Zel's Motoring Adventures...Peugeot, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - 16/04 - Routine Consumables...

[Zelandeth]

I was all set to approve, but aero blades? Mods - create me a Dislike button immediately!

 

(that position does look better. I was amending arm position on the Matiz today for much the same reason).

I literally checked every stockist in Milton Keynes to try not to get that type...Nobody has standard ones in 20" and I refuse to resort to ordering wiper blades from the bloody internet. Needed to do something about it now as it was borderline dangerous to drive in the rain before!

 

At least they've got the correct attachments rather than the huge oversized attachment clips a lot of that sort have.

[DodgeRover]

Problem is twofold.

 

You can't tow the Invacar with the rear wheels on the ground because of the CVT, so you'd need a full trailer.

 

Weight. Van is plated at 2.8T laden...max you can tow on a car licence is 3.5T...Invacar is 400-and-something (420?). Doesn't leave much space for a trailer, does it?

 

It would also be bloody unnerving to drive like that as it would be completely invisible from the cab!

 

Methinks the best solution is to just take two people and go in convoy.

Are you on a new style licence Zel?

[dollywobbler]

I literally checked every stockist in Milton Keynes to try not to get that type...Nobody has standard ones in 20" and I refuse to resort to ordering wiper blades from the bloody internet. Needed to do something about it now as it was borderline dangerous to drive in the rain before!

 

At least they've got the correct attachments rather than the huge oversized attachment clips a lot of that sort have.

 

Yeah, I live in rural Wales, which is a good few years behind the rest of the world. I bought a Unipart rear wiper blade for the Matiz from a motor factors the other day. It cost £3.

[Noel Tidybeard]

no mr wobbler they are HYBRID wiper blades and look 10000000002% better than aeroblades

 

in fact i searched for an long time before getting some civic ima wiper arms so i could change from aero/beam blades to the hybrid ones

[dollywobbler]

no mr wobbler they are HYBRID wiper blades and look 10000000002% better than aeroblades

 

in fact i searched for an long time before getting some civic ima wiper arms so i could change from aero/beam blades to the hybrid ones

 

Yes, hybrid because they're aero blades that look mildly less offensive. I do genuinely worry about 'proper' wiper blade availability in the future. Maybe I should stock up while Unipart has plenty of stock!

[Fumbler]

No please. We need our own hoards down here and I'll be damned if all stocks migrate to West Wales! In all seriousness, though, I have a feeling EBC here should have a few in stock given that they're small ish.

[Zelandeth]

Are you on a new style licence Zel?

 

Sadly yes.  Otherwise there would no doubt be something even more ridiculous parked outside!

 

Yes, hybrid because they're aero blades that look mildly less offensive. I do genuinely worry about 'proper' wiper blade availability in the future. Maybe I should stock up while Unipart has plenty of stock!

 

They to at least have something resembling a normal wiper profile to them and at a glance are somewhat less offensive.  At least based on the quick windscreen washer test they seem to work nicely.  Reckon they won't look too out of place on the Activa at least if that's all I can get (it could really do with some new blades too) at least - though yes...it is a bit jarring on the van.

 

The only place I've voluntarily used an aero blade was on the 107 - as it was the only darn thing I found that would actually clear the screen effectively, and that was only discovered after I got an Aygo as a rental car that had one.  My 107 had always had an issue in that it would clear the screen perfectly on the upstroke, then smear all over the place on the way back down the screen.  I tried a bunch of different types of blade until eventually trying a decent quality aero type...it worked perfectly!  Bloody picky moderns...

 

Seem to recall that when I picked up the last set of wipers for the Lada (13" I think from memory) they were the last set that GSF had in stock that were that small, and they'd not be restocking them either so in future I'd have needed to order for next day store collection.

[Zelandeth]

Having just been out for a drive I can confirm that the new wiper blades have indeed restored my ability to see where I'm going in the van when it's raining.

 

Not much going on today, but I did just go and attack the gear knob with Brasso as it was covered in oily, slightly sticky gunk which was making it quite unpleasant to use.

 

Giving it a decent scrub helped bring a bit of a shine back to it in addition to stripping all the greasy residue there off.

 

 

Much better.

 

Somewhat tempted to remove it and toss it in the pool ball polisher at some point to see if it would actually buff up a bit better...as it is though, far nicer than it was.

