1987 BX 17RD "Bleriot"

[dean36014]

It's had a few dashboard changes. I changed the dashboard again last summer as the circuit board was damaged. Unfortunately the 64k isn't true, I think it's around 110k approximately

[moizeau]

Just looked at the dash in the photo, even so 170k is still fine for the engine. The rest of the car might be showing sign though!

[moizeau]

Missed that post Dean, 110k....just about run in then..nice

[vulgalour]

Mileage is about 102k, it had the binnacle changed a few years ago. Still, that's not a lot of miles for a French diesel, but it is a lot for French bodywork. Big update coming up.

EDIT: or about 110k, since I've only just caught the posts above. Either way, it's not a huge amount for a car that's over 30 years old.

[vulgalour]

The first day you actually get stuck into a car is one full of excitement and trepidation. What am I going to find? Let's have a dig and see. First job was to work out just how I was going to get the car on the lift since most of the points I want to put the jack are also points the lift wants to go and I need to jack the car up a bit to get it high enough to get on the lift pads. I did figure it out eventually and gingerly raised the car into the air knowing just how flimsy the underside of a BX can be. The sill rails seemed the safest bet so that's what I went with since I couldn't get the pads under anything else.



There was still plenty of mud and grass underneath from the landscaping the car had done to Dean's access road. A quick scrub with a soft wire brush got rid of it all and while there's a few spots that underseal needs redoing I couldn't really find what had stopped us getting off the truck. The exhaust was slightly misaligned so I'm going to go with Dollywobbler's suggestion when we were loading that it was the centre exhaust pipe clamp which looked pretty new with long-ish bolt legs. One thing I did notice straight away was a plug hanging down near the pipes at the back of the front subframe. It was easy to see where it came from so I wondered if this might just be the easiest fix in the world for the STOP light Dean had mentioned had stopped working.


Clean it up plug it in and...


Who said fixing hydropneumatic cars was difficult? I'm sure doing the front-to-back pipes will be a breeze now, right? RIGHT? Er... yeah. I spent some time trying to figure out where the leak actually was and where the pipes went. I could identify the two pipes that had already been replaced and the two pipes that hadn't, one of which looks more scabrous than the other. The leak itself is hidden from view somewhere above the rear passenger sphere, which lends credence to Dean's assertion that it's the front-to-back pipe over the subframe that's popped, as if there was ever any doubt of course.




Then I got a bit stuck. I couldn't trace the route of the pipes because I couldn't see exactly where they went around that bit without removing the subframe. To help, I removed the back half of the exhaust, which was simply a case of undoing one clamp and unhooking a few rubber hangers. This allowed me to see better where the new pipes had been put so I could do a better job of tracing. It looks like one pipe I need to remove goes into the height corrector unit (the round thing to the right), and the other looks to go into the multi-pipe block to the right on the subframe crossmember. I got the union in the height corrector unscrewed but the pipe itself won't come out of the corrector unit. The pipe feels fragile too, in that way rusty steel pipes do, so I'm concerned that if I put too much force in I'll snap the pipe off and give myself too much work. Help would be appreciated on how to proceed here, I don't want to fluff it up. (EDIT: some help and advice has already been given by Dean, so I know a bit better what to do. More help and advice welcome on any BX jobs I'm facing anyway, I'm all about sharing info and solving problems with these threads).





I traced the lines to the front of the car, and it looks like the both end at the vertical valve/union block to the right in the second image below. I couldn't see where else they might go and the manual didn't provide much help on removal and routing of pipes.




I decided to put this part of the job aside and seek advice. I don't want to remove or damage things I don't need to. It does look like a fairly straightforward job once you've identified which pipes require replacing. I'm splitting this update into a couple of posts, since there's a fair bit to get through, this marks the end of the first stage of the update.

[vulgalour]

Since I couldn't go further on the suspension side of things, I looked at what I could do. Since this is a BX, rust is a concern and thanks to the estate I used to have, I knew where to look. This car doesn't really have much rust to speak of and being white, any rust it does have is going to be very visible. I knew about some spidering on a rear wing which, unfortunately, is going to involve repainting rather a large section of the wing to correct. It doesn't seem to need any welding at least, and it is very difficult to see, so this is low priority.


The other big weakness is the boot. I put my big boy pants on and started stripping out the boot trims, knowing just how frightening this part can end up being. Amazingly, it's incredibly good underneath everything.




