I'll get round to it at some point - Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Nuremberg, birthplace of rallying, reached. Pants destroyed.

[Rust Collector]

Fail 😢

[petermcpete]

1 minute ago, Rust Collector said:

Fail 😢

Lights and gaiter are straightforward enough, how bad is the rust?

[Rust Collector]

I need to weld a patch on the rear sill, replace the bad rack gaiter and investigate the brake lights which were working when I tested all the lights a few weeks ago now.

[dozeydustman]

I admire your perseverance with this car. I think I'd have given up on it ages ago. It really has battled you all the way.

[Tickman]

23 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

I need to weld a patch on the rear sill, replace the bad rack gaiter and investigate the brake lights which were working when I tested all the lights a few weeks ago now.

That's not too bad at all 

[rob88h]

I’ll be holding a one minute silence at 11 o’clock tomorrow for this MOT result. 

On a serious note though, when this XM gets it's hard fought MOT, the feeling of achievement will be all the more satisfying for it. 

[Datsuncog]

Daah, never good to see a fail - but if you'd had the same result a few weeks back before the XM started with all this shithousery, it might have seemed pretty good?

I can appreciate that after all the recent arseache, the last thing you want to do is fire up the welder again, but you're so close...

[wesacosa]

sorry to hear this

is the gaiter split or has it just come loose and slipped down the rack. I think sometimes a jubilee clip on the rack to hook the clip over can work and stop a fiddly change, especially if its on passenger side which is a pain to swap 

[2flags]

Damn! We had such high hopes for it. From the sound of it, although disappointing, it's doable, especially after all the other shit you've had to put up with.

[Stinkwheel]

5 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

I need to weld a patch on the rear sill, replace the bad rack gaiter and investigate the brake lights which were working when I tested all the lights a few weeks ago now.

Sounds like you’ve won mate, I’d take that after all the work you put in 

[Split_Pin]

Aye almost there man, I really admire your patience, I haven't got a fraction of what you have!

[RoverFolkUs]

Hey, that's not a bad result at all for a car that's been sat around for the best part of 10 years.

Great work so far, nearly there!

[grogee]

How much of a PITA is the sill welding? I guess gaiters and lights should be an easy fix but that doesn't account for the Citroen factor. 

[Rust Collector]

Thanks chaps - I guess we’re due an update. Whilst I haven’t posted anything here, I haven’t been sat around with my cock in my hand. Promise!

The brake lights were a bit of a fuck around.

Before anyone calls amateur hour on me for putting a car in for a ticket without checking the lights, I did check them before it went in for MOT number 1 and all the lights worked. It’s not my fault we’re on MOT 4,341,762 now and I haven’t checked them each time.

The fault that presented itself:

Pressing the brake pedal did not illuminate either lamp, but instead would cause the cooling fan to run.

I thought maybe it was a fuckulated earth in the light clusters, so I went there first. The tow bar wiring looked suspect so I spent ages fucking around with trying to work out if that was ducking things up, removing it, making new earths etc.

That proved fruitless, so I worked my way up the car, tearing it apart and trying to find where there may be some interaction between these circuits. I was desperately trying to avoid having to go upside down in the footwell to test the brake switch loom.

But my fate was sealed.

The power probe showed a live feed at all times to the brake switch (seems correct), and earthing it made the fan run.

Obviously I’d checked the brake switch fuse and the main fan fuse. Out of desperation, I checked every fuse in the car. And it turned out a small, unrelated 10a fuse at the top of the cabin fuse box, which required removing the trim to access, had blown. From being upside down and shining a torch up, it had looked ok.

Fuse replaced, and what do you know…

Whilst putting the trim back in, I took the opportunity to drill holes in this broken flappy bit so that it could take some trim clips and stop annoying me each time I looked in the boot.

Sorted

Kudos to Citroen, all the 30 odd year old trim went back quite nicely throughout the car.

On the subject of improvements, I was fucked off with the battery terminals too. They’d gone into default Citroen mode and were loose at all times.

I cleaned them with a wire brush

And opened out the clamp with a hacksaw

They're as tight as a tight thing now, which is oddly satisfying.

‘But Josh, why are you fucking around with such trivial jobs when you have the welding to do?’

Yep. It’s time I guess.

This is the hole the man from the ministry poked.

Prior to poking there was no hole, but lots of crusty bubbles which are a delicious treat for MOT testers.

I then made the hole look like this.

I was expecting to have to repair the inner arch, but thankfully that’s recessed a long way and was ok.

