1971 Citroën DS21 Pallas
For some time I have been wondering what should be the one remaining marque I should add to the Kelly Street Classics garage. It had to be an important but beautiful part of automotive history. The answer eventually was obvious. Citroën DS (known as the Déesse, or Goddess).
So the search for a good DS began in earnest. It was surprising what was out there, and not necessarily advertised through the normal commercial advertising channels. Facebook groups were a great source, and older, established internet bulletin boards and forums. I had a shortlist in the end of a car in Western Australia (difficult to inspect with the tyranny of distance), a lovely Pallas in South Australia, which was my main focus, but I was 2nd in line, and this car in Canberra, which I found out about by a combination of a friend having been offered the car (among others) and other Canberra contacts who knew the car for the last 40 years or so.
The South Australian car ended up selling to the first-position buyer, so I decided to drive to Canberra to view the cars on offer there, which also included a DS23 Safari. While some problems were apparent, I thought the Pallas and the Safari were worth taking a bit of a gamble on, even though they were priced a fair bit higher than the others I had considered (and, as it turns out, quite a bit higher than offers from others, as I discovered later). Eventually a slightly lower price was agreed to by the seller (the widow of the owner - just recently sadly deceased - of the cars for the past 20 years or so), which was JUST covered by the rest of my savings and the rest of my modest superannuation. This was scary stuff! However, some weeks later, the trip to Canberra was done with my trusty old Isuzu truck and a borrowed car trailer (thanks Jason!).
↑ The big move from Canberra to Avoca, during a
rest stop on the Hume Hwy. The Isuzu did a great job yet again!
↑ The Pallas in its new environs. The car was
immediately put through an extensive cleaning and detailing process in the
workshop. The difference to the whole car, inside and out, was amazing. The
car had been with owners in Canberra for many decades, so rust and corrosion
is minimal. It had also been kept under cover, so sun fading of the original
interior is minimal. The car had previously been resprayed in its original
colour, the very attractive Platinum Blue (Bleu Platine) that was only used on
the 1970/71 models, and only on the top-end models of the DS such as the
sumptuous Pallas.
↑ The deep blue (Bleu) of the original Jersey Velours 'mixte', used from 1970, where the fabric on the pleated sections of the seats contains darker stripes (rayé) while being plain on the remainder (uni).
↑ The deep blue and white interior is sumptuous
and inviting. Only the Pallas got this stunning, comfortable, over-the-top
treatment.
↑ The engine bay after a good clean and some
extraneous wiring etc removed. This area will be subjected to a lot more
work in the future, but mechanically the car is very good.
Subsequent work has uncovered quite a few problems, but these are being addressed, and include;
-
Oil leaks. Driving the car onto the truck
instantly revealed a pretty major engine oil leak, as a black trail was
left on the deck. This is yet to be traced and addressed. There is also
a fairly big leak from the rear left suspension; a quick inspection
showed all suspension gaiters are cracked and starting to leak. This is
not totally unexpected (see right). -
Hopelessly misconnected wiring. It's amazing the car ran at all, with the electronic ignition incorrectly wired, and no tachometer, no temperature gauge, no horn, and lights all working incorrectly or not at all. Many hours have been spent properly tracing the wiring and correcting the connections, and quite a bit of very amateurish (and illogical) added wiring has been removed or corrected.
-
Headlights incorrectly installed (in fact, you can see it in the photo below) so the main headlights shone upwards at a ridiculous angle. Great for spotting koalas, but no light reached the road, and truck drivers would have been blinded at close range. The pivoting driving lights were vastly out of alignment, so with the front wheels straight ahead, the lights were at different angles. This wasn't able to be simply adjusted - the whole mechanism had to be removed, refitted properly, and then the adjusters were useful.
-
No speedometer. With the lack of tachometer and temperature gauge (point 1), driving this car legally on the road was impossible! Incorrectly fitted cables which had subsequently worn the primary cable was the issue - I was able to carefully cut the outer, shorten it slightly, correctly shim the inner, and then reassemble using a small hose clamp. Speedometer now works!
-
Exhaust leak. This was expected, as it was at least identified by the seller during initial enquiries. The main muffler needs replacement due to rusting (probably due to short runs, which is not surprising, given the other problems identified)
-
Rubbing strips had been badly fitted with random pieces of double-sided adhesive tape (not continuous). One had already come adrift, with the others just a matter of time. Dismantling the strips, and removing the rubber inserts from the stainless steel housings, showed the original fittings had rusted through, and the rusted remains were still rattling around within the strips. Luckily no other damage existed, so the rusted remains were removed, the housings wire brushed internally, the rust-stained rubber inserts washed using some pretty strong chemicals and a lot of scrubbing with a nylon brush, and then the stips properly reapplied to the original mounting holes using screws as originally (but stainless steel this time).
-
Watch this space!
↑ The interesting foglights fitted. These are
high-quality French units, and seem to have been available when new as a
dealer option. Relatively common on European Citroëns, but not seen in
Australia much (at all?)