Off to Citroen Classics, Staines, UK

With all good intentions, I had wanted to work on Celia myself. This is the best way to get to know your car and provided you are; armed with a workshop manual, have a good set of tools, take it slowly, take loads of photos to aid reassembly and lean on expert advice when needed then there is no reason why it's not possible to do a good job at home. This is all on the caveat that you've already practised on something else in the past and know your limitations! There's always a great feeling of satisfaction doing it yourself and gives you the insight of what could be wrong when something eventually does fail. It will also mean that you develop the skill that most classic car owners who work on their cars aquire which is the ability to know where a bolt has come from by merely looking at the thing and judging it's relative position on the garage floor!

Saying all this, I eventually decided against getting her running myself for a couple of reasons, the main one being that my garage is too small, I can barely get in and out of the car never mind having the space to work on her. There was also the fact that the car hadn't been run for over 20 years and I thought I'd let someone who knows what their doing take a look first and get her running for me so she can be a reliable base for me to get to know her and slowly start doing smaller jobs as and when required.

Since my DS was fuel injected I decided to choose a company that had good experience in injected DS's and for this reason and the fact they came highly recommended on the GBU list as well as with D owners I enquired with, I chose Citroen Classics based in Staines. I spoke to Darrin Brownhill who runs the company with his wife Kristina, in early January and due to their popularity and the queuing system they run it wasn't until now that they could see me.



Rust particles from draining the fuel tank

Before I had arranged to see Darrin I had ordered a new Stainless Steel exhaust from P.D.Gough as well as an injection fuel tank from L'Atelier 524 in France (see useful links). The tank arrived very quickly from Alain Gauchoux who is a pleasure to deal with and it didn't disappoint (his English is perfect which makes us non French speakers lives a lot easier!). The tank looks exactly as the original piece that it will replace. The reason I chose to replace the tank was due to rust particles I encountered when draining the fuel tank. This is very common when petrol has been left sitting in a fuel tank for many years. My old injection tank will be available for sale at some point for anyone wishing to go down the repair route, let me know if you may be interested.

The remit I gave Darrin was as follows:

• Major service
• Replace engine fuel lines 
• Fit supplied fuel tank and exhaust system
• Fit front and rear inertia seatbelts (under parcel shelf)
• Recondition cylinder head, replacing sodium exhaust valves with solid valves
• Advise of anything else that needs doing
• Get her through an MOT

As for the seatbelts I had front ones fitted but they were not inertia ones and I decided to have the rear seat belts fitted under the parcel shelf as it makes for a much neater installation as it means the bulky inertia mechanism is out of sight. It made sense to also change the front to inertia belts, there's nothing more frustating then being pinned in the drivers seat and not being able to reach forward when you need to. It also means the front and rear webbing would match -  Darrin has done a few of these installs and his supplier can produce the webbing in an array of colours and styles, it was therefore great having the option of choosing a contrasting webbing that will compliment my interior.

Before she was loaded onto the trailer I did a quick wheel swap since I am having the original steel wheels powder coated.

To say I am really looking forward to Darrin getting stuck in and getting the car on the road is an understatement.... and what with the DSM Rally coming up on 8-10th June at Little Horwood,MK17 0PF it will be nice to be an exhibitor rather then  a spectator for once!



Wheel swapping before the trip to Staines









Off to Citroen Classics..