BX excess, can it be a success?

[Thread Bear]

Seems more sense to create a Blog than fill the regular pages with blather some will not be greatly interested in.

Who am I? Alan Hitchcock. Been into cars since I helped my Dad, an Aircraft and then Nuclear Engineer of some standing, change wheels and service our Morris Minor, back in the mid '60's. Possessed of a weird brain that is pretty dyslexic which seems to work to make me a round person in a square world. I also have a rotten sense of balance so instead of Motorcycles. Could not follow my Brother into Rallying. I got into three wheelers. That became a passion and extended to Microcars. I did my share of committee and rally stuff for various clubs. Work-wise, done all sorts, but never settled, see above, until I found Offset Printing in the later '80's. Again, while I could nail the job, I failed to stay at heel for management, so went self employed as a sort of Print Production Consultant in South East London, living next to Brands Hatch. Great till the recession started cutting Print back at the same time technology was moving in. Time to retrain or move on.

However cars came to the rescue, and had started Aachen Classic Cars, which linked European Microcar contacts into a great business. Take British Classic to Oppglabeek, Belgium to sell to a dealer. Sometimes get a back load for Manfred to run through the then boarder to Aachen, Germany without doing papers and tax. Pick up as many Trabants as I had orders for from Manfred, who was trading them in against cheap hatchbacks. I got these at £50 a go. So sometimes I had drivers with me. Take Trabbis home, avoiding boarder silliness, and deliver to collect money, about £1,200 each. I was therefore heavily undercutting the other traders who were buying in East Germany with 1000s of miles to my free 500 mile round trip on a midweek two and half day ticket. From this I developed British trade and courier work as Alan's Unusual Autos dropping Aachen CC as the Trabbi trade died, its fashion gone out of date, and to avoid any fall out from the authorities.

AUA, its stock and buildings was financed by ACC, and was reasonably successful in trading in cars no one else dared to trade. This gave me access to a lot of interesting machines and I built up several collections. Scooters, Microcar - twice, plus some bigger bits. I became 'an expert' in demand to do experty things. I am still stunned to find I did this single handed for 17 years before I could see that the economy was going to implode and costs go up too high to earn a reasonable living. I sold up most of my good stock, but kept the restoration projects worth doing, and a redundant Lada Garage I bought at a time I was thinking of expanding, but now filled up with trade in and make weights on multiple deals to get vehicles I wanted. I have spent 5 years whittling this lot down to about 70 cars of which some 15 are shortly to be scrapped or parted out. That and another clear out will bring me to a manageable level to work through as I am now semi retired at 55.

The last element of this down sizing is to move to the Bungalow I have bought and put up a good storage shed, workshop etc. behind. The remaining cars will filter into this. Remember Bubblecars take up about a third the space of a normal car and will fit in roof space with a suitable lift. I still have a collection of about 45 of them. That will slowly reduce. So space for 15 ordinary cars is needed. Another year and I should be settled to a slower pace of life, as I worked damned hard looking back.

BX? I used to run them as an ordinary car. Out of all the differing cars I had of that period the Pugs and BX were the best balance of usability, DIY and eccentricity. I try and do most mechanical work myself but I am not trained. I learned what I know at the side of the road making cars work. It is a point of honour not to be Relayed. I am hindered by having no lymph system in one leg thanks to a NHS misdiagnoses. So I have to work slowly as I have to beware of damaging my leg, mega probs if it gets infected, or it swelling to much. Of course the doctors happily advise I do not indulge in rolling under cars, owning dogs, get dirty, drink beer and all the other things I like doing. I'll trade that for dropping dead a few year early and having a miserable life, thanks. Getting filthy kept me fit till these silly idiots got hold of me, anyway!

I have no firm plan or intention with collecting BX. I have no prior in depth knowledge so will ask silly questions. All I do know is I want a good TZD 1.7 Turbo in the garage, which I will have when its sorted. The rest is really me playing as it is a novelty to be in cars that cost a few hundred quid to buy again. Classic Cars have got rather to expensive to just be able to muck about with unless your wealthy or very committed. Well my commitment to Microcars is fading, I 'd rather have the ridiculous money they now fetch, and I am not very committed elsewhere at the moment, so I am just enjoying fiddling. That might harden to a small collection, certainly the 1.6 and 1.4 are both solid examples in need of some love more than crazy money. Probably not your ordinary BX owner, but then I think BX owners probably are not ordinary anyway. That should be part of the attraction.

