1983 X1/9 Rebuild – A Long Story…. How I came to buy an X1/9
I've finally go en around to chronicling my two year rebuild of a 1983 X1/9 that I saved from the crusher. It was truly a labor of love, heavy emphasis on the labor part.
Without the help of many of you on Xwebforums, I would never have completed this challenge. So, I thought I "owed" it to you to take the me to recount my journey in some detail. Its a long post with many pictures. I may get around to pos ng it on line but for now, I offer this PDF that you can download and read at your leisure:
The first car that I ever owned was a 1967 Aus n Healey Sprite. I bought it in baskets and boxes from a guy in Brooklyn, NY and spent the summer of 1971 learning how cars worked and with the help of a very knowledgeable friend, managed to completely reassemble and restore the Sprite in me to drive it to my sophomore year of college at Notre Dame. The Sprite’s inaugural ou ng was a 760 mile jaunt west on Interstate 80 in 95 degree heat. Packed in luggage, no radio, no GPS, newly rebuilt engine screaming for hours at 5,000+ RPM with the heater turned on full blast to cool it off - it was a memorable experience.
My first NEW car was a 1974 FIAT X1/9. I bought it sight unseen from the one of the few FIAT dealers in New York City and for the first and only me in my life, paid over invoice to guarantee that I would get one of the very first X’s to hit the NY docks. I wish I had the VIN # for the car. I truly believe it was one of if not the first imported to the US. It was dark brown with a tan interior. A er the Sprite, driving the FIAT from NY to Indiana was like being in a Rolls Royce!
I loved that car and a er a few years began to completely hot rod everything I could. Back then, we had great availability of X1/9 hop up parts and before long I had an AutoX beast that regularly demolished all sorts of MGBs, Spi ires, TR-6s, Porsche 914s, and even the occasional 916! Every part of that car and engine had been worked or replaced – twin 42DCNF Webers, magnesium pulleys, ported, polished, shaved head, shot peened, balanced and lightened cranksha , FAZA cam, con rods, you name it – if it was makeable or buyable, it was on that car. It must have been pumping out over 120 HP but as you might expect, the reliability followed the inverse rela onship curve – it was like a Claymore Road Mine! Boom with regularity!
Eventually, the rust and rot became so bad that I gave the car to a neighbor kid who had helped me wrench on it and moved on to other toys (1985 Toyota MR2, 1997 Acura NSX) but always maintaining my affinity for mid-engine, agile, top off sports cars that brought a smile to my face.
1 In February of 2013 I was cruising eBay and ran across a 1985 Bertone X1/9 for sale in California. I wasn’t very familiar with the market for X’s so I thought the price was a bargain. I lobbed in what I thought was a “fun” bid, never really intending to buy the car. I came back to my keyboard a bit later to see “congrats – you are the winning bidder”! It was a bit of an “oh S**T” moment. I had just bought a new 2013 Ford Focus ST and had no room le in my 3 car garage. Nonetheless, I was commi ed. I started shopping around for a shipper and ended up engaging UShip for a very reasonable price ($550). A couple of weeks later the car showed up and I began a 3 month stem to stern work over to make sure everything was right. Naturally, I found lots of things that needed fixing, improving, replacing, etc. but fundamentally; the car was really sound and performed quite well.
Wrenching on an X again a er almost 30 years required climbing the learning curve all over again. So many things that used to be second nature had to be “rediscovered”. I quickly learned that 60 year old hands and wrists don’t ar culate quite as easily as did 18 year old ones. And since FIAT chose put all sorts of nuts and bolts in places that humans were not meant to access, I had to figure out whole new ways to do what used to be easy tasks. But with persistence, hard work, me and the help of many of you on Xwebforums I got through it all and brought the 85X to a fine state of reliability and performance.
My plan was to simply enjoy driving the car on occasion.
That worked for a few months.
2 How I came to buy ANOTHER X1/9
In August of 2013, I saw an ad in the Aus n, TX Craigslist for a 1983 Bertone X1/9 for sale. The car looked “OK” in the pictures. On a whim, I called the seller and introduced myself as a fellow X1/9 owner nearby and suggested that perhaps, Craigslist was not the best place to sell the car. I offered to help her post it on eBay and Xweb and told her I would come by to look at the car first. It was really mostly idle curiosity and the desire to see another X1/9. The next Saturday, my wife and I took a 25 mile drive to see the car.
