# 1972 Citroen SM Maserati



## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Bit of blurb courtesy of Wikipedia first for you all:

In 1961, Citroën began work on 'Project S' - a sports variant of the revolutionary Citroën DS. As was customary for the firm, many running concept vehicles were developed, increasingly complex and upmarket from the DS - eventually becoming a halo vehicle for the brand. Citroën purchased Maserati in 1968 with the intention of harnessing Maserati's high performance engine technology to produce a true Gran Turismo car, combining the sophisticated Citroën suspension with a Maserati V6 engine.

The result was the Citroën SM first shown at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1970. It finally went on sale in France in September of that year. All produced were left-hand-drive, although 3 official RHD conversions were done in the UK, and recently also Australia.

The origin of the model name 'SM' is not clear. The 'S' likely derives from the Project 'S' designation, the aim of which was to produce what is essentially a sports variant of the Citroën DS, and the 'M' perhaps refers to Maserati, hence SM is often assumed to stand for 'Sports Maserati', but others have suggested it is short for 'Sa Majesté' (Her Majesty in French), which aligns with the common DS model's nickname 'La déesse' (The Goddess).

The SM was Citroën's flagship vehicle, competing with other high performance GTs of the time from manufacturers such as Jaguar, Lotus, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo and Porsche. It was also Citroën's way of demonstrating just how much power and performance could be accommodated in a front-wheel drive design.

The SM's six headlight set up was illegal in the United States at the time and consequently, US specification cars were fitted with four fixed round exposed lamps.

It placed eleventh on Automobile Magazine's 2005 "100 Coolest Cars" listing.

So on with the write up...

As you will probably spot, this had the 4 exposed headlights so immediately makes it clear that it's a US import - due to this, the car is in brilliant condition - no visible rust at all, and is never driven in the wet to ensure it stays that way. The owner purchased the car 2 years ago and contacted me to see what I could do with it to try and bring the paintwork back to life (it's seen various pieces of paint over the years so is a bit of a patchwork) I have been working on this on any free days I have, and spent around 4 days on it in total - the longest I've ever spent on 1 car before!

Befores:










The swirls :doublesho :





































The paintwork is a patchwork of 2pak and clearcoated black making each panel behave differently towards polish and pad combos, there are numerous RDS and sanding marks that have remained due to them being beneath clearcoat etc - despite cautious attempts to remove them with 3000grit wet & dry by myself ( I didn't want to risk anything stronger)

My first task on day 1 a couple of weeks back was the engine bay - I managed to forget to take any photos for a couple of hours so I didn't take any of the engine before. It wasn't horrendous - some light traffic film and oil / grease on various components. I took a good 90 mins wiping and brushing down with AS G101 and polishing metal components with the britemax twins, paintwork was polished by hand with AG SRP. Fiddly components were cleaned with cotton buds and AS G101. The results:



















Not a pretty engine bay by any means!

Next up was the wash & clay stage. Due to the car never being driven in poor weather, it was pretty clean, but it was given a precautionary wash down in situe with Optimum No Rinse and dried off using Elite Ultra Soft drying towels. The paintwork was marring very easily so I opted for a very fine poly clay with AS Reglaze as lube. The paint again was pretty contaminant free, which surprised me, but better safe than sorry!

I then went around the car taking hundreds of paint readings. I forgot to take a photo of the sheet I wrote all the recordings on, but it varied on individual panels from 200ish up to 1000. Lowest reading on the entire car was 189, highest 1350 :doublesho

Still on day 1 I decided to tackle the interior. Again no before photos, this time because there wasn't anything to really show - it was dusty, but not filthy. A thorough hoover of all the carpets and between each crevice in the seat, before a full wipe down of all plastics with AS Multifresh. Plastics dressed with Aerospace 303 to offer to some UV protection. Leather was cleaned using AS Leather cleaner and later conditioned with Gliptone which made the interior smell a lot less musty! Narrow joints were cleaned out with ****tail sticks and a Megs Slidelock brush to leave:










Possibly the coolest and comfiest seats ever!!

Day 2:

Started off by taping all vulnerable panel gaps, rubber seals and brightwork before splitting each vast panel into sections and establishing a suitable pad and polish combo. As the paint had marred so easily during the wash stage I presumed that it would only require a soft approach, but it laughed off Lime Prime, Megs 80, Menzerna 203s, Megs 83, 3M Extra Fine and even Menzerna Power Gloss on various polishing and light cutting pads!! I ended up settling on 3M FCP mixed with a small amount of Ultrafina on either 3M Green or Orange compounding pads depending on the panel. Various sections of panels were also wet sanded with Megs 3000g wet & dry paper in order to try and remove deeper defects (with limited success  ) Some before and afters and 50/50's from around the car:




























(Note all the new polishes appeared :lol: )




























This took me through day 2 and half way into day 3. The remainder of day 3 was spent refining the finish with 3M extra fine on a yellow pad which only left minor hologrammes, which were to be removed at the end of day 3 and beginning of day 4 with 3M ultrafina.

Day 4: Refined the finish with 3M Ultrafina to remove any remaining hologrammes, then applied Poorboys Black Hole glaze by hand using a lake country finishing applicator pad. LSP of choice was Dodo Supernatural (2 coats) left 30 mins to cure before buffing and 90 mins between coats. In between curing times I tackled brightwork with Briliant polishes (failed to get quite the results I wanted as they were very scratched by what may have been a brillo pad in the past) wheels with Britemax final shine and tyres dressed with AS Vinyl shield, rubber trim and wing mirrors were dressed with AS Trim Ultra.