Hereafter, if I continue to enjoy, and be allowed by life's curved balls to do so, never though I would be permanently injured, for instance, will be tales of my interaction with BX.

[Tim Leech]

So YOU'RE Alans of unusual autos fame, im sure ive heard of you before in a magazine or maybe even on a TV programme?

[citsncycles]

I'm sure I remember looking at stock lists from you in your 'Unusual Autos' days and wishing I had more money / space / both!

[Defender110]

Excellent and well done. I love reading how others muddle through life differently than I do, I always find it vey interesting. If I was that way inclined (which I'm not) I could probably write a best selling book on some of the ways I've muddled through my glorious and not so glorious existence on this planet.

Good to have you on-board Alan.

[Thread Bear]

Indeed I have been in print, supplied material to be printed, been on telly , , hype, hype. I did run a regular small box advert of strange and wondrous machines. I enjoyed doing it all, learned lots and made a modest living, while doing many other things to support a non conventional lifestyle. The big thing I realised is that if you want to do something enough, you can do it. Anyone can. The biggest factor is Children, as you give up a lot to have and bring them up well. But that has its own compensations, hopefully.

Not much action on BX the last few days due to other tasks. I have had most of the rear lights off the Estates and each has the same fault. The tab on the bottom has deformed so that it no longer holds the lens in place. The answer is a cup of coffee. Chuck the Kettle on and shove each unit in the steam it becomes malleable enough to remould the plastic straight again. Pretty crude units really but all benefit from a good clean up and a bit of emery on the contact point.

New tyres arrived, thanks. Once sorted I can now experiment as I have some new 165s and some 185s. It should be obvious which grip better. However there is more to tyres than grip. Will the 165s be measurably more economical with the lower footprint of friction and wind age. Is the trade off worth it for the way I drive. Blimey, your thinking, he is a bundle of fun, if that is all he has to do all day. However I am a great believer in getting stuff set up right. Could not give a fig what it looks like, its if it works. My Trojan bubblecar, in its prime, travelled Europe and beat all comers along with my two chums. We had the cars spot on thanks to my mate Mick, who taught me a great deal about many things. Yet it also one worst car at the show at several National Microcar Rallies as it looked a real crapper. Something of a trade mark really as I had Mini, Mini Marcos, Messerschmitt and more on a similar basis.

Homer has the last new glow plug fitted. It has possibly never been done as it is the one trapped behind the injector pump. In fact it is not to hard to get at really. I have big hands so I took of the air box, unclipped the fuel return, I think it is and using a deeper socket from my German set with a UJ it is really not at all bad. Done the bad starter now fires up virtually straight away. No idea where the idea of a head gasket failure cam from. However I can believe it has been overheated as the fan tested out OK, the relay system did not. So it has not been functioning. Stonehouse is a pretty hilly area and the car has been hauling building stuff. I can see where the fear comes from and it remains to be seen if all stays well. I think Homer might be staying as the back up car to protect the Auto from winter. That leaves the last TZD to attempt to get road worthy in the hopes that several indicated interested folk or some other might take it on.

[mat_fenwick]

I have had most of the rear lights off the Estates and each has the same fault. The tab on the bottom has deformed so that it no longer holds the lens in place.

Ah, not just me then! Every estate I've had has suffered from this, and I've resorted to getting the lighter out to soften the plastic. Never thought of steam, which would probably be rather more gentle and less sooty...

[Thread Bear]

Sidetracked today. Having got the cambelt, idlers and Warthog pump renewed I thought I would have a fiddle with the clutch lever. I still cannot get my head round a none adjustable clutch lever. Yeah, so it wears out and the pedal ends up turning the heater on. That is not a design but a nonsense.

So the first issue was to get the cable slack. Well because it is not adjustable the bolts on the cable are never moved to adjust it and no one ever fits anything with grease these days. So the two bolts were seized up. A classic possibility of shearing the threaded end off. Hooked it off with a bungee while it soaked up some Wurth, so I could play with the lever. There is a lot of play in the lever which suggests to me that the clutch disc is not worn out but that I cannot adjust the system to use what is left.

