Nice to see your X1/9 project making progress. You can swap the entire gauge cluster from your parts car to the gold car fairly easily. With such low miles the transmission synchronizers are "probably" in better shape than the gold car too. That transmission might save you thousands in the long run! I'm not putting much faith in that ancient red leather but for $600 I think you did well.
Hey cratecruncher! Janky do Thanky for that, never making as much progress with the Fiat as I would like, but every bit of progress is very sweet, and can at least drive the gold car up and down my road now, which is very exciting. Do you know if there is a way to swap guage clusters and reset the mileage so it is accurate? Guessing with an older analogue odometer its fairly simple. The car sometimes will grind a tiny bit from 2nd to 3rd, but overall I can't believe how good the engine and trans feel, for a 86K mile car that was neglected for 10 years. Engine idles so smooth. Of course you never know when everything could break... so to your point, nice to have spares. Haha the red leather, I'm just a sucker for any alternative seat color, can't help myself, and if nothing else they are in better condition than my parchment seats in the 82. Part of me is holding on to the pipe dream that I'd like to K-swap the parts car, and keep the exterior real rough to make sort of a sleeper rat rod, which would actually allow me to still harvest a lot of its internals (transmission for example) as parts for the gold car. With my progress timeline so far I'd be lucky if I finished a K-swap before I'm in my 70's, but the car isnt going anywhere so you never know. Big Janky do Thanky for your comment and for watching. Can't wait till spring.
@@JankyAF If you think those leather seats might be savable you could try cleaning and conditioning them (sort of like putting conditioner in your hair after a shampoo). It might even make a cool video watching the life come back into the leather. I've had best results letting the conditioner soak in a while. There are some good videos on bringing back leather from the brink with nice results.
Hey thanks for this, I went down a bit of a reconditioning/leather painting rabbit hole when I was looking into refurbishing the seats in my Buick LeSabre, tho its been awhile. I think the red seats could actually be saved, won't ever be perfect but I think I could bring them back quite a bit. The parchment seats will probably get jankified somehow and put into the parts car if it ever turns into a legit project. Also its funny that the seat rails for the Bertone are different than the Fiat, so now I will have to figure out some solution to safely mounting the red seats in the gold car. Want to do a video on the seat removal/installation, and if I refurbish the red ones I'll definitely be documenting that as well. Janky do thanky again...
Hello from France. If I may suggest you to run carburetor on these X. FI needs a bit of electric to work, Italian cars are notorious for electrical issues, because of the metal they use in their wires. It corrodes inside the wire (so sometimes you cannot see it, and if you sand the connector, it still doesnt really work) If you have a carburetor, this is full analog. You just need some wires for the inition, and wire the starter... and its pretty much it to be honest. Carb are easy to clean up and tune, no need anything electric or electronic. For isntance I have another car, its a Lancia Gamma (google it up, its a very rare model) my headlights were bogus for YEARS, and I mean, dozen of years... until I really found out, the corroded wire from invisible corrosion. Wires would still kind of work, but drain a lot of power as well because of the corrosion. If you wanna stay with FI, then try to get a super clean / refurbish one, with good electric. Anyway keep going I like your mini serie about the X !
Hello! Wow janky do thanky for the excellent, comprehensive, and information-packed comment. Do you have the Gamma coupe or the 4 door wagon? Both are very cool looking cars, I have to say I really like that two-door coupe. I'm a bit familiar with the old Lancia's because the main Fiat parts supplier here, Midwest Bayless, also sells parts for Lancia, and occasionally I will see Beta's or Scorpion's for sale in the classifieds. And of course the Stratos was designed by Gandini (RIP) who also penned the X. Anyways, as to your comment, funny enough I actually specifically sought out a FI car, but not necessarily for any reason, I honestly just like the way the plenum looked in the engine bay, and my Ford Aerostar has a badge bragging about FI on it, as does this era Fiat, so I thought that was funny. I also did figure as a person who was born right around the time FI became mainstream, that it was just more reliable and required less maintenence and "tuning". But I do take all your advice very gratefully, and while the bosch system on there (L-jetronic I believe, the L standing for LUFT, or the german word for AIR) seems pretty basic and mechanical by modern standards, I can certainly vouch for how many wires there are under the dashboard. My cousin is quite talented in the electrical realm, and he has done the "brown wire mod" which should improve safety and reduce draw by redirecting power from certain things, I can't remember all the details but I believe it takes more power directly from the battery instead of sending it all over the system and back again to the wipers and lights, etc. Ironically, the electronics in this car have been one of the most reliable systems. The pop up lights, radiator fan, wipers, clock, and all of these systems have never given me any issues, despite the horrible reputation of Italian electronics. But truthfully I have not driven the car long or far enough to have given it a proper shakedown test in its current condition. Finally, the one thing really holding me back from messing too much with any of these systems is that the more I think it over and think about my long term ownership of this car, the more I think I may want to swap in a Honda K-series engine. I thought perhaps I would leave this one stock and do it to the parts car, but I'm worried the parts car may be too far gone, and also I am going to have trouble getting it Titled, because of some recent changes in state legislation. So the goal now is just to get the OEM exhaust on, replace a few fuel lines, and try to enjoy it as is, wait to see if anything else breaks, and start saving up funds to do a engine swap. Thanks again for the comment and the info and for watching all the way from France! please keep in touch, I'd love to see some photos of your fleet of cars - afjanky@gmail.com - take care
Truly! I still window shop them regularly on the classifieds, always looking for another, I just can't get over how underrated and overlooked they are, makes me feel like I'm in on a secret, and just makes me want to get more of them. Janky do Thanky!
You will not find many like Ed K. left in the world. Genuine, salt of the earth, and likes hard cider!
