Charles's 2.1 SD Manual (formerly Citroenxm's)

[Dieselman]

Paints4you have a good colour matching service.

The colour will be ETW-Meteor. The cR part means it is metallic so needs lacquer.

[Charles M]

Meanwhile, a test run of Russ's silver tape so I can pimp the black XM before sale without having to buy the stainless steel side trims and fit them - so far, so good on the grey XM!

[Eddie nuff]

Try the local paint shops whereby they will make up the correct match to your paintwork.

If he knows what he's doing he should open the door and match his paint up against the B frame where the paint hasn't been weathered by time and the elements.

[Charles M]

Gave the engine bay area a bit of a clean, lots of blackening fluid used. Starting to come together nicely.

[MTXM]

Hi Charles,
I think you will find the colour ETW is usually called Silicon Grey, or Gris Silex, although Mercury is also correct and that name seems to have been used earlier on.
The code for Meteor is EYY which is a much lighter, bluer, shade of grey.
With regards,
Matthew T.

[Charles M]

Matthew - that is exceptionally helpful! I googled the colour, perfect match and there was even a photo of a gris silex Xantia V6 parked outside CitroJim's house on Google images. Small world.

ps your hydractive box lid is looking very good under the bonnet!

[MTXM]

My pleasure Charles and you just need a sticker from Russ for the lid!! With regards, Matthew T.

[citroenxm]

Charles..

Halfords etw paint is perfect ! Have a look in my blog I bought some paint for her from Halfords. . Have a look at the grey trim on the boot lid under the reversing lamp panel. That's a replacement that I sprayed to go on her.

I thought the Halfords match was near perfect.. as for the paint code we had this discussion on my blog and it's defo ETW...

surprised no one remembered.

[xantia_v6]

If buying touch-up paint by code, be aware that there were two shades of ETW . The colour got darker (in the early 90s I think) when the paint technology changed. The stuff sold by most factors is mixed to the earlier colour.

[russ92xmsed]

Charles, this is interesting, the paint names issue rises again. Mine is Silicone in the handbook, but called basalt from halfords I think, but it totally different to yours. I think mine is ETC. Anyway, I got some paint matched at halfords and it was far too dark and grey and that was matching it with the body in the sun...Mine is greener. So I would be very careful matching the paint. If it is for the bonnet, I would match the tone to the bonnet and not the inside were the paint is stronger. Obviously they won't match otherwise. But it is difficult really to get a dead on match it needs to be scanned.


I am still really impressed with the silver tape I got for mine. I wasn't expecting it to last at all, and it is firmly stuck to the car and still looks bright and shiny. So I would recommend it to anyone as a quick fix. I got mine from partytapes website. I believe it is suitable for jet skis!


And you engine is interesting...our cars were built on the same day...but you have the cast ally head and EGR. I don't. Plastic and no EGR. And no I haven't had an engine replaced.

If you want a set of engine stickers, I can oblige, none in stock at the moment, but I will be getting some done, as I have an order from a chap in Colombia who has a Xantia!!!