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X1/9 Restoring an 82 X1/9

Introduction

My Fiat X1/9 project

MANY years ago, I used to own Fiats. My first NEW car was a Fiat 128 sedan. I drove it mercilessly, autocrossed it frequently, and it never had a failure or let me down (including towing a single snowmobile trailer in Alaskan winters!).

I moved to X1/9s, and have had several. A street car, that was yellow, which I ended up running in the Fur Rendezvous Gran Prix, a sanctioned road race run on downtown streets around a carnival in Anchorage Alaska in February. Then a pure race car that was red with various white parts on it, Carrera coil overs, PBS engineering head, exhaust, etc., which was an autocross maniac. After that was a stock metallic green X in Seattle. Perfect car for Seattle traffic.

Now, some 35 years later, I found the desire to bring one back from the grave. I found an 82 (first time I am dealing with fuel injection) that has sat in a pole barn for several years. Maybe 5 years. Parts of it sat in the woods (hence the hail damage and really terrible primer on the hood hiding surface rust bubbles). Someone started to prep it for paint, and did some disassembly, but it was literally a basket case. When I went to pick it up, I ended up with 4 crates of parts and components, as well as a pickup-truck bed of other parts, hoods, engine covers, etc. It was Mediterranean blue, and various shades of primer and rust and etc. There was some surface rust, but no rust-through areas. It had over 100K miles, a clean title, and a key, no battery, and it looks like most of the parts are there.

The car suffers from being exceptionally dirty (a couple wasp nests, LOTS of leaves), and there was some water intrusion in the various cavities. Those issues have been handled.

The goals are as follows:

Clean it up visually: Remove bumpers, mounts, side marker lights, pop up headlights, and weld everything over and smooth.

Get it ‘pretty’: New wheels. New paint, deep purple metallic. Interior changed from blue to black. No rust, all visible surfaces painted and clean to the touch. Interior cleaned up and any missing parts replaced. Projector beam H1 headlights, and LED turn signals up front.

Get it comfortable: New carpet, new seats, 4 point harnesses, etc.

Make sure it functions, even if different than designed: For instance, get rid of all three rusty hood latches and cables, and replace with flush mount pushbutton hood pins, some of which would be lockable.

THEN get the wiring straightened out, and get the 85hp injected motor running, and have a fun weekend driver.

Long term goal, maybe a year out: Switch it over to a Honda K20A2 motor with a Honda 6 speed limited slip transmission (and over 200HP). Midwest-Bayless has a rather expensive kit that makes this possible, with a limited amount of cutting and welding. :slayer:

The car has so far had the following done in the last 4 weeks, working 2 hours on Saturday morning, and 2 hours on Sunday morning before the heat and humidity make my garage uninhabitable, and whenever the heat and humidity allow me to work in the evening after my regular job:

Took the hood down to bare metal, treated for hail damage and one ding, painted with rust restorer primer, and then with a regular primer. Treated the underside of the hood to a nice satin-black paint job.

Sanded the rear decklid, treated with rust restorer primer and then with regular primer. Treated the underside of the lid to a nice satin-black paint job.

Door cards have been removed, cleaned and treated, and painted satin black.

Seats have been removed

Interior old blue carpet has been removed

Interior blue vinyl trim has been removed (blue? Really? Yuck!)

Cromodora Iron Cross wheels and old Kumho tires have been removed. Tires are actually in decent shape, wheels are in decent shape, and I have a spare wheel with road rash.

New tires (Toyo Proxes 195/45-15) have arrived, and new ‘Competizione’ 4x98 15x6.5 wheels should be here next week.

Targa top has been stripped. Latches have been treated for rust and painted to prevent further rusting. The trim and the 35 year old vinyl, foam, and gritty tar-like adhesive have been removed. The top has been painted with Bumper and Trim black paint.

Doors have been removed, and the door latch areas sanded and primed
Headlight buckets and motors have been removed

Radiator has been removed

Gas tank has been removed. Will be removing old gasoline that smells like turpentine, and then refreshing, cleaning the inside, and painting the outside.

Bumpers have been removed

Bumper Shocks have been removed

Whats Next:

Now there will be a couple months of perfecting the body, surface rust removal and treatment, in the front, interior, and rear compartments, as well as treating the rust on the outside of the body, and repairing any dings or small dents that I find.

