Vince's XM...213k and slowing....

[vince]

Well its been a while yet again......

Today is my son Jack's birthday......He is 4 So i took the day off with the intent to spend from 9am until 3pm going through the car and starting its prep work well in advance for the warmer sunnier weather to come (hopefully) and the first show of the Citroen season. I also wanted to nip to my local scrap yard and pick up a replacement foglamp relay and a little push in grommet for the plastic protection panel on the boot entrance....that hides the screws.

After my wife decided to finish work early so that we could actually go into town without the kids i had to ditch the scrap yard plan and called my local Citroen dealer instead to price up a new relay.

Unfortunately.....they couldnt ID the relay part number and so couldnt give me price or availability of the relay We use the Citroen program at work and with a bit of background knowledge is not hard to find the right parts and numbers....i was a little dissapointed....so i will have a look at the relay tomorrow and get the part number off it...I hope that cures my no front fog lamp problem

So with drastically reduced time i managed to get the bodywork cleaned and polished to a nice standard and all the plastics blacked....its looks nice and shiny but i did "re-notice" (dont think thats a word ) the amount of defects i have in the paint on this car...most notably, peeling laquer, and the large scratch down the N/S/R door which someone keyed last summer.

It seems a touch up brush from Citroen is going to be required along with some more lessons on wet sanding and machine polishing to try to rectify these issues.....at least it shouldnt cost that much....i hope

Other than that....she is still running very well and is being pressed into repping duty tomorrow again around merseyside....

The only thing putting me off somewhat is the rear hydractive valve thats sticking in hard mode after every time i start the car....I half suspect it to be the rear height corrector being partially siezed as it doesnt do it whent he vehicle is parked overnight in "low" Perhaps its not the electrovalve after all?

In any event i have a brand new Citroen rear height corrector that ive had since i bought the car and have been keeping for emergencies....

If its not that then i will price up a new valve and start saving to get one

[citroenxm]

Shouldn't be the actual height corrector Vince, its more likly the actual linkages it sits around that would be siezed, then second the horrid electro valve syndrome.. give me an SX Any day!


By the way, have you had your relay cover from Alan yet? I let it with him a few weeks ago..

Regards
Paul

[vince]

Blasphemy...did i not thankyou for that Paul....

Sorry yes Alan dropped it off a while ago now thanks. I owe you a fiver for that dont i

I have vowed to not get so involved at work anymore so my memory can heal itself......Its an old problem i inherited from my days working in the city When i work too hard my memory get really bad.

Can you re PM me your address Paul.

Thanks

[vince]

A small repair job for today...

I popped the bonnet Friday morning and heard a snap sound from the drivers side rear or the engine compartment. Washer supply pipe snapped clean in two..... ....It wasnt caught so i presume its got brittle with age and the cold finally saw it off.

Im going to re plumb the lot with narrow guage fabric rubber fuel hose from work. That will last for years and hopefully might keep the water inside from freezing so much?

Im also in the process of getting a rotary machine polisher so i can repair some deep scratches i have picked up over the course of the last year...try to re awaken my old bodywork skills from many years ago...

[vince]

Pics from today......









Nice sunny day....at last! More like today please

[CitroJim]

Gosh Vince, I've seen less shiny mirrors than your car Seriously, what a job!!! Excellent...

Now, after that, just why do you need a machine polisher? I don't think you'll better what you have done there....

[Citroenmad]

Thats one flawless finish!

Excellent pictures, the cars looking great, as always

[vince]

Gosh Vince, I've seen less shiny mirrors than your car Seriously, what a job!!! Excellent...

Now, after that, just why do you need a machine polisher? I don't think you'll better what you have done there....

Thanks guys.....but a camera can hide a lot of flaws

I want a polisher so that i can get rid of "spiderwebs" which are the round swirl marks you see in the paint when the sun shines directly on it, and also i need to paint some scratches out which will then need to be cut back to leave a perfect finish as if they were never there.....I will need a machine to do this. My rear door got keyed last year when i took it to work one day which definately needs to be fixed.

Back in the day i was pretty good at bodywork but like many other things lack of use has seen these "learns" die away. Id like to get this one back so i plan on getting a scrap panel from the breakers and practising scratch repair on that so i can master it before unleashing the fury on my door

[vince]

Well the list has been drafted of things i need to get done before May 15th (First show i will be attending - CCC northern rally) on the saturday....and its not short Im not sure i will get everything completed in time due to the balance of free time and available money but I have had some paint mixed up, matching the fuel filler flap that i took with me, so i can get some mirror caps painted and fitted (Hallelujah )

I have a few little bits in transit from Paul (Thanks) that will hopefully see my front fogs come back to life and my interior switches looking fresh again.

I have also booked in some time with a friend of mine who has a machine polisher, necessary equipment, and the know how to get rid of any swirls on the body and also to cut and blend in the scratch repairs i will be carrying out with the paint i have bought....

Uncharicteristically for me i took a gamble yesterday and bought "an exterior mod" product which I hope will help my car stand out at the rally. As a big fan of OE finishes it is the first time i would have ever seen this mod done on a Xantia but am quietly confident that it will add to the cars look and at least be a talking point.....either that or it will look awfull and i would have blown £40 Either way it will be here next week so i will know soon enough

I think ill give the car a quick wash this morning and then take the wife and kids for a drive down to Chatsworth hall....hope the weather holds out

[Sid_the_Squid]

Your car always stands out at these events Vince saying that can't wait to see what this mystery mod is, although it will have to be via pictures sadly, I won't make the northern meet

[CitroJim]

I might try for the Northern meet this year...

That's if I can get my Yorkshire visa renewed in time...

Looking forward to the start of the rally season

[myglaren]

I will be making an effort to get there, haven't anything else planned that I recall.

[vince]

That would be great if you guys could attend Trainman is going to come down to...he's not far from em so we can travel up together.

Its a pity that i cant attend on the sunday also but im on a course that day....it had to be that day of all days didnt it

Its not the biggest venue by all means but still gets a good turnout. There were cars up from London last year and Graham came down from all the way from Glasgow in his CX.

I cant wait for the start of rally season either

[vince]

Well all my deep scratches have now been filled with the paint i had matched up and what a great match they have done with the paint They currently look worse than before as i have had to layer the paint up so when its cutted it will blend flush. Just need to arrange time to get the polisher on them at my mates house.

Also today being easter sunday it was a day of spending all day in...which drives me nuts, so i finally fixed the broken window in the shed that has been slowly filling my toolbox up with rain where it leaked in and also i decided to go for broke and try to fix my subwoofer i took out months ago when it packed in. I figured what the hell....either ill find the problem or it will remain bust and then get binned.

However, after stripping it down, removing the circuit board and all the sockets / connectors, i found nothing wrong apart from a bent over transformer which i duly bent back into position. So believing that i might have have the midas touch just for today i built it back up and tested it back in the car...and it lives again Hooray.....

Although subs might not be to everyones taste, having one and then not having one is like disconnecting your hi fi speakers and then connecting up some £5.99 walkman speakers to your stereo....the depth of sound is amazing with a sub. Like when you watch a new action movie at the cinema.

I can truthfully assure you that i am not a member of the "drive around with my stereo blasting and the windows down" brigade

[vince]

Well my new rotary machine polisher arrived the other day so i fired it up yesterday and did my roof and bonnet with a finishing polish and pad combo.

Although the shine level doesnt seem a million miles away from what ive achieved in the past by hand, the main difference is almost all of the spiderweb swirls that are visible in direct sunlight are gone which is what i was going for. The paint too feels alot smoother

Pics arent great as our camera isnt up to much and with it being bright its washed the colour out a bit