purf
Part of things
Posts: 69
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Sept 11, 2012 23:21:23 GMT
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Those holes look like they could be worse!  I have now started emailing people selling x1/9s online to see if they will swap for my 2002 punto? I need one so badly! some inspiration:  |
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hairymel
Club Retro Rides Member
avatar by volksangyl
Posts: 1,081
Club RR Member Number: 207
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Sept 12, 2012 23:03:15 GMT
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"grindy grindy" - the funny thing is he actually says those words as he grinds trina said she would never kiss and tell  enjoying this thread though  |
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whats that burning smell?
oh curse word :-(
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Sept 16, 2012 17:45:55 GMT
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MORE WELDING! ;D I dunno if its because I was using a proper MIG welder at work or if its because of the stupid gas regulator I bought off ebay or if I was in the huff with the weather but the welding just didnt turn out as well as it did in my head this week. I had bought a brand new regulator off ebay to use the larger argon bottle with my welder. Naturally I bought the cheapest new one I could find! I stuck it in the bottle and connected it up. Almost immediatly the hose blew off throwing its self about with 300 bar. I reconnected it and stuck a few hoseclips on. After messing about with it I realised the regulator didn't actually do any regulating! The part that is supposed to move when you turn the tap is jammed solid. Rather than mess about waiting for the ebay seller messing about and sending another I opted for the 'turn the bottle on a little bit at a time' method using the tap on top of the gas bottle. That coupled with the stupid constantly live tip on my welder and having to shuffle into the footwell with the welder and gas bottle in the car (in case the rain restarted!) really wound me up! Argh! Anyway, here is what I managed... Before... ...after. Before... ...after. Not my best welding but the best I could do in the circumstances. Had keep passing over to make sure I got good penetration but at least its done and luckily when everything is back together it will all be hidden! Celebrated with a lick of paint...   I had used all my poundshop brushes so I had to use the 'tip it out and spread it about' painting method! ;D Then the sodding rain started ...  so Weldy had to go back in the cupboard.  Hopefully next weekend will stay dry enough to tackle the windscreen surround. From what I have read, the X1/9 screen surround rusts round the outside but mine has rusted along the bottom inner edge. The outside is fine. I took the liberty of cleaning off the fibreglass some git had generously applied...   It looks pretty bad in the pics but there is enough original metal to act as a guide for the new metal. I'll make sure I have a supplier ready with the new screen so it can be fitted as soon as I'm done. Have a pointless arty shot... In other news...In a fit of over-enthusiasm I came home the other night and decided to remove the bumpers. Like those nutters on DIY SOS who take out their bathroom after a 'domestic' and have to pee in a bucket for 3 months! I like the debumpered early model look but I was forgetting what car I was dealing with. When I removed the bumpers I gave myself a whole load of extra work I could have left until after the MOT! I didnt have an 8mm socket to take the side/top trims off so it ended up looking a bit like...  ...a cartoon crab! Rear didnt look much better...  Now loads more holes to fill, new indicators/sidelights to source...  ...a new radiator also went on the rapidly expanding shopping list...   Had more success with the glovebox lid though! I had 2 broken lids, both broken at the same bit...  ...the other side was fine...  So I carefully cut one of the loops off the donor glovebox and screwed it on upside down in place. I gave this stuff a try...  Its just superglue and powdered plastic. You coat the area in glue then sprinkle the powder on. Finish it off with more glue. It is pretty strong stuff and I think they sell it on ebay. I got this super cheap off my local MAC tools guy as it had sat in his van for months! ;D Done the job though...  Finish off with another pointless progress shot... 
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Sept 16, 2012 21:47:49 GMT
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This brings back painful memories......
In about 1988 I had an early 1300 one of these. It was acquired cheap on the grounds that it had a melted wiring loom..... What wasn't mentioned was that the loom problem was caused a small fire started by welding (and they hadn't got very far with the welding). Anyhow, the front loom was definitely dead and the rear loom only damaged next to the multiplug. So I managed to find a guy who had a collection of the horrible little totters and bought the front loom out of one of them - it was also 1300, same year - what could possibly go wrong?!
So I removed the remains of the old loom by snipping the wires off an inch or so short of the connectors, thinking I'd just match the colours of the old and new, pull off the old, fit new...... Then I hit a snag. Wiring colour codes between the two looms were completely different. Out with the Haynes (desperate or what!) - and their colours were different again....... arrrrgh!
