Citroen XM Forum

Jan-hendrik wrote:The ES9J4 with manual box must be a rare beast in the UK and I don't think they were imported in Japan either.

They were never made for RHD, this one has spent all its life in Paris, and will be mostly staying in France during my ownership (which might be quite a while).

TFR would work but you would have to get the right mix.

Tar & Glue gets most things off.

I wouldn't use anything stronger than a hard surface leaner or white spirit or isoproyl alcohol.

xantia_v6 wrote:

Dieselman wrote:You can't T-cut the bumpers, but can the metal areas.

It will be acrylic aerosol paint, so not very tough. I suspect a few doses of industrial cleaner painted on will loosen it off the original paint. The trick will be to try to keep it wet for as long as possible.

That was my plan, maybe a careful rub with wet and dry on the flat areas, but which solvent is safe on the bumpers?

Feel free to use nitro solvent to remove that green paint from your car.I'm talking from my experience.I always use a nitro solvent when somebody "leave" the paint from it's car on my bumpers in the parking lot.Nitro will remove all of that,but you will need to be carefull with it.

After that,you can polish those parts if you want...or if the car needs polishing,you can polish & wax the whole car.

A minor milestone today, I finally managed to get insured with a French insurance company, including full no-claims allowance from my UK policy. It has taken many emails and lots of scanned documents, but I finally wore them down.
The next challenge is a Control Technique (MOT), but I cant get that until I am back in France at the end of next month.

Today we are back in France, so I took the XM for its CT. The place I chose for the test had an Austin-Healey and a TR6 in last time I walked past, so I hoped they had some sympathy for classic cars (not sure if the XM has classic status in France yet). The car tested before mine was a 2CV.

I did not have time to do much of a pre-test check, just the lights and indicators and tyre treads.

I really find it quite stressful having other people work on my cars, and while they were testing it, I was pacing up and down in the waiting area, pretending to read a french motoring magazine extolling the virtues of modern boxes which hold no interest.

So after it had been poked and prodded and revved etc., the verdict came back that the brake lights were not working, but under the French system that counts as a pass, with a contre-visit within 2 months to show that they have been fixed.

This now gives me all of the pieces of paper I should need to do the immatriculation to get it registered in my name. So I went down to the sous-prefecture this afternoon, with a pile of papers and forms, only to learn that they don't do carte-gris on Friday afternoons.

So the car is still not technically legal to drive... I did get pulled over and breathalised on the way to the CT, but fortunately they were not doing documentation checks (and I had not been drinking).

The brake light failure is of course the switch on the brake pedal. I can probably make a temporary repair,but it really needs replacing, as it has melted the plastic tab that presses on the contacts. Do all manual XMs have 3 wire brake switches, or only those with cruise control?

Well, what a nicely spec'd (and good looking) Citroen . . . V6 and manual . . . Coo!

Re: the nasty green bits, try some mild solvents and cleaners first, and see whether any of these will shift the green stuff:
- White spirit ('turps'), IPA (alcohol), petrol
- Then try a little Cif/Jif, gently
- Try also Mer car polish (which you can apply and rub with considerable pressure, without damage to OE paint)
- If using T-Cut or Brasso, go very gently.
- Maybe a tiny touch of cellulose thinners (c.5%) in with one of the above.


Agree that the green paint is almost certainly aerosol cellulose, and therefore softer than the original body paint.

Chris

marc61 wrote:Hmmm manual gearbox eh. Now that is something worth having Is it a cable clutch or hydraulic?

My wife also liked the V6 to the extent that I rarely get to drive it now, think the motto is beware wife liking car!

Good luck with it.

Marc

I beleve they are all Hydraulic, as fitted to HDi 110 Xantias and 2.5 TD XM... and activa Xantia..

Everyone forgotton my Topic about Paint removal?? AMAZING short memories we have dont you!

T cut wont touch it, or will Mer, or will Auto Glym, I used a White spirit on my SD which DID shift paint dots I have and it dodn't touch the cars Paint work...

Its hard work to do it, but it does come away..

I was wondering how you had got on with your paint dots. So white sprit lighted them. Excellent!
What did you need the spray paint for then?

Glad your car technically passed its Ct Mike. Strange way of doing things, but quite fair in some respect, allowing a pass to get it fixed like that.
Quite jealous you live near Beaune. I remember it very well. Great modelshops!!!

russ92xmsed wrote:I was wondering how you had got on with your paint dots. So white sprit lighted them. Excellent!
What did you need the spray paint for then?

Did you not follow my Blog on the SD Russ? I swapped the rear broken panel on the boot for a Maroon one! Hence the spray..

The White Spirits didnt lighten the Dots, it removed them completely...