Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 29/04.

[plasticvandan]

They were mounted on the deluxe versions out the factory on top of the bumper,usually with a reverse light on the other side,usual thing when they get imported is to swap the lights over to the UK side.only other reg I can think of is side repeaters and rear belts which I don't think we're until 86.

[Weird Car]

1 hour ago, plasticvandan said:

They were mounted on the deluxe versions out the factory on top of the bumper,usually with a reverse light on the other side,usual thing when they get imported is to swap the lights over to the UK side.only other reg I can think of is side repeaters and rear belts which I don't think we're until 86.

Also an option on later S models as demonstrated by my friends very highly spec’d 601 S

[mat_the_cat]

If you only want to fit one light (which I personally dislike due to lack of symmetry), you can get LED 'bulbs' which serve both reversing and rear fog light versions. I guess you could fit two lamps with clear lenses, and still be symmetrical, mind.

[Zelandeth]

Well I think I've found where one of the major rattles is coming from.

Both of the bolts holding the heat exchanger onto the manifold shouldn't be spinning.  That's what I get for reusing the old bolts with questionable looking threads.  Have nipped things back up for now, but I'll replace them when it all comes apart in the near future to fit the new exhaust once it arrives from Germany. 

Was back out here on Tuesday despite technically not needing to.  Can't believe it's been a year (and a month actually) already since last time.

Where @Andyrew's welding work got a glowing review as we kind of expected.

I was curious to get a second opinion on the noise I'd heard a couple of times from the nearside rear wheel and whether there were potential bearing issues there.  However it all seems quiet and there's no real play.  Given it was right after the car had been laid up for several months we both reckon it was just some crud floating around in the drum and it's since cleaned itself up.  If it does it again I'll pull the drum off and investigate further.

Twenty minutes later and after some head scratching on the part of the tester on several occasions when he noticed odd bits of engineering that were missed last year (apparently the spring actually serving as the upper control arm wasn't something immediately noticed), this happened.

I'll take that.

I've had another look at the plugs and it looks like we're closer on the mixture now. 

I will check again soon, but it was pretty obvious they were going to end up sooting up on the previous setting.

I do have a question for those of you more used to two stroke engines.  I know that running at high engine speeds and light throttle isn't good for them, so under those circumstances (i.e. cruising at 50-ish) it's good practice to periodically let the engine drop to idle and then give it a good blat of throttle to get some oil into the picture.  The thing I have no good picture of though is how often to do that when driving?  It seems especially relevant now as holding that sort of speed now requires really very little throttle at all, but the engine is obviously spinning just as fast as it always was.  Would just be nice to know I'm doing as much in the way of good practice as I reasonably can to hopefully stave off any avoidable failures down the line.

Another question for those of you who know these cars: How noisy is your gearbox?  Wasn't really obvious before the horrendous racket from the old engine was gone, but it sounds to me like there's a lot of noise most likely coming from the input shaft side of things.  Having some idea of what's normal on these cars would be useful there to know whether it would be wise to start keeping my eyes open for a box.  Hopefully being something less prone to needing rebuilds on a periodic basis one of those wouldn't be such a pain to find on the used market than an engine.  Also isn't very big, so just keeping one in storage in case it's one day needed isn't the end of the world.

Edited Friday at 15:20 by Zelandeth
Correcting autocorrect (again)

[GlenAnderson]

Use the freewheel to “coast and burn”. Rather than trying to sit bang on 50, gas it to 55 then let it coast back down again. 

[Andyrew]

Excellent news on the MOT, that garage looks like my kind of place! 

When you get your new exhaust, don't go fighting with ants on the drive, just pop over and we can put it on the lift. 

 

[Bear]

8 hours ago, Andyrew said:

Excellent news on the MOT, that garage looks like my kind of place! 

When you get your new exhaust, don't go fighting with ants on the drive, just pop over and we can put it on the lift. 

 

Are those... Trab-ants?

Need a park and food based meetup for owners of these cars just so you can get Trabants at a picnic.

[Zelandeth]

Spot the difference...

Yeah, have finally started doing something about the large chunks of paint that are missing.

Few examples.

I'm not interested in making an invisible job of it, I just want the car to look cared for and presentable from ten paces.  So we're not going overboard.  Bit of paint in the right places will make a big difference though.

[Zelandeth]

Example of how much difference a little paint can make.

Primarily the rear panel I'm pointing at here.

This sticker I'm afraid will have to go.

I usually dislike stickers and the like on my cars, but when they've been there this long I'm always a bit conflicted - this one though is shedding bits of silver foil every time I lean against the car putting stuff in the boot and is looking really shabby, so it'll have to go.

It's going to be an absolute pig to remove though as there's absolutely nothing structurally speaking left of it - except the actual adhesive of course!

[paulplom]

I always thought these were grp or fibreglass.

[Weird Car]

41 minutes ago, paulplom said:

I always thought these were grp or fibreglass.

The main monocoque chassis is steel with Duoplast panels screwed and adhered in place on the sides, bonnet, roof and boot 

[Zelandeth]

4 hours ago, paulplom said:

I always thought these were grp or fibreglass.

Structurally kind of like a tiny P6.  It's a steel skeleton with plastic panels hung off it.

 

[Zelandeth]

The other thing I should have mentioned in that last reply is that Duroplast is actually quite a different material to fibreglass.  It really is its own thing.  From a "what is it?" perspective the best summary would be cotton fibre reinforced bakelite.  Though the way panels were made was closer to what you'd expect from steel than most fibreglass processes.

The resulting panels are quite different to fibreglass.  I don't have a huge amount of experience with GRP panelled cars outside of the Invacar and a couple of friend's Reliants, but the Duroplast panels on the Trabant feel a little heavier but much stiffer than most GRP panels I've any experience with.  

People like to joke about it, but honestly it seems to be a material which really is well suited to the way it's used here.  Aside from the bonnet (which in my case has been damaged anyway so may be more floppy because of that) you honestly wouldn't really know this wasn't a steel bodied car.  There's none of the frame flex and body rattling which usually seems to go with the territory.

You need to get the oft repeated jokes about them being made out of cardboard out of your head - It really is properly sturdy stuff.

-- -- --

Big old box was picked up from Parcel Force today.  Which has been through the wars a bit en route.

Though the innards were well protected and nothing had escaped.

This is what was fished out after about ten minutes of de-packaging.

It's astonishing how much pipe there seems to be in even a really basic car exhaust when it's off the car and inside the house.

It doesn't sound like a lot on paper, but you can definitely see it is bigger than the standard pipe when you compare them.  Doesn't look ridiculous though.

Apparently there are differences to how the innards of the heat exchanger/expansion box are set up compared to the standard one.  How much difference it makes in the real world remains to be seen.

It's actually only held on the car in four places, and they're all actually easy enough to get to.  Only two require crawling around under the car, the ones on the silencer.  I'll have a quick look at the state of those tomorrow so I know what sort of fun and games we're in for.  Everything else has been off recently so shouldn't be too much of a headache.

[plasticvandan]

The oily two stroke residue should work to your advantage in undoing bolts. 

I thought duroplast wasa great material,but it is only really suitable for panels rather than shells ala grp. The process to make the panels was very unpleasant for those who did it,but it doesn't start craze,delaminate or crumble like old fibreglass did.

[SiC]

Products are still made in it today! I spotted this in Lidl at the beginning of the year.