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Dean's French follies.


dean36014

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Ah well, new exhaust found on Ebay for £22 delivered. I can't be bothered getting the welder out for that. Its a decent quality one too, that someone bought incorrectly. Guess the old faithful van will be going back on work duties. I must be mad to wanting to sell it next year, but I really don't want to pay for another years worth of van insurance, however cheap it may be.

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Ah well, new exhaust found on Ebay for £22 delivered. I can't be bothered getting the welder out for that. Its a decent quality one too, that someone bought incorrectly. Guess the old faithful van will be going back on work duties. I must be mad to wanting to sell it next year, but I really don't want to pay for another years worth of van insurance, however cheap it may be.

 

Hmmm when the vans for sale mate, id be quite interested.

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It will be around March next year i think. Will put a new mot on it and sell it just before the insurance runs out. Its been a cracking motor for the last two years, just can't justify paying another lot of insurance on it when the others are on classic policies. Besides which, i own 6 cars and only have 5 parking spots, plus I'd really like to take over repairs on the Autoshite beige bx if it was available.

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Its not a normal thing, it feels wrong and icky. I think apart from selling/swapping cars with you, I do tend not to.

I still remember Mrs Dollywobblers comment of 'me being one of the people she doesn't mind you buying cars from' gawd knows why.

 

I think that's because you swapped a perfectly functional Rover 414 for the world's worst BX 16v...

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Well I ventured into the room of doom and survived. Various bits wrapped and put into the loft and the rest of the room sorted out'ish. Found the roll of pipe in a box containing Renault underbody treatment! Look it's nearly tidy now.

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Then I thought I'd better have a play with the pipe flare tool. All set up in the vice

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First attempt at a flare, think something is slightly wrong there!

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Read instructions and discovered I'd shoved too much pipe through the dies. Line it up and had another go, success:-)

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Now the realisation that 7m of pipe is nowhere near enough, need to get some more.

 

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Two years ago I welded up the exhaust on another bx and it still looks perfect.

Exhaust refitted and I'm glad so say it's not blowing and rattling, 40 quid saved then on the cheapest silencer I could find after the cancellation. So while I had the grinder out I decided to investigate the holes in the sill of the 17rd that is getting repiped. Started cleaning off the black coating on the sill and oh what's this, bigger, filler and another poorly executed repair.

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The rest of the sill seemed ok in the local area so I cut out a starting hole and checked out the inner sill

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Inner sill I'm glad to say I'd perfect. When it's all welded I'll cavity wax inside. Poked the camera inside the sill to assess how well the previous repair has been done and there appears to be a lot of rotten metal they played over. But hey whoever has repaired this car before has replaced metal with filler in the A posts, screen surround, roof, inner wings and then sprayed over it nicely so the bodges will haunt the next owners down the line. So looks like I'll be cutting that bit out and also doing repairs to the sill closing panel.

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You'll have to excuse the fact that I don't achieve much per day as I'm a slow worker since the spine fusion three months ago. I find it hard to manoeuvre into comfy positions to work, plus I'm also well aware I shouldn't even be doing things like this anymore. Hopefully I'll still get him repaired for the Blackpool run on the 27th.

 

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Finally figured out my Lexia and confirmed diagnosis on my van. According to the data it's a faulty maf. It's quite amazing what you can do, ran checks and got doors and windows operating from the laptop. Also figured out the glow plug problem, running tests it shows as a faulty relay. Will need to find that then. Some photos of the data available below.

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Well first off, I've sold the van. Mixed feelings about this as its been a great vehicle, but I can't justify renewing the insurance on it next month, especially as its on commercial insurance policy. I only use it for commuting these days, and after the operation I find the imited leg room annoying and uncomfortable. So hopefully the little C2, Project Pinky, will be a suitable replacement.

 

Finally got round to attacking the sill today on the bx 17rd. I'd seen somewhere a method somewhere of making repair panels oversize, attaching them to the area that needs welding. And then cutting through both panels to make a perfect repair panel cut to size to butt weld in. So I thought I'd have a try.
One repair panel roughly bent to shape.
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Attached to sill using self drill screws. Then mark up and cut through both panels leaving a perfect fit repair panel.....in theory. In practice I got a bit of a drunken line with the grinder.
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This is where I wish I had some decent industrial magnets to hold the panel on place. I managed but the panel moved upwards slightly leaving a bigger gap underneath to weld up. Have I mentioned I hate welding upside down with a passion. Anyway all welded in and ground back. Shape isn't perfect but with a few coats of stone chip it will be ok. The car is never going to be a good example, just a patch up and mend car.
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Now to get on and start on the pipework.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So while the 17rd was in the air I decided to poke at the lumps in the sealant at the front of the sill.

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Really wished I hadn't touched it now! More parts of the scrapper bx roof cut up and metal inserted

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Then grinding the excess welds back produced this.

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Then a case of repeat again with the other holes. The sill has had a good coat of stone chip and just needs painting black now when it's dried.

