Interested in a x1/9

B

BMW.Guy

Low Mileage
Hello everyone, my first post. I am interested in getting a x1/9. The car is from the 70's and I may get it to tinker with. One question I have already. It looks like the dash has different gauges on the older models? I remember seeing a Fiat from 1981 or so and it had a lot nicer gauges in the instrument cluster. Can one change them out and put into the older model cars?
these are the instruments I like below

These are the ones I don't care for below.
 
The ones you like are the "later style", '78 and on I believe??

oh yeah, welcome to forum, do buy it, despite the dash type, these cars are a blast to drive and tinker with, what year is the one you're looking at? began in '74 and ran through '87, no matter which, they're all good, some prefer the earlier 1300 4 speed, revvy and nimble, I have a 1500 fuel injection ('81 year) and love it for all types of driving
 
Can I replace the old style with a newer style instrument panel, Do you know?
It's a pair actually, a 1975 and a 1976
 
Yes you can

But, the early instrument clusters had an oil pressure gauge at the far left and the later ones had a voltmeter at the far left.

Cheers,

Rob
 
I believe they are for the most part, interchangable. The only real difference being that some years have a voltmeter and some have a oil pressure gauge so you'd need to convert/match accordingly.

The gauge cluster you don't like is on 1974-77 US models, the '78 has it's own (best looking IMO), and the 79 up have a couple variations but look similar (clockwise or counterclockwise tach, gauge font, and fiat or bertone badges)

'78 cluster:
20130906_161440_zps384d4e60.jpg

DSC_0544_zpskwd5jpwe.jpg
 
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I am sure I can add an oil pressure gauge in the spot of the voltmeter and put the voltmeter somewhere else. Is the oil pressure gauge electrical?
I just like the round gauges better. They look similar to BMW M1 and porsche 911 in the later 80's cars
 
BMW.Guy said:
I am sure I can add an oil pressure gauge in the spot of the voltmeter and put the voltmeter somewhere else. Is the oil pressure gauge electrical?
I just like the round gauges better. They look similar to BMW M1 and porsche 911 in the later 80's cars
Click to expand...

Yep it's an electric sender / gauge. Thank GOD! Could you imagine routing lines from the motor to the dash and not expecting leaks...
 
The pic of the one you liked is actually a pic of the last version of the instrument cluster, used on 1987 and later USA cars.

In your "like" pic, the instruments themselves are arranged as they have always been in the later model cars, it's just that the graphical representation (typeface, style of hash marks for the speedo and tach, etc) is different from the previous, say, seven and a half model years (late '78 thru '86).

Just as an aside, with the X1/9 (as well as with other cars produced by the Italian coachbuilders (carrozzeria) vs the mass production factories of FIAT), the concept of "model year changes" is more of a guideline than a cold, hard fact. The carrozzeria tended to use whatever was available in the parts bins at the moment the car was being built, so any advice or comments you see here on Xweb that establishes the specifics of any given item based on a model year is understood by the community to be in the context of a guideline. There was an article posted here only a week or two ago from a contemporary edition of the NY Times reinforcing this reality; the article stated that the importers of the post-FIAT X1/9 (Malcolm Bricklin's IAI) were encouraging the Bertone factory to make running improvements rather than save up the improvements for the next model year.
 
Running improvements sounds to me like a good way of doing things. :)
I am mechanically inclined and fabricate some things , too. So I wouldn't mind if there was a certain extent of modification involved. I definitely like the 87 dash over all of them
 
BMW.Guy said:
I am sure I can add an oil pressure gauge in the spot of the voltmeter and put the voltmeter somewhere else. Is the oil pressure gauge electrical?
Click to expand...

It is, but only the '74-'75 1300 block has a tapped port for the oil pressure sender. Any other block, you have to either get a tee adapter so both the idiot light switch and the pressure sender can share a port (Mine came from Midwest, work fine on both my 1500 into '74 conversions), or find an aftermarket gauge/sender/idiot light unit, or drill and tap a hole in the block.
 
I don't remember what I did on that set. I laser printed some way back but last several sets were ink jet, then sprayed with a protectant (other wise the ink smudges). Laser looks prettier but limited access to a good laser color printer and then the need for special paper had me just go ink jet lately. I did some on self adhesive photo paper (ink jet only, would destroy a laser) those were for my motorcycle. Turned out nice. Pretty sure my own were done on a laser, it was a long time ago. I've done a few in full color (green and orange as I recall) and those really need to be done a laser, ink jet looks striped/ blotchy when doing big color areas.
 
different cable.

Speedometer cable hook-up on the clusters are not the same.
early models use a speedo cable with a metal threaded cap that screws onto the back of the cluster.
late models use 2 cables that have a plastic slip/clip-on connector.

Very doable if you like the cooler 87 late model cluster but still a pita job on the first couple of attempts.
 
might be...

The instruments are really similar with different "fascias" across all models years. Easy to modify/interchange.

You might be looking at the difference in the entire dash panel. The 78 and older models have a much different dash and center console compared with the later models which have the HVAC controls above the radio instead of the center console.

Personally I prefer the 79+ setup. You could do a dash swap if you wanted to monkey with all the HVAC cables and whatnot...
 
tee fitting

mwb has (had) them?
I e mailed matt and he said he had never seen them. I know the turbo spider had one. there was a service bulletin on a re route of the sensor and sender. do you think you might have the part # from Midwest so I can prod matt to do some digging.
thanks
mikemo
 
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