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


maxxo

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Yep, I had all of that! The actual repair kit is very cheap, but the clock spring has to come off iirc, or something equally complicated 

Typically there's about 94 different types of indicator stalk, so I think having it off to get the part number will be a prudent move. I'm hoping that as it's not crunchy and does sometimes work it's going to be a bit easier

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3 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Yep, I had all of that! The actual repair kit is very cheap, but the clock spring has to come off iirc, or something equally complicated 

Typically there's about 94 different types of indicator stalk, so I think having it off to get the part number will be a prudent move. I'm hoping that as it's not crunchy and does sometimes work it's going to be a bit easier

quite funny, i bought a replacement comms2000 from a scrapyard......feels absolutely awful and the stalks are really stiff which is a shame.

no point even trying a citroen dealer for anything, they rarely have parts in stock and have to wait weeks for them to come in,

still not as bad as last time.......the guy at the parts desk (who looked younger than me!) was looking at parts for the c4 picasso.......then when i said it's a xsara he said "what's a xsara picasso"

i just left

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On 2/17/2020 at 5:41 PM, maxxo said:

Spend ages yesterday making the car look as good as possible to be hit by flying plasterboard on the A1 today, thankfully most of it came out

Oh noooo!! :( I feel your pain. Got a great local smart-repair fella coming to look at mine on Saturday AM. Mrs Prote says it's not worth fixing. But then she drives a soul-less Hyundai i30...

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1 hour ago, maxxo said:

So plans for the year.......

Replace rusted number plate screws (probably fit a plate surround too)

adjust rear torsion bar height

get front and rear bumpers resprayed, dent in door removed and a few other scratches sorted

replace fuel filter

sort of need to replace the battery at some point

replace leather gear gaiter

replace pads and discs + brake fluid

replace brake lines

fit some more "exclusive" spec interior trim

air con clean and recharge

I think that's all it needs, should be a very very nice car once it's all done

I got a leather gearstick gaiter from Amazon (I think) only 9 quid. Perfect. For my aircon I used one of these Ezi Chill things: https://www.stp-aircon.eu/. Used it before on a few cars - never let me down before.

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3 minutes ago, Prote said:

Oh noooo!! :( I feel your pain. Got a great local smart-repair fella coming to look at mine on Saturday AM. Mrs Prote says it's not worth fixing. But then she drives a soul-less Hyundai i30...

These picasso's have so much character and soul, i'm more than happy to spend whatever mine needs on it to make it right.

the amount of picasso's i've seen in scrapyards recently is really sad, a lot of them look good enough too......i imagine it's due to them "being too old" as everyone seems to tell me about my car now.

I saw a lovely blue Y reg (just happens to be that year) one today broken down with the bonnet up and the rac with it, hope they fix it instead of scrapping it as i've seen it around a few times and it's in really good conditon

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2 minutes ago, Prote said:

I got a leather gearstick gaiter from Amazon (I think) only 9 quid. Perfect. For my aircon I used one of these Ezi Chill things: https://www.stp-aircon.eu/. Used it before on a few cars - never let me down before.

i'll check them out! and it does have a bottle of that in it at the moment but i've noticed the compressor seems to be kicking in and out a lot, althought could be due to the temperatures

I want to clean it as i let someone smoke in the car a few months ago (was raining and wanted to go home) and i can still smell is despite cleaning everything i can see

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Just now, maxxo said:

These picasso's have so much character and soul, i'm more than happy to spend whatever mine needs on it to make it right.

the amount of picasso's i've seen in scrapyards recently is really sad, a lot of them look good enough too......i imagine it's due to them "being too old" as everyone seems to tell me about my car now.

They're odd buggers these cars - bit like ugly kids that only their mothers love. I bought mine as an emergency measure after my old car was rear-ended and written off - 1 year later I've grown quite fond of it. Previously I've had Subarus, Ford Ranger Wildtraks, Mitsi L200s, etc. Although where I work everyone has lease cars, so I'm surrounded by huge 4x4 Mercs, Audis and Beemers - even the the lowest paid staff seem to prefer to lease motors. So I look like some mental patient, 'the hoarder nextdoor' in my 2001 red Shitroen. My company hates it as I have to visit various sites and the company policy is you can't can't use cars over 6 years old. However, I've no cash, so it's this or nothing.

But at the end of the day. it's an honest car, does the job and has a retro insanity to it. Plus, I'm pleasantly surprised how well it holds up. My first car was a totally crappy Datsun Cherry 100a with minimal braking, holes in the floor, a heater matrix that leaked on my feet, and a left wing carefully sculpted out of chicken wire and plod from Halfords, so anything else I've driven since seems like a limo.

When I was looking for a piece of interior trim for mine, the scrappie told me, 'you need to bring your car in here, we need it'.. Cheeky tw@t..

