I'll get round to it at some point - Hydropneumatic Misery Machine

[Rust Collector]

Zastava time then!

I think it's been about a year since I pulled the interior out of this in order to check the extent of a rust hole I found in the floor pan. I've since done a pretty stellar job of putting the job off and finding other stuff to do, as I find welding one of the hardest jobs to start - you always end up having to do more than you think you will, and it takes time and sustained concentration. As a lazy, impulsive person it does not play to my wheelhouse.

Still, in terms of making a show of getting something done since dragging the ZAZ home, I reckoned welding the floor up and putting the interior back in would be a good contender. So over the evenings last week I begrudgingly started to tackle this.

Here's what we had then. It started as a small hole, but as we all know too well it just gets bigger and bigger as you chase solid* metal. The hole was as I'd left it after finding it, all I've done here is run a dremel round the top edge of where my patch panel will go.

I drilled out the spot welds to the inner sill and then used a chisel to peel the remaining floor pan strip away.

Daylight illustrates the hole best. Here the floor has been removed, and the inner sill is there in all its jagged glory:

With an edge to work to I tacked in the repair panel then went back along and slowly built up a seam. The metal is not great, the usual fun of chasing holes in random areas presented itself a few times but we got there:

Grind it back, find more holes:

Holes blobbed with weld again, time to tack the other edges in. I then used the panel as a template to cut, then tacked as I went pushing the repair panel flush with the floor pan. I slotted the inner radius to allow it to fold in better.

Fill more bastard holes with weld

Peeling this away as I cut the floor pan out was quite satisfying

All seam welded

More grinding

I really should have replaced the jagged edge on the inner sill at this point. I didn't though, as I had visions of cutting a small part out and having to go further and further to find something to weld to without blowing through. So I've cheated a little and I've left it with a view to do later* and seam seal it for now. I wasn't going to leave it flapping in the breeze though, so I set about spot welding it back to the floor pan. I decided to use the 'new' mig welder for this which from memory set me back about £40 from an old boy in Eastbourne.

Once I worked out the settings I reckon it was quite nice to use

The special alignment tool was used to keep everything nice and tight together whilst welding

Job done, and I only blew 50 million more holes in it:

Bit of zinc primer on top and chassis in a can underneath

That scabby stuff doesn't disintegrate with prodding yet but I'm going to have to do something about it soon. I have a solid floor now at least!

Whilst the paint was out I had a bash at this with some hammerite. Perfection was not the desired result, I just wanted to cover the orange bits:

Good enough.

Interior refitting time then. I needed to move the car first. Best put the spare on then...

I'll put new rubber on it before it sees the road obviously, as these are from the nineties! They'll work for farm use though. Possibly. Flat tyre back in the engine bay for now, along with the filter housing:

Then I could roll the car out for access to get the disgusting sound deadening in

The rear bench went in next - I had a time removing it before as the release handle had come off the hook. So I set about repairing this, attempt one with a cable tie didn't work but attempt two with welding wire seems to have done the job for now.

The carpet went back in at this point too. Aligning the metal strips in the door shut was fun*, as the carpet obscures the screw holes in the chassis.

One problem that I've had with the interior is that the sound deadening on the passenger side bulkhead has gone saggy, and this means it falls into the glove box and looks really shitty.

I tried to glue it before, but the fibres delaminated and it all dropped off again. I weighed up buying similar material and cutting a new panel, but impatience got the better of me so I came up with a much better idea...

Lovely stuff 😅

That was where I left it last night, so hopefully this evening I can get the dash in and maybe even the seats and centre console.

I have one small regret, which is that I didn't just chuck some of the paint from the garage over the primer. I may take the carpet up in the corner again soon if it weighs on my mind too much.

Another small setback is that I've lost the only bloody key for the thing. Every other key is present and accounted for in the key box bar this one!! Fingers crossed it turns up, as I'm really looking forward to taking this for a run around the tracks once it's back together.

 

[wesacosa]

Brilliant work. looking forward to seeing this progress. Would bloody love a 128 based Zastava

[Fumbler]

Smashing work. I love that little car.

[stuboy]

zastava is my favourite

[Bear]

This is where I got my Tavria's alternator regulator and brushes - they appear to have shipped them from the latest email and invoice...

https://www.detava.lt/produkto-kategorija/rusisku-automobiliu-dalys/

[Back_For_More]

Great workon the floorpan......I'm in exactly the same frame of mind and with the same chasing holes doldrums......

