My Fiat X1/9

Beni

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2005
Messages
1,420
Car(s)
too many
Two years ago I was looking for a fun car, it had to be cheap to buy and run, fun to drive, good looking and easy to work on, so that with a little help I could do every work myself. I also wanted something extraordinary, and not just some pretty body on a "normal" chassis.

Well, not sure how the X1/9 came in, but after seeing and hearing one on the highway I was sure I needed one.
I met a great guy who had several, lots of spare parts and even more knowledge. He not only helped me with looking for a car to buy, but also taught me car mechanics.

Shortly after I located my car in the northern part of germany. It wasn't in the greates shape and stood in a moist garage for 4 years, but there were some additional parts and the engine was already tuned and had double carbs installed.

Also, I wanted a car to learn on, so it wasn't meant to be in perfect condition.

This is what it looked like when we picked it up:

http://img347.imageshack.**/img347/3263/00212313qo7.jpg

http://img211.imageshack.**/img211/1125/cimg1746zu6.jpg

It turned out it was pretty rusty at some parts, but nothing really serious.

Here it is on the first day of work, ripping everything out...

http://img215.imageshack.**/img215/9339/cimg17862qn8.jpg

The engine was running, just the distributor stopped working after some time. The engine bay was a mess, though.

http://img214.imageshack.**/img214/1091/cimg0135lo8.jpg

Besides that, the master brake and clutch cylinders were leaking, everything else was pretty much ok.

Some welding later, we passed the examination and it was street legal again:

http://img218.imageshack.**/img218/2980/cimg2035vp2.jpg

http://img205.imageshack.**/img205/8426/003ex9.jpg

The lower part of the body was brown-metallic, never a fan of that, so I painted it matte-black, maybe not to everyone?s taste, but I really like it. The rims were in need of new paint aswell, polishing was not an option, as they are magnesium, so I painted them black aswell.

After about 2 moths the engine broke down, all the standing wasn?t too healthy, so I swapped in a regular one. I also changed the quad exhaust to a singular one.

Drove it all the way to Italy and back that summer without a problem.

http://img207.imageshack.**/img207/1793/00122go0.jpg

Some weeks after that, a connector melted, so the electrics didn?t work. It was easy to fix, but the electrics remain the biggest weakness besides the rust.

After a winter in the garage it was a great 2nd. Season with it this year. Unfortunately I hadn?t had as much time to work on it as I wished.
I changed the wing mirrors, only one and an older model. The car was lowered a bit, the original dampers were worn anyways and some minor body work was done. It?s still a work-in-progress, but that?s what it was meant to be.

http://img213.imageshack.**/img213/7875/00422tp6.jpg

http://img213.imageshack.**/img213/4355/001hq3.jpg

For next season my plans are to do some more important bodywork, fix up the interior, replace the gearbox and install the tuned engine again.

I still haven?t decided wether I should keep the colour or respray it in another one.

Right now, it?s in the garage again, waiting for spring, in the meantime my little Fiesta is in business again.

http://img223.imageshack.**/img223/4197/cimg5353uo2.jpg

It?s my everyday car in summer and as long as you don?t need to move more than 2 persons it?s great, there?s even enough space for luggage in the front, you might almost call it practical. But it?s still loud and rough enough to be alive. It ain?t no highway cruiser.


Can?t wait till April to take it out of the garage again? :)
 
Last edited:
http://img213.imageshack.**/img213/7875/00422tp6.jpg
:drool:

That's really all I need to say, great job on a beautiful little car. 8)
 
Well done - looks nice. They all rotted away with rust here because of the climate and the road salt we use. I think that this afflicted many cheap Italian cars here, especially those built with the cheap steel and little rust proofing circa 1970's, 80's and the early 90's. They got better after that.
 
I just LOVE that car. There are couple of guys here who race with X1/9 -s. They are awsome!
 
Thank you guys :)!

Well done - looks nice. They all rotted away with rust here because of the climate and the road salt we use. I think that this afflicted many cheap Italian cars here, especially those built with the cheap steel and little rust proofing circa 1970's, 80's and the early 90's. They got better after that.

Fiat made a "great" deal back then, they sold equipment and blueprints to russia (mancs' car was based on the Fiat 124, if I'm not mistaken) and in return got russian steel, which was low quality...

Plus, Bertone built the X1/9's body, the assembly shop was on one side of the street, the painters were on the other, so the cars sometimes waited in the rain to be taken to the paintshop without any rust proofing so far.


:edit: mancs, do you have pics of their X1/9s by chance?
 
Beni Thanks for the info. How was your one on the rust front - did you have to do much patching of perforations? My brother had a Fiat 850 fastback in the early 70's and it was a great little car but got terminal rust within seven years.
 