There's just two small areas that require some attention. A small section of sealant has failed on the passenger side, and some rot has begun on the driver's side. This is all flat panels with excellent access so shouldn't be bad to fix at all. Looking underneath the car the inner arches are remarkably clean, and the rear apron is in excellent shape. I'll remove the bumper to do the repairs properly and get everything cleaned, painted, and protected to keep it this good once the welding is done. This was a very pleasant surprise, I was expecting this area of the car to be much worse even though it looks so nice on the outside.






Up front I wanted to check out the only other bit of rust of note which was the inner wings. This is another common BX weak point and worth exploring. There was some foam-backed stuff applied to the inner wings and when I noticed it was holding on to water I decided the best thing to do was to whip it all off and deal with whatever was lurking underneath. Absolutely no point pretending it would be okay and letting it fester since I have the luxury of time and space to sort this out. Amazingly, it really wasn't that bad at all, just a bit ugly. The damage that is there appears to be localised to the bit where the vertical inner arch meets the horizontal, with a little bit in the nose on the passenger side. The driver's side nose piece seems very solid. I also had a look at the front crossmember that was advised at MoT and that too looks like it only needs a fresh bit of underseal to replace the bit we accidentally removed and is otherwise very solid. I will remove the front wings, lights, and bumper to rectify all of this since it's all very easy to dismantle and then make sure there's plenty of paint and protection applied to keep it good afterwards.








This was a very pleasant surprise. The floors and sills are amazingly sound throughout, with the exception of the few spots that need a fresh bit of protection from the scraping it got loading and unloading. There's no crusty tender bits underneath. I knew it was a good solid car, I didn't expect it to be quite this solid.

[vulgalour]

Probably the thing that this car has suffered the most with is sun damage and it's made some of the interior parts brittle. I'll be keeping an eye out for spares and refurbishing what I can. In the meantime, I'm going to be very careful with what's in the car. Unfortunately, even with the best will in the world sometimes brittle plastics will just break. When I removed the parcel shelf to inspect the boot, a couple of rivets holding the hinge bar broke and, as I was removing the parcel shelf itself, one of the plastic hinges that holds onto it on the back seat shattered. I also found a random bit of broken plastic that looks like it might be from one of the front seat back trims, I just haven't found the bit it matches yet.








The rest of the trims came out without incident. While all of the various switches in the BX work perfectly fine, the passenger window over ride on the driver's side could do with either a repaint or a replacement, as could the switches and part of the dash pod.


I've also got to add a bit of sealant to the rubber seal corners to get them to hold down. In the photo it looks rusty, which is odd because it doesn't in person. I'll use a bit of the usual polyurethane sealant and some tape to hold this down for a few hours to a day and that should sort it, the seal is very flexible still, it's just lifted in the very corners. Dean did make me aware of this at purchase, I'm not worried about it since it's not hiding other problems.


Up front there's just generic floor mats, in the back we've got some nice Citroen branded rubber ones. I'd like a matching front pair eventually I think. I'd like to replace the mudflaps all round with fresh ones if I can, the front ones are missing and the driver's rear one is damaged. I'm holding out for the right ones, and they're low priority since there's other things I'd like to spend on first.


The engine bay is probably one of the cleanest diesel engine bays I've ever seen. There's lots of space to work around everything and see everything. I suspect the rocker cover seal is leaking, as usual, so I'll be replacing that. Otherwise, nothing really appears to be amiss and it's going to be fairly easy to make and keep this area spotless.

[vulgalour]

There's a few original details on the car that I really like that have survived really well. I want as much as possible to return this car to the original specification and keep it that way, which is giving me a bit of a quandary over the badges and stickers on the boot since while not original, they are a part of the car's history and character. They'll stay put until I make up my mind. I really need to get a front number plate to match the rear, the font is just superb.






Other than poking and prodding I wanted to achieve something today and I'm a bit too brain-fried to deal with welding. I needed something easy, something that would make a nice big change for minimal effort and which I could do with existing products so I didn't have to go out and buy something, or wait for an order to arrive. I know, let's sort out that rear spoiler and wiper arm!


After cleaning, priming, and masking I got it all painted with lovely fresh satin black paint.


I might do it again, I can do better than this. It's a marked improvement at least. I do need to reseat the wiper arm a bit higher too, I put it back on in the wrong place. A little victory, at any rate.


