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General Just bought my first x19

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General Just bought my first x19

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JontyR

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Dec 26, 2012
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Hi

My first post, and the good news is that I have just put a deposit on my first x19

Very excited as I've wanted one of these for years!!

Not sure on the direction the car will take, it is either going to head towards a rebuild into an original condition...or it might just go the track route.

I pick the car up in a couple of days...so will get some pictures posted.

Jonty
 
Thanks for the welcome.

I have now decided that I will be stripping out the car....so interior will be up for sale shortly, and then fitting a cage, buckets, harnesses, and doing an engine swap. Not sure what body kit to go with...need to have a hunt around :)

Will be doing a good write up on the build. Isnt my first race prep, so I will make sure the build is done to the best of my ability.
 
Having picked up the car now...I have decided to just restore it back to the way it was when it came out of the factory. It isnt your average rot box...so seems a little daft to go and strip it out.

Some pictures below.


WP_000280.jpg

WP_000281.jpg
 
Stripped down the necessary parts, and behold...the rust! It isnt actually too bad, a lot less than I had been warned....so a big long list of parts and thanks to Eurosports-uk.net who have been excellent I should have the car being started to go back together again shortly. As soon as the starter motor is replaced, we should get to see if the engine runs!

Happy days :)
 
Replace the coolant and check if the system doesn't leak. I bought my X1/9 some 13 years ago, it had far less rust, but the cooling system was completely rotten. It was a pain to get it to run reliably.
 
ppalma said:
Replace the coolant and check if the system doesn't leak. I bought my X1/9 some 13 years ago, it had far less rust, but the cooling system was completely rotten. It was a pain to get it to run reliably.
Click to expand...

Yes...all done...water drained, system flushed, new coolant Added :)

Radiator looks surprisingly in excellent condition.
 
Right...well a new turn for the worse!

It would appear the engine is FUBAR'd! So all stripped down and a full rebuild in the week or so.

So all of the suspension parts are in the process of being shot blasted along with anything else on the steel front. The aluminium parts are away being Vapour blasted. Just waiting for the repair panels and then the car will be sent off to paint.

Should in theory have everything ready to go back on the car in the next couple of weeks. Its been a long week so far though!
 
I have to say I'm impressed so far - a typical rebuild takes months. To be able to get this far, this quick the car must actually be in pretty good condition to start with! Either that or the elves have been helping you out at night.

The complexity of the monocoque construction and multi-skin panels just drive most people to distraction. That's one of the reasons why my car was completely gutted and essentially turned into a space frame.

Shame about the engine but in the grand scheme of things, that is the easy bit
 
jimbro1000 said:
I have to say I'm impressed so far - a typical rebuild takes months. To be able to get this far, this quick the car must actually be in pretty good condition to start with! Either that or the elves have been helping you out at night.

The complexity of the monocoque construction and multi-skin panels just drive most people to distraction. That's one of the reasons why my car was completely gutted and essentially turned into a space frame.

Shame about the engine but in the grand scheme of things, that is the easy bit
Click to expand...

Thank fully I do this as my day job....so it is being worked on 10 hours each day! Between 2 of us.

Hopefully the whole thing should be done in a couple of weeks.

Will get some more photos up shortly :)
 
Well despite all of the progress, we had to move premises and this threw a spanner in the works somewhat!

Well we are all moved in, a slightly larger workshop than I had imagined, but I am sure we will find a reason to fill the place!!

Anyway, just been to pick up the painted shell...so the great rebuild is about to take place. If you are interested in watching the rebuild then come and have a look at us on our FB page.

https://www.facebook.com/MinotaurRacing


Plenty of car bits on there....some are Japanese but don't hold that against us :)
 
Seriously impressive looking rebuild you have going on there Jonty (y) I have just shared your paintshop photo on the X1/9 club FB page..........

I've had 9 X's over the years going back to 1986 - heres something to wet your appetite....

All the best with it

lingottobones.jpg
 
That is a pretty impressive number of X/19s!! In fact worse than the number of Rx7s I have had...which currently stands at 8!

Will get some more photos up of the progress on the X19 over the weekend. Really want to get it finished now....the sun is calling :)
 
Just added some more photos. Hopefully that will show some of the attention to detail we have been paying to the car. Really enjoying this build :)
 
Hi Jonty,

Its good to see someone else starting a project on an X'y, from what I can see it looks good. The interior looks very similar to mine although I have stripped mine down now just the front wheels and suspension in place.

Look forward to seeing the finished product I fear mine will take a little longer to do.

Dave
 
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