And How! Janky do Thanky
Nice to see your X1/9 project making progress. You can swap the entire gauge cluster from your parts car to the gold car fairly easily. With such low miles the transmission synchronizers are "probably" in better shape than the gold car too. That transmission might save you thousands in the long run! I'm not putting much faith in that ancient red leather but for $600 I think you did well.
Hey cratecruncher! Janky do Thanky for that, never making as much progress with the Fiat as I would like, but every bit of progress is very sweet, and can at least drive the gold car up and down my road now, which is very exciting.
Do you know if there is a way to swap guage clusters and reset the mileage so it is accurate? Guessing with an older analogue odometer its fairly simple.
The car sometimes will grind a tiny bit from 2nd to 3rd, but overall I can't believe how good the engine and trans feel, for a 86K mile car that was neglected for 10 years. Engine idles so smooth. Of course you never know when everything could break... so to your point, nice to have spares.
Haha the red leather, I'm just a sucker for any alternative seat color, can't help myself, and if nothing else they are in better condition than my parchment seats in the 82.
Part of me is holding on to the pipe dream that I'd like to K-swap the parts car, and keep the exterior real rough to make sort of a sleeper rat rod, which would actually allow me to still harvest a lot of its internals (transmission for example) as parts for the gold car. With my progress timeline so far I'd be lucky if I finished a K-swap before I'm in my 70's, but the car isnt going anywhere so you never know. Big Janky do Thanky for your comment and for watching. Can't wait till spring.
@@JankyAF If you think those leather seats might be savable you could try cleaning and conditioning them (sort of like putting conditioner in your hair after a shampoo). It might even make a cool video watching the life come back into the leather. I've had best results letting the conditioner soak in a while. There are some good videos on bringing back leather from the brink with nice results.
Hey thanks for this, I went down a bit of a reconditioning/leather painting rabbit hole when I was looking into refurbishing the seats in my Buick LeSabre, tho its been awhile. I think the red seats could actually be saved, won't ever be perfect but I think I could bring them back quite a bit. The parchment seats will probably get jankified somehow and put into the parts car if it ever turns into a legit project. Also its funny that the seat rails for the Bertone are different than the Fiat, so now I will have to figure out some solution to safely mounting the red seats in the gold car. Want to do a video on the seat removal/installation, and if I refurbish the red ones I'll definitely be documenting that as well. Janky do thanky again...
Hello from France.
If I may suggest you to run carburetor on these X. FI needs a bit of electric to work, Italian cars are notorious for electrical issues, because of the metal they use in their wires. It corrodes inside the wire (so sometimes you cannot see it, and if you sand the connector, it still doesnt really work)
If you have a carburetor, this is full analog. You just need some wires for the inition, and wire the starter... and its pretty much it to be honest. Carb are easy to clean up and tune, no need anything electric or electronic.
For isntance I have another car, its a Lancia Gamma (google it up, its a very rare model) my headlights were bogus for YEARS, and I mean, dozen of years... until I really found out, the corroded wire from invisible corrosion. Wires would still kind of work, but drain a lot of power as well because of the corrosion.
If you wanna stay with FI, then try to get a super clean / refurbish one, with good electric.
Anyway keep going I like your mini serie about the X !
Hello! Wow janky do thanky for the excellent, comprehensive, and information-packed comment.
Do you have the Gamma coupe or the 4 door wagon? Both are very cool looking cars, I have to say I really like that two-door coupe. I'm a bit familiar with the old Lancia's because the main Fiat parts supplier here, Midwest Bayless, also sells parts for Lancia, and occasionally I will see Beta's or Scorpion's for sale in the classifieds. And of course the Stratos was designed by Gandini (RIP) who also penned the X.
Anyways, as to your comment, funny enough I actually specifically sought out a FI car, but not necessarily for any reason, I honestly just like the way the plenum looked in the engine bay, and my Ford Aerostar has a badge bragging about FI on it, as does this era Fiat, so I thought that was funny. I also did figure as a person who was born right around the time FI became mainstream, that it was just more reliable and required less maintenence and "tuning".
But I do take all your advice very gratefully, and while the bosch system on there (L-jetronic I believe, the L standing for LUFT, or the german word for AIR) seems pretty basic and mechanical by modern standards, I can certainly vouch for how many wires there are under the dashboard.
My cousin is quite talented in the electrical realm, and he has done the "brown wire mod" which should improve safety and reduce draw by redirecting power from certain things, I can't remember all the details but I believe it takes more power directly from the battery instead of sending it all over the system and back again to the wipers and lights, etc.
Ironically, the electronics in this car have been one of the most reliable systems. The pop up lights, radiator fan, wipers, clock, and all of these systems have never given me any issues, despite the horrible reputation of Italian electronics. But truthfully I have not driven the car long or far enough to have given it a proper shakedown test in its current condition.
Finally, the one thing really holding me back from messing too much with any of these systems is that the more I think it over and think about my long term ownership of this car, the more I think I may want to swap in a Honda K-series engine. I thought perhaps I would leave this one stock and do it to the parts car, but I'm worried the parts car may be too far gone, and also I am going to have trouble getting it Titled, because of some recent changes in state legislation. So the goal now is just to get the OEM exhaust on, replace a few fuel lines, and try to enjoy it as is, wait to see if anything else breaks, and start saving up funds to do a engine swap.
Thanks again for the comment and the info and for watching all the way from France! please keep in touch, I'd love to see some photos of your fleet of cars - afjanky@gmail.com - take care
I think I mentioned in the other fiat video. They are an addiction!!! had at least one in my possession since 1986
Truly! I still window shop them regularly on the classifieds, always looking for another, I just can't get over how underrated and overlooked they are, makes me feel like I'm in on a secret, and just makes me want to get more of them. Janky do Thanky!