Star garages - The Good, the Rusty, and the Delayed - (yet another) Roofless Yugoslav moneypit update

[IronStar]

The lease on the garage where non-runners are stored is expiring in 20 days, so a plan has been mustered to move them to Brother Star’s place to store them over the winter.

But, not so fast! I decided that despite not having time or money to throw out the window, 155 shouldn’t need much to get it recomissioned, and gives me something to do over the winter months. However, before anything can be done, LPG needs to be removed from the car and the paperwork.

So today was day 1 of shiffling the cars

Put the air back in the rear tyres and battery in. It started after sitting for ages with some* persuasion.  Took minimal* amount of cranking, and it didn’t run like shit or stall X times. First impressions are that has no brakes and there’s a burst fuel hose somewhere in the engine. Nevermind, asked LPG guys to take a glace if it’s something they can fix in the garage as they do an odd bit od mechanics on the side, and if not it will be shipped to my old car specialist.

In the position to be loaded onto a truck here.

And away it goes

The plan is to do bare minimum to get it through the tehnical inspection and plated so I don’t have to pay the tow for it to be moved around and go from there.

Today also saw me loading friend’s E24 on a tow truck and to his BMW specialist and brother Star’s Astra G on a tow tuck away to his mechanic.

3 down, 7 to go. Watch this space. 

[loserone]

Holy fuck, how did I miss this thread. 

 

What a fleet.

[wesacosa]

My old 155 V6 Sportpack is definitely one filed close to the top of the I wish I'd never sold it list 

 

[IronStar]

4 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

My old 155 V6 Sportpack is definitely one filed close to the top of the I wish I'd never sold it list 

 

Posh!

Mine is a lowly early 1.8 TS 8v

Ideally, I’d have it looking something akin to this

 

[High Jetter]

3 minutes ago, IronStar said:

Ideally, I’d have it looking something akin to this

That may be OK, until you hit a UK speedbump though! (Or one of the many thousands of potholes we have)

[IronStar]

3 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

That may be OK, until you hit a UK speedbump though! (Or one of the many thousands of potholes we have)

I was in a RAV4 when I was last in the UK, so I can’t remember the speedbumps. Ours took a page from anti-tank barriers, and potholes are taking the piss as well.

Doesn’t stop me from running lowered cars though - both 159 and 307CC are on Eibach Pro Kit. Anything lower than that is asking for your sump to be ripped open IMO. 

[IronStar]

Over the last few days there was a bunch of (really cold) lowloader action going on. Comfort factor was not helped by the fact that thermostat failed open on the truck doing the work, so no heating was available in the cabin. Anyway, we pushed on.

No photo of loading Bravo available, forgot to snap it, sorry. 
E21 wanted to fight us and was stuck in gear, but tugging it shook it enough to put it out of gear on the unloading and thankfully the tyres held air. I honestly expected worse condition of a car that was already rusty and was sitting in the dirt for ages, but other than front floor that was already missing anyway, it seems to be mostly there. That shell is probably beyond saving, so I’m hoping the other one that wasn’t moved isn’t.

Fo(Serbian)D 1.1 in all it’s glory*

I need to cover that Cabrio shell as well to make it less of an eyesore.
It’s great they are safe, less great I’ll have to move them again in April. Hopefully, I can find someone in the vicinity to do the welding to a good standard (and money to pay for it) so I have at least one car less to move to FoD 2.0. We’ll see.

Now going back home to Belgrade in a way that’s probably only slightly faster than walking, as Iveco TurboDaily did an Iveco and snapped its front right leaf spring  

[IronStar]

After the garage got burglarized again, I lost all the mojo and enthusiasm I had, and it’ll probably take quite some time to recover mentally. Beyond frustrated doesn’t even begin to describe it. Total loss of the burglary is reupholstered Swift GTI seats with Yugo runners, freshly reupholstered Autobianchi A112 Abarth and Momo Corse steering wheels and 19 inch wheels for 159. Total damage aprox 1000€ + time spent fucking around with things. Day after, the garage was moved out, and migrated to Mrs Star’s parents’ house. Two brimmed LWB vans, and there’s still some stuff left over.

