SambaS

Spoke to the seller.  Car still available but no documentation this means it can never be used on the road here. He seemed to hint the car came originally from UK but we are not certain thats what he said. May go have a look next weekend but would need to get real lucky to ever legally own it and thus use on road.

Moar photos of photogenic car being photogenic:

At defunct Vidin Airport

At defunct petrol station

Shotz

daughter/ me / wife of deceased 

Did you know I nearly bought a Lada instead

Found these left to die by the river. Long story short they know live in England after we got them passports. BenjiP of this woods actually donates to a local charity here who took them in after I looked after them a few weeks

Die like real men.

I would agree it looks a bit like...

I should probably introduce my 24012...

Known as the Moskvitch Aleko.

The 20142 was built here in Bulgaria and the additional 2 on the end donates an actual Moskvitch engine opposed to the usual Lada lump.

Bought it from an old dear in Pleven, and the car buying process here is such a pain I dont actually own ten cars here yet. In fact it put me right off! You and the seller have to go to a Notary with all the correct documents, in the case of this sale the seller didn't and had to visit the town hall three times!

After the Notary draws up the sale and you pay the taxes and (lie about the sale price) Notary fee you are . Tired. And free to spend another day registering your car at KAT... your local traffic police station. Here you get a Talon (V5) and if you want local number plates. Up until recently this was a must, but I kept the EH Pleven number plate cause ... well...  tight. Or I like the EH. Then insurance, then vignette, then village tax

It behaved well until it stopped behaving well after 4 weeks. I took it to Romania with my parents which it didn't like. And the border officials were not impressed as they had to push start us into Romania. It made it back just but then died in Vidin.

In some order new plugs, brand new carburettor and a coil side rewire and new alternator the thing has been okay since apart from a gypsy stole it one night when we were drinkng and burned the clutch out then pushed it back onto my drive and pretended nothing happened.

After rebuild photographed in Rila Mountains

My local petrol station some English suprised to see me in the Wild West

It didn't like Romania

Old carb here stripped and new bits put in but eventually found new complete unit

One of the many times it was on the ramps last summer. Lucky for me the son of garage owner speaks perfect English. And despite everyone's warning I find them to be honest and reasonable. People are nervous when I try do things for myself here cause its usual to think English are rich and thus hike up prices.

Riding round the village with choke on (or cruise control if you like)

Snow

Buzludzha Monument

It's probably not as bad as it looks, my priority is the Aro 10, I will try enquire about this later. It couldn't be further from my house all the way on the coast in Burgas

And I'm  not calling myself cause soon as they here Anglicharnin, Englishman the price will go up.

I'm gonna get my gypsy friend to call the bloke at the weekend and ask if it has documents. That's the first hurdle.

If it does have documents then I've no excuse really not to then try find a bloke to trailer it home.

If both those things come together I'll send some photos of it at my house. Or in the local river. Of Full of gypsies. Its a fun life here in BG

Naa I just periodically throw some WD40 down its throat.. needs a proper fix really.

Toyying with the idea

of buying this as it fairly local for £175

Aro 10

As we know my old blue Duster was sold many moons ago and recently photographed outside of a commercial building so can't be doing it much good in the rain. Regret is a thing from which I suffer but have to keep moving forward!

Someone asked on the Monza thread what the current fleet was...

Three Talbot Sambas '84

Talbot Express Camper '86

Jaguar XJ6 3.2 Sport '97

Jaguar XJR '95

Saab 900 '98

Moskvich 24012 'Aleko' '89

PK Jimp number 001 '82

Yugo Tempo '89

Opel Monza GSE '84

Opel Monza GSE '85

Good god do i own this many cars I thought I was doing well at getting rid 😅😅😅😅

I finished the Samba Roller then sold it then bought it back a year later broken with a half fitted 1.4 engine.

The red cabriolet came back as above and is still in storage waiting its turn for an MOT.

Jack's white cabriolet still in storage waiting its turn for an MOT and Jack living in S. Korea

Not sure ref the engine. I asked my mechanic to take it apart while I was away but he hasn't touched it. Funny my Jag XJR lost cylinder 3 on the way down to Luton a month after this. Have not had the chance to compression test it. How strange to have two almost identical issues on two engines known for their reliability!!

HOTT

I will get a Tavria at some point but need to deal with my UK fleet first and bring over to Bulgaria.

Was half about to buy an Aro 10 for £175 here in BG

Monza been pressed into daily service since I drove my Saab to Bulgaria and left it there in December.

Today on the motorway the engine decided on catastrophic failure so apologies to the bloke I literally told yesterday that I had a spare engine to

The plan is to fit my spare engine and possibly the gearbox too, then this one can come apart at my leisure and I will see if anything is salvageable. Its been burning 1.5 litres of oil per week and my mechanic told me it was about to blow up last year!

Then had to address an area slightly further forward...

In the photos it looks like I didn't put the steering box reinforcement bracket back on but I assure you I did.

And then after rebuilding all the brake callipers took it for retest and the MOT man decided to fail it on more welding that he missed like four weeks prior 🙄

Not really happy with the finish of the glossy black paint but should keep the salt off for now. Can be sanded off and finished properly at a later date.

Yeah fixed it...

Some time in 2020 I put this in for MOT and it failed on a few bits of welding. Two small holes in each front chassis leg, and then a small hole in the OSF inner wing.

Then lockdown happened so I decided to take this to the scrapyard to make a proper job of the inner wing.

There is the hole and a knarley looking suspension turret 😬

I did some investigating with my grinder and finally it became clear why water was coming in the footwells.

My heart sank as the rot went into the bulkhead, including almost all of the bulkhead side panel. These are not available new, they were part of the bulkhead assembly.

Not sure where I was at with this thread.

2015

2016

2017

2020

SambaS

Has the forum been down for a few years?

Taken several years for a password reset to work. Been trying periodically every few months et voila appears I'm back.

Charade is living a happy life, currently my daily.

Had machine polished while I was in Hong Kong:

This is coming along slowly but having thorough nut and bolt restoration!

I have a brochure from Charters of Aldershot who made it... based on the S with webbers and optional wide arches.

Small update regarding the Sambas..

Cant even remember how to upload photos grr.

The Samba Roller is next in queue for MOT but I keep doing daft things like going to Dubai and Hong Kong and buying other cars. Once we return from Bulgaria I should be able to progress the Roller. It now starts and stops and can be driven on the road to its MOT whenever I book it!!

An camel

Got a new job as a welder fabricator

bought this last winter

And this Jaguar

And my old red Cabriolet came up on ebay and the same bloke who took it away a year ago brough it back one morning

Also incoming in the not too...

Good Lord

Sorry I will be in UAE or Hong Kong on 10th June

I think there's three or maybe 3.5 Horizon LD left and I know who owns all but one!