Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 13/11.

[TrabbieRonnie]

My door cards have nothing behind them either, but don't (currently) leak.  Must be the seal like you say.

My boot latch is also exactly as you describe.

None of this helps, I know!  Good tinkering Z, I've actually come to work in mine today, don't know why I don't do so more often!  

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, TrabbieRonnie said:

My door cards have nothing behind them either, but don't (currently) leak.  Must be the seal like you say.

My boot latch is also exactly as you describe.

None of this helps, I know!  Good tinkering Z, I've actually come to work in mine today, don't know why I don't do so more often!  

Hmm...Well in that case I may just need to get inventive with the bootlid latch.  Shouldn't be too hard to fabricobble a solution I would think.

Just like that I've spent €320 on Trabantwelt..

For those nosey - and my reference because I'm not going to want to use enough brain cells to translate this from German when the delivery lands I'm sure...

[] HLP68 gearbox oil.

[] Bonnet badge.

[] Radio blanking plate.

[] Steering rack gaiter.

[] Fog light switch.

[] Sachsenring emblem key chain.

[] Air filter to carb hose (one on the car is badly perished).

[] Full window and door seal set.

I think just ordering a complete new seal set is the sensible way to go.  They all seem to be in a poor way one way or another so in terms of minimising long term hassle it's going to be money well spent.  This includes everything for the doors/windows/windscreens in one box so should save me a lot of trouble in the future.  I want to get the rear screen out at some point to sort out the rust in the surround anyway, so not having to attempt to do that without damaging the seal will probably be worth the price of admission in itself.

[High Jetter]

Not a bad price for a seal set, nvm the rest.

[Zelandeth]

35 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Not a bad price for a seal set, nvm the rest.

Yeah, most things there seem to be reasonably priced.  Just postage obviously stings a bit being from Germany.  Plus the you know customs will roll the random number generator when stuff lands here.  Hoping not to have a repeat of 2016 when a $300 parcel from the US wound up costing me £300 by the time I managed to get hold of it.  

[Zelandeth]

Today I could have been sensible and taken the Peugeot to get my various bits of running around done, but that's boring, sensible talk.

Plus with how much of a zoo anywhere near to a retail establishment is at this time of year a tiny car is a major bonus.  Being relatively immune to door dings in car parks isn't a bad thing either.

The windscreen washers now work correctly from the control again.

Under the dash I had spotted a couple of holes in the bulkhead through which I could see daylight, so found a couple of trim clips to fill those - I put a blob of grease behind them to discourage any water or fumes from using it as a way to enter the cabin.

Sure there are probably plenty more of those, and the grommet the wiring loom goes through there has an opening I can easily fit my thumb through, but I've tried at least!

While I had the trim clip box out I replaced the one broken clip which was holding the dash mat to the top of the dash.  Of course it looked daft with one that was slightly different in design to the others, so I went and replaced all of them.

Hoping this weekend I will have a chance to do something about the dangling wiring under there, but it's always hard to say how time will work out at weekends.

I've set about trying to epoxy the interior light back together this evening.

The contacts are quite corroded so I'm honestly not sure if it will ever work again - but getting it to a point where it doesn't fall out of it's location above the B pillar every time you close a door would be an improvement.

[TrabbieRonnie]

See this guy has a rear light surround...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ifaclubuk/permalink/10161115906009549/

No price, might be worth a look, or did you get one from TW?

[Zelandeth]

3 hours ago, TrabbieRonnie said:

See this guy has a rear light surround...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ifaclubuk/permalink/10161115906009549/

No price, might be worth a look, or did you get one from TW?

Still waiting for my membership of that group to be approved.  

That was the one thing I had on my shopping list that couldn't find on the Trabantwelt website, though I may have just been being blind.

[TrabbieRonnie]

Yeah, they do stock them, have they despatched your order yet?

https://www.trabantwelt.de/Trabant-601/Beleuchtung/Ruecklicht-Gehaeuse-Trabant-601::2828.html

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, TrabbieRonnie said:

Yeah, they do stock them, have they despatched your order yet?

https://www.trabantwelt.de/Trabant-601/Beleuchtung/Ruecklicht-Gehaeuse-Trabant-601::2828.html

Dangit, I thought I checked the lighting section thoroughly!