The inner sill will need attention though. It’s not holed but there’s a strip that’s very flaky.

I started with the outer as that’s a more annoying shape to make. Here’s an annoying shape I made earlier.

It’s the second one I’ve made. Despite a fuck load of measuring, I got the swage line out by about 10mm on my first go. This one is perfect either, but it’s good enough and about 7 times better than the crusty bubbles it’s replacing.

Making two patches wasted my Sunday, so I’ve only just welded it in this eve due to kids and work and other shit like that.

I had some trouble with gas and wire feed to start with, and ended up pulling the gun apart on my ancient Migmate to sort that. The nicer welds were laid as a result of that, just wish I’d done it sooner rather than muddying on with it half working as it meant cutting a few racks out and re-doing them.

Ive started grinding the welds out but it’s so loud that it’s a job for the weekend.

I reckon it’ll come out nice-ish though. I’ve been really careful to keep the patch as flush as possible as I tacked it in.

Considering you look at it from this angle I think it should be fine with a layer of stone chip and then some matched paint.

All that’s left now is the inner sill and rack boot. I’m reassured the rack boot is a wanker of a job so I’m looking forward* to that. Seeing as it is sunny for the next few days, if I’m pushed for time I won’t grind the welds back and I’ll just spray some primer or something over everything temporarily, which should work for the sake of the re-test.

Ive got to get it all done and back in by Thursday… Wish me luck!

[N Dentressangle]

Great looking repair - much better than my ham fisted efforts 😎

[Split_Pin]

Good luck for the next test. I'm glad it was just a simple fuse in the end.  I've have had experience of French electrics and when something does a funny the most unrelated components are affected.

My Clarke MIG welder is the main reason I haven't had a go myself for ages (plus Gingernutzz doesn't live far from me!) It was brand new in 2021, worked OK for about the first 5 times I used it and has refused to put out wire smoothly ever since. 

[wesacosa]

top work as always. 

If the rack boot is the nearside its a pita as one of the hydraulic rams is in your way. Also the boots dont use clips they have a sort of built in location feature that hooks on a feature on the rack...If the gaiter is not split but had just popped off that location feature you might be able to clip it back on. I think I read somewhere you might also be able to use a jubilee clip on the rack to use to hook on to but I can't swear to that.

I also think you need to be careful what boot you buy given how they locate.. Might be worth trying Citroen see if they still do them

[Matty]

3 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Good luck for the next test. I'm glad it was just a simple fuse in the end.  I've have had experience of French electrics and when something does a funny the most unrelated components are affected.

My Clarke MIG welder is the main reason I haven't had a go myself for ages (plus Gingernutzz doesn't live far from me!) It was brand new in 2021, worked OK for about the first 5 times I used it and has refused to put out wire smoothly ever since. 

I've a full on Kempi set at work and even that's a twat. I don't have to do much but always go TIG for small stuff and arc for big stuff for that reason. The electric trowel just makes more work a lot of the time.

[Rust Collector]

In today’s episode of Fuck That, we look at the nearside steering rack gaiter on the XM.

I of course have a rubber boot - I ordered a febi part hoping for something decent, but it’s not like the OEM ones. No time for a replacement so it is what it is.

The inner tie rod joint came apart surprisingly easily, a set of stilsons shifted it. The ball joint on it is nice and tight, which is good.

I then had to remove the piston that provides the power assist, it’s sitting on that stud to the right. It was a right bastard to remove, and I’m really hoping I haven’t damaged any hydraulic lines.

No in progress photo I’m afraid, but to get the boot on you feed it over the stud and then stretch it around the body of the carrier. As it was a rubber boot, it wasn’t that much of a fuss.

A bit more fucking around got me to here.

I now just need to find a way to clamp the boot down at either end. The channels at either end are really narrow, I think the only thing that could clamp it in there would be some lock wire.

Im going for some of these instead:

I’m hoping that the small surface area of the wire will provide enough clamping force to deform the rubber boot enough to get a decent purchase. Apparently these boots slip in both directions, as they get both really stretched out and really compressed by the travel of the piston.

Things I’m worried about discovering on reassembly:

• Damaging the hydraulic lines that feed the piston.
• damaging the hydraulic lines around the steering rack.
• damaging the studs/fasteners for the piston
• the boot fucking off each time the steering wheel is turned
• damaging the boot that protects the inner ball joint
• damaging the rack
• damaging the inner ball joint
• That this is an XM and so misery is almost guaranteed.
• Not finishing things in time for the retest

If I can get this back together and working without issue then I’ll be having a fucking party.