Some Yugo bits were carted to the bodyshop for getting put back on the Cabrio when it eventually gets reassembled. No progress there, but I’ve been promised that it’s the next thing that will be worked on and finally finished. Time will tell.

In other news, 155 is still sitting in the shop. I’ve been promised that they’ll get LPG removed and do a checklist of what needs to be done this week. It’s Wednesday, so I’m not holding my breath. Not that I have a place to move it to, and I don’t think any shop would touch it to get it mended before 10th of January anyway.

Mini got a delivery of new cabin mirror, because the old one was flaking and I’m a dull bastard that gets upset by this. Also new washer pump and washer bottle. Old pump packed up, and bottle really looks tired and filthy in an otherwise mint engine bay. There is a stuck sticker that Mini specialist kindly offered to clean up properly, and I finally replaced the other two bits today.

Moved it half of a meter as well so tyres don’t get flatspotted. Eagle eyed among you may have noticed that the rust traps side skirts are missing, so that was added to the cart. Oh, and the fucker has water ingress, seemingly because the windshield rubber has dried up and contracted so that was ordered as well. The one on is not genuine or even made for Mini, so it would make sense it leaks there. It’s cheap, so happy days if that fixes it.

159 was due an oil change, and got Total’s finest 5w40, because Selenia is out of their mind with pricing, with prices double of Total. As complained in the grumpy thread, sump plug slipped, and now I’ll have to find a way to get it off next time, but I’ll probably farm that job out. It also blew a brake bulb today, resulting in STOP BRAKE LIGHT FAILURE! What do you expect me to do Alfa, stop in the first layby to fit a replacement I don’t have? 😄Swapped over, it’s happy again, but the front light failure is not clearing up for a while, ao I assume that canbus compatible LED sidelights are no longer canbusing, but I really can’t be bothered to replace them in this weather. Annoyingly, turbo started making unhappy noises, and paired with DMF that’s making a noise AGAIN, it will probably all go into a bin next year, replaced by 2262 turbo, R80 pump, 327 injectors and some other assorted bits, seeing it somewhere in the ballpark of 300BHP. I need to look into the upgrade kit for M32 (the ones I saw don’t fit Alfa), or get it all ripped out and replaced by F40 gearbox so I never think of that again. 
It’s also approaching the belt change interval , so that will probably get done next year. 
Ignoring all this, it’s covered some 2000km in the past month and is still as fast and comfortable as usual. 

Florida is on a few days turned into a month lease to cousin Star, as his Bini decided to piss coolant all over the place, and hoses are taking their sweet time to arrive. Last thing I heard is he’s really gelled with it and thinks it’s much better car than he ever imagined, so converting people into believing me that it’s actually a good car, one lease at a time?

Bravo’s paperwork finally got cleared, so I need to get it signed over to me one of these days, and it will likely be making a comeback Q1 next year. 

Assuming that nothing unexpected happens (155 gets some work done?), this is probably final fleet update for this year.

Merry Christmas all, and I hope you have an amazing year. 

[Wibble]

Liked for the update, not the theft by thieving fucking lowlife scumbags.

[IronStar]

New year, new updates, same fleet.

Yugo Cabrio got a bodyshop update - undertray is now in primer, and will get a fucktonne of undercoating tomorrow. 
 

Given that the original state was it has no floor, I think this honestly looks amazing.
Bodyshop guy is tired of pushing it around and is aiming to get it assembled and sent out by the end of January - early February. 

I got a call about 155 tonight - LPG is out, but he’s unhappy about the overall state of things. Brake calipers are seized, it’s leaking brake oil somewhere, MAF was disconnected and connecting it isn’t really making a difference, and he doesn’t think it sounds healthy when cranking. Pièce de résistance is finding rat poop in the car, and he thinks there was a rats nest behind the dash at some point. I REALLY don’t want to find a dead fucking rat in there, so I’m having someone who is not me take the dash out and check everything. Fuck rats, both alive and dead, and especially fuck them making a car their habitat. I’m going for a chat about what’s next and what that shop (that really mostly does LPG and carbs) can/is willing to fix, and does it need to get carted off to another shop (tame Zastava mechanic?) to proceed.

