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2002 Citroen Xsara VTS - another old French bird!!

180K views 616 replies 65 participants last post by  Ben_W 
#1 · (Edited)
So, here we go!

To quote something musical which I've not done for a while, Ice Cube had it right. Today was a good day (ask your dad kids :D )

With the buggy sold and the bank swelled with funds, I did the right thing and pacified the wife by buying a new dining table and promising her a posh holiday next year, on the proviso I could buy myself a new, cheap(ish) toy. Agreement was forthcoming.

I considered several cars. A white Rallye (they are the hottest ticket in Rallye world with another selling in the last two weeks for £5k but I have a Rallye already), a Clio F1 (very nice but not the cheapest) and several other more recent hot hatches. Nothing really, really took my fancy. I then bought the Xsara to break and wondered.........what if? The Citroen half of the late 90's hot hatch pairing.....wouldn't look bad on the drive, would it?

So I began looking. And looking. And looking a bit more. Crap, these are a bit thin on the ground. I found more Rallyes for sale than I did Xsaras. Hmmmmm............and then.....an advert appears on Gumtree and nowhere else, advertising a 2002 MY, 51 plate Xsara VTS, with 57k on the clock and two previous owners, in silver. 57k.......!!!!!!! How many 16 year old sports hatches have that mileage. This is the ad........



It HAD to be worth a look at that mileage and that history. Original P6000's (ditchfinders? But period correct!) Older lady owner for a long time? Deffo not been thrashed then. Decent MOT history backing up the sellers story. Trouble was, I wasn't free until Sunday. At this point, I made the mistake of sharing the link and my plans with someone. That, along with a lesson well learned, is all I'm going to say publicly.

Details being what they are, I noticed the seller had reduced the price to £300 on Sunday night. Much frantic phonecalling, which resulted in me getting a voice mail message numerous times finally paid off with the seller picking up at 21:37 on a Sunday night.

I apologised profusely for the time of my call. It had to be right then otherwise I'd have lost it. I told the seller I knew what had transpired the day before (I apologise again for the cryptic sh!t but like the walls, the internet has ears) and had a lengthy discussion with him regarding the car, offering some advice after asking some questions. The £300 was a result of what he had been told (I'll share privately for those of you I know who ask). An agreement was made that he'd get some advice by lunchtime Monday and I'd go view Monday night after work as it's 50 miles from work. I remember thinking at this point this now turning into some Lincolndanny esque press car kinda chase :D

Mid afternoon, I text the seller as I've heard nothing. He replies, confirming some info I had been after, and crucially, what someone else had offered him and that he was considering accepting. Act cool Trig, act cool.......

I left work dead on time and hightailed it to where he was. I arrived at 17:40 and immediately knew I was onto something. This was my view parking up.





Seller met me at the door and was very keen to show me the car. It was as he said. Completely original, very, very clean (some stone chips etc but very clean) and, completely bog standard.

Having satisfied myself the major component was good, I got busy looking round, especially underneath.

Just wow. This thing is clean. I mean really clean.







.

Doesn't look like it's ever seen a jack, let alone one in the wrong place. The spare even seems to have an original Michelin.....



The rest of it, whilst a little dirty in places, is honest, rust free and just in need of a clean.











A time capsule car. Went for a drive, it drove well enough. Went back, looked through a mountain of history which again, matched the MOT history. I knew at this point I had to have it. Asked what it would take to buy it. Seller said make it an offer. £850 prompted a forthcoming handshake. Deposit immediately transferred (mobile app internet banking, bloody ace!)

In truth, I think I stole it. I've picked up what has to be one of the cleanest, low mileage Xsara VTS's left. Plans are to collect Friday, giving me a whole weekend to really get into/under it. I cannot wait.

Sorry to disappoint Mr Lincoln....I did have a chance at a Ph1 in that green/yellow but had been sat 18 months and the seller wanted £1k.....
 
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#37 ·
The clean begins!

We got the car home at about 14:30. A well earned brew whilst I perused the paperwork and then we went to pick our daughter up from school as she had come back from a weeks residential trip. Not ashamed to admit we missed her! Of course, we went in the Xsara!

So, home from that and a good, close look around the car. Typically dirty in the usual places...and a few other bits noted. The wheels are awful up close, I'll attack them with a fallout remover but .not hopeful. Add that to the fact some stupid tyre monkey has used knock on weights, I smell a refurb coming on possibly. Other normal bits, embedded filth, a knackered driver's side window scraper and a boot full of spares. I better get busy.....

























More updates to follow!
 
#38 ·
First port of call was the rear (I'm an ass man :D ). Boot shuts and round the rear lights were typically filthy. Attacked with a 1:10 mix of G101 and a Valet Pro brush.





























Some of the green gunk was pretty hard to shift. It places is looks like it's still dirty but it's not. It's cracking in the seam sealant which is either black under the paint or has dirt stuck in it.

Everything was cleaned up, including pulling all the crap out of the joints in the rear lamp units and then refitted.
 
#44 · (Edited)
Btw, did they also do a VTR in these?

What's the betting there will be something you wished you had kept off the breaker:lol:
Danny, yeah, I reckon they did.

Of course there will be something. Had I known I'd have bought this, I'd have stripped loads more off the other one. I've kept a few bits (master cylinder/servo/front suspension plus more).