At any rate, I got more done today than I expected so I’m having a gin and tonic or four.

[Homersimpson]

On 20/06/2024 at 22:25, Split_Pin said:

Good luck for the next test. I'm glad it was just a simple fuse in the end.  I've have had experience of French electrics and when something does a funny the most unrelated components are affected.

My Clarke MIG welder is the main reason I haven't had a go myself for ages (plus Gingernutzz doesn't live far from me!) It was brand new in 2021, worked OK for about the first 5 times I used it and has refused to put out wire smoothly ever since. 

I've had a clarke 150TE welder for about 20 years and it always been great, the only things i've had problems with are the wire liner which needs changing occassionaly and the welding gun which I changed after a couple of cars.  Always been a great welder and still using it on my Frogeye.

[Rust Collector]

I’ve finished with the rack boot. I hated pretty much every minute of that job, it was utter shite.

There isn’t really anything that will hold a boot onto the inboard side, as the length of travel that the rack has is ridiculous. The stretching and compression of the gaiter at either lock completely fucks the boot, it’s no wonder that they tear up so quickly.

I ended up with a cable tie on the outboard end and a monster fucking jubilee clip on the inboard end.

And to illustrate the madness, full lock right:

Full lock left:

The power assist piston was an absolute cunt to get back in place, but I won* in the end.

Checking the fail sheet confirmed that it was only the outer sill that needed attention before the re-test, so I’m giving myself a break and I won’t be doing the inner sill this weekend.

Instead, I’m doing arts and crafts.

I chucked a tiny bit of filler over the welds after I ground them flush

Then some filler primer

And because the original paint on the sill was textured and I’m lazy, I’m not sanding that back. Instead it’s had some stone chip paint sprayed over it

It looks better already in my opinion, and if it was a car I was keeping I’d probably leave it like that.

Seeing as I want to re-home this one, it’s getting some metallic green which halfords reckon is a match, plus some clear coat. That’s a job for tomorrow though, as the stone chip needs to cure and I need to wash the dirt off the sill as I’ve come out further with the paint than I anticipated.

At any rate, once we’re painted, I’ll seal the seams in the wheel arch with some tiger seal and then we are re-test ready.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

re-test ready.

Where are you taking it this time?

[Rust Collector]

11 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Where are you taking it this time?

It has until Thursday to get back to Motest in lewes, so it’ll be going back into them at some point. The only slight problem is that it’s tricky to fit around work, but I’ll figure something out.

[Rust Collector]

Today I’ve mostly been concluding my arts and craft session.

It’s by no means perfect, but I’m happy enough with it:

The halfords spray paint was actually alright as a match, to my surprise. I had been a bit dubious, as they have overhauled their paint system and now they just have set codes for each colour and they map your car’s paint code to their closest match (at least that’s my understanding). The colour stands out a bit at present as the door and arch above it are dirty, but once I wash the car (again) and polish it then I reckon my repair will blend in nicely.

On the rear of the panel, I’ve put tiger seal into all the joints that had seam sealer from factory, then painted everything with stone chip paint. An arch liner goes over the top of it (and still fits!!) so I’m happy enough with that.

I then took the car for a few laps of the block, a 3 point turn and then some laps in the opposite direction. The steering rack gaiter has not left the chat yet, so I’m praying it stays put for the 9 mile run to the test centre. I will of course take some tools with me, and stop just short of the garage and double check it!

Otherwise, she’s done hopefully.

Despite all the anguish this car has caused me, I can’t help but look out the window and think that it’s a beautiful old machine.

Assuming it passes the re-test, I’ll tax it from July and run it whilst I get the last few bits of housekeeping sorted. I will get and advert up for its sale (or possible big ticket roffle?!) too.

[High Jetter]

I reckon those are on a level with the DS & SM, looks wise. Fingers X it passes.

[Rust Collector]

I left the office at 4 on the dot and I’m wielding cakes.

This can only mean one thing.

Wish us luck, fingers crossed I’ve not done anything fucking stupid!

[Rust Collector]

Fail. Rack boot.

[Stinkwheel]

6 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

Fail. Rack boot.

Did it come off again?

[Rust Collector]

25 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

Did it come off again?

Yeah. I stopped and checked it 100 yards from the mot station and it was ok. Must have come off in the car park.

[Rust Collector]

I’m a cunt.

OFFSIDE

I’m going to go curl up into a ball and die.