Lada Riva Estate 1.5E the M.O.T dodger

[rusty998]

I was looking for an Estate car that had a bit of retroness and came across this, it's a Lada Riva 1.5E with only 6500 miles on it, full main dealer service history and it has never seen an M.O.T, but that will change.
I bought it from a chap who's grandfather does house clearences and this is where he came upon it, the first owner bought it back in 1995 and had it serviced up untill his death in 1997, it then was left in a dry gargage for 14 years untill the wife died at which time it came out when the house was cleared, I have done some work on it to free parts up but on the whole it's in very nice condition,

I need to get it lower and sort out some of the niggles, I had to collect it from north london so I enlisted james p and his truck to bring it home, when I find the picture of it on the back of his truck I will put it up,

[will]

Nov 10, 2011 0:33:34 GMT rusty998 said:

I bought it from a chap who's grandfather does house clearences and this is where he came upon it

Wait till he sees it slammed then He'll really stamp on the tooth paste ;D

Looks a beauty, is it really as rust free as the pic shows?

[AB car pix]

Nice find!

[motorhead]

That's the find! Good luck with it.

[slackerTHEpinstriper]

i hope mr.p is banding some wheels for it too ;D

[jarvis483]

could be a very cool estate this. will be keeping an eye on this thread

[wilko]

Epic find!

I have a 1500 Riva that I raced in the bangers & I'm going to strip for bits and scrap shortly - the interior etc... is all long gone, but I've got various mechanical bits still in good order including a manual choke Weber carb conversion that was on it when I got it... PM me if you're interested in any spares as I suspect they are getting difficult to find now?

If you plan to change the wheels rather than band them, we found that modern Fiat alloy wheel studs are a straight fit into the Lada hubs & a fair bit longer, as well as having the beveled head to suit alloys.

[rusty998]

James p lives not to far from me, I asked james about having the wheels banded on the way back home with the car on the back of his truck, when I got the car it had been found in the garage with no keys at all,so the chap I got it from had fitted/bodged an ignition switch in, the car could be started but I could not lock the car up which was no good, I went to the local auto lock chap who would take £80+vat of me for one key only, the car has one key for the ignition switch, one for the two front doors and boot, so I did some searching and came across Lada parts uk Forum, the chap who run's the site also sell's parts, new part's direct from Lada in Russia!
they are still making the lada riva in Russia up until the end of november this year, so you can get almost everything new still which is very cool, I asked for the lock kit for my car and he had it in stock at a cost of about £36 all in, yes thats two door locks, one complete boot lock, key's and the ignition barrel, I kept having to ask him if he had given me the right price ??
so the next bit is to get it all running and find a suspension kit for
it,

I really like this little car ;D

[WillCarter]

That looks fantastic, will be keeping an eye on this for sure.

[rusty998]

oh i forgot, i had to do the rear half shaft seals as the had gone west, and the rear shock rubbers, again the parts were stupid cheap and i do meen Cheap ! but while i was under there and looking around i noticed the rear axle is five linked, should be a laugh when it gets wet ;D

[luckygti]

That is very cool, really liking that, properly good looking estate. Drop, banded steels, done. Pop over and have a look at Dez's creation for some lows inspiration!

[Bioshock]

very cool. I love that these finds can still pop up.

[jonnynitro]

nice lada mate

[skoda_norman]

What a beauty.

[xjlee]

What a find, a great little car!
Keep the standard wheels, personally i love the modular type wheels that the last ones came with

[rusty998]

Keeping the wheels but having them banded, will be keeping the colour on the wheels the same, or then again could go choc brown, waiting for an email back from Bilstein for some uprated dampers, might fit Lada Niva springs as they are stiffer but will have to Chop them for the right ride hight, been told this is a normal upgrade back in Eastern Europe that works very well, cant wait ;D

[rusty998]

Ok then i have a little update, I have found a set of spax shocks that will fit, but I have been told that spax are way to hard for a road car so I don't think I will go for them, the price for the spax is £280 + vat,
I have just been on to Gaz and spoken to David and he said that they can do a set as long as I can send in a front and rear shock/damper for them to measure, now what are your thoughts on Gaz people ?
the big factor on these are that I will have some warranty on them and can talk so a human if I have a problem,
the other part is the price, for all four shocks they want £200 + vat which I think is not a bad price, this does not include the springs but again the price is good at £130 + vat.
I know I could just cut the springs I have but they wont make the car handle as well I as new set of uprated springs,
and they will be made to my spec, so what do you think people ?
any advice on these welcome, ;D

[stuartp]

sounds to me like Gaz should be making a sale very soon ;-)

[motorhead]

Specially made springs that's good idea! If it's OK with money than it will be 10 times better than VAZ originals...
Try to find out the prices of KYB, Bilstein, Monroe, Cofap - Sachs and compare them with those Gaz.

[craig1010cc]

I like GAZ shocks, i've had them on both my minis. Would also be worth talking to protec, they custom made the coilies for Bruces Rascal for a very reasonable price and they are very helpful and like projects that aren't the norm