After getting married on saturday, my beautiful new wife Michelle drove me 200 miles to go and see an XM! It was a bit tatty, but the colour was right, it was the correct spec for me, 80K miles, and a full and comprehensive service history. There were a few faults, one being a pretty useless accumulator sphere, but all the rest seemed in very good condition, that and the fact the gear linkage has more play in it than the whole ann summers catalogue!
Either way I put on my best haggling face with a view to getting enough off the asking price to make it worth my while, fortunately the current owner (throughly decent chap) folded like a house of cards when faced with a gentle breeze.
The car drove back fautlessly, managed around 45mpg and was jolly floaty indeed!
Today I decided to start by changing the fluid in the reservior, took the cap off expecting black filters and brown fluid, only to be greeted with off white and bright green! Happy days!
I treated her to some citerobics and then started with the big clean!It was obvious it had been used as a loved form of transport, rather than a loved posession, to the interior needed a through clean, and the outside the same. The paint was covered in a vast swathe of halos, hologramming, and multiple scratches. I have made a start and given the paint as much love as I can with my facilities, so a wash, clay bar, wash and then a coat of hard wax was in order. All of the plastics were a mess as was the rubber, first up I decided to try something new on the rubber as it was covered in lots of little brown spots. I took a piece of 800 grit wet and dry, and went to work!
here you can see the brown spots -
And a before and after -
I then took one of my favorite detailing products, value boiled linseed oil, and started to condition the plastics and rubber, and what a difference! The chrome / plastic trim instantly came up like new, as did all the freshly abraded rubber.
Side trim 50 / 50 -
Screen cowl -
The leather was conditioned, wipers replaced, floors hoovered, and glass rainxed.
So without further ado, here she is -
I have yet to sort the occasional juddery steering, and perpetual ticking (about every 5 - 10 seconds!). I am blindly hoping the regular citerobics, a new accumulator, and in a while some fresh LHM, will alleviate these issues. The gear linkage will just be a case of sorting out some replacement parts, then some gas in the AC and I will be pretty happy!
Cheers,
J