With some unpleasant use of tools not designed for the purpose I set about checking to see if Hunca Monca and friends larder had, in fact, all been removed from the clutch casing. (if you had read my early postings you would know mice had lived in Gary X's inter-cooler for 5 years or so during lay up.). I think Tom Thumb had not learned his house training as the larder looked a bit bot wiff major to be honest. Nuts, husks, pee and mouse poo.

So a grand poking around and then use of another fav tool. The vacuum with plastic straw. In this case three straws sellotapped together for Humphrey like distance sucking. (Yeah, old git if you know about Humphreys)! It gets to places a vacuum normally cannot by sticking the straw through a finger gap and covering the end of the vacuum nozzle with your fist. Also gets a super suck. Great for extracting lost small bits from assembled components. I got quite a bit of crap out. Several general puffs with the compressor followed by sucks with straw/vac, in rotation. With clutch in and out using an old cable end fastened round a mole grip jaw then clamped. Then shoved some soda solution down via a recycled toilet bleach squirty thing, Guessed on three minutes before something expensive corroded and shoved the hose in to wash that out.

A pint of beer and sandwich later and a look round showed a much more hygienic clutch area. The clutch felt like it had more movement. So linked everything up, locknuts unmoved, and thought it might be time for a test once I had remounted the rebuilt rear light clusters and headlights. Oh the joy of knowing you cam belt is good. So a bit of an Italian tune up round my informal test track. The engine is very much more alert now the belt has been changed and Rob had tweaked the timing etc. Much more as I remembered. Still that slight hesitation that I grew to actually quite like. Also made you think about accelerating, so you timed the power coming in at the right moment. And power there is. After a few good farts the turbo is surprisingly clean. The clutch is much better but still not right. I have more pedal but I hate having a clutch bite on the end of the pedal. I want it on the floor. I cannot make up my mind if it is my inability to get my foot out of the way or the clutch but there is still moments of slip.
So a trip the scrappy to find a naked clutch set up like this and I might understand what is there better. I cannot help feeling that the right bit smacked with a good copper mallet will see the clutch last another 50k miles. 'Its adjustment, Jim, but not as we know it'! More knowledge needed.

So a success and there should be more to come as I have assembled the parts to revamp the inlet/intercooler assembly, which should add a bit more to the pot.

[Defender110]

TZD clutches adjust on the cable?

[Thread Bear]

TZD clutches adjust on the cable?

Homer has the adjustable lever with the disposable push rod. Equally as daft as a none adjusting lever really. It is not difficult to make an adjustable lever, and one that does not loose bits. See Citroen engineers give the all conquering Gallic Shrug that I really must learn when stopped and asked questions by officials. It is so effective as to negate any other enquiry. It is a Citroen and it must, therefore, have some daft bits on it. You want something that breaks in an predictable and orderly fashion, buy a German car. It will not disappoint and expires efficiently. With a French car its the Parisian café of Philosophy with respect to things. Are they wearing out, or not actually quite working entirely as originally intended. Its a whole life experience to deal with and there is no right answer. More coffee please, Garcon.

Yes, I will try the cable when I feel the nasty little nuts are going to move on the thread like good little nuts should. I have a bad record of shearing fasteners. Its all because I am being pikey and attempting to get the last out of a clearly well used clutch really. That and clearly the advice, do not let mice live in your engine bay!

[Tim Leech]

This thread needs pictures!!

[Thread Bear]

Yesterday was front of car day. Pulled everything off. Out of three cars 18 headlight adjusters that would not move. Not a spec of grease or lubricant to be seen - on the adjusters . On soaking in Wurth and dismantling, 4 remain assembled and likely to fail if I twist harder. So this morning's job is to clean up the threaded steel inserts, lub them, and put them in the cleaned up plastic bases left to soak over night. Message to self, do not confuse with butter beans for weeks supply of stew . Such is the amount of muck and grease on the valances I am popping off the spoilers to clean them up a bit. If you go near the front of the cars you immediately look like a coal-man at the moment. Gary's spoiler has been knocked off three times during recovery trips so that it hangs wrong now, so that can be sorted to.

