Citroënvie member Ken Nelson wrote to say that he bought most of the parts in the Napa Valley auction that we mentioned were for sale on March 11. Ken says he really doesn’t have the room for them and is willing to offer them to others who might need some very early parts. All of the parts are from the first series cars, so if you have one that needs some bits and pieces, let Ken know what you’re looking for.
Ken writes about the history; “These were from the 60 yr long collection of parts of Clem Landau, who lived in Napa CA. all his life after WWII. I had met him 12 yrs ago when I first started coming to California during the winter. Wally Escherich of Redlands CA. had sent me a note anonymously telling me Clem had brand new driveshafts for an early D that I needed to repair a teacher’s car here in CA. when I met Clem he was about 84 yrs old, but quite spry, and opened his garage door to show me the shafts. What I saw first was a pile of empty boxes to the ceiling! But at the bottom front, I saw two small bumperettes that I recognized as pure Citroën. He told me there was a ’61 ID19 wagon under there! Sure enough, we removed some boxes and there sat a wagon with a near perfect unrusted body. Been there 12 yrs since it last ran. I bought the car from Clem, had it running in under an hour, and drove it home, having to refill the radiator every half hour as it constantly overheated! Cindy and I drove that car to many rallies out here and had a ball in it even tho it was missing a tooth in 1st gear, so I always started in 2nd. Even towed other cars with it!”
“I stayed in touch with Clem over the yrs, but sadly found out by chance that he’d passed away early this yr. Oddly enough, a friend in Minnesota sent me a note about the auction of Clem’s collection, but it wasn’t identified until I saw they were selling a pink ’59 DS19 that I recognized as a lawn ornament Clem had put in front of his house! For some strange reason Clem had modified the car by mixing up the early DS19 dash parts with ID19 parts, making it hard to tell exactly what the car was. He had also stripped most of engine out and also the entire transmission and was going to substitute an electric motor to power the hydraulic pump! Maybe to make the car go up & down on the lawn – He didn’t finish that however, but his huge garage and outhouses were filled to the ceiling with DS parts. The garage attic had an entire DS body in it he’d hauled up there, and we found early D parts in the crawl space under the house. I decided to buy near everything left after a guy in Holland bought the car to help him restore his early DS. But I’ve got such limited space that I have to pass on good parts that I don’t have an immediate need for. Lots of early DS gearbox parts, brake disc/stub axle units, pump parts, cylinder head, oilpans.”
All the parts are located in San Jose CA but Ken will only be here until mid May. He will then be heading back to Detroit and won’t be taking the parts with him. They will stay in CA until he gets back later this summer, so let Ken know what you’re looking for ASAP.
He can be reached at citbuff@gmail.com or call him at 248-515-9879.