Practically Classics Forum

Fido Dido was an icon of the 90s, most memorably from his use as the mascot for 7up. He'd been around before that for a few years, but he is a character I remember seeing on school books and teeshirts and stickers on cars so he's an ideal little personalisation on the Xantia to give it that proper 90s feel. This is Fido Dido.



He was always a black ink outline on white, that ties in really well with the Xantia's looks too, I really can't think of a better bit of artwork to say 90s than this guy.


JBP's suggestion doesn't really bear thinking about.

Ah! I never knew that was his name.

Did you miss the 90s John? Fido Dido was everywhere, he even made an appearance on some of my cars, along with Fat Willy's. THE SURF SHACK before you lower the tone any more!

As if I'd grab an open opportunity to make some cheap willy-based joke..

I was asleep for much of the '90s but yes, I have seen Fat Willy's stickers on things.

I can't make further progress on the welding and I'm loathe to sit idle when it comes to the Princess. I haven't actually been able to even look at my car for a few days due to an issue at the unit, I can't really go into details about it, but suffice to say the best way to keep me and my car safe was to stay away for a few days... bit of a mess really, but now resolved.

It's a case of what to do. I've not been short of other work to be getting on with, but I've wanted to make sure that when the welding is done I've got as much as possible of the interior modifications and retrimming sorted while I've got some time to get on with it. Easiest thing to work on is going to be the parcel shelf, something which I'd already marked out for fitting the spare door speakers into to give myself a factory looking four speaker set up. Interestingly, I found that when I looked at the marks for cutting out the holes there were some factory perforation lines in the board that line up with the factory holes in the metal parcel shelf of the body tub. I suspect BL planned to offer parcel shelf speakers for a four speaker set up but to my knowledge this never actually made it to production, it should make for a very neat job when I'm done.







Once I'd cut the hole to the factory marks the door speakers dropped in perfectly, I'll show you what they look like when I've refitted this to the car. While I was checking out the condition of the parcel shelf trim I've had a rethink about my original idea of hiding the previous owner holes in the vinyl with some chrome trim. Opportunity has presented for me to retrim some door cards in vinyl that are a very similar construction to this panel so it will likely be sensible to retrim this panel to show what I can do. I can't do the heat-press detailing as I haven't the tools for that so rather than copying the factory detail exactly, I'm thinking I'll use some stitch detailing to put a simple fake-pleat panel in the middle mimicking the existing design. This will also help prevent that horrible kit car look of a smooth vinyl panel in an otherwise very tidy interior.

Another job I've been plodding away it is the rear seat cover. I know the colourful crochet covers have divided opinion in the past, but that's not deterred me. I like them and that's all that matters. I am considering making a second set in purple cotton and lace, Japanese taxi style, but that requires me to spend money so it'll have to wait. The primary purpose of these covers is a minimal cost sun and wear protector as I've got the time and the materials to put them together. This needs to be 12 x 12 squares and is presently 9 x 9 so we're well on our way with it.



The last thing I've been working on is the dashboard. I've now got all the new chrome* detailing done, with the Radiomobile radio it really does look really smart. This is just with everything dropped in the respective holes so the final fit is much better. I can't do final fit until I finish off what was formerly the wood insert which will be metallic purple. I did consider covering the wooden panel with fabric for the ease of it, but it's going to cause issues with how tightly the plastic components fit into the panel and I don't want to be spending hours fettling for no real gain.



I can also get the rebuilt head swapped on. I removed the head from the orange car and found it to be in quite good order, rebuild the innards and gave it a really good clean. The rebuilt head has the benefit of a good, if not perfect, thermostat housing and valve stem seals that shouldn't let oil past them like the ones currently on the car. The big difference between the two heads is the oil filler, on the orange car it's the earlier rocker-cover filler while my later car has a remote oil filler that fixes to the side of the engine. I'll need to swap the rocker covers ideally as I suspect the later version is the better one in this instance and it's not too much hassle providing I can get the rocker cover bolts to actually shift on the beige car which is mainly what stopped me rebuilding the head on it previously.

I'm also at a point where I keep flip-flopping between getting the car on the road so I can use it and getting stuck into a full restoration. I know a full restoration with renewed lines, cleaned up engine, repainted bodywork... is going to get very, very time-consuming. But I also know that my own business and the unit will be much quieter over the winter so it may be the ideal time to actually make a start on this sort of thing.

