1978 Citroën GS Club

[Siert]

I've always liked the look of the Citroën GS and GSA models. I drove a friends GSA on a regular basis several years ago and I decided then that one day I would have one myself.

Today is that day.



I responded to a small text only advert on the website of the Finnish Citroën club. The car turned out to be in "timewarp" condition. It has proveably only done 51.000km (32000 miles). Most of it by its first lady owner who never drove in winter. She gave the keys to her daughter 10 years ago, and it was hardly used at all since.

There's a set of studded winter tires (yes, studded Michelin XZX 145 SR 15's !!!) that were delivered with the car when it was new, but they have never been used.

The left side had been resprayed because of a small accident something like 25 years ago.

Today things changed for the GS as I drove it 220km home over the motorway with no problems at all. My friends at the car club hitched a ride and were very surprised about how quiet it is. At 110km/h the 1220cc engine is doing 4500rpm but its sound is mostly surpressed by wind and tire noise.

It urgently needs the following things:
1) A garage
Will most probably be sorted within a couple of days

2) New timing belts
Big job, probably never been done.

3) New tires
The rears have a DOT number, but they're pre-2000. It ends in 107 so I'm guessing it might be 10th week of '97??? Fronts are probably from the original 1978 set and they're cracked and worn.

I'm not sure which tires I'll buy yet, but most probably not the original Michelin XZX's (145/15) as they only produce a batch of those every couple of years and they are very expensive. 155/70/15 fits exactly but you can only get it from Vredestein and on the Dutch Citroën forum they aren't exactly positive about them. They're not that cheap either. 175/65/15 is slightly to low and quite wide, but most probably I'll end up just buying a set of Michelin Energy's in that size.

[Neil]

i love these! I nearly bought a 1972 GS Club when i was 18 - that was a one owner car, the fact the the ride was appalling put me off. It wasn't until a couple of years after that i found out that it was probably only the spheres that needed replacing!

Please get the rustproofer flowing!

[jizzy gillespie]

I'm so jealous its unreal

[chaz]

Good to see them looking so good.

[michiel]

Great work Siert, nice car! I still fondly remember my parents' 1978 Break.

[flannelracing]

Fantastic Little Cars!!! I had one in 1992, went everywhere in it, literaly!!! Had amazing ground clearance when the suspension was up, even did some mild off roading in it!! I would love another but most of the UK one have probably dissolved by now... Yours looks lovely though, as for the Tyres, try Vintage Tyre Supplies, I got a pair of Firestone 145's for the front of my Beetle from there a couple of years back...

[briandamaged]

That's gorgeous!!

[Siert]

Thanks for all the kind replies

Have some more pictures ;-)





Aircooled flat four.


"I chose comfort"






Surprising, isn't it?


Suspension at rest. The black stripe on the rear fender is not original, but very old. It has clearly been put there to avoid problems rather than to mask them.


Never used Michelin XZX 145 SR 15 studded wintertires from 1978... I'm definitly not going to use them, but it's pretty unique!

Some small problems:

It has this same spot behind both rear doors.


The passenger's side door has these bad spots.

I didn't take any pictures of the seats as I haven't removed the worn seat covers that have been covering them since 1978 yet... Peeking under them showed that the seats are in perfect condition though, which is really rare for a GS as the cloth is horribly thin and badly affected by sunlight.

[Littlepixel]

Lovely... I always thought these were hatchbacks! Strange to see that locker-like boot... Love the green. A really nice example!

[michiel]

What a dash...

[jayb]

thats so nice, i love the shape of the GS

[stwat]

Oh God Yes That really floats my boat

It's such a shame Citroen have lost all the French quirkiness they once had.

[djmatt]

I can probably help you a little with the tyres:

The DOT (Department Of Transport) mark does indeed include a date, which if it is 2000 onwards is 4 digits. 1007 would mean 10th week of 2007, for example.

The DOT mark came in in the 80's and they only had 3 numbers back then - 107 would mean 10th week of 1987. If the 3 numbers had a triangle after or before them then that would mean 10th week of 1997.

I work in a tyre shop in Australia - I can give you an idea of what is made in these sizes.

It looks like the 145SR15 is only made by Michelin, so nothing else available in that size. You have already looked into that size anyway, so lets move on. The 155/70R15 you mentioned doesn't come up on our screen, but that doesn't mean there's nothing available.

The 175/65R15 is a much more common tyre it would seem. Bridgestone make a B391, Continental make an Eco ContiPremiumContact, Dunlop make an SP30, SP31 and an SP Sport 01, Goodyear make a GT3, Hankook make a K415, Kumho make a KH15, and Pirelli make a P3000 and a P4.

Now, the 145SR15 doesn't appear in my standards book, but online tyre size calculators are telling me that the overall diameter is 613mm. The 155/70R15 is 599mm overall diameter, and the 175/65R15 comes in 10mm larger at 609mm. This being the case, the 175/65R15 would be my choice.

