Mat's BX Blog

Tell us about life with your BX, or indeed life in general!
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by Defender110 »

=D> Very intricate, nice
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by Vanny »

looks like you could do with some of these;

http://www.frost.co.uk/automotive-weldi ... ening.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

must admit to being very tempted by a set myself!
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mat_fenwick
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by mat_fenwick »

Still not got round to welding them in - was out all day Sunday, and last night was spent replacing a pond liner - not fun in the hail, sleet and snow!

There wasn't much of the white stuff, but it did make my journey prettier:

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Lana tested out her winter tyres last night, when she was the only vehicle to make it across the pass - lots of abandoned cars and no other tracks. I don't know why people just leave their cars part way up a hill and block gritters/snow ploughs from clearing. Surely they can reverse back down or turn around?
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by citsncycles »

The problem is that when someone tries a hill in conditions like this without the necessary experience or equipment, the realisation that they can't manage it after all is all to often followed by a feeling that they will not be able to get back down without hitting something, so they stay put. I've seen dozens of vehicles brought to a standstill on one local hill due to the person in front scaring themselves and deciding to just sit it out where they are
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by Dollywobbler »

Yup. The fear of skidding while going backwards seems to really put people off. Many winters ago, I had to reverse down an icy hill and get past an AMG Mercedes (which had caused me to lose momentum in the first place). They looked rather worried. I stayed away from the brakes and made sure I knew the front wheels were straight - very easy to lose straight-ahead on ice!

Was properly slippy. When I got stuck, a Land Rover came past me sideways...

Another attempt with a bit more momentum and I got up it while the Merc was going absolutely nowhere. 476 totally useless bhp!
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by MULLEY »

Are they fitted to the mini & which one's are they? The only problem i can see with the mini is that they are very low to the ground, so if the snow builds up it'll get stuck as it will just ground out. Thats the beauty of the BX, when it starts to get a bit deep, just raise the suspension & off you go :)
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by mat_fenwick »

She's got Continental WinterContact tyres on the MINI, as they had a lot of good reviews. They didn't do this year's model in her tyre size, so she went with the TS810 which wasn't too bad on price. I've only driven it back to back in the wet, and there was certainly a huge difference between her (worn) Pirellis. Not really a valid comparison though so was good to find they helped significantly on snow (especially as it was my idea for her to get them - I'd have got the blame if they were no better!)
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by MULLEY »

Yup, they are a very good make, are they runflats? There's no way that they wouldn't be miles better than worn summer tyres in the snow, they should also be good in the wet conditions that seem to frequent Wales, so should prove a good buy. Just have to remember that in the dry, because the mini corners so flat & can take high corner speeds, don't take the corners as fast, as this will wear the outer edge of the tyre quickly. I have to keep reminding my wife that she doesn't need to corner into our road whilst pulling 3g, haha....She has said, well the tyres aren't squeeling, i replied, but my bloody bank balance will if those tyres are worn out in 12mths due to excessive cornering speeds when you don't have to, oh! she said.....
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electrokid
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by electrokid »

certainly a huge difference between her (worn) Pirellis.
The other problem with Pirellis - certainly in the late 80s when I had a modified MG Metro shod with them, was the rubber is somewhat different to most other tyres and they have to re-vulcanise each time the car is driven and that occurs when the tyres heat up with use - which is more difficult in winter of course. In hot weather they are great but in very cold weather they can be a nightmare.

Those snow covered roads look great Mat :D
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by mat_fenwick »

She's never been tat happy with them at all TBH, more so in the wet. Struggling to recall hot weather so don't know how they performed then!

Back to the BX, I welded in the round plates tonight - not that happy with the look of the welds but they're solid and won't be seen.

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I primed both sides (cold galvanising primer on the underside)...

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...and put a coat of red on the top.

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That was actually left over from a 205 Lana owned about 10 years ago, and it's not a bad match for the BX! Once the underside is dry then I'll seal the weld seams, and coat the whole wheel arch with underbody wax. Then onto the other side of the car.
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electrokid
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by electrokid »

That was actually left over from a 205 Lana owned about 10 years ago,
Probably because it's likely to be the same colour ! Venetian red is not a Citroen colour - it's a standard colour based on ferric oxide - it's probably harder to find a car manufacturer that hasn't used it even if their pet name for it is different. Next door neighbour has a red beemer and the colour's name is something weird - but it's the same colour as my BX !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_red
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mat_fenwick
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by mat_fenwick »

It isn't the same colour, although I agree it may well have been intended to be - perhaps just a variation of age/batch differences that means it isn't an exact match. It's down as Peugeot Cherry Red; not sure what the BX is but the code is something like EJX. It will be fine for inside door shuts and the like, plus the nozzle gives a finer mist than the Carplan aerosol I was using previously. And it's free!
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electrokid
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by electrokid »

A lot of these shades of red look very similar until you actually do some touching up. EJX is listed both as Furio Red and as Venetian Red and they are different :shock: Furio Red being a little darker. When I bought the car it came with a little pot of Furio Red touch-up paint which I merrily started to use - then wondered what the little darker red blotches were :lol: Mine has the EJX code on the inner wing but it has Venetian Red hand written in the original logbook and it's definitely Venetian Red (and IIRC yours is too).

I get the feeling that Furio red didn't last long before being replaced by Venetian though I'm sure I've seen a BX pic posted here which had a Ven red body and Furio red bumpers.

But then Venetian Red has changed too :shock: it used to be derived from the naturally occuring ferric oxide (which is slightly darker) and now it is derived from the synthetic ferric oxide.

The bottom line is - getting paint mixed up just specifying the EJX code may not get you the right colour.
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by Vanny »

electrokid wrote:The bottom line is - getting paint mixed up just specifying the EJX code may not get you the right colour.
Which is why you need a decent paint shop that can match the other two letters after the first 3. In the case of my car it is EJX cs where 'cs' is the shade. Id be interested to see what other shade codes people have.

Last year i got several rattle cans and specified that the paint code was EJXcs and they are an exact match, but like you i have a touch up pen which couldn't be further from the correct colour!
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by mat_fenwick »

Hoped to do a spot of skiing today, so drove up into the hills to try and find some snow of any depth. Views not bad, although someone had parked their Disco in the way :oops:

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Not much depth to the snow, but we gave it a try anyway!

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And now for something that doesn't involve the white stuff - back to the BX. I thought while I'm dealing with the back end I'd better remove the back bumper and see if there were any rot spots that needed attending to. I've never actually taken the rear bumper off a BX, but it all came off easily enough. Even the two 10 mm headed bolts came out without rounding or shearing off!

It looks like all the years of cavity waxing the box sections and regularly rinsing salt away has paid off, as I reckon it looks pretty good for 20 years and 220k miles:

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There are a couple of tiny blisters a few mm across, but that's all. I'll tidy those up and give it all a coat of wax while it's off. Still need to fix the outer wing support bracket on the nearside on, which will be easier with the bumper off.
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