Project BX17RD - the further adventures of PBO

[SherpaMog]

On 1/10/2019 at 10:18 PM, vulgalour said:

As tradition dictates, an thread.

 

It all kicked off here: http://autoshite.com/topic/34152-citroen-bx-17rd-for-sale-sale-on-hold-as-its-done-a-citroen-the-little-bastard/

 

Lorry is booked for collection tomorrow and a 340ish mile round trip awaits.  It will be a long, but rewarding, day.  No live collection updates because I live in the olden times and even if I didn't, I'm not sure I could be entirely arsed.

 

 

I am looking forward to meeting Dean-numbers, his collection of wobbly French cars and, of course, Bleriot the BX.  It will probably be too dark to do anything when we get back on Friday so I suspect Saturday I'll be up bright and early to get stuck in and see just what I've let myself in for.

Is that pub in shocklatch?

[vulgalour]

Got myself a keyring since it felt a bit weird not having one.  I almost bought one of those generic 'enamelled' square ones until I spotted this white plastic clippy keyring with Citroen branding.  It just looked right for the BX.  The Citroen logo is sort of printed on to the plastic rather than being a sticker, it has the look and feel of being OEM rather than aftermarket.

 

It's the little things, really.

[vulgalour]

The diffused glass festoon bulbs I ordered turned out to be non-diffused.  After some back and forth with the supplier, it turns out that while they list diffused glass ones, they're all actually clear.  Parts shop was apologetic, and a little bit annoyed about it, so I'll be ordering those from somewhere else.  I'm being picky about these bulbs, I know, but it really does make a difference to me when the interior lights have diffused glass bulbs rather than the plain ones and I've no intention of fitting LED ones since the light from those isn't right.  While I was at the motorfactors, I picked up an oil filter since he had some gathering dust, and ordered a new rocker cover gasket which is cheaper now than it was many years ago when I had the estate, so that was something.  I'm not going to grumble at £15 for a filter and a gasket.  Today, one of the headlight bulbs went out, it did the same thing at the MoT but a wiggle of the connector woke it up again, this time the bulb was dead.  Fortunately, Dean had left a spare good pair in the glovebox so I could just pop those in, just means I'm on ordinary bulbs now rather than the very bright yellow ones it did have, I'll likely get some yellow bulbs fitted in the future because I like yellow headlights on a Citroen.

Other news was improvement of the horn.  On the original wiring, the horn was working but it was a bit weedy on the first push of the button, not ideal considering the situation you tend to use a horn in.  Mike wired in a new relay and we shortened the air feed pipe to the horns by about 6" since we found a better route for it and now the horns are instant and loud which is what I wanted.

Made a small improvement to the front end alignment too.  One of the headlight adjusters was a bit dicky at MoT, not enough to be a problem, but enough that it annoyed me.  I had a fiddle with it and found that it could be reassembled and the adjustable part hasn't seized which was a pleasant surprise.  It's still nowhere near perfect, the indicator side adjuster is all sorts of wrong and pulls the headlight skewed, I did what I could with my limited time today to try and bend things into the correct location which improved things marginally.  I'll have another fiddle with it when I have a free day to play properly.

To improve the fitment of the bonnet/wing relation to one another, I slotted a couple of washers between the wing and the wing rail on the front bolt on both sides.  This has improved the overall look in person and while the bonnet is still sat a little high (it is as low as it will physically go) and the driver's side headlight is still wonky, the overall appearance is an improvement.  I also found that the driver's side indicator bracket was bent a little out of alignment, and correcting that has improved the fit of it, and the its relation to the headlight. 

As for the root cause of the alignment issue, I'm pretty sure I know what the problem is.  The main problem is the bonnet itself, which isn't straight, it has a very slight bow across its width which increases and decreases depending on how warm the engine is.  In time it might sort itself out, or get worse.  I'm putting this down to an idiosyncracy of the plastic it's made of, there's not a great deal I can do about that.  The other main area of alignment issue is the driver's side headlight, namely the lower outer holder which is pointing the wrong way and pulling the corner of the headlight down, I can resolve this with some time and careful re-bending of the holder and/or the bracket it goes into.  Another area that was causing problems is the metal bracket that holds the indicator on the driver's side, I've improved this but until I get the headlight aligned correctly, I cannot improve it further.

[LightBulbFun]

happy to see some proper lightbulb-ing is going on, rather then fitting LEDs where they dont belong  

[stuboy]

watching old episodes of flippin bangers and watch bx episode reminded me of your bx

[vulgalour]

Slight improvement on the front panel gaps today after spending some time faffing about, wiggling the headlight, loosening and tightening bolts, and all that tiresome jazz.  Before and after for comparison taken from as similar an angle as I could manage.

 

Driver's side headlight looks much better now.  Passenger side wing-to-bonnet alignment is much better too.

