A Work in Progress # 4.1: 1978 Series 1 Fiat X1/9

You win some, you lose some! That's just how it is sometimes.

The debit side of the ledger first: The earlier "totally rust-free" status has had a big asterisk placed against it, pending further investigations of the cooling system. In its defence, the car's not overheating, nor is there any evidence of weeping from the radiator or the cooling pipes, which is cause for some optimism.

The fluid - or "liquid metallic orange" - arrived on the concrete via the overflow tank, suggesting that the system's robust enough to cope with a bit of internal pressure without popping anything. A good flush-out's jumped up the priority list and joins an urgent tune-up and service as a must-do.

Some ying to the yang (or is it yang to ying?): Beneath the seat covers were these slightly grotty but relatively unfaded and very unworn original seats. Definitely nothing that a good steam clean won't sort and, given the efforts that some owners have gone to in order to replicate the look, a big bonus!

Other than that, a bit of work's gone into de-wiring a few redundant accessories - a couple of two-way radio antennas and power-sources used during the car's time as a Targa-Tour lead car, and a long-gone stereo - but otherwise the electrics look quite unmolested. The headlights don't actually work but there's nothing to indicate a catastrophic failure, so hopefully nothing too hard to fix.

U M P H

(upperemiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)

All iPhone images.

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