 

Examining things today (it's been raining pretty much all day) has identified no further points of water ingress in the van beyond the one I'm already aware of. That I find quite surprising.

[Zelandeth]

Quick evening update:

 

The one downside to having fiddled with the wiper alignment is that it's now wound up with a fairly large bit to the right of the screen that's not cleared.  Though to be honest I think I'm going to find that less annoying than screwy wiper positioning.

 

 

For all it looks a huge chunk, it's actually less in the way than you'd think because of how far inboard you sit compared to in a car.  Nowhere near as bad as one Van Hool Alizee coach I've driven where the wiper coverage stopped literally about halfway across your field of view - leaving about 2' of screen un-wiped at the edge of the screen.  Apparently this was something to do with it not having been adapted for the RHD market as the wipers cleared pretty much right to the edge of the screen on the passenger side...To be honest though, that was the least of the problems that coach had...

 

I also had a better dig around to look for any more water ingress - particularly in the overhead locker as it looked like there were some dark marks at the front edges that could have historically been left by damp.

 

 

Taking a closer look (read: climb into the locker) revealed no trace of actual damp - though it does look like something was spilled in there decades ago.

 

Also proved that yes, in a pinch you could probably fit a berth up there, though it would be quite claustrophobic - especially once you've added the height of a mattress of some description.  Useful to know though.

 

I also had a look to see whether the trim panels would come off without a fight (still pondering the lack of electricity to the marker lights up there), the answer is no, they're all stapled in place.  Shame...Need to do some more research to see if I can track down where the wiring is routed then, hopefully the fault is in the van rather than in the coachwork.

 

 

Getting back out of there was a good deal harder than getting in.  Managed it without breaking my neck though, so took that as a victory.

 

Last task for the evening was something I'd been meaning to do since the day I got it, under the general heading of trying to minimise the number of rattles and clonks in the living area when moving.  That task being to attack the corners of every door, drawer and locker with little felt pads.  Haven't had the van in motion since then, but hoping it will have helped at least a little bit.  I know the bathroom door was a major culprit in itself, so we'll see if it makes an actual difference.

[Zelandeth]

So, has going around the van putting little felt pads all over everything made it any quieter?

 

You bet it has.

 

There's still a huge amount of rattles and clanks - but you're driving around in what's essentially a house crammed into a plywood box strapped to the back of a van with hard compound commercial tyres...so you have to be realistic. It however no longer sounds like someone has hidden metal biscuit tins full of ball bearings in several locations.

 

I need to get someone else to drive a bit and see if I can track down where the other worst racket comes from. It will never be quiet, but anything I can do to make it quiet*er* will be worth it on longer runs as it makes it a less tiring place to be.

 

I know that the grill pan in one locker and the oven in general are two major culprits - I can see rubber/foam "transit blocks" being used to shut that up as it really does make a din, and the grill pan getting a designated transport location where it's thoroughly wedged in place...keep thinking I've managed to achieve that until the first time I bit a sharp bump...

 

Also still need to fasten the plumbing in place in a few places etc...so a fair bit still to do.

 

Today I have attempted to repair the glovebox lid. The plastic hinge has snapped (they all do that, it's a known weak point), and my first attempts failed as the replacement hinge I used was too thick, preventing the lid from closing properly. I'm going to swing by the dealer tomorrow to see if the part is available new for reasonable money, if so I'll just get a new one. If not I've another plan...but it means actually buying new hinges rather than scavenging the parts boxes in the garage! So if I need to spend money I'd rather buy the proper bit from Merc themselves if I've a choice.

 

Also noted by my husband today: it still makes me grin like a complete loony when I'm driving it. Novelty hasn't even started to wear off yet.

[mrbenn]

Also noted by my husband today: it still makes me grin like a complete loony when I'm driving it. Novelty hasn't even started to wear off yet.

 

Good work on the van!

 

Apologies if I've missed it elsewhere, but how is your husband doing? Is he is back at home now?

[LightBulbFun]

what the guy standing on the beetle grabbing his crutch said ^ 

 

on a serious note, glad to see work on the Van is going well and that the invacar is starting to get functional brakes once more not long until MOT time I dont think?

