What did you do to your X1/9 today ?

[Mike Schofield]

Nice work! Looks good to me!!

 

[RickSwanRacing]

Motor is out, in the basement, and in the stand. Let the party begin..this thing hasn’t had love

since I believe 1987..

 

[NEG]

Removed the quarter bumpers from my Lido today and dropped them off at the chrome platers...up to 8 weeks wait and with xmas in the middle looking at Feb’21 before I get them back!

 

[Michael Oxman]

DROVE IT AROUND THE BLOCK!! 13 months later and I'm ready for plates - my childhood dream realized. Best. Covid. Project. Ever.

 

[Tom Ginefra]

DROVE IT AROUND THE BLOCK!! 13 months later and I'm ready for plates - my childhood dream realized. Best. Covid. Project. Ever.

Congrats, Michael ! ! ! Having just recently gotten mine back on the road, I know how excited you must be. Great job!

 

[Michael Oxman]

Congrats, Michael ! ! ! Having just recently gotten mine back on the road, I know how excited you must be. Great job!

I'm over the moon, thanks. We'll have that ride yet.

 

[RickSwanRacing]

Motor is out, in the basement, and in the stand. Let the party begin..this thing hasn’t had loveView attachment 38515View attachment 38516 since I believe 1987..

Scrubby scrubby... degreasing time. Betting this poor motor has never seen this kind of love..

 

[Dr.Jeff]

Scrubby scrubby... degreasing time.

Get set to do LOTS of that on any X. I must be getting old because cleaning old greasy grimy components has become one of my least liked tasks. [Ha, I just noticed this emoji: Didn't realize that was considered acceptable. But it fits my comment.]

 

[NEG]

errrrrr are you sure....

 

[tvmaster]

@tvmaster 1978, the problem you may find is the acrylic is rivet’d to the surround at the 5 mounting holes so can’t be separated...mine was clear just a bit of surface grime on the inside which I removed the best I could using some ladies round cotton makeup pads...

I replaced the bulbs and cleaned all the contacts with some very fine Emery paper and electrical contact cleaner...

Did the makeup pads have any chemical cleaner built into them, or were they just dry, cotton pads? Any idea if using headlight buffing techniques would work on the acrylic? Here’s how faded my ‘74 is:

 

[dllubin]

If you Google "acrylic haze remover", you will find lots of products.

 

[tvmaster]

If you Google "acrylic haze remover", you will find lots of products.

Thanks. Have you ever used any?

 

[dllubin]

Thanks. Have you ever used any?

No.

 

[NEG]

@tvmaster no the pads where dry, is that haze on both sides?

 

[kmead]

@tvmaster Products like that can work well, the difficulty is getting into corners and not damaging the vacuum metallized “chrome”.

 

[tvmaster]

@tvmaster no the pads where dry, is that haze on both sides?

It’s really hard to tell, but if it’s on the inside, because of the fused system, it will be very hard to polish up. I think I read somewhere there was a chemical in the early plastics which actually caused the acrylic to discolor throughout, which would be permanent, right?

 

[tvmaster]

Did a classic "ten-footer" rust-repair job on the back quarter panels. I did a slightly better job of this once upon a time, but that was 20 years ago. The metal on the back right is just absolute Swiss cheese at this point. I used fiberglass body filler as a "base coat" this time, over some steel mesh--hopefully it'll be strong enough to stay relatively straight. Eventually, over the next 30 years or so, I will have replaced all of the rusted-out sheet metal with fiberglass body filler... Rust-proof and lightweight!

The paint is just rattle-can ("Colonial Red", I believe). It's obviously not a perfect match, but once the bumper is back on you won't notice much.View attachment 38498
View attachment 38499View attachment 38500View attachment 38501
View attachment 38503View attachment 38502

Wow, that looks damn good. So the biggest hole was filled with steel mesh, NOT welding?

 

[RickSwanRacing]

So question... and this is due to my noobness... cleaning and degreasing the motor from my 82’x19 project... noticed a sticker in the back of the motor in pink (faded red?): “spyder 1500”. Is this relevant at all?

 

[RickSwanRacing]

Get set to do LOTS of that on any X. I must be getting old because cleaning old greasy grimy components has become one of my least liked tasks. [Ha, I just noticed this emoji: Didn't realize that was considered acceptable. But it fits my comment.]

Yeh it’s certainly something lol. I’ll be honest this is the first for me on many levels: next pulled a motor, never stripped a motor, never rebuilt a motor. But I did sleep at a holiday in express last night so i

 

[Dr.Jeff]

It’s really hard to tell, but if it’s on the inside, because of the fused system, it will be very hard to polish up. I think I read somewhere there was a chemical in the early plastics which actually caused the acrylic to discolor throughout, which would be permanent, right?

Before taking the clear cover off, I'd try polishing the outside with something like the others recommended. Then you should be able to tell if it is on the inside also. At that point you can decide if the polish works to your satisfaction and if it is necessary or worth removing the clear cover.

the difficulty is getting into corners and not damaging the vacuum metallized “chrome”

I don't know if it would work for this, but I recall there have been posts about some "marker pens" that do a good job of recreating that faux chrome look.