Citroen XM Forum

Excellent progress. You put my slow reconstruction to shame.

Wait for the leather and then you only have to do the job once. Less strain on fastners and fixings that are never wonderful at the best of times..

Rob

Hmm, there's something to be said for that way of doing it. But then again there's also a big draw to getting it on the road ASAP. Mainly that my better half will be rather happier about my leather seat purchase when she knows it's passed an MoT (can't blame her for worrying really, she has seen the state of the floorpan/sills before I started welding!) but also that I'm getting impatient and want to "play" with our new "toy"! One thing for sure, I'll be going easy on the fasteners and only fitting the minimum to get it legal, the rest of the trim pieces can wait so less danger of snapping lugs off etc.

Got a bit of free time this morning so off out shortly to make the chassis rail complete again.

I fear the weather may not be on your side judging by the view out of my window!!!

Good luck.

Rob

I had a moment or two of worry myself, but aside from a few strong gusts not exactly conducive to tidy welds it's been OK. Chassis rail is now finished and just have one more small patch (already made apart from some minor adjustments) to stitch into the driver's floor and we're in business... Well I can reconnect the ECUs/alternator and begin with the servicing and new accumulator anyways.

Would have been done already but we decided to treat ourselves to a lunch out so I packed in at 1pm. Not sure of the weather the next couple of days but, God willing, the car will be on it's own 4 wheels by this time tomorrow. Fingers crossed

Welding is all done! finally... still got the stands under it as I had to pack up before re-securing the fuel lines and refitting the exhaust from cat back, but may get a bit of time later to do a few small jobs and have the car running with any luck. Then I've got to remember how to depressurise the hydraulics and change the acc. sphere. Oh and the small matter of slinging enough of the interior back together to be roadworthy until we get our leather seats

She's aliiiiive! car started last night, thinking the low idle may have been down to bits of the old cat partially blocking the exhaust, a few big chunks of monolith fell out of the boxes & it started straight up (after fuel pressure built up) and idled much more like normal so hopefully that's all that was causing that occasional glitch.

Still weighed down by an all-you-can-eat Chinese dinner last night, or I'd be out there now rolling underneath it haha

Excellent result there, won't be long now until your on the road!

D

It's back together, at least as much of it as is needed for MoT, lot of trim still in the garage for now but that can wait. On the to-do list still are, sort exhaust leak at cat/centre join, replace accumulator, service/gearbox oil etc order a pair of HA2 spheres, fix sunroof leak and maybe get the thing working too (big maybe!) and then a lot of tidying up whilst enjoying our hard-won XM.

Oh, and clean/lube rear centre seatbelt reel as the inertia part is a bit sticky & doesn't always lock reliably/sometimes stays locked.

All of us had a cheeky little test drive round the corner this evening (the corner of our large private drive, of course ) and apart from the kids worrying that the "new exhaust smell" might mean it was on fire and a slight rattle which I think is the crud shield above the transverse silencer, all seems well.