Evening!
Posted: 10 Feb 2016
So, it's been a while...
Life's been a bit up and down, mainly up though. Things are still going well with her indoors, nearly 3 years now...
Richie the red BX reached a point of spending more time in the air having bits welded to it than on the road, so I've done the unthinkable and parked it up until I can restore it properly. Which won;t be any time soon since I'm determined to finish the fucking bus, which I started 7 1/2 years ago....
The valver is still road legal and I intend to keep it so, but reduce it's use to high days and holidays rather than as a daily driver. Which it had been for some time, clocking up a huge number of miles with not a single issue or breakdown.
Dad had Richie for some time whilst I restored Phoenix, again, and everything that could go wrong with that did. Not aided by nearly losing my leg just after I took the car apart, which stopped ALL play for 7 months.
My left ankle continues to degrade, so I decided long back that when Richie gets rebuilt it MUST have an autobox. So I bought a 2.2HDi (yes with the fucking FAP) and the ZF 4HP20 autobox, with the plan of using it as a daily hack until I get around to restoring the red one and then using the entire running gear out of the C5 in the BX, including the hydractive 3.
Within miles I decided that was a shit idea. I dont much like the engine, all the electronic bullshit and the 4HP20 shits the bed after 150K miles, and the autoadaptive bit is dense as fuck. So I'm going XUD9TE and a ZF 4HP18 for the BX, but I might actually keep the C5 to use as a van once the BX is done.
In many ways the C5 is the worst car I've ever owned, and many ways it's great. It is HUGE in the boot department (being an estate like) and not having a clutch makes my ankle very happy. But it drinks more fuel than the 16V, the drivers seat is fucking horrid, the autobox is noisy, and whilst the car was uber cheap (really, it was half the cost of anything I could find on ebay) I've spent a fair chunk on it in the month and a bit I've had it in an attempt to ensure I can just use it for a while without having to worry about it.
I haven't bonded with the C5 at all, which I've unimaginatively called Sinclair, but the girlfriend likes it, and it is a very capable motor. I'm actually glad I haven't bonded with it, it really makes me wan to get the BX back in traffic all the more! I can't say it's modern, it's 13 years old, but it's too modern for me. But, it does what it needs to do for now, so there we are, I've gone to the dark side and I've seen the future, and the future is a BX!
Life's been a bit up and down, mainly up though. Things are still going well with her indoors, nearly 3 years now...
Richie the red BX reached a point of spending more time in the air having bits welded to it than on the road, so I've done the unthinkable and parked it up until I can restore it properly. Which won;t be any time soon since I'm determined to finish the fucking bus, which I started 7 1/2 years ago....
The valver is still road legal and I intend to keep it so, but reduce it's use to high days and holidays rather than as a daily driver. Which it had been for some time, clocking up a huge number of miles with not a single issue or breakdown.
Dad had Richie for some time whilst I restored Phoenix, again, and everything that could go wrong with that did. Not aided by nearly losing my leg just after I took the car apart, which stopped ALL play for 7 months.
My left ankle continues to degrade, so I decided long back that when Richie gets rebuilt it MUST have an autobox. So I bought a 2.2HDi (yes with the fucking FAP) and the ZF 4HP20 autobox, with the plan of using it as a daily hack until I get around to restoring the red one and then using the entire running gear out of the C5 in the BX, including the hydractive 3.
Within miles I decided that was a shit idea. I dont much like the engine, all the electronic bullshit and the 4HP20 shits the bed after 150K miles, and the autoadaptive bit is dense as fuck. So I'm going XUD9TE and a ZF 4HP18 for the BX, but I might actually keep the C5 to use as a van once the BX is done.
In many ways the C5 is the worst car I've ever owned, and many ways it's great. It is HUGE in the boot department (being an estate like) and not having a clutch makes my ankle very happy. But it drinks more fuel than the 16V, the drivers seat is fucking horrid, the autobox is noisy, and whilst the car was uber cheap (really, it was half the cost of anything I could find on ebay) I've spent a fair chunk on it in the month and a bit I've had it in an attempt to ensure I can just use it for a while without having to worry about it.
I haven't bonded with the C5 at all, which I've unimaginatively called Sinclair, but the girlfriend likes it, and it is a very capable motor. I'm actually glad I haven't bonded with it, it really makes me wan to get the BX back in traffic all the more! I can't say it's modern, it's 13 years old, but it's too modern for me. But, it does what it needs to do for now, so there we are, I've gone to the dark side and I've seen the future, and the future is a BX!