What did you do to your X1/9 today ?

Today I took the first step to a bumper less X. What is the best way to cut off the bumper tubes? I am thinking about using a Dremel cutting from inside?
BTW, in Sweden we don't say "bumper", we say "kofångare" which means cow catcher
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Bjorn, by "tubes" do you mean the remaining mounting flanges/extensions? If so, I found them to be a bit difficult to remove. I wanted to cut them behind the body surface so I could cover the holes with patch panels. They are tough to get to. I used a combination of cutoff wheels, reciprocating saw, body saw, etc. Kind of a mess and required some extra work to clean up.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
Bjorn, by "tubes" do you mean the remaining mounting flanges/extensions? If so, I found them to be a bit difficult to remove. I wanted to cut them behind the body surface so I could cover the holes with patch panels. They are tough to get to. I used a combination of cutoff wheels, reciprocating saw, body saw, etc. Kind of a mess and required some extra work to clean up.
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Yes, I mean the extensions that must be cut off to weld a panel to cover them. This is a challenge I noticed. I thought about using a Dremel which is small enough to cut the extensions from inside, but the cutting blades are weak and crack easily. Also, a towing strap is required when going to the track so one of the tubes must be open to host the strap as discrete as possible. I am a mature man and I don't like my car to look like a teenage racer (pink strap, arrow and TOW HERE written) lol.
 
Plumbers use a interior cutoff tool similar to a Dremel with a more robust cutoff wheel.
 
kmead said:
Plumbers use a interior cutoff tool similar to a Dremel with a more robust cutoff wheel.
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Karl, any additional information about this tool? I assume they use it to cut off iron pipes from the inside? Sounds like something I should own; so many times I need a similar thing.
 
Bjorn, I took a couple different approaches. On one I tried to cut it way back (inside) to remove as much of the bumper mount structure as possible, to decrease a tiny bit extra weight and make it cleaner overall. But that got impossible as I worked my way back into it. The multiple folds, welds, layers, etc just keep causing more and more difficulty. So on the other side I tried to remove as little as possible.It was a little easier, but there are still places where other structures get in the way. That resulted in cutting into some areas that I did not want to, but it became necessary - so additional repairs were then needed to repair that extra intrusion. I finally got things out but it was rather rough. I still need to go back and do some patching and repairing and hiding of the remaining mess. If a better tool was available (and I had a lot to choose from) it might be easier. Hopefully Karl's suggestion will help.

By the way, I did the fronts and rears. In my case the fronts were easier, but some of that is because I am also mounting a full air dam that includes removing the front body work in the corners. So that gave a little more access to the areas behind the facia.

Funny because I've always looked at most of the bumperless jobs and thought they looked unfinished with those mounts still sticking out. But after struggling with trying to remove them I have a more open opinion about it. It might be best to only cut from the outside and try and get them as flush as possible. Then maybe any material that still protrudes can be ground back rather than cut.
 
I didn't do anything to my X today but I did help my neighbor get his X, which had been sitting in the weeds under a tree for a year or so, running and cleaned up. I was rather impressed that when after putting a battery in and turning the key, it started immediately and idled nicely. Reminded me of the scene in Sleeper when Woody Allen found the VW Beetle that had been sitting in a cave for a hundred years, got in, turned the key, and drove off. It had enough stuff growing on and around it that we took it to my place for some pressure washing and general clean up. I was surprised how good it looked after we got it cleaned up. It's a red 87 with the Corsa kit. That was my first up close experience with any X newer than 1979.
 
Bjorn Nilson said:
Today I took the first step to a bumper less X. What is the best way to cut off the bumper tubes?
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Big job on a later car to get a nice clean job, plus if you're planning on doing any track work, the tow eyelets in the original mounts are pretty handy for the required tow points, IMO you'd be best leaving the "tubes" there and trying to think of a nice way to blend them in with a reflector / cover.

SteveC
 
Wish ida taken a pic. The water jackets welded up fine. Even with a bunch more material (now), the gaskets actually have a pretty small pass-thru...so no difference in flow. We'll see by this afternoon!
 
today...

i dreamed about driving my X1/9 for the first time. casue at this moment, i'm looking at buying a 79

nothing on the road though :(
 
I finished my rear brakes today and went on my first ride other than around the block a few times. The first problem I found was that the side view mirror flops over from the wind pressure above 40 mph. It took me a while to get used to the non power brakes, but they also seemed to start behaving better after I got a few miles on them. At about half throttle and above, I ran into a sporadic miss at high rpm. It cleared up later. Sounded like dirt in the fuel system. For fuel, I was running a high concentration of Seafoam and perhaps it loosened something up that ended up going through the carbs. I noticed the fuel filters looked slightly browner although the only place ahead of the filters that it could have come from was the tank, but that was totally cleaned out last summer.

I drove about 20 miles on some winding mountain roads around where I live and it seemed to perform quite well. I can definitely feel the additional torque of the extra 200cc. There were spots where the 1300 would have never made it in fourth gear that did not seem to be an issue for the 1500. I'm not sure what a safe redline is for the 1500 so I kept it under 7K. I often brought the 1300 past 8k as there was still quite a bit of power up there. Overall, the engine pulled really strong in all four gears throughout the rpm range. I don't think I'll have any trouble keeping up with modern traffic.
 
I took apart my floppy side view mirror today and took apart the ball joint assembly where the stalk holding the mirror attaches to the body. There is a spring that applies force to the joint to keep it in position. After cleaning all the parts, I cranked down the two screws that hold the spring until it took a reasonable force to move the joint. I think it should be good for as fast as I'm going to drive the car!
 
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