Le bus oignon - Xantia of many Autoshiters - GYPSY CURSE

[Pillock]

If this was retro-rides, I wouldn't be allowed to tell you what I thought of the three-spokes

 

Your car though, and it's still a garlicky old wagon that's providing useful service and being interesting. I just really, REALLY like the five-spokes. 

[vulgalour]

Three spoke alloys, the Margaret Thatcher of modifications.

[320touring]

Three spoke alloys, the Margaret Thatcher of modifications.

not really- some folk voted for Thatcher;)

 

I make it "Trois spokes, nil point" so far

[vulgalour]

Danterzza and Lord Sterling seemed to like* the idea.  I make that at least one point between the two of them and I'm all about the voice of the minority.

[320touring]

Danterzza and Lord Sterling seemed to like* the idea. I make that at least one point between the two of them and I'm all about the voice of the minority.

Lord sterling owns a rover 800thingymabub ergo his opinion is devoid of gravitas;-)

 

As you say though, if you can get them to fit then fuckit, worth a shot!

[gadgetgricey]

If you are after minimalist design, got a set of Xantia exclusive alloys with tyres in the garage. I really like these alloys, but can be a bugger at tyre places as they don't have a centre cap that can be removed. Makes balancing them a little tricky.

Also have a full set of the smoked rear lights, currently on my breaker.

 

If interested get back to me and I'll take some pics.

 

Cheers

 

Dave

 

Edit; not mine, but just found a pic of the same wheels

 

[vulgalour]

Not sure on the alloys, I don't think they're quite what I'm looking for and I've only just bought a set of smoked rear lights which are in the post.

 

What colour/spec is the breaker?  If it's got the unpainted black inserts in the bumpers, I could do with one of those for the rear.  I could also do with a couple of dark grey interior plastic trim items and I know eventually I could do with a white front passenger door... will likely have to wait until after I've moved house and done the clutch for the bigger bits if you have them.

[stuboy]

i think the wheels suit it handsomely

[gadgetgricey]

What colour/spec is the breaker? 

Its a red HDi SX estate, so cant help with the doors or bumper insert, but may have the interior pieces.

Get back to me with what they are, and I'll post them on gratis if I have them.

 

Cheers

 

Dave 

[vulgalour]

The bits I'm after are as follows.  There's something missing with the rear ashtray, it doesn't stay in the hole but I don't really know what's gone missing or has broken.

 

I'm missing one lock button, front passenger door if it makes any difference.

 

Centre console trims, namely the top vent and the clock/buttons surround, both of which are cracked.

 

Centre console rear window control switch trim.  Not sure why it's been screwed down, it may be that the whole centre console is damaged.

 

Keypad has seen better days and I'd like to replace it with one that has tidier buttons.

 

The other interior item is the trims the rear seatbelts come through as mine have been chopped about at the top and I need one of the chunky toggles for the load bay cubby covers.

[hairnet]

If you put three spokes, I'm going to eat mouldly happymeals and vomit into your heater vents.

im gonna find yer slippers and shit into them

 

3 spokes just no (unless brabus)

[vulgalour]

Today, a small job got a bit out of hand.  I only meant to fit the new rear light clusters, but when I put them on I found that the tailgate light clusters looked really dingy so they had to come off too so I could clean them, and then I found I was dismantling the whole tailgate to get at everything properly.

 

 

While I was in the tailgate I determined to sort the membrane out which had been letting water in where the original seal had failed.  Easy enough to do with a bit of all-purpose glue which is all I had to hand.

 

Rebuilt all the lights and interior trim - after removing many dog hairs, more fool me for putting a shedding German Shepherd in the boot - and it looked a fair bit better... until I noticed the number plate now looked terrible.  So I carefully peeled back the vinyl that had bubbled and trapped dirt, cleaned it out as best I could and reglued it before putting the plate back on the car.  The central black trim isn't a separate piece as I'd expected, Heuliez/Citroen just masked that bit off and didn't paint it.

 

I didn't expect the new outer lenses to make much difference, but in person they really do and I'm really pleased I decided to do them.  Note also the roof rack is now fitted, it's missing a couple of small trim items that I'd like to source eventually but it's perfectly functional as a roof rack and has, amazingly, been complimented as looking a bit posh.

 

Now it's had chance to cure and harden a bit, the repair to the dent on the rear quarter is looking much more invisible.  It needs a bit of fine work to see if I just need more paint or the finest skim of filler known to man to make it look spot on.  The arch and bumper too look much better now the paint has 'settled' and I'm really pleased I decided to sort this out.

