Scruffy Bodger

I always keep the spanner for the welding gas bottle inside the welder for any eventualities involving excess flames. It is an old fire extinguisher that's filled with Co2 after all... Cereal boxes are another good shout, the cardboard they use is pretty much perfect for templates. Talbot made a lot of valid points too when it comes to projects like this, looking for ALL the rot first is very good advice. Materials wise jobs like this are relatively cheap it's the time that adds up. I've got previous for sorting uneconomic welding jobs, some of which is on a thread on here, always good to see someone else daft enough to have a go

It'll be interesting* to see just how far that grot goes into the car when you start cutting into it considering how much you can see on the photos already. You're not going to need any Iron supplement tablets for a while when you start breathing all that lot in too! That new R-tech looks like a good bit of kit to play with though

My 405 had 37K on it when I bought it. I used a transporter to get it home then had a mate do the cam-belt and I gave the engine a ful lservice. The belt had only done 4K but it was fitted 14 years previously. It's now done just over 45K. Two new Michelins and a windscreen washer pump is all it's had on it and it's gone straight through 2 MOT's. So for me, running a 25 year old low mileage car has been a no brainer.

The Espace Quadra. My old man nearly bought one new out the showroom but baulked at the end due to the price. He had 6 of us and a Wolfhound to lug about at weekends so opted for an H reg 505 GTD as it seemed the safer bet and was cheaper.

The gear linkages are accessed from above at the back of the engine bay, no need to go writhing around on the floor. Hence my suggestion for an easy experiment to see if it helps things.

According to How Many Left there were only 120 1.4 Zx's left on the road at the end of last year. As this one doesn't appear to be bad at all as Zx's go maybe it's worth chucking a few bits on it? My sisters got a 1.9D that she dailies and loves it, comfortable, reliable and economical, what's not to like?

I'd buy the arch panel if it's available, it'll be much easier and save a lot of time. Saying that it looks like you've got much more inner arch left than on the Justy I did. It was an absolute arse to try and make up a strip and position it to the inner wing as I had no reference points left to work to. Nice save anyway, the vast majority wouldn't have bothered

It sounds like you've just run the car and it just wants some minor fettling but in multiple places that's adding up to feeling worse than it is? It's not rotten by the sounds of it so I'd say it's too good to frag? Just run it till you find a replacement and pass it on for a reasonable price to someone who wants it because it sounds like it owes you nothing? Zx's are getting properly crispy now, front turret tops and around the jacking points* especially if you do look at a TD.

They are simple, comfortable vehicles tbh, it's basically a 306 with a different top on it. You could find a mine of information that should be relevant on 306OC.co.uk for anything you need to know. In some respects they are easier than Peugeots to work on. The headlinings for example are velcroed in and not glued. Two of us swapped a complete sunroof and put in another better headlining into a ZX within an hour a couple of months back, it was a complete doddle to do. Personally I've only run Td versions and a Volcane TD that had been tweeked. That'd sit comfortably all day long at 90 on the Mway if you wanted to, it sounds far less frantic than the 1.4!

If the clutch isn't adjusted right it'll cause problems changing gear. Try putting your fut fully down and then letting the pedal flick back up to the top of its travel to see if it kicks the self adjuster into touch. I'd still try the crisp packets to take out slack as it's free before buying any linkages to rule them out but they do wear over time. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PEUGEOT-306-PARTNER-CITROEN-ZX-BERLINGO-XSARA-GEAR-LINK-LINKAGE-ROD-KIT-OEM-PART/333048584436?epid=22028668934&hash=item4d8b3e18f4:g:PsEAAOSwyApcVGco They may or may not be the right ones but they are still available.

As a free test to see if the gear linkages are really worn and are the source of the jangling/dodgy gear shift try popping one of them off, get a foil crisp packet and place it over the ball joint and pop it back on. If really bad you may need to double it up. This bodge can last a couple of months and will tighten up the gearchange more than you may think. It's surprising how much it helps mentally to have an old car with a good gearchange instead of feeling like an old fucked one. Sic's suggestion sounds like a good one, the ZX may well have a few more miles in it yet without major expense so put a few pennies aside for a suitable replacement.

If you need some proper stripper this stuff has been doing the rounds on the forums for years https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Heavy-Duty-Industrial-Strength-Synstryp-1-Litre-Paint-Stripper-1L/202374029201?hash=item2f1e6e9f91:g:EmgAAOSwaTtdvWAo It's good for stripping steel wheels etc and PPE should definitely be worn.

I've had exactly the same problem with one of those new chargers a little while back. The old fashioned one, not a problem.

A friend of mine had one of these some years back and it turned out to be a reliable little car. The only thing of note that I remember is that when adjusting the sunroof at 70 miles an hour one day while on the way back from work it jettisoned itself from the car accompanied by an almighty noise apparently.

Not as far as I'm aware. The rot these get on the passenger side rear can be really quite severe now. D Spares and partner have a Kingfisher green 5 door now, I went with them to collect it and it's fucked, much worse than the high miler. The cabrios really are a good looking car, I think the blue that they came in with the tan leather interior is a great combo!