From a distance, it looked fine – up close was a different story. I crawled all under and over it and took it for a quick test drive around the block before telling the seller (a woman) that the car needed a LOT of work. I again offered to help her find a buyer but she insisted she just “wanted the car gone” and if I wouldn’t buy it, she was going to call a wrecker to haul it off! Well, all you X-heads know I wasn’t going to let THAT happen. So a er some limited haggling, I handed her a check for $800, loaded a bunch of random parts into my Focus and had my wife follow me home. The car had been in her family since they purchased it new and I was pleasantly surprised to be handed an en re history of the car’s service records da ng back to the original bill of sale:
Aus n in late August is not the coolest place on earth. The car overheated every few of miles so we began a slow process of gas sta on hopping our way home. My wife was pre y suppor ve and understanding through the first two cool down stops but by the third, I could tell it was beginning to wear thin – I am pre y percep ve that way!
Anyway, we made it home and thus my tale begins …..
I parked my new acquisi on in the driveway, gave her a much need bath, cleared a spot in my garage and began a full assessment.
From a distance, the car looked respectable.
3 Up close, the reality was not pre y.
The car was badly rusted in all the typical spots and few not so typical. The windshield frame must have rusted through years ago allowing water to find its way into the interior. The floors were rusted out and had been poorly patched from the bo om with layers of overlapping sheet metal and dozens of pop rivets and sheet metal screws and some kind of nasty adhesive. The rear trunks and rear corners were shot. The trunk bo om pan itself was badly rusted. Wheel well interiors were rusted through, rocker panels had holes and in general, every single body panel had been dinged or dented. The rear trunk lid had several depressions and holes from a former luggage rack. The front lid looked like it had been in a hail storm and was badly bent at the “wings” – probably from someone trying to li it up when it was locked. The cables and locks were either missing or broken. The dash was badly cracked in several places.
The steering rack was clunking, the wheels were mismatched and the res shot. The heater hoses had been cut and plugged so I suspected the core was leaking. AC was in place but not hooked up. I already knew the cooling system was toast and clearly, there was something wrong with the fuel injec on system.
Electrically, nothing worked. Cut wires all over the place indicated a short that was never found. Instruments were spo y – tach, speedo inopera ve, etc.
4 Oddly, the top of the windshield and the middle of the targa roll bar were set with a series of snaps – it appeared that the PO had installed a cloth top.
Aside from that, the car looked great!
5 BODY
While I’ve always been a fairly good mechanic, I had never a empted metal or body work. It was obvious that I was going to have to learn! I set about the task of educa ng myself on the primaries of body work. I absorbed a few YouTube videos and then visited a body supply shop in Aus n. Sanding blocks, body pu y, various grades of sand paper, hammer and dolly, etc. in hand, I went to Harbor Freight to pick up some power tools (angle grinder, sander, cheap welding rig, etc.). And so I began.
Body work is a steep learning curve. Things that take an experienced Bodyman an hour, at first took me days. Working bondo is tricky – doing it when its 105 degrees outside is worse. I found myself doing something once, grinding it out and doing it right the second or even third me. Plus, I was trying to achieve a level of perfec on that I am sure, most body shops would never shoot for. If it wasn’t perfect, I wasn’t happy. The combina on of lack of exper se, minimal tools and very high standards made for pre y slow going. But I persevered and working mostly from 8:00 PM to the wee hours, began to make good progress.
I learned that body / metal work is actually very sa sfying. You start with something bad and end up with something good. It’s all pre y black and white and since you do one thing at a me, it delivers a constant stream of posi ve reinforcement!
The nasty part was rust remedia on. Cu ng away bad metal, hours of grinding and sanding to make sure it was ALL gone, rust inhibitor treatment where needed – it’s a hard and dirty job. Once I learned to weld, things got easier and be er. Instead of trying to figure out how to bondo my way to victory, I learned how to cut and replace metal. It felt be er and it looked be er.
I decided the first places needing a en on were the windshield frame and floors. Wisely, I did not a empt a windshield removal myself (the glass was in great shape) instead, I had a SafeLite guy come to the house to pull it for $75 with the promise to reinstall it later.
6 My first major project was a bumper delete. Off came the big bumpers, gas shocks, old grillwork, etc. Of course, everything underneath it was a mess. I found a 1975 grill and an original front spoiler. The spoiler was in horrible condi on but I thought I could save
it. I welded up all the holes, cut the “teeth” off the top of the radiator opening, found the correct turn signals, and addressed the blanking plates that sit below the headlight pods. I had ordered some but when they arrived, I was not happy with quality – 3D print job gone bad. So I returned them and fabricated new ones myself.
