The new news 24 thread

[Yoss]

45 minutes ago, IronStar said:

I definitely do, and would only be interested in properly sorted, or at least one with no rust. 
So I’m looking for 93 and up model? What I’m seeing for sale currently are cars with facelift grille, but looking at the power they are carb, not fuel injection. Example https://www.polovniautomobili.com/auto-oglasi/25054545/skoda-favorit 1991 car.

We had mostly Webers here as that’s what went onto Zastavas, and my experience with carbs is godawful. I can only imagine how bad is it when those are an upgrade. That’s why I don’t want to touch anything with carbs. Vile devices with next to no one left who actually knows how to make them work as good as they can possibly work (for a week until something else decides to play up). There’s plenty of twin barrel autochocked Webbers around, and they’re generally cheap as autochoke is well known pain point that has a mind of its own.

I would also like to compare it to Florida, as I think that car is an absolute peach, and the fact it didn’t sell better is a proof of badge snobbery. Attach a VW badge to it in 1989 and they wouldn’t be able to make enough of them. Favorit’s beige/brown dash always looked more eastern-European and dull than Zastava’s grey/black/orange as well. If Favorit drove as well (or maybe sharper, as Florida is tuned for comfort rather than sharpness) I’d be very interested in seeing it in a regular daily-driving rotation.

Did they make any with the most important amenity for climate-changed Serbian climate - aircon? Or was it too much to ask from Skoda at the time?

Air con was a very very rare option on the Felicia. I've only seen two. I went to see one once specifically because it did have air con but the rest of the car was too shagged so I left it. The other one was at a rally on a pick up. The guy had removed it from another scrap car. It's not an easy retro fit as it involves cutting a big hole in the floor or bulkhead (can't remember which now). The guy who fitted it had the foresight to cut the panel out of the scrap car so he had a template. 

It was of course a much more popular option in other markets but I doubt Serbia was one of them. But if you could find one in a scrap car there's no reason why it shouldn't fit in a Favorit, the bulkhead is the same. There's a thought. 

I like the beige/brown interior but probably just because it makes it look older, which is endearing now but admittedly probably not what you want in a brand new car. Remember Škoda had the design ready to go in 1983 but were held back by the government at that point so it was dated by the time it was finally released. So a more accurate contemporary would be the mk3 Escort or the Maestro (sorry I don't know what Zastava were building in 1983).

Back to the carb/injection debate both types were available with high or low compression engines so that might be what you are seeing. The low compression ones are only about 54hp. On the mk2 they are easily distinguishable by a small e on the boot badge. So you get an LXI or an LXIe for the more powerful engine. Or a GLXI or GLXIe. Having said that you might have different badging over there, the home Czech market ones certainly did, just to confuse matters further. For some reason we got much bigger boot badges. That's probably more information than you need to know. 

[Rust Collector]

For two years, my Dad’s old W211 has been in the ‘I’ll get round to it at some point’ pile, looking a bit like this:

As you can see, the suspension on the offside front was disassembled, and gangs of dogs were forming under it.

I’ve finally pulled my finger out, welded up the inner arch, and put the suspension back together.

Today it moved under its own power for the first time in about 2 years.

I had already replaced all four brake lines back when it failed the MOT, so now it’s a case of some general recommissioning and then a shit load of cleaning. If all goes well then I’ll try and get it MOT’d in November. Assuming it passes, I’ll probably borrow it for a bit to iron out any niggles and then it’ll be up for sale. It’s a bit rough, but it deserves to live.

[wuvvum]

25 minutes ago, Yoss said:

(sorry I don't know what Zastava were building in 1983).

[Rust Collector]

6 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

There’s one of those on the ‘I’ll get round to it at some point’ pile too 🤣

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, IronStar said:

 

Did they make any with the most important amenity for climate-changed Serbian climate - aircon? Or was it too much to ask from Skoda at the time?

