Six Cylinders Motoring Notes - Preparing for tomorrow.

[richardmorris]

Cornflower ?

[Six-cylinder]

Cornflower ?

Blea Uzes

[purplebargeken]

The Cadillac looks VERY interesting indeed

[DSdriver]

I just love the randomness of your fleet. 

[Six-cylinder]

I have taken my Citroen GS to the annual Rally today near Farnham and won a prize. Yes "Shed of the Show", they dressed it up with kind words like over came obstacles, worked hardest to get it here, came though challenges and contributed to GS life.

 

No wooden spoons were hurt during this award!

 

 

[richardmorris]

Well donel Picking out the shoddiest shed could have taken me all day

[Six-cylinder]

A friend commented that my GS didn't look too bad in the photo with just an off colour bonnet and accused me of cheating just to get the bottle that came with the award!

 

[Six-cylinder]

C15 Van

 

It turns out to be petrol in the diesel! I have the last fuel receipt for it and it stated diesel so I don't know what has happened.

 

It is now having a cam belt service and MOT.

[Six-cylinder]

I have bought this beauty today and collect it next week.

 

[flat4alfa]

Wowzers !

 

Or should I exclaim Sacre Or !

[richardmorris]

20 or 25 Pallas?

[Six-cylinder]

It is a CX 2500I/E Pallas Auto 1985 and in some ways the car is fantastic just 68,000 miles, FSH with all its receipts. Last owner bought it just 2 ½ months old with only 450 miles with receipt in the paperwork and it has been loved and looked after.

 

Mechanically it seems very good and drives well with no hydraulic leaks. MOT June 2016 and has been in regular use.

 

The interior is great except the head lining is very saggy, they all went that way.

 

Body work is the let down, overall it looks quite good but it has had a couple of plates welded underneath, the front n-s wheel arch has minor damage from a scrape. The front o-s wheelarch has a rust spot, the drivers door is rotten by the check strap and has a little rust along the bottom, the front passenger door is very rotten at the bottom. There is minor rust on the lower seams on both rear doors and the boot lid. There are some very small rust stains along the top of the o-s rear wing. The lacquer is lifting badly on some of the bonnet.

 

The Owner is 86 years old and wanted something smaller.

 

We don’t have many picture to show at the moment but will be collecting it next week.

 

[stripped fred]

That looks nice and tidy.  She's a beauty.  You Mr Six Cylinder are living the autoshite dream!  Will you be able to sort the rusty bits yourself?

[Inspector Morose]

May your balls turn square and fester on the edges.

Jealous? Me?

[RichardK]

I am made entirely of envy.

[Six-cylinder]

Will you be able to sort the rusty bits yourself?

I have a retired friend who helps me with body work but I have just started him on the GS. The car is usable as it is so I will run it for the rest of the summer as is.

[Six-cylinder]

How about this for a dashboard!

 

[Inspector Morose]

STOP IT.

[RichardK]

Town & Country horn still set up right and working?

[Lacquer Peel]

I like the afterthought digital clock, surely not factory installed?

Beautiful car.

[FakeConcern]

How about this for a dashboard!

 

 

Does it also have the fantastic spherical ash tray?

Fancy a swap for an XM V6?

Edited August 11, 2015 by FakeConcern

[RichardK]

I like the afterthought digital clock, surely not factory installed?

Beautiful car.

 

Factory installed. IIRC there's an oil line going to a gauge to give a level readout, and two LEDs for an econometer in the Pallas dash.

 

Trying to remember if there were any other things likely to be installed in that space. The A/C control is a rotary knob on the console, looks like an afterthought. Series 2 really sorted a lot of the ergonomics, but they lost the dashboard, town & country horn and a fair bit of charm

[Six-cylinder]

Does it also have the fantastic spherical ash tray?

Fancy a swap for an XM V6?

No spherical ash tray, I think they were on the early cars.

 

New toy, I don't want to part with it yet.

[Six-cylinder]

My CX History

 

I had a CX 20RE Familiale as a company car in 1987 when working for a Citroen dealer, our MD had it, didn’t like it and put a Visa GTi 115 on the road for himself and as by BX 16RS was sold I was given the CX as a replacement. I loved having it even if it was a bit slow as a 2LTR. The only picture I have is it behind me while I am handing over the keys to a customer who had bought a new Visa 17D.

 

In 2006 an impulsive eBay bid meant I owned a deep red 1983 CX 2.4 I/E Pallas Auto. I still have it but currently a non runner.

 

In 2007 at a Citroen show I was reading a for sale notice pinned to a half decent CX estate, about a CX 25 Familiale manual, reasonable MOT, good runner, few dents and rust spots when it slowly dawned on me that this was the very car for sale. But it was at spares repair price so I went to wrestle Mrs Cyl out of the pizza queue but she would not budge so by the time she had found me I had spent all our spare parts budget buying another running car, we arrived in one and left in two CXs! I friend fell in love with it and bought it from me.

