Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Zelandeth]

Never had a close look at one despite seeing many in Berlin, quite surprised that it has disc brakes expected it to be drums all round.

This particular car would have been on drums when it left the factory. The later ones with the 1.1 VW engine were fitted with discs to handle the extra weight. It's a pretty common and worthwhile upgrade to the older cars which while not cheap does essentially just bolt on.

[Zelandeth]

Think this is a record for the shortest time between me getting a car and getting a message from someone saying "Was this you?" relating to a post somewhere.



Yep, that will have been me.

Noticed another item for my shopping list today in the form of a steering rack gaiter.



Not much else going on today aside from a decent amount of driving around locally.

I did give the dash a (very) quick wipe over though, and have got the shelf underneath back into shape again. It had basically collapsed because several of the trim clips that hold it up had vanished.



They definitely haven't been replaced with a random selection of screws. I'll put the proper clips in once I have some to hand - all the ones I currently have are too big.

Car definitely feels a lot better for the new tyres. Really has changed the feel of the steering completely, and it's definitely less bouncy than it was - a bit anyway.

[MattBLancs]

Bouncy: don't know a great deal about leaf springs, but is that rusty rear spring potentially a bit seized up?(leaves not sliding nicely against each other) a contribution to the bumpy ride?

[Zelandeth]

Bouncy: don't know a great deal about leaf springs, but is that rusty rear spring potentially a bit seized up?(leaves not sliding nicely against each other) a contribution to the bumpy ride?

Very likely. It's on the list to be looked in to. Be a while though as I'm not crawling around under a car in this weather fighting with anything like that!

[Zelandeth]

Probably the single biggest headache (I'm aware of at the moment!) with the Trabant is the water ingress. The doors are clearly playing a fair part in that based on the damp spots.



I'm sure the seals themselves have a part to play there as they're basically totally solid chunks of plastic which may have at some point been rubber. I'm sure as a result that they're really not doing much useful.

My eye was also drawn to the fact that there's no drip shield behind the door card.



It sounds as though there may actually not have been anything in there, and admittedly the door card itself was bone dry when I took it off.

Trim clips...I have a grand total of three present for each front door out of...eighteen it looks like. So I'll really need to try to find some that fit! It would be nice to have door cards that don't flap around every time you close the doors.

On the driver's side front wing top the rubber infill strip on the panel join had lifted near the front in a couple of places.



As you could see this from the driver's seat it was disproportionately bugging my OCD.

Thankfully with some careful prodding with a flat blade screwdriver I was able to get the infill strip back into its groove and to sit flat again.



It's a tiny detail at the end of the day, but they all add up eventually.

On a similar note is this rear light surround which I'll need to find a replacement for. if I had the broken off bit I could probably glue it back together, but sadly I don't.



I've also had a look at the very loose latching of the boot lid. On that one I'm scratching my head a little as the striker plate is adjusted as far down as it can be, but there's still a good 3/4" of slack when the bootlid is latched. I do wonder if this is just down to the seal itself degrading rather than there being anything wrong with the latch - as it all looks fine.

Did find a pair of number plate surrounds in the boot while rummaging around which obviously date from the car's previous life in Germany.



I'm really not a fan of fussy things like this on cars so they'll probably just be carefully stored to be handed on to the next owner with the car when it's eventually moved on rather than put back on the car by me. Interesting to see though.

The whole "this will only be here for a month or three and I'll not be spending any money on it" thing isn't going very well. This evening I put a €300-ish order through to Trabantwelt for the following.

[] Correct HLP68 gearbox oil.
[] Replacement for the missing bonnet badge.
[] Radio blanking plate for the dash.
[] Steering rack gaiter.
[] Fog light switch.
[] Sachsenring emblem key chain.
[] Air filter to carb hose (one on the car is badly perished).
[] Full replacement window and door seal set.

The last item being about €200 of that. However that is literally a replacement for every exterior seal on the car. Doors, door windows, rear windows, front and rear windscreens and bootlid seals. The lot. I think just ordering a complete new seal set is the sensible way to go. They all seem to be in a poor way one way or another so in terms of minimising long term hassle it's going to be money well spent

The rear windscreen needs to come out to deal with the rust in the surround. Not having to try to get the screen out without worrying about damaging the seal is probably worth that money in reduced hassle alone.

Let's see what the random number generator in Customs comes up with when that arrives...hopefully less than the last bit order I put in from abroad when a $300 parcel from the US managed to cost me £300 by the time I'd actually got my hands on it!

[Gibbo2286]

Bouncy: don't know a great deal about leaf springs, but is that rusty rear spring potentially a bit seized up?(leaves not sliding nicely against each other) a contribution to the bumpy ride?