Normally I'd be pulling everything apart for a deep clean and documenting that but I don't need to and that's weird. The wheel is clean, the stalks are clean, there's no grubby bits anywhere. Even the wiper blades are fine. It's like somebody before me really liked this car and looked after it. I'm hoping to get in and get on with the welding over the next couple of days, I'll have to figure out what colour it is (I think it's Polar White from memory, but that might also be the Xantia, which is a different white) so I can use a white that matches on the repairs. I'm sure I'll find more jobs to do once I get stuck in a bit more, and I do plan to do things like the cambelt and check the brakes, etc. as a matter of routine.

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

Pretty solid ! Good while since I've seen the early air-cleaner, spring clip cam belt covers and cam driven PAS layout, reminded of my first Pug, a S1 309GRD. Far rather have the early cam covers.... gotta do my Crankshaft Oil Seal soon; maybe I'll source a set.

Mileage confusion related to me referencing the MOT History by the way, 170something at last time of testing; obviously the previous Instruments.

I'd be a touch inclined to put a middle fitting in that rear number plate some point while you've got the Drill Out; I found mine 'bounced about' without it.

...and don't anyone go reading this month's Classic Merc magazine; a very unflattering mention of the BX in the course of an article on the W123; with no mention of the Diesel variants. Not sure what they were like but the Merc diesel always sounded like a Tractor

[vulgalour]

The 1.7 isn't the diesel I'm familiar with, I'm more au fait with the 1.9 which is a coarser and noisier thing. This 1.7 sounds nicer than some petrol engines and is just loud enough in the cabin to drown out the world's loudest ticking clock.

---

Got cracking on the welding today. I've started in the boot. Unfortunately, I couldn't remove the rear bumper because the fixings were being the usual pain and since I was concerned about breaking things, I left the bumper on and just worked from inside the car instead. This way I got the repair work done in the time I had spare instead of spending all day fighting with the bumper. It's not a factory style repair, I just let in a suitable patch with a 90 degree bend rather than mimicking Citroen's construction. Sploshed some zinc rich primer on once welded (no close up, it looks like I used a pigeon) and then had just enough time to seam seal it on both sides after this photo was taken. Happily, the passenger side spot didn't need any welding as once it was cleaned back the metal was good and it just needed a bit of fresh sealant to replace the bit that had lifted.




I would have liked to got the boot repairs painted and all the trim back in but it was too dark and too cold in the unit to really see what I was doing so I'll leave things as they are for now and come back to it tomorrow, most likely. I did discover the colour of the BX is Alpine White rather than Polar White and Halfords stock a reasonable match for the areas I'm working on, so I grabbed a can of that today. I didn't have time to do more welding work, and couldn't do more painting work, so I started dismantling the worst part of the car I knew about by first pulling out the headlight and indicator pod and then unbolting the front wing. I was pleased to see the wing is actually in very good shape, with just some very minor rust staining to treat and repaint to keep it this way.


With the wing off, I got to see a bit of rust that I wasn't aware of, but wasn't surprising, which is where a couple of skins join. It should be a straightforward repair since access is very good, the cleaning up is likely what will take the most time on this. The reason it's a funny shape like that is that's the line of a seam where two panels overlap. This is a fairly common spot, as far as I'm aware. The other side of this is a panel seam with a smear of white sealant over the top of it.






I expect the other side will be a similar, but less bad, story. Better to deal with this stuff now and have it done. I'm hoping to get in tomorrow and get some progress on the front end and get the boot repair painted and all the interior back in, I don't want to have too much of the car apart at a time.

[vulgalour]

Part of the reason for me getting stuck into the BX so quickly is that I'm back at work on Tuesday so I wanted to get through as much as I possibly could before then. It's the busiest week of the month for me and I didn't want to be distracted too much by the desire to fettle the BX. That means there won't be another substantial update now until probably Sunday. There might be some smaller cosmetic updates, like the wheel trims I'll be restoring, in the meantime. We'll see how I get on with work.

I managed to get in a couple of hours earlier today so that meant I could actually get some paint on the boot corner repair and have time to put all the trims back in. There's nothing else to do at the back of the car now.






Then I decided the best course of action was to strip the front end down. I was going to have to take the bumper off anyway to sort out the passenger side, and it was so easy to remove the rest of the panels and lights it would have been daft not to do it all in one go. Lots of cableties where captive nuts and bolts should be, presumably because the daft captive bolts Citroen used had all pinged off in that way they do. I found a little extra work to be done in the front crossmember, nothing serious and all easy access stuff. Overall, it's in pretty good shape.