They have, but no biggie.  I'm sure I'll be ordering more stuff in the not too distant future, will just grab one then.  It's nothing especially urgent at least.

[Zelandeth]

The repair to the interior light appears to have worked.

It hasn't fallen out again so far anyway.  Unfortunately it also doesn't seem to work, though I've yet to ascertain if we have power to it yet and couldn't summon the enthusiasm to go all the way back inside and upstairs to retrieve a meter today.

I did have the occasion to actually make use of the headlights after dark today and can confirm that they are marginally less useful than the dash illumination.

Not great.  

I have a feeling that they're just aimed really low to compensate for being LHD headlights as they did seem to be doing a halfway decent job of lighting the tarmac about 6' in front of the car, but that was it.  I need to take a closer look at them to see if they are the same 7" size that seem to be really common.  If so I'll probably look at seeing if we can modify a spare backing plate to use a Mini style headlight unit, allowing us to get proper RHD lights on the car.  Helpfully I do have a couple of spare bowls so I can experiment easily enough there.

[SiC]

How is the P6? 

[Zelandeth]

Just now, SiC said:

How is the P6? 

Patiently waiting for the weather to be a bit better.  It's waiting on me running a new return line to the fuel tank, and it's too cold and wet to be crawling around under a car at the moment.

[TrabbieRonnie]

I've got stick on beam deflectors, and the headlights are pretty good to be fair.  Better than an Audi 80 anyway!

[plasticvandan]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they uses the same Rhula headlights as on MZ motorcycles,and these are available in rhd format

[Zelandeth]

35 minutes ago, plasticvandan said:

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they uses the same Rhula headlights as on MZ motorcycles,and these are available in rhd format

Wouldn't surprise me either to be honest.  I've got a couple of spare headlights so will do some comparison of Googled images for those to what I've got here as that would be a neat solution if so rather than having to go drilling new mounting holes in the back plates.

[Zelandeth]

Had a nose at the lights today.  Opinions online seem divided as to whether the generic 7" units will fit without modification.  Helpfully I have both a couple of spare headlight baskets off the car, and a set of random cheapy 7" headlights I bought years and years ago.  They briefly appeared on TPA when she was first returned to the road before I got something that looked more period appropriate.

Looks like they fit absolutely fine.

The locating tabs all line up properly and the unit is clocked correctly.  So I'll get something ordered up shortly to hopefully get the headlights converted properly to RHD spec.

This mounting arrangement looks different to one of the spare bowls I have which looks to have the mounting lugs clocked differently, so I wonder if that is something which changed during production at some point.

Had two of the family out in it today, their expressions the moment I started the engine and they encountered the two stroke racket for the first time was an absolute picture.

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

This mounting arrangement looks different to one of the spare bowls I have which looks to have the mounting lugs clocked differently, so I wonder if that is something which changed during production at some point.

IIRC the headlamps did change to H4 bulbs (in 1984 I think maybe?) so perhaps that could account for the different types of head lamps and maybe the differing reports on 7 inch lamps fitting or not fitting?

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Had two of the family out in it today, their expressions the moment I started the engine and they encountered the two stroke racket for the first time was an absolute picture.

could always take them for a ride out in TPA if you they dare complain about the trabant

[Zelandeth]

1 minute ago, LightBulbFun said:

IIRC the headlamps did change to H4 bulbs (in 1984 I think maybe?) so perhaps that could account for the different types of head lamps and maybe the differing reports on 7 inch lamps fitting or not fitting

could always take them for a ride out in TPA if you they dare complain about the trabant

That's my thinking.  The lamp housing which fits has a H4 stamping in the lens, so my money is on the change happening when they switched over to H4 lamps.  Which I imagine a fair few people would be surprised they even did.  Just does show that they did continue to make incremental improvements through the life of the car where they were actually useful changes.

My first Metro which was on a 1986 D plate didn't have H4 headlights.  Neither did my folks Fiat Panda...and that was from 1993.

Lights have now been ordered, exactly the same Autopal ones I put on TPA it looks like from the listing.  I've no complaints about those so reckon they'll do the job just fine.  This isn't going to be a car that's used for late night commuting anyway, so all I'm asking for is the lights to work acceptably, without needing bits of tape stuck all over them that will make my teeth itch every time I walk past the car.

