Two instalments from Alex's continued adventures with his BX follow so to bring us up to date let's see how he got on with swapping that interior around...
Nurse! Let the transplant operation commence!
Every time I sit down to write an update on the BX, I ask myself whether, on balance, it's been a good month for the car. It's fair to say I've probably answered 'no' about as many times as I've said 'yes'. But this month, I'm glad to be able to say it's the latter.
Most recently it's been the turn of the interior. And friend and resident BX wrangler Rich can confirm that with a socket set in one hand and a spanner in the other, I become to the field of mechanics what Dr Nick Riviera is to open heart surgery, which is why I normally leave these things to him. But an interior's just nuts and bolts - what could possibly go wrong?
Over the course of the day, we managed to swap the BX's Le Mans interior - from a very late 16V and therefore not correct - with a Monza-trimmed example that's both true to the car's age and in far better nick.
Mmm, velour. Correct velour at that. Double Mmm.
What's more, while the interior was being swapped, we found time to remedy some of the car's more irritating... ahem... quirks. Such as the passenger seatbelt that would regularly fail to release - switched for a working item - and the driver's electric mirror, which again shouldn't have been there and moved at the same time as the passenger's - swapped out for the correct, manual item. We even got the driver's door switch and passenger electric window working properly. Splendid.
I have to say a big thanks to Rich, for allowing me to plunder the spares car he'd just acquired for the bits we needed. Top man. I like to think it got a lot of itself back, if that makes sense. Plenty has been put right. Little things like courtesy lights and the lights-on buzzer now work where they didn't. And of course, there are the seats - not only do they look right, but because the foam padding's in better nick, they're better to sit in and don't sag. Small steps, I know, but they mean we're getting somewhere, and they bring a smile to my face.
Of course, there are still some things on the list to sort. The most pressing concern is the oil leak I mentioned last report. Which turned out not to be an oil leak at all, but rather a fine mist of atomised high-pressure LHM emanating from a pinhole fracture in one of the pipes. A job that's most definitely not for these pudgy hands, so it'll go back to Southways for a fix over winter. Meanwhile here's to the good days and 'yes' months ahead.
No, it's cold and wet. I'm not coming out.
Winter has descended and opportunities for automotive enjoyment are becoming scarce. So, keep it on the road, or lock it away 'til spring? When the insurance and tax ran out at the beginning of December the question answered itself and winter hibernation beckoned.
There's still fettling to be done though.
You might remember I took the BX down to Huets to bring its stereo system kicking and screaming into the 21st century; sadly that didn't include the speakers but Peter from Huets agreed to supply some new ones for me to test out.
The door speakers were junked in favour of a pair of JL Audio C2-525 two-ways. Fortunately there were already grilles in the dash for the tweeters, and with the woofers being the same size as the standard holes, there was no need to cut the door cards about. The result is that the whole lot looks suitably standard to the unsuspecting eye - exactly as I'd hoped.
'Boy racer' 6x9s in place in the parcel shelf
Unfortunately, the same can't quite be said for the rear. Yes, that's a pair of 90s boy racer style 6x9s on the parcel shelf. They're JL Audio TR690s, there because the standard rear speakers in a BX are tiny and oddly placed in the C-pillars and the car came with 6x9s so the shelf had already been cut.
Peter assured me they'd sound good - and he wasn't wrong. I'm no car audio expert but my deeply embarrassing music collection now sounds crisp and sharp, rather than hollow and fuzzy. I'm still chuffed with the head unit, too. It's also jolly marvellous that I can have a hands-free phone conversation and listen to my choice of DAB or internet radio in a car that dates from 1989.
I've all that to look forward to when I get the car back on the road - in spring, or beforehand. In the meantime, there's much work to be done, so I'd best stop faffing around with my volume control and get cracking. Or, y'know, ask someone else to, when I inevitably break what I'm meant to be fixing.
FACT SHEET
Car: 1989 Citroen BX GTI 16V
Run by: Scrof
Bought: April 2013
Purchase price: £800
Last month at a glance: Alex gets hands-on with sorting the BX from the inside out