Citsncycles XM

[citsncycles]

At least I've managed to make an improvement to the outward appearance of the XM:

[russ92xmsed]

That's looking great Mike.
If you can be bothered, I recommend painting the door pillars satin black, it really smartens it up even more. And if you can be really really bothered, some silver tape that I have used on mine can hide those tarnished silver door trims.

Are you bringing it to the national?

[citsncycles]

Well the radio's workinga again - it just needed the code, but wasn't telling me so! Thanks to all who suggested what to do with it, both here and in the tech section.

Door pillars will be painted, and I still have work to do on the bonnet. Side trims will be tackled at some point, but I think the rear bumper trim is most urgent - it's really starting to fall apart.

[citsncycles]

And yes, it is going to the national (even if it means a lynching from the BX crowd for leaving Timex at home)

[citsncycles]

After receiving advice in the tech section to flush out the radiator (among other stuff), I drained the coolant, flushed it through and it's currently running wih a dose of coolant flush. Early days yet as you're supposed to leave it in for 50 miles and I've only done 10 so far, and it takes most of that journey to get to temperature, but it did seem to run a bit cooler this morning. Hopefully this dose of flush, followed by new coolant before seting offfor the CCC national will stave off the need for a new radiator for a while.

Another thing I thought of was the accuracy of the guage - I need to find a thermometer to check the water temp in the header tank, as I may be worrying about nothing if I'm geting a false high reading.

[djg]

It seems to me that it would be easier to check the other way around: not a thermometer in the system but removing the sensor and checking it in water brought to boil (if you can bring something to heat it with to the car).

[citsncycles]

My parking situation isn't the best, but I may have a go a that on Monday if I haven' tried it my way first.

[stinkwheel]

I was hoping you werent taking Timex to the national so that our own nasty looking BX estate 'the Dently' could shine in its shediness - although we now plan to come in the white XM (assuming its up to it, we shall see)

[citsncycles]

There needs to be at least one shed at a meet like this. Last year Timex was given a run for it's money by a very scruffy Xantia sinker, and at the X Rally this year if Timex hadn't been there there was a C5 with accident damage down the one side that would have taken the prize! It would be ineresing to see the Dentley a some point - When Barry Annells won the Shed of The Show at last year's X rally, I had a look round his BX and came to the conclusion that I'd have to carry out several hundred hours worth of work to bring Timex up to the standard of his car!

With the various paintwork issues and the odd dents on the XM, it may still be one of the worst cars there cosmetically, although considering the mileage it's aged a lot better than most of my cars.

[Dieselman]

I think having shed of the show prizes is a great idea. Damn, I've just been out polishing mine...