Josh Epp's Restoration

[Jepp78bertone]

Hey Xweb community!
My name is Josh. I am 17, and I live in Winnipeg Canada. I have been part of this most amazing forum for the last year or so, and ever since I started my fiat x19 project, I've wanted to put together some sort of "resto-blog" kinda thing.
Now, I'm no where near completing this project, but I thought It would be fun to post my progress in hopes that it will provide me with more advise from all of you wise experts out there. Especially since i'm only 17 and the closest thing to a resto i've done are plastic car models. :help:

This whole thing started one day when I was 15 and I was browsing kijiji and stumbled upon this unique looking tiny mid-engine car, that had no information posted, the seller just wanted it gone. It took some convincing of the mother, but finally me and my dad went to take a look at this back lane sleeper.

My mom was pleased when I came home that day with my first "car" sittin on a trailer on the drive way. It was a 1978 x19 with no drivetrain.... 1/4 of the metal was swiss cheese hidden underneath 1/2 an inch of bondo... and 2 different styles of rims. BUT, atleast it did come with 3 sets of seats.... and a haynes manual that was half eatin by a squirrel that also left a pound of nutshells underneath the carpet. I had never been more excited to get my hands dirty and to get to work.

Moms house rules came into play and she made me put the car in the backyard, but that didnt hold me back from staying up all night washing it with the hose. Paint wasn't even to bad, just caked in dirt.
It didnt take long before I started to see what I was getting myself into. No floors and lots of body work ahead of me with all the dings and dents that were hidden beneath the deceiving dirt.

It was around that time that I was searching for more information about the car, searching the internet for sites with pictures, details, and specs about the fiat, and let me tell ya! It didnt take long before i found out that Xweb was the place I needed to be.

I started tearing through parts, trying to figure out how to organize myself before I lost anything. The backroom in my basement became my workshop. lol

I hear these seats are pretty rare... which is funny, because I got them for free... i just asked the seller if he would throw them into the deal and he did! I'm thinkin they'll look good with an all black and white interior.

I've got a lot of pictures and progress to upload, so bear with me.
Thanks folks,

 

[Jepp78bertone]

PHOTO UPLOAD

...I need some help. Can someone walk me through how to upload photos properly.

 

[budgetzagato]

Pic links are messed up, I tried to fix but can't quite. Can you edit your post and use the image links from your photobucket account?

 

[budgetzagato]

On your photobucket page, click on the "IMG code" link over on the right, it should turn yellow and say "copied."

Paste that directly into your post while editing.

Another method is to past the "Direct link" link into your post using the little mountain icon at the top of the edit window, this is essentially doing the same thing.

Hope this helps.

 

[ng_randolph]

JimD posted a video tutorial in this post and a follow-up in this thread.

 

[Jepp78bertone]

Thank you!

Photo upload is so simple now. Thanks budgetzagato!

 

[Jepp78bertone]

more

I had to wait for winter to pass to pull the car out of the back yard to start actually working on it. And up here in "Winterpeg" winter is typically from late October all the way into March and sometimes even into early April. So after that long wait I pulled her onto the drive way and started taking everything off i could to get it to just bare body. At this point I knew It was gonna be full out restoration. I know I'm young, but that gives me lots of time to do it right.

the frunk floor will need some serious help. Not sure what to do there but I'm sure someone that has done it before can give me some advice.

You can clearly see the cracking bondo job nicely hiding the rotten metal on the left hand lower panel here....

A buddy of mine had seen another x19 on Kijiji a while later and right away told me about it. I knew at one point or another I would need some sort of parts car, so I didnt hesitate to buy it. It turned over, but didnt drive. It had been sitting for 8 or so years. However, it was a 79 1.5L. But! Initially i intended on trying to find a 1500 5 speed. So it was a perfect match. I picked it up for 200 bucks and stuck it in the back yard. (Mom thinks im an idiot buying two piles of junk now, one in the backyard, and one on her driveway..)

Well back to work! Since it was finally nice enough to work outside again, I decided that during the sunny seasons I would work on the body side of things, and during winter I would try and tackle the Mechanical side of things. I really don't have any experience in any of this so everything became an adventure.

I started hammering out the dents, gettin everything has straight as i possible could before laying a bit off filler on.

then a quick coat of primer just to make it look like a did something.

