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The Current Driveway...


TrabbieRonnie

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Now now all, 

Fine weather we're having, etc...

As it has been so glorious up here in the tropical* north, I took the chance to replace the (rowdy) Audi's cv joints... a very satisfying job as it happens.  Anyway, was about to close the gates after the obligatory test drive, when I noticed the awesome retro/shite... ness of my driveway!  Feast your eyes!

 

 

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And, just because it's 26 years and 206k old, but still capable of terrorising shitty modern 'hot' hatches and generally making my commute more enjoyable... here's the V6 flavoured slab of Teutonic shite in all it's glory...

 

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Forum's looking good, particularly enjoying uploading pics so easily, nice one geezers.

 

 

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Rosie the Trabi is in perfect working order, she needs a small amount of body work but is only not in use this year as I fancied running the Audi.  Up until this year she carried out the summer commuting duties.  My record between mot tests is 12,000 (buzzy) miles!

 

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Aye, very attached to the old thing, I'm only supposed to tax that one for the winter, but it ends up used all summer too... kid's bikes in the back, pulling the trailer to the tip, kids love driving it up in the woods too!  They really are great things, very solid and reliable, extremely comfy and I get 29 mpgees which isn't ridiculous.

 

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The rear sill end was less than whole after this winter (it sits under the plastic wheelarch trim), and so it's currently undergoing surgery...  Apart from that the old thing is in great order, I paid 1200 smackeroonies about six years ago, and have since doubled the mileage up to 205,000 of your earth kilometres, so can't complain really!

Pics for ol' DodgyBastard (I think your are the artist formerly known as Retroshite?), as I know you're fond of a welded repair or two!

 

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Hopefully 'git er done' next weekend after getting my gas refilled...

 

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, plasticvandan said:

Please send Trabi to my driveway to keep my MZ company :-)

Full disclosure...  I have a second 1987 Trab in the garage, and you may notice the wee caravan just peeking out behind the camper...  a Qek Junior no less!  Designed and built in the DDR to especially for the lucky* owners of IFA's finest autos!

 

Pics of the MZ?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Informal car show action today in the capital of the Highlands... Inverness.  There's a monthly 'Cars and Coffee' meet that seems to attract a great wide-ranging selection, couple of hours chat and then everyone under 30 lights up the tyres on the way out... perfect!

 

I always think of the Audi as quite a big car, but it seemed tiny next to this Subaru...

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Proper classics...

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Porsche wheels setting this old girl off nicely...  Volvo looked a bit of a beast.

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Quite a lot of back-end Chopper action... ooh, and err.

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Wanted to steal this man's wheels... white painted, diamond cut BBS'ers… mmmm.

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Clean as a whistle and sounded great...

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Possible car of the show for me... again a great note from this ol' wankel…

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V8 Rover rat-rod... the first one to light the tyres up on leaving... effing glorious.

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Kind of wish I'd taken the Trabi, she always wins the exhaust volume competition!  Cheers all, Ronnie out.

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  • TrabbieRonnie changed the title to The Current Driveway... added Highland Car Show pics.
  • 3 weeks later...

Jeep out and about, it's supposed to be for winter duties only, just can't seem to do without it though!

 

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In other news, the HiAce campervan is in the good books after passing the MOT 'sans advisories' … which is nice!  Many happy* hours were spent underneath it with a wirebrush and a can of oil in preparation!  Looking forward to touring the Outer Hebrides again this year.  

 

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Paint (applied two years ago) is actually metallic, but hard to see in most lights... thinking about sticking a stripe down the side to liven her up a bit.  Wheels were refurbed when I changed the tyres last year, they are original to the 'FieldAce' conversion, but are actually from a Toyota Crown.  Top triv there for a Wednesday evening eh?!

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Nice interia m8!

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Bonus Audi Coupe and even Trabi action here if your eyepeepers are up to it...

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And lastly, I find nothing adds to the 'Steptoe's Yard' aesthetic more than an aging east German caravan!  And yes, I like changing cambelts etc, more than gardening!

 

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Cheers all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • TrabbieRonnie changed the title to The Current Driveway... Camper passes MOT, celebratory pics.
5 minutes ago, strangeangel said:

Tell us more about the caravan please!

