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37th time lucky: 2023 in review


barrett

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Shite gang! There hasn't been a huge amount to report at Barrett Acres recently tbh, what with 'the situation' and all. Obviously lots of people have been using this time to tinker with their old motors, but being heavily reliant on more skilled people to do anything more than basic maintenance on my fleet, I haven't really been able to achieve much.

After loads of faffing, the braking system of the Humber is now, seemingly, all fully functional. It's had a rebuilt master cylinder, new front calipers and pads, new rear wheel cylinders, new pipes etc so it's pretty much all brand spanking and ready for action. This mostly came together last weekend, after which I had my first proper drive in the car. Obviously it still needs loads of tinkering to get it running bob-on, but for a quick blast round the block it was pretty enjoyable. It's less refined than I was expecting, with a real exhaust boom and some proper fruity noises under acceleration, but it seems to move about fairly well (no idea how well as the speedo doesn't work). Sadly, the flipping thing boiled over after a couple of laps of the test circuit!! This evening Panhard Gary came over and fitted a new thermostat and we flushed the rad, but it boiled up pretty quickly so I think the rad has to come out first of all so 'a man' can have a proper go at flushing it out. the carb's all up the spout again, too, so that needs to come off for a going-over. Feels a bit one step forward, two steps back tbh, but I suppose we'll get there eventually.

Anyway, with the brakes sorted I celebrated by putting the trim embellishers and hub caps on for the first time in my ownership. Looks a million times better! This is also the first time I have ever taken any photos of it. Sorry about the glamorous location. EDIT to add: It's got a new set of Michelin Xs on it too which are probably worth more than the car...

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Needs a proper clean at some point, but I'm still v into the way this old heap looks. I like that these pics disguise the fact the rear quarter panel/wheelarch has basically disintegrated completely, too. I would quite like to send this away to somebody who knows what they're doing to just sort everything out and not give it back until it's all fixed, rather than plugging away at little bits every now and then, but that requires more money than I'm likely to have any time soon (PLEASE BUY MY 404 SOMEBODY)

I also gave the Xantia its first wash in my ownership, and took my first photgraphs of it. Wahsing off a year's worth of road muck was quite satisfying although it's a bit more obvious how shonky it is now. It won't be clean for long, though. Does look like a cool old bus in the evening light though I reckon

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Whilst I had the camera out, I took a couple of shots of the Pall, showing the sidelamps and spare wheel now fitted. Looking forward to driving this again soon, it feels like ages since I've been out in it

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Gave the 404 a quick wash to get the worst of the dust off, as it was depressing me every time I looked in the shed. Now everything's tucked up again, now doubt not to be touched for another six months or whatever. I did take a photo of the Panhard and Heron, but tbh that's too depressing to look at.

That's it, my pointless shite update. Cheers!

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  • 1 month later...

Hmmm. stopped at a junction and noticed a waft of steam escaping from the Xantia bonnet. Seems to have a small leak from somewhere - lots of muddy brown coolant on the floor (well, not lots, but enough to be noticeable) and it's running very hot. No mayo in the oil filler.

I'll refill the coolant tomorrow and see what happens, but it's not likely to be good news, is it?

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Sounds like an excuse to get the Sceptre on the road!

Looks great, and that’s one of my all-time favourite dashboards, although someone at Rootes had obviously been in a 58-62 Corvette at some point, judging by the instrument binnacle /dash grab handle design. 

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Back in the early 90's when I was on community service, our 'team leader' had white one of these new. He used to ferry us around prime litter picking areas in it. I was in awe of it's newness and supreme ride comfort. I dreamt of the day I would own one.

Very jealous.

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Right, well had a bit of a nightmare journey back (due to traffic and poor sense of direction, not car) but I'm home now. So, what is it? It's a 1996 SX with XUD POWAH. It's really nice to drive a car that has some torque again.

It's a two owner car, the last has had it from 1999. He was a Citroen mechanic and latterly a mechanic at Chevronics so it's been well looked after. Have a look at the MoT history if you can be arsed - never had a single advisory! It's done just over 100k and drives beautifully. I've already replaced the gold ball with my WOODEN NOB from the VSX. I thought the stereo didn't work, but it seemed to have burst into life now so I've actually got sounds!! No aux cable and one duff speaker, but at least I have R4 or CDs.

I found a quid in the ashtray, but despite that it's still the most expensive of my five Xantias buy a factor of 2.5. It does seem, possibly, like it might be the nicest one though. No doubt I'll be eating those words soon.

Verdict: goodxant. Would drive again.

 

Edit: a totally its had five owners, I think I just made that up from wishful thinking.

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I've done 300 miles in this heap already and I'm pretty pleased with it. The brakes feel a bit graunchy but otherwise it seems to drive spot-on. Everything works including electric mirrors and sun roof (I took a risk as it was such a nice day today) but the rev counter only works sporadically. Also it occasionally pings up this warning light, which I have never seen in any of my four previous Xants. Anyone know? Looks like a sphere or an lhm reservoir, perhaps?

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