ThePogs Fiat X1/9 Pizza Wedge

[ThePog]

Picked up another engine cover yesterday, hacked and welded today. I had already cut half the height out of the pods as it looked so arse. I fully welded the bitches on so then had to spend some considerable time grinding and smoothing the welds back, I may still need to smear a bit of poo down the joints to make it look a smidge better. Bit of barbeque paint and will be done then.

 

[ThePog]

Put that shit on, but first I checked the temp of the airbox, which fluctuated between 50 and 55 degrees. I swapped the covers and checked it, and it fluctuated between 50 and 55 degrees. A worthwhile result....

I will hack more out of the inner skin though, and it did cool down a lot quicker....

Also; my car getting sucked into the gravity well of a planetoid.

[ThePog]

Borrowed a kevlar race seat off a mate for the up and coming track day, so I don't get a sore elbow from bracing myself going around the bends... it came out of a Peugeot race car that was raced by Peter Brock at bathurst, so I will be channeling the awesome obviously.

It took about half an hour to mount rails to it as the rail spacing in the car is 350mm, and the bolt hole spacing on the seat was 345mm so I simply had to ****cough**** ......sorry what was I saying?

I had ripped some rails from the seat of a Fiat 850 sport that I helped chop up a couple of weeks ago, as these turned out to be the same profile as the X's, this meant I didn't have to find a set of impossible to find X seats and cut them up to get the rails...

Looks pretty awesome in place, and is low enough for my helmet to clear the hoop thing behind my head - which is good as I have terrible trouble keeping my helmet from banging shit....

I kind of want to keep in in there permanently, however getting into the car is difficult anyway - with this seat it is fucking near impossible for a man of my advanced years and manifold infirmities.

[ThePog]

Swapped the wheels front to back as I though the stiffer sidewalls on the fronts would be better off restraining the engine end of the car which seemed to bear out + the new rears are slightly less grippy than 'tother ones

While they were being swapped I thought I would smash some black goodness on there...

Also while I was out checking the awesome new handling I had a MAJOR FUCKING REVELATION about my fuel consumption while looking at my TRIPMETER which was displaying the 122 kms for nigh on 3/4 of a tank of gas used. This (as you well know my dear bitches) works out to an almost epic 12mpg for a 1600cc car. Then the light dawned on me like the blinding light of JESUS LORD AND SAVIOUR that the speedo is in fucking MILES!

What a fucking penis I hear you say, and well you would be to say it.

Thus by a simple calculation performed, my consumption has MIRACULOUSLY jumped to 20mpg.

[ThePog]

Just finished track day, was awesome fun. I had emailed as many people in the X1/9 Register a couple of weeks ago to see if I could get a good turnout of X1/9's - it worked alright, at one point there were 7 parked up.... not all were racing but there were at least 5 that did;

I only lasted for the morning session unfortunately as quite a lot of oil started to get blown out of the crank seal

This coated the pulleys and cambelt so i thought it best to call it a day...

Up till then it was going really well, discovered that the best method at the hairpin was full noise sideways . Scared myself with a couple of tankslappers too. Didn't get to see how fast I could get down the straight as I only ran the morning short courses...

Also got a ride in the Chapmans prototipo, that was sweet, twice as much of everything as mine has, power/handling/brakes..

In the afternoon, Brian from the Italian job lent me his Fiat Punto GT for a few rounds, that was pretty good for a FWD car - it spent most of the time with one of it's wheels cocked..

[ThePog]

Finally got around to starting to sort the oil leak issue, poor thing has been up on stands in the garage for the last 3 weeks with nothing done.

However I had a couple of hours today and got to this stage - vizzling the offending blown out crank seal which is pretty obvious actually when not hidden by vital engine ancillaries, although maybe not so much for you good people due to failphone useless.

I have a new seal and cambelt, goodness, joy end eternal crankcase seal integrity shall follow.

Someone sell me a catch can, mine is obviously fail.

[ThePog]

Had a trestle fall on it during the earthquake, scraped the side a bit but nothing to serious.

Crank seal is sealing the crank - Huzzah!

Taking it for a drive tomorrow if it isn't raining.

[ThePog]

Went out to the garage to the garage to clear this;

And found this;

And I always though the engine was in the back...?

Turns out the steering rack has about a litre of oil in it, and when a rack boot splits it pisses out onto the floor. Going to get it fixed this week and replaced with grease. Grease wont fall out I am guessing....

[ThePog]

So there is another track day coming up with the Canterbury Fiat Lancia club. Last year I used a kevlar race seat which was good and supportive but this wasn't low enough to let me have the roof on while wearing a helmet which sucks quite badly. I have been looking around for a year for something that will do the trick, including looking at getting one of my existing seats modified to be lower and more supportive, but it was all difficult and/or expensive. So i though fuck that, why don't I just build one, then I can make sure it is as low as possible within the space that I have. Not too worried about the legalities as I will probably never use it on the road, and I can make it suit my awesomely chunky arse as well.