I will be creating plates to replace the headlight buckets, cleaning up the wiring, and making the front end smoother.

Will cut out the bumper mount square tubing (and tow hooks) that extend out of the body in front and rear. Then I will make some threaded inserts to be able to put in racing tow straps or thread in tow hooks when needed. This will be followed by cover plates welded in and smoothed.

Will create cover plates for the four side marker lights, and weld them in. Will also be weld-filling in the various holes in the body for things that no longer require a mount.

Will be fabricating the mounts for the projector beam H1 headlights, which are just 2.5 inches in diameter, as well as the front marker/turn signal LED lights.

Once all the body work is done, I will turn the car over to a professional for the final coat of deep metallic purple.

Then it will be another couple months of sorting wiring, rebuilding an interior, and getting the engine singing happily.

Barring any major difficulties, should have it back on the road by 1st qtr of 2018.

And, during this process, I will be putting the following up on Ebay:
Front Bumper
Rear Bumper
Bumper Shocks
Seats
Headlight Buckets
Headlight Motors
Cromodora Wheels

I'll be posting some pictures, as soon as I figure out how.
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Personal time constraints have left me unable to make much progress on the X.

I received the new brake master cylinder, clutch master and slave cylinders, and will be tackling that portion of the process next.

Here is a tip for anyone working on the rear brakes of a Fiat X1/9. Lisle makes a tool, 44210, that allows you to compress the spring on the emergency brake cable, and turns an otherwise difficult task into a 5 minute operation. Easy!

[ame="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HFSQ6BM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1"]Amazon.com: Lisle 44210 Universal Emergency Brake Tool: Automotive[/ame]
 
Removed the brakes on the right side of the X1/9. It looks like someone parked it in the sand (deep) at some point. Probably gonna need to replace the wheel bearing on that side, which is a task for another day. The right rear brake piston was nearly froze up. No way that the right rear brake actually worked,

Got the front right components wire brushed and ready for caliper paint. Just need to do some masking.

The right rear brake components will be wire brushed tomorrow. Should be good to paint by Wednesday.

Had to order the right-sized crush washers for the brake connectors. The ones I ordered from Vick Auto Sports were NOT the right size.
 
Both right-hand side brakes are just about ready to rebuild (new seals, etc), and reinstall. New crush washers arrived, and they seem to be a better fit than the ones I had.

Here's a quick tech tip: When you think you only need 1 can of spray paint, buy 2. If you think you need 2 cans of paint, buy 3. Otherwise, like me, you'll run out of yellow caliper paint late at night when you can't go down to O'Reilly's and buy another.

Started trying to remove the seat rails, so I can replace the seats. Holy Moley! They definitely joined the car and the rails. Apparently there are spot welds that can be drilled out? I'm probably going to have to figure out where those welds are. I would guess there are more than two.

I received the tow straps that will be able to be bolted into the old bumper mount locations, in case the car needs towing. Required by most racing sanctions. After all, we know that old Fiats never need to be towed, right?
 

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Seat Tracks:

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

No, wait. Wrong question...

How many spot welds did Fiat use to connect the seat rail to the floorpan?

Answer: At least 9. Might be 10 or 11. Each and every one must be drilled out completely before you can pry the track off the floor.

I now have one seat rail off, and will work on the other 3 rails later.
 

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BOTH seat rails on drivers side removed. Brake calipers for right hand side ready to be put back together.

Getting dark now, at 5pm in FL. Man, I hate daylight savings time!
 

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Rear Brakes:

Yet another tech tip: When you have the rebuild kit for the rear brakes, it comes with a large o-ring for inside the caliper, an accordian ring for keeping dust out of the piston area, and a tiny o-ring for each side. The tiny o-ring is for the emergency brake actuator. Do not lose it. They do NOT sell it separately.

Guess who lost one? Now I can't complete the job until the new kit arrives.

Front brakes are both done!

Still have not gotten to replacing the master cylinders.

Oh well.
 
Front and Rear calipers are rebuilt, painted, and re-installed, over new rotors.

Started removing the slave cylinder for the clutch. Good thing I also ordered a new slave cylinder line, as the old one was way beyond its shelf life.

As with this restoration, it always seems to be one step forward and two steps back...

Now that I have the slave cylinder out of the way, the clutch seems to be 'frozen'. No actuation as far as I can tell from moving the clutch release lever. So, ordered a new clutch, which should be here by Friday, so I know where I'll be this weekend. Hopefully the flywheel is salvageable.

