Le bus oignon - Xantia of many Autoshiters - GYPSY CURSE

[Ghosty]

 

I was thinking of these! Moons would be cool, though.

[vulgalour]

I thought XMs were on 16", I know they're 5 stud.

[ruffgeezer]

I think they are 15", I might be able to locate a set of those as well

[purplebargeken]

I do believe you are the wheel obtaining god!

[vulgalour]

Ruff needs wheels and trims, NEEDS them.

 

I could well be interested in 15" XM trims.  I've sent the seller of those Synergie trims a message to see if I can arrange a different method of payment/delivery. Travelling 110 miles to Bradford seems seems a bit excessive to pay in person even if they are little more than £1 a pop.  Swap the Xsara alloys with Moog's steels when he zooms by with the parcel shelf and jobs a good un.

[bub2006]

Them escort rims are a pain to clean. Had them on the w plate finesse estate my wife had when we first met

[ruffgeezer]

Ruff needs wheels and trims, NEEDS them.

 

 

It's tools I have a problem with, I there are two narrow paths front to back in my garage, the rest is mostly tools, tool boxes. trolleys etc.

 

Meanwhile, I'm caught between buying a C15 I don't really need, but want, or a "restored" but non original RE125 to rebuild mine with.

 

Edit: Crapbaskets! I've just won a bench grinder on ebay, what is wrong with me!

[vulgalour]

Okay, so, I'm bidding on a set of Synergie trims, swapping the alloys with Moog's steels and good tyres and going that route.  Nineties-OEM-tastic.

[MikeKnight]

That fuel flap is clearly incorrect.

 

It should say "Mmm.. chips".

[320touring]

Winning all round with that vulg. .

 

The moon discs have to happen. It's 3/4 spaceship anyways. .

[vulgalour]

Today, I did something that many people won't understand.  I swapped the attractive Xsara alloys on the Xantia with some much less attractive steels and trims.  Mike also paid a visit in his silly red car.

 

There is method in the madness though.  I agree, the Xsara alloys looked great on the Xantia, they really did, but they weren't very me.  I wanted something a bit more me and to do that I needed to get the Xantia back on some steel wheels.  The fact that the steel wheels have Michelin tyres in the factory size rather than Westlakes in a low profile is, for me, a large bonus and while the wheel trims do look a bit Halfords they are Citroen original.  Note also the Xantia roof rack, front bar pushed back so it's more aesthetically pleasing to me.  The gains in MPG without the roofrack on the car are so minimal that it makes more sense to leave it fitted, I pull the front bar forwards if I need a larger roof rack.

 

 

 

The other lovely thing Moog brought me was the parcel shelf.  It makes a huge difference to how tidy the car looks from outside and reduces cabin noise considerably inside.

 

The new tyres are very, very grippy and the clutch feels better on these wheels than it did on the others.  The speedo also appears to read more accurately and it's slightly less effort to get the car moving.  In addition, the ride feels smoother and the wheels now fill the arches much better so all in all I'm much, much happier with the car as it is.

 

I'll be happier still when the Synergie wheel trims I've bought are delivered as I'll get all of the above and some sexy looking wheels instead of the so-so wheel trims look I've got going on right now.

[Tayne]

I think you've made a good choice.

It looks better with those trims.

[The Moog]

Hat is duly doffed on the xantia, looks like a different car.

 

When mike wants to flog his Porsche i may* very well be interested

 

* depending on gf situation.

[vulgalour]

I shall inform him of this.  It was nice to be handling lovely clean wheels, I appreciated that.  Car got its first proper polish in my ownership today too, feeling like I'm getting on rather well with it.  Even used the Xant to get bits of orange Princess up to the beige Princess so that the holes that have been cut out can be filled with ferrous material.

