THAT Lada Samara - It's now FOAD's

[HillmanImp]

I have only have a gasless mig that I found in the shed and repaired with bits from a BMX.

 

What else would you use?

[jonathan_dyane]

Shaping up well I'd say!

 

Also, I have to say I'd be putting those skirts straight on ebay (then in the bin after they didn't sell); I think it looks loads better without them!

[KruJoe]

Thanks chaps!

I think I've seen the printer ribbon wiring under the back seat of the BX too. I'd better not forget it when I'm doing his Lada floor - I don't want to melt it from the other side.

 

Speaking of precautions, I'm working on my own, but for firefighting I now have an old spray bottle of water on standby. Luckily this Soviet underseal doesn't burn too well. I does give off some fancy fumes though!

 

This is how we left my first patch, the one in the corner of the NSR foot-well, welded underneath near the sill too.

 

 

Cleaned up a bit more...

 

 

A nice big patch carved from a bit of scrap shelving or summert.

 

 

Scissor jacks are handy for holding sill patches tightly in place.

 

 

I was creeping around with the guano dispenser...

 

 

... until 'wheeeeeee...'

 

 

Bo11ox. That's game over for now.

 

Looking around for a little job to do before tea...

 

 

Best fettle that to keep Jack happy. One benefit of having a really good tidy up sometimes is that one knows exactly where to go for a collection of exhaust rubbers.

 

 

This one looks perfect from the side, but is three times too thick.

 

 

Job jobbed. There's a similar one to do further back

 

 

Whilst under the middle I noticed this at the other side. Bumhats. That's gonna be fun*.

 

 

Ho hum.

Fear not, there's loads on't bay, £3.44 delivered! Last year I also found a whole new exhaust for £35 posted, and a water pump at £7.

There seems to be all sorts of cheap new parts for these listed, probably motor factors selling old stock, now that there's not many left.

Dot com.

[KruJoe]

Back in action!

 

 

My welds are improving ever so slightly, but the lack of adjustment on the welder doesn't help. What does help is the fact that when I'm working upside down, the results look less splattery - that's not because it splatters less, but because the blobs of slag and weld fall onto my face rather than back onto the work. Happy days.

 

 

That's how we left the back end of the NS sill.

Here's my patch making kit. Pliers optional.

 

 

It's gonna need a few different patches because the corners of a number of panels have crumbled away.

 

 

Starting with the underside of the sill. It has a bit of a twisting compound curve to it. I hammered the piece of scrap light fitting over some firewood blocks to shape it.

 

 

The bend in the steel fits the sill well enough. A bit of bird crap holds it in. This will be hidden thankfully.

 

 

Two easy vertical bits tacked in

 

 

Just tapping around the underside...

 

 

...oops...

 

 

So that needed an extra little bit. It's possibly a bit crunchy beyond that jacking point, but it still works so will have to do for now.

 

 

Shopping at the useful shop that has replaced Woolworths came up trumps:

 

 

Half price rust primer, and the tin snips will save on grinding disks.

 

Now then, the arch.

I've been dreading this bit.

 

Dented wing from the Rover might be useful, it has similar profile to the arches, an angled section then about 15-20mm of vertical surface before it curls in. More of that later.

 

There is not much of the arch left, so to help guide me I pulled the skirt off the OS sill, and made a tempate from the rather more intact OSR arch.

 

Turn it over and it works on the other side.

 

 

More than just the outer skin had rotted, also the inner arch. It was originally nipped together at the lip, and probably spot welded there.

So I hat to find a way to reconstruct that.

 

These bits I found in someone's bin, they look a bit like runners from a drawer or summert.

 

 

Cut to one edge, I bent it and wedged it in.

 

 

Shape checked with the template, then tacked in...

 

 

Head inside the arch, welded there too.

 

 

Now we have the shape and a bit more strength.

 

 

I added a few tabs to support the skin as that goes on.