Having a quick Google of Felicia air con I found this guy on briskoda (I don't visit there very often any more as the Fav/Felicia section only had half a dozen people on it and it was very slow moving) and somebody is fitting Felicia air con to their Favorit. Plus they already have the 1.6 16v engine that I have in mine. Turns out it's really not plug and play. The standard air intake won't fit because of the 16v head. Plus he is an auto electrician and I think I'd get a bit lost there. 

This is the donor car with the Favorit in the background. 

 

New engine with standard heater box behind. 

And with new air con intake. The original intake as can be seen on the Felicia looks standard. 

 

The very subtle air con controls. Yes, those two tiny buttons between the three twisty dials. He seems to have fitted the whole Felicia dashboard but that part of the dash with the heater controls in is the same as the Favorit so that wouldn't be an issue. I don't see the point of putting the Felicia interior in a Favorit, you might as well just have the Felicia but some people like to do things just because they can. 

 

I can't do links on the phone but I googled Felicia air con and got this. The whole thread is here. 

The guy seems to be in Zagreb but the donor cars number plate says HR. Is that Herzegovina? Certainly quite near you, relatively speaking. I looked at the other results above and they are from Columbia, Dominican Republic and Malta so it was definitely a much more popular option in hotter countries. 

[hairnet]

HR - hrvatska

[Yoss]

6 minutes ago, hairnet said:

HR - hrvatska

Ah, thank you, that makes more sense. 

Edit: I should have remembered that from Croatian railways but I didn't. 

[wuvvum]

The weather here today has been faintly ridiculous for almost-November, I've been outside in a T shirt pretty much all day.  The main task for today was to get the Renault 6 put away in the garage for the winter - this is quite a task as it involves emptying the garage of all the crap that's been stored in there over the summer, and finding other places to stash it so the 6 can fit in (a lot of it has gone in the back of the van, but my unnecessarily extensive collection of pushbikes has had to be spread amongst the cars (I have an additional estate this year over last year, which means I don't also have a pile of bikes in the back garden) - two each in the Merc and the Rover and three in the Toyota (although the top one is a kid's bike), plus one folding bike in the Getz and the other, along with the folding moped, in the Ampera.

I also gave the Renault a jet wash underneath - something I've neglected to do in previous years but was probably more needed this year as my last-but-one drive in it was a 45-mile drive back from Wells in the rain along sometimes muddy back roads.  Once the car was dry (with some assistance required from a heat gun in a few places as I was running short of time) I gave the rusty bits a coat of spray-on rustproofing wax, which will hopefully stop the car from dissolving any further over the winter.

Then it was just a case of squeezing it into the garage, which I managed first time this year - usually I have to have a few attempts to get it lined up.

The Mobylette and the Spacy have retaken their usual spots behind it; the Elite and the broken electric scooter have had to go in the back garden under covers for now.

I've also finished rustproofing the underside of the Merc, as far as I am going to anyway (a lot of it is covered by undertrays, which I'm not going to attempt to remove - the bits where I did pull down the trays for a peek looked pretty good so I'm going to assume they're doing their job of protecting the chassis from salt).  The rear subframe was rubbed down and coated with the rest of the Lanoguard I'd bought for the Ampera, and the rest of the rusty bits were sprayed with the wax (a product I found in Roys of Wroxham - similar to Waxoyl but less than half the price, and the online reviews of it are pretty good).  I was going to put the dashboard back together as well but I've now won an Android head unit on eBay so I'm going to wait until that arrives.

That was about it for this weekend - didn't get much done on Saturday as the weather was variable and I had to go in to Norwich in the afternoon to sort out my phone upgrade.  I'd been hoping to get under the Innocenti and the Volvo with the spray wax but that's going to have to wait for another day, clearing out the garage took a bit longer than I expected and then as it was such a nice day I wanted to get a bike ride in before it got dark.  The days of evening fettling are realistically over now that the clocks have changed so I'm going to have to hope for a few more dry weekends.

[IronStar]

@Yoss

Nothing like subtle regional differences on cars that effectively had a single engine option and trim levels designate such extravagant extras such as having factory stereo or rear seat headrest fitted. 🤦‍♂️ Thanks a lot, I’ll try to look for that. Red one is carb so, we’ll see

Yeah, Zastava was making Skala/101 (aka 311/511) and ramping up Yugo production with Florida being on a drawing board. 

