Project Keith the Vampire Lada Samara (Finished for now)

[Felly Magic]

Well folks here is part 1 of the restoration of my mate's Lada Samara, which I jokingly nicknamed Keith The Vampire,  after a certain Asian MP (Keith Vaz) and the VMP reg plate. It seems to have stuck.

 

Well it is now at a bodyshop in London to have the grotty bits sorted, a few new bits and bobs and shiney bits added, and a nice fresh coat of paint. Warning, lots of pics coming. 

 

 

[Felly Magic]

Moar pics of an undressed Keith

 

 

And time for the team to have a well earned tea break

 

 

[KruJoe]

Jeez, look how clean his back turrets are!

Here's our Samaratat for comparison:

 

 

This had a current MOT.

 

 

But we rescued it.

 

If the front wings came off our Samara, I'd hate to see what horrors lurk beneath!

[Felly Magic]

Ouch! That had an MOT? Was the tester Stevie Wonder?

[KruJoe]

Ha ha, no. Believe it or not, the grot couldn't be seen with the trim and back seats in place. Once it was fixed, the handling felt much sharper at the back end!

[Felly Magic]

I bet it did. This passed its MOT last week, and its in pretty good shape for its age. It is a low miler, and will look mint once resprayed. Bumpers are going to be left black though, not colour coded

[SambaS]

There once was a time where I tough I was the only crazy wanting to partake in restoration of cars like this Samara. Hurrah!

[Sigmund Fraud]

Brilliant work, Samaras are for life's winners !

 

It must have had a pretty easy life, they usually require far more than a couple of small patches when you begin poking around with a screwdriver (as Joe's example clearly shows !).

[Felly Magic]

It has a smidge over 20K on the clock, which probably explains a lot. Now after a set of rims for it, found out Fiat Punto alloy wheels fit, so the search is on.

[I_am_Diesel]

Is that Ian Rush (former Liverpool striker) hiding behind the car?

[Felly Magic]

Could be if he's fallen on hard times LOL 

[KruJoe]

When I first got the Samara, and was having thoughts of smartening it up, I was on the lookout for some of these wheels:



But none turned up in time. I was also considering some under-stated 14 inch ones from Alfa 33's etc, for example...
 

 

Or maybe something from a Lancia.

 

Anything 14 inch and 4x98mm would fit and look well, I think the alloys which look almost like wheel trims suit the Samara best.

[Felly Magic]

More progress including a brand new wing being test fitted. Rust scabs being attended to. It's looking likely that a set of Wolfrace 5 spoke alloys might be the choice. 

 

[sierraman]

Brilliant stuff. My brother had a Riva in the same hue of burgundy. Despite it bring only about 4 years old at the time the paintwork was developing these bizarre craters from which I can only guess was Ladas less than meticulous assembly.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Despite it bring only about 4 years old at the time the paintwork was developing these bizarre craters from which I can only guess was Ladas less than meticulous assembly.

 

You must not forget that only the finest* of Ladas found their way to the decadent, capitalist west. Export cars were apparently hand picked after rolling off the production line and then underwent further QC and rectification before being delivered to their lucky* new owners.

 

Which, of course, makes you wonder how bad the Soviet/Russian domestic market models were...

[Felly Magic]

MVI at Carnaby often gave cars full resprays, that were often not much better than factory finish. The satin black window & door top surround paint is particularly thin, and if you notice, on nearly all survivors, its almost worn away back to primer.Keith will be getting a top notch respray, far better than new

[Felly Magic]

Further progress on old Keith, including surgery to the roof gutters, a new wing mount, and further prepping for respray. 

 

Keith is going to become the owner's daily drive, even though he has a Bentley, Rolls, and a few other exotica.

[Partridge]

That wasn't that shabby to start with, so it's probably going to be one of the best in the UK after you're finished with it.

[Felly Magic]

Keith is no longer pogweasel burgundy, he's now in primer, ready for his new coat

 

[KruJoe]

That wasn't that shabby to start with, so it's probably going to be one of the best in the UK after you're finished with it.

Those are almost exactly the words someone used about our one when I rescued it! (See how that tuned out?)

But this one is heading in entirely different direction... it's gonna be WAY better than when it left the showroom, that's FO SHO.

[Felly Magic]

It is a shame that the car wasn't purchased sooner, it would have been nice to debut him at the Ace on Sunday, but nowt we can do about that. Another few days in the body shop and all should be sorted

[Felly Magic]

Sorry for the lack of updates, the bodyshop has been rather busy as of late. Keith is now resplendent in red, but no photos yet. Here he is in primer with the black door tops and pillars in the progress of being done.

 

 

He's getting there as you can see. 

 

 

[Felly Magic]

Keith isn't grey anymore. It was decided to re paint him as close to original, otherwise it would have required an engine out job to respray the engine bay. 3 of the doors and tailgate still need painting though, but he's getting there. once the doors and bootlid are done, its a flat down and polish, then re assembly.

 

 

 

 

[Felly Magic]

Here's Keith almost complete. Doesn't he look nice?

 

 

 

[Lukas]

Nice! But he looks a bit sad with his eyes full of tears.

[Rocket88]

Spiffing..........................must be best one in the world now!

[Sigmund Fraud]

How could you resist the temptation of ordering "Sputnik" badges in cyrillic ?

 

[Skizzer]

Bloody nice job!

 

(See what I did there?  Keith the Vampire?  Geddit?  Oh well, never mind.)

[DodgyBastard]

Wow, looks very nice, I love threads like this where people take worthless shite, spend time on them making them decent condition worthless shite. Well done! I'm hoping I can do the same with the fso when I get it...

[Felly Magic]

Some new headlamps have been ordered, to sort his sad eyes look, and all being well next week, new wheels to bling him up further. I dread to think how much this work has cost, but I'd say 10 times what he cost at least, and he does look great. Good luck with the FSO FOAD