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

[vince]

Well today is exactly 6 months to the day since i first drove an xm, and also the since i bought my car from Paul

I can honestly say ive loved every minute of xm ownership and have racked up 6k miles in that time with a broken accelerator cable being the only partial "breakdown"

Sure ive spent some money fixing up some other bits on the car, but some of those i could have lived with, but prefer to get things fixed money permitting

To this day, the design of this car still amazes me, as does the way it drives...its the whole experience i guess. Its nice to be back in a car that im interested in and is suitably old and rare to still interest others also. Last night i nipped to Asda and when coming back to the car found two teenage lads looking at it with one commenting that it looks like a Delorean ....perhaps if you squint from a distance, but i get what they meant. Its a pointy 80's design, and in my case gunmetal grey.

Here's looking forward to another 6 months classic citroen ownership and a few shows along the way

My sister has also just bought her first car yesterday after passing her test....what did she buy? .....a Citroen C3 At least she had the sense to buy french as i had nothing to do with it

[vince]

On the Pallas front, i did a Mini last weekend for a referral customer from Will on here Thanks Will. If anyone is wondering how the paint on modern minis stacks up to their original forebearers, its damn tough Seriously, its like diamond tough...even the vinyl stripes !

The guy was selling the car due to an expanding family and also i have his range rover to do next weekend Im always a bit nervous when someone first sees their car once its been done, as i know how much work its been to correct its condition, but i realise its a financial outlay for people so im always hoping that they feel they get value for money. This job i figured would be a steady one with perhaps 8 to 10 hours tops in it. The paint looked soft and i figured the vinyl stripes would be easy to correct. The fact it was the polar opposite saw it taking 11.5 hours and that was with one quick cup of tea break for 10 mins. Seriously, that was all.

Every nook and cranny was cleaned up and being white everything shows up (which is better to work with) The whole lower section of the car was peppered in tiny tar spots which took as you can imagine a while to get off...one by one The bottom door drains were filthy, the tailgate surround seal had to come off to get at the filthy white paint behind it (its a dirt trap) and the engine bay and interior were done also as i knew it was going up for sale and the owner is too busy to get round to much himself. I was happy with the way it came out, but it was back breaking doing it all in one day, plus being winter i havent done a car for a little while. The owner was like "WOW, it looks amazing" Its funny but the most common word people say first is "Wow"...i think its place in the english vocabulary is secure for a while yet.

I took my camera to take pictures, but in my rush to get out the door i forgot to change the batteries for the ones id just charged the night before so it was flat! i had to use my mates camera which i find hard to take a good picture with as its so sensitive to hand movements when your taking pics. The resulting pictures arent the greatest , but show a degree of transformation. I have better ones on my phone, but ive not got round to transferring them over yet,

Pics are on my blogsite.... http://pallasautorefinishing.wordpress.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DickieG]

The whole lower section of the car was peppered in tiny tar spots which took as you can imagine a while to get off...one by one

I use a petrol soaked rag/blue paper roll for removing tar spots, removes them within a couple of wipes.

[vince]

Thanks for the tip Rich, ive never got round to using diesel or petrol for cleaning parts or anything else for that matter as ive always been put off by the smell, and probable resulting headache if used in my friends garage where i do these cars

Got any tips on how to turn a very swirly black Range Rover into a new looking one in one day?.....Ive always fancied doing a Range Rover, but im not looking forward to next sunday..its going to be a very long day Im going to have to make a start on it Saturday night i reckon or it will never get done. The sheer panel size alone is going to take time. We arent even sure if its going to fit in the garage yet It should go in with the air-ride down, but the roof is going to have to be done outside i think. There wont be enough clearance i dont think.

Hope all is well anyway, see you at shows this year?

[addo]

Got any tips on how to turn a very swirly black Range Rover into a new looking one in one day?

Farécla G3 Advanced? You've got the experience to "feel" how it breaks down when using.

[Citroenmad]

I'm pleased your still enjoying XM ownership Vince

[KP]

Good write up vince

Stefan is well chuffed with the mini
With the range I've heard others on the forum over there who do it over a few nights or a whole long day and are wasted by it afterwards so don't do that to yourself, Stefan will understand he is a busy man as well and barely home to drive it really ha ha
Did you clay the far spots?
Wd40 is good in confined areas compared to petrol and works well with the clay as well as I've done whole panels on the ff that way as the lower door trims really hide loads of tiny tar spots and the roads round there are bad for then but that mini has done a lot of motorway trips for his mrs to get to work so no surprise really.

Spray the wd40 on and give it a minute and the spots should almost come straight off with a light clay action.

Set te suspension to low ad press the lock button as well and when the middle 2 light goes out its completed its hieght change. It will only do this with the doors closed as well btw!