[mat_the_cat]

If you were dissatisfied with the performance you could always make a tasteful upgrade?

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, mat_the_cat said:

If you were dissatisfied with the performance you could always make a tasteful upgrade?

How about hell no.  Aside from the complete lack of legality.

I still can't quite get my head around how anyone can think things like that look like an improvement.  They're absolutely hideous.

[SiC]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Aside from the complete lack of legality.

Many are actually E Marked, type approved and legal. The beam pattern is correct for the light source and replacing the complete housing with an appropriate light fixture is the proper way to do it and make them legally correct. 

However yes they just look incredibly wrong on most old cars.

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

If you were dissatisfied with the performance you could always make a tasteful upgrade?

I know your joking but I still have to say, Those and all 7 inch LED lamp retrofits looking fucking awful LOL

I think my biggest problem is the fact they are black coloured, I assume probably to do with countering internal reflections in the optical path, but gosh does it look awful

makes the car look almost soulless if that makes sense like its dead inside LOL which I guess is fitting because thats how I view most LED lighting in general LOL

 

surely if revenge against the blinding LED SUV brigade is the order of the day

then an uprated alternator and a pair of these would surely do the trick especially if aimed suitably badly LOL 

https://www.cp-lighting.co.uk/GE-PAR56-12V-240W-VNSP-Very-Narrow-Spot/

and keep things tastefully incandescent  

 

 

[Zelandeth]

Interesting, I was under the impression that LED units required the same sort of active beam level control as HID solutions, as such were never going to be legal as a retrofit solution.  Apparently not.  Every day's a school day.

They still look awful though.

I used to have somewhere around 300W of halogen spotlights on the front bumper of my Lada Niva which were tied in to come on along with main beam.  That was exceptionally effective at getting oncoming vehicles who had decided it was beneath them to dip their headlights to change their mind very rapidly!

Didn't look even slightly out of place either.

They were aimed pretty high and slightly out towards the edges of the roads - primarily to help me spot deer as there's a spot I used to go through twice a day where they were an absolute menace.

[Zelandeth]

Had very little time available today but still managed to get something ticked off.

If you look at the front of the Trabant it's obviously taken a minor knock to the front at some point.  Nothing major, I'm talking a parking mishap rather than a crash.  The visible evidence of that is a crack in the bonnet and a ding in the front panel (aka radiator grill which isn't actually a grill).

I'm guessing the badge pinged off into oblivion at the same time.

Underneath the bonnet there was some further damage in that the catch assembly which is normally bonded to the underneath of the bonnet moulding had come adrift.  

That had sort of been "fixed" with a bolt at the leading edge - and a bundle of tiny zip ties through one the badge mounting holes.

I've reverted this to a more similar arrangement to what the factory would have used, "gluing" the latch assembly back to the underside of the bonnet using PU adhesive.

Reckon this should be more than strong enough for this, I made sure the surfaces were clean beforehand and roughed up so it should have a plenty strong bond.  Better than the 1/32" of the edge of the washer on that one bolt that was basically holding it together before that's for sure.  That bolt (and a larger washer so it actually does something) has been put back in for now, keeping things squeezed together while the adhesive sets.  After that I'll remove it and fill in the holes that shouldn't be there.  I do have a replacement badge on the way.  I have picked up some paint which may or may not be a vaguely close match, I've not checked yet.

While I had the adhesive out I took the opportunity to fill in the 3/4" gap in the top of the windscreen seal.  I know I've got a replacement on the way but I don't know when I'll have the opportunity to actually fit that, and a gap that big definitely wouldn't be doing us any favours.

It was dark by the time it had set up so I could remove the tape, so no photo of that.  At least there's not a visible gap to the outside world behind the rear view mirror now.

So nothing ground breaking, but one more thing ticked off hopefully.

Next up is hopefully fixing some of the slop in the wiper mechanism.  Apparently I'm blind as it took me until day before yesterday to realise that the wiper motor was staring me in the face under the bonnet.

Which is wobbling around comically.  I'm guessing it's meant to be sitting on rubber bushings which have disintegrated.  Hopefully will get a chance to look into that tomorrow.

[Zelandeth]

Not the tidiest job, but better than a gaping hole.