 

I can confirm the van is a very nice vehicle to ride in despite all the cutlery and what not rattling around in the back (specifically I like the openness of the cabin, lots of space to move around you properly feel like your sitting in a chair in a Room rather then confined to a small space also the engine sounds pretty nice )

 

also as per what mrbenn said hows your husband doing? I would of asked sooner but im not sure if its one of those questions that are ok to ask randomly? (I personally wouldn't mind if someone asked me such a question, but I dont know what the social norms are and I dont want to upset anyone, evidently I dont do the whole social aspect of things very well LOL)

[Zelandeth]

Good work on the van!

 

Apologies if I've missed it elsewhere, but how is your husband doing? Assume he is back at home now?

DISCLAIMER: The below reply is long. It has been typed out on a phone touchscreen. Said phone is new...as such I've yet to fully wrangle autocorrect into behaving itself. So if there are any really wacky errors in there... there's probably the reason!

 

It's been a busy old week, especially as we've had his folks staying so I've been running around a lot aside from the odd bits of vehicle stuff and writing it down as sanity breaks...and have honestly lost track of where I've given full updates on. Once you've told so many people it's easy to lose track.

 

He's back home now, and to be honest is doing a lot better than we could have hoped.

 

The full story basically is that he failed to turn up for the last day of the conference he was at. Thankfully the rest of the group he was working with (not colleagues - just partners in the conference!) raised the alarm when he didn't turn up after an hour. After a couple of hours wrangling with the hotel management they managed to gain access to his room.

 

He was found on the floor having a seizure, blood all over the pillow, contents of the nightstand scattered all over the room etc. Thanks to his Fitbit we actually now know that this all kicked off at 0251 in the morning, when his pulse suddenly shot up to 140bpm and stayed there for several hours.

 

He was rushed to the local hospital and as soon as deemed stable enough to make the journey, was then transferred to the 10th People's Hospital in Shanghai. Actually a well regarded establishment in terms of their neurological trauma team and facilities.

 

Didn't take them long to establish he'd had a stroke as suspected and to start treatment accordingly. However we had a problem at this point. He had been rushed out of the hotel in naught but his pyjamas...so no ID on him. Someone from his conference scribbled his name down, and someone called the travel insurance agent...but he had no formal ID on him. Nobody was able to stick around to give it either...as this was the last day of the conference...and as of about 1500 everyone had to get into the taxi back to the airport and to home...their visas didn't offer the option to do otherwise. Apparently the other person from the same university he works at did try to get theirs extended to help out and was told in no uncertain terms that it was not possible, and that any attempt to stay beyond the allocated time would be a criminal offence.

 

We got wind of the fact that was something amiss well after he was admitted to the hospital...however it was 4th hand information and contained zip by way of detail. Little things like whether he was conscious of near death were absent...all we knew was that he was in "a hospital in Shanghai" and that someone said he might have had a stroke. Turns out there are a lot of hospitals in Shanghai...

 

The only organisation we managed to get to show any interest in helping at this point was the US Consulate in Shanghai. They showed a LOT of interest, and virtually while we were on the phone to them had a team mobilised to physically go to the hospital we had some indication he might have been in, to try to find him.

 

...The hospital wouldn't let them in the building, nor would confirm or deny his presence there. They did eventually (about 48 hours later) manage to confirm he was there though. However, they weren't able to tell us more than that due to China having very strict privacy laws...and without him signing a waiver telling them they could discuss his case they couldn't tell me anything. Though credit to the gent I spoke to, he did a good job of answering my questions with tone of voice to at least confirm that my husband was actually alive and was likely to stay that way.

 

By this point we (and his parents) were obviously making plans to try to get there...and discovering just what a bloody nightmare trying to get to China is. Now, there is a specific visa to allow visiting of a family member during a medical emergency in the country. Two problems...as far as the Chinese government are concerned, I'm not family. So they don't consider this a valid case. He's just a friend, and the visa doesn't cover that. Secondly, to get that you need a written invitation letter and *full* medical report from the treating hospital...who won't even tell me he's there because I'm not family. You can see a running theme here can't you...

 

The official advice we eventually wound up with, from the US Embassy...was to book a trip over there as part of one of the regular organised tourist groups, but to just ditch the group at the airport...or to go through the motions of getting a normal tourist visa (assuming we could get the necessary invitation letter from somewhere...) and to absolutely make no mention of my relationship to my husband. The advice was that that being even hinted at could lead to officials going out of their way to put barriers in our way. Views of relationships like ours are still very negative there, and there's still apparently quite a few corrupt officials who have more power than they really should and they like to cause trouble for guys like us. The words of the guy in the Embassy...not mine!

