[Julian Klepacki]

be interested in how you get on with this.
keep us posted on your endeavours.

[Julian Klepacki]

interior now covered with sound deadening bitumen or whatever it is & sound isolator closed cell foam.

i have been trial fitting the carpets which i bought some fifteen plus years ago and have been in storage until now. i’ve got an issue with the N/S sill carpet. i think it’s the wrong type for the car? it looks to be for one that doesn’t have the height-adjuster-rod-linkage running infront of the centre floor-section?

the O/S sill carpet is correct, having the shape cut for the adjusting-lever. it can be seen in the image above showing the foam sound-isolator.

Looks like I’ll have to rework it; trim it to follow the shape and re-apply binding.

Secondly, does anyone know if the rubber trim that fits around the steel trim that secures the upper sill-covers is available anywhere? Three out the four of mine are somewhat damaged.

Not the best picture, looks like one of those guess what it is close-ups?

[Julian Klepacki]

Unless it’s something you really want to do, restore a car, but are not naturally inclined or drawn towards working/renovating/restoring a car. i’d say try and find/buy a car that is at worst fundamentally solid, especially in all the expensive, difficult places. Fully functional and say scruffy, room for improvement you can put your own stamp on and get satisfaction from that. But always being able to use it?

At best get as much money as you are willing to spend and buy the best car from a reputable source. i conclude it’s better to borrow an additional 10k to boost available funds and get a good usable car now to use and enjoy as much as possible. Rather than buy a car that needs work for 10k and then put another 10k into it over years to get that good car. Use the ‘resto-money’ to pay the loan off instead and have it now, not years later. who knows whats round the corner?

A project car can quickly esculate, minor jobs end up a strip down and it spends more time off the road than on. i got my DS as road/resto project. it’d been off the road a while, but useable. I had it recommissioned, ran it as a daily driver for a few years. Then took it off the road to start on those doors etc. That was over fifteen years ago. Life, other projects, houses etc gets in the way. There were times I forgot I even had it, having spent years in a lockup. Out of sight out of mind.

That st albans car was up for 16k last july/august, May citroenian it was in for 15K stating no rust and never welded. Now that i see lots of pictures of it. I don’t think it’s a 15k car, no way. But at 10k or less it looks to have potential. It is scruffy inside and in the engine bay. if it looks scruffy in the photos it’ll look quite bad in the flesh. But that can be improved easy enough. Mostly just swapping scruffy stuff for nice condition stuff. It looks good underneath. If it’s not far away it worth a good look around. It looks to be an honest car?

Yes, a brace of D’s is the answer.

[Julian Klepacki]

Hi. I replaced the entire lowers on my doors, they were completely rotten and some other upper sections i cut from donor doors. I’m no expert, but I have done a lot of this lark over my years dickin’ about with old cars. In hindsight maybe better to have sourced rot free doors or significantly better ones requiring minor repairs.

same with my front wings, they were previously repaired and rotten. I restored them, but spent more on them all in than a pair of good used wings? Plus all the time working on them. But if you have the equipment and to an extent enjoy doing the work. It’s diffcult not to do it? Even with all the frustrations, disappointemnts and substandard results.

It goes without saying if you get someone to do the work for you and invariablly pay a lot of money. Make sure they are very very good. But that still doesn’t guarantee anyhting. I had a well known classic citroen garage local to me do some repairs. Substandard for ‘professionals’.

There was what looked like a good car for sale within the club; 71 D super LHD ~15k. I’d also seen it on ebay and it was still for sale in the last citroen mag? Unsure if it is still available? It appeared to have excellent credentials; club member, long time ownership, long trips etc. It had my interest for a while.

[Julian Klepacki]

Yeah, a photo here would speak volumes.

The red arrows indicate what was fouling.

started it up to check all was OK. At first i had no fuelpump priming noise. About to start looking if i disturbed a wire? Though i’d not been working anywhere that could have?

Then realised i had no ECU plugged in :/. Once plugged in all OK.