 

 

Now the fun* starts.

 

 

Hacked the arch out.

 

The Lada has a tighter curve to the arch than the 214, so I tightened it up a bit. Snippy snip!

 

 

Then I noticed the Soviet has a flatter section at the top, so had to straighten the arch out a bit.

 

 

It soon became clear that this was gonna be a right bloody war, so cut my arch skin onto about four sections. I'll worry about lining the edge up later.

 

 

In they went one by one, carefully tweaking them as I went.

 

 

I got proper pissed off at this point, after all my time snipping and tickling these bits into shape, they twisted unpredictably with the heat, and holes appeared all over. I suppose that's because I was trying to butt weld the thin metal end to end, so there was nowhere for the heat to go, It just melted the job and blew holes in it. I should ahve made a continuous lip for the edge of the skin to rest on as I welded it in, rather than just a few little tabs.

Moving to the bottom, this little addition to the sill end will support the work:

 

 

 

This intricate patch will be the end of the outer sill, and the bottom of my new arch.

 

 

Quite pleased with this bit. Not Bo11ox or even near DanBlez levels, but good for me. This would be hidden behind the skirts if I do re-fit them - still unsure on that.

 

 

I stitched in the last section of arch, and ground it down a bit.

 

 

Still needs a bit of tickling with the disc of doom, but I reckon this effort has a chance of looking ok. I've never tackled a wheel-arch before this one.

Bye for now!

[vulgalour]

I do not envy you that work, but I raise my glass to the efforts made with less than ideal materials. You have to put the skirts back on when you're done, they're a distinctive styling option.

[Danblez]

Fantastic, great to see you getting stuck in KruJoe and there is a definite improvment to the welding there especially considering you are using a Shitspec Mig5 to do it.

 

I love all the mig wire sticking out of the welds in this pic, seems so familiar to me!

 

I am pretty much at the same stage of welding as you and I found the spattery welds occured when the wire speed was not quite right, normally too slow and so the arc isn't constant and the wire just keeps burning off if that makes sense? Also found that everything has to be cleaned off really well first which you seem to be doing and also the earth clamp is well attached to nice clean metal not far from the weld. I am sure more experienced welders will be along soon to tell me I am talking crap!

 

I am impressed with your momentum, keep it up!

[catsinthewelder]

Ace progress

 

You're doing really well considering its a gasless mig, they'll never give Mr B style pretty welds but thats what grinders are for.

 

I'm really impressed with your patchmaking skills, that wheelarch is a work of art. Theres a couple of old computer case's and some industrial shelving in the chassis of my VW

[M'coli]

Good progress on the rot-spots. Your welding's good, but I think they would improve if there was less paint and/or rust on the bits you were trying to weld together. MIG is very intolerant of any muck of any sort, and removing more paint etc will help prevent the weld becoming contaminated with stuff, making the welding itself easier and leading to a more pleasing finished appearance. This also includes removing the paint on the reverse side of whatever thin metal you're trying not to burn through!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Jayzus. I would have weighed the fucker myself, but that's top work. I wonder what the MOT bloke's reaction will be to something that's basically worthless but with signs of epic welding?

[cort16]

Good job. You wouldn't believe how neat your welds would be if you switched to gas. Going from gassless to gas is like finding out you can have butter on your toast when you've been previously using gravel.

[skattrd]

Great work there ... what are the odds on this making it to Chumley Warner?

[cobblers]

Good job. You wouldn't believe how neat your welds would be if you switched to gas. Going from gassless to gas is like finding out you can have butter on your toast when you've been previously using gravel.

 

 

Seriously, he's right. When my mate first got a welder it came with a roll of gasless wire. We knew it wouldn't be much cop so just used to to practice on some old bits of plate etc. Eventually we'd decided that we must be complete flids or something because the best we could do looked like absolute bollocks. It was more Bukkake than Boyd Coddington.