 

This made me panic a LOT more. Two reasons: firstly, I had no idea how lucid or not my husband might be in hospital, so who knew what he might be telling people. Secondly, I'm autistic...one thing which really freaks me out is knowingly breaking rules, especially with official stuff...like being told to lie on a visa application as to why I'm visiting a country, or to abscond from a carefully organised tour group.

 

Luckily it was about 50% of the way through our wading our way through this message that we got word that he was awake and lucid enough that the US Consulate had been able to get the privacy waiver signed.

 

It was about 30 seconds after the phone rang to give us that news, that the other phone rang - and it was him phoning to tell me what was going on, having also via the US Consulate having got some of his stuff back.

 

It was obvious from the call that he was very dazed and confused, had little or no idea what had happened, and was slurring his speech nearly to the point of being impossible to understand. There's also enough of a lag speaking to someone that far away as to make conversation difficult at the best of times. We did actually resort to ending sentences with "over" during a couple of later calls!

 

Now, when my father fell ill back in the mid 90s, this resulted in me essentially living for the best part of three or four months in the intensive care neurological unit...so I'm pretty much used to what goes on in a hospital and what's totally normal for an ICU. My other half however is the one person in the house who's barely ever set foot in a hospital...so a significant portion of the call was spent reassuring him that stuff like an IV feeding line, drip and catheter were in fact totally normal hospital stuff and not weird Chinese Traditional Medicine stuff...not long after we got that out the way he got his phone confiscated as they take the no transmitting equipment in the ward rule very seriously.

 

However they were willing to let him get his tablet, so via an ancient Yahoo email account (no Gmail, Twitter, Telegram, Facebook or reliable WhatsApp in China) we did get a semi-regular form of email contact. Though their being seven hours ahead of us and the emails usually spending a few hours negotiating the Chinese internet's firewalls each way meant that it wasn't exactly quick.

 

It turned out that he had picked up the phone to call me less than an hour after he came out of a coma. Suffice to say, finding that out tugged at the heart strings a bit. Also explained why he was so confused.

 

From this point onwards we started to get somewhere...as the health care provider (RSA/Healix) through the same disclaimer were able to get their Chinese office to share info with their UK office and tell us what the heck was going on.

 

The biggest headaches then were basically waiting for test results to come in - because a team in the UK wanted to double check everything...which took a few hours...and bearing in mind the time difference - and the fact that the whole country seems to shut down over there at the weekends - it meant like it felt as though we were trying to play Battleship with someone on Mars.

 

The next big delay came in that they decided that they wanted to fly him home commercially (having ascertained there was no obvious cause for the incident nor major risk of a recurrence, so an air ambulance would be overkill), but with a UK doctor to accompany him.

 

This UK based doctor however needed a visa to get there...which after a lot of bashing their heads against walls, they eventually got around by sending the poor guy via some torturous route that allowed him to get a 48 hour one directly as the government weren't co-operating. Poor sod was in transit for something like 50 hours on the way there.

 

The hospital were unwilling to let my husband transfer out of the ICU on account of the perceived risk due to him being a foreign national...so despite by that point being essentially walking wounded and climbing the walls - he was still stuck in the ICU. Over there that means ABSOLUTELY no getting out of bed too...unlike here where movement is encouraged unless it's unsafe. So the poor guy was going stir crazy...two channels of Chinese TV on the far wall and a few games on a tablet he could sneak out when the staff weren't looking don't go far after nearly two weeks...

 

Eventually though, we got him home. He's currently tired (obviously!), still has a bit of speech slurring especially when tired, but not to an extent that it's actually a problem now, and he's got some slight loss of sensation on his right side (luckily is left handed), but not majority so and it seems to be improving. Loss of memory only seems to be of the event itself, he can still clearly remember going to bed the night before...just then waking up in the hospital rather than the hotel room. Given how slow to heal neurological trauma is, the fact he's in as good shape as he is this soon after the event is downright miraculous.

 

Watching our GP's eyes getting wider and her jaw getting closer to the floor as we explained each step of this the day he got home was fun.

 

He's awaiting a referral letter to the Neurologist over in Oxford to follow things up. Until then we've got a daily cocktail of anti seizure meds (just in case) and blood thinners.

 

Overall though, he's still the idiot that I married (which I knew wasn't a given initially - I've known people wake up after brain injuries with major changes to their personality), and despite being somewhat fragile, is getting along okay.