Fair play fella it looks fine now - I need to get off my arse and get the passenger side finished. The fact the drivers side will certainly be the same, if nto worse, has me continuously putting it off.....

The little V4 must sound glorious - that's something to look forward to!

[juular]

Top level tinkering going on here! Following with interest.

The ZAZ & Zastava are ace!

I didn't realise those had V4s. Please post a video when running.

[AnnoyingPentium]

I came for a Czechoslovakian car, I stay for the other Eastern European ones.

[cort1977]

22 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

First off, last weekend I took some photos of the ZAZ to document the condition she was in once she landed. Here she is in all her glory:

 

You absolute winner!  There's something about these things I love.  

[Pieman]

You own a Skoda, a Zastava, TWO Citroen BXs AND a Zaporozhets?

Can I come and live with you?

[Rust Collector]

Thanks folks! I do love the Zastava, it's hard to explain but it just has a good feel to it. I can't wait to get it out and use it, hopefully get a ticket on it before the summer flits by so that I can commute in it for a bit 😅

Once the ZAZ is running I'll get some videos up of the noise from that motor, I'm expecting it to be peculiar at the least! Hopefully get the brakes sorted at the same time so I can run it up and down the track as I know I'll want to do that the moment she comes to life.

On 4/25/2022 at 11:55 PM, RichardK said:

This is where I got my Tavria's alternator regulator and brushes - they appear to have shipped them from the latest email and invoice...

https://www.detava.lt/produkto-kategorija/rusisku-automobiliu-dalys/

Cheers Richard, I hadn't come across that site before - it's going in my saved sites!!

On 4/26/2022 at 8:15 AM, Back_For_More said:

Great workon the floorpan......I'm in exactly the same frame of mind and with the same chasing holes doldrums......

Fair play fella it looks fine now - I need to get off my arse and get the passenger side finished. The fact the drivers side will certainly be the same, if nto worse, has me continuously putting it off.....

The little V4 must sound glorious - that's something to look forward to!

I think the mental hurdle of starting was much worse than the actual job in the end, even though the job turned out to be slightly more than I planned for (isn't it always the way!). Feels great once you're on the other side of the work though, I will try to remember that for future jobs when I'm putting them off!

On 4/27/2022 at 12:07 AM, Pieman said:

You own a Skoda, a Zastava, TWO Citroen BXs AND a Zaporozhets?

Can I come and live with you?

Try me after I've dragged another motor home and my mrs walks out on me 😅

[wesacosa]

the Zastava would be a brilliant festival of the unexceptional steed

[Rust Collector]

2 hours ago, wesacosa said:

the Zastava would be a brilliant festival of the unexceptional steed

A mate of mine that lives up that way and has similar taste in motors has been asking me to come up for FOTU since I got it, with the added bonus of crashing at his for some beers the night before. I'm just not sure if I will trust the Zastava to do 5+ hours at main road speed to get there, despite that fact that it's probably in the spirit of Autoshite to drive a 1100cc motor with a 4 speed box halfway up the country after it's been dormant for over 20 years. Oh, and I recently cancelled my breakdown cover! 😅

[Fumbler]

6 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

 I'm just not sure if I will trust the Zastava to do 5+ hours at main road speed to get there, despite that fact that it's probably in the spirit of Autoshite to drive a 1100cc motor with a 4 speed box halfway up the country after it's been dormant for over 20 years. Oh, and I recently cancelled my breakdown cover! 😅

I look forward to hearing you scream your way up the M25 and A1 towards FOTU 😁

[barefoot]

Can I put my name down for first refusal on this when you come to sell it please?

I'm not in a rush, I first tripped over a Zaporozhets when I was after parts for my Trabbie, I was fascinated because it was like the ugliest NSU I had ever seen. As a kid I'd had a lift back from a friend's house in his mother's TT. After a ride out there in his father's 264 automatic, her jerky, whining NSU was the most dismal, unpleasant bathtub of a vehicle I had ever travelled in at that point in my life. 

As I said, no rush. Sick of ZAZ? PM barefoot - OK?

ta

[Rust Collector]

On 4/28/2022 at 11:07 PM, barefoot said:

Can I put my name down for first refusal on this when you come to sell it please?