 

Then we got the normal wire out and hooked some gas up and we instantly became pros (compared to before anyway)

 

Stacks nicer welds, none of that horrible yellow shit everywhere, and you don't need to keep wire brushing the smeg off when you stop and start (the welds were even worse if we didn't do that)

 

Gasless wire reel got consigned to being used to tie things up and we never looked back.

 

Bloke across the road swears by it, but all he does is weld peoples gates on in for 9 gales.

[cort16]

Aye it's good for welding stuff out side and you don't have to have the metal as clean but you just can't get that nice pool going you can with gas.

I've got one of those contractless internet gas bottles and I recon if you factor in how much more expensive gassless wire is works out about the same but with better results.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Blimey!!!! I dont want to look like a miserable tw@t, but.....

 

 

I have to say this looks like I could rip it off with my hand. I know I started off manufacturing pigeion shit back in the day but I am not sure even back then I would have let that go. I reckon the BMX parts in your mig are letting you down.

 

What about this?

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PUB-CO2-CYLIN ... 0738170429

 

These boys will sell you a bottle outright for £50 then refill it for £15 each time. Doncaster based.

 

I am a big fan of this Lada and am all for fixing it up. If you go for it i'll shout you a reel of mig wire, (Vin will attest to this)

[Father Ted]

I don't think that these are that prone to the galloping festeringness.....................

As someone who has only ever arc welded I think your welding is getting better.

Respect is due for taking on te car.

[KruJoe]

Hi folks!

Busy busy busy, still aiming for Chumley, MoT booked for Tuesday, 1pm. OMFG.

 

 

 

That was illustrating the mess I was left with when my first batch of gasless wire ran out. Things have improved a bit since.

A bit...

 

While I was out of wire, I had a look at the front end of the NS sill.

Remember I told you...

NSF jacking point The grey stuff I think is dried mud.

 

 

I now believe it to be reconstituted egg boxes. That's my best guess, any advance?

 

 

That is/was the jacking point.

 

 

Going in deep on this one...

 

 

That's the worst of the cancer cut out.

 

 

Time to build some meat into this POS.

 

 

Can you tell what it is yet?

 

 

That's a hefty bracket that I'd hacked off the runners of the Rover seats. You can see behind I'd also stitiched in a bit to replace the rotted intermediate panel.

 

 

Once in, it happily took half the car's weight.

 

 

Time to give it some new skin. This went on before I saw the last load of advice from you all...

 

 

The cleaned area on that patch was to take the jacking point again. I know it's not as close to the sill seam as it was, but now I know it is under the strongest part of the body.

 

 

I HAD forgotten about my ribbon of wiring across the floor, but I had a lucky escape:

 

 

Cheap grinding discs are all well and good...

 

 

...but whilst on with tidying up that guano...

 

 

Scary stuff. I was probably taking it a bit too far with that one.

 

Have I introduced you to my £1 welder? The bit of broken bike rack is to support the main gun lead and stop it kinking.

 

 

As I said, just high/low power, and on/off (light not working).

 

 

So I have no control over wire speed or other variables. For this project it's power on low, and that's it.

 

 

Moar supplies! £30 delivers five half-kilo reels, so not extortionate. My £3.44 CV boot came too.

 

GET TO WORK!

 

 

Look behind that spring!

 

 

Tickle tickle..

 

 

This patch I hacked out of the sacrificed Rover wing.

 

 

Paying heed to M'coli's advice, I cleaned it up well, and a good way in from the edge of the patch on both sides of it, and all around where it will become hot. Previously, I had only cleaned the paint from the very edge of the patch. I figured it might help me stay on track because the spark wouldn't stray towards the middle of the patch, and I sometimes struggle to see what's going on - the ancient mask I found in the shed is maybe a bit dark...

 

Zip zap.

 

 

Hey, that's a whole lot better already! That is not cleaned up at all yet.

