Citroen XM Forum

captainhaddock wrote:Good exercise Jim dragging along oxyacetylene burners:)

It was only little ones Jaap... Not true oxyacetylene but oxygen and MAPP gas. It's still very, very effective though

It's good enough for gas welding on thin stuff and excellent for brazing as well as being a hot spanner. Sadly it's not good for XM welding as oxyacetylene is not recommended for the kind of steel an XM is made of. MIG is the welder of choice for that and very soon I'm going to kit myself out with a decent MIG set. I have a very high quality and very old stick welder and can do surprisingly thin stuff with it but not as thin as an XM.

There's a small group of us, Chris570, a V6 Xantia owner who also has an RX-8 with a wrecked engine and a half-built Cobra with Rover V8 power and I. We call ourselves Team WFA and basically almost nothing beats us. So far we haven't but especially with the RX-8 we've come close a few times. We can often pool our resources and find an answer. I do little practical work for the team these days but I do my bit to keep the others watered and fed and occasionally submit a thought or idea on how to do something.

Some say we're a bit like the Top Gear trio; all I know is we all have cars powered by ES9 engines and soon the RX-8 is to be similarly powered if all goes to plan..

The other members of the team say I'm James May.

russ92xmsed wrote:Excellent Jim, sounds like you had a good weekend too!

I did Russ and although I did nothing very physical I really enjoyed the spanners and getting out and having a good session on the cars. Did me a world of good too

I went swimming this morning and did three lengths Getting better!

Feel free to ask for a really nice XM that needs some welding! Good for your team building Tomorrow you'll do 4 laps for sure!

captainhaddock wrote:Feel free to ask for a really nice XM that needs some welding!

At present welding is not on the list of Team WFA skills at all Jaap and I do intend to address that gap in our abilities but before we do Chris and I both need some welding done so we've hired some bloke from Anglesey to come and do it for us. I’ve seen some stuff he's done on XMs before now and seems to know what to do...

I shall be watching and learning. I'm hoping he'll let me have a go too...

I already have a stock of scrap Xantia wings for practice...

CitroJim wrote:

captainhaddock wrote:Feel free to ask for a really nice XM that needs some welding!

At present welding is not on the list of Team WFA skills at all Jaap and I do intend to address that gap in our abilities but before we do Chris and I both need some welding done so we've hired some bloke from Anglesey to come and do it for us. I’ve seen some stuff he's done on XMs before now and seems to know what to do...

I shall be watching and learning. I'm hoping he'll let me have a go too...

Oh Him...yeah I heard he was okay! Quite good around Citroens or something...

The Activa is now ticketed for another year

Next for the MOT is the XM in January... Shocking time for an MOT really.

I did four lengths of the pool this morning

Well done Jim. Do you feel better for all this exercise? Making me jealous!!

Great news on the Activa...I have car tax due next month. ERGH! Find out it has risen another £15 probably.

russ92xmsed wrote:Well done Jim. Do you feel better for all this exercise?

I do believe so Russ although it's very early days yet. I do know an early morning swim (I go at 06:30 as the pool opens) really livens you up and makes you feel good some while afterwards. An excellent way to start the day.

Today I've been swimming, cooked a big curry, baked a loaf, made a batch of scones, walked up to town to do some shopping and then collected the Activa from the garage. I'm now resting.

I guess if I can do that lot and be able to play on the forums I must be improving... Pretty well exhausted now though..

I have eldest daughter around for dinner this evening and have a special meal in preparation.

No more than four laps tomorrow. In fact you're better to skip tomorrow or just do 3 or 2 and do 4, but may 4,5 the day after.

Never overdo things. and send me a good curry

Incidentely I read that our MOT company in Ireland, agreed to pay an unknown percentage of the revenue (I am not talking VAT here) to the Irish government. I don't know if it is true but wouldn't be surprised at all.

Quite agree Jaap. It's all about pacing yourself and building it up gradually. I did the same with my cycling. I could comfortably do 20 mins a break and then 20 mins. Then built it up to a full hour non stop and increased the speed and difficulty.

It still surprises me now, how good you feel after blowing away the cobwebs.

Glad to hear it's doing the job Jim. enjoy the curry!

captainhaddock wrote:No more than four laps tomorrow. In fact you're better to skip tomorrow

I am. I swim three times a week.. Usually Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Can't afford any more than that!

I'll have to make up a bigger version of my curry and a load of my bread for the next rally when we all meet up..

I do quite a passable pizza too..

Interesting on the Irish MOT company Jaap. If they do than I'm sure ours will follow as the government is always looking at new and interesting ways of indirectly taxing us...