[Shep Shepherd]

The trims look much nicer than the alloys

[vulgalour]

When Ruffgeezer did the front corner for me, he mentioned it could do with the lower front arm bushes doing.  Looked at the paperwork and this was an advisory in 2013 as well.  I've been sort of experiencing - you can't really feel or hear it - an occasional 'bobble' when I'm driving along.  I can't describe it better than that.  I'm guessing this is the same thing.  Ã‚£30 for a pair of the hub-side bushes seems reasonable but I need to know I can afford it before I place the order and for that I need my house moving date to be sorted.

 

I also thought I'd price up some new numberplates since I'd certainly need at least the rear replacing for the next MoT.  I have found a place that can do a custom rear plate for me, but it's at least a week to wait until they get the new materials order in so I've left that for now.  I do have a discount account with another local company though, so I made use of that and for less than a tenner got myself a brand new front number plate.  A bit of fettling of the front bumper to make it as clean as I could saw the front end further improved.  It is a small extravagance but one I think is permissible.

 

 

 

Needs - clutch, lower front arm bushes, new wipers (still okay, but starting to fail), new rear number plate (for MoT), welding patch to rear door jamb, rear brake overhaul, LHM change/flush

 

Wants - early Mk1 grille, few interior bits of trim, few exterior bits of trim, three spoke alloys, new windscreen, factory extras, factory toolkit/jack

 

Nothing too desperate required, it's still chugging along very happily and doesn't demand much of my time, which is just as well as I haven't much time to give it.

[vulgalour]

Today, my Synergie trims arrived.  They do need a repaint to make them perfect, I'm just not yet decided on if they're going white or factory silver yet.  I am decided that I really like them.

 

 

 

Somehow managed to rack up 130 miles this week but I don't feel like I've been doing a lot of driving, not the first time I've noticed that with this car either.  Annoyingly, the front number plate has fallen off three times since taping it on.  The tape stays on the plate perfectly well and the plate has been lightly heated and bent to match the profile of the bumper in an attempt to help it stay in place, but the current tape doesn't seem to like the bumper plastic.  I have reattached the plate with some supposedly stronger tape which I hope likes the bumper plastic more than the old tape.  I really don't want to use screws, they spoil the clean look I'm aiming for.

[forddeliveryboy]

Use some PU sealant or Gripfill, you'll never get them off again in one piece! Although I like the plate-less look - just carry it on the passenger seat and explain to plod what has just happened...

 

The wheels are a big improvement, even without the addition of decent tyres. I think the Synerg trims suit it very well. They were the first thing I'd have got rid of had I bought the Xantia - not just cosmetic, but also the nagging thought they weren't necessarily engineered for a fully loaded Xantia swerving to avoid something at high speed.

 

Keep the car long enough and it'll increase in value - the last mainstream Citroen with a centralised hydraulic system, as on those DS things which are fetching over 100 grand when de-roofed, complete with steelies.

[vulgalour]

Sparklesparkle!

 

I've been putting off going to the unit in part due to the work I've got on art-wise but also because we had no hot water here, so I didn't want to do a day's work on cars and not be able to have a good long soak in the tub at the end of it.  I've now spent most of a day there piddling about with little bits of metal and trying to get my bodyworking skills up to scratch again.

 

The Xantia had two areas I wanted to address, the first was a small rust scab on the rear arch, something I'd treated before moving house but which had come back shockingly fast which led me to believe something was up.  A blitz with the flapwheel and the outer arch just sort of went ker-poof in a cloud of rust dust leaving me with a rather large hole to repair.  I cleaned this up, made a repair patch and found I'd somehow got the template wrong so had to make a second patch but didn't get to repairing it today.  Fiddly thing to make and I couldn't get the shape exactly right, but what I've made is a close enough fit to the original profile that a light skim of filler will help blend the repair in neatly.  The gaffer tape was a temporary thing to protect the hole from the weather as we weren't sure if it was staying in the unit or going outside before I got to finish the job.

