French fancy - Citroen BX 1.9RD

[captain_70s]

RIP

[loserone]

I tried to get him to sign up here before he ruined it, but apparently noone is able to create new accounts.

 

I can't watch his channel.

[Dick Longbridge]

Death row black ✓

Stick-on shit ✓

Daft lights ✓

Parts from other car types hammered on ✓

What a doughnut.

 

[SmokinWaffle]

33 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Oh, FFS.

 

29 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

RIP

 

27 minutes ago, loserone said:

I tried to get him to sign up here before he ruined it, but apparently noone is able to create new accounts.

 

I can't watch his channel.

 

24 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Death row black ✓

Stick-on shit ✓

Daft lights ✓

Parts from other car types hammered on ✓

What a doughnut.

 

I say this as a fellow BX licker who owns an estate and a hatchback - and loves them both very much...

Stop demonizing anyone who changes a car from anything but original. It's still alive and on the road - that's the thing to keep in mind - and it may not have been without the person you're so quick to judge.

What someone does with their own car is entirely up to them. You don't have to like it.

There is an arguably diminishing number of people who are interested in keeping old shite alive and in use. Attitudes like this are part of the reason. Stop gatekeeping. 

[RoverFolkUs]

36 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Oh, FFS.

[RoverFolkUs]

5 minutes ago, SmokinWaffle said:

 

 

 

I say this as a fellow BX licker who owns an estate and a hatchback - and loves them both very much...

Stop demonizing anyone who changes a car from anything but original. It's still alive and on the road - that's the thing to keep in mind - and it may not have been without the person you're so quick to judge.

What someone does with their own car is entirely up to them. You don't have to like it.

There is an arguably diminishing number of people who are interested in keeping old shite alive and in use. Attitudes like this are part of the reason. Stop gatekeeping. 

Wouldn't have quite thought that is direct hate to the owner for doing what they did to their car, as you quite rightly point out. 

But it's one of those things that are inevitably divisive and will make people look twice. 

I can't imagine the owner did that expecting everyone to love it, which was probably the intention. 

Some people will go "WTF", others will think it's ruined, others will think it's cool. I'd err on the side of ruined and I don't think there's anything wrong with that but it's his car and it's done now, I don't think anyone's loosing sleep over it.

Might as well have scrapped it, there would be a similar outcry, maybe just from different people. Unhappy people shout the loudest.

[SmokinWaffle]

9 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Wouldn't have quite thought that is direct hate to the owner for doing what they did to their car, as you quite rightly point out. 

But it's one of those things that are inevitably divisive and will make people look twice. 

I can't imagine the owner did that expecting everyone to love it, which was probably the intention. 

Some people will go "WTF", others will think it's ruined, others will think it's cool. I'd err on the side of ruined and I don't think there's anything wrong with that but it's his car and it's done now, I don't think anyone's loosing sleep over it.

Might as well have scrapped it, there would be a similar outcry, maybe just from different people. Unhappy people shout the loudest.

Even if it's not direct hate - it's still not conducive to a community or general good feeling. It makes us all seem like judgemental purists. 

I had a Hillman Hunter that was a mishmash of parts and not very standard looking / ratty a few years ago - ended up selling it - and a large part of that decision was because every single show or meet I went to try to share specific passion or interest with like minded people - I was asked if I'm putting it back to standard, told it wasn't the factory paint colour, told that it was ruined and I should be restoring it to whatever former glory their rose tinted glasses remembered. 

Really put me right off of the car scene and is the reason I'm not active part of any official clubs as everyone just wants to gatekeep and chat shit about others with their mates in their own little clique. 

People just need to mind their own business and stop judging people. It's just a fucking car. Let people enjoy things.

 

[Six-cylinder]

7 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Oh, FFS.

It is great it has been saved and MOTed. The problem now it has been personalised so heavily no one else is going to want it when he has finished with it.

[Dick Longbridge]

6 hours ago, SmokinWaffle said:

Even if it's not direct hate - it's still not conducive to a community or general good feeling. It makes us all seem like judgemental purists. 

