Picasso restoration.......a tale of idiocy and citroen fun

[Floatylight]

This picasso is too reliable, it's a bit boring
i need something badly made, quirky, unreliable but loveable and i feel a laguna will do that

Having a C4GP and having previously had an early Laguna 2 I can say that the Laguna was probably a nice car but way more flimsy regularly had bits of trim fall off and various things go wrong or break, C4GP almost faultless by comparison!

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[maxxo]

2 minutes ago, Floatylight said:

Having a C4GP and having previously had an early Laguna 2 I can say that the Laguna was probably a nice car but way more flimsy regularly had bits of trim fall off and various things go wrong or break, C4GP almost faultless by comparison!

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my dad had a c4 picasso of that generation and it was horrific, but they're a really good looking and driving car

however no temp guage.....i don't know if i could live with that

[maxxo]

Picasso got a bit of love today, outsourced it to my usual guy simply because i don't have the proper tools.........well i did but i lost them and i don't want to take chances with brakes

but look how shiny my discs are! doesn't half stop well now, of course still bedding them in so nothing drastic

and sorted out a binding caliper, the corrosion was insane.......i dread to think how old the discs were, of course i got almost no service history with it so i have no clue

also got another oil change, super nice to see the oil is still almost spotlessly clean after 30 miles of driving which shows the love is paying off

I will likely be spending around £1,000 on the car later in the year, i want every single little thing to be sorted as well as the bodywork tidied up in places

[maxxo]

just for some fun, here's my total expenses in repairs and servicing over the past year..........

clutch £250

tyres £290

sills, 2 brake lines and ball joint £160

2 front springs (inc recovery) £200

4 oil changes £160

2 air filters £15

2 pollen filters £15

pair of front shocks £150

discs and pads £100

interior trim pieces (everything needed) £320

waxoyl underseal £7

speakers £55

undertray £30

engine cover mounts £15

drivers window switch £10

replacement HVAC vents £25

bottle of aircon gas £30

passenger side ball joint £40

egr cleaner (actually works now!) £10

2 sets of wiper blades £25

rear wiper arm £10

2 wheel trims £35

2 replacement chrome bumper trim pieces £40!

2 door straps £15

total cost since may 2019: £2,007

is the car worth it? absolutely not, but good ones are rare.......and they're dying out massively now

oh and that doesn't include some upgrades i've done, the real cost is more like £2,700

spend a few hundred more on it in september to get it completely sorted

it was in a real bad way when i picked it up

[paulplom]

Mostly maintenance stuff. You'd have spent that with any car. You need to keep on top of it to keep  it decent.

[loserone]

When are you swapping it for something even move unloved and less working?

[maxxo]

5 hours ago, paulplom said:

Mostly maintenance stuff. You'd have spent that with any car. You need to keep on top of it to keep  it decent.

many many years worth of maintenance stuff all at once, as it never had maintenance before me

the way it drives shows me it's worth it

1 hour ago, loserone said:

When are you swapping it for something even move unloved and less working?

maybe in a year or two, very interested in the cheapest laguna 2 i can find

[maxxo]

did a small amount of preservation today

gave all the more concerning rust spots and places likely to suffer corrosion another good coating of hammerite waxoyl stuff

then spent about an hour cleaning the exterior as well as blasting out the sills with a jetwash (completely packed with crap)

probably the best job i've done of cleaning it in a really long time, this colour really does come out well once polished up

i can count on one hand the number of picassos i've seen in this colour

once i get the rest of the brake lines done i'm coating the entire underside in waxoyl just to try and preserve it as much as possible

[purplebargeken]

I dread ever really totting up the figures. 

I think I did a while ago but tgat was just car purchases since 1981 when I passed my test. Put it this way I could have bought a very, very nice house in the UK with a drive and garage. Over 400k. Yep. 400k. It hurts if I say it slowly or quickly.

Well done on the work.

FFS just buy SICs Laguna and be done with it.

[maxxo]

13 minutes ago, purplebargeken said:

I dread ever really totting up the figures. 

I think I did a while ago but tgat was just car purchases since 1981 when I passed my test. Put it this way I could have bought a very, very nice house in the UK with a drive and garage. Over 400k. Yep. 400k. It hurts if I say it slowly or quickly.

Well done on the work.