DDR designed and built, called the Qek (pronounced Kek) Junior.  It has a steel chassis, is independently sprung, with a double-walled fibreglass body.  It has hydraulic brakes, and a pull switch on the drawbar that puts one of the rear lights on if you have to leave it on the side of the road (running off the internal battery, which is charged by the mighty Trabant whilst driving).  The whole thing weighs 350kg, which is light enough to push with one hand behind your back.

 

The roof section above the door lifts up on screwjacks for ventilation/headroom in the kitchen end, and a handy flyscreen fits around the opening.  There is one bed, but it is huge, designed as a 2+2 I guess, like the Trabi.  The wheels are Trabant numbers, so you only need carry one spare for the whole 'rig', altogether quite a clever wee thing.  

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I am not by nature a caravanner, this being our first... However, I would quite happily recommend a Qek, they have a charm of their own, but it is the engineering quality that stands out.  They tow beautifully, on anything other than a Trabant you can easily forget it's there.  Ours is a 1985 model, but the very simple design means no leaks, no broken bits etc... The stable door lock is genuinely better than the one on the house!  

I met the previous owner at a car show, who couldn't believe he was seeing the car pictured in the brochure he had for the Qek!  He was pulling it with a Mini, while his Eriba 'van was undergoing restoration... In his words, I just 'had to buy his caravan', and he was right enough.  Mrs thought I was going Trabi mental, but the wee thing won her over on arrival!

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  • TrabbieRonnie changed the title to The Current Driveway... Ex roffle 323 now included!
Spoiler

 

Hey all,

The modern's brakes are gubbed, meaning that the wee 323 was pressed into service (with my eldest son's permission) as my commuter car this past week  (I had already swapped over the insurance from the Audi Coupe to this, so that we could take it to more quiet places for clandestine driving lessons with aforementioned eldest.  Prepare for a Audi SooperCoop For Sale thread in the coming weeks!).  This meant driving it through some of the wettest weather I have ever driven in, but it took it all in it's stride.  Jumping puddles with ease, and shrugging off the tidal waves produced by oncoming lorries. 

As a reward, we polished it up yesterday and took it a run out to Inverness Cars and Coffee today, where it was really well received.  This little car has really earned my respect so far, it just does what it does and makes everything else seem a bit unwieldy/unnecessary!

 

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That's all the underbody plastics been off and the small amount of crud therein been removed now, and there have been no nasties discovered at all.  The dealer plates say Westleigh Mazda on them, which I have deduced is in that there 'darn sarf', the lack of corrosion has made me want to buy all my cars from that far-flung place from now on.

 

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Speaking of which, what I really need is a Corolla awd estate from the early 90's pinnacle of Japanese car production, then I could get rid of the Outback and revel in a completely retro fleet.  Actually won an eBay auction for one a few weeks back, paid a deposit and arranged collection, only for the bloke's brother (yeah, yeah...) to sell it to someone else while he was away.  Got my deposit back fortunately... bit gutted though.

 

Anyway, forum's been great reading as always this week, cheers all!

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Couple of weeks late with the pics, but we took the Mazda to Grantown Motormania, and had much fun spotting chod…

 

Nice clean 205, t'was for sale but I managed to resist.

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This thing looked great in the metal...

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And this Rover floppytop was just about the cleanest car I've ever seen.

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Forgot how nice these were in estate (Tourer?) form.

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Very cool Renault.

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Coolest Viva ever...

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Last one, for the Cap'n… who I actually had the pleasure of speaking to at this show (among others) a few years ago...

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The wee Mazda is providing sterling service, plenty of driving and car-washing practice for my eldest every weekend and sunny evening.  The Surf is the daily just now, racking up the miles on it's way to it's next cambelt.  Tomorrow should see the Audi Coupe dragged out and cleaned up for a proper attempt at selling it.  I really haven't the time for them all just now and I hate the thought of it degrading just sitting there...  I've missed driving the Trabbi this summer, so getting shot of the Audi might leave a bit of space/time to fettle it for a test.  

 

Cheers all.

 

 

 

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  • TrabbieRonnie changed the title to The Current Driveway... Grantown Motormania Pics.

^  Went to the Grantown Motormania a few years ago, (a mate was showing a Mk2 RS2000), and was surprised at the turnout. Some really great cars from all over the north east. The annual show in Grant Park, Forres can be busy too, as can the classic one at Tain. (I'm sure you know this already).