I ordered new rear trunk well pans from Classic to Current on eBay, but had read that their replacement floor panels didn’t fit right. Those I sourced from Ricambi- Automobilia (also eBay) in the Netherlands – and I am glad I did! They cost a bit more but they were good quality, arrived on me and fit very well. Since I didn’t yet know how to weld very well and was afraid of overhea ng the surrounding metal, I found and engaged a local “mobile welder” off Craigslist. It turned out to be a great decision. The
7 guy was an expert, easy to work with, came to my house and plasma torched out the old floors and working together, we fi ed and welded in the new ones.
The fitment was a challenge as the rust extended almost to the cross member. Thankfully, the floors were generously formed and gave us enough overlapping sheet metal to work with. Once in place, I removed all the old undercoa ng from the bo om, applied 3M Automo ve seam sealer inside and out, primed and finished the job by newly undercoa ng the bo om of the car.
I was very happy with the results:
8 I decided to a empt the rear trunk repair myself. The hard parts were removing the old floor (chisel and file) as it’s hard to get power tools down in there and rebuilding the funky aluminum substructure that sits under the trunk, above the exhaust and around the bo om of the rear wheel wells.
It thought it came out pre y well!
9 Work in progress Primed
Next came the windshield frame repair. It was BAD. So bad that I considered completely removing it and replacing it with another frame but frankly, I was afraid I would never get the angle quite right. So I set about removing all the rust to see what I was le with. I decided the remaining “good metal” was itself strong enough to maintain structural integrity and that it would only get stronger when I started welding in new metal. Some areas were simply impossible to weld with my rudimentary welding rig. Those were taken back to good metal, rust treated and then I filled the windshield frame with enough material to give me a solid backing for body filler. I also found this great metal tape – adhesive on one side, very sturdy and easy to work with that allowed me form a good base in the tricky areas that resisted welding.
Windshield complete, I began to slowly work my way around the car, a body panel at a me. The front and rear deck lids were a mess. I was really focused on ge ng them right as I knew once painted and glossy, any flaws would show up as bad ripples. I learned about using “guide coat” spray to find the high and low spots – that was a real me saver. Working at night, I also used a highly focused powerful flashlight beam to shine across the panel and look for shadows – trust me, if they are there, you will see them!
10 I probably spent 40+ hours on the front hood alone. Every me I thought I had go en in perfect, I’d find something that made me go at it again. Finally, out of either exhaus on of bad eyesight, I decided it was “perfect enough”. Fender flares and mashed in corners were challenging as well. I acquired a “slap hammer” and learned to pull metal back into shape so I didn’t have to use much filler to achieve the right result.
11 The original rear deck lid had some significant den ng and several holes from the luggage rack it carried. I decided to source another one and found a be er alterna ve on eBay for $50. I saved the original with the intent of rebuilding it as well so I could swap to one with a luggage rack if I ever needed to carry more for a trip.
I decided to sand down the black targa top to a smooth surface and color code it to the rest of car. I could go on and on about bodywork but I think you get the idea – lots of it!
Power Window Cable
If you asked me what the hardest job I tackled was, I’d have to say this one. When I got the car, the driver’s side window was si ng half way down, cocked at an angle and held up with a s ck inside the door. The power window switch was inopera ve. I stared at that problem day a er day always promising myself that eventually, I would a end to it. The truth is it scared the crap out of me as I had NO idea what lay inside that door or how it all worked. Finally, when I was running out of excuses and other projects to address, the day came when I had to get started on it. I a empted to
12 remove the door so I could work on the bench but the Phillips screws were frozen and I chose not to drill them out. So I removed the door card and found that while the motor was there, the winding cable was off it and was it was all si ng willy-nilly inside the door. I saw a lot of li le wheels that the cable must wind around and even found another wheel broken off and si ng in the bo om of the door. It took me a couple of days of studying rou ng diagrams for the cable to finally understand how the whole thing was supposed to work. I removed the motor to my work bench and began disassembly.
When I removed the side plate, I was shocked to find what was inside. Apparently whatever kind of white lubricant they had filled it with had over me, turned into a hard wax. This stuff was nasty and I doubt any motor could have overcome the resistance it offered. I picked, chiseled and cleaned it out and generally freshened it all up. I welded the missing pulley wheel back in place and cleaned up any rust inside the door.
The challenge lay in ge ng the cable wound back onto the pulley and holding it there (it wanted to spring away) while I manipulated the rest of it around all the pulleys. I believe this system was designed by the Marquis DeSade. No exaggera on, I think I a empted this at least twenty different mes. I came very close a few mes when at the last second, something would slip or go sideways and SPROINGGGG – the cable would come flying off the spool again. It was absolutely maddening! Finally, a er reading some Xweb posts on similar problems, I tried devising “tools” to hold the cable in place. I used sheet metal bent into a shape that clamped around the spool. It almost did the job but not quite. Finally, I defaulted to using zip es to hold the ghtly wound cable to the spool un l I could finish rou ng the cable and making the necessary adjustments. It worked! Now, I have a passenger side electric window that flies up and down flawlessly and quickly.
