The Fleet blog and Mollie's restoration at Chevronics.

[Mothman]

As i have so many of the damned things i hope you dont mind me chatting about them a bit.

At the moment, most of you know that i have 6 BXs, 5 MOTd and up and running with the 6th to be sorted this year i hope.
I bought the TXD Estate off ebay for 350 quid in 2006. Done quite a bit to her, i suppose i must have spent about £1000 to keep her on the road over that time. Not too bad a sum to have spent on an old motor. however, although recently passed another test she does now need some serious dosh being spent, timing belt, water pump plus a few other things.
She was my only BX for a long time and has currently done 129k.
Then in 2011, having seen an ad on the forum via Tim Leech i aquired the TGS16 petrol Estate with 50 k on the clock. Recently replaced the rad but the repair done on a leaky return pipe has popped off and i hope to fix this this weekend. She is in excellent condition and when going, runs extremely well.
Later the same year i bought Sophie, a well known MK 1 saloon from Chris Salter. Spent a bit of time and dosh on her and she has gone throughthe 1 MOT with me and did so quite easily. Ive replaced her rad with a new MK 1 rad, [not easy to find i can tell you], the fuel primer [original purflux],replaced the heater matrix with one from a MK2. Sophie actually has a MK 2 heater and fan system, installed well before i aquired her plus sundry other things and at the moment she is driving very wel for her age. she will certainly be making her way to Looe for the first time with me this year.
Then in 2012 things happened on the BX front with 3 more on the driveway. A year ago tomorrow, i aquired a TZD estate for 100 quid, a moter i had had a hankering for for quite a while. However she needed a lot of work and money spending on her and Malcolm [citronut] came to the help and sorted her into a fine motor which now has a tad under 160k on the clock and good for a few more i hope. I have added 6k to her in the last 12m which isnt bad considering i have to keep excercising the rest of the fleet. Done quite a lot of simple fettling myself such as electric mirror and a few small missing parts. Paintwork lets her down a bit.
Sold my Morris Minor series MM last summer and with part of the proceeds bought Gloria, another MK 1 off Malcom but didnt take delivery till February of this year. Hopefuly some of you will see her at the X rally. Been doing odds sods with her of late weather permitting. She is possibly the only MK 1 auto diesel known to the club in the UK but you never know, there could be others lurking out there. Malcolm did a great job on her, a complete repipe along with many other bits and pieces to get her up to MOT standard.
I managed to get hold of Mollie, a MK 1 19RD at the end of last October for free. Done a bit on her, replaced the rotted out interior with some nice leather seats aquired from Tim, replaced damaged trim etc and plan to hopefully get her back on the road sometime this year. She will need a repipe though and a little welding. Originally i was going to scrap her but decided she was just too good to be broken up.
Ile add to this as and when things happen and i musnt get another one, no i really musnt so i dont want to see any more adverts of MK 1 BXs close to me please!!.
Ile end this with a piccy of Gloria up on tractor ramps getting some rust sorted underneath.
I also removed the primer bulb this morning and replace the bulb for the auto box shift which had blown. Even got the foglamps to work and now both of the rear high brake lights are doing sterling work.

[Tim Leech]

Andy if your could put a piece together about your cars and how you got into Bx's (as Paul296 has done) for the Citroenian I wold be grateful!

[Mothman]

Will do Tim, be my pleasure.

Andy

[Mothman]

I have asked my neighbour who has a much bigger drive than mine if it would be ok to do a 'fleet' photo. they have said yes so this will happen shortly, less Mollie of course as she isnt ready to be exposed on all her glory yet.

Andy

[Willy]

Andy is this you per chance? Your profile says gardener and your sig says you have a red TZD estate...

[Mothman]

Hi bud,

no, not mine ime afraid, no tow bar for a start. Looks good though, obviously a well used workhorse doing its job well.
Having been to the X rally in Gloria who performed admirably, Tim informed me that she has the correct bonnet and front grill which all autos had be they Mk 1 or MK 2. Well happy i dont have to source 2 long nosed bonnets.