The roof is a burger as its flat corrugated if you get my drift
Door traps can hold dirt in badly so a gentle hose flush should see them fine and the electrics are usually pretty well sealed and the engine can usually take a good soaking as you'd expect from such a car so makes getting road grime off a bit easier.

The back box is a known pita as it comes black painted but slowly peels away.

The rear of the cars are always bad as they just suck the dirt onto them. The wiper bit is easy as you need to turn the ignition off as its part way through a wipe to clean it off as it tucks up so high.
The rubber seal on the top boot lid between the glass and metal section should slide out with a little encouragement and watch that panels lower lip as they are water traps and rust inside out
Mirrors fold in and out by the small square button on the switch panel as well, dash top is proper leather as well and not vinyl electric seats take an age to move all the way back and forward but recline a fair bit to get into the creases too
Piece of leather between steerin wheel and dash is best done moving steering wheel all the way out and down. Make sure Stefan has saved his user settings under one of the 3 profiles as when your done you just push the profile button and everything in and out of the car will go back to his settings after cleaning
His has the 2010 facelift as well so a cheese grater grille like mine, I've found a woollen wash mitt or microfibre is te best way to clean this out to get in the gaps
Any problems give me a buzz and ill help out where I can
Most lots of little nooks on the inside so a Hoover while your using a small paint brush to get the dust out does wonders
The glass should clean great with some fast glass if you have it as they seem to hold into grease more than most strangely, but maybe as they are so ruddy big!!!
And if the under bonnet insulation gets soaked it will be heavy even to pull the bonnet down quickly do be careful as its a heavy unit, but there is an access mode that puts it near vertical for making engine cleaning easier but doing the engine first seems to be the preferred method as no matter how tall you are, you end up leaning on the panels a little

[vince]

Thanks for the info Will, i probably will give you the odd call to see how things work On tar spots i use Autoglym tar remover, its quite easy if you do the whole panel as you just apply on with a cloth and then let it soak for a few minutes then wipe off. The Mini i did spot by spot as it didnt look like there was much on, but then once you had done one you seemed to find another Id imagine WD40 to leave a greasy residue? On a black car that will be hard to sort. Im going to start it saturday if i can. Ill get the interior and engine bay done if poss saturnday night then its just the body and wheels to do on the sunday. Stefan is getting new wheels on this week so they should be alright.

It will be a long day sunday whichever way it goes, but thats nothing new tbh. im usually knackered after every car as machining is hard work.

Never mind, one day ill retire and then be bored so i might aswell get stuff done now

[KP]

Yeah he's moving down from 22" to the 19's he sorted and onto 20" so a compromise for comfort but still good handling he won't be bumping up curbs with them fitted

[vince]

Well its almost the weekend again where has this week gone?

Work is still going well, the branch is recovering somewhat, but i still depair for some of the staff i have to work with...they cant get basic stuff right, never mind handle a business recovery situation against stiff competition Well these things are sent to test us i guess.....


On the car front, ive had the company 2011 Renault Scenic for a couple of days now....its horrible Ive read through the manual but the middle clock/speedo display dims to the point that you cant see anything on it when the lights are turned on during the day, and at night its not much better. Couple that with a complete lack of character, hard seats, poor ride quality and an annoying electric handbrake and it leads to me not being impressed at all im afraid.....

Im going to check the tax situation running a company car, but if its dear then they can have it back and ill run the xm instead

I took the xm out tonight in the snow and cold, what a relief to drive a proper car Ah....whatever happened to cars?.....its like they've lost their way over the years in the pursuit of being more modern?

[KP]

Run the xm Vince as you'll be taxed a lot more than the £400 from Gsf unless its a scenic van.. At which point you have the choice of poo car and free fuel or putting miles on your beloved...

[CitroJim]

Sorry to hear the Scenic is less then perfect Vince

That's the problem running proper hydraulic Citroens - other stuff is so badly found wanting.

[vince]

Well, Andrew Page wont let branch managers visit customer intheir own cars, i dont know why, so im going to run the scenic it seems, but only for work miles. Tax is 63 quid a month and fuel tax is around 12 per mile. It still baffles me, but for the time being ill keep it.

[CitroJim]

Tax is 63 quid a month and fuel tax is around 12 per mile.

What does that mean in simple terms Vince? Do you have to pay some enhanced sort of tax for the pleasure of using a Scenic to visit punters?

Please tell me I've got completely the wrong end of the stick...

[KP]

That's right Vince they cover the bills and you pay the government.... Strange but its seen as something called a benefit in kind. Though having driven recent scenics as well I can not see how its a benefit of any sort...

Vince there is a way around this that I can help you with if you want drop me a text sometime

Ps how's the rangie going??