Update – I recently addressed a problem with the driver’s door motor and found that Velcro is an even be er solu on for holding the cable down than zip es (see my Aug 2016 post on this).
13 Zip es holding the cable in place
Once the window problem was resolved, I found some very heavy plas c shee ng lying around and applied it to waterproof the door. It was pink but it did the job nicely:
Cooling System
I already knew the cooling system was toast (from my original drive home). I drained it, flushed it extensively and filled it up with radiator flush. I ran it and let it sit for quite a while. I flushed it and repeated the process. Then, I dropped the radiator and AC condenser unit and took them to be boiled and have the broken bleeder valve welded. While they were at the radiator shop, I rebuilt and painted the two fan units and a ended to all the hoses and the metal transfer pipes. The pipes were in pre y good shape, so I made sure all the gunk was cleaned out and polished up the ends as best I could.
14 I used the opportunity of having everything out of the nose of the car to get under and scrape, sand, prime and paint the underneath compartment that housed the radiator.
Steering Rack
The steering rack was authoring a definite “clunk” sound when turned a certain way. Before replacing it, I decided to remove it and see if it could rebuilt. As some of you correctly diagnosed on my post regarding this, the problem was a completely missing internal bushing. I acquired a new one and rebuilt the rack.
Suspension and Brakes
I found four brand new KYB struts for a bargain price and ordered a set of higher performance springs from Vicks (good deal – great springs). I installed new e rods and spent a lot of me cleaning up the suspension pieces, undercoa ng the newly restored
15 wheel wells and pain ng the new springs so things would look quite dy in there. I chose to leave the plas c fender liners off for now as I rarely drive the car in the rain.
The brakes were an easy and straigh orward job. I ordered and installed new front rotors, cleaned up the backs, new pads all around, polished up the calipers a bit (decided not to paint them for be er heat transfer), ghtened up the handbrake and bu oned it all up. They work great – good pedal feel, fast stops and no no ceable pulling.
Dash Swap
The original dash was badly cracked in several places. A er reading some threads on Xweb about a empts to repair dashboards, I decided against doing so and began sourcing a replacement. I got lucky – very lucky. I made a “package deal” with a seller on the West Coast who sold me the 4 brand new KYB’s, a dash from a non-AC car in great condi on and…. the holy grail…. an original NOS black carpet with molded backing! I paid a very reasonable $700 plus shipping for all of this and considered that to be a great bargain.
Since I wanted to retain the original AC ven ng configura on, I set about cannibalizing the old dash and modifying the new one to accept the different vents and tubes
16 (blanking plates for the side vents and addi onal moun ng points for the AC duc ng). Then, I cleaned it and touched it up with vinyl and plas c paint to look like new!
Refurbishing the Wheels
The Iron Cross wheels were in pre y good shape but were mismatched in terms of their color schemes. Some had the black accents in the valleys, another was black on the square back plate and one had none at all! My plan was to take them all down to bare metal – remove all the black and then repaint them to look the same. I played around with pictures trying to color in various accents to see which I liked best and decided to go with all silver with only the square back-plate in black.
Original: Work in progress: Finished product:
17 I used all DupliColor products and found them easy to work with and they yielded good results. I finished the wheels off with several coats of clear. The res were interes ng. I think each was a different brand and size! I replaced them with a new set of 185/60 R13 Achilles from res- easy.com.
The Bertone logo wheel caps were very badly discolored from sun and age. I found that by using the same compound sold for headlight restora on and an electric drill, I could remove years of haze and scratches and make them more presentable. They s ll have a dis nct yellowish nge to them but we’ll write that off as “pa na”. The same technique worked well on the gearshi knob! Paint
A er spending so much me and effort ge ng the body work right, the thought of trying to paint it myself didn’t get much air me. I didn’t have a compressor, paint booth, or tools. Most of all, I have zero experience pain ng cars. I don’t mind “re-doing” my bodywork over when needed, but “re-pain ng” a car a er I screwed it up didn’t sound like much fun. Plus, unlike bondo, good auto paint is really expensive!
