I'm still alive...

[ekjdm14]

Just dropping in quickly to say hello & confirm I'm above ground haha. Still have the ZX (she's been on the road a while now & doing good) and Black is still with us, albeit with a broken windscreen awaiting some love. Also just picked up a cheap 407SW to handle towing duties as we may be moving again soon, to Wales this time Actually seems a really sound car for £400 with long MoT, just tatty bodywise which suits me fine! Life's busy busy as per usual, working on an old tractor currently as well as clutch/flywheel resurface on the lad's gold 306 in any free time we find!

Hope everyone's well, will try and get back online sometime. Cheers, Dan

[CitroJim]

Excellent Great to hear from you Dan!

[ekjdm14]

Cheers Jim. 407sw has already been & gone, it was terribly uncomfortable compared to what we're used to & don't like the! Rather than spend the money on keeping it mechanically good (needed rear suspension rebushed, tie rods, rear brakes and 4 tyres & then it's still a tatty 16yr old car with a cracked screen) we found a 406sw 1.9TD for £200 that's tatty but solid & great tyres just needs a brake pipe and couple of bulbs for MoT (fail sheet included shows that, rounded nut in the load sensing valve scared his garage off, they quoted him £500 to replace the pipe! Bit of heat/soak & mole grips got it right out though).

Only catch is it was in Padstow so about a 650mile round trip at 60mph tops, my shoulder is still recovering from that 16 hour ordeal in the 407 with trailer! 407 is now sat at end of the road minus bulbs/battery and empty on fuel waiting for the scrap man to pick it up, sad to let one die but rather save the 406 100%

[CitroJim]

That's a great result on the 406 Dan And a good move - I never did rate the 407 as highly as the 406, especially after the ordeal of doing the broken heater flaps in one...

To be absolutely honest I rate the 405 higher than the 406 but that's just me... I have a lot of love for the 405, having owned two in the past before I caught the Citroen bug big-time!

[ekjdm14]

Oh definitely, if we could've got hold of a TD 405 break for less than an arm & leg would've likely gone that route but having experienced the 406 before (if you recall, we swapped our 280k mile 2.1TD for Black, years ago) and how darn comfortable those armchairs I mean seats are we knew it was the way forward.

Just this minute finished bleeding the brakes & pre MoT prep for Cherry (she's Cherry Red, so I guess that's her name for now at least!) so hopefully have her booked in & on the road next week sometime. Happy days!

[CitroJim]

Indeed, the 406 has some superb seats just like armchairs!

Just this minute finished bleeding the brakes & pre MoT prep for Cherry (she's Cherry Red, so I guess that's her name for now at least!) so hopefully have her booked in & on the road next week sometime. Happy days!

Excellent I had a 205GTi in Cherry Red, a gorgeous colour

All best with the MoT

[ekjdm14]

Cheers Jim, she'd be a whole lot prettier if the bonnet & one wing weren't inexpertly rattle canned in what appears to be VW Mars Red (more blood orange-ish than cherry!). The whole car is slightly tatty with damage to the nearside rear door but seems quite solid, youngest lad has aspirations of tidying her up & I can get behind that.

I notice you've 2 AX now, will have to take a nosey at those. Can't be a great many TZX around?

[CitroJim]

I notice you've 2 AX now, will have to take a nosey at those. Can't be a great many TZX around?

I have the opposite ends of the AX spectrum now Dan, a base model 10E and the exact opposite - the AX with all the bling!

The Series 1 11TZX is very scarce now - only three left in the UK when I last looked...

[ekjdm14]

Was going to say, I don't believe I've even seen one in person! So climate control, sunroof, ABS, electric windows/mirrors, rev counter, 4 speakers, 4 way driver seat, 4 head rests etc? What other goodies did they have?

By comparison our 406sw is the base-est of base models, an L DT (analogue clock in cluster, 2 head rests, elec front windows.) At least it has a radio haha!

MoT today, a small disappointment in that she failed, but only on 2 drop links & handbrake wants adjusting. Not too bad considering we hadn't even put any money into it over the purchase price & fuel to collect.
With the drop links done we should have a 1.9TD 406 on the road with full MoT for less than £400 including the fuel & test fees, and for 186k miles she runs & drives like a VERY well cared for car. Probably the healthiest feeling XUD9 we've owned, plenty of low-down response, tight gearshift, light-ish clutch, heck even the door hinges and check straps are better than some I've felt on cars with under 70k.

Main things to do going forward are going to be front discs/pads, thoroughly cleaning the underside of Cornish coastal-crust & undercoating to help long term. Plus maybe trying to sand down a well-meaning previous owner's "paint repairs" (Just about every scratch/chip, one wing & the entire bonnet have been hand painted with what looks more like a VW Mars red, ugly but it's kept the rust off at least so am grateful for that). Definitely needs a blow over with Cherry Red though, not a super common colour for the 406 I don't think but would look really sharp tidied up.

[CitroJim]

Sorry to hear the 406 failed Dan but against that, at least nothing very serious at all... She'll soon be good

Was going to say, I don't believe I've even seen one in person! So climate control, sunroof, ABS, electric windows/mirrors, rev counter, 4 speakers, 4 way driver seat, 4 head rests etc? What other goodies did they have?

Luxury in the AX world means nothing more than a factory sunroof, clock, radio/cassette, central locking, a centre console and electric windows.

All those other bits you list are just stuff of dreams!!!

Oh, and door pockets

[ekjdm14]

Ahh, door pockets... From my experience of driving an AX years ago I think I'd forego that luxury in favour of the extra "space" (all things are relative, I suppose. I just didn't fit though, had to have the window down just for the elbow room!)

Handbrake adjusted now, just waiting on drop links to arrive Tuesday and it'll be off to retest More signs of a well loved old pug though when I went to adjust the brakes. Got all prepared to do battle with the obviously seized and pre-stripped out drum screws, only for all 4 to be fine and crack off with barely a squeak. Inside I found the drums look to be less than a couple of years old with no wear, shoes and hardware all shiny too. Compared to the outside (they're pitted enough I believed they'd be original) it was a pleasant surprise.

As that took about 5% of the time expected I decided to use the rest of the morning to pressure wash the underside & engine bay, revealing a body that absolutely MUST have been steam cleaned and waxoiled every year considering the environment she's spent her life in. There's surface rust on the rear subframe, suspension & all springs but apart from that & damage to the sill under the driver's door from being ditched at some point, it's like a low-mile 10 year old car under there with barely any underseal peeling & half decent paint all across the floorpan.

Honestly so happy, this is a very worthy car to preserve and tidy up IMO. Such a different story from what the upper body tells, will be in the market for a driver's front wing, left rear door/door skin & rub strip to begin tidying that side of things up.

[CitroJim]

That's excellent Dan! I have no trouble fitting in an AX - being a bit on the small but perfectly formed side of things. I actually find cars like the 406 and similar too big for me. One reason I could never bond with an XM. Two of me would comfortably fit on the drivers seat!

I even find my C3 Picasso a massive car... The AX fits me beautifully

[ekjdm14]

Definitely can't accuse me of being small, OR perfectly formed haha. My abiding memory of trying to drive a Mini once (the real one, not the bay emm vay) is of nearly amputating my shoulder on the top of the door jamb when I climbed out!

Have to say though I'm pleasantly surprised with the space in the 406sw even being familiar with old French cars, the lad even has leg room behind me now. Think the 407 skewed my viewpoint a little in that respect, the thing had less room than the ZX!