 

 

The other part was the door jamb section, which I'd already cleaned and hadn't got worse.  There was some thin metal to cut out from the outer skin, but the inner skin was absolutely solid.  I gave as much as I could of it a go over with the dremel, flapwheel and then rust converter to keep it nice and solid before making a patch to fit the surprisingly small hole.  Had some issues with the welder playing up, but I think that's down to needing to clean the earthing clamp and earth location (used the door latch).  Yes, I remembered to disconnect the car's battery!  I was a bit miffed that the patch moved a smidge as I was welding it in and the top of it stands proud.  I don't especially want to entirely redo it, I just want this solid, but there's a chance I'll go back and redo it at a later date.  Splashed some Hammerite on it just to prevent any flash rusting, I'll clean this back before finishing off the job.

 

 

 

It's a bit of an ugly repair to me, I was trying to make it flush fit because it's such a visible location and to achieve that I'll likely have to redo the top half of the repair unless it dresses back really well.  The welding bit takes no time at all, it's the fabricating of complicated patches and dressing that seems to eat up the hours, that and getting used to unfamiliar tools and workspace.

 

Biggest mistake I made was probably using donor metal from an Alfa 75 to repair a Citroen, the two metals are more keen to have holes blown through them than to be stuck together, even with the MIG on the lowest setting.  I suspect the welder Ratdat gave me will be better suited to the task, the shop MIG is a bit on the powerful side but it is a very nice bit of kit all the same.

[Bobthebeard]

Today, I did something that many people won't understand. I swapped the attractive Xsara alloys on the Xantia with some much less attractive steels and trims. Mike also paid a visit in his silly red car.

.

Hoy! Silly red car eh? Will have you know that I sweated blood and tears on that! Not to mention spending £££££££££££££s.

Cheek!

(Stumps off mumbling......)

Lol.

[vulgalour]

Well I can't redact the 'red' and 'car' but I might be able to redact the 'silly' if you can convince me otherwise

[Bobthebeard]

Well I can't redact the 'red' and 'car' but I might be able to redact the 'silly' if you can convince me otherwise

Hmmmmm......

Yes, it is red, yes it is a car.....

Fair enough. Silly is in the eye of the beholder though. Mike liked it....

I liked it, and still do. Have you driven it yet?

[vulgalour]

I don't actually want to.  Personally, I don't like it.  I prefer the ones with narrower arches and no boot spoiler to look at, but I doubt I'd like them any more to sit in than this one.  Just not really my bag, remind me too much of a Mk1 Golf.

[KruJoe]

I love the new trims on it Angyl, and do keep them silver please, because you can't paint the headlights white, that would be silly.

Would clear repeater lights be an option?

[vulgalour]

Yes, Saxo clear side repeaters are a straight swap so I just need to get a pair to tidy things up.  The more I've thought about it, the more I think silver trims is going to be the way I go, keep it looking properly factory rather than special edition.

[purplebargeken]

That will be a fabulous looking example when you have finished mate. Very stylish car IMHO. 

[ruffgeezer]

Mk2 Xantias had clear side repeaters and rear clusters as standard

[vulgalour]

But Saxos are easier to find in scrapyards.  If I were *very* naughty I could park next to a Saxo and swap repeater lenses, it's shockingly easy to do.

[Lord Sterling]

Great looking wheel trims Vulg, I liked the original trims you put on but the Synergie trims look even better. Please keep them Silver, it looks more original and fitting colourwise, White trims show scuffs up very easily.

[vulgalour]

 

 

It's welded.  I don't ever want to weld this car again.

 

I need to give it a second fill just to get the finer profiles sorted and a top coat of white paint instead of the temporary Hammerite finish it currently sports.  I'm happy that it's solid enough but the welding that I did left a lot to be desired because I couldn't get a decent continuous seam going between the initial stitches.

 

This was the least fun bit of welding I've done to date.  The Alfa metal welded really nicely and predictably, no blow through, no strange spittiness, and even the ability to nicely seam weld.  But the Citroen metal was a nightmare and easily the most unpleasant bit of metal gluing I've had to do.

 

At least it looks passable, the final fill and colour will make it look reasonable but I doubt it'll be what you can call an invisible repair.