1990 Citroën CX 25 Safari! DTR Turbo 2 Restoration

[mrmichael]

Hey Guys! 

I'm not sure how much interest this is going to get so I shall keep it short and sweet.

I have always loved the shape and quirkiness of it, how it doesn't have indicator stalks, instead it has buttons and switches, or how the seats are like my grandmas old sofa (Super comfy!). 

At age 18 back in March I made the punt to go and buy a 1990 registered CX Safari from Wakefield! She was a bit tired after being off the road since 2008 and in a lovely shade of yellow. 

I have attached some pictures of it below, she is a runner and drives. The car was originally a TRI petrol, however the PO has swapped it to a DTR Turbo 2 engine I believe, this was from a donor car he had with only 66k on the clock!

Id love to hear any feedback you have on the car, I am far from mechanically trained, I have done a partial restoration on both a 71 MGB and a Mark 1 Triumph spitfire 

- Michael  

[grifterkid]

Love it...!!!!

Good luck with the fiddly bits!

I believe there are a few really good CX threads here where you will be able to garner some knowledge with regards to what you need to do...

Enjoy.

[mrbig]

Love it! Don't think I have ever seen a yellow one before! Is that the original colour?

[westbay]

Yup, interested…

[duggers]

Worth joining the Citroen owners club apparently. James Walshe of Practical Classics is a Citroenista and restored a CX and got lots of advice and parts that way.
That yellow looks like the original SERVIS (follded in 1991-2, Name bought out) fleet colour from days of yore. A company that would come to your home and repair white goods IIRC.

[mrmichael]

Wow! Thank you everyone who replied! I am hoping to keep this going as I continue the build restoration.

To answer mrbig, Yellow is far from the original colour, the car has been quite shoddily painted, and in places a simple jet wash will return it back to the original colour (Which is silver).

grifterkid - The fiddley bits is what takes the most time, especially as its had an engine swap, random connectors, and ends of wires are everywhere! especially with the guides only showing so much.

duggers - I will definitely look into the Citroen owners club, I have joined the unofficial group on Facebook which have been a great help so far in this mission!, The colour is certainly an eye catcher and that would be so cool if it was originally part of a fleet (as it would be the perfect car, with a massive boot) to do so! I have zero history on the car which is a shame because someone somewhere would have had loads once upon a time.

More pictures to follow!

-Michael

[mrmichael]

So.. next job on the list was to get the front bumper off, I noticed it had a crack right behind the number plate, which looked to me like it had rolled into something once upon a time this could be evidenced by the different front number plate.

These suspicions were correct, as it had a lovely dent in the front crash bar, my guess is a bollard. Whilst the front number was off (how it currently still is) would provide better access for the welding that would need to be done under neath the driver side headlight.

As I said above the paintjob is worse than a drunken apprentice, a simple jetwash of the bumper with myself and my friend (whos drive this is stored on) and the bumper went back to its original shade of grey plastic!

next job is to get it running smoothly, it has an awful cloud of white smoke, due to glow plugs that are on their deathbed, along with this will be a new fuel filter and new fuel lines, each fuel line currently has more holes than a colander.

-Michael

This is the car once on the drive, roughly 10 minutes after it was delivered! I was beyond myself, looked every which way and could not stop smiling, however whilst smiling I also created a mental list of jobs that needed doing, the original colour is still very evident under the bonnet and underneath every panel


My friend came to join in on the jet washing, we were the same colour as the car by the end, all that yellow paint came flying right off with no labor needed 


Time for my go! 


This was the bumper in the condition we took it off, you can see the crack I mentioned underneath where the number plate should go. 

[tofufi]

Love these

Bookmarked and in for the ride.

[mrmichael]

tofufi I'm glad you're sticking around! can't wait to show more!

Jobs to do:

-sort out the brakes (its either nothing or an emergency stop no middle ground)
-Weld the rotten parts of the car
-Sort the warning lights (only the coolant one works)
-Sort the dash display (door display etc.)
-Oil and filter change
- Sort the rear wash pump and the front wiper motor
Those are the tasks I have set myself to complete coming up

-Michael

[mrmichael]

Another day, another task

When I first got the car, the off side wing mirror was one gust of wind from falling off, as the passenger door card was completely off and the window winder did not work, I took the opportunity to fully remove the wing mirror and the wiring, I would pick up on this later when I would swap the mounts over so I can keep the wiring and connectors original.

This below was the state (not functioning state should I add) that the OS wing mirror was in. This was a common occurrence throughout the build so far, the car should feature in a new TV show... "for the love of crimps" 

When I purchased the car it came with a "shed load" of spares, I asked this question to the PO, once upon a time he had a white CX safari and that turned out to be to too rusty in places this helped me dramatically! as the full parts collection from that car are not part of my possession! Bits have came in very handy especially with odd switches, wiring looms etc. Photo taken 10 days after I first got the car. 

Not often you get lovely sunny weather in the UK, so one day after work this was taken full advantage of and I decided to sand born the old airhorns, judging by the paint inside of these, they were blue many moons ago, I have a full idea for the engine bay, maybe a lovely shade of red? I am thinking for a Iris blue, or pastel blue for the exterior.

