1994 lada riva 1500 estate. BRAAAP.

[melle]

I only paid a tenner for mine a few months ago, found it by chance in the classifieds section of this very forum! Try Fast Road Cars in Newport, South Wales for spares.

[discostew38]

Mar 1, 2017 21:24:16 GMT Dez said:

Mar 1, 2017 21:16:15 GMT discostew38 said:

Every time I see a lada riva on here I wish I'd kept mine
I need another one

They're a fast appreciating classic now it seems. Even projects are the best part of a grand. I couldn't buy this now for what I did a year ago.

Tell me about it 
i was given one and I had to get rid of it as I didn't have anywhere to keep it 
it was a mint 1993 one owner 
"I'm kicking myself just thinking about it "

[Dez]

A bit more done. I think this pic is showing the fuel lines now they're all replaced and clipped up and the fuel filter moved to before the pump not after it.


This one is showing I now have a horn and bracket, now I've also repaired the wiring under the column. Unfortunately it also shows my cooling fan and switch wiring is entirely missing, and all needs to be reinstated. Thankfully a very helpful chap on the lada uk Facebook group sent me some pics to show where it all goes.


Round the other side, I got all the carb studs put back in, so that's attached fully. You can also see the K&N I've got for it. Only the throttle linkage to make up now, will probably do something with a cable like I did on the previous one.


Servo hose also refitted in the right place, and the heater hoses looped as I don't have a heater matrix.


Moving underneath, I've got the exhaust front section modified and fitted properly. I've welded up the
Lamda boss and the other weird pipe thing, plus repaired the clamp that holds it to the gearbox- it was bashed and the threaded insert stripped out making it very difficult
To fit as it had a nut wiggled in on top, so I ground it off and welded a nut on before refitting. The front section is solid mounted on these, and clamped at the end of the gearbox, so it will then have a flexi before the rest of the system.

[Dez]

Well, I've moved onto poking holes in it. This is the one real bit of welding I knew it needed.

I cut the bottom off the front wing to see what's what. It's a bit crispy in itself.


I knew the but behind it on the footwell/outrigger/sill interface needed work. There was a previous bad patch over rust which had made things worse. Heres what it looks like.






I could have made it all up from scratch, but given how much new panels aren't from ladapower, I just ordered a new front wing, a sill and an inner renforcer panel.i know there's a bit on the front of the wing that needs attention as well so I opted to just replace the whole thing. Came to 90 quid delivered, just got to wait for it to turn up from Belgium now.

[Dez]

Got the exhaust done the other night. It's all 2" stainless, except the cherry bomb. 2.5" roll out tip.

Lada exhausts can be a pretty tight fit, especially if you plan on going low, so here's some close ups of how I did it.

Heres the dirty pipe on the left is the stock downpipe, which runs to the back of the gearbox. It's 2" stainless, which is standard, on cat-equipped cars at least. You can see where it's clamped to the gearbox, and ends just after it.


Then, I put on a slip joint straight into a short flexi. I'll replace the slip joint with a bolt flange as I know it's going to get bashed, I'll do that when it turns up, I just didn't have one in stock. Then, there's a slight kink needed to clear the prop centre bearing.


From here it runs straight all the way to the rear axle Kickup.


Easy you would think? Well no. The handbrake mech gets in the way, and it's a tight fit to the prop as well. I find the easiest method is to bend the handbrake bits down slightly and slacken the cable a touch.




Then, over the axle. This is the only bit where there's a loads of room- just where you don't need it! You can see here I've split and lengthened the over axle bend. This is because of the panhard setup, these over axle bends are designed for leaf Spring cars really and don't allow enough space for it.


Here you can see how tight the return is- there's the panhard, the brake bias lever bar and the edge of the boot floor all in close proximity. You'll also see I've cut the bottom bend off the over-axle piece and cranked it across sideways, otherwise there's no nope of getting it across to where the exhaust cutout is in the valance in such a short space. I also shortened the return leg to tuck the rest up closer to the boot floor.


I actually took this photo to show the mount I'd added, but it's the only one that shows the final bend onto the back box. Plus there's a few inches of straight added in the before the box too to push it out level with the bumper.
Also notice the mounts are threaded bar, to allow fine adjustment of fit.


Last few pics show the tailpipe and where it sits, there's a cheeky little bit of an angle on it but it's pretty tucked.






I've since dropped it off, fully welded it, refitted it and ran it up with it on, and it sounds pretty good- good enough to now hear it misfires at idle, so that's another problem on the list. As I mentioned in going to fit a bolt flange and probably an extra mount or two, because of the tight fit I want it fairly solidly mounted.

[darrenh]

love a cheeky up angle

[07lilredwagon]

nice work....exhaust looks nice and tidy....cool muffler too....

JP

[ivangt6]

just seen this on ebay. any use?

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/fiat-131-estate-breaking-/332158998563?hash=item4d56381823:i:332158998563

[tel]

love it