Not been up to much with the old girl recently, life getting in the way at the moment, still trying to get her back on the road when I can get out to her.
Needs rear slave cylinders for the retest, but other than that we're good to go!
Shed season is upon us again, and with a Sunday to myself, I rolled her out to get a few small jobs done. We've already replaced the rear slave cylinders, and fitted new brake shoes, so there's actual brake feel again. Also fitted wheel bearings but there's still a little play on one hub, so new stub axle and hub is required.
Not enough juice in the battery, or another I found in the shed, so I jump started her from the daily. Half choke, much smoke!
Made a quick inventory of the boot (it's gas how much "support gear" you accumulate over time!) Reconnected the speaker and put them on the rear strut bar until I mount them properly
After a quick spin, as I was putting her away again, I realised the door pull wasn't working from the inside. Handles and winders off. There's the culprit. It had rusted and snapped, and there wasn't enough left in the existing cable, so I improvised with a wrap. #thereIfixedit
I found a local place to do the work I couldn't (clutch, brakes and tuning) and I've spent the last month or just taking her out occasionally.
... And then last Tuesday afternoon I came out to find her, gone. Luckily, she proved too complicated to let them take her very far. It looks like she put up a good fight, after the lock defeated them, then the frame, they resorted to ripping off the wiper to smash teh glass to get in.
I moved her somewhere safer, and got started on getting her back on the road again. Luckily, when they ripped out the ignition wires to hotwire her, the terminals came off cleanly, so with the help of a photo of a non shagged ignition setup, I was able to reconnect it all, and get her fired up again, proving you can't keep a good girl down. www.flickr.com/video_download.gne?id=28537363350
Parts should be here in a few weeks from Hungary, she's locked up securely in the meantime.
I can't believe that someone would want to go joyriding in a Trabi. I suspect that they had no idea about it being fitted with a fuel tap. and then promptly ran out off go go juice once the float chamber was empty. Glad to see that the damage wasn't too bad, it could of been a lot worse if they had decided to set fire to it out of frustration. Hope it's not too long before she's back on the road.
I was very very lucky to find a place close by to store her for a while so I left her sit for a bit in a dry shed while I sourced replacement parts from Hungary. I took visits for 5 different breaker's yards before my friend found a suitable door.
Fast forwards 6 (or 7, I forget!) months, I managed to get all the bits together, and some free time and motivation to tackle the door. Initially I hoped to swap the glass and lock out of the good door back in, but the glass is bonded to the runner, and I see to way to remove it. So, Plan B involved bolting the beige door to the blue car:
The four big bolts attaching the door to the hinge popped off, though it took some WD40 and a Tactical Vice Grips to get the safety bolt out.
NExt up was to remove the windscreen wiper and all the gubbins. My Hungarian buddies sorted me out with a new wiper mechanism, it's just a matter of getting in behind the dash...
I finally replaced the wiper mechanism, it only took me a couple of hour's swearing and trying to fit my hands into the space behind the dash!
Yesterday was also the first big run of the year for Angela, from Galway to Limerick, and back again. She performed wonderfully. Noisily, but wonderfully.