I'm not in a rush, I first tripped over a Zaporozhets when I was after parts for my Trabbie, I was fascinated because it was like the ugliest NSU I had ever seen. As a kid I'd had a lift back from a friend's house in his mother's TT. After a ride out there in his father's 264 automatic, her jerky, whining NSU was the most dismal, unpleasant bathtub of a vehicle I had ever travelled in at that point in my life. 

As I said, no rush. Sick of ZAZ? PM barefoot - OK?

ta

I’ll do my best to remember mate, but I will add the caveat that it’s highly unusual for me to sell anything as storage isn’t usually a problem and I’m a natural hoarder 😅 if I do find myself needing to move it along I will give you a shout.

[Rust Collector]

So back to the sustained effort to do something with the Zastava: the interior is finally in after a couple of evening’s work now.

as you can see, I forgot the way a couple of the switches were wired up… that’s a job for the multimeter then.

+10 points if you noticed that I fitted the headlight switch upside down also.

better.

When I got the car it was missing the fog lamp switch. I 3d printed a mount and fitted a similar looking switch from Car Builder Solutions.

Efforts to start it were hampered by the fuel lines not priming.

First thought was no fuel. Luckily my dad had just filled up the big can that he keeps for when the lawnmowers my chod collection need petrol.

naturally the hose was missing…

safety first!

With that added I tried to prime the system by running it on easy start for a bit. A can later and we were still nowhere.

I was at the point of disconnecting the supply hose to the carb and sucking out a nice drink of petrol, when I remembered that I had a vacuum pump in the garage designed for this type of thing. A few pumps and petrol was spraying all over the place, great success.

With fuel in the lines she fired right up. After a little bit of time lurching it round the drive and stalling it, consensus is I need to clean, refurb and adjust the carb again, I should probably replace the points with the new* set I have, and I want to compression test it because I have a niggling thought of OMGHGF being the reason it got thrown in a barn in ‘96.

[Rust Collector]

A little bit more catching up is in order I think.

As the Zastava needs a simple compression test in order to establish the best way to move forwards, I obviously haven't done this job.

Work has been getting in the way of play time a little lately, as it's been trade shows...

And for a bit of variety, more trade shows...

So for about 4 or 5 weeks I was just bumbling around the country living out of hotels and the Insight. I definitely need to get a proper repmobile as whilst the Insight is good on fuel it is not the most comfortable for long distance driving.

With that out the way it was time to mow the jungle lawn that had been neglected in my absence, luckily I had the box trailer at hand as there was a hell of a lot of grass to dispose of.

With that dumped up at the farm, I thought it might be time to get rid of the christmas tree 😯

Once I started, I couldn't help myself for launching crap into the trailer.

Really handy to have a box trailer at hand to use and abuse, I wouldn't mind a larger one at some point. One last non-car job stood in the way before I could play with the proper toys again:

Sorted.

First up on the car front then was some small works on the Favorit in readiness for MOT. Earlier this year we found out that my partner is pregnant, and now we are getting closer to the due date (October 31st!!!) I need to get one of the wagons back on the road, as the Insight is no good for a baby seat as you can't turn off the air bag. The only main thing the Favorit needed was some attention to the washer pump and the wiper stalk which made it a prime candidate for returning to daily duties. The pump had disintegrated, and for some reason the stalk didn't work correctly - turning the wipers on speed 1 set off the washer jets, pressing the stalk in did nothing. I had been making do with it like this for ages until the pump broke, but seeing as I had to order a pump I may as well get in the stalk too.

Much better. There's some bits of the bodywork to tidy, and I'll put it in for a ticket closer to October when I'm going to need it.

Light work was in order after this - sticker application

Very good. More to be applied, but that means cutting back vegetation to open boots so that's fun for another day.

Best go look at the Mitsi then, as the £13 o rings landed from the dealer...

More light work on the way, as I noticed something not right on the horsebox as a suitable distraction from the task at hand.

All good. Best tackle the truck then.

The offending o rings have been fitted back on the cross pipe, and with the help of some ky jelly we're in.

Painting by numbers...

As I didn't realise the lead numbers were cast into the upper half of the plenum! Oh well 😅

Where's the spill free coolant kit when you need it:

Couldn't drive it as the horses were on the yard for the evening, but I left it running for about an hour and it sat at temp happily. I was worried about a leak for a bit, but it was raining and I suspect the open bonnet was directing water down the back of the block.