While the rebuild was s ll going on, I would occasionally stop at any paint or body shop I saw and go in to “chat” with them about the process and the price. I always started by telling them that I was rescuing a vintage FIAT and was doing everything but the paint myself. I suppose I thought that if they saw me as a fellow car enthusiast, they would treat me with more respect. Bad idea. I came to conclude that Nuccio Bertone himself could walk in and they wouldn’t give a crap.
I learned that most paint shops fall into three categories: 1. Body shops who only want to do insurance work on American cars. This type didn’t even want to talk about my job. 2. High End custom shops (we have a lot in Aus n – just watch the TV shows) who wanted to put $20,000 of paint on $6,000 car. 3. Slop shops (Econopaint, Earl Scheib, etc.) that offer a $500 special but by the me you throw in the door sills, a second coat, and God forbid, a clear coat, quickly get to $2,000+. Worse part is, these guys are hacks and wouldn’t know how to lay down a good coat of paint no ma er how much you paid them.
18 I was ge ng pre y discouraged that I would ever find someone I could work with who would do a creditable job at a reasonable price.
Then, I found Casey. Casey Longoria, owner of Casey’s Body and Paint out by the Aus n airport (note the Yugo repair shop next door!).
I found Casey on Craigslist. Since my experience with my Craigslist mobile welder was posi ve I thought “what the heck” I have nothing to lose – so I called him. I told him I had been restoring this FIAT and (proudly) had done all the bodywork myself and now, needed to have it painted. His first response was “I’ve had lots of people tell me they did their own bodywork and I’ve never seen one car that didn’t require me to do it all over again!”. Uh-oh. Not a good start. I reiterated that I REALLY thought the panels were flat and finally he said “OK, bring it here and I will be the judge”. I told him I couldn’t drive a car with no seats, no windshield, no trunk lids and no registra on that hadn’t even been started in 12 months. He said “where do you live – I’ll come to you!” Now he was sounding like my kind of guy. Two hours later Casey was standing in my driveway slowly walking around the car, running his eyes and hands over every body panel carefully.
I of course, was standing there holding my breath like I had my new baby in a beauty contest. I could easily see the skep cism on his face as he began his inspec on. A er the first quarter panel he said “not bad”. By the me he was halfway around the car he said “hey, this is pre y good!” A er his full circumnaviga on, crawling under, sigh ng all
19 body lines, even grabbing a hose to wet the surface down, he turned to me and said: “I must tell you, I’m totally surprised, I doubt I could have done a be er job myself”!
I was elated! All that hard work and those long hot nights had just paid off. I felt the pride welling up inside me so I thought I would press the advantage. Really I said? How long would it have taken you to do all this work? He thought for a moment and said “Oh, around two weeks. Why? How long did it take you?” I swallowed hard and said …. TWO years. Game over.
I thanked him for coming over and then started asking him his thoughts on the cost and quality of a paint job. While we were cha ng he asked if I had any 400 wet/dry sandpaper. I said of course, and produced a roll. He said “as long as I’m here, let’s wet sand her down and see what we have to work with. We then spent three hours hand wet sanding down the en re car. It looked so good in fine sanded grey primer that I had a flee ng thought of leaving it that way! A er some back and forth Casey announced he would re-prime the car (he didn’t like the idea of pain ng over Rustoleum ra le can primer), lay down four coats of base color and four coats of clear and wet sand/buff between each. We agreed I would pay for all the materials and he would charge me for his labor. I’m not sure he’d appreciate my adver sing what I paid because I am certain he took a bath on this job, but I suspect he was red of doing Ford bumper repairs and was looking for a project that he could use to adver se his exper se - a perfect marriage. We agreed on a price and I spent the next few weeks hustling to get everything done pre-paint.
I was struggling with a color choice. I really like the red / black combo but that is the color of my ’85 X1/9. Yellow was an op on as was Lime Green but in the end, I decided on silver (the original color) because it wasn’t a frame off restora on and I knew there would be areas that Casey couldn’t get at easily. I went to the local automo ve paint store and stared dumbly at sample books for an hour - useless exercise. It’s impossible to tell what a car will look like when all you have to work from is a 2” sample card.
Every me I saw a silver car on the road, I analyzed whether I like that par cular silver or not. While driving through a parking lot one day, I saw a new Mazda Miata in a beau ful silver shade I loved.
20 One of the guys I work with had a Mazda CX-7 in the same color. I checked the door sill for the color code and learned it was called “Liquid Silver Metallic”. I went to the Mazda dealer to see it in person and decided it was the right choice.
I told Casey of my decision and a few weeks later I rented a U-Haul trailer and hauled her off for paint!
