New Purchase

A

Austin74

True Classic
Hi, I'm a new member that has purchased the 74 shown in what hopefully will be 'before' pictures taken by the previous owner. I live in Austin and will be picking this car up from Chicago in a few weeks. It is solid in the trunk and suspension attachment areas, but has a few small spots in the rockers that will need some attention. The paint is original and it has 36,000 miles on it. I hope to make it into a fun weekend car that will look stock other than the Cromodora CD-30s I have purchased for it. I'm not sure yet what performance upgrades I might end up doing. It runs fine now, but more power is always a nice thing... This forum has been a great resource! I've had a bunch of questions since I have not owned an X1/9 in over 30 years and reading the threads in this forum has helped a lot!









 
Congratulations! That's a fine looking specimen you have there -- how did you find it? Craigslist? Lots of good folks here who can help if you have questions. :)
 
Brown Wire Mod

BTW Geekdaddy, in the description of your gorgeous car, you, like many others, mention the 'brown wire mod'. What is this?
 
Austin74 said:
BTW Geekdaddy, in the description of your gorgeous car, you, like many others, mention the 'brown wire mod'. What is this?
Click to expand...

Run an extra wire from the battery to the unswitched hot circuits at the fusebox... The stock wiring is here is a tad undersized. That plus cleaning up all the grounds to undo forty years of creeping corrosion and increased resistance makes a noticeable difference in how well the electricals work.

This and relays for the headlights are probably the best things you can do for a regular driver.
 
How the heck did this escape our radar? Sweet car, love the color combo, just love it. Very cool. Great year too. Well done.
 
Thanks!

Thanks for the kind words about the car. I'm really thrilled to have found it and can't wait to bring it home.
 
Color Combo

I noticed that the light green with tan color combo was used on the car that most magazines tested when the X1/9 was first introduced to the US market, so I'm busy buying up those old back issues...
 
Austin X1/9?

Welcome to the wonderful insanity of keeping X1/9's on the road.

There are at least 3 X owners here in Austin - myself, Dennis and Ric. I've got two, an 85 daily driver and an 83 in complete restoration right now. Dennis has two also and he's in the late stages of a K20 engine swap right now. Ric has one. We all try to get together for car shows and such and I've been helping Dennis on the K20 (can't wait to hear it fire up for the first time).

Between the three of us, there's not a whole lot we haven't tinkered with so if you need ANY help, feel free to call upon us.

That's a sweet looking 74. My first at X was a very early 74 which I drove for many years before it rusted away. I had every imaginable performance upgrade (back when FAZA and PBS made such things readily available). You can squeeze a lot of performance out of that 1300 if you try (and don't mind sacrificing some reliability!).

I live in Westlake. Where are you?

PM me for contact info.

Look forward to meeting you in person.

Ed
 
Congrats on your purchase!

I saw this pop up on Chicago Craig's List. If I didn't already own a green 74, I would have been all over this one. I was just talking to another X1/9 owner the other day about this car. He called on the ad and was told the car was sold. We wondered who bought the car. We figured it would be local, but now we know where it ended up. Good luck with the car.
 
Thanks

Thank you for the warm welcome Ed! I'll send you a PM with specific contact information. I live in SW Austin near where 290 hits Mopac.
Yes, I will have many questions! One of the first is if you know a welder that is familiar with the 15/16 relocation of the front strut mount to drop the nose an inch. I'd like to give mine that 'Euro' look :)
 
The Buy

Thank you Bob! The previous owner was very easy to work with and once we agreed on price, he allowed me to take a few days to overnight a cashiers check to him, and then he sent the title. He pulled the ad right when he got the check and has it waiting for me now. It was his dads, and he likes the car but is not a fan overall, so after spending a few years considering whether to keep it or not decided to sell it.
 
Congrats!

Looks like a really good example of a '74. Love your seats, interior is nice and a nice match for the green. Enjoy the obsession!
 
Seats

Thank you Jim! I like the seat color too - unfortunately there is a split seam on the lower portion of the passenger seat, and the driver's seat has two split seams plus a damaged section. I like the color and originality enough that I am going to try to get the damaged section replaced and have the seams sewed up. It also has the original yellow carpet, which is mint on the passenger's side, but I am not sure whether I can get all of the dirt out of the driver's side.
 
if you end up with old panels from those seats you can't use I'd love to use them for my custom motorcycle seat. Just to know I'm seating on '74 X1/9 vinyl when on my bike would be cool.....to me at least.:sun:
 
I'll keep that in mind.

I'm happy to send your way whatever the shop ends up with when they redo the seats. Sounds like a good use for it!
 
Well, well, well... I usually try to be the first to...

offer up a warm welcome to new caretakers to this "Dark Side"... but I see you have garnered a whole bunch of gratuities from many of the other members here...

I must say you'll never meet a greater bunch of guys but in this case, they are also a bunch of jealous LIARS! If you re-read their posts and squint a bit... you'll notice the type color slowly turn to GREEN as the words just OOZE with ENVY... much like the color of your car!

So unlike my brethren here... I ain't gonna LIE to you or offer a "warm welcome..." as I'll save that for someone who might really need one after purchasing some P.O.S.

(HA! I really don't have any desire to own a great survivor like that one as it should be kept original in all respects right down to the 145/70x13 Pirelli P3 tyres and 4 1/2" wide wheels. That's not the kinda car for this old tinkerer and Hot Rodder... but I do APPRECIATE what you have there and wish you the best... and hope you "Enjoy the ride!")
 
Thanks

Tony, thank you for the welcome! I want to play with the car, but keep everything I change with it. I also want it to look stock with the exception of 'day 2' stuff like period correct wheels. I see you live in Santa Clarita. I used to live in a neighborhood out Bouquet Canyon Road. Thanks again!
 
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