Proof You Can Polish A Turd......

[one-lady-owner 1]

I've spent the afternoon, and most of the evening polishing up the old girl and she's actually come out looking alright! On this picture you can see the bonnet is done, and the offside (left in the picture) bumper is done, the nearside isn't done yet, and you can see the difference, the whole bumper was horribly dull before I started.

 

 

 

So knowing how this forum feels about the humble ZX, here it is, proof you can polish a turd!

[pugdamo 111 2 Cars]

Looks good mate, ZX's are awesome,i had a 1.9 diesel with 185k on it for a few months,i beat this thing to death and it took the abuse and laughed at it,good cars (i know im going to get the p*ss ripped out of me for saying that )

[one-lady-owner 1]

Well after 7 hours work, I'm not sure why I spent that long polishing a diesel daily hack with 222,175miles on it (I'll be trying to take pictures of the clock at 222,222 as I am that sad!), every body panel now matches the mirror on the bonnet. Meguiars 3 step prep, polish and wax, never polish a car without it! And yes you will have the p*ss ripped out of you for saying that but I definitely agree with you! high-mileage ZX's FTW!

[oz. 2]

I can't see what's wrong with a ZX.

 

I'll probably be be ridiculed for saying that I love my Saxo...

[one-lady-owner 1]

I love a good ZX, it's when I say the I prefer the ZX to the 306 that people on here tend to start taking the pee! I have to remember it's a pug forum (albeit a 205, but people get very funny about their preferred marque!) and there are a lot of 306 fans on here!

[Lan 24 1 Cars]

have to say given the choice between the 306 gti6 and the zx 16v id take the zx everytime very understated car and personally I also find it better looking

[one-lady-owner 1]

have to say given the choice between the 306 gti6 and the zx 16v id take the zx everytime very understated car and personally I also find it better looking

 

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one! Although it's that exact sentence that got serious p*ss taking last time I said it on here!

[jimistdt 1]

Use three bottles to wash the car? Not me.....

[rescue dude 0]

I don't understand why people take the piss out of ZX's.

 

I've always found them to be a pretty good source of spare parts for my 205.

[Batfink 201]

They are the new BX

[The Arch Bishop 0]

Not sure about ZX's looking better than a 306, but I always found they somehow drove better. Really not sure why though!

[davey sprocket 14]

I ran several BXs and loved them.

 

I like ZXs, especially the 3 door.

 

 

 

I am slightly puzzled though why you'd go to that much trouble polishing a bumper that is broken in half in the middle???

 

[number2301 1 1 Cars]

I do like a nice ZX, they're not nicer than a 306 but I'd sooner have the 16v over the 6 purely for rareity value and the fact that no one would expect a Citroen to be fast!

[one-lady-owner 1]

I polished the bumper as I was polishing the rest of the car and thought what the fudge! The old girl deserved a little attention, bought for £150, 7,500 miles later, still as strong as anything! I've just finished polishing all the glass, and cleaning all the interior trim, a damn good hoover and a bit of dressing on the tyres!

 

 

And I secretly really do like polishing cars....

 

 

In terms of the broken bumper if anyone sees a volcane front bumper going anywhere please let me know! I may end up repairing it though, I do have the fibre glass ready to go, but I can't get the bumper off without breaking it so I can't get in to hold it straight, so I may just repair it as is and it'll probably end up looking crap but probably better than a dirty great crack down the front of it!

[one-lady-owner 1]

Not sure about ZX's looking better than a 306, but I always found they somehow drove better. Really not sure why though!

 

 

That'll be because of the passive rear steer, and the custom citroen's own rear shocks. It's little differences that make it all happen! Apart from the rear suspension it's not far off the same as a 306 underneath.

 

The best way I've ever found to demonstrate the rear steer is at high speed, motorway speeds, just flick the steering and give it a bit of a swerve (on private roads.........) and you'll feel the rear end try to maintain a straight line, the car will start crab for a bit then settle back to normal, it lasts less than a second and is very odd if you've never experienced it before.

[number2301 1 1 Cars]

I thought the 306 had passive rear steer as well? Hence the uprated rear beam mounts which get rid of it?

[one-lady-owner 1]

I didn't think the 306 had it anywhere near as much..... I could be wrong!

[oz. 2]

As mentioned the ZX had uprate dampers also many people will know about the different angles the ZX trailing arms had. This would also have effected how it handles

[one-lady-owner 1]

The elephant in the room!! I'd forgotten that bit, neg camber on the rear, I'm not sure how or if the toe differs in any way.... That's why the rear disc volcane rear trailing arms on my ZX are probably worth more on here than I'd get for the whole car!

[oz. 2]

I'd like to know if bog standard ZX arms are identical to 306 ones. Or if all ZX arms have the same camber setup. If they all have the same camber setup then this could severely reduce the price of a set of arms from a ZX 16V (etc) and make it more worthwhile to keep the car a whole rather than breaking it.

[one-lady-owner 1]

All ZX had the following rear geometries:

 

Rear wheel camber setting: -1 ° ± 40'

Rear wheel toe setting: Unladen -2 to 2 mm (toe-in/toe-out)

Fully-laden* -2.5 to -6.0 mm (toe-in)

 

I think the main reason ZX trailing arms are so expensive is that most 205 owners want to either stay with or move to disc on the back, and the zx models with discs on the back are very few and far between! If you want a better rear geometry and don't mind keeping drums then any base model ZX will do!

 

I have absolutely no intention of breaking or selling my ZX (I did think about it a little while ago) as it's a faultless (almost) car and it's quite happily ferrying me from home (southampton) up to my girlfriends (swindon) and touch wood has yet to go wrong! That and my aim is to get it up to 300k miles...... worth a try! It's on 222k and it's original clutch, block, head, gearbox, so a worrying few years left before I get there!

Edited May 21, 2010 by one-lady-owner