I had a Hillman Hunter that was a mishmash of parts and not very standard looking / ratty a few years ago - ended up selling it - and a large part of that decision was because every single show or meet I went to try to share specific passion or interest with like minded people - I was asked if I'm putting it back to standard, told it wasn't the factory paint colour, told that it was ruined and I should be restoring it to whatever former glory their rose tinted glasses remembered. 

Really put me right off of the car scene and is the reason I'm not active part of any official clubs as everyone just wants to gatekeep and chat shit about others with their mates in their own little clique. 

People just need to mind their own business and stop judging people. It's just a fucking car. Let people enjoy things.

 

Yes, the owner has scraped the car through an mot and ultimately returned it to the road. There's no denying that it's hopefully kept the BX away from the jaws of doom for a little longer.

I liked the fact the car was on here for years, and survived, owner to owner, looking relatively unscathed. Future owners took it on as a reasonably clean, original and tidy example of a BX. This kept the pool of future custodians interested. Until now.

Whilst I can't deny it's 'his car, his way', I just think it's a shame that the new owner chose this car to give such a radical makeover and instantly narrow down the number of potentially interested future owners.

 

[loserone]

1 hour ago, Dick Longbridge said:

clean, original and tidy

It definitely wasn't any of these to be fair.   It was wonderful, but none of these things.

[Joey spud]

9 hours ago, SmokinWaffle said:

I had a Hillman Hunter that was a mishmash of parts and not very standard looking / ratty a few years ago - ended up selling it - and a large part of that decision was because every single show or meet I went to try to share specific passion or interest with like minded people - I was asked if I'm putting it back to standard, told it wasn't the factory paint colour, told that it was ruined and I should be restoring it to whatever former glory their rose tinted glasses remembered.

I always thought that old Hillman was a darn cool ride do you know if it's still alive ?

[Rust Collector]

I think everyone is making good points, the two biggest takeaways for me are a) personalising the car like that most likely means that once the current owner has run their course with it then there likely won't be another person wanting to take it on and that b) attitudes in car clubs as to how cars should 'be' risks alienating other folks who otherwise have a mostly common interest and risks losing their participation.

I've been invited to bring the Lada to the Hellingly Festival of Transport but part of me doesn't want to go as it's rough as fuck to look at and possibly* benefiting a lot from MOT exemption and I'm worried that I'll get stick (rightly or wrongly) for that.

[dollywobbler]

Surprised at the level of hate on here. The thing WAS unsellable, apart from the one person prepared to do a shit ton of welding to make it solid again. When I owned it, this car was still pretty original but subsequent owners began putting their spin on it with the wheels, interior etc, which is absolutely fine. This car really has had quite the life, and still lives! That's great. A paint job can be undone (it was utterly f*cked when sold at auction) and other additions could be removed easily enough. Why the doom and gloom?

[somewhatfoolish]

It's EOL, when it goes to live on a farm* hopefully it will help other manky old pieces of french hydopneumaticness keep going. 

[grogee]

I agree with everyone. 

I'm the world's biggest hypocrite really. I do love an old classic that's been restored with original bits and not fiddled with. 

However I'm just not able to help myself from modding my own cars. The Puma has a lot going on although it's not visually obvious. The Maestro has a very fruity exhaust that raised eyebrows at Sunday's BL show in Gaydon. 

Therefore I'm not really in a position to say I don't like the bars welded onto the Citroen. They are a mod that someone spent time and money achieving. Personally it's not what I'd choose. But then again the owner probably wouldn't choose the red brace bars I've put on my Puma. 

I think what may be a major contributing factor to the 'passion' is that we're talking about a floaty Citroen, which is now an endangered species, and therefore makes People Like Us clutch our pearls at anything approaching 'rat look'. 

Having said all that, anything deliberately rusted, VW scene or mad camber can get in the bin. 

[Matty]

18 hours ago, SmokinWaffle said:

Even if it's not direct hate - it's still not conducive to a community or general good feeling. It makes us all seem like judgemental purists. 

I had a Hillman Hunter that was a mishmash of parts and not very standard looking / ratty a few years ago - ended up selling it - and a large part of that decision was because every single show or meet I went to try to share specific passion or interest with like minded people - I was asked if I'm putting it back to standard, told it wasn't the factory paint colour, told that it was ruined and I should be restoring it to whatever former glory their rose tinted glasses remembered. 

