FREE fiat x1/9 carcass with title - Detriot

You are going to need nose ballast weight after removing the head lamp motors. Those units are stupid heavy.

Yeah, this thing is going to have 911 sized rear weight bias. I'm not actively trying to remove weight from the front, just letting the car and the steel I have tell me what to do. I believe I have some projector beam lights some 200 miles away, and if memory serves, they'll need the space those mounts had. 

Also, I never responded to brad131a4- Thanks for the video recommendation. That guy definitely does some cool stuff with few resources. I'm not ruling out fiberglass flares, but right now, think I'd prefer metal. Frunk and engine lid/trunk may be 'glass. I'll have to see when I get there. 

All comments are appreciated. Cheers, all.

911 weight bias with your moment of inertia inside the wheelbase doesn't sound like a bad thing to me.

Every day I go to down to the shop, and I think to myself "This is going to be the day I weld the headlight blanks on." And every day, I find a few more things that will be immensely easier if I do them before restricting access up there. Today, it was this:

Well, not Just that, but also a small blanking panel for the radiator ductwork, lots of wire wheeling and grinding in the general area of the headlights, and both now and future headlight brackets.

That thingamajigger at the top holds a projector beam light I found on the side of the road, presumably left after a wreck. The crosspieces are welded in for good, and my best guess at a good place to mount post challenge lights, some of which I may have a few hours away in storage, some of which I don't. Whatever. For the challenge, all it needs is one headlight, and here it is:

What you're looking at below marks the last of things I felt I needed to do before welding the headlight blanks on. 

It's a brace for the outer fender. This is where I expect the flare to begin. It also braces the headlight mount, and nose a bit. Any hit harder than strong words will wad up the nose anyway, but I didn't want it flopping around over the slightest bump. Forward of this brace is an approximately 1" flange with captive nuts every few inches for future spoiler mounting.

So, yeah, I finally started tacking the infernal light blanks on.

Soon, I promise to quit posting so many pictures of the same part of the car, but this was somewhat momentous.

The light bezels have just the slightest hint of 2nd generation Corvair. I like that

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

That's looking awesome!

Nose is finished for now. Welds are ground down, and it's reasonably straight. I applied a liberal coat of free JB weld to fill the last of the pinholes, etc. 

I wanted the car down near ride height for the next group of operations, and figured I'd roll it out and take another glamour shot in the sun.

While it was out, I gave the shop a good sweep, and rearranged as needed.

Back in, and after a few hours, I got the windshield out.

I did find two loose ends of a tiny wire as described in my Fiat book, but either I severed them, or someone before me did. So, I commenced cutting, heating, light prying, and hoping.After some time, I got it out in one piece, and built a foam lined box to protect it from well, me, until it's ready to go back in. 

I spent today turning this:

into this:

At the moment, I don't have an air compressor that can run more than a brad nailer. Good, stinky times. 

GRM forum members have been exceptionally good to me, and I'd like to thank everybody. Once the quarantine is over, I've got struts and coil overs lined up, intake, as well,  tail lights coming, and these arrived today:

I'm not sure if everybody wants to be named or not, so, I'll just say Thanks. This is a truly special place.

I've been cutting, grinding, and wire wheeling. I managed to make holes in stuff.

inner cowl: gone, bottom of battery box: gone, area below strut tower on both sides: gone. 

If only I had some nice thick metal doing nothing-can't leave home, you know.

Aww yeah. 

I also started poking around the windshield trying to get a look at how boned I am on rust repair. Answer: Very.

The other side isn't quite as bad.

I cut up the rest of the PT rear hatch hoping some of these complicated curves get me at least somewhere in the ballpark.

Rust sucks.... but you have come this far, so no stopping you now. That PT Cruiser will have a new life as headlight covers, windshield frame pieces and lots of other uses on your awesome X1/9!

watching you work on this is awesome.

Kind words appreciated, fellas.

Robbie, I definitely owe you one. Seriously, I'm loving working on this thing.

In other news, a care package arrived from the North today.

Thanks 914driver. You are the man.

I really have been trying to not be so obnoxious with all the pictures of the nose, but just one more, then I promise, I'm done.

I'm digging on the bare metal look, warts and all.

I love what you have been doing with this project. Can't wait for more. 

This is how far I chased rust in the cowl area before I was happy with it.

I also realized I hacked the panel out that had the VIN on it, so had to cut it out and incorporate it in my new patchwork. That's it covered by painter's tape very near the stock location.

I'm just beginning to fit the new battery box floor. 

I've been trying to find a place to incorporate some of the PT Cruiser metal as a nod to the donor that made this all possible. The center section there is what I'm currently thinking of leaving blue with the badging and all.