The weather over day 3 and 4 has been appalling so I was unable to wheel it outside for some final photos as hoped  Here's the afters though from in the garage where it's been sat:




























Road presence?!:










Quite a cool but quirky speedo imo:










(note the dry stopping distance meter related to speed!)

And some arty reflection / glossy shots:














































Levels of correction in all honesty probably were around 75% - near on all the swirls and marring were removed, but I struggled to remove most the RDS and previous sanding marks due to the amount of paintwork it's had - a lot was under the clearcoat I feel. Probably my most challenging detail to date - purely because each panel behaved so differently. But I enjoyed it overall 

Hope that wasn't too boring for you all! Thanks for reading. Comments, constructive criticism and questions welcomed as per usual :thumb:

Rich


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## Guest (Nov 10, 2009)

Looking good Rich, 

Must say never seen 1 of those before, a nice collection of cars there I see too....

Paul


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## MarkJ (May 13, 2009)

Nice work matey


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## FrazzleTC (Jul 4, 2009)

That's a great job and a beautiful car. I'd love to own an SM someday, preferably with the glass light covers though. Superb work


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## Rowan83 (Aug 21, 2007)

Wow! don't see many of them about! Paintwork looks stunning. :thumb:

Seats look very nice but the engine bay looks rather odd, lol.


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## ChrisST (Jul 19, 2009)

One of my 'Lottery garage' cars, along with the DS. Great work on a stunning car, thanks for sharing.:thumb:


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## 123quackers (Jan 29, 2009)

fantastic job lovely work

:argie: love the SM

if you want see one in action.... Original longest yard film with Burt Reynolds

has him in a car chase drinking a large glass of whisky thrashing around getting chased by the old bill... great film :thumb:






here you go


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## DubbedUP (Oct 2, 2007)

One of my favourite cars of all time and in the best colour as well..

And it's the carb'ed version as well, I am sure if my memory serves me correct the FI version had a nasty habit of catching fire..

Excellent turnaround....


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## Cullers (Sep 29, 2009)

I agree the seats look amazing. Love the braking distance measure! If you have to look at that before you land in a field its too late!
Some superb reflections. Love the one with the beams showing.
Rare car and a suitable job on it mate!


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## ianrobbo1 (Feb 13, 2007)

I've actually driven one of these some years ago, It belonged to my RSM, and he "persuaded" me to drive him and his wife to a regimental dinner, as he didn't want to turn up in a puke green Hillman Avenger, I was told I should drive him in his car!! smooth and fast!!:thumb:


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## buff not enuf (Sep 29, 2008)

Fantastic work there not many people get to work on them.


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## rtjc (Apr 19, 2009)

Wow, i have never heard of one of those before. Nice car!! And nice little insight. Of course, good work too


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thanks for all the comments guys!

Yes certainly quite a rare beast. I've worked on a CX25 GTi in the past which are reasonably rare, but I had to look this one up when I was asked to work on it lol.


It is a shame it's not the European one with swivel lights, but then I bet it wouldn't be anywhere near the condition this one is due to the poorer weather!

:thumb:


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## Planet Man (Apr 12, 2008)

Tremendous Rich:thumb:

Lovely to see some classics on here


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## Cornish (Jun 20, 2008)

Absolutely beautiful car, full of soul. As echoed by others, it's a shame it doesn't have the swivelling lights, they look so much better.
Good job though matey:thumb:

As an afterthought, I seem to remember an Autocar test praising the car but slaying it on the handling due to the pneumatic suspension.


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Very nice indeed :thumb:


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## geert dr (Jul 13, 2007)

Gorgeous car ,one of the most beautiful cars ever made in France ! :thumb:


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thanks for all the comments chaps. Just realised I mucked up with repeating some of the images (dodgy keyboard using C&P!) so have just sorted that out - couple of new pics in there now :thumb:


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## edsel (Aug 22, 2008)

Outstanding job !!
I'm a sucker for big citroens and quirky cars, another car on the wish list. Any more pics of the interior and engine bay?


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## Testor VTS (May 29, 2009)

ohhhh..... one of my dream cars!!!!!! 

Actually I'm looking for one in good condition! Would look well next to the Traction Avant. 

I think the name SM comes from : "serié Maserati"




you did an awsome job on that one! :thumb:


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## Funkytear (May 6, 2009)

All i can say is WOW!


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## Jesse74 (Jul 19, 2008)

Rich, that's one I've yet to see, so thank you! It looks great!


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Cheers for all the comments guys!

Aside to raceglaze, who else sells decent car covers? The owner is after one now...


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## Jesse74 (Jul 19, 2008)

Rich H said:


> Cheers for all the comments guys!
> 
> Aside to raceglaze, who else sells decent car covers? The owner is after one now...


If you find one let me know, as I've got a buddy (VTS_Tibi) looking for one now. Like I told him though, don't settle for a cheap one because you'll do more damage than good with it. Like the sh1tty Ferrari covers that come with the car, they're soft and all on the inside but they allow TONS of dust to get on the car.


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

I'm going to try and persuade him to get a bubble tbh :lol: I hate covers too. I vaguely remember somebody posting up a link on here to a classic car company or something which were meant to be really good, but I can't find the thread again


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## 123quackers (Jan 29, 2009)

geert dr said:


> Gorgeous car ,one of the most beautiful cars ever made in France ! :thumb:


the first and most BEAUTIFUL being FACEL VEGA HK500!!:argie::thumb:


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## Needs a clean (May 24, 2008)

It must just be me, but that has to be one of the ugliest cars i have ever seen. Good job on the correction though. :thumb:


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## Trist (Jun 23, 2006)

What a lovely looking car, never head of or ever seen one before.

Looks smashing :thumb:


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