The bigger issue is the bonnet itself, now that I've got the lights straightened out, the bonnet is all kinds of the wrong shape and is definitely deformed  so I'll never get a very good fit on the front end without replacing it, especially given its habit of changing shape depending on how warm or cold the engine and the day is.  I need to get the bonnet to move over more to the driver's side ideally, but there simply isn't more adjustment available to get it over any further than it is.  Instead, I'll tighten the gap between the driver's side wing and the bonnet by loosening the bolts and getting a helper to push on the wing to align it better while I tighten all the bolts up.  This is as good as it can get working on my own on this.

[strangeangel]

On 5/7/2019 at 4:19 PM, vulgalour said:

Uniroyal Rain Expert 3

 

Just to add that I bought a set of these as a consequence of getting rid of 'those' alloys, and I concur wholeheartedly - they are very good.

[egg]

Well done on all the work Vulg, you are cracking on as usual. That bonnet is a very French idiosyncrasy!

Your mention of CIF makes me wonder if it would work ok on the Invacar (I've been using Aldi's finest waterless wash and wax and diluted G101 to date)

[Broadsword]

Top marks for getting good tyres! I’m a firm believer that one of the biggest improvements you can get on an old car is putting decent rubber on it!

[320touring]

Superb to see Vulg - she looks happy:)

[vulgalour]

Egg: wouldn't do any harm.  Cif is great for bathtubs, which are just fibreglass like an Invacar, and ideal for textured plastics.  It's about the only product that can keep our white plastic kitchen sink with textured draining board (who on earth though that was a good idea?  What's wrong with stainless?) clean and stain-free.  You can be fairly liberal with it and as long as you rinse it down afterwards you don't get any chalky residue left behind.

[mat_the_cat]

I have a couple of spare bonnets (sadly not in white) you are welcome to have, if they look to be a better shape. I can bring to the next meet we are both at?

[vulgalour]

I can always repaint a bonnet if it's straighter than this one.  Not really sure what meets I'm likely to be at other than hoping to get to CCC's Wetherby thing next Sunday.  Provisionally, yes please, all the same.

[Meter rat]

Sorry to highjack the thread. May I ask if Mat has any rear mud flaps?

[vulgalour]

A small update, got on with a little job while the weather was nice.  I'd got a replacement rocker cover gasket to hopefully cure the only oil leak on the car.  Removing the rocker cover is really easy, just three bolts on the top.  The pipe over the top of everything would not come off the manifold so I just moved that out of the way while doing the swap.

The old gasket was leaking mostly from the timing belt side, and looks to have been letting a little bit of oil seepage happen along most of the rest of the surfaces too.

After giving the cover a clean I fitted the new gasket and cleaned up the mating surface on the engine before reassembly.

No sign of any leaks while sat idling on the drive, so took it for a short bobble to get things warmed through and give the oil the best chance of escaping before inspecting at home and giving the engine bay a bit of a dust off.  Happy to report no leaks apparent and the oil that had been on the engine has now mostly dried up, so hopefully that's one issue solved before it's even really an issue.

To celebrate, I removed the old Citroen Car Club sticker remnants and fitted the new Hubnut sticker that arrived today.

[vulgalour]

It is a lovely day here and what better opportunity for more fettling?  Door shuts today, since they're always neglected, and this one was no different. Didn't look too bad overall.  Here's before and after on the doors, though being white it means there doesn't appear to be a lot of difference.

I can assure you, as this bucket shot is testament, these door shuts were quite dirty.

After that, I gave the car its second wash in my ownership because... well... I don't know why really, it's just nice to keep a white car spotless I suppose.  I also gave the Princess a wash since it hadn't had one for a while and birds had done their thing.  Went for a trundle in both cars afterwards, because I could, spotted quite a few other classic cars and bikes while out, and thought that one thing that was odd between the two cars was how high I sat in the BX.  It made me wonder if there was a height adjustment on the BX seat.  Then I remembered a post Dean made about fitting an extra foam pad under the driver's seat foam base for comfort.  I removed the pad and the seating position feels more normal and there's better knee support for me, arm rest on the door feels in a better place, and the view through the rear screen feels more normal too.  It's suprising how much difference such a small depth of foam made.

Driving Princess and BX back-to-back was interesting for other reasons too (now there's a Hubnut video idea) since it was the first time I'd really done it.  The ride in the Princess compares surprisingly favourably to the BX.  The Princess is somewhat firmer ride and the steering and brakes certainly heavier, though both handle particularly well, in large part probably due to the tyres.  The BX is certainly the quicker of the two cars, and acceleration is helped by the BX having a better gear change.  Princess has slightly better visibility than the BX, and the seating position is more upright, you do have a slightly more commanding view of the road in the Princess than in the BX.  In the BX you tend to lounge a bit, it encourages a sort of smooth, relaxed approach to driving, while the Princess feels more formal.  One very odd thing is that when you get in one after the other, the BX feels very much like a French stereotype of being relaxed and comfortable and just content to do its own thing, while the Princess feels like a British stereotype of pinstripe suits, boler hats, understanding which rules to follow and which to bend, and generally being no-nonsense about the whole act of driving with the occasional harrumphing when you don't quite do something exactly in the right way.  Neither of them feel generic in any way, they both have their own character.