[mrmichael]

Coolant flush day has arrived, as the thermostat and radiator sensor needed to be replaced (in the future) it was best to drain it now and run through fresh water in the interim. Lovely shade of brown came out of the radiator as seen by the picture below, this would be something I would have to pick up on later in the build when the car can run under its own steam confidently, straight down the manhole the old stuff went. 

I then got distracted by some new parts that had came in the post and was to impatient to wait, I noticed the old bullet style bulbs got concerningly hot in the interior light, for the price of £4 I decided to invest in some LED bulbs this would be a great addition to the set and also would provide great lighting coverage.

Going back to the random jobs, the passenger window needed sorting, then the passenger door card could be refitted meaning less parts for me to store whey-ey!. It was odd, with myself having no electrical experience myself and my friend we tried different switches, some worked going up but not down and vice versa, turns out the circuit is all in series as such, meaning if the drivers one is knackered the full loop is brown bread, that's 2 hours I will never regain. Below are some photos of both the drivers and passenger doors mid diagnosing, top tip for anyone doing a CX or Citroen around this time, the grey silicone glue they use for the internals of the door, awful stuff to get off. 


Coming up is a new radio and speaker install (as we had to fix this for the passenger door card to be refitted and it was loose wires all over, and you guessed it with more crimps!), re-fitting the door card.

-Michael 

[mrmichael]

Small jobs every now and then keep the motivation alive! so next on the overdue list was a new sound system, the car had came with a Panasonic stereo that had been crudely butchered in (with again more crimps!) and with only one speaker working and wired in. 

The speakers as it was, were in a very crude state, I had an Amazon voucher for £25 so decided to order some smaller fit Kenwood set. 

This was the radio once wired in, nothing special nor expensive (another cheap amazon one however, its never let me down in the two cars it has been in. Features Bluetooth, USB,AUX, FM Radio, and RCA Inputs at the rear. 

This was the speakers once plumbed in, quite a nice fit i thought, whilst keeping the stock speaker cover, I did have to cut off the original speaker connections on the end of the loom, however the new ones are a very snug and tight. When the car is done (eventually) this will provide a more enjoyable time at the wheel.  

And just like that finally, the passenger door card is back on! yes it will have to come back off probably 6 more times after this, but its definitely a start and I can vision more of the car now this is complete. 

And now that is said and done, we are all up to date with the bigger tasks I have done so far, I have replaced the battery for a new one during this time, and started to change some of the headlight bulbs. I am hoping to start welding in the coming weeks, along the fitting of the front bumper. 

After this my next plan is to fully strip the interior, carpets, seats boot lining all out to repaint and seal the floor pan internally once grinded back down to metal with some 60 and 120 grit sanding discs. 

[mrmichael]

Hello everyone! long time no speak, welding day has arrived! I splashed the cash to go out and buy a MiG welder and get it to good use, bear in mind my friend nor myself had ever used a welder, slowly over time we worked out how much wire to feed, and how to make it workable, and look better once grinded down
I could be quite the photographer don't you think?

Whilst the welding was getting done, I decided to move to the inside to wire in a new replacement for the cigarette lighter, I want to keep the car as stock as possible, whilst updating the car to the 21st century. This isn't the final product but decided to install a USB replacement, this will get us away for now, and comes with an ON/OFF switch as well, which is nice considering the car has a permanent live. 

After some more of the front welding was done, and I took a days break to go to a party, my friend decided to strip the interior back to metal, we started to strip the boot lining previously to find out both inner boot wings had quite bad rust holes, this was expected but quite a lot of holes appeared the more you dug back at them, the car is in desperate need of some good WAXOYL once its done, with a different form of rust proof paint for the inside!. 
half way through:

This was the interior after, to my surprise the actual floor pan content was really solid! however, i definitely will coat the high volume areas in rust proof solution
after:

Every warm day, has to come to a close somehow, so that was the end of that day! more to follow hopefully next time is to get the front bumper on and sort all of the headlights, finish the internal welding and then put the interior back together bit by bit whilst we take the rear bumper off to expose more welding that needs to take place. 

I am going to France next summer so I am hoping to get the car ready for then, as the space and fuel economy will be very practical, compared to hiring a minibus for only the 5 of us. 

[tofufi]

Good stuff.

Learning to weld is one of the most handy things I've ever done, car-wise.

[darrenh]

i'm not sure where your doubt came from that we would like the car.

without even consulting anyone else i can say with confidence that it meets universal approval !

[mrmichael]

tofufi - Definitely going to look into welding myself, it would be such a handy skill to have! Especially with this Safari which is made of 10% rust

Thanks for the continued support everyone!

-Michael

[darrenh]

Jun 7, 2022 13:29:30 GMT mrmichael said:

which is made of 10% rust

you found a good one then

[mrmichael]

darrenh - Oh without a doubt! it is very solid in every place but the rear, the car body has done 105k and with the cheap metal used and taking into account its been off the road since '08 it deserves to be rusty.

However, its quite big patches to fill, however all of them will be covered by carpet, arch linings etc. I am also hoping to WAXOYL the full underside to prevent more rust happening again, if the car was to sit again.

[robbo86]

Love a Citroen ever since my dad had a BX when I was a wee’un. Bookmarked.

[akku]

Cool, what a rarity! A couple of years ago I came across a guy who was doing an amazing restoration of the hatchback version...