as as well.
the process for setting mounts at the correct height is meant to be done with the full weight of the engine and gearbox on them. there is a simple template you can make to check the relevant gap. (I made mine out of cardboard). Not sure how you set that gap with the engine in the car. You could adapt the shape of the template. it’s the gap that’s important, not it’s shape.
the factory process for setting engine mounts are Operation D.133-0. That can be found in volume 1 of manual 814. The template is also there in the ‘special tools’ section. I’ve not seen a factory write-up of changing the engine mounts with the engine in situ? i think Citroen assumed you took the engine out first!
I think you are right. If time is not an issue, you are more likely to find what you want at some point.
Hi Tristan
You are likely to reach a bigger Club audience if you advertise in the Citroenian magazine. I can see that the only D for sale in the most recent magazine partly fits your bill and would be described as ‘well-sorted’ – but at a huge price.So many people farm out repair and maintenance of their cars and that is very costly. The money spent is then reflected (often unrealistically) in asking prices when they come to sell. As a CX owner you will know that there is no such thing as the myth of the ‘rust-free’ and ‘trouble-free’ classic. paying a high price is no guarantee of happy motoring.
The Citroen Car Club – and it’s D Section – have Facebook pages. However they are open to non-Club members, so if you reach out to people there, you may want to vet answers if you have more confidence in a club member.
Esso 99 octane contained ‘upto’ 5% ethanol – but in many areas of the UK was ethanol free.
Unfortunately last year Esso announced that, going forward, it would genuinely contain up to 5%. I’ve got no idea quite what % it actually has these days.
My fuel tank has just gone back in the car and is staying empty for the time being. I’m doing test starts using a long tube and can. In a short while i’m off to Esso to buy 5 litres of their E5. I last bought fuel some months ago, so before i do that, the last remaining couple of litres left from buying it the last time, will be mixed with the petrol in our day-to-day car.
You can Google and scare yourself with stories about the problems of E10 in old cars.
My assumption is – perhaps not unfairly – that the hoses and fittings in modern cars are ethanol resistant. However that doesn’t apply to our Ds. And even then, many of the modern replacement rubber parts that are being made for Ds are very poor quality imitations of the original functional parts. They don’t last long and so i’ve no confidence that they are made with ethanol resistance in mind.
Thinking particularly of E10 and rubber, the vast majority of the fuel line from tank to fuel pump is not rubber, but nylon. So that should be okay with E.10. There is a short angled piece of rubber hose in the engine bay from fuel line to pump. By now, original ones are hardened and cracked anyway, so this should probably be replaced. As above, I’ve no idea if the replacement ones are E10 resistant. You might get away with replacing this with a straight bit of standard modern, E10 resistant hose.
There are rubber diaphragms in the original fuel pumps. Again, many of these pumps have already passed their shelf life and have failed. You can buy a replacement diaphragm for the old SEV pump, but not replacement valves. rather than repair, many owners of Ds opt for replacement with one or other modern pump. My assumption is that the replacements are made by companies that specifically make fuel pumps, so it would be nice to think these are made with E10 fuel in mind, but i don’t know.
There is a short straight piece of hose from pump to carb. That can be replaced with modern E10 resistant hose.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that some brands of E5 fuel have less ethanol in than others. Again, Google is helpful here.
The only fuel it’s had in it is leaded – pre 2000. The new reproduction tank i bought…..I sold!
The car went through several owners in France and the UK before it reached me. I last drove it in 1999 i think and it spent 15 of the more recent years languishing in a draughty barn with a part full tank.
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