Took a week of evenings to make my first set of best guesses and very little worked after that!
And then there was the welding....... damn it was rusty - the floors, the sills, the windscreen surround........ And then there were the brakes.......
And then, when I finally got it working, I discovered how slow it was......
Yours should go better with the 1500 and 5 gears at least! It's not nearly as rusty either.
Cheers
Nick
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend)
1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing)
1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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Sept 17, 2012 0:35:33 GMT
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Q-Bond is awesome stuff. I once used it to glue a plastic waterpump outlet pipe together.. worked a charm.
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Sept 17, 2012 5:24:42 GMT
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Vitesseefi
The owners club makes a big fuss about how good the 1300 is which didnt make any sense to me either!
As for the wiring, every time I looked up the wiring on the net or in the Haynes manual the colours didnt match my cars either. I think its an Italian thing, my old Boss used to run Iveco recovery trucks. As soon as their warranty ran out the wiring loom would be stripped out and replaced with a universal one using the good old Lucas colour scheme!
There is a danger after all this work the car turns out rubbish but its a cheap car that I wont feel bad about shoving another engine in etc.
Sciclone A guy I work with used Qbond to fix some plasticy thing on his motorbike. He had used visegrips to clamp it together. The repair looked great but he had to throw it out as he broke another bit off trying to 'unQbond' the vise grips from it! LOL!
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Sept 17, 2012 19:21:39 GMT
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Yeah, 1300 was cleanest looking with small bumpers and narrower engine cover. Trouble was that they are actually quite heavy and 1300 lacks of grunt and only has 4 gears. It sounded fast, engined revved beautifully - just wasn't.
At the same time I had a mangy old 1200 Herald with Spit 1500 running gear. I lent this to a friend when the X1/9 passed MoT and followed him to his place 25 twisty, cross-country miles away. Or rather, I started out in front and he blew past at the first available straight, never to be seen again until I reached his place to find him already halfway down a cup of tea...... I had been going absolutely as fast I could..... No doubt he had too but even so!
The thing had some fairly interesting handling characteristics as well not least a butt clenching tendency to lock the front wheels very early in the wet - probably due to everything being knacked/worn out. I couldn't be bothered to sort it - was too underwhelmed by the performance and overwhelmed by insurance costs.
Sold easily and I made a small profit on paper if I paid myself £ 0/hour......
Have seen some nicely done engine swaps on these since (mine would have fallen apart if given more power anyway) and a well sorted one with some power would be quite a weapon.
Nick
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend)
1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing)
1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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Sept 17, 2012 20:18:49 GMT
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Thats another reason I'm not too bothered if it isnt that fast. I'm not that used to mid engined cars. I'd like to keep the performance down until I trust myself with it.
A friend lent me an MR2 turbo a few years back. With every corner my confidence grew until there was a loud bang and I was left in the middle of a field, still strapped into the seat a good 20 feet away from the front or back of the car! LOL! I cant remember exactly what I hit but from the condition of the car I think I hit everything, LOL! There were bits of rocker cover on the passenger seat. I was relatively uninjured until my mate showed up.
Yeah, so. Its probably better if the car is a bit low on performance to begin with!
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,962
Club RR Member Number: 71
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Sept 17, 2012 21:52:32 GMT
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A friend lent me an MR2 turbo a few years back. With every corner my confidence grew until there was a loud bang and I was left in the middle of a field, still strapped into the seat a good 20 feet away from the front or back of the car! LOL! I cant remember exactly what I hit but from the condition of the car I think I hit everything, LOL! There were bits of rocker cover on the passenger seat. I was relatively uninjured until my mate showed up. I shouldn't but ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D |
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toreno
Part of things
Posts: 385
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Sept 17, 2012 23:11:20 GMT
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sorry to but in on your thread but if anyone fancys one of these i have one for sale mot till may has a couple of probs but I'm open to offers msg me if your interested oh and (type desired user name here )if you need any bits let me know i got a few
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toreno
Part of things
Posts: 385
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Sept 17, 2012 23:17:31 GMT
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Sept 18, 2012 20:09:16 GMT
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Hey Toreno! If you are going to crash my thread to try and sell your car, at least post a pic!!