 

I liked my CX 2400I/E so much I thought if I had a diesel CX I could do most of my mileage on that, so another blind ebay bid had me collecting a CX25 DTR not quite as good as described but still usable. I missed the 2.4i engine and auto box and was still only managing 33mpg so decided to pass it on.

 

Then Mrs Cyl pointed out a great sounding CX2500I/E Pallas Auto saloon, the bodywork was not quite as good as I had hoped but still a deal was done. To be collected next week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RichardK]

In 2006 an impulsive eBay bid meant I owned a deep red 1983 CX 2.4 I/E Pallas Auto. I still have it but currently a non runner.

 

Got any plans for that, what with all the extra CXs showing up?

 

I'm surprised you haven't had a GTi Turbo, simply because there was a period when they were the better buy having been singled out as potentially valuable ones before CX fandom sort of fizzled out through obscurity (seems like most good cars get that phase). Prestige seems to be the variant that crops up more frequently than you'd expect these days - seriously impressed with finding an S1 Pallas in what looks like nice, unmolested and honest shape. Reminds me so much of my first CX.

 

(ETA: Oh, I notice it has the plastic sill trims. I guess theres another difference the early ones had - my Pallas had stainless steel sill trims).

[anonymous user]

I like the string-back driving gloves in the cubby hole, do they come with the car?

[Six-cylinder]

Got any plans for that, what with all the extra CXs showing up?

 

I'm surprised you haven't had a GTi Turbo, simply because there was a period when they were the better buy having been singled out as potentially valuable ones before CX fandom sort of fizzled out through obscurity (seems like most good cars get that phase). Prestige seems to be the variant that crops up more frequently than you'd expect these days - seriously impressed with finding an S1 Pallas in what looks like nice, unmolested and honest shape. Reminds me so much of my first CX.

 

(ETA: Oh, I notice it has the plastic sill trims. I guess theres another difference the early ones had - my Pallas had stainless steel sill trims).

My CX 2400I/E is looking a bit sad, it has no power to the coil and is a non starter. Unfortunately when cranking it over, it spat back and the unburnt fuel in the inlet manifold caught fire. I closed the bonnet while I fetched a hose pipe and then could not reopen it so damaged the bonnet and grill. The fire caused very little damage and I have replaced the burnt HT leads. I have a good replacement bonnet and feel sure it will run fine once power is restored to the coil. The structure is very solid but the doors are rustyat the bottems and paint flat and thin. I would sell it to someone to restore it but they would have to promise not to scrap it. If not I will get round to it one year or other.

 

When I worked for the dealer we borrowed a new CX Turbo from Citroen UK to show a customer and I got to take it home. I loved the turbo but somehow planning what car to buy next has never really featured with us, they just happen!

 

All the S1 CXs had Air Con controls like this, it was there when it was three months old according to the seller, factory or dealer fit I don’t know?

[Six-cylinder]

I like the string-back driving gloves in the cubby hole, do they come with the car?

I thought somebody might notice them, I don't know if we get to keep them but I suspect not?

[purplebargeken]

These are simply ace cars. No idea why I have never had one. 

[RichardK]

Pretty sure the AC on my Pallas was factory fit - it was on an A-plate but was stainless trim, narrow arches, moondisc wheel trims etc. so I think it was older and just fudged when imported. It had done 289,000 when I got it and still pulled well, and the only rust was the lower nearside wing - which had dissolved - and the front undertray/intake, which I got a NOS panel onto.

 

Depending on how my current car plans go, I could be interested in taking on a CX for the long run. Not in a rush - current plan of action is "help with Keith's Twingo, clear a space in the garage for $mysterycar, give that one one hour every evening (at least) and have it back on the road in October, and maybe turn attention to the 300CE".

 

In the middle of that I'm also hoping to finally learn how to weld, and the MGF will be the test subject. And at some point I'll have to do something with my E-class gearbox (just a service I hope), and figure out what to do with the A-class. As it's a LWB auto with sunroof, my favourite spec, it pains me to have to scrap it because of some rusty bits on a front hub and a lost ABS ring - but at the same time, they're just not worth very much, and it's not exactly mint in other regards :/

 

Now I think about it, don't non-AC Series 1s have a little plate with gear symbols on where the AC control is?

 

Christ this is bringing back memories. I'm 80% certain my dashboard was the reverse of yours, with black lettering on orange drums, and also mine had an analogue clock where yours is digital - similar mechanism to the clock in an SD1, unsurprisingly. I seem to recall the dash dimmer being under the PRN pod and another control, maybe variable wipe.

 

Of course what this has reminded me is that I only had one CX with the proper dash. The S1 Turbo2 had conventional instruments, and then my others were all S2s - 25 GTi, GTi Turbo 2, 22 TRS, Croisette, 25TRi Safari. I particularly liked the autobox lights and foglight switches on the S2 dash.