 

 

 

 

I've been considering taking the craft heat-gun to the rear corner of the bumper trim to see if a bit of heat will help it pop back into shape in the same way you can do it with metal damage.  Normally a material has a memory so I'd say there's a chance it'll work.

 

It's been very nice to actually get compliments on this car.  I'm doing nothing I haven't done on any of my other cars but this is a much better point to start from and it gives me the warm fuzzies to get nice comments on a car I wasn't even sure I was keeping at one point.

[mrbenn]

Looks great, Angyl. Roof rack definitely suits it, looks purposeful!

[Ghosty]

Certainly looking well - I'm also going to admit I think the three spokes would be great! 

Another thing I thought of was the moon disc type trims from early XMs...

[KruJoe]

I do love the shape of the back end of these, especially the kinky kink in the waistline.

 

That bump on the bumper looks like it has already popped back as much as it's going to pop back. However, if you can get to the reverse of it with your (asbestos) hand, warm the bent bit up so it's bendy like softish wax, push it to the shape you want it and hold it there while it cools and re-hardens.

[Rocket88]

Well done...........I presume we can expect to see this at Pebble Beach soon?

[155V6]

What about these Escort wheels?,they might even fit straight on.

 

[purplebargeken]

That is really a very nice looking car. I actually like the wheels that are on it now. Sorry.

 

I have a vague yearning for an XM one day. Possibly.

 

Keep up the usual good work.

[vulgalour]

What about these Escort wheels?,they might even fit straight on.

 

 

4x108 15" are good numbers that these wheels possess.  They are a very, very cheap wheel, seem to be able to pick them up in reasonable condition for scrap value.  Assuming the offset and centre bore are somewhere near and I did go for them, this is what you'd end up with.  Second version is with the thinner spokes blacked out to make them look more like three spokes.

 

 

Xantia

Centre Bore – 65.1

Offset – 15

PCD – 4x108

 

Escort

Centre Bore – 63.4

Offset – 41

PCD – 4x108

 

Ran that through www.willtheyfit.com and the offset means the wheels sit 26mm further in, this might look very odd. To combat that and the center bore difference I'd need spacers to accomodate the wheel and the hub so everything sits as it ought.

 

Usefully, the SAAB alloys have an identical PCD and centre bore to the Xantia but an easier to combat offset of 33.

[ruffgeezer]

There is a set of those at work too, you'd get away with 20mm spacers all round, and they might even deal with the difference in centre bore.

[vulgalour]

Spacers seem readily available, about £40-60 a pair with bolts. Because I'm effectively reducing the centre bore if I go to Ford alloys I expect I need Ford spacers and to possibly get the back of the spacer milled out to go over the larger Citroen centre bore so it all sits nice and flat.

What I'd really like is some of these.

 

 

But they're almost always Datsun PCD and 13" or five stud.

[vulgalour]

In further anally retentive sorting, I had a bit more of a go at the rear of the Xantia, this time on the other arch.  One of the scruffy plastic/vinyl stonechip things peeled off which helped me clean off the loose paint and small rust scab hiding underneath before giving it a fresh coat of rust treater, primer and top coat.  As a result the sill now looks appalling so I really must get around to getting that cut back to clean paint.

 

 

Part of the reason the back of the sill is so discoloured is rust staining from the usual Xantia rot spot.  After cleaning up the area it was found to be more solid than expected with a much smaller patch required to fix the issue.  There's solid metal hiding under the hole in the outer skin which is promising, and no crunchy noises.  For now it's been given the same treatment as the arch until such a time as I can get it welded.  The welder I was kindly given has already proven its worth, but the Xantia is now in the queue until it is free to use again.

 

A few days ago we removed the fuel filler flap so I could try and find the drain hole.  This was happily easily done and soon cleared out with a length of net curtain wire.  You can just make it out the right of this image.  It was all gunged up with road muck and veg oil but now drains properly.

 

Cleaned up the pocket as best as I could as well as the filler flap and that looks a lot better as well as being a bit nicer to handle.  Here’s the before…

 

…and the after.

[beko1987]

I do like a clean flap!

[vulgalour]

Nobody likes a greasy flap.

[twosmoke300]

Flap jack , now thats a different matter

[vulgalour]

[Rocket88]

Moon discs FTW

[vulgalour]

I can't find a UK supplier for Moon, I'm guessing there isn't one?  I'm sure I've encountered this problem before when looking for Moon discs for another car.

[beko1987]

4x poundland pizza trays and some cable ties?

[320touring]

4x poundland pizza trays and some cable ties?

That's a tried and tested solution.. good for more mpg too:)