 

No great surprise that neither of us have been really letting the other out of sight though. I can't even begin to imagine how scared he must have been when he woke up in that hospital. He had no idea where he was, his brain was foggy, he couldn't speak properly, he's tied to the bed (as he was seizing when discovered at the hotel), and everyone is speaking a language he can't understand around him. ...and the fact that I wasn't able to even speak to him to tell him he was okay *FOR NEARLY A BLOODY WEEK* is something that is going to haunt me for decades I think.

 

Still think the state I was in during the week was summed up quite succinctly by one point about halfway through the first week when Abby found me curled up in a corner of our room clinging to the head of a costume representing a dragon character my husband plays at times, crying my eyes out. The logic to my tiny mind at that being "he's hurt, I need to give him a hug and tell him it's okay...this is the closest avatar for him I've got so I'm going to cling to it as though my life depends on it..."

 

I'm usually a pretty emotionally detached guy (see also the earlier mention of spending several months essentially living in the ICU when my father had a brain haemorrhage...turning my emotions off as a 10 year old became somewhat essential for life), but that couple of weeks had me in pieces.

 

I've be struggling a bit with some anxiety problems lately anyway (which actually boil down to fallout I'm still finding from stuff that happened back when I was ten)...which have jumped from a four to about an eleven now. Yes, I've got an appointment to see my GP about it in a couple of weeks. Hoping she can offer something more useful than the cognitive therapy suggested to resolve the insomnia, which was worth less than the paper that the 20th generation photocopied handouts were on was worth. Speaking of insomnia, still hoping that at some point I'll bit an energy wall and just crash for a day or two...not happened yet...still subsisting off a couple of hours a day.

 

So if I'm a bit snappy for a bit to anyone I apologise. I'm doing my best to keep a level head, but it's a bit harder than usual just now.

 

He's fragile, a bit slower on his feet than before, and will take a long while to get his stamina back, but he's home, in one piece and still the same person. His folks have been around for the last week too, so it's been a very full house - they're off home tomorrow (need to give them a lift to the airport...4:45 start, yay! - so back to a bit more of a normal week hopefully we of tomorrow.

[LightBulbFun]

im glad to see he is safe and sound back in the UK and that it sounds like he is doing pretty well all things considered

 

im sorry to hear what a Pain in the everything the whole ordeal has been like.

 

and I hope everything continues to go well and you dont have to sell the Xantia or such

 

(BTW you damn well got more balls then me, no way I could write all that on a Smartphone id prolly shoot my self 3 lines in or so  )

 

sorry if my response is a bit "lame" I do have a couple other things id like to say but im not sure how to put em in forum text so to speak, so ill prolly try and mention em next time we meet in person...

[Zelandeth]

Ah, you know me. I've little interest in social niceties! If there's something you're wondering and you're not sure how to ask it without sounding blunt, how to clearly frame the question or something, I'd say just drop me a PM and ask directly. I'm usually pretty good at deciphering queries and it's pretty difficult to offend me.

 

It's been a difficult few weeks, without doubt the hardest thing has been spending so much time not having the foggiest idea what's going on. Especially knowing that our information was essentially coming via two teams where they only actually spoke to each other for about an hour every day, so we were well aware that any information we were getting was the best part of a day out of date when we got it.

[mrbenn]

Thanks for the update. That's just harrowing.The level of stress and anguish must have been off the scale, and not knowing what is going on nor being able to do anything makes it 1000 times worse. As you say, not a period of your life that will ever be forgotten. I'm not surprised you can't sleep, your mind must still be on high alert.

 

I'm delighted that he's back home, and even more pleased that he has made such good progress since the stroke. Having experienced this at close hand I know you can either make a full recovery, even against all odds, or it can be the beginning of a horrible end - and not necessarily a quick one.

 

I hope you didn't mind me asking for an update. It wasn't done out of any sort of morbid curiosity, but of genuine concern within the "shite" family.

 

Best wishes to you both.

[mrbenn]

<snip>

 

I dont do the whole social aspect of things very well LOL

 

Join the club, brother!

[quicksilver]

What a horrific ordeal and a bureaucratic nightmare for both of you. So glad to hear he's back at home and on the mend, but an experience like that can never be forgotten.

