I've repaired and painted the protective shields in the wheel arches. These go at the back of the front arches - and at the front of the back arches and hide pipework and suspension bits and pieces.
 |
| Original rear shield (photo credit - DS Museum'?) |
Mine don't look quite as nice as the photo above.....You can buy modern reproductions of the two main rear shields - complete with mudflaps. And you can buy modern reproductions of the front shields.
And for the later Ds (ones with rubber brake hoses) you can even buy a copy of the left lower shield.
Rear Shields
One of mine definitely looked like it had been the victim of a jack as it was badly misshapen.
 |
| Damaged back plate |
And the rubber mudflap of the other was partly worn away. It looked like it had rubbed on a tyre. The brackets that held those mudflats were rusted or missing. Rivets had been replaced with bolts - long since rusted.
 |
| Mudflaps and their holders were worn and rusted |
At one of the Citromobile events in Holland - and knowing my mudflaps were damaged, I'd bought a couple of original front plates.
 |
| Original front plates |
But I also needed the back plates - the ones welded to the shields - and I found that one of the big parts suppliers sold the plates as pairs - so I bought a couple.
 |
| Reproduction front and back plates |
These were cheaper than buying whole new shields - but not as cheap as their size and simplicity suggested they should be! And there was a problem with these repros: the curves on the two parts that sandwich the mudflaps were different! They left gaps!
 |
| New front plate, new back plate |
It seemed to be the curve of the repro front plates that were different to the original front plates I'd bought in Holland. The curves were too shallow.
 |
| Original front plate, new front plate |
As the edges were turned up to strengthen them, the curve couldn't easily be altered and they were more likely to crease and fold. Luckily I found that the curve of the new, repro backplates correctly matched the curves of the original front plates - so I could mix and match bits and make up two good sets.
 |
| Old front plate, new back plate |
 |
| Old front plate, new back plate |
I drilled out the remaining rivets to remove the brackets holding the mudflaps and re-shaped the and cleaned the shields as best I could with a wire wheel.
The back plate is the sacrificial part that i was replacing, I flattened the plates out to give better access and drilled out the spot welds holding the rusted back plates to the shields.
 |
| Drilling out the spot welds from the back plate |
I cleaned up the shield underneath and applied some weld-through primer.
 |
| Rust between the two pieces |
I temporarily fixed the (original Citroen) front plate and remains of a mudflap to the shield.....
 |
| I temporarily fitted the mudflap to help line-up the back plate |
.......which allowed me to the temporarily fit and align the reproduction back plate.
I used my spot welder to weld the new back plates to both shields.
I've seen these shields left unpainted.
Mine aren't things of beauty and so, with the front plates and old mudflaps removed, I gave the shields a coat of epoxy primer and a top coat. They will get painted with underseal anyway, so I didn't mind painting them up.
I have two new replacement rubber mudflaps and some bifurcated rivets ready to fit them.
 |
| I'm planning to use bifurcated rivets to fit the mudflaps |
The mudflaps are perfectly usable but not strictly a pair. One side of the rubber is textured and unfortunately both mudflaps are the same - they aren't 'handed' so may look a bit odd. If you get a magnifying glass out........
 |
| Two - but not a pair |
My originals are smooth both side - not textured. I might hold out and see if the new repros are available as true pairs, cut my own, or just live with it and get on with the rest of my life.
There is a strip of rubber attached to the top edge.
The repro covers have a strip there too - though made of more substantial foam rubber. I don't know if those are about vibration and rattle, or to precent run-off of spray and mud in the wheel arch. Whatever their purpose, I cleaned them up and dutifully glued them on again.
Left Hand Lower Shield
On the left rear side, there is also a lower shield under the height corrector and associated pipes. Mine seems quite flimsy and worn. It was a bit touch-and-go as to whether I sought to replace it.
 |
| Getting ready for cleaning |
You can buy replacements for later cars that can be adapted for my car. I think any difference in shape is because of the use of rubber brake hoses on later cars, rather than brake swivel units. I wasn't keen on the expenditure, nor keen on something that needed to be adapted to fit. I pressed on with cleaning mine up. It took a lot of re-shaping in a vice, as well as wire wheel work to improve it.
 |
| I'm not sure I liked what I found! |
At one point I even used electrolysis to remove the rust.
 |
| Electrolysis to remove rust |
It actually ended up looking quite respectable after i applied some rust killer.....
 |
| The lower cover cleaned up quite well |
....and even better after painting. It was surprisingly hard to glue a new rubber strip to its edge.
 |
| Foam sealing strip on the lower shield |
I think the new repro foam is perhaps denser than the old stuff? It was certainly less willing to take the shape of the edge and I glued it on in stages over the course of a couple of days - clamping each short section as I went along.
There was also a strange piece of foam wedged in a gap under height corrector and on the lower shield.
 |
| Mystery foam rubber piece |
I've salvaged it - but I'm not really sure what it does or how it does it!
Front Shields
The front covers were badly dented at the bottom - perhaps as though someone had tried to jack the car up under them? They had been painted with some kind of underseal product - almost certainly by me. Underneath that, it looks as though they had been painted black originally. They were also blistered and scabby - but not really rusty. Despite that, it was still a titanic battle to remove the old paint and crusty bits and get them back to a half-decent surface.
 |
| The old paint was very stubborn |
I suspect that they'd be galavanised before painting - hence my trouble getting back to bare steel. It was like removing barnacles from a boat, I imagined. A wire wheel on a drill barely touched the surface and i had to resort to a far more aggressive wire wheel on an angle grinder. it was quite difficult holding the curved shape down and at the same time applying the grinder to it. In fact so hard that I left most of the paint on the back sides. After cleaning I applied a rust-killer.......
.......and since I was already spraying my fuel tank - sprayed them with an epoxy primer. Like the fuel tank, the then got a coat of chassis black paint. i hung them up to dry in a door way in the garage and spent the next couple of days banging into them.
 |
| Painted and drying |
I cleaned and refitted the rubber grommets.
When the covers are fitted to the car, the grommets give servicing access to the grease nipples on the suspension lever joints and anti-roll bar bushes. If i'm going to put some kind of waterproof underseal on the covers, I'll need to get those grommets off again.
Front Lower Closing Shields
There are two triangular shields underneath the suspension arms. These get scraped and squashed from jacking. they are made of quite thick steel - perhaps to protect the alloy suspension units above them?
 |
| Triangular lower shields were badly scraped and dented |
Anyway, mine were scraped, dented and rusted. I'd previously tried to straighten them and failed so bought a pair of NOS ones instead. They were cheaper than reproduction ones!
My originals had been painted black, but these NOS ones were galvanised. However they already had the rubber edging already glued on - so weren't intended to be painted? Maybe they were off a slightly later car than mine? For the moment I've fitted them as they are.