I visited the paint shop a couple of mes, dropping off addi onal bits and pieces and was always impressed with the quality of work being done. We’d examine each part of the job and if something wasn’t “just right”, Casey would offer to redo it - every me. The final job well exceeded my expecta ons and I was and am delighted by the shine, depth and color. It lacks the immediate visual impact of a two color job but it’s really a very “classy” look, which my wife says is more appropriate for a “man my age” than something glitzier – not sure how to take that.
Casey took plenty of photos of the job in progress as well:
21 Paint complete, I hauled the X back home and dove into final assembly.
22 Interior:
A er all the hard and greasy work, I was looking forward to tackling the interior as I thought it would be an “easier” task – not so much. Prior to pain ng, I had stripped out the dash, seats, door cards, carpet, etc. and took the cabin down to bare metal. I cleaned up any rusty spots and primed the interior. Casey (at my request) had re-primed and sprayed the interior to match the exterior.
I researched alterna ves for sound deadening materials that would insulate the interior from both noise and heat. Most of what I found was either very expensive, hard to work with or needed to be professionally applied. Hun ng for a be er answer, I found a great solu on at Home Depot one day. They stocked rolls of ¼ inch dense foam, silver foil on one side and a light adhesive on the other. I believe it was supposed to be used for wrapping AC and heat conduits in the a cs of houses but it sure looked X1/9 interior insula on to me! It only cost around $17 a roll and I think I used less than two full rolls to completely cover the passenger compartment. It was very easy to work with. It cut and shaped without effort and it stayed where you placed it but could be moved and reposi oned easily.
In retrospect, this was a really good thing to have done. It feels cushy under the carpet, keeps a lot of radiated heat out and makes the car sound and feel incredibly solid.
23 Unlike my ’85, this car has absolutely not a single ra le, even when hi ng speed bumps at a good clip.
I disassembled the seats and made sure the seat mechanisms were working well. The PO had the seats, sun visors, door cards and shi boot custom recovered in a blend of corduroy and suede in a very “unique” color combo – maroon and silver. My first inclina on was to have the seats recovered in black vinyl but I put that off un l the big jobs were done, so I placed them aside and moved on to other tasks. As me wore on and I came to see those odd looking seats every day, I must say, they simply grew on me. They were clearly a throwback to the eigh es – but given the car’s heritage, I thought that might not be a bad thing! Eventually, once the car was painted, I gave them a good cleaning and installed them as they were. I really like them now. They are well padded, super comfortable, very “grippy” and best of all, not nearly as hot in the Aus n summer as are the black ones in my ’85 X. I guess it’s a ma er of taste but you can choose for yourself. In any event – they are certainly different!
Carpet
I installed my new molded carpet without much trouble. The only touchy part was around the gas pedal but with a li le cu ng, I got it lie flat.
24
Trunks
I paid par cular a en on to both the front and rear trunks. I’m not sure why as they are rarely visible, but I just wanted to make them look great. The rear trunk had extensive rust at the bo om of the engine compartment access panel and bo om tray was a mess. I spent quite a bit of me restoring these. The front trunk was in be er condi on but the headlight access panel area needed a lot of a en on. It’s hard to work in there but through a combina on of tools, chemicals, hand power and perseverance; I got to a good result. I sourced a new rubber mat for the front trunk and later, got a used from carpet from Dennis which I repaired, cleaned, fabric painted and installed. I went with a nice grey indoor/outdoor carpet for the rear trunk.
25 The ba ery hold down bracket was broken so I stripped it to bare metal, welded it and painted it.
All the trunk cables were either missing or broken off. A quick visit to the MWB website was needed. I replaced the trunk cables and fixed all the broken latching hardware. I paid special a en on to the “emergency” rear trunk release cable in the engine compartment as I knew from experience these rarely work when needed most. I used a be er gauge wire and ran it through plas c sleeves to reduce drag at the corners. I replaced the rubber pull ring near the overflow tank with a much he ier carabiner that allows be er grip and pull and I can clip the carabiner to a hose where it’s always accessible and easy to find! It now works as it should
While working on the front trunk cable, I no ced the runoff channel that houses the wiper motor was pre y ugly so I cleaned it up and re-undercoated it while everything was out of it. Then, I cleaned up and reinstalled the wiper motor, fixed the “self- parking” feature and added the windshield washer nozzles and new wiper blades and replaced the badly cracked brake reservoir with one I acquired from Jeff S ch.
26 I installed all the marker and signal lights taking the me to clean them and restore them as needed. I reassembled the head light pods and renewed all the ground blooms and connec ons.
I found a supply (on Xwebforums) of all the various rubber plugs, bump stops and bits I was missing and cleaned them up and reinstalled them.