Next to have a look at the driver's side inner wing. Dean had warned me it needed work in here, it was on his to do list, so I wasn't surprised to find stuff to do. More of that white sealant stuff had to be dug out and it revealed a handful of smaller patches required of the usual sort. The worst bit is on the outer wing side of the inner wing where the suspension sphere sits, a common place for BXs to go and not terribly involved to repair. Happily, the front lower part of the wing that the bumper slots into is in excellent shape and will provide a perfect pattern for rebuilding the passenger side. Here's some before and after shots.












This had all taken rather longer than you might expect, so I wasn't going to get any welding done today. Instead, I focused on getting things started on the passenger wing, so the first job was to explore the rusty bits to see what I was dealing with. The bumper hanger on this side had sat in a modified bit of bracketry wedged into the rust hole, which worked and wasn't done in a way that damaged the bumper or original hanger. I'll now just be putting it right again with fresh steel. Thankfully, the reference point for the bumper slot on the leading edge hasn't rotted away so I shouldn't have too much trouble lining the repair piece up in the correct place. Everything from the suspension point back looks in good shape, there's been at least one reasonable repair made that I don't see any need to redo.




With things explored, I had enough time to start chopping out the rusty bits. Almost every piece I need to replace is flat, with excellent access, so this should be about as enjoyable as these jobs get. I chopped out quite a large square for the piece next to the suspension. This was so it would be easier to both clean up the inner skin which needs a small patch letting in, and so I could more easily weld in the repair patch which I'll make out of fresh steel.


I then started cutting back the rust in the inner arch. Again, this is a much simpler shape than it first appears since it's essentially a long curved rectangle for the most part and won't be difficult to fabricate.


From inside the engine bay you can get an idea of access a bit better, especially now I've moved the wires out of the way. The little outrigger type piece under the car is still really solid so I just need to finish trimming out the platform that goes between the headlight and the inner arch where it's rotten so I can let a new square in. That bit will be a little trickier just because I can't dismantle things further for access, other than that it should be easy enough to repair since it's just another rectangle to go in here with no fussy bends and wiggles.


I saved the pieces I cut off for reference, even though I can template from the other side if needed, there's nothing of them I can really use again beyond that.


Then it was time to go home. Car looks a bit forlorn with all the front stripped down.

[Hell Razor5543]

No, I don't think she looks forlorn; rather, hopeful that her current owner will continue with the work he has started on to get her back to full health and performance.

[van ordinaire]

Talk about getting stuck in, nothing but respect, admiration (&, just maybe, a little envy) - good luck!

That rear No: plate font isn't legal now BUT, in reality, unlikely to be a problem as it's been there since before the Regs. changed. If you want a matching front one, photocopy at least the centre section of the back plate, send it to customerservice@myshowplates.com & explain what you want. They'll do the necessary & send you a "proof" for approval, before actually making up the plate.

Can't agree with a 3rd fixing on the back or, more importantly,drilling another hole in the bodywork; I'd suggest a discrete frame, to provide some rigidity.

[vulgalour]

Thank you for the words of support

It doesn't look like the rear plate has flapped about in the past, if need be I can always use a bit of velcro on the back to help the screws. I think I used myshowplates for the Princess, either them or someone with a very similar name. I've got to remove the rear plate anyway to clean up behind it and remove what looks to be a bit of black tape sticking out of the bottom for some reason. Low priority at any rate, something to do when I get the (non-bleach) bathroom cleaner on the bumpers to make them look a bit less grey-yellow, a job that worked well on my old estate.

[Richard_C]

I've owned a BX 1.9 and a 1.7 Turbo, plus a Visa 1.7 which has the same engine and about the same power as the BX you have, plus a later Turbo XUD Synergie. Never any reliability problems, the first one did well over 100k miles in about 4 years.

The later BX Turbo was the quickest, but back then diesel turbo power bands were pretty narrow, the non turbos were in my view a nicer everyday drive, just let the torque do the work. The 1.7 non turbo Visa was a very quick car on long journeys, the gearing was 'just right' so top gear acceleration on motorways meant you could keep up with most things. On country roads, you made progress by not having to slow down for corners. I'm sure a well sorted 1.7 BX will be a joy.

I see you have the later non-lego brick dashboard with luxury self cancelling indicators.

If I had your skills and the space I would be tempted by another BX.

Enjoy.