Very likely. It's on the list to be looked in to. Be a while though as I'm not crawling around under a car in this weather fighting with anything like that!

As the 'grease boy' back in 1950 my job was to do the lubrication service on the cars, 500 miles first service 1,000 miles, 3,000 miles etc. leaf springs were the norm and I had to spray them on both sides with a mixture of old engine oil and paraffin, some owners wanted the whole undercarriage sprayed likewise to prevent rust.

[bobins]

^^^^^^^^^^

Re: oily bits. That's basically what my MOT man recommends to this day !

[Zelandeth]

Today I could have been sensible and taken the Peugeot to get my various bits of running around done, but that's boring, sensible talk.



Plus with how much of a zoo anywhere near to a retail establishment is at this time of year a tiny car is a major bonus. Being relatively immune to door dings in car parks isn't a bad thing either.

With those two cut wires hooked back up the windscreen washers now work correctly from the control again. Not the tidiest job I've ever done but it will do.



Under the dash I had spotted a couple of holes in the bulkhead through which I could see daylight, so found a couple of trim clips to fill those - I put a blob of grease behind them to discourage any water or fumes from using it as a way to enter the cabin.



Sure there are probably plenty more of those, and the grommet the wiring loom goes through there has an opening I can easily fit my thumb through, but I've tried at least!

While I had the trim clip box out I replaced the one broken clip which was holding the dash mat to the top of the dash. Of course it looked daft with one that was slightly different in design to the others, so I went and replaced all of them so they at least match.



Hoping this weekend I will have a chance to do something about the dangling wiring under there, but it's always hard to say how time will work out at weekends.

The interior light was just dangling by it's wires as part of the housing has cracked. I've attacked this with epoxy this evening so hopefully it will stay put in future. Not sure if the contacts will clean up enough for it to actually work - but not falling out as soon as you close a door would be progress.

[CitroJim]

I recognise where you were yesterday Zel, you're brave going there at this time of the year :shocked:

Sorry I wasn't about yesterday, Mick and I were down at Briden's Camp enjoying lunch in possibly the best pub in the home counties... I'm home all day today...

[Zelandeth]

The repair to the interior light lens appears to have worked.



It hasn't fallen out again so far anyway. Unfortunately it also doesn't seem to work, though I've yet to ascertain if we have power to it yet and couldn't summon the enthusiasm to go all the way back inside and upstairs to retrieve a meter today.

I did have the occasion to actually make use of the headlights after dark today and can confirm that they are marginally less useful than the dash illumination.



Not great.

I have a feeling that they're just aimed really low to compensate for being LHD headlights as they did seem to be doing a halfway decent job of lighting the tarmac about 6' in front of the car, but that was it. I need to take a closer look at them to see if they are the same 7" size that seem to be really common. If so I'll probably look at seeing if we can modify a spare backing plate to use a Mini style headlight unit, allowing us to get proper RHD lights on the car. Helpfully I do have a couple of spare bowls so I can experiment easily enough there.

[CitroJim]

Your speedo illumination is about on a par with that of a Series 1 AX

[MattBLancs]

If they are the common size, then could upgrade to aftermarket LED versions e.g

Odd black version with "angel eyes"
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394450527128?

Slightly more subtle chrome version
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303671500226?

[Zelandeth]

Er, no. First up, I've not seen an LED retrofit that doesn't look hideous. Secondly none of those are going to be remotely legal. An LED headlight, just like HID ones requires active beam height adjustment tied to suspension level sensors and the like, which you're never going to have in an aftermarket bolt on.

Aside from anything else, a decent quality set of H4 lamps in a 7" circular reflector should perform pretty well as it's not making any of the same compromises for packaging reasons that smaller square/rectangular lights are. The lights on the Invacar for instance are just generic "Mini compatible" examples and the headlights on that are really good (especially now the voltage regulator has been replaced and the charging system can keep up!) Not as though this is ever going to be a night time commuter car anyway, so something which performs acceptably and isn't an issue at MOT time is all I'm asking for.

I suspect the lights on here aside from being an LHD beam pattern are probably still running the old non-halogen lamps (the prefix of which always escapes me) which won't be doing us any favours either.

[SwissTony]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285276984371 ... media=COPY

[MattBLancs]

Agree on the looks being an "acquired taste" think I'm a bit "function over form" on that front, but if the Halogen conversion type are decent then fair enough.

Sealed beam is the old type I think? Whole thing is changed glass and all when the filament gives up?

I thought some of the Land Rover defender ones (also 7"??) Were type approved or whatever and actually road legal