 

 

It does help that's it's a nice, big, easy patch. But I've also discovered better results by adjusting the angle of the gun, also moving closer seems to increase the power (is less current lost in the shorter length of wire between the gun and the work?) Also, if I can, It works well to burn away the edge of the patch into the pool, and move along slowly. Is that right? I was getting more splatter before, I think I was moving too fast then, not allowing a nice pool to follow me along.

A quick buzz with the brush:

 

 

No grinding required. WINNAR! Not perfect, but improving, thanks guys!

I've found hand held wire brushes are a waste of time. I always have a brush in the drill handy. I must photograph my old drill for you, I found it in a skip, along with a great shed radio. Roberts no less!

 

Look what else I found in the boot:

 

 

There's a whole tool roll too, I haven't looked inside yet.

 

 

Original Ruskie spare tyre, sadly deflated, I will try to ressurect that one. The car has Camacs on the back, and Barum Brillants on the front, from Portugal and South Africa iirc.

Also:

 

 

Maybe a 'quality' control tag?

 

BACK TO WORK ALREADY!

 

 

I found an old tin of dried up (white) Hammerite. Inside it was the consistency of custard with a skin on. But once I'd broken into it, it was perfect for covering all my near-side welds.

On to the other side. Stickerage attatched.

 

 

 

Before I crack on with moar grinding and welding, I thought it might be an idea to tackle the fuel leak on the filler neck.

 

 

Two nuts off, and it drops down. As it were.

 

 

Two bolts slackened the tank straps to access the jubilee clips, but I didn't need to - the pipe slid of without slackening! That can't have helped!

 

 

The sponge in the hole helps to keep crap out. The neck off and fixed:

 

 

Looks easy, but it was a bit of a war, the steel neck is wider than the opening on the tank, so I struggled to find the right sized bits of junk to suit. I did in the end, but my favourite aluminium scaffolding tube is now six inches shorter.

 

 

All back on. Note the four different types of jubilee clip for the Autoshite win!

 

 

Tat tinkerers top tip: Jubilee clips are almost always have 7mm heads, and a little socket on that is infinitely preferable to messing around with flat headed screwdrivers.

 

 

One feature of the Samara that I do like is the rear mud flaps, half way between the wheel and the back of the car. They hang down on brackets from the boot floor.

 

 

This one took a knock as I shoved the filler neck back up, and there was a bit of a crunch.

 

 

Oh dear, we'll have a go at that later.

This tank job was overseen by MEKANIK KITTEH.

 

 

She couldn't decide between Lada and Rover seats...

 

 

Success: A gallon of juice in the spout, and not a hind of dampness. WIN.

 

That's all for now. Update on the off side galloping festeringness coming soon...

 

MoT Tuesday the 8th May, 2012, 1300 hours. Golly gosh.

[catsinthewelder]

Good to see progress, it's worth being careful with the size of patches though. assuming that the green patch is for the hole near the spring it looks a bit big. If mud and grot gets behind it through the original hole you'll get a mighty big patch of grot later.

 

But you're probably the only person in the country committed (mad?) enough to restore one of these so any progress towards roadworthy is to be applauded.

[SambaS]

Have enjoyed reading this not just because it's a Samara, but due to the anticipation of my welding project. The Opel

[M'coli]

Nice welding, good job done there.

[AXrescuer]

Great progress there chap. And good to see that you haven't eliminated all evidence of your welding. In my experience, that always scores highly with MOT testers.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Good work KruJ!!! Much better! I must say i've never seen a mig welder with no wire speed adjustment before, thats like a car with no steering wheel, "Yeah we figured you'd be going straight on most of the time so we just locked the front wheels and deleted the steering column to save £20"

[Betaphile]

Good work KruJ!!! Much better! I must say i've never seen a mig welder with no wire speed adjustment before, thats like a car with no steering wheel, "Yeah we figured you'd be going straight on most of the time so we just locked the front wheels and deleted the steering column to save £20"

Surely it's not just me who imagines this exact discussion took place in the Escort Mk5 planning committee circa 1988.

