Star garages - The Good, the Rusty, and the Delayed - How many Zastavas do you need to assemble one?

[Stinkwheel]

Ah, in that case stuck thermostat?

[IronStar]

9 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

Ah, in that case stuck thermostat?

Wouldn’t that prevent it from cooling  once it gets to here as well though?

 

Goes back to one line above 90 after that 😵‍💫
Cooled down when sitting parked in the shade as well?

[IronStar]

0.6L of coolant was missing and it’s supposedly behaving itself now. I’ll run an extended stress test when I get it back though. Needs to go up on the lift to try finding the leak

As my cars have a thing for things failing in pairs, and thermostat housing was replaced a month ago on 156, I know where I’ll be looking first.

[IronStar]

Minor updates:

Got a message from bodyshop today with a screenshot of a sales listing for a brand new Yugo gas tank.

- What’s the deal? Want me to order it up? Is that one rusty? 

- Order it.

Bodyshop guy is not a man of many words but he more than makes up with his metalworking talent. Gas tank ordered.

307CC should be coming back home tomorrow or day after tomorrow. Mini specialist finally got one of his cars sorted and is bringing it back. He’s still feeling very guilty for taking it for so long, and is very, very grateful I’m not being pushy to have it back. I may or may not have mentioned this before, his wife was diagnosed with cancer and had a surgery, so he really didn’t have much time to work on his car (or any other car really). He also told me that it raised the temperature a bit more than it should a few times, but didn’t overheat, so I’m guessing gummed up thermostat that will be thrown on it as soon as it gets back. If it doesn’t solve the problem, distantly and cleaning the radiator will be the second thing to do. 

He mentioned that Mini’s wipers should be wiping properly in all positions again, but that’s all he managed to do on it since I dropped it off again over a month ago.

[IronStar]

Speak of the devil! 
These just came in on Viber!

 

 

How much original metal will be left by the time car is done? 10%? 20%? Answers on postcard 😄

[IronStar]

Weather has decided to go from scorching hot to just very hot days with reasonably hot  evenings. What’s that? Temperatures under 30 in the afternoons?  Time for a car with no roof that was returned the previous weekend maybe? Jump into 159 after a gym, and straight to garage to swap cars! 307CC happily starts, moves out, swaps places with 159, press on the roof fold switch….skreeeeeech. Low hydraulic pressure in the system. That piston must be leaking really badly now.

No roofless car for me until that is topped up then. There’s some dust on the windscreen, pull the washer…oh that’s right, I didn’t get to that either. There’s a box with Android head unit sitting on a back seat that I ordered over a year ago. I’ll get to those tomorrow. I get home, get out of the car, it’s actually reasonably cool and I’m not too tired. Let’s try doing something tonight! Climb up, pick up the tools, walk down, start.

Job number 1 - Roof

I’ve dismantled this so many times now, I know exactly what’s bent from that screw I lost first time I took it apart, which bits do I need, and what needs to be pulled. Boot liner goes out.

Everything else goes out and two plastic trims are removed. I forgot the wrenches. 🤦‍♂️Quick call to Mrs Star and they arrive, but I couldn’t find a funnel either , so I made a makeshift one from a Coke bottle. 2 relays come out to clear the way.

LHM goes in, roof operation restored. Is there some sort of radweld equivalent for hydraulic systems? I’d prefer to pour something in to fix this rather than having to actually deal with the issue properly. I can’t even imagine how expensive and how much pig of a job is finding all the leaks if it’s not just that piston seal and replacing everything. 

Job number 2 - Android head unit

While i was waiting for wrenches, I decided to remove the head unit from the car and try connecting the Android one. Old one comes out, adapters connected, Android plugged in. Lights up, Android logo. Wait, the car is off, why is this turning on? Oh nevermid, original one is probably being turned on by CAN signal and has permanent live. As long as everything else works I’ll just rewire that. 

*Touch screen* Nothing happens.
*Touch navigation buttons* Nothing happens.
*Touch volume buttons* Nothing happens.
*Remove protective foil, touch everything* Nope. 
*Check the manual* Should be working. 
*Force restart* Nope. 
*Reconnect wiring* Nope.

Of course it’s head unit for this car that’s acting up. This car didn’t want to play ball since day 1, and this is just another one of those things. It’s always some stupid shit with it. I have 16 cars, and I never wanted to sell any of them, except this one. However Mrs. Star loves it and every time I mention I’d rather have something else she makes a super sad face and starts acting like I’m kicking a puppy. So it’s here to stay. 
Original head unit goes back in, Android unit goes back into a box.
I’ve messaged the AliExpress seller with my problem, but I expect to be told to fuck off as it’s been over a year now. Maybe they have a software update or something for me? 
Miffed but undefeated, I get to 

Job number 3 - washer pump

Washer pump has been a job I couldn’t be arsed to do for a while now. Deferring it was helped by the car being loaned multiple times, so it was mostly annoying someone else. It’s tucked under the passenger side arch liner, and I’ve been dreading having to deal with 21y/o French plastic clips. Encouraged by not everything going absolutely wrong tonight, I decided to give it a stab.

