Our new baby, silver '94 XM 2.0i SX auto estate

[captainhaddock]

I am impressed to see you want this fixed. REally and wish you all the best of luck. Never ever seen rust that bad on any XM. Are you sure it's not a CX?

[xmexclusive]

In my experience most UK XM's are like it to some extent.
Because they rust from the inside out it usually comes as a surprise to the owner.
Been posting about the long term risk from it to our cars for years now.

John

[Dieselman]

I think later cars (series 2) suffer more from rust.

[ekjdm14]

In my experience most UK XM's are like it to some extent.
Because they rust from the inside out it usually comes as a surprise to the owner.
Been posting about the long term risk from it to our cars for years now.

John

I think later cars (series 2) suffer more from rust.

Agreed, and agreed yes most of the damage was invisible and not picked up by the MoT man, the car looked outwardly quite solid with a couple of small holes in the sills and one in the N/S outrigger but on getting intimate with my body hammer a good portion of the N/S sill was seriously weakened, and on cutting a viewing window it became apparent that the rot was coming from within as opposed to being due to jacking point abuse like S1's seem to have.

Really if you have an S2 (or an S1 for that matter as they're older despite being more resistant), you should at least pop the trim off and roll the carpet back a bit in the front floor to inspect the join between floorpan and inner sill. From underneat the floorpan looked perfect on ours but as the photo's show, this was not the case once the underseal and seam sealer was peeled off.

Just off out now to cut the rest of the grot out of the footwell and make a patch to go in there

[ekjdm14]

Well rain stopped play before I could weld anything in this afternoon, but I've got the dead metal out of the front end of the sill and floorpan so it's almost ready for the first new metal to be zipped up. New accumulator sphere on its way too so progress is being made albeit slowly.

Oh and I would love if it really was a CX safari

[onza100]

I have a Cx safari that I'm restoring and trust me you wouldn't

[ekjdm14]

I have a Cx safari that I'm restoring and trust me you wouldn't

Haha maybe, but I don't mind welding (apart from getting through so much wire!). Speaking of which the first bits of new metal went in yesterday, to the front of the nearside sill. Didn't get a chance to take any pics yet but as I ran out of wire it's not finished anyway so I'll leave it until I've finished gluing it together and tidied up my overhand bird muck before I let the wider world see the result. It'll need skimming with filler to look right but considering the compound nature of the front end where the sill dives behind the front wing I don't think it's gone too badly. The outer sill further back will be a lot simpler just being a couple of bends one 90* and the other about 70* radiussed, the middle part won't have to look pretty either just be strong. Just got to wait on 2kg's of wire to drop through the letterbox now, always make sure you have all the consumables you need before starting a job!

[Eddie nuff]

I remember at last years mot the tester found a small amount of welding needed on the inner sills, enough to fail it.

The guy who did the welding found a hell of a lot more.

[ekjdm14]

I'm still finding more!

Someone mentioned this being the worlds lightest XM estate, well by the time I've got done with it the thing will probably be the heaviest what with all the lap joints and filler wire going into it! Then again it might lay claim to being the strongest structurally, also.
Moving on slowly with the nearside when time and weather allows, pretty much all the worst rot is gone and the footwell, front end of the sill and the outrigger are welded just awaiting the rest of the patchwork quilt to be stitched together before it gets a skim over with filler and a thorough undersealing/waxoiling session.

THEN we can move onto the offside, where I believe much the same joys await..... At least I'll get a good tan ready for summer

[ekjdm14]

Progress report = zilch the last couple of weeks, kids being off school means we've had a busy time of it so not had a chance to do much other than smear some vegetable oil over the faded black plastic and rubber trim (try it, seriously!) but, all being well, I should have time in the coming week to get the rest of the nearside welded up and finished. Can't wait to get the bodywork finished and move onto electrics, servicing and MoT prepping.