[KruJoe]

Thank you all gents! I'm so glad I've included you all in the last fortnight's "journey", your support has really kept my mojo up.

Good to see progress, it's worth being careful with the size of patches though. assuming that the green patch is for the hole near the spring it looks a bit big. If mud and grot gets behind it through the original hole you'll get a mighty big patch of grot later.

Yes, I was conscious of this. My last post was becoming a bit long-winded, so that part was slightly abridged. Allow me to expand:

 

 

From inside it was really nasty, even after cleaning it up. The rusty section there is a strip of quite thick plate which runs parallel to the spring and supports the car's weight. For now, it's all about getting the car on the road ASAP, so this is what I did: I tacked in some little primary patches over the small holes, then covered over the whole lot with the big, neat patch in the boot.

 

 

I welded around the edges on both sides where I could get to, but access was limited because of the spring. In the long term, I'd like to take the shock off, and clean it up properly under the arch, and put a big neat patch under there to match the one on the inside. Anyway, I plastered the whole lot with my custard-like white Hammerite to slow the rot, and then where I couldn't reach with the MIG gun, I filled the little gaps with the glue gun(!). Today I have covered all my patches with under-seal, something I have never used before.

 

 

For a previous MoT, the garage had 'done' the other side, but they simply slapped the patch on the inside of the turret, leaving the mess open on the spring side.

 

 

So I'll have to tidy up both while I'm at it. As things stand, I bet my efforts would last longer! Not much mud and grot will get behind it for a while...

 

...But you're probably the only person in the country committed (mad?) enough to restore one of these so any progress towards roadworthy is to be applauded.

Thanks! I think.

 

And thank you MrBo11ox for the offer of some 'real' welding wire... I'm sure you're all correct in that if I can master this gasless lark, I could work wonders with a correctly set up MIG. However I'm still improving with this, and my tat-fettling budget is in the red, so no investment in that direction is this side of the horizon. I'm not too bothered about pretty welds, and I'll never have a concourse project, so I'm keeping it shite for now.

Also, I'm sure a full MIG rig has the potential to piss me right off: there are SO many variables to get right, and the gas is just another expensive consumable that would run out at just the wrong time.

 

I'm happy to hear MoT men like to see beads of weld fully intact! To be honest, I soon gave up grinding them back when I saw I was running low on discs, time, and gumption to do it! This under-seal hides a multitude of sins, even after it dries and smooths out. Now I know why we see the rising tide-lines on ropey old chod.

 

Preview of my next update:

 

 

We're still on course for Tuesday...

[KruJoe]

Right folks, time to tackle the rot on the off side.

 

 

OSR jacking point.

 

 

Cleaned up:

 

 

I was going to hack out the jacking point, but it was rock solid believe it or not. The strength comes from the vertical piece above, only the skin was cancer-ridden.

 

 

It happily lifted the car off the axle stands, so who was I to argue?

 

 

Zip zap.

 

Next, remember this?

 

 

Off side rear foot-well, against the sill. It looked like nothing until I unleashed my toffee hammer of death!

 

 

It's growing...

 

 

All hidden with one easy patch. The weld across the middle was an attempt to burn throught he othe strength behind.

 

 

I don't know if it worked, and it doesn't really matter, but it was fun to try.

 

On to the front.

 

 

I was expecting to go in deep on this one, just like the NSF corner...

 

 

In the end it wasn't so bad.

 

 

Just a couple of easy patches to repair the skin. Well, it wasn't so easy, I couln't keep the welds nice here, no matter what I did. There must ave been a load of wax-oil above, and it was melting, running onto my welding, then boiling and burning off. A right flippin' war it was.

Anyhoo, the OS sill is done now!

 

Or so I thought...