That's such a cool car ... reminiscent of the 914.

Beni said:
I still haven?t decided wether I should keep the colour or respray it in another one.

I would repaint it a loud color. Green, yellow, Ferrari red! :thumbup:
 
Here are some pics to give you an idea, strangely, it looks worse on the pics than it looked in real.
Also, the X1/9 is built rather strong and the important bits weren't affected much.


Just infront of the rear wheel:
http://img206.imageshack.**/img206/559/cimg1824ym3.jpg

In front of the engine bay:
http://img208.imageshack.**/img208/6991/cimg1823ql8.jpg

The frontal quarter of the floorpan looked bad, but could be fixes easily:
http://img218.imageshack.**/img218/1753/cimg1832hl5.jpg

The interior and the rusty floorpans:
http://img218.imageshack.**/img218/3787/cimg1814yn8.jpg

Wet rockwool ate away parts of the rear boot:
http://img80.imageshack.**/img80/1401/cimg1812at7.jpg

Years ago the front was damaged and it wasn't fixed very good, the rust proofing was especially bad:
http://img221.imageshack.**/img221/296/cimg1830sb1.jpg

This is the other side of the pic above, the place where the headlights rest. There was rust everywhere under the paint:
http://img204.imageshack.**/img204/5660/cimg1796xe0.jpg


That was about it, but it's still a lot of work until it is completely rust free. I'd love to strip it completely, but I don't have enough space right now...
 
I would repaint it a loud color. Green, yellow, Ferrari red! :thumbup:

If you go to a meeting, about 80% of the X1/9s are red, so red is out :).
Two people I know have yellow ones, so yellow is out too...
There's the original green which is quite nice, maybe, or maybe orange.

All I know is I want a non-metallic colour with a 70s feel.

Here are some photoshopped examples, I'm not sure about the black bonnet, but I've got two, so I could swap them...

http://img207.imageshack.**/img207/5704/46546vu5.jpg

http://img213.imageshack.**/img213/3830/465464rk1.jpg

http://img214.imageshack.**/img214/1290/465465tc2.jpg

http://img213.imageshack.**/img213/2165/465468ik8.jpg

http://img213.imageshack.**/img213/7677/465466gq8.jpg

http://img90.imageshack.**/img90/9540/465467gv0.jpg

I want to keep the lower part black.
 
Fantastic car the X1/9. I wanted to get one for myself at one stage, but they were either ridiculously expensive, or rusted to bits. I love the crazy tacho that goes in reverse.

With the colour schemes, I like the lime green or the baby blue.
 
Thank you guys :)!



Fiat made a "great" deal back then, they sold equipment and blueprints to russia (mancs' car was based on the Fiat 124, if I'm not mistaken) and in return got russian steel, which was low quality...

Plus, Bertone built the X1/9's body, the assembly shop was on one side of the street, the painters were on the other, so the cars sometimes waited in the rain to be taken to the paintshop without any rust proofing so far.


:edit: mancs, do you have pics of their X1/9s by chance?

Yeah, russian metal is rusty :?

Hm, I'l try to find some. BTW they have the turbo model ;)
 
Neat car! I don't know much about them, but it's cool. I like the two-tone with the black and another color. I actually think the yellow looks cool, and I am not a fan of yellow. That or the green or blue. Definately do the two tone thing though.
 
Go for the green paint option - that'd look great on it!

Nice car btw, and after hearing about that deal Fiat had with Russia in the 70s, reasons why Italian cars were rotting away are getting very plausible. (Did some French companies have similar deals? :) )
 
That was a great job, bringing such a cool car back from the dead.:thumbsup: I'd go for an orange paintjob. It contrasts nicely with the black lower part and it would look properly stunning.
 
1.5 or 1.3?

there was one for sale down the road but it had a lot of rust, plus it seems like my trend is to buy cars under 500 bucks.
 
Nice music ;), thank you, mancs!

It's the 1.5 fivespeed version, one of the early ones. The 1300s are cooler though.

mautzel, I don't know about french cars, but I guess russian steel just was the cheap option and rust proofing sure wasn't any better.


Here's a small meeting with a friend's and his dad's car, I really dislike the look of the blue one, it's a whole different car.

http://img327.imageshack.**/img327/958/im0019012etgh8.jpg
 
One of my dream cars...
Congratulations!
 
The new summer-car season began today, and what a day it was!

Everything was running great and we just had to take it for a drive, even though the car ruined me for this month even before I took it out of the garage (road tax and insurance :().

http://img459.imageshack.**/img459/9607/006jr4.jpg

http://img261.imageshack.**/img261/9292/007eg0.jpg

http://img405.imageshack.**/img405/8118/008ze7.jpg

http://img255.imageshack.**/img255/3121/005ns0.jpg
 
Top