Also, had to do a small patch behind the strut tower patch I have in my near future. 

I always love seeing this one come up to the top.  Great job on stuff most Challege cars skip over.

In reply to Stampie (FS) :

Thanks, Stamps, but that may be why I never get to the Challenge. Don't care, I'm building it the only way I can, and I'll get there once it's as right as I can make it.

Slow day today. I'm tacking, wire wheeling, and generally picking at stuff to get as much rust out as I can. That and trying to figure the best way I can get into nooks and crannies to make the best patches I can. A die grinder sure would be nice, but I'd settle for a dremel. As it sits, I'm digging in corners with a drill and whatever die grinder bits I can scrape up. Rust encapsulator, here we come.

I did manage to do something photo worthy today. Cut the front strut housings down.

The inserts I'm getting from Nonack are all rear, which gets me 7/8" more travel up front than I'd ordinarily have.

The front two have bump stops and the guts from the rear struts so I can start mocking up front suspension once I'm finished with the current rust extravaganza.

I ended up chasing more rust than I wanted to in the battery box.

But it's tacked in.

Also, got a layer patched in on the front strut towers,

(that's the electrical box there) and the second reinforcing layer as much like stock as I could make it.

In other news, I've been going round and round with roll bar/cage details. Roll bar Thread.

If you have knowledge or advice, please join in. I'm currently lost.

Mr Gumby, Sir, I was just about to beg your help, but I see you've already joined in. Thanks.

I spent the entire morning poring over Summit's roll bars.

The only way I could visualize them was some cardboard mock-ups. That meant my plywood floor and seat had to be pressed into action once again.

First up, was Competition Engineering C3126 for a Pinto/Mustang II, as suggested by Patrick (Thanks).

This one could work, but it was right at the ragged edge of being even with my shoulder, as NHRA rules say it must be.

After much elimination, I settled on Competition Engineering C9408 for 1979-1985 RX7s. 

This one is much tighter to the body. To the point that some will have to be recessed at the "hips"- maybe 1/2" of depth each side. I pulled the trigger, so I guess I'll figure it out once It gets here. Boo on the $40 boxing fee, but yeah on the 5 point harness and eyes that along with the hoop got me free shipping. 

Back to rust repair.

Nice work with the cardboard mockup. Kind of like Angry's "CAD" work but on a larger scale!

You'll find that the listed measurements are "close enough".

It WILL need some more massaging than you anticipated in my experience. But being willing to recess into body is awesome. That will solve a bunch of issues. 

Can you make anchors to tie into body at b pillars as well? Kinda use the cage as framing?

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

The plan is to remove that rear parcel shelf thingie, and use the roll bar as the firewall frame. Probably do a double walled one with access to the cabin for the huge amount of electronics from the PT. Basically, an electrical box. Maybe I can pull off a sweet wire tuck. The bar will also hold the frame for a mail slot rear window. That's the plan anyway. I'm not sure how the NHRA would feel about that, but I believe GRM and SCCA would feel fine about it being integral to the body. 

  The hoop is what's going to hold this thing together so I can chop and rebuild the rear frame rails. 

And, yeah, I figured the bar would be loosely based on those dimensions, but this is my absolute best guess.

Lots of time working to get here:

It's close enough that I drilled drain holes and slapped some rust encapsulator in there. Now on to the other side while this cures.

Thank you for the reminder that it's just metal. And time.

I needed that today. 

Here's a photo montage showing what I've been up to the last couple of days.

Passengers side:

Driver's side:

Top of windshield:

I tried two different methods on the bottom corners. On the driver's side, I tried to form the metal, and the passenger's fabricate it. On both sides, I used a single, thicker piece of metal for where the factory spot welded these panels together at the weatherstripping rib. It just seemed easier to do so. With the results, effort, and time put into each side, I much prefer how I did the passenger's side. There are lots of curves in lots of directions, and on the driver's side, I ended up making tons of relief cuts to get it to go into any sort of shape I wanted. I probably welded just as much, but beat on it twice as much as the other side. Lesson learned.

When we started quarantine, just over a month ago, I had two working grinders. In that time, one lost a bearing, and I've been taking them apart, and rebuilding almost daily to keep one running. I count at least ten times in that month.

Today, it stuck on, so I rigged up this death trap.

I can operate the patch cord with my foot, so I've got two hands firmly on the grinder when it kicks on.

I've got two more of these beauties on the way, but Amazon's (understandably) running a little slow. I think they get here in the middle of May.

The hoop arrived, so I spent the morning mocking stuff up. 

The fit is better than I could have hoped for.

The front suspension got a look. 

I'm setting ground clearance at 5", and 2" of compression travel before hitting the bump stop. This is about to get very real.

For now, I'm back to welding and grinding.