Gold 2.0Si

[Eddie nuff]

When I finally add it up Paul, the money spent on this over the past ten months will be eye-opening - but not as much as the time spent And there's the rub, the plan was to have both cars on the road for April but due to the silly amounts of work I've had it looks like September - 5 months later See I've not spent the past 10 months just on Goldie but on the Sinker as well. When finished both will be in top notch condition.

[Eddie nuff]

Things are moving along just fine . . .

[Dieselman]

How difficult was it to remove those seat covers?

[Eddie nuff]

Not hard, just fiddly.

The base is easy; there are two metal clips at the front of the seat which hold the base onto the frame. Once these are out the base just pulls out. To separate the material from the foam you need a flat screwdriver to prise out the plastic clips holding them together. Start at the back, it's so much easier. Then comes the fun bit trying to remove the steel rings that hold the two rods together that keep material and foam taught. Use a strong, stubby set of pincers.

The seat back is a different animal. At the front of the base are two clips holding elastic strips that in turn hold the bottom of the seat back firm. Remove these and then jump in the back. The back of the seat is held to the sides by the same plastic clips holding the base but with a hard plastic strip holding them together. Grab hold of the pocket edge from the outside whilst grabbing the plastic strip from behind the material and pull. These are held together hard and take some separating. Flip the material over the headrest and reach under the material to feel the two metal bars and push out two R clips that hold the headrests on. Then back to the pliers to remove the steel rings again - 22 on each seat back. The foam then pulls off the frame leaving just the steel clips holding the material to the foam.

The first seat was a pain working blind, the second seat took half the time.

[Dieselman]

The headrests can be pulled out without removing the cover. Just work them against the R clips and they come out.

Why did you remove the covers and foam?

[Eddie nuff]

Four cuts/rips, one on each part.

[Dieselman]

Have you sucessfully repaired these. I have a set of Sonata velour seats doing the same thing. The outer layer of material splits from the backing.

In my case I have installed my perfect set of Romana velour seats.

[Eddie nuff]

I'm not repairing them Will, passed on to a guy I know who will have them back to me this week looking like new.

Hoping to have the seats back in, paint prepped, trim back on and everything checked thoroughly with a view to a test the following week.

Unfortunately all that is dependent on work

[Eddie nuff]

Got the seats back in, trim on then . . . nothing! Feet haven't touched the floor since, and it's only just October!

I start them up every week as a matter of course, and both tick over effortlessly, but I've noticed that the Xantia is losing lhm from above the rear subframe when idling. Looks likely that a return pipe has bust but I can't see exactly where. Got this awful feeling I'm going to have to drop the subframe.

[Eddie nuff]

Early December wife and daughters went shopping leaving me with a day to myself. Just the chance I need to get Goldie finished! Engine and box need degreasing underneath, especially at the rear, change oil switch, no lights in the rear door grab handles, cut-polish-wax-done. Three hours max! Yeah right

Started her up to get her warm as it eases the degreasing, couple of axle stands underneath and cracked on. Noticed whilst I was under there a small oil leak from the rear of the sump. Cleaned it down and waited to see what happened. Damn thing was obvious and as I want this car spot on I couldn't leave it. So sump off and gasket ordered. When I dropped the sump it was obvious the gasket hadn't been changed in years. It was brittle in places but stuck solid in others. It took an age to remove. But that wasn't the worst of it. The oil in the sump was in an awful condition. This car is treated like all my cars and receives an oil change every six months regardless of mileage but the oil in this was thick and gooey. It looked and felt like treacle. The oil pick up was a mess, coated in the same stuff, so off that came. I couldn't see the holes inside the pick up even after a blast of carb cleaner so pick up and sump off to the guy who has done all the vapour blasting. He has an industrial cleaner which is a real beast at work. The pick up top was seperated from the bottom to reveal a thick black coating and a gasket/o-ring that just disintegrated. Both pick up and sump had two rounds in the industrial cleaner and then one in the parts cleaner to reveal what they should look like









What a difference. I decided to get the sump vapour blasted whilst there



A few coats of paint and it looks a different sump



With the oil pick up in such a sad state it seemed wise to check the state of the journals so I removed the bottom of the conrod on the fourth piston, and then the shells to reveal a very nice surprise. I removed the other three to find I had an engine in bloody good condition, especially at 30 years old







New gasket and sump back on, fresh oil in, ran for about 30 minutes, the last 10 with a cup of diesel in to flush out, and dropped the oil again. This time it looked like it had done about 20k miles. New oil and filter and I'll change it again in February just before the test.



So a three hour job turned into a three week one but at least I've saved myself a whole load of problems as this engine would have seized, no doubt about that. It just shows that even with regular oil changes these old engines need a lot more tlc than at first sight.

Still got to do the oil switch, door lights, cut-polish-wax though with the intention of a test in February and on the road for March.