Also found more proof that whoever owned this 'gem' in the past did shoddy work and broke MANY things. The pipe fittings for the water connections on the drivers side of the engine? Yep, one of those is broken off partially. So I'll be fixing that as well.

Now, for the question for the masses... Is there any 'easy' way to remove the coolant pipes from underneath the car? With the amount of rust and silt I see there, I really don't want to hook up my shiny fancy aluminum radiator, just to have it filled with debris. I'd rather replace the coolant pipes with some stainless tubing.
 
Only took 2 hours to get the transmission removed. Found that the clutch disk was
a) Rusted to the pressure plate and flywheel
b) Too thick. Removed = 8.9mm, new = 7.3mm

Other than that, the old throwout bearing, pressure plate, and clutch disk are actually in pretty good shape. I wonder if someone got the wrong clutch disk for the application. Also, leaving it where rain can get to the clutch assembly through the access hole in the transmission bellhousing didn't help.

Tomorrow: Clean the transmission outside and bell housing, replace the transmission fluid, remove and install the new throwout bearing, clean the flywheel, and then install the NEW pressure plate and flywheel. THEN re-assembly, and I will be back where I started LAST weekend.
 

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Good effort! The coolant pipes go through a box section which is spot welded to the floor pan. Lots of drilling required.

Some people cut the pipes and install thinner copper pipes to make it easier.

You could just flush the old pipes and see how long they last for now.
 
Project X1/9: Flywheel removed, cleaned, rust removed, ready for reinstall. Sheetmetal behind flywheel wire brushed, first coat of rust restorer primer applied. Under-Engine/transmission support bar wire brushed, and first coat applied.

New pressure plate and clutch disc cleaned up, and ready to install.

Now, just need to manhandle that 91lb transmission & bellhousing around so I can clean it, replace the fluid, and get it ready for re-install.

I think I'll also look to see what it takes to replace the main seal at the end of the crankshaft. I mean, since I have it apart and everything...
 
Project X1/9: Finally made some progress today, with no bad news to set me back.

Drained oil from engine. Black and thick, but not gummy or gritty. Removed oil pan, and no chunks or bearing particles to be found.

Removed main seal carrier from flywheel end of engine, and cleaned it up.

Oil pan gasket and main seal carrier gasket both came away clean.

Now, just need to clean the oil pan and transmission, and wait for some parts to arrive mid-week (Gaskets and the seal), and I should be ready for re-assembly.

I did find that one of the CV joint rubber boots needs to be replaced. Cheap, and not too difficult to do.

Overall, a fine day.
 
While you have the sump off, you might check out the oil pump. Iirc on some of these sohc engines, the pressure relief valve could stick. Back in the day, I saw several oil filters burst when this happened... (was on 128 and 127GT, 1300 cc models, afaik similar to the X1/9 engine).

Great and thorough workmanship so far. (y)

Al.
 
Project X1/9: I have been cleaning up and preparing for a family visit. So, not a lot of time to devote to that 35 year old rascal Fiat.

Having said that, the oil pan needed a serious amount of elbow grease and love. Behold, before, and after (after disassembly followed by two hours of cleaning, scraping, wire brushing, cleaning some more, and reassembly followed by primer and final aluminum top coat).

Won't be able to work on it for a couple weeks, as family time is more important than garage time. And on that you can quote me. Expect to get greasy some more and start re-assembly of the engine parts and clutch and new oil, and then hook up the new fuel pressure regulator, and replace the master cylinders... Man, I just seem to be stuck on the same merry-go-round.
 

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My back went out again, so I was very limited in what I could accomplish. Didn't really get anything done for a few weeks. Starting to get back into it.

For you really car-geeky folks out there, here is todays Fiat X1/9 update:

Pulled off the rear main bearing cap, and determined that the thrust washer that I found in the oil pan was damaged. Straightened out the lower thrust washer half, cleaned everything up, and then reinstalled the main bearing cap WITH the lower half thrust washer in place. Looks like it should hold this time, and NOT drop the thrust washer lower half into the oil pan again.