The seller of the 78 only gave me 3 rims, but I'm still on his tail trying to get the 4th one.

I also picked up a set of these, not sure what they are, but I didnt want to pass up the opportunity of 4x98 rims that were for sale locally.

amateur body work at its finest.

Now this is probably going to be the biggest challenge of the whole project. After removing the windshield I discovered that the surround metal was almost completely rusted on the bottom, all the way up to about 3 inches on the pillars.

I really dont know what the plan is for this problem. Any suggestions?

 

[budgetzagato]

Ah...

.. to be 17 again. Actually I still feel like that sometimes.

In my head.

Looks like a great project, please keep us updated. :thumbsup:

 

[strangepod]

Fantastic! Cudos to you on taking this on! Please keep us updated!

John

 

[geekdaddy]

Hey Josh

That's an ambitious and impressive project. I don't think I could have taken on something like that when I was 17.

Looks like you're making a lot of progress -- keep up the good work. There are a lot of helpful folks here when you have questions!

 

[Jepp78bertone]

More stuff

thanks for the support guys! I'll try my best to keep it updated!

At this point in the project I knew summer was coming to an end, and I would have to go back to school for my last year of highschool. Initially my plan was to attempt to have the project done for my graduation, but I think it will be a little bit of an ambitious goal. Im still aiming for it though.

I love this picture. I've slowly taken over the garage... :king:

Just before school started again in August, I was part of a group that travelled to Kenya to serve on a building team to help build a school, as well as volunteer in a children's Home called the Nest. The nest is a place that I've been fundraising for with my school for the last few years, and It was such a blessing to visit it.

these are some of my prized photographs of the wildlife on the masai mara. Completely off topic, but com'n, I love showing them off.

and how about a little peugeot 205 gti for ya!

ANYWAYS! back to the project.
A little while later in fall 2012, a fellow Canadian xweber, Chuck Storey
sold me a whole bunch of stuff that I was struggling to get my hands on. It arrived in the best box possible. It sat on my doorstep until i got home from school! EARLY CHRISTMAS!

heres the box, inside is wayyy better then a flatscreen yo.

barely used KYB replacement struts with front springs cut wayyyy to much. PLUS! BONUS GIFT, they already came with Plaia Pivots!

Almost perfect black carpet! Gonna look sooo good with the white seats!

Red tail lights! Im going for the early style, bumperless look.

VERY STRAIGHT early style front air dam

Chuck was great doing business with!

Well, This basically brings us to my most recent work. Since it looks like this outside....I've had to move to the engine and transmission part of the project down in the basement.

Luckily I got the engine out right before snowfall and I've been workin on it all winter.
To lift the car up, I got my hands on an I-beam clamp, and used a chain hoist system to basically suspend the whole car in the air high enough to drop the engine, and slide it out. Unfortunately I broke one of the control arm bushings.... What do I do?

ENGINE BUILD
a Little bit (well actually alot...) of engine cleaner and some serious scrubbing and washing, this monster of an engine is gonna sparkle.
I've taken apart and cleaned almost the whole thing, painted some parts, and ordered all my gaskets and seals.

almost ready for a paintjob. Just needs to be honed and possibly skimmed for trueness.

I dont know enough about engine builds, but can someone direct onto the path about what piston rings i should get? Im hoping my cylinders are still good and it doesnt need to be any over, but I need to get a shop to look at it. You can also see the dual 36dcnf's i picked up from a guy in Saskatchewan for.... for... $100! I just need rebuild kits for them.

I got carbycleaner in my eyes cleaning these things. serious pita....

comparing the 1300(right) and 1500(left)

For the oil sump, I cleaned it up and used high heat aluminum paint.
turned out great!

painted the crank and aux seal plates, aswell as pressed in new seals. Its gonna look good with allllllll zinc plated nuts and bolts.

My Cylinder head is a problem project in it self. As I was cleaning it up, I was shocked to notice a huge chunk of aluminum missing on the side.

and also the of the cam tower bolt holes are 1/2 way down stripped!

I dont even know If i can use this head anymore? Or is there a way to get this fixed?

I even cleaned up the distributer

This is one my favourite parts cleaned up. The coolant tank. It was painted black when it came out of the car, and I right away sanded off the paint and polished it to the best I could.