Car goes up, wheel comes off

Front of the arch liner was being held by two clips that came out surprisingly easily with the help of a trim tool, and two self tappers on the bottom where someone lost or broke the clips. Some pulling later, I saw the pump and realized I don’t have to take down the rest of it, I can just pull back the front bit. So that what I did. Basin goes below to catch the washer fluid, hand goes in to pull the pump, but it’s the original one, and it doesn’t want to budge. 5 minutes of swearing and wondering if I’m going to break it, it comes off, just for the first stream to miss the basin and make a mess out of a place I need to lie on.

Fluid drained, but sadly couldn’t be reused because it washed off tons of debris from the arch liner. I checked the gasket between the pump and the reservoir and it was still okay with no leaks, so it was transferred to the new pump. I probably should’ve bought a new one, but new pump didn’t come with it and it was too late to go buy it now.

New vs old pump

Getting the pump back in was equally fiddly, with it just not wanting to go in properly. 5 minutes of swearing and wondering if I’m going to break it while refitting it somehow went in which was a huge relief. 

Poured some washer fluid to check for leakage, all good. Pull on a stalk, pump primed and washing was restored. Of course it sprayed me as well the car was still tilted and washer partially missed the windshield. Refitting was reverse of removal, and everything went back shockingly smoothly. 

I was also wondering what happened to the previous one, is it just something clogged or did it completely fail.

That’ll be the bottom seal leaking and killing the pump then. Into the bin it goes.

I also noticed when I took off the wheel front tires are almost on thread wear markers, some half a millimeter away from it. That’s a job for after the paycheck and depending on how much do I actually get to drive it before it gets ridiculously warm again, maybe even next year.

I’m really looking forward to some topless (fnar) driving, and would really be happy if I found something to seal the fucking hydraulic leak so I don’t have to replace the pistons or keep refilling the fucker.

[IronStar]

I’ve just realized that the hydraulic fluid I’m putting in is green. Googling now and it should be yellow? Did they sell me the wrong stuff, and that’s causing leakage of the seals? 😱😱😱😱

[hairnet]

4 minutes ago, IronStar said:

 

LHM goes in, roof operation restored. Is there some sort of radweld equivalent for hydraulic systems? I’d prefer to pour something in to fix this rather than having to actually deal with the issue properly. I can’t even imagine how expensive and how much pig of a job is finding all the leaks if it’s not just that piston seal and replacing everything. 

 

 I have 16 cars

 

@Six-cylinder @maxxo @dean36014 @dollywobbler to the SRB batphone please

16 cars? lucky

[Popsicle]

53 minutes ago, IronStar said:

I’ve just realized that the hydraulic fluid I’m putting in is green. Googling now and it should be yellow? Did they sell me the wrong stuff, and that’s causing leakage of the seals? 😱😱😱😱

I think the green stuff tends to be power steering/central hydraulic fluid. It is thinner than 'normal' fluid so could be getting past the seals.

[somewhatfoolish]

Unlikely to affect seals, both are hydraulic oil.

[IronStar]

Went for a drive in CC today. Roof went up. Roof went down. Roof tried to go up. Tailgate went up. I was greeted with the sound of low hydraulic pressure. Roof got stuck. Took me 15 minutes to nurse it back down with leftover pressure in the system. 
Because that’s not annoying enough, aftermarket parking sensors also packed up tonight. Putting the car in reverse results in a long beeeeeeeeeeeep. All seem to be fine visually, so one of them must’ve shat itself. Annoyingly I can’t even get it to shut up until I buy new one, the control unit is accessible only when roof is in service position.

This really does not bode well for this car, and I need to talk to missus about it. I can’t imagine roof repair on it being under 4 figures, and it’s a car we paid 2 grand for, doesn’t have a straight panel, has absolutely shot shocks and is burning or leaking oil somewhere. It might be time to cut the losses and get some other cabrio. 
Negatives of another cabrio are that it’s equally old, equally finicky system that could pack up in a week, month or a year, and we’d be back to square 1. Maybe it’s better to fix and live with a devil you know at this end of a market?

