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Re: Mikes V6 ES9 Manual Exclusive

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 6:28 pm
by xantia_v6
Dieselman wrote:Don't throw those headlamps away, I could probably use those reflectors. :)
The RH reflector is OK, but the LH headlight took most of the impact an the high beam reflector is broken.

You can pick them up any time (except October to April) :D

Re: Mikes V6 ES9 Manual Exclusive

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 10:12 am
by Dieselman
I'd love to collect them, but that's not practical at present.

The dip beam reflectors are the bits I would really like as they lose their silvering on older ones, due to the heat of the lamp.

Re: Mikes V6 ES9 Manual Exclusive

Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 5:52 am
by xantia_v6
The XM keeps on going... We have had visitors from New Zealand and the UK in the last couple of weeks, so the car has been busy with trips to Lyon, Besançon, Vezelay, and a few other tourist attractions. In the process, it ticked over 90,000 km last week.

It has acquired two more minor battle scars:

I backed into an unsigthed bollard and bruised the rear bumper, breaking the 'chrome' strip. I have a good spare bumper from the other car, but it has been cut to fit a towbar. I don't relish the thought of swapping just the 'chrome' strip.

There was a storm in Besançon last week, and a chestnut or similar from a tall tree fell on the car as we were sitting at the lights, putting a 50p sized dimple into the roof panel. Such is life.

On the positive side, I replaced the illumination bulbs in the radio. I fitted 14V (rather than 12V) bulbs so that they will last forever. They are a little dimmer than the originals, but the display is still just legible.

I have taken the front bumper and fan assembly off the parts car, to make it a bit shorter for packing both cars into the garage for winter. Nothing seems to be rusted up, which is good, but there is a little more surface rust in vulnerable places (e.g. bumper brackets) than on the good car.

We are leaving France in two weeks for summer in New Zealand, so I am now busy rearranging all the junk and car parts that are currently filling half the garage. There wo't be time to do much on either car in that time.

Re: Mikes V6 ES9 Manual Exclusive

Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 8:52 am
by Dieselman
The chrome strip is easy to change. It is held in by a series of clips, just push a scraper underneath at the point of the clips, then lever it off. Start near the centre of the rear section.

Re: Mikes V6 ES9 Manual Exclusive

Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2015 10:45 am
by xantia_v6
After a couple of days sorting out and re-homing stuff that has been piled up in the garage in the last 18 months, I got the spares car parked at the back of the garage for winter. The last car to occupy that position was the e-type, and I discovered that the extra width of the XM prevented any of the doors being opened, so resorted to removing a door (it is only a parts car).

There is now also plenty of room to park the good car (without removing a door), but I have to find enough blocks and axle stands to take the weight off of the tyres of both cars.

Re: Mikes V6 ES9 Manual Exclusive

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 9:59 pm
by xantia_v6
I think I was offered another "parts" XM today by a friend of a friend who apparently abandoned it at a garage a few years ago after some minor failure (I did not catch what the problem was). It is a 2.5 td, and had apparently had a recent €3000 engine rebuild after a cooling system failure.

I don't have any space or time for it now, but might investigate further next year if it is still there.

Re: Mikes V6 ES9 Manual Exclusive

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 10:14 pm
by Dean
If the price is right it could be worth a punt.
What happened to the E Type? Such a lovely looking car.

D

Re: Mikes V6 ES9 Manual Exclusive

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2015 5:58 am
by xantia_v6
Dean wrote:If the price is right it could be worth a punt.
The price seemed to be very attractive (perhaps free), but the "conditions" were a bit vague (it was at the end of a 5 course meal with commensurate consumption of vin).
I will follow this up when I am back in France next year.
Dean wrote:What happened to the E Type? Such a lovely looking car.
The e-type did not seem to fit very well in France, and there would have been complications getting French registration, as it was a LHD car converted to RHD, so with considerable regret I sold it.

Re: Mikes V6 ES9 Manual Exclusive

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2015 11:57 am
by Dieselman
xantia_v6 wrote: The price seemed to be very attractive (perhaps free), but the "conditions" were a bit vague (it was at the end of a 5 course meal with commensurate consumption of vin).
The best time to offer to help someone out...

Re: Mikes V6 ES9 Manual Exclusive

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2016 11:21 pm
by xantia_v6
We arrived back in France yesterday, and other than a flat battery (the little solar charger must have died), the XM started and ran perfectly.

My aim is to get the parts car stripped over the next 4 weeks so that I can reclaim the garage space it is filling, I hope the parts occupy less space than the car!

Saw one other XM yesterday, a nice 2.1 Mk1 that lives somewhere nearby.