'75 Restoration

After many delays due to work, family, and laziness, my pops and I have begun the restoration process of our 1975 X1/9 in earnest.


We initially intended to begin just over three years ago with the purchase of a 1500cc performance long-block engine using FI cylinder head and low-A411 camshaft, with 4-Spd transmission from MWB. Alas, the military pulled me away to Afghanistan; drat, another delay!!!


Retirement is beautiful and away we go!!!


A little history…We purchased our little beauty, we call her “Ginger” in 1988 from a high school graduate needing funds to feed their education; score!!! Rust=minor, terminal rust areas=below minor, their brother and father as mechanics=bust, but more on that later!


Pops and I rebuilt the engine three times over six years before pushing her to the back yard….where, she sat, and sat, and sat.



I met my wife in 2002 and her first curiosity was the bright orange car sitting out back…game on!!!


Over the past two months we have been going full throttle (maybe, but usually!!!) on the restoration. My pops is a mechanic/fabricator by trade so much of the work is his incredible brainstorming, (with a little of my elbow grease!) I have yet to generate a complete parts purchase list to share, but will do so soon.



We decided after seeing the past owners handi-work to strip her down and inspect every nook and cranny!



I will share a few photos without captions as most of you will know what is being accomplished! Please shoot questions, suggestions and jeers alike; we’re thick skinned and want to do this right!!!
Cheers,
Bron

Welcome Bron... thanks for posting fotos as well.

Hope to see you around the 'hood soon... November is the Best of France and Italy show in Van Nuys where we all come together from the great PNW to the Mexican border.

Plan on attending the first Sunday and let us know if we can give you a hand. Lots of resources, advice, parts and a willingness to help. Hope to see you soon.

Welcome Bron

Seeing how you have the electrical harness already removed, I would suggest you get ahold of a
late model harness to re-install. Those use ATO style fuses and have a more robust fuse system.
If you're planning on re-wiring from scratch with your own harness build, it will be a lot more
work than you will anticipate. The headlight system with the pop-up motors is a very involved
setup, trust me on this.

I too am re-building a 1975 X, sunset orange colored.

Adding the late model harness requires you to add a hanger of sorts to the back-side (inside the car,
under the dash area) of the battery box. An easy add-on. The glove box will be populated with
the fuse box instead of the usual junk most folks put into a glove box. You can replace that
with an arm rest with storage, available here from Henk Martens. More on that later if you
decide to go that route.

Enjoy your build, and keep us posted. :thumbsup:

Thank you for the welcome and wiring advice! We have yet to purchase a harness so will be sure to follow your suggestions. Tony, if the car is on the road my wife and I will do our best to make it up north; sounds like a good time!
Cheers,
Bron

Bron,

Good luck on that restore. It appears that you have a good start on doing it the correct way. Have fun on the wiring :shock:

Papa Tony, I was in Hollywood this weekend and had thoughts on invading your privacy and home but I had the wife and grand-daughter so thought that it was better for me to pass this time.

Thanks Tyrone! My pops was talking about doing the wiring himself; he's quickly changed his mind after reading Bob's post!

Never questioned doing this the WRONG way, especially given pops background in fabricating and mechanics he would have skinned me alive!

Whats really amazing is how our to do list has grown from our initial list after stripping her down; but we love it!!!
Cheers,
Bron

What a great project, it looks like your having a lot of fun. Keep up the good work.

great job

hi from Australia great to see another X19 being kept alive , great work to love the read look forward to more progress posts

You are NOT forgiven Tyrone...

Usually I'd really (figuratively) kick yur bum but we haven't been well enough to accept company as of late.

Do give me a shout BEFORE you plan your next trip and hopefully we can get together. I have, and I love lots of kids and G-kids as well as dogs and G-dogs... and cars too...

HA!

Anxious to meet you folks... car running or not.

And BFI is NOT to be missed as you can gain so much insight and so many ideas.

We'll put you down for a case of Bud Light...