So thats me until spring DS-wise. Heading back to work early Nov, return early Jan.
I have some engine work to do over winter, but on another project.
I might investigate some bits & bobs, but mostly gather parts in prep.

[Julian Klepacki]

Regarding part #1 it can’t really be fitted incorrectly. it stays on the shaft #2 and flat-peice with slots isn’t flat, but angled, following the contour of base #6 it bolts to.

Anyway, it’s now sorted :).

I bought a cheap chinkwainese borescope to allow investigation without having to get too far under the car. I identified that the cable was still attached, the main worry and no bracketry appeared to be causing fouling. But needed a better view than what the scope gave.

I started working towards getting the car high enough, safely to get right under. Then thinking about it, as i have been constantly. I wasn’t sure, but the bow, #10, which on my car is a tube and not flat pressing. Was hanging down a little low? Though not improbably, seemed incorrect?

i concluded that when i replaced the assembly into the locator #4, the position of the pedal was too ‘vertical’. This would have placed the eye for the cable higher, slackening the cable. Still unsure about the lack of movement?

So before i started getting axle-stands out, raising suspensions etc, crawling around underneath. I thought, lets just try this: I free’d up the assembly by disconnecting #1. Pulling the assembly from the locator #4, allowing me to rotate the assembly, positioning the pedal a little further towards the floor.

Once relocated back into #4 with the new assembly position, all is good.

I think the lack of movement was caused by the pedal itself fouling on the base #6. Becasue it was initially placed too vertical, it allowed it to slide towards the bulhead just enough for metal to overlap and cause the problem. Should have taken a photo, simpler to see than explain. Car is put to bed now for the winter all covered up.

[Julian Klepacki]

just to add, i didn’t remove the pedal. after removing the two screws that hold #1 to the base plate #6. i could tip the pedal end up just enough to massage #6 out. It was afterwards when i was cleaning/painting the floor the assembly got moved about too much and messed it all up.

[Julian Klepacki]

How did i not see 2.142/3 dwg? It’s only a couple of slides on from my incorrectly identified dwg?

Anyway, mmmm. I think i have two issues. firstly the eye on the cable is likely detached. especially is there is nohting on the end to prevent doing; c-clip etc?

when i looked at my photo of that end, it looks like it just ends at the bush, not seeing the arm continue due to the dark/contrast of the image. I couldn’t feel it as i was at the end of my reach with the car sitting on the deck.

secondly, i wonder if on the pedal side, that flat-end of the straight bar #2 that locates in #10 has come adrift? But you say you can see it, located and secure? Somehting is definitely preventing the pedal moving forward.

Before disturbing it all to process the floor it was all 100% functional, A-O.K.

I hope i can sort it out easy enough; get it on stands, get under and fiddle it correct? But i envisage it’s going to be a complete pain in the arse. I hope i don’t have to do anything obscene like remove the effin’ engine/box to do it? There seems to be no room to work/access whatsoever at the sides between the box & bulkhead where all the crap is?

[Julian Klepacki]

Thanks for that Paul.
At least they pointed me to some parts manuals, which i downloaded and extracted the following.

that depicts my throttle setup, though not identical.
mine doesn’t appear ot have anything at the end of the ‘bow’. Just the pivot into the bulkhead.
The above seems to have the throttle-cable/linkage?
I think mine, like in those threads you linked it is at the junction/conneciton of the straight pedal-bar and bow.

Anyway, it seems it’ll all be apparent when i get under the car and eyeball it. Which i’ll have to do to sort it out.

[Julian Klepacki]

My door seal channels need some attention. At first in my mind i was going to replace the lot. But after reading Paul’s blog on these. And taking advice from it. I concluded I was only going to replace those areas absolutely necessary and live with the areas that still, though not ideal, retain the seal(s).

Those areas rotted away completely and the seal free to flap about, is the very lower few inches at body-posts. Kinda adjacent to the sill. Both my C-posts at the very botton need replacing anyway.

There are other small areas around the door apeture that range from scabby to somewhat corroded. That thin lip appearing like torn paper. Here i intend to simply remove loose material, treat with hydrate-80, somehting like that. Primer, paint, clean up and live with it. Certainly for the near future anyway.