[Daviemck2006]

Im glad to hear he is getting better. It must have been awful for you, I dont know how I would have handled that stress. I know how stressful it was when my mum had a stroke, and the hospital was only 30 miles from home. I hope he makes a full recovery.

 

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

[vulgalour]

Do you know what, strokes can gtf.  I'm glad to hear he's home and safe and you can both set to recovering.

[mat_the_cat]

Wow. I must have missed the initial post about his ordeal, but glad things are looking (a bit) happier. I'm rubbish at thinking of the right thing to say, but I really do wish both of you well.

[Zelandeth]

Thus bloody glovebox hinge is annoying me now. Have picked up a length of piano hinge - I reckon that I can make it work, albeit with a significant amount of faffing around. It's essentially trying to work out how to make a three dimensional object fit into s two dimensional space.

 

Definitely going to double check that I can't get the new part before going further down that road as it will be a royal faff and probably still won't sit 100% right.

[dozeydustman]

Glad to hear your OH is home and recovering well. Hopefully he is fighting fit in no time.

[Zelandeth]

Okay, glove box lid hinges (part number appears to be the whole lid as one assembly - 601 680 00 98) are indeed NLA from Mercedes themselves - exactly as I expected. So I need to find one from a breaker - unlikely as they all break there - or repair it.

 

Have got some piano hinge now, so just need to figure out how to attach everything in a low profile enough manner. It's the lid that's the tricky bit as there's very little space because the hinge will be so close to the edge. I suspect that I'll be making use of the rivet gun as I don't think I've got enough room to get a nut and bolt in there.

 

Wasn't until I got into looking at this that I realised what a swine of a repair this was going to be to do neatly.

 

Why couldn't Merc have just used a proper hinge here? Or at least fitted a check strap to keep the strain to a manageable level.

 

Time to start digging for a second hand one...

[Amishtat]

Saw this earlier parked behind my sister's house

[Zelandeth]

Had a closer look at the fuel tank today.

 

I've always reckoned it looked like a glorified Jerry can... didn't realise quite how much until I looked at it next to one...

 

 

 

 

Slightly shorter than mine on account of the handle being part of the pressing.

 

 

So my brain currently is pondering whether there's any good reason I can't just make myself a new tank out of one of these cans? They're designed to carry fuel and be chucked in the back of vans etc, so carefully fastened in place in here should be a pretty easy life.

 

This one, annoyingly, won't fit into the space occupied by the old tank as it's about an inch and a half too tall on account of the handle.

 

If I tracked down one that was a little shorter it should be pretty trivial to braze on a connection for the fuel line, and the fuel gauge sender hole wouldn't exactly be rocket science. Could quite probably salvage that section from the old tank even (given it's thicker gauge steel with tapped holes in).

 

Only other thing I'd need to think about would be ensuring there was a breather of some form provided.

 

Thoughts?

[dollywobbler]

Blimey. I've just caught up with this. I had no idea you were going through such traumas. That unswept windscreen space really is something. I mean, that's quite a lot of stress to go through with your other half!

 

Only problem I can see with the jerry can idea is there's presumably no venting set-up. I'm wondering how a Mini fuel tank stacks up dimensionally? I mean, it's an Invacar. Those tanks were probably not designed specifically for them.

[timolloyd]

Mini tanks are quite an odd lumpy shape. I wonder if they might be a bit awkward to fit.

 

The only other tank I’ve had first experience with, which might fit, is a Herald or Spitfire tank. The former being small-ish and slim-ish and the latter being like a small rectangular box.

 

Presumably whatever you use, the filler needs to be extended or adapted in some way?

[Zelandeth]

The filler is just freestanding under the access hatch, so long as it's fuel-tight and accessible shouldn't be a problem.

 

Venting in the case of the Lada is simply a tiny hole drilled in the cap, and with the filler being at the top shouldn't be an issue. Pretty sure the original Invacar one is set up like that.

 

Have to confess to knowing what none of the BMC tanks look like.

 

I have looked at the saloon Lada Riva ones as they essentially sit in the mirror image to the spare wheel well in the boot. I reckon it would *fit* in the space...however there's no way to get it in there without removing the body or chassis...

[Andyrew]

Auto radiator services, in portland road luton have done a 5 of my fuel tanks, repaired, flushed, pressure tested and painted usually around £40. Re core on my disco rad too. Top bloke!

 

Yours is obviously beyond that but they may be worth keeping in mind if you want something modified.