Having glued the bonnet latch back together has vastly reduced the magnitude to which the bonnet flaps around while driving now.  It still wobbles about a bit, but nowhere near as alarming as it used to be.

She was out and about doing normal car things again today.

It is hilariously easy to nip into parking spaces and is ridiculously nimble around town.  It's hard to convey just how light the car feels on the road, but not in a flimsy way.  Took the Peugeot out later on today and it felt like I was driving a tank in comparison!  For a front wheel drive car it really does have an impressive steering lock too, which with the short wheelbase makes for a comically small turning circle.

Also made the discovery (having actually read the manual) that I not only have intermittent windscreen wipers, but I have intermittent wipers with a choice of two usefully spaced delay times, fancy!  Also despite having a maximum reasonably comfortable (read: not totally deafening) speed of around 55mph, at no point today was I the one setting the pace.  Nope, I spent basically the whole journey between MK and Bicester both ways being held up by modern traffic aside from the bits of dual carriageway!

We've done a little over 300 miles now I think since I picked the car up, so I think it's fair to say I'm reasonably comfortable driving it now.  Have definitely been picking it as a local runaround a lot as it's just fun.  

Fuel economy is still a little all over the shop, I suspect because the actual level I've filled the tank to has varied from fill to fill a bit.  Hoping once I've got another couple of hundred miles covered we'll start to see a realistic average appearing.

Am I still enjoying the car?  Absolutely.

Even if getting used to life with a car where seeing oil appearing here isn't a sign of impending doom has taken my brain a bit of time.

The whole two stroke engine part of the car is probably the most strange part about it, and definitely adds to the charm of it as a classic car to own because you enjoy oddball cars.  I can see why it was seen as a negative in some ways back in the day though, just for the sheer levels of noise if nothing else, though that could be improved on with a bit of extra sound dampening I'm sure.  Having to mess about pre-mixing fuel probably would have been the biggest gripe from the driver's perspective though - it is a bit of a faff, there's no denying that.

It is what it is though - and whole it's noisy and fuelling up has an extra step (including doing math!) involved, it feels plenty eager from the driver's seat, and while it's loud there is very little vibration from the engine once you're off idle - where it is unavoidably a bit rough.  Certainly a lot more pleasant than the engine in the Fiat 500 I drove, which I really felt let the whole car down.

[TrabbieRonnie]

Great to hear...  

I think they got pre-mixed out the pumps in the DDR, so no extra step for them.  Reading about it, they apparently used to put extra oil in the mix, artificially creating demand for the state oil producer.  As a side effect, everyone of course associates Trabbies with comically excessive amounts of smoke.  I find that once warm, there is none visible at all (although still definitely smellable), that's at 40:1.

I once used the Trabi for work for an entire year (12,000 miles...!), and I reckon I was getting near 60 mpg.  It all became totally normal, and I think the engine gets better with use.

This year, after 15 years of ownership, I discovered that if I press and hold in my (rotary) wiper switch, I get an automatic two-wipe cycle!?  

Guht farht mit Trabant, indeed.

[Zelandeth]

I've noticed (or rather not noticed) the smoke too.  She smokes a little when the choke is on, and will for a gear or two after spending some time sitting in traffic when I'm sure the crank case will inevitably load up with oil a little.  I've been running on 40:1 as advised.

If they had been running an artificially rich oil mixtures that would definitely explain the ridiculous amounts of smoke you used to see in the photos.

That two wipe thing will be associated with the wash/wipe function (which you don't have the wash part of as I recall), but that triggers along with the washer pump on my car.  Do you have the intermittent wipe function (oddly at the "fast" side of the scale rather than being the first thing you get) on yours?

[TrabbieRonnie]

No, no intermittence is available!

[Zelandeth]

Package arrived this afternoon for the Trabant.

Sadly it's been a really busy day so haven't had a chance to see about fitting them.  A little modification will needed as the original lights have the sidelight lamp holder attached to the bracket which holds the main lamp in rather than being separate like on these, so I'll need to snip that wire and add a terminal.  Not exactly difficult.

Hopefully have a chance to get these fitted tomorrow.

[Christine]

Oh dear God ..LBF will have a meltdown if it's not absolutety standard .  

Those lights are a  really good upgrade and cheap  ,available with  domed or flat glass .