For anyone that wonders, the thrust washer is in two halves and sits between the rear main bearing cap and the part of the crankshaft that the flywheel bolts to. The thrust washer is designed to reduce the end-to-end play of the crankshaft. The rear main bearing cap has a machined recess into which the lower thrust washer half sits. The recess is very very shallow, and in my case, the thrust washer half looks like it was flung out of it at some point, and ended up laying in the oil pan. If you are working on the bottom end of a 1500 sohc engine, the lower thrust washer has a bevel that should match the bevel in the end bearing cap.

Then, I re-installed the rear main seal which had been placed in the main seal carrier, and re-installed the (now clean and shiny) oil pan. Put in a new oil filter, and will refill the oil after I make one more round of re-torqueing the oil pan bolts.

Should have the flywheel installed tomorrow evening, along with the new clutch disk and new pressure plate.

Started cleaning the oil and accumulated dirt off of the transmission, and it looks like I am about 20 percent done so far. MAN that thing was UGLY!

I should be able to re-install the transmission on Saturday, and then re-assemble all of the parts and pieces that I had to disassemble in order to take out the clutch disk. Maybe I'll have it back together by Sunday sometime.

I still need to replace the CV joint boots, which will involve disassembly, cleaning and reassembly and greasing of the CV joints

Next project is to complete the installation of the aftermarket fuel pressure regulator, and replace the cold-start valve, so maybe I can get it to run better and actually rev beyond idle.

THEN, it's back to finishing the replacement of the clutch slave and master cylinder, and the brake master cylinder, and then top up the fluids and bleed the system.

What a journey. I am not so sure anymore that I will have it ready for the Fiat Freak Out at Disneyworld in August.
 
I am still cleaning the X1/9 transmission. It has reached the point where, at least, every time I touch it I don't have to say 'Eeeewwww! Yucky!"

I think another hour or two and I'll be ready for re-assembly.

It is almost 'Yeah, that should go in the car' clean. I won't bother getting it to 'Yeah, I could store that in the living room' clean.

So, I am another week behind my expectations. However, when all is said and done, it should make the car nicer to be around, and more pleasant to work on, when that time comes again.

This thing better last another 35 years when I'm done with it!
 

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Okay, now after another hour and a half with wire brush, scraper, nylon parts brush, 'Super Clean', and a hose with hot water, I pronounce the transmission to be fit for the Fiat.

I did find that whoever filled the transmission before me overfilled it by almost a quart. Could be why it was so messy, between the rear main seal, and the transmission breather valve spewing transmission oil.

Next up: Some Assembly Gonna Happen, fer shur!

After I get the garage a bit more cleaned up, and the major components back in place, I need to get the CV joints removed from the axles, cleaned, greased, the axles cleaned and re-painted, and the CV boots replaced, before I re-install the axles.

Then get the fuel pressure regulator replaced, and the master and slave cylinders and the hydraulic fluid and reservoir and new hoses, and, and, and...
 
Project Mutant update: It is truly a thing of beauty. Flywheel mounted and torqued to spec, clutch pressure plate and new disc in place, and torqued, transmission clean and new throwout bearing in place and clipped to the actuator arm.

Took a chance, and found out that an Empi VW Air-cooled flywheel lock works perfectly for holding the Fiat flywheel in place (and only costs $11). So much easier to torque when you have the right tools. I know people that use vice grips and screwdrivers and etc. to hold the flywheel in place, but frankly that sounds like a recipe for a minor disaster in my hands.

At this point, I am ready to put the transaxle back into place, and will need a spare set of hands to do so. Need someone to operate the engine hoist and lift and lower the transaxle whilst I wrangle it into place. May need to borrow a family member to get that done.
 

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Project Mutant: Transmission is back on the engine, starter is in place, everything seems 'better' now.

Found another potential source of trans oil leakage, as the rubber boot for the shift linkage on the transmission side has split. Ordered a new one.

Will hold off on finishing the re-install until after I get the shift boot replaced. No sense in encouraging leaks or having to do it a second time.

While waiting for the new boot, I will start working on the CV joints. Should have the transmission/clutch/shifter/axles wrapped up by next weekend.

WooHoo! Then onto the remainder of the list!
 
Is there not also a seal inside the casing where the gearshift shaft exits the transmission ?

I.e. the boot is to keep dirt away from the seal and stop the shaft from rusting? not to keep the oil in ?

Did you not remove the engine and transmission as one unit?. This makes it easier to refit same when working alone. (as far as I can recall!)

AL.
 
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