Here is a gold 1980 FIAT X1/9 that we purchased in 2008. It has a 1.5 liter motor and 5 speed transaxle.
When we bought it, the gold paint was badly oxidized and the car has a small bit of bubble rust on the passenger door. It also had a small dent behind each wheel well on the driver’s side; it looked as though it had been damaged by a front tire blowout. It was missing some bits, like the left rear tail lamp cover. When we originally bought it we thought we would just do a fix and flip. As we got into the car, though, we realized that it needed a lot more work to get it to a good condition.
The brick is just there for safety. The handbrake actually works, but since there is no tranny in to help hold it in place and I parked my MINI behind it, I figure it can’t hurt to have a back-up. Note the nice cromadora wheels. The aluminium has surface oxidation. They needed to be cleaned and sealed.
Even the spare is a cromadora!
Interior shot. Interior is Brown and white. Believe it or not, the colors (interior and exterior) all appear to be original to this car. The different material / color on the bolsters for the uppers is typical of the X1/9.
Below are photos taken of the car in 2012, after we had completed most of the restoration. We still continued to do some finessing afterward until the car was sold in 2015.
This is the stock ride height, which tends to be a bit nose high. It does not affect the drivability of the car, but a lot of people didn’t like the look and would put lowering springs on the front.
If you look closely in the photo above you will see the glove box cover was missing. A common problem with these later dash cars is that the plastic door hinges will break. We found a hobbyist who built replacement hinges in aluminium, bought a pair and modified the door to fit them. When it was done it looked factory and we had a glove box that functioned correctly.
You either love or hate this color. We rather liked it and one thing for sure was that we didn’t see anyone else on the road with similar color.