Im the other motoring news, 156 is finally back home. 
It went into a friend’s garage end of May to get a bunch of things done. Some car was to be towed to a scrappy from the garage, and tow guy managed to somehow drop it, absolutely shattering garage door, narrowly missing 2 pole lift with a car on it, but rearending the 156. He agreed to pay for fixing everything, fix the bumper, and bring it back to be mounted. That somehow turned into 3 fucking months of back and forth with 2 different paint shops. First one, where tow truck driver took it must’ve sprayed it with rattlecans by a blind man, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a terrible finish and paint match. It went back and forth with the paintshop, going nowhere, just to be told to fuck the fuck off and friend that owns the garage will pay for it out of his pocket as it was too late to claim on insurance. So bumper went to a paintshop #2. Where it stayed for two fucking months. Now, if it was anyone else’s car in that garage, or if it was my car anywhere else, that would’ve ended up with “congratulations, you bought an Alfa 156 at a top market rate for a pristine one even though this one is anything but” and another car being purchased. However, it wasn’t. So the wait was on. Yesterday I went to pick it up, just to be greeted with harness for rear license plate lights being torn, 50% of screws being lost or misplaced, and bumper mounts not welded back on. 
Absolutely furious is an understatement. Many apologies by the friend were had on behalf of everyone else fucking it up. As he’s paying for the entire fuckwittery out of his pocket, and car is not a minter to begin with, we went to salvage the situation as much as we could without paying for everything and waiting for unknown amount of time. Another harness was bought from scrappy, we found most of the bolts, and what we didn’t was also picked up from scrappy, and back on it went. 
Paint match could be better, and one side of the bumper is not really sitting properly as it’s missing 2/3 mounts, but back on it went. Good enough, it wasn’t a minter to begin with. When car goes into my trusted bodyshop for rust remediation and a respray, we’ll get another fucking bumper and call it a day then. Until then, I’m taking this as good enough. 
It goes without saying that garage owner will never accept anything but towing the car to the best and most expensive paint and bodywork place in Belgrade so they assess the damage and fix absolutely everything at cost to insurance or guilty party next time someone damages customer’s car. He went independent 3 years ago and this is the first time something like this has happened, so lessons learned all round. 

[IronStar]

I reported in the news thread that I found an EFI Yugo with another engine in the back. However it’s been a month now and seller is still dragging and messing, so I’m given up on that one and will probably tell him to sod off.

I was browsing the FB marketplace today as usual when this popped up for sale:

AN EFI! Not far away from where it’s supposed to be! I called the guy. Rear beam is rusted out, but the car itself starts and runs. Has title and all the other bits. They owned it for 5 years, but don’t want to spend money on welding the beam. I can have it for 300€.

Few phone calls later an immediately available tow car was found. The guy selling it doesn’t have a bank account I can pay into, guy doing the towing didn’t want to pay for me and get paid when he drops it off or send me bank account to pay him as I’m a random dude he never saw before, so I ended up driving to Sabac to pay for the car and pick it up.

It’s a honest car (that admittedly runs on 3 cylinders as one spark plug is fucked) and honest sellers, cash changed hands, tow was called in and car was on the way to the bodyshop.

Dude towing it realized I’m a chill and I wasn’t trying to scam him or anything, just didn’t want to waste 3 hours driving there and back, and kinda apologized to me for being suspicious when he dropped it off. We talked cars and shit for like 20 minutes at drip off. He saved my number, probably as Yugo lunatic, and said if I need a similar favor of paying some small amount of cash so I don’t have to drive, he’ll be happy to pay for me.

The car is a German-export market Yugo, with almost all the things Yugo could have. Other than the rusty beam, it looks rather straight and rust-free, so I’m feeling a bit bad parting it out. However I really want EFI in Cabrio, and the best way to do it is to find a near-death car with all the wiring, sensors, computers, and all the other things you need to get it to work properly still there so it can be swapped over. The rest of the bits will probably get to live on in other cars, and it might even get a carb instead of EFI and live another day, although this is not too likely. 

Have some photos:

I saw the Cabrio as well, but didn’t take photos. Internal beam that was bent is swapped over, and it’s rear beam, driver side front inner panel and sill to go, and bodywork is done. It’s going away for respray to Saxo Mango colour and assembly after that. I even got an estimate of “how much total” for the first time since we started, and my estimate was pretty much spot on, so yay!

In the other fleet news, Mini is almost finished.

Speedo is still being an ass, but carburetors are being paired up and adjusted right now, it got new choke cable, and wiper motor has been refurbished so it now actually wipers in 3 speeds as opposed to previous state of one, maybe.

Token carbs photo, until it runs properly so I can get an engine bay shot 😄

 

 

[hairnet]

32 minutes ago, IronStar said:

 

 

is that what you say when you miss the hole  ( i know its german  )