Celia's home!

Snug, but dry

Each time I opened the garage door I spontaneously smiled, both inside and out, there she was all snug and dry in her new home, with snug being the operative word.

As you probably gathered and can see, my garage isn't very wide. I had already done my homework on the dimensions and I knew she would fit but quite how practical it would be to get myself in and out I didn't quite know. Luckily there is enough room providing the car is parked very close to the wall. This is where having both sides of the wall fitted with a meter wide strip of carpet comes in handy and is a modification everyone with a narrow garage should consider.

Now she was home also meant that I could finally see what I had purchased with scrutiny. The colour was one I had not see before.  It's a kind of a clay brown colour and one which I think suits the car really well. The strange thing is, is that it's not a colour that was available for 1971. A great reference on Citroen DS colours is Doctor Danche's website dedicated to the colours of the DS. The only brown that Citroen widely used on the D range which  is remotely similar is Brun Pallissandre a 1962 colour but even that doesn't appear completely right.

Photos can be misleading, colour is not like this in real life

When photographed, the colour sometimes looks maroon and I've known it to be mistaken for the colour Bordeaux a 1967-1971 colour. I later found photos of my car on facebook which were taken at the auction and the camera definitely lied. What is also interesting about these photos and photos I received since is that it shows a Citroen CX Prestige in the pictures. This Citroen CX was owned by the same gentlemen that owned my car and apparently he also ran a Citroen AX - a true Citroen man through and through!

Well back to this mysterious colour, the first natural reaction is to assume she has been resprayed at some point however there does not appear any obvious clue to this.  A possible colour change perhaps, all panels off and taken back to metal but this would have been very expensive and unusual to do so if so. This is something I will be investigating  further with a few specialists who know where to look in order to conclusively solve this riddle.

Old dried up banana!

As mentioned previously, when I purchased Celia I performed a cardinal sin, which was to not remove the rear saw bar cover and check for corrosion. When home I had some trouble getting the cover off following the removal of the bolts, I thought this was a bad sign of nasties lurking behind but the only nasty I encountered was a dried up old banana skin and lots of dust and fiber material from the boot lining. It felt quite good that providing this area was in tact the prognosis for the rest of the car would look fairly good too.

The main areas of corrosion that are visible are the left and the right boot rain gutters and some minor surface corrosion on the bodywork, so far so good.

Years of dust (21 to be precise)

I was pleased to see that the engine turned, and the engine bay looked complete and unmessed with, with no strange looking aftermarket wiring in there, which can always cause confusion and be a nightmare to put right.

What was interesting was a few marks near the starter motor which had obviously failed at some point and the owner was trying to coax her into starting, I wondered... Was that why she was retired to the garage in the first place?

As far as the interior goes, the Velour Or seats at first sight look to have done very well in lasting so long and I had hoped to preserve them. I've now decided that this was a pipe dream since sitting in the car a couple of times has brought home the delicate nature of the fabric which is going brittle with age and tearing easily. This is primarily down to Sun exposure and age, it was fun vacuuming the seats and having to pat 21 years of dust which was quite a feat. I would like to source a cloth interior which is very close to the original but I've not managed to do so yet, so any ideas please let me know.

Marchal Amplilux headlamps

Marchal Ampliliux, reflector turned brown

On closer examination of my headlights I noted that words were stamped on the front of them which read, "Marchal Amplilux". After some time researching I discovered that not all D series had them and those that did were privileged since they were an expensive optional extra and gave the best light output at the time. Daniel Stern of Daniel Stern lighting in the US is a wealth of information when it comes to bulbs and headlamps and after dropping him an email I was by far the wiser, I quote his correspondence below:

"The Amplilux wasn't just one specific lamp. It was Marchal's name for their twin-bulb/single-lens headlamp range. These existed because the world's first halogen headlight bulb, the H1, arrived in 1962 (with H2 and H3 following in the next few years) but it wasn't until 1972 that the worlds first two-filament halogen headlight bulb (H4) came to be. In the meantime, the only way to have halogen dip and main beam from one headlamp was two single-filament bulbs each with its own reflector in the common housing behind a common lens. All the major makers had lamps like this. Cibie called theirs "Biode".

Various Amplilux models used different bulb combinations in accord with the packaging

constraints of the particular lamp in question. In almost every case an H1 was used for the dip beam. Main beam was usually H1, sometimes H3, occasionally H2."

