1957 DS19
Serial #: 12059, build on
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I have bought
this car in She was imported
in this country in 1957, which makes her one of the first ones officially
imported. She spent 48
years in In 2005, she
was acquired by a car enthusiast in I bought her
on eBay as a 1958. Turned out that she was an early 1957; thanks to the Citroen
Conservatoire in |
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Here are some
pictures that I received in 2005 when the original owner was planning on
selling her. I was already
interested but had plenty of projects at that time. I would love to give
credits to the person who sent me these pictures, but I do not recall how I
got hold of them. I always kept these pictures on my computer’s hard
drive and it was funny when the car showed up on eBay in 2006. I said to
myself “Waaaaaait a minute, I know this
car!”. When I
learned that she was born in 1957 and not in 1958, I just moved the pictures
from my 1958 folder to my 1957 folder!
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Here are the pictures that the
previous owner sent me prior the end of the auction: |
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The car got cleaned up. First
indication of an early DS: The Citroen badge on the hood. |
The other interesting fact is the
badge on the front door… |
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… and the passenger door. |
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The headliner is gone (as always in a
DS…). |
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The other clues on the age of this car:
The color and texture of the vinyl sill cover and the chassis being the same
color of the body (Gris Rose). |
Good looking floor! |
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The state of the seat would be
consistent of a low mileage car… |
… so as the condition of the
carpet. |
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At this point, not knowing the history
of this car, I figured that she had 139,000 miles. But now I have been
through the car, gear box and engine, I think that this car has only 39,000.
Further more, since the car was on the road only 5 years, the owner would
have driven 27,800 miles per year. Very unlikely. |
This is a very rare logo. Citroen used
to put these badges on early imports. I have forwarded this logo to Othello who owns a
DS19 #425 and it was forwarded by a friend of mine to Olivier De Serre, and they were very surprised to see a
“new” logo not known to collectors so far. This make the third
Citroen logo for export models known. |
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Very solid chassis. Note the flat single
exhaust pipe outfitting early models. |
No rust on the trunk and the sway bar
cover. |
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Engine that was supposedly running.
Well, it was true, but only on three cylinders. |
Very good front and rear carpets. |
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The following are updates of the
progress made on the car. I will add links to see details of the work I have
been doing. |
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I had to clean this immaculate dash.
This is extremely rare to find a car with such a beautiful dashboard. Thanks to
the 43 years this car spent in the dark. |
This part is also impeccable. Usually,
this and the glove box cover are warped. |
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The gearbox was badly damaged, so I
bought the remains of a ’59 DS that stayed outside for 26 years. I used
the gear box, engine and some other parts. |
Now the gearbox has been changed.
(Link to come) |
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New condensers. (Link to come) |
Restored fluid tank. (Link to come) |
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After finding out that an exhaust valve
was bent and the head was not in great shape either, I have replaced the head
with the ’59 wrecked I bought. |
She purrs like a kitten now. |
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“New” fuel sender unit. |
Since I was working in the tank area,
I have cleaned the floor, carpet and backing of the front seats. The floor is
in perfect condition so as the vinyl. |
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A little rust in the heat vent. This
will be addressed when I do the body and chassis work. |
So rust stains, but overall a nice
carpet. (Details to come) |