However, it depends on your rim width... The 145 would more than likely be sitting on a 4" rim, and the 175 recommends a 5" rim. If the 175 sat on your 4" rim, it will probably handle like poo.


Hope this all helps

Matt

[Siert]

Thanks, I didn't know the DOT mark was so old. I didn't see any triangles and I think 10th week of '87 is much more likely anyway given the cars lack of use in "recent" years.

As mentioned by somebody before Firestone also makes/made 145SR15 and I have indeed seen online vintage tire sellers that have them... But apart from the high prices I don't really want to drive on "vintage" tires. The same with the Michelin XZX's as they make them in a batch every couple of years, so if you buy at the end of a batch you bacically get new old stock.


So taking into account best fit size, availability and the fact that I just don't want new old stock tires 175/65/15 will probably be my choice as well. It has been done on GS and GSA's before so it should fit, whether it affects the handling badly I don't know but 30 year old tires can't be all that great either ;-) I'm a bit afraid of the steering going too heavy.

[mid72]

Excellent! Good to read so many nice comments about GS's as they are great cars. I'd recommend going for Michelins on a Citroen every time from my experience, they wear nicely and just seem to really suit them and if your not too much of a purist go for a modern tread pattern. That's what I've done with my CX. I'll be interested to see what you decide on. If the tyres are original perhaps keep the best one as a spare for an interesting feature!

[djmatt]

There's no law against using old tyres on a car, but there should be IMO. They go hard and they perish with age and become unsafe. You mostly find this with tyres that have been fitted and been in direct sunlight for years, but even new old stock can be curse word sometimes.

They do say that a tyre has a shelf life of 6 years though, and I have sold tyres before now that are 6 years old. I will always tell the customer how old they are though, if they are getting on a bit, as they need to know what they are buying, and you don't want them to come back saying "My mate down the pub has just shown me the date on these tyres you just sold me" etc...................

If Michelin have some of these 145SR15's in stock then ask them how old they actually are. If they are older than 6 years then don't touch them. I think you should be fine though.

By the way - Vintage tyres don't necessarily mean vintage tyres. There is a company in Australia who sell "antique tyres" ( www.antiquetyres.com.au ) and they are all new tyres, just made in the old ways, like crossply and bias belted construction. Some are old fashioned tread patterns and period white walls, and correct imperial sizes for vintage cars. It doesn't mean that they sell 30 year old tyres

[Siert]

No, I know that the tires you can buy are not 30 years old, but I didn't know tires have a 6 year shelf life (because I know by experience tires that have been on an unused car for 6 years are pretty curse word)

I think Michelin makes a batch once every couple of years. That should mean that the tires you buy are at most something like 5 years old. On the Dutch Citroën forum somebody is telling me to just bite the bullet and buy those as I will according to him regret anything else... The (only?) Finnish dealer of Michelin classic tires sells them for 160,- each but I've seen them only from a vintage tire seller in England for 110,- and I guess that you can send 4 tires from England to Finland for less than 200 Euro's... Still, steep prices considering that you can get Michelin Engery's in 175/65/15 under 70 Euro's.

[dollywobbler]

Wow! That's a great car in an utterly perfect colour!

For the non-Citroen anoraks, the GS was a saloon or estate, the GSA was a hatch or estate.

A GS/GSA is very definitely on my 'must own' list.

[Siert]

In the weekend I replaced the timing belts, it was a much easier job than I expected. Yes, you have to take the whole front of the car off to get to them, but that's not difficult, it just takes a bit of time.


This is what it looks like after you remove the front... Not a single spot of rust, and no rusty bolts either.


The old belts where really loose! You can see there's some surface rust on the tension rollers. I drove this car for more than 200km on the motorway when I bought it... had the belts been at good tension the surface rust would have been removed.


Now that's better. The T-piece in the hydraulics low pressure line has to be replaced as well as some cracks are starting to show. But I just want to drive it now, so I'll take it apart again some other day ;-)


It's all back together now. Jobs left to do on the short term:

1) Take it for "katsastus" The Finnish version of MOT.

2) Fit new tires. I bit the bullet and ordered new Michelin XZX's in the correct size from my homecountry The Netherlands. It will set me back 510,- Euro's but unfortunately they're currently unavailable... Michelin is expected to have them available again in July.

3) Fit a towing hook Which I thought would be had to find... But surprisingly enough somebody offered me one 10 minutes after placing a wanted ad on a Finnish forum. Why, I hear you ask? Well, the boot is to small to fit a bike into, so I'd like to be able to fit a bicycle carrier.

[village]

I am "weapons grade" jealous!!

My folks had a GS Special when I was a lad, and I'd love to have one of my own, but as has been mentioned already, they all disolved about 15 years ago.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say "Mega pussi" (big bag)