Mine happen to be H1/H1 and the dual reflector and dual bubs engineered into each light assembly made these lights very expensive to manufacture but the Marchal lights were the very best solution until dual filament halogen bubs were available in the mid 70s. The high manufacturing cost and the dual filament halogen bubs (H4) eventually killed the production of these lights.

As you can see my lower reflector has turned brown and at first I wasn't sure why but on speaking to a couple of people it was confirmed that the reflectors have turned rusty over the years. Sadly this is an all too common occurence for this type of lamp. I will look into getting a good second hand set or new old stock if I am lucky. There is also the option of rechroming which will be my last resort. Brighter lighting options are available but I'd rather keep Celia as true as possible as when she left the Javel Factory in Paris 1971.

Celia's coming home.....

Well Celia was finally on her way home and in my mind once home she would really feel like mine and reality would sink in. It would provide the proof that this wasn't just a dream, proof that I had not just found any Citroen DS but I had managed to find my DS, one which ticked all my boxes even the ones I thought I'd need to compromise on. Even the colour was to my liking but more to come on this... 

Before she got home my main concern was how to get her here safely. My D had not started in over 20 years and a non starting D isn't easy to move - without the engine driving the hydraulic pump the suspension will not rise and the car will just sit cm's away from the floor. A D that is sitting on the floor is in no condition to be moved anywhere due to the risk of seriously scrapping/denting the underneath.

A plan therefore needed to be put in place, what made things harder was the fact that even though my garage had a nice flat solid surface the driveway was graveled, which would make it impossible to push the car in and out of the garage. I had considered hiring a trailer and bringing her home myself, I had seen how carefully placed planks of wood could be positioned to get the car onto the trailer, providing the trailer was left unhooked so it could tilt back as you loaded it. The trailer would need a winch of course. I quickly went off this route simply due to the risks involved, especially as I wouldn't have a helper that day - not to mention the fact that the car wouldn't be fully insured if anything untoward occurred on the journey or even when loading. Hiring a professional with a slide and tilt recovery truck seemed to be a good and safer option but pricey,  I also knew a recovery man named Chris that had a flat bed style recovery vehicle but this style of truck would have made it impossible to load. 

This was further confirmed when I spoke to Chris -  he wouldn't be able to get her on his truck unless she could lift. One option I considered was the trick  of disconnecting the coil and turning the engine to allow the starter motor to turn the hydraulic pump which will eventually lift the vehicle off the ground. This method works providing you have a fresh battery, LHM in the tank and no hydraulic leaks. It looked like the route I'd be taking for the Monday morning but the weekend had to pass by first, and a better idea was about to come to light.

That weekend was the Citroen Car Club's (CCC) Technical event which was held at Graham Morton Vehicle Services in Holmbridge. The CCC technical weekends are organised around the country and are held at various Citroen specialists across the UK. To me they've become the highlight of my calendar, spending the day or weekend with like minded people who want to learn about their cars in the safety of expert eyes is a great opportunity and the fact that drinks and nibbles are supplied is a bonus. Graham Morton specialises in older Citroen's and a nice crowd of us gathered around Nigel Wild and Graham who provided great insight and were available to answer all of our many questions. We also had the chance to get a D up on the ramps and have a good look underneath. During the course of events Graham showed a group of us a cylindrical plastic object 25mm in diameter and approximately 100cm in length, none of us could guess what it was for. 

When it's role was revealed, it turned out to be the solution I had been looking for and Graham kindly gave me a length he had left over which when home I subsequently cut into 4 equal pieces. These hard plastic rods are inserted into the suspension ram/cylinders and keep the car raised permanently by exerting a downward force on the ram piston. The first step is to depressurise the system, jack each corner up at a time and remove the sphere,  insert the plastic rod into the cylinder/ram, screw the sphere back on and bring that side back down. Great I thought, the car is finally mobile and can be wheeled about with ease, exactly what I needed. I later found out that this is an old tip and traditionaly broom handles have been used, if you are to use wood its important to use wood that doesn't splinter easily, so don't jump to the broom handle too quickly...!

Now that the car was at a respectable height she was winched onto the flat bed with ease. One thing to note when securing a DS on a recovery truck, it's a good idea to take the rear wings off as it makes it easier to secure the wheel straps around the rear wheels and on to the flat bed. For further information I thoroughly recommend reading the CCC forum sticky on Towing a DS.

