1974 FIAT X/19. Has the 1.3 liter motor and 4 speed transmission.
Here is the car as it looked at the time of purchase in early 2008. The car was originally green, but had been repainted black at some point. The black had faded and crazed, giving it this “lovely” brown rusty look. However, the metal beneath was actually in good shape.
This is a pic of the car outside after we began the process of removing bits and pieces to prepare the body for paint.
Beginning the process of removing paint. As we went along we continued to remove more bits and pieces from the car. The black paint turned out to be very difficult to remove. It ended up that about the only thing that would cut through it was a grinder. And even then, it tended to burn off! Meanwhile the green paint, bondo and primer on the car came off relatively easily, comparatively speaking.
This is a picture of the rear trunk (boot) lid. The surface rust in the upper right corner in the photo is probably about the worst rust on this car (though there is a quarter-sized hole in the left rear quarter panel behind the rear wheel well). This photo was taken after using an orbital sander on it for about an hour.
Using two grinders, we were finally able to make some serious headway in paint removal. The only problem is that it leaves a fairly rough surface behind. As you can see in this photo, the glass has all been removed at this point. We still haven’t removed the motor.
Still some black on the lower valance and between the tail lamps. Nearly all the paint has been removed.
Front trunk (boot) lid. This part required a lot of work because of the poor condition of the paint on it.
Front and rear decks. While the rear still shows a dark spot where the rust had been, its actually much improved and is essentially bare metal now.
The nice thing about Arizona is that it is dry. So, I’ve been able to keep this car in my garage in bare metal without it turning into a giant rust heap. I need to lightly sand and then start applying build primer and filler to even out the surface.
There are numerous dings on the car that need to be evened out. Also the car had a bit of body damage in the right rear corner that we need to even out. And some other minor dents (e.g., lower rocker panel). Still, for a 34 year old car, it’s pretty straight.
We plan to repaint it in a lighter shade of green. The color we want is an original, period correct FIAT X1/9 paint color. It’s brighter (more neon) than the green on the car now. Here is what it will look like when finished:
Update: Midwest-Bayless offers a kit that will allow us to use a Honda 2.0l 4 and six speed transaxle from an RSX. A suitable donor motor and transaxle will be about $3-5k, and the kit is another $3k. While we could sort the 1.3 motor and get a comfortable 100+ horse, this mod allows us to bolt in nearly 200hp and get more torque and a beefier transaxle with more gears. A few of these cars have been built and they are quite fast. It’s VERY tempting.
Here is a link to a video of a car with the conversion done: