Citroen XM Forum

Trims popped in my watch list. Although it isn't clear if the front ones are mk2 or 'mk1.
I ideally need a rear one. Typically the most expensive!

Gosh, I'm amazed at how this thread has doubled in posts since early this evening. I had to go back four pages to see a picture of your new car Charles

What a beaut They do look magnificent in black and in white too...

Are you bringing it to CXM Charles? if so we could assemble quite a good showing of the S2 V6 there...

Oh yes, definitely bringing it.

Given how close it is, I doubt I'll have had time to get it really buffed up, but I'll give it a go.

I regret fitting replacement metal strips on my car. They are made of stainless steel and show up as dark lines in a lot of lighting conditions. The original strips were slightly cloudy or had a diffuse reflection and so showed up as white or light under most lighting conditions. Ideally chrome inserts would have worked the best but Citroen either wanted the diffuse effect or wanted to save money or both. Also, when fitting the strips they got very slightly deformed (a mechanic did it) so they don´t even look that good from that standpoint. Ideally, you need proper Citroen strips from a newer car. Or Brian Primmer needs to find a better material than stainless steel. Maybe has has in the five years since I fitted the strips. White shows up the car´s sculpting very nicely and also picks out the graphics of the glass house. The XM looks better in pale colours or else in black (for a more sinister effect).

The original stripe were very shiny, but the acrylic has since become cloudy.

Most, if not all, big cars look their best in dark colours. But a dark colour on the XM seems to detract from the trim, which shows the lines of the design. It's one of the few big cars that look better in light, strong colours.

As an aside I would have loved to have seen it in the Bright Red worn by later Xantias.

Technically that is possible Neil....you just need to find and sit through the first part of 'French Kiss' the movie. Kevin Kline drives or more like steals, a bright red XM....and then drives it like a French man through Paris. ....oddly it has a normal handbrake too.

The XM is the only redeeming feature of that film.

I had a look at the bright strips on a 405, 406 and a few Xantias just now. They all look like the same stuff as is on the XM. The reflective quality is what I think is called "specular" or clouded. It has a greyish cast unlike the brighter, bluer reflection of real chrome or even chrome-coated plastic. The main thing is that the PSA material doesn´t reflect clearly or sharply. The reflection is perhaps bright but not mirror-like. The stainless steel is mirror-like and so the ground is often reflected as a dark line. In a dark space (my garage for example) the rear door looks like it has a black line whereas the front right door and bumpers which still have the original material shows up as a pale strip. And a nearby Astra which has proper chrome window trim also reflects as a very clear "white". Primmer´s steel strips just don´t work even as well as the degraded original strips do. One learns by one´s mistakes.