Build Thread for La Bambina Azzura.

Bobkat

1979 x1/9
A little late as the build is underway already. I picked up a low Km 1979 in August. It had been off the road for 15 or so years but is a solid car with almost no rust. Only where there are scratches. The paint is in need of a respray and will be done in Porsche Mexico Blue to kind of brighten up the OEM Fiat Blue.

The car was running but had a few carb issues (leaking like a sieve) Not too concerned about the motor as we will be doing a swap, but it has to be able to be moved around under its own power. Foolishly just pulled all the plugs and wires and distributor for replacement and could not get it running. After a lot of head scratching figured out the previous owner had de smogged the motor along with a electric fuel pump and somehow installed the timing belt 180 degrees out, and had filed a whole bunch of alternate timing marks on the cam pulley. New belt and a billet pulley and proper clocking and all good. Well good after all new proper jets.

I will have to go back through pictures to show what has been done to this point. But Coil overs, front and rear sway bars, big bumpers removed and new CF bumperetts under way, New grill and chin spoiler all fabbed up. 3D printed front hedlight fillers and copied early marker light with LEDs. Lots of other body and interior mods to come.

Everything worked on the car but decided to update all the usual wiring mods along with LEDs and LED projector headlights. Lada blade fuse bar is the last thing to do but will wait till I have the dash out for rework and refinish and brake and clutch cylinder replacement.

So the first images are of the finished wire upgrades. BWM, Headliht relay, WW relay upgrade, big horn ready. I also have two breakers and trickle charger connectors. In the image you will also notice a re location of the speedo cable ( what a stupid OEM location) to remove the tight bends and I 3D printed some flexible gromits for the new body holes. I also 3D printed all new body blug gromets.

Looking forward to sharing the build with you guys.

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Looks great. I'm definitely interested in hearing all the details. Agree completely with things like the speedo cable relocation, electrical mods (yours certainly are comprehensive), bumper removal, coil-overs, etc....just the way I like em. Can't wait to hear more.
 
Did that battery clamp setup come on the later cars? Mine has just a plastic cover over the battery held on with clear plastic thumbscrews over two studs.
 
Did that battery clamp setup come on the later cars? Mine has just a plastic cover over the battery held on with clear plastic thumbscrews over two studs.
Early cars had a strap/frame kinda thing to secure the battery, that screwed down on the studs that also hold down the cover. Later cars had the clamp at the base of the battery to hold the battery, and still had the cover.
 
My ‘74 has the clamp at the bottom just like my ‘85. I assumed it was original. The thread hole is.

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Early cars had a strap/frame kinda thing to secure the battery, that screwed down on the studs that also hold down the cover. Later cars had the clamp at the base of the battery to hold the battery, and still had the cover.
 

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Looks great. I'm definitely interested in hearing all the details. Agree completely with things like the speedo cable relocation, electrical mods (yours certainly are comprehensive), bumper removal, coil-overs, etc....just the way I like em. Can't wait to hear more.

Thanks. I don't plan on a long drawn out build so hopefully it will all be done for May 2020.
 
Those are nice, how did you make them?

I do these a lot for custom emblems for cars, motorcycles and guitars. I have modified a large inkjet printer that can take plate, the Yellow ink is a chemical resist pigment. The designs are then chemically etched, cut out with jewelers saws, surfaces polished or brushed and painted with various paints to get the mother of pearl look. I then put a bubble of epoxy on top to give it that deep look.
 
For many decades I've been building custom cars. Mostly for myself, although there was a period (back in the '80s) when I ran a shop creating customs for customers. One dream I had for the customer cars was to design a unique logo for each build, specialized to the specific project car and owner. Then I wanted to have that logo turned into custom badges for the car, a matching shirt for the owner, and things like letterhead, show displays, business cards, etc, available to the owner if desired. At that time the technology did not exist to do anything like you describe. So it came down to paying a talented artist to make things by hand, which would have been enormously expensive and very limited in application.
 
This technique is old school print making. I do a lot of just hand painting or pinstriping to make the graphics and the resists. A lot of the time I use other techniques to just age the metal etchings. This build had a lot of etching and emblems. And a tone of Carbon Fiber.

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This is beautiful work :)

Could you make a nose emblem that says Bertone - iVTEC instead of "Torino" ? :D
Anything can be done. I will be making some sort of engine related badge once I finalize the motor option. I guess there maybe enough Honda/Acura swaps to make up some? Had been planing on a fully built ZX-10R motor that I have but now leaning to a 07K 2.5 . Some how fitting to have half a Lambo motor back there with ITBs just behind the glass seems proper.
 
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What size tires are you running?

currently it has Toyo Proxies RA1's 185/60 R13 front and 205/60 R13. Will be moving to 195/50 15 front and 225/50 15 . I realize that I will need to do some body adjustments but I think it is better off doing them now to take a more commonly available size for future tires. 13s are as rare as hens teeth in performance tires and even 15s are getting harder to find. If anybody is interested the almost no miles RA1s will be for sale soon.
 
Anything can be done. I will be making some sort of engine related badge once I finalize the motor option. I guess there maybe enough Honda/Acura swaps to make up some? Had been planing on a fully built ZX-10R motor that I have but now leaning to a 07K 2.5 . Some how fitting to have half a Lambo motor back there with ITBs just behind the glass seems proper.

A 5-cyl X1/9 is certainly going to be unique if you can make it fit. In other markets FIAT had a turbo 2.0L 5-cyl that was about 215HP, came in the FIAT Coupe.
 
Have you been watching Boost Brothers Garage on youtube? I have been appreciating the sound (shriek) of V10's and IL5's for a while.

Very cool work with the badges and the etching.
 
currently it has Toyo Proxies RA1's 185/60 R13 front and 205/60 R13. Will be moving to 195/50 15 front and 225/50 15 . I realize that I will need to do some body adjustments but I think it is better off doing them now to take a more commonly available size for future tires. 13s are as rare as hens teeth in performance tires and even 15s are getting harder to find. If anybody is interested the almost no miles RA1s will be for sale soon.
The pic looks like 15s are installed??
If you plan to go "low" 195/50s might not fit well in the front.
I'm running 185/45s all round with rolled front fenders, for reference. Gonna bump up to 195/45 or 50s, in the rear. I'll be watching this thread. GL
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