ZX 1.9td - Farewell faithfull steed!

[KruJoe]

YOUR SHINY KNOB

 

 

 

 

is now winging its way from Yorkshire.

[320touring]

just logged on a forum I used to frequent..

 

Saw this and thought of you..

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/streamlined-citroen-zx-26341.html

[beko1987]

Lol that's great! Almost looks like a mk1 insight if you close your eyes and look the other way!

[320touring]

Lol that's great! Almost looks like a mk1 insight if you close your eyes and look the other way!

That was essentially the look he was going for...

[vulgalour]

Ecomodding is interesting, but the end results rarely look finished.  That ZX isn't too bad once he's got it wrapped in fresh vinyl, especially compared to the first incarnation.  Getting 50mpg or so out of a 1.4 petrol is also quite an achievement, apply the same mods to a diesel version and I expect you'd see some impressive fuel economy as you'd be starting where he's stopped.  Run it on veg too and you'd never need to stop for fuel.

[320touring]

Vegpetual motion

[beko1987]

I went to wash my stepdads car this morning in exchange for a full tank of derv! Fair exchange I thought!

 

It took all of 3 hours as it's only done 9000 miles, and the dealer applied stuff sheets and beads really well, so wont need polishing and re-waxing until next year

 

Then my mum piped up and said "Why dont you wash yours?" Didn't want to disobey my mum...

 

It wasn't particularly clean when I bought it, and I've done nearly 7000 miles since buying it. Was starting to not be able to see out of the unswept areas of the windscreen, and there was ash all over the drivers side...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Was mould and everything!

 

 

Spent 45 minutes rinsing it! Grit and shit was pouring out of the panel gaps, I also did all the door shuts and the boot surround. An unholy amount of mud washed out of the rear arches too!

 

 

 

I then foamed it

 

 

 

Then started on the seals and tightwork...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the wheels. Front ones came up like new, need to get tyres put on the rear ones yet...

 

 

 

The whole lot was rinsed off again, and 2 buckets were filled, Autoglym Bodywash chosen as it's fucking harsh, so will strip alot of the crap off.

 

 

 

Lost the wing mirror cap with the pressure washer, better than it shitting me up by flying off on the m40 I suppose. Wing mirror is broken anyway so no huge loss, will glue back on if needed

 

 

Wanting to see what it looks like polished up a bit, but lacking the arse to do the whole car, I did the bonnet so I can see the beading whilst driving. I cracked the clay out. Was far too cold for claying really, was like rubbing a lump of plastic over the paint but it pulled off a think layer of crap, the water running off was filthy

 

 

clayed the windscreen too as there were a few bits stuck to it that was causing the wipers to smear

 

 

Dug aload more shit out of the paintwork with some lime prime

 

 

then a vigorous polish! Would look really good after a go with the rotary, but couldnt be bothered with that either, plus it was at home

 

 

which looked alot better

 

 

Then a layer of wax, which didn't really cure properly as the air was too damp, but it's probably done the trick

 

 

I then went up to the petrol station with stepdad, then went to asda as I was starving, and took the afters in the carpark! Realised I'd dripped derv down it as you can see it fucking splattered down the back. May have to whip that off tomorow, it ruins it!

 

 

 

Hasnt come up bad for just a wash! With a bit of claying, polishing, glazing and waxing over a weekend it could look really good.

 

But, that'll be next year, not got any time left this year to do anything! Hope it rains tomorrow so I can see the beading!

[Matt]

Nice to see someone else on here who likes to clean their cars properly!

[mat_the_cat]

Never thought to use clay on the windscreen, good idea!

[Matt]

Never thought to use clay on the windscreen, good idea!

 

You can use a razor blade and a rotary polisher with glass polish if you want to go crazy. Also rain repellant products are well worth spending very little time and not much money on.

[beko1987]

I didnt do it properly by a long shot! Clay is gr9 for glass! Sorts it right out ready for polish!

[Matt]

I didnt do it properly by a long shot! Clay is gr9 for glass! Sorts it right out ready for polish!

 

A lot more proper than most people!

[beko1987]

Took some beading porn shots earlier, can't wait until the whole thing is like this...

 

 

 

They stay still up to a gentle 40mph then gently flutter up the bonnet and away! This very pretty! Still not got used to seeing a reflection in it yet...

[Matt]

Beading on fresh wax is just lavley, 'specially when it's raining.

[Lankytim]

Are you ever going to replace that wing? It's making me really depressed inside.

[KruJoe]

I think he's waiting for a straight one in the right colour to turn up.

[beko1987]

Ish, I've tracked down a wing, passenger indicator and drivers side wing mirror in the right colour, just need to actually buy it though.

 

It sort of depresses me, but then I can't see it inside... Should probably do it before the mot though!

[320touring]

Just buy a tub of landrover chassis repair paste and be done with it;)

[Matt]

 Should probably do it before the mot though!

 

Or before it gets properly cold out!

[beko1987]

I grabbed an hour this afternoon after going to town and gettimg my driving license renewed at the post office, a surprisingly pain free experience tbh, so had a look at the car

 

Like all good mid 90's citroens it seems I have a water leak...

 

 

No idea where it's coming from. Headlining is dry, nothing else is wet anywhere else, but the rear passenger footwell was full of water. I've had my car cleaning stuff in here, I could have filled it with water when I pressurewashed the door shuts, it could be leaking, it's been raining alot recently...

 

However, staying wet isnt doing it any good, it fogs up the inside like a twat so I dried it out with crapvax

 

 

Which pulled this out

 

 

Nice and dry, I'll keep an eye on it

 

I then looked around the rest of the car and it looks like a skip inside. So I put crapVax away and got CrapHenry out and started with the boot

 

 

 

Then the back

 

 

 

Didn't put the mat back on the passenger side for now.