We all experience the “one step forward – two steps back” phenomenon when working on these cars. You know, trying to fix one thing and breaking something else in the process. I had several of these episodes but mostly they just drove me to restore something I otherwise would have le alone. One day, while upside down in the driver’s foot well, my knee accidently snapped off the headlight high beam stalk! The thought of replacing all the column gear didn’t appeal to me so I tried to repair the stalk itself. I bought something called Permatex Plas c Glue – “guaranteed” to bond plas c. Well, I guess Italian plas c is different from other kinds because it didn’t work at all. Total waste of me. I determined that no bonding agent would stand up to the stress and instead, drilled into the stalk, screwed in a threaded rod, tapped the other end of the stalk stub and simply screwed the two together. I finished the repair off some superglue. It’s not perfect but it is completely unno ceable and probably, stronger than new.
Electrical
I thought I’d tackle the electrical system before the dash went in so I could more easily trace wires and make repairs as needed. I dropped the fuse block and immediately thought “what did I get myself into”? It was a mess. Wires cut all over the place. I’d become fairly familiar with the instrument and switch wiring from tracing problems on my 85 X but I’d never really delved into the spaghe under the passenger side fuse block before. VOM in hand, I started trying to trace things using just the standard FIAT manual. It was all slow going un l someone on the Forum pointed me to the X1/9 Electrical Guide – what a life saver! Using it, even with my rudimentary electrical knowledge, I was able to slowly but steadily diagnose, track and fix a myriad of problems. I think the PO had experienced a bad short and just kept cu ng wires in hope of elimina ng it. I finally traced the short to the cigar lighter and then started
27 rewiring everything he had hacked. Slowly, I began restoring lost func on (lights, gauges, switches) one by one.
I never could get the tach to work right so finally I ran a new wire from the coil to the tach and that solved the problem. I could go on for hours about the wiring but it’s too painful a memory to recall. Now, most everything works. I s ll have to mess with the door chimes and courtesy lights but I have li le desire to dig into that mess again so I live without them for the moment.
Heater Box Rebuild
Having already tackled the heater box on my 1985 X, I thought it prudent to rebuild the 83’s while it was s ll “easy” to get at (its never actually easy). Cleaned up, repainted, re- foamed, lubed and ready to go
Dashboard Install:
Dennis was nice enough to help with the dash install. Now that I’ve done it a few mes, it’s really not a hard job for one person. I was determined to eliminate the dashboard “squeak” I occasionally get from my 85 X so applied some silicone grease to the ma ng surfaces and made sure I kept pressure on the dash as I bu oned it down. I can honestly say that it is rock solid and does not make a peep now. I sourced a new
28 defroster vent as the old one had lost some tabs. I acquired a be er center console and installed that as well.
The car had an original, dealer installed, period correct Clarion upgraded radio/ casse e player but it was not connected. It also sported a separate amplifier on the right side of the passenger foot well. A er much searching, I found a wiring diagram for this par cular radio and followed it to a successful install. I refurbished the rear deck speakers which were of a very high quality and painted the surrounds to look be er.
It’s amazing how much volume that amplifier drives through those small rear speakers! The sound is quite impressive at rest and clear/loud enough to actually enjoy at highway speeds with the top down. I have a much later model radio in the 85 X but no amp. This early Clarion blows it away.
The vinyl panels behind the seats were in good condi on but were hidden under years of dirt. I scrubbed them with upholstery cleaner and wiped them down with paper towels. What came away was astonishing. What was even more astonishing was that no ma er how many mes I went over them, more dirt kept coming off! I think it took about five repeat cleanings before they gave up all their grime. A er a good coat of Armor All, they look quite nice now.
29 Ragtop
Since I had decided to leave the snaps for the ragtop in place, I found the top in a box of parts, cleaned it up using Duplicolor Vinyl and Fabric to restore the color, took it to a boat dealer to replace a couple of missing snaps and then, fi ed it for fun. It was pre y hard to stretch it out to fit the first couple of mes but eventually, it began to behave quite well. I’m not really sure WHY anyone would want a ragtop for a car with such an easy to store, transport and mount targa top as the X1/9 but its novelty appealed to me. In reality, it doesn’t do anything be er or even as well as the targa top. Its noisier,
transfers more heat, flap/ra les at speed and probably takes more room to store than the hard top. But like I said, its novel!
