BX14TGE - Ongoing work to do, and what I did today

Tell us about life with your BX, or indeed life in general!
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adamskibx
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Joined: Fri Jul 22, 2005 9:26 pm

BX14TGE - Ongoing work to do, and what I did today

Post by adamskibx »

I've had my BX for 3 or 4 years now, and my brother had it for a years motoring. It was bought with a noisy gearbox and horrible after market hubcaps. I got the impression it would do for a year or two, but it has grown on me. Removing the after market wheel trims and painting the wheels black, the same colour as the sills, I think, makes it look so much smarter. Today I decided to tackle the front passenger door hinge as it had completely fallen off, but first I needed to fix my mig welder. I bought it second hand and decided to save money by putting it on gas-less mode and reverse polarity-I did this some time ago, and the whole cable randomly combusted. I found out that the metal leaf spring switch shorted the whole thing out when it touched the gas control valve, so insulated it today with card and sellotape. Luckily this worked and with the correct polarity I finally have a strong door hinge that won't fall off. I also had to take the door card off and re-seat the electric window. This was the first time in my life when I thought a bionic hand would be nice! You see, the wheels that go in the tracks at the bottom of the window had popped out because passengers used to have to violently slam the door in order to close it, and I found that if only my fingers were 10 times more powerful it would have been a doddle. In the end I managed to get some mole grips in the right position and pop them in. That was a relief. What was initially a stop-gap car has now turned into a car I want to keep long term. It is amazing how you can ruin a car with after market hub caps. I had to take off the front wing and in the process, mostly, removed the dent that was in there, but trying to get the side repeater in was for some reason impossible and I ended up breaking it, and now the wire has fallen back in while the plan was to find some super glue and fix the repeater. The hinge is currently protected with molten wax oil so if there for strength and prosperity rather than beauty but I am pleased with it. As a side note, if anybody has broken glove-box hinges, there is a botch you can do - Screw some screws into where they should be on the lid - they don't go through, then use welding wire to thread though the bit that's left on the dash, then tighten up the screws with in turn tenses the wire. Here as some pics of the car now and the job I did today;

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citsncycles
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Re: BX14TGE - Ongoing work to do, and what I did today

Post by citsncycles »

I'm glad you decided to keep it - that's a nice looking car, and there's not many 14's about with the factory sunroof.

If you can't fix the repeater, I may have one kicking about somewhere, although it may take a day or 2 to find where.
Mike Sims
BX 19RD Estate Mk1 - Timex!
BX 4X4 Estate - Oh god, I've done it again!
BX 17RD MK1 - it called to me!
BX14 TGE, - SOLD
XM Turbo SD,GS Club Estate,Visa 17D Leader,HY Pickup,Dyane Nomad,Dyane 6,2CV AZL,Falcon S,Trabant P50,3x Land Rovers (88" series 1,109" series 2a FFR,series 2a Marshall ambulance),DKW F7, Lambretta LD150 x 1.5,Mobylette SP93,Ural Cossack,Ural M63,CZ 250 Sport,Honda Varadero 125,lots of bicycles & tricycles including (but not only) Sunbeams,Higgins & Bates!
adamskibx
BXpert
Posts: 950
Joined: Fri Jul 22, 2005 9:26 pm

Re: BX14TGE - Ongoing work to do, and what I did today

Post by adamskibx »

Thanks. The sunroof needs work as it happens - Every time I open it, and it needs some human assistance at times, there is a new deposit of rust flakes along the tracks! The plan is to try to clear this, hammerite it all, grease it and so on to prevent it getting worse.

As for the repeater; I may be in the market for a new one, but will try super-glue first as I have all the chunks and it fits together well. What I don't get is that they seem to be on a twist to secure/undo system, and are designed in a similar way to locking wheel nut's, but since taking mine off, I can't see any logical way for it to go back on, so I think what I'll do is super-glue it all back up, then angle grind the round plastic parts strange combination grooves off, and just use a spot or two of super-glue to secure it back onto the wing, knowing I can lever it off when the bulb goes (I might buy it a new bulb first so it lasts for a good few years).

Thanks,

Adam
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