Citroen Restoration - Citroen DS - View Restoration Area

Now you must drill the rivets out. Once you've drilled the metal the trim can be carefully removed. Make sure you don't damage it by forcing it as the trims can look awful if they get ripples in them.

And that's it! Your wing is now stripped. Remember to carefully label and store all of your parts, including the rubber sealing strips which I have not photographed here. Next comes refurbishing this lot and re-assembling on the restored wing.

Next slide the rubber trim out of the stainless steel strip. This will reveal the two rivets holding the trim in place.

To remove these first carefully bend the end of the trim over, like this.

My car has the Pallas trim running along it's mid-line. It should also have smaller trims long the bottom edge of this wing. The smaller trims were removed by the previous owner but they simply clip on and are easily removed.

Those bolts pass through the wing and into plates which, thanks to the rust on this car, I can photograph here. If your wing isn't as rusty as this one you can get at the plates by reaching down from the top of the wing.

At the rear of the wings are two rubber mountings. These are adjustable and are removed by unscrewing the M5 bolts which pass through them.

Don't forget the little clips, such as this one for the bonnet release cable.

And then withdraw the bar and its nylon collar like this. (Keep ahold of the bolts from the end of this bar, they aren't your standard Citroen M7s!)

Pull the clip downwards away from the bar like this.

Next you must remove the self-levelling lever. It is held in by a nylon clip as shown here.

The silver trim around the headlights is pushed onto a lip on the wing. There is a break in it on the bottom edge which is concealed by this small stainless clip. Remove the clip and carefully prize the trim off the wing.

Note that there are two versions of this trim; one is plastic (like this) and the other is stainless. The stainless ones don't discolour, but they can remove the paint from the wing when you fit them, thus promoting rust!

Behind the glass is a sealing strip. Sometimes you will find that this is missing and has been replaced by mastic. Not so on this wing though!

Here is the second clamp. To remove them simply loosen the locknuts and then back the main nuts off a few turns, they will come out very easily.

The glass is held in by two clamps at it's top edge. Here is the first. (By the way, the lines on the glass are purely asthetic; they are not heated!)

And here is the light unit removed from the wing. Looks pretty filthy doesn't it? Not for long...

With all of the fasteners removed the light bucket can then be withdrawn downwards out of the wing, bringing with it the wiring loom. (It's easier to lable the loom with it still attached to the light and off the car).

This bolt at the bottom of the light attaches to a captive nut inside the wing. The whole thing was rusted solid and wouldn't come off with a spanner so out came my new toy: a Dremel! The grinder was way to big to get at this bolt, but the Dremel was just the right size.

I ground the top off this bolt enabling it to pass through the light.

This bolt looks quite ordinary, but notice the square self locking nut attached to it. You can guarantee that if you misplace this finding another will be difficult!

The next step is to remove the bottom clamp, pictured here.

When I removed the bottom bolt from the light it withdrew the metal bushing pressed into the light unit as well. I'll store this carefully ready for re-assembly.

This small metal strip holds the light at it's top. I'm not too sure what the plastic covering is for, but it should be there!

This clamp holds the light at the front.

This closeup shows the two bottom fasteners on the light. Note the clamp with it's rubber protector.

Here is a shot of the underside of the light unit, I've highlighted the relevant fasteners here.

To remove it, just pop the balljoint on the end out of the headlight, but remember to take care!

Now, to remove the lights.

Firstly you need to carefully disconnect this lever. This is used to adjust headlight aim, but the plastic used is very brittle and good ones are starting to become rare.

This small rubber is often missing from DS'. In fact, I've heard of people stealing them from other cars at shows! Thankfully this one is intact and will be cleaned and correctly refitted on the restored wing.

To remove the damper you must unclip the spring from the headlight lever and withdraw it like this.

Here is where the damper rod attaches to the wing. It's held in place by a spring clip.

This thing is the damper for the self-levelling headlights. The light-mechanism attaches to this via a rod. It's held on by two M7 nuts/studs.

Here is where the wiring for the lights passes through the wing. Note the use of the rubber grommet. Also note that I've labelled each wire using my trusty labelling machine.

This photo shows the windscreen washer pump, the inner wing loom and the fresh air tube.

The Washer pump has two hose connections, one that goes into the top of the fluid bottle and another which attaches to the jets on the bonnet. Also note the clips holding the pipe to the wing.

The fresh air tube is attached via a clamp onto the washer pump bracket.

This wing was beyond repair, but I needed all of the little bits from it, not to mention the lights...

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