Reviving a 1973 X1/9 Art Car

NEG said:
Great work JT that’s some ‘mission creep‘ right there! Hope the top lip healed up OK 👍
Click to expand...
This has be the most "mission creep" or "project drift" I've ever encountered on a classic Fiat. Some days it feels like I'm hitting my head against a wall, but I still think the car is worth saving.

My lip healed in about a week, but I'll be more careful around swinging brake calipers...
 
JTBernhardt said:
That was a crazy week. This car was at a friend's house about a half mile down Skyline from Alice's Restaurant and I had to sneak into the evacuation zone to go evacuate this X1/9 and help my friend relocate his classic cars.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I'm about a half mile south of Alice's off Skyline. You were lucky to get through the checkpoints. I heard that a number of people got in through Old La Honda Road which often had nobody at the checkpoint.

There is one other Fiat guy in the neighborhood that I know of. He has an old 850 coupe and an 87 X with a Corsa kit on it. I helped him get the X started after it sat under a tree for a long time.

I usually fill up at Alice's as I rarely take the X down the hill. Always seems to draw a bunch of car people over to have a look.
 
dllubin said:
Interesting. I'm about a half mile south of Alice's off Skyline. You were lucky to get through the checkpoints. I heard that a number of people got in through Old La Honda Road which often had nobody at the checkpoint.

There is one other Fiat guy in the neighborhood that I know of. He has an old 850 coupe and an 87 X with a Corsa kit on it. I helped him get the X started after it sat under a tree for a long time.

I usually fill up at Alice's as I rarely take the X down the hill. Always seems to draw a bunch of car people over to have a look.
Click to expand...
We drove up Old La Honda road in the Boxster, a sheriff was about to close the road as we drove through. I decided to put my foot down rather than look to see if he was following and made it safely to my friend's place (Aka the M house).

I has to swap in a new lolipop linkage with ashes falling on me, but I was able to drive the car out of the fire danger zone.

I love going to Alice's in my X1/9's, except that one time an old guy killed his 911 and rolled back into my 1975 X1/9. He at least paid for the damages, but it was pretty nerve wracking.
 
JTBernhardt said:
We drove up Old La Honda road in the Boxster, a sheriff was about to close the road as we drove through. I decided to put my foot down rather than look to see if he was following and made it safely to my friend's place (Aka the M house).

I has to swap in a new lolipop linkage with ashes falling on me, but I was able to drive the car out of the fire danger zone.

I love going to Alice's in my X1/9's, except that one time an old guy killed his 911 and rolled back into my 1975 X1/9. He at least paid for the damages, but it was pretty nerve wracking.
Click to expand...
When in doubt, put your foot down! Nice move.

If the M house is the one with the M flag on the east side of Skyline, that's maybe 100 yards as the crow flies from my place. I remember when that house last changed hands, there was a fire in the guest house (Christmas Eve??) shortly after the new owner moved in. Looks like they got it just about rebuilt now but that must have been a major bummer at the time. I hope he is enjoying the new surroundings. There used to be a gearhead in the house next to him with an Austin Healy 3000 with a small block Chevy in it. The guy between that house and mine was a sprint car racer running on dirt oval tracks. He also had an incredible machine shop at his place with a Bridgeport and some real heavy duty TIG stuff for building race cars.

We try to avoid the crowds (weekends) when we go to Alice's. They were instrumental in the fire fight last summer as they kept the fire crews fed. Volunteers were allowed to bring the food through the checkpoints as far south as the Santa Cruz county line. I heard that there were a couple of Woodside high rollers that gave them credit card numbers and told them to start putting the tab on their cards. Before the fire, they did a great job of setting up to safely feed people during COVID. They were also delivering meals to folks that were unable to leave their homes.

I guess if someone is going to hit your car, a 911 would likely do a whole lot less damage than the SUVs or pickups which tend to dominate Alice's parking lot. Hopefully, you've got it taken care of. The 73 looks killer!
 
Nice work! So - you bought two cars , both have the same livery?

You said " waited a decade", however you look as if you must have been about 10-15 yrs old a decade ago.... 😜
 
Really great thread, photos, details and info. Especially for rookies like me. Always helpful to have lots of quality pics. That’s a wild, 70’s paint job too :)
 
dllubin said:
When in doubt, put your foot down! Nice move.

If the M house is the one with the M flag on the east side of Skyline, that's maybe 100 yards as the crow flies from my place. I remember when that house last changed hands, there was a fire in the guest house (Christmas Eve??) shortly after the new owner moved in. Looks like they got it just about rebuilt now but that must have been a major bummer at the time. I hope he is enjoying the new surroundings. There used to be a gearhead in the house next to him with an Austin Healy 3000 with a small block Chevy in it. The guy between that house and mine was a sprint car racer running on dirt oval tracks. He also had an incredible machine shop at his place with a Bridgeport and some real heavy duty TIG stuff for building race cars.

We try to avoid the crowds (weekends) when we go to Alice's. They were instrumental in the fire fight last summer as they kept the fire crews fed. Volunteers were allowed to bring the food through the checkpoints as far south as the Santa Cruz county line. I heard that there were a couple of Woodside high rollers that gave them credit card numbers and told them to start putting the tab on their cards. Before the fire, they did a great job of setting up to safely feed people during COVID. They were also delivering meals to folks that were unable to leave their homes.

I guess if someone is going to hit your car, a 911 would likely do a whole lot less damage than the SUVs or pickups which tend to dominate Alice's parking lot. Hopefully, you've got it taken care of. The 73 looks killer!
Click to expand...
That's the house! They just passed final inspection last week, the new house is stunning. He's a major gearhead himself. I occasionally do some work on his 308GT4.

Alice's is great, especially on Tuesdays.

The '75 only suffered a broken rear bumper block.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top