That aircon Felicia looks interesting, and shoving that into Favorit would certainly be cool (pun intended). I’m really looking forward to finding one to drive and yours have certainly made me very very interested in getting one.

[High Jetter]

Yugo?

[wuvvum]

6 minutes ago, IronStar said:

@Yoss

Nothing like subtle regional differences on cars that effectively had a single engine option and trim levels designate such extravagant extras such as having factory stereo or rear seat headrest fitted. 🤦‍♂️

All the Favorits had rear headrests as standard here, although the ones in the base models looked like you'd crack your head open on them in a rear end shunt.  But at least you wouldn't get whiplash.

[stripped fred]

22 hours ago, stripped fred said:

Over at my parents trying to get the MR2 started, or at least closer to starting. It has a Cobra A8510 from 20 years ago which no longer has a working fob so we're trying to remove it. I have help from my two sons who are desperate to get this running again. Last time was about a year ago but it's been off road for 6 years now. It also smoked a bit when it did run which I suspect might be the valve stem oil seals. We've putting new ignition leads on it and it had an oil change and we cleaned up the spark plugs too.

My 17 year old wants to be an electrician and is studying his level 2 at college. I let him loose with his multimeter and he managed to identify the correct wires to bridge and remove the immobiliser and get it cranking but there's no fuel coming through. We found the EFI fuse blown but that didn't fix it. I suspect we may need to drop the fuel tank and change the fuel pump. Further investigation may include a separate fuel can and an electric pump, tracing the wiring and checking out the relays. Pleased that it tried to start though!

[wuvvum]

I remember the fun* I had bypassing the dealer fit immobiliser on my old Subaru Justy after I lost the fob.  Not an experience I'm anxious to repeat...

[stripped fred]

2 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I remember the fun* I had bypassing the dealer fit immobiliser on my old Subaru Justy after I lost the fob.  Not an experience I'm anxious to repeat...

There's also an old alarm that needs removing so plenty of wires to keep him busy!

[grogee]

22 hours ago, barefoot said:

very pleasant woman taught me how to erect my sunshade

 

[Yoss]

14 hours ago, wuvvum said:

All the Favorits had rear headrests as standard here, although the ones in the base models looked like you'd crack your head open on them in a rear end shunt.  But at least you wouldn't get whiplash.

I know the ones you mean. I'm lucky enough to have the high* spec cars so I have these in green Favorit. 

Still have a hole in the middle as was all the rage in the 1980s (I don't deny they were dated from new) but plenty of padding there. I think they look quite stylish but I am biased. 

Blue Favorit has these solid ones in a fetching beige tweedish. 

Except they are not as solid as they might at first appear. If you poke them they still have the hole in the middle, they've just stretched the fabric over it

But the early base cars just had the plain plastic frame with no fabric at all. But then I seem to remember Volvo 240s had something similar though perhaps more foam rubbery than plastic. 

[richardmorris]

Not shiny or silver birch.

[Stinkwheel]

3 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Not shiny or silver birch.

amazing, dont think ive ever seen one that wasnt silver, i like the 'well used' look

[richardmorris]

1958 Aston Martin DB Mark III Drophead Coupé by Tickford | London 2024 | RM Sotheby's

• Delivered new to David Brown, English industrialist and then owner of Aston Martin; later owned and driven by Lady Brown, the company owner’s wife

[grogee]

On the topic of shite air con @Yoss and @IronStar I noticed some scrap Maestro and Montego in Spain with air con. I wonder if any of the brochure nerds can tell me if it was a UK option? @Marina door handles? 

I do wonder if it was a proper factory-fit thing or something cobbled together by the dealers? 

I remember seeing a Japanese spec [original] Mini in the works car park that had AC, that's an impressive packaging feat. 