Andy

[Mothman]

As its warmed up a bit, decided at last after about a 3 month lay up to get the TGS on the ramps and fix the low pressure return leak.
All seamed easy at first, bloody fingers too big initially with not much pipe to play with but got it all together after a couple of hours. Raised her up on high and then let her down and green blood everywhere, the small bit of repair pipe had split!!.Thought sod this!!
Took the lot out, found a much larger length of pipe than that originally cut out and repaired by my mate Tim which gave me a lot more room to press in the copper joining pipes which this time were well clamped and job done. 2nd attempt took 10 minutes which is the way forward next time.
No more leaks, she drives very well, especially as i recently replaced the rad. This must have ben blocked as well as leaking as performance is so much better. I suspect she was getting a tad hot although no lights ever came on.
Today, gave Sophie a good run, drives ever so well when driven hard. Last year, i replaced her rad but it didnt have a top cover protecting the fins which were very sharp. Whilst looking at the TGS rad, noticed it had a plastic top to it which moved when jabbed so as i had kept her old rad i wondered if it would come off easy. It did and now Sophie look as she should under the bonnet. An easy fix.

Andy

[Mothman]

Been working on Mollie yesterday with my mate Clive.
Managed to change the 2 metal fuel pipes, the fix went very smoothly, easier than i expected but when all started up, fuel leaking like mad from where it was before.
Decided to remove the rubber pipes and found a big split in one and a lot of cracks on the other. Quick trip to local motor factors and 2 new ones were aquired. However, Mollie being a MK 1, there is a different set up in that the fuel delivery sender has 2 metal pipes sticking straight up as opposed to the L shaped plastic ones on a MK 2. This means to fit as originally intended you need rubber pipes kinked at the end. Bend them and the pipe will collapse causing problems. It was decided to remove and fit the one from the scrappers tank. Whipped out the original and found to our surprise that it was corroded almost to the point of failure and covered in brown gunge!! Obviously there had been condensation inside the fuel tank causing the rust and i shudder to think about the quality of the diesel inside. The change over to the MK 2 system was an easy job, took the forum advice of keeping all tied up with bailer twine for an easy pull theough, worked a treat.
She now has her own fuel supply but at the moment is running very rough so i think that the fuel filter may be full of this gloopy brown stuff so thats the next job. Then i will empty the tank. Any ideas as how to clean it out other than removing it, a route i dont really want to go down?
It does go to show though that if you buy a MK 1 or any BX thats been standing a long time, its well worth checking out the fuel tank.
Also did the hockey stick which although not holed was very rusty.Hopefully it will be the doors soon.





Andy

[Mothman]

Mollie, about to be operated on!

A simple mate who was helping me.

Andy

[vulgalour]

That's some enviable ramps you've got there. I really should make massively over engineered set that are impossible to move and make everything around them look out of scale like those do.

[Mothman]

Thems for tractors!!

Andy

[MULLEY]

Handy that a mk2 system can be fitted instead of the ultra mk1 which i guess is probably unavailable.

[Mothman]

Its not that the MK 1 system couldnt be cleaned up and refitted ime sure but the 90 degree bent rubber pipes would be a problem. Straight rubber pipes would have ultimately failed stuck onto upright metal pipes. Same for MK 2 heater matrices, MK 1s will fail, MK 2s wont cos they are crimped like the rad whereas MK1s have just a large rubber gasket. OK, they can all be screwed with radweld etc but a MK 2 heater matrix is far superior to that of a Mk 1. I suspect i will ultimately have to convert the rest of my MK 1 fleet in due course.

Andy

[Mothman]

Gave Sophie a good belting up the A21 this morning on the way to a boot fair, went very well.
Then replaced the BX19RD badge on Gloria, a bit battered it had become. Removed the complete fuel filter and primer head on Mollie and yes it was well crudded up. Gave it all a damned good soak in petrol and a good clean but even after leaving it in the sun to dry, decided it wasnt worth refitting so managed to find 2 new Lucas 7111/796 filter units on feebay for a tenner. Will be draining out as much of the fuel as i can tomorrow. This will give me a chance to inspect and clean the fuel sender unit, i expect it too is well gunged up although still seems to work ok.
Then ive got to strim and mow all the lawns, blasted grass has started to grow with a vengeance.

[Mothman]

Things going wrong with Mollie!! Grrr..... Got the fuel filter from ebay, arrived this am. All fitted up but now seem unable to prime the system, it just wont suck up from the tank as it did on Friday. Its a cannister that fits under the primer head, am unable to fill it with diesel which might start it off as its not a filter that fits inside a container but an integral system like an oil filter but held to the primer head with a bottom unit and a central bolt. Filling it would just cause the diesel to spill everywhere. Either there is a leak from the filter sucking in air or the primer head has failed from all the use i have been giving it of late.
What to do? May have to change the unit [Lucas] to an original Purflux one which i recently gave to Malcolm for reconditioning.
May try removing the whole item and filling it with diesel in a bucket and then refitting in its entirety, this may get the primer to work. Will try again when ive emptied the tank.
Cars, i hate em!!

Andy