The most satisfying thing about both cars is just how well they compliment one another.  What one lacks, the other has.  While I could live with either as my only car, I'm glad I don't have to.

[purplebargeken]

Re: bendy bonnet. What about buying a length of ally box section in small size, bend to shape and secure to bonnet as a rib of sorts, is that even possible? , 

[vulgalour]

It would have to be really slim to do it and I'm not sure how you'd bond the two together successfully.  I reckon it's just something I have to tolerate, like the panel gaps on the Princess.

[vulgalour]

I've not been having a lot of luck trying to get hold of diffused/frosted festoon bulbs for the BX.  Placed an order online after a fair bit of hunting, only to have this turn up.

A clear festoon bulb in a packet that's been opened and resealed which should have been new.  The seller refunded me immediately, which is something.  I could just fit the clear bulb, it will work, it just won't look as right as the diffused type.  It's one of those things I'm really particular about, it seems the norm now is to fit very bright LED bulbs instead and that's just a terrible idea and one I shan't be doing.  Anyway, if you know or have any of these diffused glass bulbs please get in touch, I'd like to acquire a fistful of them.

In other news, I put the trims I got for the Princess on the BX to tidy up the wheels until I can get the original trims restored.  I wasn't sure if they'd work.  They look okay, and much tidier, and now I can get on with restoring the original trims without the car looking scruffy in the interim.

[dean36014]

Those trims look great in my opinion.

[strangeangel]

29 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

I could just fit the clear bulb, it will work, it just won't look as right as the diffused type.  It's one of those things I'm really particular about, it seems the norm now is to fit very bright LED bulbs instead and that's just a terrible idea and one I shan't be doing.

 

I'm not sure what you'd make of the interior lighting arrangements in my BX then!

 

 

One of the previous owners did this (not Chris 6-cyl - I asked him!).  I rather like them

 

[vulgalour]

There are those that believe if you've nothing nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all.  I'm going to follow their advice in this instance.

[LightBulbFun]

43 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

I've not been having a lot of luck trying to get hold of diffused/frosted festoon bulbs for the BX.  Placed an order online after a fair bit of hunting, only to have this turn up.

A clear festoon bulb in a packet that's been opened and resealed which should have been new.  The seller refunded me immediately, which is something.  I could just fit the clear bulb, it will work, it just won't look as right as the diffused type.  It's one of those things I'm really particular about, it seems the norm now is to fit very bright LED bulbs instead and that's just a terrible idea and one I shan't be doing.  Anyway, if you know or have any of these diffused glass bulbs please get in touch, I'd like to acquire a fistful of them.

In other news, I put the trims I got for the Princess on the BX to tidy up the wheels until I can get the original trims restored.  I wasn't sure if they'd work.  They look okay, and much tidier, and now I can get on with restoring the original trims without the car looking scruffy in the interim.

are you looking for that ribbed type or an acid etched type?  

 

[vulgalour]

Ideally, the bobble-type, it's not ribbed it's like a grid of glass dots.  If I really can't find one I can always use glass etching spray (which is basically matt varnish in a can) and convert some clear glass ones, but it won't be the same.

[LightBulbFun]

25 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

Ideally, the bobble-type, it's not ribbed it's like a grid of glass dots.  If I really can't find one I can always use glass etching spray (which is basically matt varnish in a can) and convert some clear glass ones, but it won't be the same.

https://www.ringautomotive.com/en/product/R237

heres the official ring website, and page for the specific bulb

they also have other bobble ones of other wattages from 5W to 10W incase any of those suit your needs better?

[vulgalour]

That's what I ordered.  A clear one appeared.  I've ordered from that listing through other sources and it always turns up as a clear bulb.  The listing is wrong, I suspect they no longer make the bobble bulbs.

[LightBulbFun]

https://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/237-standard-replacement-10-x-40mm-frosted-festoon-12v-7w.html

heres a listing that does not use a stock photo, might be worth giving them a call to confirm too

(they are also a bit cheaper then most other people selling them)

[Meter rat]

Be afraid, be very afraid, if you come on Sunday. The CCC wheel trim police will be after you. There will be quiet mumbling, tutting and harrumphing. ?

[vulgalour]

I'll keep a spare in the boot so I can frisbee it at any tutters.

[Meter rat]

I’ve four spare one as well. And I know who the main protagonists are!