Proper kit brought back the next day:

It will get a coolant change before seeing the road again. In the meantime, the stress test was some field work on a hot day.

I'm pleased to report that all went well. I deliberately drove her hard and left her running the whole time I was working, and the coolant temp didn't waiver once. I'm calling this one fixed. There's a couple of niggles to sort and she is ready for MOT, however I'm not sure I really need a 3 litre V6 with the price of petrol currently! Farm duties only for now then.

Car play was briefly interrupted again by a dog injury - sticking your face in bushes after rabbits can be bad for your eyes apparently.

The green alien goo coming out of him is fluorescent dye, turns out he got an ulcer from a scratch. Luckily he's food mad, so eye drops were easy to apply as he associates medicine with being given treats. That was £120 out of the rainy day fund though and a Saturday morning gone!

Back to the cars, and good* news about my Dad's merc - it didn't pass MOT. Failed on brake pipes and some welding. This required some car shunting, as most of my tools for working on brakes are at my house, and I'm at maximum capacity. By bye Subaru!

Hello Mercedes!

The action happens behind the gate, so the BX TZD was ejected for my neighbours' viewing enjoyment. I try to keep scruffy shite out of sight normally. I enjoy the view from the living room now though!

Before I got into pulling the Merc apart, my mate brought round his Disco 3 which had some* play in the wheel bearing.

That wasn't a bad morning's work, and a nice warm up for further rolling around on the driveway.

That's both pipes done on the driver's side. The main ball ache was just removing undertrays and heat shields. The running of the pipes wasn't too agonising, luckily. Just the other side to do, then the welding, it'll get rear brake hoses too as they're ancient and I'm going to do a bit of cleaning and rust proofing.

Sorry for a bit of a long read again, but it's rare for me to find time to sit at a computer and write things up these days - I fear it's going to get even worse come October!!

 

[Rust Collector]

Right then, time for this thing:

For ease of viewing, here's the spark plugs consolidated in the order that they came out:

And the readings in order from the cambelt end:

Oof. Number 2 looks a bit sad. With some oil down the bore it was no better either.

I'll be pulling the valve cover off next to have a look at the hydraulic cam followers and make sure all the valves are doing what they should. However, tomorrow I'm at a trade show (for a change), in the evening my mrs is doing open mic night so I'll be at that once back from Watford. Thursday night I'm hopefully buying the Audi 100 so that evening is full. Friday night I'm off to pick up a second child seat and isofix base for impending babygeddon. Saturday and Sunday will be filled with Mercedes W211 fun*. So it probably won't be until next week that we see more of the Zastava sadly!

At least we have an idea of why she runs so lumpy now...

[High Jetter]

Well if your Mrs has impending babygeddon, that could be why she's lumpy?

[Rust Collector]

Well, maybe not quite 100 reasons, but it was cheap, local and I wanted one!

As some of you may have seen in the news 24 thread, not long ago I was chatting to a mate about the best* family cars. I settled on a 100 Avant as being my ideal choice of family chod. This made me remember there was a cheap one locally advertised at some point. A trawl through my saved items in Facebook revealed that the listing wasn't marked as sold, but it was a fair while back that I first saw it!

Amazingly, when I messaged the chap it turned out it was still available and I could go have a look.

Viewing the car was a formality, as I had already bought it in my head when he said it was still for sale 😅 I need to go back and trailer it home next week, so I'll get better pictures up then, but for now here she is in all her glory:

 

As it was so cheap I didn't waste much of his time whilst viewing it - he tells me it starts and I've taken his word for it. I had a half hearted look underneath and it looks pretty solid. Oil smells alright. Coolant is growing stuff. It has a boot full of spare lamps and hub caps. It has the roll out luggage cover which wasn't shown in the ad. He seemed a decent chap, and apparently the reason he hadn't sold it yet was because he didn't want it going to scrap. Apparently he had been asked a few time 'has this got the original cat M9?' and he's too attached to the car to send it off to be pulled apart. It went on ebay once, made £380 and then the buyer bailed.

I'm setting myself a deadline of having this on the road by the time the baby arrives, stay tuned to see me focus on literally anything else but the task at hand and miss the date completely.

 

[Fumbler]

Jealous.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Great choice of family car.

[Back_For_More]

I love these estates - a local quattro version came up from a farmer I know but it needed a clutch doing and I couldn't face forking out the price he wanted and then another shedload on a clutch replacement...... The fact it had spent years as a farm vehicle didn't inspire me too much either TBH.