The hydraulic pipe has been replaced, just need to bleed the back brakes, but lack of an assistant makes that awkward. I just did the one pipe in the end, the others looked fine and it was too damn cold to be lieing on cold concrete replacing pipes. Hopefully I'll be bringing it to the tram museum on Saturday.

In other fleet news Shonky the bx turbo diesel did 330 miles on Saturday going down to Orpington to collect a trailer tent and then over to Basingstoke to collect XM parts from Bramz. As I was coming back into Coventry the low coolant lamp flickered a few times. Got home and lifted bonnet to find coolant had sprayed out the overflow hole in the reservoir over the side of the battery. I've treated him to a new rad cap but I'm pretty sure it might be the start of head gasket failure. He's already had one replaced 50k ago but it's looking like he might need another. Fingers crossed it is just a weak cap spring.

The c2 is running well, but not overly impressed with the fuel consumption for a 1.1 litre engine. I'm struggling to get mid 30's around town from a tiny car. I don't why I'm surprised as the c3 I had years ago was equally crap on fuel. It's doing about the same as the van was though and petrol is slightly cheaper.

Today I also bit the bullet and got a SGS welding bottle as I have lots more welding to do and the disposable bottles don't last five minutes. Must admit that the welder was better with a decent gas flow on it.

 

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Two working Bx's again, both taxed, insured and ready to go. XM is now round the back awaiting investigation of its hydraulic leak. No fun driving an automatic with no brakes. I'm managed to stick it through my fence, oops!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finally got round to fixing the lhm leak on the XM. Job involved exhaust off, spare wheel carrier off and chucked in the shed as it's rotten and needs rebuilding. Then drop the subframe down to access and find which pipe had blown. Thankfully it was a 3.5mm pipe so a joiner from the front subframe of a bx was used to insert a new pipe in. All tested and leak free, well until the next one. Hopefully buying a set of Volvo alloys for it today and now off to try and find the right sized exhaust clamp so I can refit the exhaust. Then bleed brakes and he's done! Might tax him for December and use him a little on the better weather days.

Picture of the repair.

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The 17rd bx seems to working ok, been using him for commuting to work for last few weeks. Going to install some sound deadening under the carpets and up the bulkhead over winter to try and make him more refined.

Shonky the bx turbo diesel has a suspected head gasket gone, although a new rad cap seems to have helped. In amongst the pile of car accessories I bought last week is the fluid for doing a sniffer test. I've invested a whole 3 quid in a wine demijohn breather thingy and going to try and lash up something to wedge it in the expansion bottle neck for a sniffer test.

 

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Two working Bx's again, both taxed, insured and ready to go. XM is now round the back awaiting investigation of its hydraulic leak. No fun driving an automatic with no brakes. I'm managed to stick it through my fence, oops!

82b591b1d21312f9e8878b347f090d3f.jpg

 

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Typical Citroen fluid trail :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Well thanks to the generosity of James I have an Xm estate. Collected it today and after putting a charged battery on and sweeping out as much glass as possible I wafted home in it. According to the trip computer I averaged 34mpg which was a bonus for a turbo petrol estate the size of a tank. I've located a door glass and ignition switch but unfortunately they are in Anglesey so collection over the Xmas holiday. Unfortunately this means I need to clear the decks a bit. Which means I'm going to part with the 17rd bx if anyone is interested. Would like around 400 for it but it has very short MOT and Is going to need some welding at some point. Have some pics of an Xm estate in my tent.8cbc481143ef8b8557fcdb6fca70294d.jpg8ff03f924b8b7fb2f70c3ff9f385b5b4.jpge8ba9d28c0a6dd220e24dd3875f881d4.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Xm news!

The burgundy Xm has sprung another lhm leak, this time the brake doseur valve. Parts are ordered but stuck in Xmas post. When it's fixed I'll be selling it in January if anyone fancies a cheap but slightly laquer peeled Xm.

I found a door glass and ignition switch so had a roadtrip to North Wales to collect them and a replacement wing needing a small repair but undented.

Door glass was an easy fix, but Christ doesn't the broken glass go everywhere, I'm sure I hovered up at least a bucket full.

Ignition switch also fitted, just need to sort out the remote locking as it now has two different keys. I've ordered a Chinese kit which I'll fit then replace the lower dashboard. I've also sourced an undamaged steering cowel from an eBay seller in my home town.

Now water tight and secure again.

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Then onto the little job of replacing the alternator. What a pigging awful job that

 

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Weird Tapatalk has split my post.

As saying alternator change, fucking horrendous. Found a new alternator for 30 quid delivered on eBay, split changing it over two days due to dodgy back leaning over car bonnets.

It's down there somewhere.

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Thankfully the alternator works perfectly. Tomorrows job is to bypass an engine bay fuse and hopefully spring life into the heater blowers.

Been on gsf with there discount codes and managed to get a full cambelt kit with water pump and a new auxiliary belt for 40 quid delivered. Guess I'll be doing that soon to as well then!

Got a nice Christmas present from my daughter, a bx personalised mug with one of my bx's and the ex girlfriends bx too. She never noticed the French reg plate when she nicked the photo of Facebook. Love it though, thankfully still good friends with the lady in France.

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