[richardmorris]

1963 Aston Martin DB4 Convertible | London 2024 | RM Sotheby's

[wuvvum]

18 minutes ago, grogee said:

On the topic of shite air con @Yoss and @IronStar I noticed some scrap Maestro and Montego in Spain with air con. I wonder if any of the brochure nerds can tell me if it was a UK option? @Marina door handles? 

I do wonder if it was a proper factory-fit thing or something cobbled together by the dealers? 

I remember seeing a Japanese spec [original] Mini in the works car park that had AC, that's an impressive packaging feat. 

I don't recall seeing aircon as an option in any of the UK brochures.  The diesel Countryman my Dad had as a company car when we first moved to France in 1993 had aircon, but that was a dealer fit option.

[richardmorris]

48 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

amazing, dont think ive ever seen one that wasnt silver, i like the 'well used' look

estimate £100-150K

1968 Aston Martin DB6 | London 2024 | RM Sotheby's

 

[IronStar]

50 minutes ago, grogee said:

I remember seeing a Japanese spec [original] Mini in the works car park that had AC, that's an impressive packaging feat. 

Oz also got an Og Mini with an aircon. As you can guess, I'm hunting for either to shove into mine so it can be driven for more than two months a year. 

Have you considered repatriating Airconed Montego/Maestro, or is it too much effort for something not really necessary over there?

[Yoss]

14 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

estimate £100-150K

1968 Aston Martin DB6 | London 2024 | RM Sotheby's

 

Looks like we're having a bit of an Aston Martin weekend coming up then. 

[Marina door handles]

58 minutes ago, grogee said:

On the topic of shite air con @Yoss and @IronStar I noticed some scrap Maestro and Montego in Spain with air con. I wonder if any of the brochure nerds can tell me if it was a UK option? @Marina door handles? 

I do wonder if it was a proper factory-fit thing or something cobbled together by the dealers? 

I remember seeing a Japanese spec [original] Mini in the works car park that had AC, that's an impressive packaging feat. 

Pretty sure the Japanese spec mini air con was factory.

Don't know about the Maestro or Montego. I suspect for hot climates Austin Rover would have spec'ed vinyl seats, windows that only wind down about  an inch and no air con for maximum misery to absolutely guarantee sale success!  

[IronStar]

23 minutes ago, Marina door handles said:

Pretty sure the Japanese spec mini air con was factory.

Don't know about the Maestro or Montego. I suspect for hot climates Austin Rover would have spec'ed vinyl seats, windows that only wind down about  an inch and no air con for maximum misery to absolutely guarantee sale success!  

Fun* and interesting* fact - I never heard anyone talking shit about BL products before I started visiting / reading British forums. They were always regarded as a nice but oddball choice, always nice place to be in and well specced. People that bought them usually bought another one, or sung praises about how amazing their Rover was and how their new car couldn’t come anywhere close. 

[grogee]

48 minutes ago, IronStar said:

Oz also got an Og Mini with an aircon. As you can guess, I'm hunting for either to shove into mine so it can be driven for more than two months a year. 

Have you considered repatriating Airconed Montego/Maestro, or is it too much effort for something not really necessary over there?

Power steering is my first priority, not really for the steering effort - more for the quicker rack. 

I think AC would have to wait for the lottery win...

Here in UK we had opposite problem with our summer: there wasn't one. This was the sky on the 12th July 2024.

[artdjones]

42 minutes ago, Marina door handles said:

Pretty sure the Japanese spec mini air con was factory.

Don't know about the Maestro or Montego. I suspect for hot climates Austin Rover would have spec'ed vinyl seats, windows that only wind down about  an inch and no air con for maximum misery to absolutely guarantee sale success!  

I know that a lot of US spec Morris Minors still had the door lock on the right hand side. So you had to open the wrong side door and slide across.

[wuvvum]

47 minutes ago, Marina door handles said:

Pretty sure the Japanese spec mini air con was factory.

Yup - for one thing it involved the radiator being put back on the nearside (even on later cars) so the condenser etc. could fit in front of the engine - a bit much to expect a dealer to carry out!