I've got all my nuts and bolts at a shop here in Winnipeg, that is zinc plating all of my nuts and bolts for free! my dad has a friend :headbang:

In the mean time Ive been busy just bringing life back into parts.
heres the steering rack for example

Ordered some shiny parts!
Not sure If I'm forsure going to try this route or not, but I picked up a supertrapp exhaust thing... Theres a guy on this forum thats got one, its a blue car, and i loved the look of it, but i have no idea if will end up using it or not.. any suggestions are welcomed.

mhmmmm shinyyyyyy
Brakelabs on ebay shipped me these.

The last part of my upload for today is my mock up interior!
For fun a set my whole interior in my basement. Just to see what it will look like.

Apart from the brown centre console, i'd say it looks pretty good. I did buy a black centre console, I just took this picture before I had received it.

It'll be a five speed instead. I do however really like the look of the 4 speed shifter. Hopefully I'll be able to use it.

Well! thats all for today! It would be great to get some advice on some the questions i through in there.
Hopefully my next upload will have an engine that is coming together and some transmission rebuild progress. Ive printed out the 5speed101 booklet and it has helped alot in the disassembly stage of the tranny, but i have run into the problem of cracked part of the casing. It looks like i'll be looking for a new transmission, or just the flywheel side casing.

Thanks again xwebers, Its been fun.
Josh

 

[JimD]

Impressive work Josh

You are making great progress Josh, just keep at it and you will be rewarded for all your hard work. Black and white is a great color combo for a 78, so you should paint it black for sure.

I project that your X will end up looking a lot like mine. Although my 78 has brown carpet, dash and console. Well, he console side pads match the seats, but the plastic is brown.

I am in the process of converting my X from 1300/carb to 1500/FI. I am not making as much progress as you are though.

Good luck with your project and thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[strangepod]

Very nice Josh! However the coolant tank, yeaaaaa, I think you will need to send that to me, I won't look good with the white interior!:lol:

John

 

[JimMW]

Great work!

Really nice work, Josh; you have a ton of ambition!

As for the supertrapp... I have a supertrapp end (just a welded on tip, not a muffler like you have) on a short straight pipe that comes from a 4-2-1 header. It is LOUD. I imagine yours will be more quiet than mine, but likely still on the louder side. They are tune-able though, both for sound and power. By playing around with adding and removing disks I got mine to where I like it power wise, by seat of the pants feel anyway. I'd say just use it since you already have it, and if you don't like it, it won't be too major to switch to a quieter muffler.

Keep up the good work!

 

[al_ngl]

Cool project and nice work, Josh. Looks like you make progress pretty quickly. It's great to see more younger people getting into these cars. I'm only 21, and I think there are only ten or so people on this site younger than all the cars we celebrate here. I think the growing young ownership speaks to the timelessness of the X1/9. Keep up the good work and keep posting up pictures!

 

[Black-Tooth]

Great work Josh...

I can only assume this is your first project but it looks like you are pretty adept at body work, as well as engine tear-downs!

I don't know if you were given any suggestions about the windshield rust...but if the metal is stable... then the rust too can be "stabilized" as well. Check out the Eastwood Company and also Summit Racing for various methods and products.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Mickey Dale]

Great thread! Keep up the good work and also the supply of pictures!

Mickey

 

[Ellychiprout]

Josh, after reading everything, and looking at the photographs, including the ones about your trip to Africa, I can easily conclude that you are a very intelligent and dignified person. Your parents are surely extremely proud of you, as I would be if you were my son. I congratulate you for being brave enough to accept this great challenge, and sincerely hope that as time passes by you continue making progress and solve every obstacle that comes in your way, not only with the X, but every other project you get involved into. The people in this forum are great persons also, and are ready in all aspects to help you with practically anything that you may ask or need. I wish you continued success.

 

[budgetzagato]

We were in Kenya in April...

Helping promote Friendly Water For The World's bio-sand water filters. Sent time in Kisumu, Nairobi, and traveled around a bit as tourists. Perspective changing trip is the short version.

 

[Bitpoh]

First consideration in X1/9 restoration

They do multiply.

I had a nice cozy place in our garage until I encouraged my husband to buy an X1/9.

Also, get a tap and die set.