Factory? Maybe with the thinner, more easily manipulated channel and specific tooling, that i’m sure is comparable to Paul’s homemade tooling. The same approach was applied? Is there any other way?

I’m sure that you guys that have done the job, that took hours and hours, days. Could and would be ‘tuned’ to a fraction of the time if you had a few cars of experience under your belts?

1st car, days.
2nd car, half a day.
3rd car an hour.

Maybe citroen trained up folks with dummy channels/seals for a while before letting them loose on production cars?

[Julian Klepacki]

Looks pretty good.

So when you say “Twill Weave”, thats not your typical fibreglass-matting you are using? What is that exactly, is it just a fabric of sorts you are using instead of glass matt? Why not glass matt, too thick build up?

So you are going to prep it on the inside and paint it as the finish, yeah?

Why are you going against covering it with a textile of sorts? you could get that ‘plusher’ finish without the scope of sagging and water marks, that i conclude the oem ones suffer with you mention in the first post?

i’m not familiar with safari/break interiors at all, so i’m just asking Q’s off the hip.

[Julian Klepacki]

yes, 100% Paul.
The two ‘fingers’ of the seal, pointing downwards create the seal. I know you know this.
And that ‘mound’ of the seal, adjacent to the mid-knuckle of your index finger is what was impeding fitment on my initial install of seal/glass. Because the seal was mounted too low, as you say.

I wonder if it could be better to install the rear screen without the lower seal. So nothing obstructs the glass going forward allowing it to press into the seal as much as it will?

Then push/feed the seal in afterwards, as folks do with the crappy repro-seal? I have thjought of this, but concluded it would get real messy trying to do this & glue it in for security too? I wouldn’t want that seal held in by compression alone?

But then I conclude: Once those two tapered-clamps at the base of the screen are bolted in, positioned maximum inwards towards each other, lifting the screen up to highets position on the taper. And tightened down until clamps meet the bodywork, pushing the glass onto the seal max-position. It implies the screen is positioned as much as it can ever be? No more can be achieved without modifying those brackets; elongating slot, increasing rubber-packing etc?

[Julian Klepacki]

Peter, when you say silicon will ruin paint finish. Can’t it just be cleaned off with appropriate stuff; thinners, trich, mek even panel-wipe? Prior to any topcoat, no?

[Julian Klepacki]

Paul, you are 100% right about the lower seal positioning, as I found out after attentively glueing it all in place.

Only to see after much faffing with the glass and upper seal and concluding it was obstructing optimal fitment of the glass. I saw the seal touching the glass more on the ‘mound’ of the seal. I also had seal extending beyond the edge of the glass. Looked wrong. Also the lip that sits on the parcel shelf didn’t look right. Like it wouldn’t be pressing down enough on the shelf?

When i glued it on first time, i kinda let the seal sit where it placed itself naturally on that rolled upper-edge of the parcel shelf. But, then after above figured/concluded it needed to sit more inward on that rolled-edge. This would effectively position the seal-lips higher up and move the mound of teh seal inwards, away from the glass.

So I had to pull the glass again, and pull off the seal and glue it all back slightly inward on the ‘arc’ of teh rolled-edge. Yeah, it made a difference. I used the edge of teh glass as my reference and positioned the seal so the lip edge was flush with it. Again, not recalling what it was like before removal of everyhitng. This seeemd to be the right ‘finish’ for it?

Now you can see where the glass is touching the seal along that edge, much better.
Yeah, i expect some fun and games with sealant whilst attempting to get it all water tight?
It was water tight in that area before, as i never recall ever having ingress issues in that area?
Lets hope it can be again.

[Julian Klepacki]

i had to read up on pva release agent, as to me, pva was wood glue or stuff added to plaster/cement to aid bonding etc. Alcohol as opposed to Acetate?

I read pva lends itself where other agents are suitable, but are others an option; wax, sprays etc?
Good luck with plan B.

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