If I decide to go the restoration route I'll need to get everything for prettifying and repainting the engine bay, and that means making my mind up properly on the colour. It would go a long way to getting things looking how I want them and it's by no means the conventional way of restoring a car as I'd have a spiffing engine bay and interior with a scabby looking rest of the car for a while, but it might be the best solution for me.

BL were kind that way (speaker locations), the back shelf of a Dolomite has the holes in its steel substrate but they have diagonal braces that need to be clipped to fit baskets of any significant depth, so yours is even easier to fit up by the sound of it.

Are you sorted for speakers yet? I can supply such things at favourable rates to owners of fine BL machinery.

I got lucky on the speaker front and have a pair of door speakers, complete and matching for the radio, that drop straight into the holes. It's like BL planned it.

You have a fully functional "other vehicle", so now is your opportunity to go the whole hog and sort it properly. I'd go full out on the bodywork, as that seems to be where the major problems lie and get that solid. If you put it back on the road after that, you can sort everything else on a more as hoc basis.

P45.

The Xantia won't just be mine to use, that's one of the problems, it'll be shared with my partner who will be using it for getting to and from work and other work stuff so most of the time I won't have access to my own car. For that reason, being without the Princess for longer is going to cause me problems, as much as I'd like to get another knockabout car to tide me over, I don't really want the expense of it or the emotional attachment I'm bound to get.

If I just do the work I know is needed - head swap, welding, brake bleeding, suspension - and make her solid and usable I can be back on the road in a few weeks. If I instead decide to go the whole restoration hog I could end up without my car for as much as 12 months and that's not something I want to do. Remember, the Princess is, and always has been, my daily transport and that's something I intend to continue with. Ideally she'd be back to being my only car, or at least my main car so I could have a proper little toy like a TR7 or something on the side.

The Xantia is a fantastic bus, but it's not a car I love or get massively excited about. It's not a car I look forward to driving nor want to spend lashings of time on in the same way I do the Princess. That's why the Xantia is superb as a shared/work vehicle because you get in, turn the key and drive anywhere. It's brilliant, but it's boring.

In celebration of getting the Xantia insured for a mere £450 I was very excited to head to the unit today... got delayed but that turned out to be a good thing as my Mk1 grille arrived and it was in tip-top condition, though obviously the wrong colour.

Up until now I've had no problems with the alarm in the car, so imagine my annoyance that every time I opened or closed any door the alarm went off. It couldn't be turned off with the key in ignition and push button method, and indeed the alarm won't disarm at all. I thought I'd try and reset the alarm as per the manual which means removing the scuttle, a job I thought would be easy. I thought wrong and quickly gave up, it's something I'll do another day, like when the windscreen gets replaced which it will likely need in another couple of years given the stone chips it's collected.

Instead, I cheated and did what everyone else does and just pulled a fuse. That has also meant the radio won't turn on, I thought they were on separate fuses going by the list in the manual, but maybe not. I also went a bit OCD and put all the fuses in the boxes so the numbers all sit the same way around. I think the problem is the remote plipper which has completely given up any notion of working since the car was taken off the road, I'll have to see about getting a new plipper and reinstating the fuse as I don't like not having a fully functional alarm even though the immobiliser does the trick.

NEVER MIND.

So instead I made some effort with that unfinished rear arch. Some tiny rust spots had come through but thankfully it was just where the hastily applied Hammerite hadn't covered the bare metal fully so was easy to clean back. I got as far as a coat of primer, discovered there's still a bit more filling work to do and then it rained a lot. No space in the unit at present so I had to call it quits... it was getting dark anyway.




Certainly a much better line. While I was waiting for bits to dry on the arch I'd done some rough and ready prep on the grille and given it a splash of primer, white and lacquer.


I was going to get the grille fitted tonight, but it looks like I have to take the entire front of the car apart to do it so I'll do it tomorrow instead. The car is also filthy inside and out from being stood for so long so I need to get on with giving it a decent clean.

Shall be back on the road on the 1st of October, I want to make use of the Direct Debit payment method rather than sticking 6 months on it now, in part because it'll offer me quite a decent cash saving which is very much needed.