Hi everyone,
You may have checked out my thread over here: http://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/25171
As promised I am dedicating a thread to the restoration. In the end I hope to achieve a top notch X which I hope to savour in spirited drives on the weekends and the occasional historic race.
In the past I had already took care of the mechanicals. My X sports a 1600cc Fiat Tipo engine with further fast road modifications, though I had never touched the body work in any way.
Project Start - Dismantling
Out go all the internals. Noticed that wiring loom has some shoddy joins here and there. Some people do not know the meaning of 'fire hazard'. As I dismantled, more areas needing attention started to be revealed.
Soda Blasting
Most of the exterior paint was removed with paint remover. The rest was left to the blaster to remove. He uses a mix of 'restoration' blast media to remove the bulk and then finishes off with soda. Overall I am very happy with the blast job as the panels do not show signs of much stress after the process.
What emerged from the blasting are (as I had assumed to find) countless amateur repairs done to an otherwise sound car. Unfortunately the repairs are mainly on the inner portion of the car and so inherently require the removal of most body panels. This is going to cost me an arm and a leg but the X deserves the best treatment possible! The body shop owner who is undertaking the restoration is very reputable and I am trusting he will do a stellar job on the X.
I will be ordering most panels through Eurosport UK which are sellers of Radford panels. Apparently these are very well made panels, hand made in the UK. A friend of mine who has just finished restoring a VS used some of these panels, with positive results.
This is the progress so far. I will continue the write up as another chunk of work is completed. As always your comments and advice are always welcome!
fingers crossed. :excited:
A link to the online album: http://s1134.photobucket.com/user/chris450d/library/1978 Fiat X19 Complete Restoration
Cromodora CD31 restoration here: http://s1134.photobucket.com/user/c...mplete Restoration/Cromodora CD31 restoration
Centre caps by Ricardo Borja
You may have checked out my thread over here: http://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/25171
As promised I am dedicating a thread to the restoration. In the end I hope to achieve a top notch X which I hope to savour in spirited drives on the weekends and the occasional historic race.
In the past I had already took care of the mechanicals. My X sports a 1600cc Fiat Tipo engine with further fast road modifications, though I had never touched the body work in any way.
Project Start - Dismantling
Out go all the internals. Noticed that wiring loom has some shoddy joins here and there. Some people do not know the meaning of 'fire hazard'. As I dismantled, more areas needing attention started to be revealed.
Soda Blasting
Most of the exterior paint was removed with paint remover. The rest was left to the blaster to remove. He uses a mix of 'restoration' blast media to remove the bulk and then finishes off with soda. Overall I am very happy with the blast job as the panels do not show signs of much stress after the process.
What emerged from the blasting are (as I had assumed to find) countless amateur repairs done to an otherwise sound car. Unfortunately the repairs are mainly on the inner portion of the car and so inherently require the removal of most body panels. This is going to cost me an arm and a leg but the X deserves the best treatment possible! The body shop owner who is undertaking the restoration is very reputable and I am trusting he will do a stellar job on the X.
I will be ordering most panels through Eurosport UK which are sellers of Radford panels. Apparently these are very well made panels, hand made in the UK. A friend of mine who has just finished restoring a VS used some of these panels, with positive results.
This is the progress so far. I will continue the write up as another chunk of work is completed. As always your comments and advice are always welcome!
fingers crossed. :excited:
A link to the online album: http://s1134.photobucket.com/user/chris450d/library/1978 Fiat X19 Complete Restoration
Cromodora CD31 restoration here: http://s1134.photobucket.com/user/c...mplete Restoration/Cromodora CD31 restoration
Centre caps by Ricardo Borja