Remembering Mac

MarkF

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Staff member
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I thought about the anniversary a few weeks before and then forgot to commemorate. It was 10 years ago, just ahead of Thanksgiving. He may be gone but his vision for an community of enthusiasts remains alive and well.

J1st2k-07.jpg
 
Sure wich I could have met him. I was there that week. I was able to contact Greg but he wasn't able to contact Mac.
 
Mac-X is sitting as a very rusting carcass in Sullivan, NH. I don't know what to do at this point, as the car and my situation has some serious challenges.
The situation with the car at this stage:
I donated $300 for the car to Mac's Mom, then spent another $1,200 to ship it to New Hampshire.
I spent about $100 to strip off the black paint that was on it, bringing it back to it's original color, bought a left front panel, obtained a nose panels from a donor car I had bought for donor parts, 2 new floorboard and had those welded on and with conversations with others decided to have the car "dipped" to make it a rust free car. It looked really good after the dip process.
That dipping process cost me another $1,600, but my assumption was that would protect the metal moving forward. But I was very wrong. Instead of protecting the metal, the "bi-layers " of the X retained a lot of that chemical that slowly continued eating away. Instead of an acid, it was now an alkaline doing the job. Bottom line: You can't dry a uni-body completely and you can't get the chemical completely out of those layers. At the time, I did not know that. The car looked beautiful on the outside, but inside, bad things were happening and I didn't know it.
So, with me not knowing what was happening about the internal rust, my body shop guy had a family emergency where his daughter needed help regarding a medical emergency, so the project was delayed for over a month. In that time, the humidity (high here in August) began working on the exterior of the car. The beautiful shiny metal of the car had a light rust haze all over it. I was upset about it at the time and the body guy offered to have it media blasted and epoxy primed at his expense, but I told him out of compassion for his situation that I would handle the cost of it if he would finish the project, so I spent another $1000 on that and he began working on it again. A couple weeks later, he called me and wanted me to look at the car because bad things were happening. (I have photos but I won't post much here today)
I looked at the front trunk area, and rust was coming through the inner pillar on both sides. Also, all 4 wheel wells had rust coming through from the the back of the metal to the front. (bubbling the epoxy primer) The car was on a rotating stand, so we rotated the car 180 degrees and fluids were still coming out of it. It was obvious that if I spent another $5,000 to paint the car at this stage, it wouldn't last a month.
In the mean-time, I'm sitting on a huge pile of parts, literally the entire car's inventory here in pieces, most new or restored to be like new. Every piece, ready to go. About $20K worth when I added it up. I've had lots of thoughts on how to approach this, but there are other complications as you finish reading. That's where the car is at right now. It exists, but in pieces with status pending.

My situation:
I remain healthy and ambitious as always but there have been a few changes that have changed my priorities quite radically.
I've not mentioned it before now but my wife had an incident with her breathing a few years back and it was later diagnosed as PVOD in her lungs.
You can google it, it's quite serious and has changed our priorities moving forward. Just shy of 2 months ago she had the rare opportunity of a dual lung transplant performed by some gifted doctors and by the generous donation of a deceased young person's family. The recovery time for this is not measured in days, but months and possibly years. Transplantation is not a cure, it's a trade of symptoms. She went from a person with bad lungs to a person who is now diabetic and tube fed for 12 hours a day on a regimen of anti-rejection meds. For now at least. There's a lot more to it, but my role has changed a bit as of late, so the Mac-X restoration project is on hold for the foreseeable future.

The photo below shows the rust that was inside the coolant tunnel after it was removed. I have a new coolant tunnel to install but you can see the rust that has accumulated after all the money and work was applied. If you look further, you can see a lot of rust forming in other areas as well, and this car saw zero rain or water after the dip process was completed. The results are quite disappointing.
Mac-X CoolantTunnel.jpg
 