Having got the headlights off I plan to seal the edges of the lenses up as experience has found that water penetrates the joint. In winter it freezing and slowly splits the glass from the glue. A sign of a suspect one is stains from the growth of Lichen type tiny plants in the opening crack. It retains moisture, collects a bit of dirt and is warmed relatively often, so attractive to these hardy lifeforms. I have nothing against Lichen and was proud of the LT bonnet that had some very fine colonies on it. Proof of my only polluting the air, with its exhaust, in the highest quality air spaces of Central Britain. Plus when I parked you could always tell where north was. Still that fine selection is due to be taken away next Saturday by the eBay buyer and I will not have to make Muttley sounds in its direction every time I walk passed.

All radiators have been given a blast through to remove dead insects and crude. Homer being particularly dirty. So hopefully by the end of the day the fronts will be back together and both ends of three cars will be serviced.

Using the other cars as the pattern I re arranged the octopus on the TZD. In fact the pipes were in correct sequence but had got incredibly tangled so that several were under strain. That could only result in one thing. A pool of LHM from a slipped return under the engine. One wonders what had happened to need the pipes to be pulled off in such a way, as the suspension is pretty good on this car. An own goal waiting to happen, and yes it was one of Gary's cars Sandre .

As mentioned elsewhere I found out from a chum who has had BX, and still has one he does not really use, that my water pipe should be prevented from reaching the alternator on the turbo by a double wire clip, not unlike the style of the one for the air intake trunking adjacent to the top mounting. This goes on a steel clamp which supports the two main cross the engine octopus pipes. The whole mounting goes on the outside top injector pump bolt. Neither Gary, nor my previous Turbo BX, had this clamp assembly, which my bud was able to supply. So were they lost or is this a later development to prevent damage in use? On getting home the other TZD has not got one either. Likewise several other clips were found missing and his box of bits yielded suitable replacements. This visit was made on the return run from the Ford Specials Day on Sunday. Always very interesting, quite intense, but never a huge turn out. Damned expensive to get in without a Special. Had I realised the Cotswold Classic Car Club were sharing the venue I might have swung it, but there we go. .

If I can get rid of some unwanted stuff I am very tempted to get something like a Fairthorpe Electron or a Turner, as a rag top to mess around with. It would be more interesting than the Magnette, for instance. It now seems likely I will be getting two Borgward Coupe and an early Saloon, come the autumn, in part exchange for a very rare MIcrocar. That changes the dynamic of what I want in the collection and the amount of work needed, unless I can sell two of the Borgs on as they are. Tricky, as folk like runners with registrations not unregistered projects, plus the obvious market is Germany, and they are even more reluctant to take on projects from Britain than the home market. A great trade but a destabilising one.

I fear having visited said chum that he will be hoping to pass his BX and spares on to me for folding money type stuff . To be honest I have my hands full with what I have now. Still if it comes up and I do not bite it can be passed on to general enquiry. Before you ask it is a scruffy TZD Saloon 1.7 turbo.

[Stinkwheel]

Microcars are becoming more interesting to me after reading this here blog thingy.

although this really caught my eye....

'scruffy TZD saloon'

sounds my cup of tea (im going to pass on your 208k mile estate, i already have one) but a TZD saloon, that may be a bit of me sir. More details when they become apparent please.

[Thread Bear]

OK I have yet to check out the mounting on the TZD. To many other things to do. It will definitely go up for sale. We await Tiffy's call, if it comes. I will be editing the spares though.

Microcars are a much bigger subject than folk think. It starts with Bubblecars and a whole world of the oddball and cul de sacs of design open before you. Since your into French stuff what about a 'Sans Permis' to start with. I coined the name French Fridges, which seems to have stuck, but they are still cheap if you look round. Comtesse, Acoma, Sulky, Snuggy, Erad, Flipper to name but a few. Mostly bonkers.

[citsncycles]

I know where there's a Sulky in a yard near here - Thought about getting it off them more than once, but keep getting put off by the stories of it's performance on the hills round here!

[Defender110]

Talking French Micro Cars; I used to own an Aixam 500SL for a short while, very different with its 2 cylinder Kubota diesel and CVT drive. People who hadn't seen it where quite impressed when I told them I had just bought a new 500SL , obviously assuming on their own part the same model by another manufacturer.