 

 

 

Onto the front next. I use the passenger footwell as a dumping ground whilst driving and since I rarely see it in daylight now I hadn't noticed how bad it was...

 

 

Vacced the rollys worth of baccy and other rubbish out the centre console too

 

 

and the very gravvely drivers side

 

 

 

I buffed the windows on the inside, wiped the dash down and the interior was done!

 

A weeks worth of driving had made the outside dirty (bonus 1993 CrapHenry shot)

 

 

Should reach a milestone by wednesday too!

 

 

In other news I fixed the front foglights the other night. Whislt driving in heavy fog I pulled the switch out, swore at it and rammed it back in. Voila, fully working front fogs, so I can be a foglight wanker! If it goes again, I'll just get a new switch, better than it being something else!

 

I topped up the screenwash and vacced some leaves from the engine bay, went quickly over the front interior of my stepdads car behind, and assessed the damage an old giffer did in the car park at tesco not 3 hours before (stepdad was loading the shopping in, an old giffer came round and into a space, narrowly missing my stepdad and clipping the rear bumper, then into his space and rolled into the car infront of him... 9k miles and it's been hit! Luckily it's not his...)

 

I'm now probably going to slink back into winter mode now, so no more heavy car cleaning for a while!

[vulgalour]

This era of Citroen seem to be really plush, I was never entirely sure why but quite grateful for it now I have one.  The carpets are great for holding fucktonnes of water and look way more expensive than they have any right to when vacuumed properly, as does the velour on the seats.  The paint on them is good too, has a really decent thickness and depth of shine, especially on the darker colours like your ZX.  Top work all round, it's making me want to get the Xantia cleaned properly but I'm not doing that until we've finished doing the oily work on it.

[beko1987]

I'm making myself not properly fix the paint until I've got a new wing on so I can do it all at the same time. Mines going to need some front suspension love in the new year too, will prioritise that first!

[Micrashed]

The C8 has a leak somewhere and buggered if I can find it because the carpets are dry. However being a C8 and being "luxobarge" spec it not only has carpets but something akin to Cloud9 underlay too to deaden the sound, so I suspect this is holding the water somewhere - but where? I know not.

 

The Micra leaks like a twat around the rear OS window, the front scuttle on the passenger side, the boot seal, the front scuttle on the drivers side, the front drivers door rubber and the sunshine roof that I dare not open because it wont shut again owing to one of the wires having gone "fring".

[beko1987]

Well, I have a wet interior...

 

Yesterday was spent completely stripping it out, and drying it up

 

This morning, with a light covering of frost on the car I went and had a look

 

 

Started with the scuttle panel, in case of blockage

 

 

Nothing was blocked, so I vacced all the old leaves out and cleaned it up a bit

 

 

The heater air intake cover fell off, the sealent was dry and cracked

 

 

 

 

Vacced out the leaved and shit inside the fan

 

 

Found the half tube of sealent I used on the merivas sump, cleaned the old shit off and ran a nice thick beat, and squeezed it homehome

 

So, no likely cause under the scuttle. I went for a 30 mile round trip to pick up a free dyson, and saw no water enter the cabin, so have ruled the heater matrix out, the coolants spot on too.

 

I've wedged a load of microfibres under the firewall sound deadening which is absolutely fucking dripping, hope it does something. May chuck the dehumidifier in there, but not sure if it'll be too cold for it to do much tbh

 

 

Who wanted a track car for £500? This ones stripped out and ready to go!

 

Hope it rains hard this week, could do with seeing where this is coming in! A watering can over the sunroof hasn't shown anything up sadly

[twosmoke300]

The aerial base is a favourite for leaking on those

[beko1987]

Not checked that, good call!

 

Tbh it could be years worth of dribbles, rather than just one leak.

 

Will have the light assembly out in the week, there's an annoying rattle up there that needs fixing anyway!

[Rusty_Rocket]

Check your sill drain holes 

[dollywobbler]

I've often had Citroens leak because of door seals failing. I'm hoping its the aerial base leaking on the XM, as I'm running out of options. It's currently entirely frozen though.

[beko1987]

There's drain holes in the sill? Do you know where they are?

 

Good point on the door rubbers DW, reckon removing them and re-fitting them would help much?

 

I've not had the headlining down yet to check up there, it's loud enough driving with no carpet, let alone with no headlining!

 

I'm off work on Friday, so the plan will be:

 

Aerial (may re-seal it anyway just to be sure)

Sill drain things (wherever they are!)

Door rubbers off and on again, maybe a wipe with vaseline or something

 

Stuffing loads of microfibres under the firewall deadening seems to have helped a bit, it's not quite as sopping wet. May go and move them around at lunchtime. One annoyance is there is a seam in the floor of the drivers footwell, which the back of my clutch foot keeps catching if I don't think about it!

[beko1987]

Got to go home at half 1 today because Christmas, so had a few minutes with the zx.

 

 

Upon dropping the light cluster the first thing that struck me was a penny... Handy as it must have been causing the annoying vibration, and me punching it must have moved it for a few mins before it came back.

 

Either way, no sign of leaking from the aerial base

 

 

Found out why the interior light is so shite, led!

 

 

Having found nothing, I put that back together and grabbed the dehumidifier. The microfibres stuffed under the sound deadening had worked well, and were sopping wet, so removed those, and wedged the foam up with some empty beer bottles

 

 

 

So far after an hour..........no water removed...

 

May restock the microfibres tomorrow!