Mac-X is sitting as a very rusting carcass in Sullivan, NH. I don't know what to do at this point, as the car and my situation has some serious challenges.
The situation with the car at this stage:
I donated $300 for the car to Mac's Mom, then spent another $1,200 to ship it to New Hampshire.
I spent about $100 to strip off the black paint that was on it, bringing it back to it's original color, bought a left front panel, obtained a nose panels from a donor car I had bought for donor parts, 2 new floorboard and had those welded on and with conversations with others decided to have the car "dipped" to make it a rust free car. It looked really good after the dip process.
That dipping process cost me another $1,600, but my assumption was that would protect the metal moving forward. But I was very wrong. Instead of protecting the metal, the "bi-layers " of the X retained a lot of that chemical that slowly continued eating away. Instead of an acid, it was now an alkaline doing the job. Bottom line: You can't dry a uni-body completely and you can't get the chemical completely out of those layers. At the time, I did not know that. The car looked beautiful on the outside, but inside, bad things were happening and I didn't know it.
So, with me not knowing what was happening about the internal rust, my body shop guy had a family emergency where his daughter needed help regarding a medical emergency, so the project was delayed for over a month. In that time, the humidity (high here in August) began working on the exterior of the car. The beautiful shiny metal of the car had a light rust haze all over it. I was upset about it at the time and the body guy offered to have it media blasted and epoxy primed at his expense, but I told him out of compassion for his situation that I would handle the cost of it if he would finish the project, so I spent another $1000 on that and he began working on it again. A couple weeks later, he called me and wanted me to look at the car because bad things were happening. (I have photos but I won't post much here today)
I looked at the front trunk area, and rust was coming through the inner pillar on both sides. Also, all 4 wheel wells had rust coming through from the the back of the metal to the front. (bubbling the epoxy primer) The car was on a rotating stand, so we rotated the car 180 degrees and fluids were still coming out of it. It was obvious that if I spent another $5,000 to paint the car at this stage, it wouldn't last a month.
In the mean-time, I'm sitting on a huge pile of parts, literally the entire car's inventory here in pieces, most new or restored to be like new. Every piece, ready to go. About $20K worth when I added it up. I've had lots of thoughts on how to approach this, but there are other complications as you finish reading. That's where the car is at right now. It exists, but in pieces with status pending.

My situation:
I remain healthy and ambitious as always but there have been a few changes that have changed my priorities quite radically.
I've not mentioned it before now but my wife had an incident with her breathing a few years back and it was later diagnosed as PVOD in her lungs.
You can google it, it's quite serious and has changed our priorities moving forward. Just shy of 2 months ago she had the rare opportunity of a dual lung transplant performed by some gifted doctors and by the generous donation of a deceased young person's family. The recovery time for this is not measured in days, but months and possibly years. Transplantation is not a cure, it's a trade of symptoms. She went from a person with bad lungs to a person who is now diabetic and tube fed for 12 hours a day on a regimen of anti-rejection meds. For now at least. There's a lot more to it, but my role has changed a bit as of late, so the Mac-X restoration project is on hold for the foreseeable future.

The photo below shows the rust that was inside the coolant tunnel after it was removed. I have a new coolant tunnel to install but you can see the rust that has accumulated after all the money and work was applied. If you look further, you can see a lot of rust forming in other areas as well, and this car saw zero rain or water after the dip process was completed. The results are quite disappointing.
View attachment 39342
Bob so sorry to hear of you and your wife’s issues. My wife and I have been together since 1981 and I cannot fathom all you are working through, though I know the commitment.

It’s a car, it may represent in some measure and be of a person we all valued but pales in the face of you and your partner’s journey.

My thoughts are with you.

Karl
 
Bob, I am very sorry to hear that.
Of course, health is so much more important that rusty metal.
I sincerely hope for the best for your wife's recovery.

That dipping process did sound good.
But the X1/9 body just may be to complicated for this to work out.
I would not feel comfortable painting this car either.
Given the state of the car (rusty X filled with agressive chemicals), it is probably a time bomb.

Therefore I, as member #1 (Mac was #0), would like to hereby relieve you of the responsibility for this car that you so graciously took on.
I am half-serious here, pleaso don't feel any pressure to bring this car back to life.
You acted in best intentions, spending lots of time and effort to bring back the MacX.
I hope to speak for everyone involved, if this X1/9 shell can't be saved, don't feel bad to abandon the project.
It was an honorable endeavor, but you don't owe anybody anything.
 
So sorry to hear about your wife. One of my best friends was the first double lung transplant for CF. He has done amazingly well but the initial recovery was rough. Our thoughts are with you both.
 
Is there a place I can go to read about Mac and his story? I know nothing at all about him.
 
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