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37th time lucky: 2023 in review


barrett

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As intimated in the 'end of year accounts' thread, one of the longest-serving fleet members left the fold just after Christmas. After about a year of advertising it on various platforms, we stuck a classified in La Vie de l'Auto magazine and straight away had loads of interest. One chap is a car trimmer by trade, so wasn't fazed by the knackered interior. He made an offer, we accepted. Booked in a tat-hauler to take it over to France on 28th December, as we were all aware selling a car to France was going to get a hell of a lot more difficult after January 1st.

Because life, they closed the French border a few days before the car was due to be collected... we had a few worried days, but fortunately by the 28th things had opened up enough for matey to travel (after taking a Covid test), so off it went...

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After almost exactly seven years, I had mixed feelings seeing it go. It has more road presence than any car I've owned, or am likely to own, and is the only car I've owned that people would really stop in the street just to stare at, but it was also something of a problem child and even after lots of expensive work I never really had complete trust in its abilities to complete a journey. I had some good trips in it, though, including buying and fitting a hard top for it in the middle of a blizzard that turned out to be Northern France's worst weather front for decades, and then a week later crusing up to the Villa Savoye in glorious winter sunshine, using it as a chase car on a photo shoot and hooning round a Surrey car park kicking up the dust, but weirdly one of the best drives was a 10-mile blast up a nice bit of the A24, 85mph in the overtaking lane the whole way up and passing every boring modern car on the road. When it was good, it was very good, but when it was bad it was horrid.

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In less exciting news, the little coolant leak on my Xantia turned out to be the water pump, so I took a deep breath and booked it in for a cambelt etc... It cost me slightly more than the car itself did(!), but I've at least got some peace fo mind that it's not going to explode (via the cambelt snapping, at least) any time soon, and the guy also sorted various little niggles like fixing the screenwash and replacing bulbs, giving it a proper oil and filter change etc, so I reckon it was money well spent. Due to limited travel in 2020 I have only done a shade under 10,000 miles in it since I picked it up in July, but fingers' crossed there'll be many more miles ahead.

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My red BX is belatedly in for an MoT on Wednesday, which it will fail, but it'll give me a (hopefully short) list of jobs to sort and then that can get pressed into use as a back-up/weekend car to take some of the strain off the Xant. And if lockdown ever ends, I still have something a bit more interesting I've tentatively agreed to buy...

 

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  • barrett changed the title to 30th time lucky: one out!
1 hour ago, egg said:

Have you got a pic of it at the Villa Savoye Scott please?

Can't tell if you're being sarcastic 'cos I'm pretty sure I've posted this about a million times before as it is a full-on Dream Lifestyle image which I use to make myself look cooler than I actually am, but Here You Go:

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I also found the one of the hard top fitting just complete

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Sorry for excellent quality. Shit phone camera, uploaded to Instagram, added to Facebook and then downloaded again. Lovely.

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5 minutes ago, barrett said:

Hmm, BX MoT results are in....

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er, that sounds quite fucked. Although a couple of those seem nuts to me, so maybe its just 'a harsh one'... hmmm

Only one on structural rust however! I am surprised that one can say "fuel pipes badly corroded" as an advisory however.

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All the pipes have been flagged because the guy couldn't tell how many were rotten (if at all) and how many were just filthy, but if it needs any replacing at the back end that's suddenly a massive and expensive job because the rear subframe has to be dropped entirely. The other stuff is definitely doable, but it's all going to add up so it may not be doable by me...

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3 hours ago, barrett said:

All the pipes have been flagged because the guy couldn't tell how many were rotten (if at all) and how many were just filthy, but if it needs any replacing at the back end that's suddenly a massive and expensive job because the rear subframe has to be dropped entirely. The other stuff is definitely doable, but it's all going to add up so it may not be doable by me...

I have replaced front to rear pipes by lowering just the left hand side of the subframe on a jack. The mountings have a fair amount of flex in them.

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It's true, the subframe doesn't have to come off, it just depends how fussy you want to be about the job.  I did the one that failed on my white BX without dropping the subframe, just a case of figuring out the best way to wiggle it through the gap the original had gone through.  Not quite as tidy as a subframe-off job, but perfectly servicable.

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  • 1 month later...

Most exciting fleet news for a while. I dropped the Palladium off with my bodywork man last week, and it won't be coming back until the body is finished and painted! So, this should be the last time we see it looking like this... (headlamps have been restored but not assembled yet)

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Also, this seems to have happened...

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But I'll hold off on the big reveal for a little while

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2 hours ago, barrett said:

Most exciting fleet news for a while. I dropped the Palladium off with my bodywork man last week, and it won't be coming back until the body is finished and painted! So, this should be the last time we see it looking like this... (headlamps have been restored but not assembled yet)

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such a lovely machine! did not realise it needed painting, looks ace as it is! :) 

I hope you take it to the FoD so we can then do a chippy run in it :) 

bet that would cause a few monocles to pop out! LOL

(if nothing else are there any videos of you driving etc? would love to see/hear it in action :) )

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It was just hastily cobbled together to get it on the road in time for our French trip a couple of years ago, but it definitely needs to be painted @LightBulbFun. The top half will be polished and engine-turned, and the bottom half gloss black, as per the factory team car in the 1924 Small Car Trials. this pic also shows what the interior will look like, one day...

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edit: no videos of it in action, maybe when I get it back

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  • 3 weeks later...

It was such a nice day yesterday, I stayed on after work and cracked out the rotary polisher. This thing has been on a shelf for about five years unused so I thought I'd put it to the test on the chalky red BX. The instructions had gone missing, so I just fired it up and got cracking

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The paint has oxidised so badly I didn't think there would be much of an improvement, but actually it's come up quite nicely. It still looks crap, but it's significantly less crap than it was before. I suspect that a night or two outside would see it back to its chalky best, so I'm wondering what the best way to preserve the polished paint is? I realise when red cars get like this it's pretty much a lost cause, but what are my chances of prolonging the sheen as best as possible? I'm definitely not a detailer, or even a cleaner, so I'm totally lost here. Any advice would be welcome!

I still have no idea what to do with this thing, really. Nobody wants to buy it, and I can't afford to fix it properly. I think to give it the best chance of survival it needs an MoT, and the only way for me to do that is buy one or two bits a month until I've got everything I need, and then take a deep breath and pay somebody to sort the most pressing issues.

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Most of the edges are already burnt through to undercoat, and the paint is so knackered I wasn't worried about doing any more damage. In fact, (sorry two-bucket wrong'uns) I didn't even wash the car first so I 'polished' in a fair amount of mud and dust... Good tip on the waxy stuff, will order a bottle and see what happens

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I used some Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection as a sort of ceramic coating (it may even be a bona fide ceramic coating... I just don't know) after I polished the Micra. It lasts quite well and keeps a decent sheen. I imagine it'll work rather well keeping the paint fresher for longer.

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