What did you do to your X1/9 today ?

autox19 said:
Visited the x today. Glad I got it up on jack stands! The part that looks like water is actually about 2 inches of ice with a layer of water on top. And the trunk lid was on the car not on the ground.
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Odie
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What's the problem with a little ice time for the X Odie? It does have a Red Wings plate on it. :p
 
Todays list after 3 cold months in storage.

Not in any particular order:

1. Burped and installed a genuine Fiat crush washer on the radiator...
2. Fixed one unknown coolant leak
3. Re-torqued all the lug-nuts, inflated tires
4. Did partial check of vacuum lines (will finish tomorrow)
5. Put the battery on a trickle charger for the night
6. Rinsed the dust off
7. Sat in DC Metro area traffic for an extended test drive
8. Checked the other fluids

Good times!

Ed
 
And to continue from yesterday more fun with a 30+ year old car... I went through all of the vacuum lines and discovered that the "high quality" silicon lines get really soft when they are hot and clearly leak.. I put a zip-tie around a couple and now my idle is more stable.. As @carl suggested, I am going to throw them out and go for some good rubber ones...

Yesterday I discovered a coolant leak off of the bottom radiator hose. I fixed it but I still smell coolant around the front of the car when the engine is hot. No visible leaks and it passed the white paper towel test on the floor... More fun for this weekend!
 
It made it all the way to 52F here in STL today, so I fired up the 85X and the 124 Special. Surprisingly, both started on the first twist of the key with little cranking needed. Since we had a LOT of rain over the last week here, I figured it was safe for a short drive in each. Everything went smoothly, except for some d00d in a VW mini van jockeying for cell phone pictures of the X. He swerved into my lane twice. Good thing he didn't hit me, there was no one in the van's passenger and a dent would have let his wife know he had taken her van out for a drive.;) :p :cool:
 
I didn't get too wild and crazy over the winter solstice, just added Ricardo Borja's Badges, and installed a complete set of new to Pascale CD-30 rims and tires with OEM Abarth center caps. It was extremely lovely here in the Pacific Northwest, so she escorted me to work yesterday :)

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Chad C. said:
Please say the 124 Coupe is indoors?
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No, it's got a fitted cover; I was just in it yesterday, not even smelling musty. Waiting just behind HF garage tent where I've been pulling the 2L motor from the '79 spider-donor. I have my replacement X windshield laid over the coupe's, all's well currently. Spider should go away mid-April, should have motor in by end of summer.
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Took a drive with the top off for the first time this year! Great to be back outside!
 
" Paint prep sucks. It’s like 50 hours of washing dishes, with less certain results." WELL PUT!
Right there with you! After prepping our 79 for paint (& how many other projects in life), I feel like I am SO done with it.
We didn't have any slave labor available, but our pup did supervise (see page 111 of this thread). What color are you going to paint it?
 
I should admit that I’m better at bodywork/paint & interior than drivetrain.
Of course the joy of each depends on the specific task. Having removed the intake manifolds from a few different Fiat/Lancia twin cams, spending an hour per stud on the ones you can’t see brought me zero joy. However, dialing in the carbs with a synchroneter after getting the requisite manifold on is something I can do all day.

I do like that the car finally at least looks different after removing the lizard skin texture of weathered paint with some 60 & 120 grit.

I have a comfy Danish modern lounge chair next to the car for fine cigar smoking and a 3/4 view of the work as it sits. Smoke, sand, smoke, sand, smirk...

I’ve done a couple motorbikes and some collision repair but never an entire car.

I’ll be testing colors along the way with 2k aerosol cans, I’m still not sure what color the car wants to be.
 
Here in the UK cars over 40 years old are free of annual road tax or more correctly excise duty and more worryingly free from an annual roadworthy health check called an MOT, my Lido has just reached that age so I had enormous pleasure in taxing my car as ‘Historic’ so I could benefit....however I think for piece of mind I’ll still present it for the annual MOT later in May!
 
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