The  journey home was straight forward with no dramas, I didn't expect any either as I had used Chris before, 07588 561469, he owns his own truck and drives it himself. Using a reputable one man show has its merits, overheads are lower which leads to great rates and since the buck ends with one man there is pride in giving a good service.

I slept well that night knowing that Celia was home, and I looked forward to properly examining her over the coming days and weeks.

Enter stage left...... The Goddess

Following the DS Rally in June 2013, I had to find a Goddess of my own.... Sat on the sofa, Ipad in my hand and eBay app open, I looked at what was on offer with a daily impulsive compulsion. I could never spot the right one for me. This didn't surprise me one bit, my experience in life often showed me that the best things aren't easy to locate and sometimes you need to take a step back and stop looking.

My DS was no exception to this rule, there is a reason the French called Flaminio Bertoni's sculpture a Goddess, its anthropomorphic qualities chose me rather then I chose her. I believe in the cosmic joker, a name a great friend conjured up for strange things that occur when you least want them to but in this case a cosmic angel was at play.

1993 was the year I first went to University in Wales, Cardiff to be precise. It was the first time I was away from home and as a spunky 18 year old with the world at my feet it was a time when I had opened my eyes to the world.

I later learnt that 1993 was also the year that the 1971 DS21 Pallas, Injection, BVH, which I was later going to purchase, was being laid to rest. Cocooned from the outside world in a modest sized garage in Reading, protected from unwanted exposure, not from just the elements but also from any hungry rodents that so often befalls vehicles in this state of slumber.

Twenty years went by until the sarcophagus was finally opened and the vehicle was carefully removed from hiding, ready for an auction to take place 8 minutes and 2.6 miles away from her former home for Lot 137.

At the premises of John Mould, Reading 

I had known about the the auction thanks to a post I read on the Citroen Car Club website in early September which had a link to the auction listing.

Having viewed the photos and read the description I grew excited, this car felt right, what I've been looking for. The following words in the description really did it for me since I wanted above all an unmolested vehicle.

"HPI check reveals no former registered keepers. This vehicle was photographed as found, garaged and has not run for some considerable time".

I was also intrigued that the sleeping beauty had been hidden away for all these years, could we possibly be now ready for each other? It was one of those man and machine moments, I knew it felt right and I had to bid despite not having the time to view. Something which I would never recommend but  you must go with your gut feeling which for most people, especially in my case, doesn't usually let me down. If you've ever read the book "Blink - the power of thinking without thinking", you'll know what I'm referring to. If something feels right it usually is for a number of subtle reasons that you consciously may not be aware of but subconsciously you are.

Thinking back on this, I think the subtlety was down to the fact that despite the dirt and the grime I could see that she had been loved and cared for once by someone who was passionate about her. The sticker on the rear window also made we want the car more. In my eyes it said a lot about the owner and how he possibly treated the car, it was someone who was proud and loyal, traits I admire.

The sticker reads, "British Airways is winning for Britain. Let's keep it that way." a direct reference to the deregulation of the airways which was occurring in the early 1970's which was undermining BA's foothold on major routes. This nationalistic message is one which we don't see much in the way of these days, mainly due to the fact that so much of what we felt great about no longer fits in today's global economy. Another great British (and French) icon that is now no more is Concorde, the car has a Concorde sticker adorning the front windscreen. This was a man who appreciates engineering was the first thing that came to my mind, a pilot perhaps?

The dealer's sticker is just below the BA one and reads, "Supplied by Ormsby Cars, Oxford Road, Reading". At a time when businesses traded pre the internet, many of these car dealerships have become virtually unknown, forgotten by all with the only references of their existence left on a few surviving rear windscreens. This reminds me of a splendid poem by George Seferis called, "The King of Asine". 

When participating in any type of auction, it's good practice to agree on a maximum limit you are willing to reach and go no further. This decision should be made prior to the excitement of the auction commencing and once you've reached the limit you should bow out gracefully and not bid any further! Well, that is the theory anyway and I'll be the first to admit that I am not always one to practice what I preach and I went over my number, not by a considerable amount but over nonetheless - the excitement of the chase is addictive, beware. If truth be known I would have gone even higher had I the comfort of knowing exactly what I was bidding on but since I didn't get the opportunity to view the vehicle I finally saw reason and stopped bidding. As luck would have it, the next bid won...


I've got to say, I was truly gutted. Prior to the hammer falling, I had a chance, once it fell - that was it... the glitter and excitement had gone in an instant. The feeling that I had missed out was quite compelling but you always find ways to justify why it wasn't meant to be.. Even though in my heart it should have been.

