BXProject

[Philhod]

I know it goes away from the spirit of the car, but there are other complete front ends
albeit with normal suspension that needs converting, that you could fit in the BX.
Stuff that you could get parts for. Some of the things like the rear arms, provided the arms are sound, the other bitz can be manufactured quite easily.

Basically there are no body panels that can't be reproduced, the same for bushes, bosses, brackets. etc.
So. all is not yet lost, even castings can be replaced by fabrication and machining.
I'm about to TIG weld a very pitted rear cylinder casting. Now I've ground all the corrosion out
and there are some quite deep holes, the one place it failed is identified, but I will fill them all up. If I weld the leak one first, then blank the ends off and fill it with water, the rest of the welding won't distort it.

[mat_the_cat]

there are other complete front ends
albeit with normal suspension that needs converting, that you could fit in the BX.

Exactly what I said over on BXC not too long back. Given enough skill and ingenuity almost anything is possible! But lack of 'off the shelf' spares makes it harder to use every day or do mega miles, unless you have a back up vehicle. I'm not too worried, I have a few spares stashed away that I've bought from eBay over the years but more importantly I think it's the attitude of being adaptable that will help us keep going. Making bits if you can't easily get them and all that.
But even if we don't then we're all still the same people, at the end of the day it's just a car (albeit one that we like).

[Philhod]

Yeah all of that Mat. But it also requires no mean skills as well.

I sometimes forget that bit when I'm spouting off about what can be done

[docchevron132]

all true, and I'm not worried, I've never yet been beaten by an engineering problem. The ambulance I started doing when I was 12, and NOTHING was available for that, so it was, modify or make. Which is ok, and I'm not worried about the hydraulic aspects of the BX at all, and wont need to be for a while yet, I'm sure XM / xantia struts could be used and so on..
It's more that as time goes on it will be harder to keep it going as a daily driver, ok, I have two cars so no major beef, I'm just getting to that stage in life where I like having my projects (bus, ambulance etc) but dont neccessarily want my daily driver to be an on going endless project and head scratching nightmare ya know..

[Philhod]

Know what ya mean Doc. I already got there, which is why I bought the Picasso 4 years ago

[mat_the_cat]

I know what you mean Chris - my BX was originally bought as a reliable daily driver, and it's done very well at that, in fact it's kind of got under my skin. (Mind you, that was when I was running an aging Alfa, so it's all relative!) Sometimes you just want something that you can get in and drive.
My weakest point is definitely the hydraulics, I've never had to do anything bar replacing spheres, struts, pipes and the pump. None of which required any fault finding. I'm sure if I immersed myself deeply in it then I'd be able to figure out any faults that develop, but I wouldn't be able to listen to a diagnosis and say "Yeah, that's your FDV".

[docchevron132]

/\ oh, that'll definitley be your FDV that will...

[Vanny]

Deffinatley sound that way, you should probably get a refurb kit and sort it yourself, of fit a twin out pump and fuck it off all together.

[docchevron132]

nah, I'd just keep fitting random second hand ones until you find one that doesn't leak, for five minutes..