As outlined in the news thread, 159 is booked to have the handbrake cables replaced, so I finally get back a functional handbrake, which is marginal for two years now. There’s an occasional clonk from the FR suspension, and I fully expect the car to throw me a curveball with “oh and $RANDOM is broken as well, and needs to be replaced before it takes something else out as well” as it usually does when up on the lift.

I’m also supposed to finally get the Bravo signed over to me tomorrow as well, so I’d really like to throw that into the mix soon as well. To my knowledge, recommissioning list should be fairly short, it needs clutch cable that’s either OEM or ATE, HID ballast, belts and a service, unless it randomly tries to bankrupt me just because.

In the final news, bodyshop agreed to take in Saxo next. Friend that was the previous owner will be having a kid early June, and we’d like to bring him home in Saxo for a full circle. AFAWK, it’s passenger floor, sill and bodykit (and well, respray back to Poseidon blue because I’m an idiot and hate money and lacquer peel) so I really really hope that kid coming home in a Saxo is feasible. I’ll lay out the plan, and see if bodyshop wants to play ball.

[IronStar]

Alfa 155 - Now LPG free. It almost set itself on fire today though. We started it so they can show me it sounds really lumpy and not cranking too healthily. Left it running, I was talking to one guy, and the other was looking at the engine bay. Few minutes later there was a faint POOF followed by shouting KILL THE ENGINE! KILL THE ENGINE! Fuel hose went pop, and started spraying straight onto a cracked HT lead. No combustion outside the cylinders thankfully took place, and the car was left in a naughty corner to rethink the self-combustion attempt. The story of a garage recommissioning the bloody thing, coming to beige pages next to you soon.

Positives are they didn’t spot any significant rust, and it seems that a thick layer of underseal did a great job of keeping the rust away. Mechanical issues don’t worry me, plenty of talented mechanics willing to fix things around, but rust gives me THE FEAR.

Speaking of bodywork, bodyshop guy mentioned he’d like the LPG system once it gets ripped out from 155, so an LPG system and a full tank was delivered to his garage FOC. I don’t know why would he bother, but if he’s happy, I’m happy we didn’t bin it. Had a quick look at a Cabrio, it’s now probably 10 or so kilos of underseal heavier than it was last night. Proper progress, that. Paint has also arrived.

Citroen Saxo Mango, paint code KHN. I think it will look proper late-80s and I’m really looking forward to seeing it sprayed.

Thank you all for reading my walls of text, I really hope that at least one or two of you are enjoying following the progress. 

[155V6]

On 04/12/2024 at 19:56, wesacosa said:

My old 155 V6 Sportpack is definitely one filed close to the top of the I wish I'd never sold it list 

 

An ex had a 146 with an N*** NAD plate in 1999.My old V6 Sportpack is top of my list too,I've only got rubbish pictures of it though 😕

 

[IronStar]

22 minutes ago, 155V6 said:

An ex had a 146 with an N*** NAD plate in 1999.My old V6 Sportpack is top of my list too,I've only got rubbish pictures of it though 😕

 

Rear of the car really looks significantly better with the spoiler on. Without it, it just seems…incomplete. 

[IronStar]

OHMYGOD PROGRESS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING! 🫣🤩

[IronStar]

Rusty rear beam goes out 

New rear beam goes in

 

These are a well-know Yugo’s weakspot, and by now I don’t think there’s many left where this didn’t rot out. This snapped and was what condemned the red parts donor car, and it’s also fairly rusty on EFI engine donor. 

Not much left to go 🤞

[IronStar]

159 now has operational handbrake again. Yay!

As expected, something else is wrong as well. It’s an entire list though. Nay!

Rear left wheel bearing noisy 
Turbocharger overflow pipe rotten
Rear left turbocharger hose rotten
Dipstick seal leaking
Both lower wishbones fucked
Gearbox seals leaking
Rear crankshaft seal leaking
PCV - Oil separator leaking
Engine ground a bit shit
Turbo and pcv clips should be replaced
Tripod joint - left
Rear shocks rusty
Rear ARB links due for a replacement 
Rear subframe rubber mounts rotten
Rear left gearbox mount - non critical but not great
Some valve controlling air intake on engine shutoff inoperative resulting in excessive DMF load and clatter on engine shutdown
Brake fluid overdue
Timing belt cover broken

Alfa ownership, isn’t that a joy?