 

 

I missed a little bit in the middle next to the front seat supports.

 

 

Patched and undersealed.

 

 

Note the funiculus umbilicalis ^

Yes, I know the rest of the sill wants cleaning up and some tar slapping on, but time is against me now and I want to give a 'Jack the Test' an idea of what he's looking at.

 

Moving on, hoping the last thing to weld for now would be...

 

 

the boot floor/ mud flap interface.

 

 

A bit of a wiggle, and it came off.

 

 

It was a faff reattaching the mud flap to the underside of the patch, but I managed it.

 

 

All in and sealed up.

 

Back to the other side.

 

 

My NS welding I had covered with custard/Hammerite to keep them clean until my under-seal arrived.

 

 

Now to cover up the white.

 

 

I have left some parts without the tar on because I will paint them later, I don't know if I could paint over dried under-seal?

 

 

And the jacking point I'd like to use, so to avoid a mess on the jack I left that too.

Hopefully it will dry a bit before MoT time.

 

Sunday was looking fine on the forecast, so Saturday afternoon I cracked out the jet wash and set about some bits of interior. Note the Autoshitetastic mats...

 

 

The carpet took some time for the water to run clear, but eventually it did. Everything dripped dry overnight...

 

 

then on to the sunny patio on a bright Sunday morning. The seats were nearly dry by tea time, and look quite smart. Look carefully, you'll see the steam rising!

Like the view? That's Malham village in the background, and Malham Cove.

 

Oh, I forgot to tell you about this bit:

 

 

While the off side was in the air, I had a go at the CV boot.

 

 

Shock horror! A bit of thoughtful design (probably not unique to Ladas) made the job easier than messing about with ball joint splitters and damaging stuff. Two bolts frees the bottom, loosen the three nuts atop the strut, and the hub swings out. It's becoming obvious why Ladas were popular with old boys who liked to do the spannering themselves.

I laid underneath the engine to tap the CV joint off the shaft, and POP!

 

 

The inner end dropped out of the diff onto my face - I waited for the pain and the gobfull of gearbox oil, but neither came - lucky escape.

Maybe the gearbox was dry?

 

 

No, the inner end looks moist, maybe the steep angle I had the car supported meant all the oil was at the other side.

 

 

Window sticker freshly attached.

Note to self: check gear oil when it's level.

 

Never mind it fell out, that made it easier to change the boot with the shaft held in the vise on the bench.

And to have a closer look at the inner boot...

 

 

That won't last long. I don't have time to wait for a fresh one to come (ordered now), but the inner one isn't an MoT fail, so it can wait 'til next week. Now I know it's an easy job anyway.

 

 

Going back together, I used the last of the grease in the sachet to lube the splines.

 

 

Oh, my £3.44 CV boot kit came with a clip that was about an inch too short, so I had to re-use the old one. Lucky I didn't just snip it off at the start.

It's about 20 miles to Jack the Test, so hopefully those disks will scrub themselves clean on the way. Plenty of meat on the pads, which is nice.

 

 

Not so nice, the sump has taken a beating, but it's still doing a job...

 

 

Back on the ground now, test at lunchtime tomorrow! Up early to fit the carpet, seats and belts before we go off to work...

[catsinthewelder]

Top work

 

I wish I could progress with mine at that speed, best of luck with the MOT

[Craig the Princess]

Good luck with the MoT, it will be well earned!

[retrogeezer]

Top work there fella, good luck with the test tomorrow.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Nice work, keep us updated!

[e287yba]

Good Luck with the MoT, and hopefully you'll just get an advisory for the inner cv joint gaiter (they are testable from this year, among numerous other changes) as it's not leaking in the pics but you've sussed it ain't gonna see the Queen's Jubilee .

 

And 14223/10 for commitment to the Autoshite cause - looking forward to seeing at Chumley-Warner Castle .

[wackywacerwill]

Fingers crossed for you mate.