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10 minutes ago, maxxo said:

i'll check them out! and it does have a bottle of that in it at the moment but i've noticed the compressor seems to be kicking in and out a lot, althought could be due to the temperatures

I want to clean it as i let someone smoke in the car a few months ago (was raining and wanted to go home) and i can still smell is despite cleaning everything i can see

https://www.lifewire.com/removing-smoke-smell-from-car-4009054

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3 minutes ago, Prote said:

They're odd buggers these cars - bit like ugly kids that only their mothers love. I bought mine as an emergency measure after my old car was rear-ended and written off - 1 year later I've grown quite fond of it. Previously I've had Subarus, Ford Ranger Wildtraks, Mitsi L200s, etc. Although where I work everyone has lease cars, so I'm surrounded by huge 4x4 Mercs, Audis and Beemers - even the the lowest paid staff seem to prefer to lease motors. So I look like some mental patient, 'the hoarder nextdoor' in my 2001 red Shitroen. My company hates it as I have to visit various sites and the company policy is you can't can't use cars over 6 years old. However, I've no cash, so it's this or nothing.

But at the end of the day. it's an honest car, does the job and has a retro insanity to it. Plus, I'm pleasantly surprised how well it holds up. My first car was a totally crappy Datsun Cherry 100a with minimal braking, holes in the floor, a heater matrix that leaked on my feet, and a left wing carefully sculpted out of chicken wire and plod from Halfords, so anything else I've driven since seems like a limo.

When I was looking for a piece of interior trim for mine, the scrappie told me, 'you need to bring your car in here, we need it'.. Cheeky tw@t..

I've found the picasso group on facebook to be good for parts (xsara picasso owners/enthusiasts not the one for all of them as it's shit)

see it's done a picasso, these cars grow on you and boom before you know it you've had it for 10 years and have no idea what to replace it with. They are so very 2000s especially inside which makes them excellent so retro and a future classic for sure.

it's quite sad how mines now the oldest car on my street and usually the oldest car i see each day, seems everyone is leasing

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3 minutes ago, maxxo said:

I've found the picasso group on facebook to be good for parts (xsara picasso owners/enthusiasts not the one for all of them as it's shit)

see it's done a picasso, these cars grow on you and boom before you know it you've had it for 10 years and have no idea what to replace it with. They are so very 2000s especially inside which makes them excellent so retro and a future classic for sure.

it's quite sad how mines now the oldest car on my street and usually the oldest car i see each day, seems everyone is leasing

It's amazing how modern these cars feel on the road. Sadly they're often family hacks with booster chairs and bumpers hanging off. But then again, they do the job. At least you can work them hard and not worry.

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3 minutes ago, Prote said:

It's amazing how modern these cars feel on the road. Sadly they're often family hacks with booster chairs and bumpers hanging off. But then again, they do the job. At least you can work them hard and not worry.

i don't think of them as being 20 years old, hell mines 15 this year (going to have a birthday party!) and they drive far better than they have any right to

seems most of them i see are filthy with heavy bodywork damage, bald tyres and just wrecked all together

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2 minutes ago, Prote said:

My nephew works for a Hyundai dealer. They're writing off great cars under the scrappage scheme. Cars that would offer many years of motoring to someone

bet they're getting an awful lot of picasso's through there

like i said these will be rare cars in as little as 2-3 years as noone see's what they really are

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19 minutes ago, maxxo said:

I've found the picasso group on facebook to be good for parts (xsara picasso owners/enthusiasts not the one for all of them as it's shit)

see it's done a picasso, these cars grow on you and boom before you know it you've had it for 10 years and have no idea what to replace it with. They are so very 2000s especially inside which makes them excellent so retro and a future classic for sure.

it's quite sad how mines now the oldest car on my street and usually the oldest car i see each day, seems everyone is leasing

Even now I've got a modern it's still the oldest car in the work car park

IMG_20200219_090417.thumb.jpg.38347c35bed3dfb358e5f6a9f901cb49.jpg

My boss's mazda next to me is one of the next oldest though... (there's maybe 10 or so pre 60 plate cars that knock around) 

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2 minutes ago, maxxo said:

indeed, i'm going auto for whatever other car i buy this year

yeah i want another car, i have no need for 2 cars but i want another car

I've been looking at Reliant Robins.... no idea why LOL My brother was a biker and owned one as you don't need a car licence, and it was dreadful. But I like the idea of it....

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5 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Even now I've got a modern it's still the oldest car in the work car park

IMG_20200219_090417.thumb.jpg.38347c35bed3dfb358e5f6a9f901cb49.jpg

My boss's mazda next to me is one of the next oldest though... (there's maybe 10 or so pre 60 plate cars that knock around) 

Best looking car out the lot though, Xsara's are very nice cars especially in estate form

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3 minutes ago, Prote said:

I've been looking at Reliant Robins.... no idea why LOL My brother was a biker and owned one as you don't need a car licence, and it was dreadful. But I like the idea of it....

the more dreadful a car is the better it is!

Which is why i want an early laguna 2 so badly

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