The topless Goddesses from Chapron

Citroen Chapron's DS cabriolets are so rare that more are driving around than ever before. So beware of counterfeiting!

Incidentally, there are also beautiful DS convertibles that did not come from Chapron or pretend that they did. We assume that you, as a potential candidate for the purchase of such a topless Goddess, have done your homework well.

Chapron as a brand - named after Henri Chapron - existed until 1985. The basis of bodywork was laid with the bodywork of Fords that the Americans had left behind after WWI. Until the Second World War, he made the finest bodywork for the French automobile builders' elite. After WWII, Chapron, like his colleagues, was greatly troubled by the wide introduction of the self-supporting bodies and mass production. The presentation of the Citroen DS at the Paris car show in 1955, however, brought Chapron new success. Success, but not a massive success. In total, such an 1.600 Chaprons left the artisan workshop on the little prestigious Rue Aristide Briand in the Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret, based on the DS. The Chapron DS story started three years after the introduction of the DS.

It needed a lot of work

For the two-door bodywork he uses the rear fenders of the four-door, so that a vertical seam remained visible on the side. A beauty flaw that is massaged away in two phases. Citroën is impressed by the work and concludes an agreement for making the convertible.

The car is sold through the official dealer network and comes in addition to the sedan and break in the brochures. Within Chapronkring people speak of the "cabriolet usine", the factory cabriolet. Between 1961 and 1971, Chapron makes 1.365, 1.253 based on the DS and 112 with the cheaper ID as the starting point. Initially delivers Citroën complete cars that are then 'topped' and converted at the workshop. Later the manufacturer supplies unpainted semi-finished products. The conversion is a lot of work and that naturally has its price. In 1961, a convertible costs twice as much as a four-door.

The Chaprons were not built in massive series. In fact, they were all assembled according to traditional methods and with the saying that no other Chapron is the same. But what the beautiful cars shared was their convincing tendency to rust.

The car on the pictures did that too

The car in this story was a tragic example of that. The owner had researched the address where he could be best served to get his Chapron, who had been in the family for a long time, back in order. Through all his search work, many roads led to Terborg. Cyril Sars Citroen Cars specializes in working on and restoring 'major Hydrauliques'.

Holes cheese

The topless DS, which had been parked for a few years, consisted mainly of holes, loosely welded pieces of plate and polyester. Even the fact that the Chapron was built on a more solid base plate of the DS break had not helped. The approach was 'death or the gladiolus', saying goodbye to a wreck or going to work with an open budget. The owner chose to keep the car and keep it in the family.

The nose remained

In the end the nose of the DS was spared. The rest were recreated. And that was only because Cyril Sars and his team have a Celetebank and all sheet metal skills. And that rebuilding became an even more traditional job that the construction of a Chapron was once. Because a lot of plate was converted into sheet metal. And that was especially true for the back.

The first DSsen had narrow tires and a slender buttock. In the course of production, the width of the Chaprons grew along with the bandwidth of the DSsen. And the worry child on Cyril's Celettebank was one of the slender kind. The challenge was to build the whole butt so that the retained boot lid would fit perfectly into its opening.

The engine overhaul was outsourced. Just like the paint job. Fortunately, enough work remained for Cyril and his staff.

Because this car, originally assembled in Belgium (externally recognizable by the headlight rings and the undivided front number plate location), fell within the transition period from a 'red (LHS)' to a 'green' (LHM) hydraulic system in terms of numbering, the men in Terborg took the decision to convert the DS from red to green in consultation with the client. Production-wise, this took two months, but in this case the deployability outweighed the factory originality. The whole process of the rebirth took 4,5 years. And the client was satisfied.

The numbers*

Chapron Cabriolets
La Croisette-1958-1962-52
Palm Beach-1963-1969-30
Le Caddy-1960-1968-34

Factory cabriolets
D 19-1961-1965-112
DS 19-1961-1971-770
DS 21-1961-1971-483

Total 1365
* There is no 100% certainty about the numbers.

The current value: A nice, good Chapron can cost just 150.000 euros.