FFS just buy SICs Laguna and be done with it.

i can see myself doing that tbh,

honestly once i hit 4k with this car i'll probably move it along

laguna wise an ideal one would be a loaded auto or a diesel i need complexity

[Cookiesouwest]

honestly once i hit 4k with this car i'll probably move it along

!!!!!!!!

If you are planning on moving it on, why spend so much on it? Yes you are making it better but most buyers wont appreciate or pay for that.

I fully understand the spend if you were keeping it.

[maxxo]

1 hour ago, Cookiesouwest said:

honestly once i hit 4k with this car i'll probably move it along

!!!!!!!!

If you are planning on moving it on, why spend so much on it? Yes you are making it better but most buyers wont appreciate or pay for that.

I fully understand the spend if you were keeping it.

because i want to make it a good car for someone

i'll only be selling it on here and as i say i'll want £250 due to a dent in the door

all that matters to me is to make sure i've experienced a picasso being as good as they can

[maxxo]

of course, boredom struck again

ever since changing the pedal rubbers the state of the pedal arms has annoyed me, especially the clutch

as you can see, they are pretty manky and completely full of dog hairs somehow...

so after quickly cleaning them up as much as i can, it was paint time

found this in the shed, looked quality......probably a million reasons why i shouldn't use this paint but it seemed suitable

and doesn't it look a million times better! very happy with the way it has come out

of course while i was there i had to clean the pedals, just a quick wipe over got them looking decent again

another job ticked off the list, next job is to touch up all the seatbelt scratches in the door shuts due to careless people with seatbelts slamming them in the doors

[purplebargeken]

Touches like this show we care.

It also shows how nuts we are.

I'm okay with this.

[maxxo]

everything has to be sorted in a car for me, i like to spend some time sorting out all the little niggles i can find as it's incredibly satisfying

i also have no issues spending far more than the cars retail value making it a good one, i will never scrap a car i find it incredibly upsetting and wasteful

[purplebargeken]

This needs doing on the Espace actually. Hmm. 

[maxxo]

it's a weird item that you don't seem to notice it until you do

then of course me being me it annoys me

[maxxo]

ah yes the quality vehicle vibes were strong today

somehow both arm rests fell off overnight, and continued to constantly fall off for most of the day

yet they seem fine now, which is weird but i'm assuming it's being french again

got to glue some of the interior back on tomorrow anyway so i'll sort them out then

[maxxo]

as the headlights have started to fade and go a bit yellow i thought it would be a great idea to "restore them"

what did i use you ask, well.....brasso, and yes it has cleaned them up a bit but not a vast improvement

they weren't awful but did have a fair bit of pitting on the plastics and as i say they are discolouring

little test area to begin with, was a nice easy job and easy enough to buff off

now you may have to look closely but they are a million times cleaner, and clearer!

going to buy a restoration kit at some point and do it properly

[purplebargeken]

Restoration kits are interesting. I have one that I keep meaning to try out.

[maxxo]

yes i have been interested in them for a while now, just not got round to buying one

i assume it will be a relatively easy kit to use especially due to the amount they seem to sell

[purplebargeken]

Yep, most just require mounting to a regular drill. 

[purplebargeken]

You can also go wet and dry.

[maxxo]

i don't think they've gone bad enough yet to use wet and dry

i'll likely give them another coat of brasso and then buy a kit

[purplebargeken]

When done, give them a coat of something that will ward of the UV shite as this is mostly the cause for discolouration.

[maxxo]

i will do!

suppose i need to buy a kit due to the rear lights having soot and other shite all over them

[maxxo]

ohhhh......wonder what this could be, is it a present for myself? why yes, yes it is

can ya spot what it is yet?

yes indeed, it's walnut trim!!! i have been waiting months for this moment

everyone told me not to do it, they said it would look tacky

well duhhh that's why i bought it

absolutely love the way it looks, it's brilliant and exactly what i wanted, need to do a little tweaking tomorrow with the hairdryer but i love it

oh yes comes with a piece for the digital dash too!!!!

i'm aware it may not be to everyones taste and that's fine, but it's exactly what i wanted and i adore it

[purplebargeken]

You mad fool.

It looks totally woeful.  Fabulous!!

[Jim Bell]

Putting the Nut into "secondhand walNut trim pieces".

I think they looks nice. It's always a shame when fake trees have to die in order to make our motor vehicles more executiver, but by god's beard it's worth it on this occasion.  

[maxxo]

it's almost beyond tacky!!

it's the single best thing i've done to the car tbh

sure i paid far too much for it but i don't care it's as terrible as i expected