Very ambitious plan...

[kieran.l]

...which is to restore this poor thing, or so my uncle still hopes! Been sitting there for at least 15 years. More likely, its my parts car

[JayW]

In the nicest possible way, Your uncle should've gone to Specsavers!

[Mothman]

Gosh, another one appears!!
Going to take some work though, may i wish you luck but it looks a tad rough. Mind you, if you have the time, money and skills, anythings possible.
Once again good luck but be realistic.

Andy

[Tim Leech]

Thats an uber rare mk1 19DTR (in romatic blue again!), where is the car located Kieran?

Strange 12 months ago we thought my car was the only one left, since then 3 more have shown up, all in the same fecking colour!!

[Kitch]

Depends what state that barn's in really....if there's lots of hay etc it might not have succumbed to rust as much as it might look.

On the other hand, it could be spares only

[mat_fenwick]

On the other hand, it could be spares only

Are you thinking rear bumper?

[kieran.l]

I suppose, being realistic its only parts car.
Never knew it was so rare Tim, its located in southwest County Cork near Ardgroom. If only it was realised 10 years ago!

[Kitch]

On the other hand, it could be spares only

Are you thinking rear bumper?

[Tim Leech]

I suppose, being realistic its only parts car.
Never knew it was so rare Tim, its located in southwest County Cork near Ardgroom. If only it was realised 10 years ago!

It is very rare! Worth seeing how rotted it may be, if you look back through the gallery pages I bought a right nail of an identical car Kieran, which 12 months later graced the NEC much to the admiration of the general public. Early BX's are so thin on the ground they need to be (in my opinion) pretty buggered to be not worth restoring, everything mendable, and a BX wont realise the money you spend on it for a while yet but in the future they will be sought after.

[kieran.l]

Good point Tim. I'll have to see if I can get it moved from there to somewhere more covered and have a better examination of it. My uncle did start the engine a few times and he says it'll still start but as for the suspension, pipes etc. that's probably a different story... But now you've made me think...
I've seen your car, it looks amazing, some fine job done there! This car would need more than hard work and alot of money - more like a miracle - to be as good as that, but you'd never know...

[Tim Leech]

Everythings mendable, the mechanics arent an issue as its a straight forward 1.9D, a repipe would be required of course but thats not that a big issue. Most important thing is to see how rotten it is and to check the usual places, most BX's by now have been welded in the boot floor and inner wings so if they are a bit flakey dont worry.

Wonder when it was imported!

[patersom10]

Good luck, it looks like a hell of a lot of work.

[citsncycles]

Hope it's saveable, even though some parts would help me out!

After working on mine, I'd say check the front inner wings in front of the strut mounts under the bonnet, and under the washer bottles, A posts round the hinges, bottom of the B & C posts, both ends of the sills, the boot floor, the rear inner wings and the rear subframe mounts. If you can weld, this is all doable, abeit with a bit of dismantling beforehand. If most of these areas are good, then it's worth going for. Bear in mind that Mk1 specific parts seem to be drying up over here, so you may end up having to trawl France for trim etc. if you need it. If the bodywork is saveable, the mechanics are relatively easy - if the worst coes to the worst, you can fit some later running gear etc. if the originals are shot.

As Tim mentioned, yet another Blue one - 80% of surviving Mk1's (including mine) seem to be this colour, although this one seems to have faded less than most.

I'm still waiting for all the RD Estates to come out of hiding!

[kieran.l]

Thanks for the tips Mike. I'll have to convince my uncle to move from that barn to get a better look at. Hopefully it'll be moved into a closed shed although a Xantia parts car will have to be placed outside; there's another few years before that's a classic... I'll report back then. The interior looks fairly OK from what I can tell.
I hope I don't have to start stripping for parts already though cos I'm having difficulties repairing the top of the reservoir on my own BX after a mouse got at it.
As an aside: are the reservoirs identical on mk1 and mk2s? Any idea of the type of plastic that the white part (when the return hoses are attached) is made from? I'm not sure if the plastic weld solution I'm using will bind to it. I may start a new topic in technical.

[António Miranda]

It's not in a bad condition... maybe some cleanup would do her well...
Missing a few parts... nothing serious.