Really put me right off of the car scene and is the reason I'm not active part of any official clubs as everyone just wants to gatekeep and chat shit about others with their mates in their own little clique. 

People just need to mind their own business and stop judging people. It's just a fucking car. Let people enjoy things.

 

Did you do a thread on autoshite about the hillman?

[Mrs6C]

20 hours ago, loserone said:

I tried to get him to sign up here before he ruined it, but apparently noone is able to create new accounts.

 

I can't watch his channel.

He has signed up here, but hasn't logged on for a while.

[SmokinWaffle]

13 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

It is great it has been saved and MOTed. The problem now it has been personalised so heavily no one else is going to want it when he has finished with it.

 

13 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Whilst I can't deny it's 'his car, his way', I just think it's a shame that the new owner chose this car to give such a radical makeover and instantly narrow down the number of potentially interested future owners.

Disagree - there are people who will buy all sorts of stuff - and the following for rat look/cars like this is actually pretty big. Even if it does narrow it - that's a very odd reason to not do something. That's like not driving your sports car hard to save the tyres for the next person. Cars are made to be used however is seen fit, not coddled.

10 hours ago, Joey spud said:

I always thought that old Hillman was a darn cool ride do you know if it's still alive ?

I'm somewhat unsure - I know the person who I sold it to had something hit the windowscreen and it smashed. As the insurance couldn't find a replacement - it got written off (shame he didn't ask me as I knew where 2 were, for free..). It then went to copart where it sold and ended up with a chap in Manchester who actually contacted me on Instagram - letting me know he had it and planned to fully restore it. He is originally from Iran I believe which of course has a large following of these in the form of Paykans - almost like their "peoples car".

Since then I've seen it in a few instagram posts but it's gone silent over the past year or two. He's restore 2 others in that time, one that obtained a red front wing before being re-painted in a lovely yellow. I think what may have happened is that my one was used for spares to keep the others alive, which is fair enough as it was far from the best example. I have asked him - but heard nothing back.For those who were interested in what it looked like:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Was a proper fun little thing. Many memories made.

 

8 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Surprised at the level of hate on here. The thing WAS unsellable, apart from the one person prepared to do a shit ton of welding to make it solid again. When I owned it, this car was still pretty original but subsequent owners began putting their spin on it with the wheels, interior etc, which is absolutely fine. This car really has had quite the life, and still lives! That's great. A paint job can be undone (it was utterly f*cked when sold at auction) and other additions could be removed easily enough. Why the doom and gloom?

Totally agreed.

This is another thing that winds me up, everyone who is quick to jump on the don't scrap it or that owner has ruined it forever what a twat train - are often the same ones that have followed it's journey including when it came up for sale - if is that critical to you that it stays exactly how it left the factor - feel free to stump up your own cash and buy it when the chance arises. Don't just sit back and watch it get sold then complain about it when someone tries to enjoy themselves.

7 hours ago, grogee said:

I think what may be a major contributing factor to the 'passion' is that we're talking about a floaty Citroen, which is now an endangered species, and therefore makes People Like Us clutch our pearls at anything approaching 'rat look'. 

I don't get the general issue with rat look either - some of it looks pretty decent. Unpopular opinion city, population me; I know. Yes, some of it isn't to my taste, but it's not my car so...

as @dollywobbler said - it wasn't exactly a spring chicken when sold so it's arguably in a better place than it was.

58 minutes ago, Matty said:

Did you do a thread on autoshite about the hillman?

I didn't - sadly. Made one on Retrorides but there isn't a whole lot in it.

 

I didn't mean to derail the thread - but attitudes like that are what nearly put me off of enjoying cars altogether for a good while - and it was only when I stopped actually caring what people said and stopped going to shows that I managed to find my enjoyment in it again. It's just sad to see it happening on here all too frequently.

This says it well

 

[hairnet]

is it legal. yes

is it used. yes.

does it look a piece of shit. to some yes

if the h8rs love it that much - why wasnt their money put where their mouth was to use as they saw fit