Drivetrain
As all the body and interior repairs neared comple on, I began to turn my a en on to the drive train. I performed a full tune up, new plugs, wires, etc., filled the cooling system with fresh an freeze, replaced the oil and filter, flushed the gas tank, installed a new electric fuel pump and filter and drained the gear box and refilled with MT-90. A er some ming and fiddling she roared (as much as 1500 cc Fiats roar) to life. Even though the windshield was not yet refi ed, I decided to go for my first shake down drive! The car felt great from the start, strong engine, ght gearbox, great brakes and
30 everything was so solid. Handling with the new springs, res and struts was ght. I was in my glory, driving down the winding road that leads past my house when I happened to turn around (no rear view mirror yet), to see that I was laying down a military grade smoke screen behind me. I mean a dense white fog that would have blinded anyone following me.
My first thought was a blown head gasket. I pulled off to the side of the road, shut the car off and got out to inves gate. I could not see anything grossly wrong so I got back in to start the car and drive home. Of course, it would not start again. Realizing I didn’t have my cell phone, wallet or any tools, I started tro ng the ½ mile uphill to my house in flip flops. The final 1/8 mile up the hill to my house was a challenge but I made it pan ng and huffing all the way. I grabbed a toolbox and made my wife drop her dinner prepara ons and drive me back to the abandoned car. A er some limited fiddling around pulling and cleaning plugs, etc., I managed to start her up again and drove slowly home. I no ced only limited smoke un l I hit the thro le and I was again billowing out an impressive cloud. Back in the garage, I saw that the tailpipe was spewing what appeared to be water that dripped onto the floor and le a puddle of carbon floa ng on top.
I couldn’t fathom why this was happening but s ll believed it was a head gasket. Since the car had hardly been run during the restora on, I was surprised the head gasket (which showed no signs of a problem two years earlier) had simply decided to fail, but I had no other explana on. I was pre y bummed as I thought I was on the brink of comple ng my project only to be facing with an engine teardown!
I checked the coolant level and it was the same – neither up nor down and there were no signs of contamina on. Now I was really confused. Then, I checked the oil level. It was WAY up the s ck, well past the fill mark. Moreover, the oil was thin, very thin. I decided to drain the new oil and measure it. I knew how much I had put in and I was curious to see how much came out. I placed my oil collec on pan under the car and removed the drain plug. What should have slowly and steadily flowed from the pan into my container came gushing out with the viscosity of hot water and went everywhere – I
31 mean everywhere. So much for measuring the volume. An en re roll of paper towels later, I examined what I did manage to catch. It was dark brown and thin. On a hunch, I poured some into a can and touched a match to it. It burned like the Olympic flame.
Ok, I get it – there’s GAS in my oil – lots of it! That precipitated a compression test and a complete tear down of the Fuel Injec on system to determine if I had one or more injectors stuck open. I’m glad I did it because it allowed to me remove the aluminum thro le body and give it a good polishing!
A er cleaning up everything and determining the injectors looked fine, I finally decided to test the Fuel Regulator. Long story short, the Fuel Regulator diaphragm was completely blown allowing gas to be pumped directly into #1 cylinder, past the rings and into the sump. That explained the rise in oil quan ty (by 50%) and the smoke.
I replaced the Fuel Regulator, refi ed the Fuel Injec on system, replaced the oil and filter and fired her up again. No smoke, great compression, running fine and as an added value, a VERY clean oil pan! Problem solved. I breathed a huge sigh of relief because honestly, I was at the point of really just wan ng to enjoy my new crea on.
32 In closing….
If you’ve made this far, you have my admira on. When I started wri ng this post I had no inten on of it growing to the size it has, but I’ve found it helpful to relive my two year journey in detail and for posterity. With two X’s, its easy to mix and merge what I’ve done to one vs. the other and now, I have wri en record of everything that actually took place in restoring the ’83. I suppose one day, I’ll have to reread this just to remember what I did! The finished car sits in my garage under cover. I drive it sparingly and perhaps I’ve logged 600 miles since the rebuild was finished. I can proudly report that with the excep on of a speedo cable “ ck” which I simply can’t make go away, the car is as perfect I could have ever hoped for. It’s truly a dream to drive. My big problem is juggling five cars and a motorcycle in and out of a three car garage. Every me I want to swap rides, it requires removing covers, moving cars, moun ng and stowing tops, replacing covers, etc. etc. I really need to build a car barn. I have the room but haven’t go en my head around actually doing that yet. I’m also Jonesing for another project. I’ve been following the BugEye Sprite and Aus n Healey 3000 markets pre y closely but haven’t pulled the trigger yet.
Thanks for reading and thanks for all the invaluable help many of you on this Forum provided. Without your knowledge, input, encouragement and parts, this would have been a very short summary indeed!
Ed (Colltech) Aus n, TX.
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