Still got a couple of bits to tack on yet - extra bracing between the hip and shoulders, and probably a couple of bits by the thigh. I will no doubt pull out of shape a bit when it gets fully welded, but as I have done it all pretty much by eye then meh. Initial indications are that I will have a spare 50mm or so above my helmet so yay.

Not sure whether to tack in some thin steel for the actual seaty bit, or pop rivet some ally sheet. Probly just velcro some padding straight on to whatever that ends up being.

[ThePog]

Track day on Saturday so I thought I would actually try to finish my seat, this is today's effort;

It is really quite comfy and my helmet fits too...

Will cut belt holes etc tonight hopefully then find something to line them with. Then I need to find some padding, probably foam held down with duct tape for max rang spec.

[ThePog]

So trackday has been and gone with the car mostly intact..

I had a big off at the hairpin, was doing an awesome full lock drift then next thing I know all this dirt and shit is blowing into my face through the window. No damage, but one of the rear tyres now has a clump of grass jammed between it and the rim

In the afternoon I did 7 laps hard out before the pedal went to the floor and I thought it best to pull in for a while. Not bad for a 30 year old car..

Also my brake reservoir cracked and pissed fluid everywhere, have to find another out of something else as these are not available anymore, apparently BMW 540/740 ones can be modded to fit - anyone got one?

The seat was pretty good, I semi covered it in camping roll the night before;

Rough but semi effective.

[ThePog]

So I have found a pretty good replacement for the brake reservoir on the X - off a 1992 Toyota Estima. The outlet tubes are a size too big so need reducers to work, but for $25 all up I am pretty happy with the result. At least I now have one car that is actually fucking driveable if I need it.

[downtime]

Hello ThePog I believe I have come into ownership of your old x1/9. I'm sorry to say it has come to me in rough shape. However I thought I would get in touch to see if you would be interested in it again?

[ThePog]

Well well

I may have made a bad decision.

 

The old girl is looking a bit worse for wear.

Wife is slightly unhappy.

I am foaming.

 

[ThePog]

All tucked up where it will have to stay for a while until I clear the project decks.

[ThePog]

So a very minor update, I bought a dessicant dehumidifier and have been running it in the container with an extension cord from the shed. This is good as it will mean I still have a fiat in a month or two, but also isn't ideal as every car leaving the house runs over the lead across the driveway.

On Saturday I removed the fairly chunky solar setup from my sisters bus which is probably getting scrapped/turned in to a cabin, and today i installed it temporarily in the container to run the dehumidifier. This wasnt great as even on the lowest setting it was drawing 39 amps. It might be ok once things are dry and its only topping it up but still.

Then the inverter overloaded and stopped anyway. So that was a shit experiment but kindof fun.

Also this is going to need paint soon and obviously I am too useless to be trusted with it. I can probably convince @HumberSS to come down and sort it with his epic skillset but I have also discussed it with @yoeddynz who is more conveniently placed. This was a fun conversation about international standard paint grades and how 'Imp Finish' was where we are aiming, ie fine from 100 paces..

I think it should be this but I would be interested in any feedback and suggestions.

 

[ThePog]

I printed some motivation

 

Also I dreamt last night I was in the X chasing a bright yellow countach down some windy roads, I woke up when I made a desperate passing manoeuvre, pushed them off the road and spun out trying to avoid an oncoming truck. Shits super exciting already.

In actual project news I had a look at the wiring situation and it looks a bit of a shitfight. Enough that I might get a wiring kit and redo it. Someone has spliced a new front half loom in but i am not sure it can be trusted. Its all 40+ years old at this point anyway.

[ThePog]

So many wires and relays and fuses. I don't understand, all it needs is lights, indicators and power to the fuel pump and coil....?

[ThePog]

A solution to the spagetti has arrived;

 

There will need to be extra relays set up for the headlight and headlight motors, I'll see what I can find 

[ThePog]

Wife has been all 1984 about this, the thought police etc. cos she found my copy of the Haynes manual under my chair. I told her she cannot control what i think and it turns out waterboarding isnt so bad.

To be subversive i have not only been thinking about it but also buying things like this collection of wiring components. The extra relays are to replace the dogshit ones that came with that relay box. The big one is a dedicated headlight type.;

 

And thanks to @ynot I have a heater box now. My heater tap was seized and I broke it trying to free it up so I have ordered a generic replacement. So that is possibly the last missing item, but probably not.

 

Tony also gave/lent me a spare gearbox as well altho it isn't a 1500 5 speed. It is either out of a Fiat Ritmo or it is a 4 speed with 5 speed internals grafted in.

If it is a Ritmo the ratios might be better suited according to the internet.

I can't use it as is because the output is the tripode type not the CV type on my car, but the internals should swap over ok.

This is just in case my gearbox 3rd gear crunch has gotten worse, we will see in due course.