Looking back at the event, I am glad I didn't win it and I am pleased I stopped bidding when I did. The story wasn't meant to end there.

Weeks passed by with the occasional thoughts of the car and how I so nearly owned the DS of my dreams. Then a strange thing happened.

I had a real motivation in immersing myself within the Club and learning as much as possible about the cars whilst also being in the best position to keep my ear to the ground should any suitable vehicle came up for sale - rubbing shoulders with real members is the best way to do this as you get an honest review of what's a hit and what you should clearly miss. This led me to attend my very first meeting with the Citroen Car Club East Midlands Group, we met in a pub and had a very pleasant lunch.

During the course of conversation a rather significant ear wigging moment occurred, which was set to change the course of events. The conversation revolved around someone owning a large collection of Citroen CX vehicles. I was impressed and when I queried who this was, I was told, "My father, he sells cars", or words to that affect.

I've always been a researcher, curiosity has always been one of my pastimes, probably spawned by a sense of boredom when I was a child. Being the youngest in the litter, with the eldest offspring off doing their own thing often meant I had hours alone to entertain myself and examine things in minute detail. I can't help it on my commute either. Take the London Underground for instance, this is a great venue for people watching - whilst most people are engrossed in their books, their phones or their paper I am fascinated by looking around, watching everyone else, noticing my environment - subtly changes in the way the train is moving, the noise it makes, the atmosphere in the carriage, the announcements, "Will an initial cleaner please proceed to platform 2 for a code 4". This means a spillage in case you are wondering - codes are used to not alarm passengers.... see here for the codes. 

I got home from the meal and I was interested to learn who this gentlemen was, did he have a website, what CX's did he have for sale? I didn't know the web address but felt I had sufficient information to do a Google search and if he had a site, it would appear. 5 words were typed and then ENTER - Rugg Citroen CX for sale. As if by magic I came across this site: Citroen CX For Sale. I use to own a CX and once you've owned one you will always have a soft spot for them, so I peroused with pleasure and then I came to a page called "Other Citroens". a for sale page for Classic Citroen Cars.... then, I nearly fell of my chair...

I couldn't believe my very eyes, the car that I had wanted that I had loved and manage to lose was there before me - I was given a second chance. What's more everything I had suspected about the car was now qualified in black and white:

- One owner from new

- Totally Original

- Never had any paintwork

- Also as far as we can see, never had any welding

- A wonderful opportunity to have one of few 1 owner DSs in the country

I had to have it..... I was on a mission...

I rang the number on the site, nothing, days went by and still voice mail. I didn't want to leave a message but kept trying for the next couple of days. I then started to think something was wrong with the number.... only to find out that Patrick Rugg, the gentlemen I needed to speak with was on holiday and had deliberately not taken his phone with him... the relief.....!

A week went by and I had the opportunity to meet with Patrick at another East Midlands meeting I attended. I expressed my interest and finally went to view the car.

They say always keep your cards close to your chest when buying a car. The fact that when I saw the vehicle I had a smile from ear to ear, had tunnel vision and all that could come out of my mouth after staring at the car was, "I am not going to beat about the bush I really like her and want her!". We shook hands there and then and a deposit was paid. 

Now here's the funny bit, after buying all the magazines on what to look for when buying a DS, the essential buyer's guide as well as all the many resources online  - I didn't remove the rear panel in the boot and nor did I take the wings off - which you are advised to do in order to check for corrosion which can deem a car uneconomical to repair. Now don't ever skip this...  I made a conscious decision not to look even though I was given the option. I didn't bother looking because I felt comfortable with who I was buying the car from and secondly everything else just felt right. I'm glad to say that the wings and panel have come off since and all good in those areas.

Now a little bit about Patrick, he is one of those really nice guys that everyone should buy a car from. He does what every car enthusiast wishes they could do day in and day out. The bit that Patrick does so well is he hasn't let his day job dilute his passion for cars and people. Patrick could see the glint in my eye and I genuinely feel that he was happy the car had gone to a good home. I am also grateful to him for being so accommodating, it was like buying a car from an old friend - that's how easy and pleasant the experience was.

I am genuinely glad I didn't win the auction but things worked out the way they did, I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason and you can only really understand why after the event. A journey needed to occur, a story of love reunited..  My Goddess, who we named Celia was now on the way home.