I’m not even bothering trying to shout at a cloud and rationalizing I should just get rid and buy something brand new. I love this car, and I fall in love again every time I take it for a longer drive, so fuck it, here we go again. It’s booked for Monday, early estimate is between 700€ and 1000€ depending on how many things can be salvaged and not require a full replacement. 

In other less depressing and wallet-invading news, Yugo Cabrio’s engine bay got a coat of paint and is now mango. According to the guy, it’s less yellow and more mango in person than in the photos.

[IronStar]

Went to look at the Cabrio in person today. It was being sanded in prep for primer, hoping there won’t be any extra holes in it. Spoiler alert - there’s more holes. And rusty door bottom for an extra fuck you. Here’s a car being sanded down.

 

Asked if there’s anything I can do to help.

- N…Actually, wanna take the dash out of that car sitting outside?
- Erm…sure?
- You sure? It’s really cold!
- Meh.

Sensing a test of if I can actually hold a spanner and a screwdriver, I went out. 20 minutes and some swearing at stuck fittings later, the dash was out.

- Oh…okay. Nice.
- Yeah. Anything else?
- Wanna push it in? We can take the harness out if you want.

Cue some pushing, followed by a few hours of disassembly, stuck fittings, ruber hoses that are more plastic than rubber at this point.

The harness is out, and it’s sitting on top of the engine, minus some plugs going to various sensors on the engine itself.

The plan is for him to finalize the welding and primer the car, then I come back on Sunday and we take the engine out. It will go on the ramp for the engine removal, so he will also do a full rust assesment, to see if it’s worthwhile patching up this shell, getting a non-EFI harness and a Bravo/a for 1.6 16v project.

As far as the engine that’s coming out of this car is concerned, straight swap would be way too easy. For some stupid reason Serbia actually gives a shit about engine numbers, and on top of it this car was throwing more black smoke than you want. The result is that this engine and the original engine need to go get mated into a single nice engine with proper numbers. While we’re at it, the head is off and I’m burning stupid money, why not check everything is within tolerance in the bottom end as well, and won’t just blow up once the heads and sensors are swapped over. I’ll call the tame Zastava mechanic tomorrow to tell him he can have this joyful* task of fucking around with this.

To sum it up, actual progress is being made all around the place, and the end of this saga is in sight. Fingers crossed we don’t hit too many snags by the end of it.

[Datsuncog]

Good to see progress being made!

Your tolerance, and that of your mechanics, vastly exceeds what I'd be capable of demonstrating - but hey, with any luck you'll soon have a fleet of much envy.

Onwards to a successful 2025!

[IronStar]

9 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Good to see progress being made!

Your tolerance, and that of your mechanics, vastly exceeds what I'd be capable of demonstrating - but hey, with any luck you'll soon have a fleet of much envy.

Onwards to a successful 2025!

Thank you!
I am honestly very lucky to have found people that can be bothered doing these things, and doing them to a good standard. I spent an inordinate amount of time looking, but I think it’s starting to pay off in the finally delivered and about to be delivered cars, with some roadmap for the future. 

My tolerance towards delays, snags, excuses and wallet emptying really did come a long way. I’ve realized that I’m not really in a rush and 9 times out of a 10 it doesn’t really matter if it’s done by this weekend or the next one. This gives me the flexibility to fit around their other work, and them the ability not to turn me down because I sent in a pig of a job and now they have to decline the other work. I also never go in with “why does this cost so much?” attitude, honestly appreciate the work they’re doing, buy drinks when I visit the shops and tip for a job well done. Nonetheless, they all need a “Where we at? Do you need anything I can get/do/help with?” call once a week or every two weeks, otherwise it totally stalls. But to be fair, I do as well for a bunch of things, so I don’t really blame anyone for this.

The fact is that all these people doing the work are outright amazing at what they do, and are great people in general that I’d love going to lunch or having drinks with any day of the week. 

[Volksy]

 

That's going to look great in that colour chioce!

[IronStar]

This is the colour that was mixed for it. It just looks odd in the photos.