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Sept 18, 2012 21:31:45 GMT
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A friend lent me an MR2 turbo a few years back. With every corner my confidence grew until there was a loud bang and I was left in the middle of a field, still strapped into the seat a good 20 feet away from the front or back of the car! Well, I can relate to that - except that I managed not to hit anything (only because there wasn't anything much to hit in the direction the car decided to take). It was a bit sudden and gave no notice of intent that I noticed...... I was more used to Herald handling antic it's true - but you had to be pretty swift to catch that little monkey too, and I could do that. Nick |
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend)
1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing)
1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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toreno
Part of things
Posts: 385
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Sept 19, 2012 17:22:28 GMT
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Sept 19, 2012 19:59:20 GMT
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  ! |
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Sept 19, 2012 20:20:36 GMT
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Great work TDUH, likin your style. I think you should alter that sun strip so it says 'ISLE OF MAN TIT RACES' just for the lulz
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1974 Lancia Beta Saloon
1975 Mazda 929 Coupé
1986 Mazda 929 Wagon
1979 Mazda 929 Hardtop
1982 Fiat Argenta 2.0 iniezione elettronica
1977 Toyota Carina TA14
1989 Subaru 1800 Wagon
1982 Hyundai Pony 1200TL 2-dr
1985 Hyundai Pony 1200 GL
1986 Maserati 425 Biturbo
1992 Rover 214 SEi 5-dr
2000 Rover 45 V6 Club
1994 Peugeot 205 'Junior' Diesel
1988 Volvo 760 Turbodiesel Saloon
1992 Talbot Express Autosleeper Rambler
2003 Renault Laguna SPEARS OR REAPERS
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Sept 20, 2012 23:09:07 GMT
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I already did, xbo11ox but Mrs. TDUH made me take it back off! LOL! Have to keep the sponsors happy!
BTW, do you have any Maserati wheel centre caps surplus to requirements? I want some for my mazzer wheels but I don't want to pay $60 each from ebay usa!
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toreno
Part of things
Posts: 385
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Sept 20, 2012 23:22:32 GMT
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! thanks for that what do you think |
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Sept 21, 2012 16:18:23 GMT
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Yeah, looks ok. Think mine has more character though! ;D ;D ;D
Have you advertised in on the owners club website? Sure its free to advertise if you register for their forum.
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Sept 23, 2012 20:17:59 GMT
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More weldathon!At last! I had decent weather all weekend so I made the most of it. This weekend 'Windfest' was on over at the beach. Full of windsurfers and kitesurfers. I reckon the 'weather gods' decided they would annoy more people if they spoiled 'windfest' rather than pick on me! ;D From my experience you get 2 types of welding on cars. You get big, dramatic, rewarding welding on large panels. Like welding on wings. They are easily accessible and it looks like you have done loads. Then there is the other type! Nasty, time consuming and once you have finished, it looks the bleeding same! Thats what I've been doing this weekend! It all centred round welding up the windscreen surround. I cut the old screen out and cleaned everything up with some flap wheels which left a lot less screen surround than I had wanted...    I had ground all the bad metal away, made up a pile of little patches to weld in. Problem was my lack of skill, rubbish welder and even the good metal being paper thin! Much grinding followed (safe to say I'm not getting any Christmas cards from the neighbours!) before this pic...  Look! ^^^ Spare kitchen tiles are ideal for deflecting welding sparks and hot rocks. The wiring has to put up with enough on an X1/9 without me setting it on fire too!  Out came the reassuringly thick rustproofy paint...  That black mark in the sky is one of the kitesurfers who managed to find enough of a breeze to get it up! Next up was a series of pics of the drivers footwell and the patches I welded in. The welding was very nice and neat, not like the snot on the windscreen ones but for some unknown reason my camera couldnt be bothered saving them and its too dark to go out and snap more. You will just have to use your imangination. Anyway, I rubbed the bonnet and wings down and plastered another cloud of satan black on. Despite having a good 8 hours drying time the stupid rustproofy paint hadn't fully dried and reacted with the rattle can black. I did think things had being going too well...  I had close up pics but my cameras dementia kicked in there as well. I'll recreate the missing pics if I get a break in the rain which will no doubt be back tomorrow. I've not checked the weather but we have had 2 dry, slightly sunny days and this is Scotland. Its a safe bet it will be lashing down tomorrow. Or snowing. Or so windy I cant hold the camera. Or all 3!
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