I have to admit to a massive faux pax :rolleyes:

I hadn't taken a key for it with me. Came back in, grabbed a pair of keys from the top of the shoe cabinet and went back out. Went to start the engine to check I'd not knackered anything and the key wouldn't turn in the ignition. 10 mins of wiggling and it still wasn't having it. Tried the other key, still no go. Getting worried at this point so went back into the house........only to see the two keys for the Xsara I've just bought on the table.

Yes, I've been trying to start it with the keys for the red one I've just finished breaking. D'oh.

:wall: :lol:
 
#41 ·
Moving on from the rear...

Attacked the body with Dragons breath. It was surprisingly contamination free with not that much coming off. The rear quarterlight windows really need removing to allow me to get in properly to clean. Job for the weekend.

Wheels bled plenty but there's a lot of stubborn marks. I've a builder mate so will lob some brick acid at them and see what happens.

Door shuts cleaned up well. Couple of marks to deal with at the machining stage including a decent bird bomb on the driver's door...















 
#43 ·
By this time, it was 18:30. I was properly hungry by this point, having had nothing to eat all day other than a sandwich grabbed during the fuel stop. A quick wash, rinse and dry off left me.with this:





She's clean but the paintwork is flat. That's nothing Mr 6" can't fix (and for once, I'm not referring to myself, more the new LC CCS 6" polishing pad for the Flex :lol: ). Let's see what tomorrow brings!
 
#45 ·
Hmmmmmmm.

Think I've found the reason for the exhaust sounding Like there are several angry wasps in it.....



Not sure why/how that massive dent got in it.....it's almost half the pipe diameter deep......

Deffo need to replace the cat.....
 
#46 ·
Tracking, as expected was a country mile out. The steering was heavy, dog awful in terms of feel etc.... Had that sorted and asked on the off chance if they could balance centre less wheels. They could!

All 4 wheels done and tracking done and it's a MUCH nicer car to drive. Those Pirellis might have to be 'retired' though. They didn't get the name Ditchfinders for nothing and they ain't the best!!
 
#48 ·
So after the tracking and balancing success, I went home and celebrated with a brew!

I then got busy with the deep clean. First stop, driver's side rear arch. I apologise now for the ordering of the pictures. Imgbb doesn't allow you to select which order to up load, making the most recent as the first pic, and swapping all the links around on a phone isn't happening......

So, jacked up, wheel off, arch liner out, and I'm faced with this lot:

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Doesn't look like it's been off anytime recently (if ever) and there's some muck in there. A healthy blast with the pressure washer, followed by a good scrub with a scrubbing brush and then a wipe.down with an old noodle wash mitt. Final blast clean and:

[url=https://ibb.co/j5HzLU]






Much better. Cleaned down and refitted the arch liner and that bits done.
 
#50 ·
The wheels........

Hmmm, less said the better on these I think. I'd seen the state of the insides at the tyre place earlier. Solid brown is never a good thing.

Hit once with dragon's breath and pressure washed off. Hit again with Fallout as the Dragon's Breath didn't seem to shift much. The results weren't much better. The wheels, if I decide to stay with these, deffo need a refurb





 
#52 ·
I'd been itching to see what the spare was about. I wasn't disappointed.







An original Michelin Pilot SX, with a manufacture date stamp of 5000, meaning it was made in the 50th week of 2000, so very likely the original spare tyre.

Inside the tyre, wrapped in white cloths was the original jack box (which doubles as a wheel chocks interestingly) and what appears to be an untouched jack.





Last pic for this post is the wing mirror covers. There isn't any saving these. New paint required

 
#53 ·
Ben not sure how your uploading to imgbb but I’ve found on the iPad / iPhone it works in the order you select so provided you give it a couple of seconds between selecting photos to upload then it should keep it in that order, then once uploaded if you copy and paste before going back into the album it should then stay the same without mixing then up
 
#54 · (Edited)
So once the two arches were done, I started to think about the paint.

Valet Pro blue clay and Sonus Clay Lube used but wasn't much coming off really. Bit more off the front wing but not much more....
I'm sure the roof has seen paint. It's got almost zero reflection. I polished a corner and it improved a bit, but not much.











Last pic of the day was this one. It's has the front wing and rear quarter polished



Silver is an unrewarding colour to polish. It's added some definition and gloss but it's hard to do comparisons and 50/50's....

Anyway, I also took the opportunity to try the Rallye wheels on it. I'm not certain the colour works. A silver cyclone might work but I don't think the dark grey does.

 
#60 · (Edited)
So, the Sunday night update.

A surreal start to the day, exchanging Cookiemonster YouTube video links via WhatsApp with a well known member of DW whilst inhaling the sausage, bacon and egg sandwich the wife bought me in bed, along with a brew!!

Fuelled up and ready to go, I carried on from where I left off yesterday. Whilst not in chronological order of how I did things, I'll get the more mundane stuff out of the way first.

Passenger side rear arch. Same as the driver's side, just mucky but came up very clean once the scrubbing brush and pressure washer had done their thing.















A little crusty here inside the passenger side rear arch. Caught it early enough, it will need wire brushing and Bilt Hamber products throwing at it.



Arch liner back in, CG Barebones applied.





Front arch prior to cleaning. Don't appear to have taken any afters, but you've seen the other one and this didn't turn out any differently.







Next installment coming up......
 
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