DC's Motoring Diary
Chapter 2
	What Have I Done?

Last month I related how my search for an Exxy had led me to the back streets of Birmingham on a cold but sunny Thursday morning. Now it was Saturday morning, money had changed hands and I was driving the vendor home. An interesting journey because his business was restoring and selling De Tomaso's. "Good Cars I had asked, it must be great working on exotic Italian Machinery I added in my ignorance". "Not really he said, just a poor old body with a big American lump stuck in. Rust like hell". But by the looks of his house he made a good living at them. I also checked an advert of his later and he had over £150,000 on sale over only 12 cars, including my two grand X1/9!

Any way, returning home there it was. It still looked good in the sunshine but with no insurance I could not drive it yet. I noticed again the near-side mirror hanging at a floppy angle, the "softspot" on the sill that had been hastily taped over and sprayed to hide the rust. Then there were the wheels – the chrome silver faces badly corroded and the lacquer peeling off. It was at this point that the doubts set in.

Isn't funny how the half-dozen five-minute jobs you convinced yourself would be no trouble pre-sales, suddenly start to multiply once its yours? I could not remember the bottom of the front wing flapping around like that, the paint on that rear valance is faking and the windscreen surround is in need of some tlc. One-by-one more and more little jobs were added to the list of things-to-do.

Get a grip on yourself, it's a ten year old car and only cost two and a quarter grand, what do you expect. With all the jobs duly noted the Xantia is consigned to the driveway and Exxy takes his new home in the garage. Domestic politics also now take over. Don't push your luck too quickly too soon and spend all your spare time in the garage. The bedroom decorating has to take number one priority and once that's done an hour or two in the garage can be taken without too much complaint from `er in doors.

You will recall that last month I reported that with the car came a lot of documentation including many invoices and bills for work done. So in between decorating I set about sorting these into order and tracing the Exxy's history. This went back to 1990 in some detail. What happened before then I don't know other than the service history is complete from the day it was delivered. Reading through the bills, MOT failure notes and other items gave a good insight into an Exxy's life. As well as the regular disc pads there had been two sets of discs replaced. The Headlamp pop-up and alignment needed adjustment for one MOT and a miss-fire was sorted out, on the second attempt by new plugs and points. A broken stud on the exhaust manifold, I wonder how that happened? More brake attention, reported as spongy, and a check of the steering column as the indicators do not cancel (That was back in '92 and they still don't).

Two interesting items were an invoice for an off-side front wing and a bill for fitting a near-side one! My Exxy had obviously been in a few arguments out on the streets (More of that next month). One bit of good news I think, was a bill last year for fitting a replacement gearbox and clutch. If that's the case that's one rumor about Exxy's that I can put to the back of my mind for the time being.

Once the decorating was complete I could make a start on the jobs outstanding. The floppy mirror seemed a good place to start. Unscrewing it from the quarter light was easy. Peeling back the rubber gaiter revealed a mass of insulating tape holding the two halves of the hinge mechanism together. Cutting the tape and peeling it away revealed no other means of support, no wonder it would not stay where it was put. I spent some time working out a way of possibly re-joining the two halves of the supporting arms together and with the black cowl badly cracked and in danger of falling in many parts I was about to cut my looses and start looking for a replacement. I then by chance found in the glove box a bolt washer and spring that looked to be the missing links. There was only one strange thing that the bolt appeared to be about a centimeter too short. Luckily my son is a toolmaker and brought home a bolt of the desired length an low and behold it all fitted.

It was weeks later that I found the tubular boss that had obviously been snapped off in the impact which nearly destroyed the mirror. Had this still been attached then the bolt in the glovebox would have been long enough. Luckily the hole from the boss went through the base and there was enough thread to hold the longer bolt.

With the fold-back mechanism now operational I set about the damaged cowl. First the cracked sections, which had been crudely glued back together again by the previous owner, were covered in a layer of fibreglass. Once hardened this gave it its rigidity back again. Next, just like repairing a dent in the bodywork, a layer of filler was applied. This was rubbed down and more filler added and rubbed down again. This process was repeated until the original shape was reproduced. Some of the texture of the original plastic finish was lost but after several coats of mat black paint the unit was looking pretty good.

Fitting the mirror back to the car gave me a great sense of achievement and my first task done. It reminded me of one of the reasons for buying the car, working with my hands again something I had not done on cars for about fifteen years. Now how does that rear valance come off, that rust needs addressing without delay.

---

  If you would like to read more of my diary of ownership click here

Contact:

Mail : 26 Newton Close, Oakenshaw South, Redditch, Worcestershire, B98 7YR

Home Tel. : 01527 404365

Mobile Tel : 0860 326582

ICQ : 12261308

e-mail : derek.coombes@virgin.net

Return to Derek's Home Page here