Premises
The 7A windows frames are painted with dark brown colour and finished with wood graining effect.
The wood graining effect on the 7A is a type similar to the briar wood.
On the 7A 1030, no more wood graining finishing was present at the purchase, but only the brown original colour.

Wood graining
No clear and coloured pictures taken during the year 1934 were known to me to take as reference for the execution of the job.
Also in the 7 not jet restored that I had the opportunity to watch, the wood graining was no more present so that no sample was taken.
The reference was taken from three sources existing at present:
- The wood graining made on the restored Mr Friry 7A
- The wood grainig made on the restored Citroen Collection 7A
- The very good quality pictures present on the Collignon book “Guide” at page 40

How to make the wood graining effect.
This painting method is generally called in italian language “spugnatura”, by employing a proper sponge or similar “tool”, put the sponge a bit inside the paint, then lay down the sponge on the surface and apply the paint obtaining the proper result.
The result depends on the type of sponge or proper “tool” employed.
In our case, it is necessary to find a sponge or graining tool that reproduces the design of the briar wood.

A specialist in this procedure was contacted and the frames were painted by him: the result was good but not enough acceptable so that I decided to try myself a new execution.
I visited restorers of old furnitures and portraits but nobody gave me the solution how to obtain the design of the briar wood; anyhow I understood the principles of the graining. .

First of all I bought a sheet of briar to take as example for the work

How to obtain the result with a sponge or similar tool?
I employed a normal sponge, then a natural sponge, sections of sponge, cuts of sponges......then I employed paper towels, combs, rags, cartoon.........rubber....no good result was reached.
I arrived to the conclusion that the material to be employed should be a material that has the design similar to the design of the sheet of briar bought at the beginning.

After several attempts on a spare sheet of steel coloured in dark brown, I found that a cotton rag was a good solution: a rag of cotton casually wrapped and cut in the middle!

The side picture shows the cotton tools employed in the job

The frames had been painted again with the dark brown colour reference LADA no. 793 maron/BR 1974 The paint for wood graining, a normal paint for external surfaces, had chosen with a colour as much as possible similar to the colour present on the pictures available.
No transparent paint has been applied as final coat.