Looking forward to the progress.......

How's the Zastava getting along?

[stuboy]

last time i saw one of these it had reversed into my mk2 cavalier sri, crushing the wing and headlight

[Rust Collector]

Cheers folks 🙂 I was really pleased to track this down as I was convinced it would have gone. My grandad and uncle used to run Audi 100’s when I was little so the nostalgia is huge for me with this car.

1 hour ago, Back_For_More said:

How's the Zastava getting along?

It’s down compression on one cylinder, so this weekend I’d like to get the valve cover off to check to see if there’s any problems with the valve train before biting the bullet and pulling the head off the engine. Once it runs smoothly I just need to give the brakes and front suspension a once over and then I’ll get her in for a ticket. If she passes, she’ll be put on daily duties to give the Insight a rest 😅

[Rust Collector]

Right then. First a brief recap of where all my time has been lost to; my Dad's Mercedes W211. I've now replaced all 4 brake lines on it, and I just have the welding left to do. I have managed to dump it back up at the farm, and I've also tucked the Subaru up in the corner, meaning that I've managed to do the old switcheroo and leave an additional car up there unnoticed*.

I of course have not got around to taking the valve cover off of the Zastava.

I did go over to the Surrey Hills last night to collect this vehicle of outstanding natural beauty.

The chap's house was in the middle of the woods, he was a nice bloke and he said he'd owned several of these. As I mentioned previously, he explained that it had been advertised for so long as he didn't want it going for scrap, and he hadn't had any buyers for it as a project. That should probably tell me something 😅

Loading was fun. It wouldn't fire up, and I didn't want to take up too much of his time so I just moved it on the starter. With a seized rear wheel. Progress was slow and lurchy. Add in the rad fan that runs constantly when the battery is connected and it turned into a fun game of 'will we get loaded up or will the wiring catch fire'. A mix of winch action and starter motor abuse got her in place, and predictably just as I got towards the front of the trailer she fired up and tried to lurch off, luckily I was half expecting such luck so I was already hovering on the clutch and brake.

Unloading was even more fun. To avoid owning up to my excellent purchase, I was taking the car to the tool shed I share with a mate. Whilst trying to unload, the starter bogged down and I couldn't get her to shift. Bad memories of the grounded out blue BX of recent trailer misery started to resurface. Looking underneath I could see that the mid section of the exhaust had dropped down and was trying to wrap around the trailer chassis. No photo I'm afraid as it was dark and I was shouting swear words at everything. Obviously this was when my partner called to ask why I wasn't home yet, which raised my spirits greatly 😅

Second best course of action then - park everything close to home, go to bed, deal with it in the morning. Sounds good to me!

Got out of bed early this morning, called work to tell them I'm WFH as my partner had her 20 week scan today and I wasn't going to the office for an hour just for the sake of it. Best put everything on the driveway then. You can't see so well in the picture but the opening is about a foot wider than the trailer, the driveway is an incline and the road outside is a curve. From memory I've only chucked the trailer in here by hand whilst it was empty before, but despite a little apprehension (the fence belongs to my neighbour and I feel it would be bad for relationships if I smash a trailer load of chod through it) I reversed it in happily enough.

Not got loads of pics yet as I'm in the office now, but here she is in all her trailer stranded glory

I love the rear roof line on these, they look ridiculously proportioned just like all good* estates should.

At some point I'm going to chuck a couple of ratchet straps under her to get the exhaust pulled up enough to remove her from the trailer. I'll probably pull the BX out the courtyard and then use the length of driveway available to get the Audi off the trailer and behind closed doors.

Not sure if I'll get anything done this eve though, as a) I need to spend time with my partner to make good my most recent misdeed and b) I need to have a few beers in the garden to de-stress from last night.

And I want to put it on public record that this is absolutely, definitely, possibly the last motor I buy without getting clear of something else!!

[High Jetter]

I have to agree about the roof lines, rare for me to like an aldi

[Fumbler]

Look at all those estates you now have! Would be a fun* exercise to go line them up and compare them all.

[Rust Collector]

2 hours ago, Fumbler said:

Look at all those estates you now have! Would be a fun* exercise to go line them up and compare them all.

I'd love to get everything lined up in the field for a photo, but the problem with putting everything in one place is that then everyone can see how much crap you've actually got 😅