Cool pics, that Viva estate just looks so right. Maybe enter with the Mazda 323 next year?

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The 323 was entered, they just parked us up in a more 'unexceptional' corner!  Felt a bit out of place tbh, but the young lad loved polishing it up and taking it in.  Got a few admiring glances to be fair... 

 

Next weekend is the Steam and classic fair at Roseile, brilliant show usually with old cars and traction engines, what more could you want?!  They have a section where everyone drives round the showring, and there's a traction engine tug-of-war!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello again all...

Been fettling the old jeep a wee bit lately, as I have been hearing a slight rumble from the front on right-handers.  Suspected the wheel bearing, so ordered and fitted a set from Roughtrax last month.  However, still the (slight) groan remained.  Another poke around underneath revealed some play in the right hand front halfshaft, where it exits the diff.  When I dropped the oil, there was some metal filings collected on the magplug, although the oil itself looked good.  Thankfully, Roughtrax sells a complete rebuild kit for the diff, so a couple of hundred quids later, I have the means to fix the old girl up...

This morning then, was deemed to be dry enough to spend under a Hilux.  The Iveco provided the luxury* of sufficient elevation...

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The offending article...

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The pinion flange here (pictured after I have undone the bolts), is moving around by a few mil, and leaking a wee bit...

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These wee pipes are vacuum lines, used to lock/unlock the diff automatically don't you know!?!  They came off ok, and to my amazement have survived the operation without damage...

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Another offending article...

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Now there's a bit of room under there, I'll do some pre-winter cleaning/rustproofing.  Will hopefully get another year or two's Surfing yet!

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And here, after a couple of sweary, hurty hours is the heavy awkward bastard out of it's home of 27 years...

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That's me for the day, I have loaded the diff into the 323's boot for transport to the workshop on Monday.  It's going to be easier to actually dismantle/clean and reassemble the thing with a workbench, press and parts washer (the new dishwasher is definitely off-limits apparently!).  Hopefully you're all doing well in your own old shite escapades, the weather has been terrible here, so the Audi sits unwashed and unprepared for a proper attempt at selling it (maybe I don't really want to..?)

Cheers all.

 

 

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  • TrabbieRonnie changed the title to The Current Driveway... Japanese undercarriage fettling!
  • 4 weeks later...

Now now all,

Really crappy weather up here of late, they have begun salting the roads so the wee Mazda is in dry dock till sunnier times.  It's last mission was the transportation of the old jeep's front diff to and from my workshop for rebuild...

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Heavy, awkward thing to refit to be honest, one of the physically harder jobs I've done on a car.  Could really do with a transmission jack/four-poster/huge big shed...etc...  The actual rebuild was easy enough (big up to Roughtrax yet again for their quality kit), and it is running silently now, even though I didn't see anything obviously wrong in there.

 

Anyway, all back together for winter duties again, stuck on a new sticker to celebrate... you  have to watch yourself with these old jeeps, the urge to chav 'em up gets pretty strong!  I am currently accruing stainless pipe bends and straights etc, when the exhaust next falls to bits I'm going for twin side exits!

 

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We have recently discovered an off-road playground down south (near Perth), where you pay an annual membership and can go every weekend if you want...  there's a few clubs up here, but I don't want to do events as such, just see what she can actually do, and have a laugh with the boys.  It'll maybe be my Christmas present this year...

 

Off to wistfully peruse the 'shite for sale' section, cheers all!

 

 

 

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  • TrabbieRonnie changed the title to The Current Driveway... Jeep done, roads salty... boo!
  • TrabbieRonnie changed the title to The Current Driveway... Did a BIG LIABILITY BUY!!!

Hello all,

Just home from our highland capital with the new beast...  definitely a potential heart/bank account breaker, but all seems well thus far (the drive home was an hour-long mix of sedate wafting and absolute hooliganism!)  I've always liked these, the older model appealed more to be honest, but this one just came along at the right price/location. 

 

Regretted not buying Sim's one, but can scratch my German V8 itch now...  3.7l Quattro, £1500 on the nose, pics:

 

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130,000 miles, huge history file, feels genuine and looks good.  New airbags a while ago, cambelt up to date... WCPGW!!!  Will update after mega washing/getting to know you session with it tomorrow, as ever any and all experiences/advice welcomed!

Cheers all.

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