1990 Trabant 601 - Quite low and very slow.

[kieranv]

I figured I should start a thread on here for this car, I'll be doing a fair bit to it over the next couple of months but here is what's already been done over the 2 years I've owned it.

I've always wanted one of these cars since I was 21, sitting in the Hard Rock Cafe in Dublin and seeing one hanging upside down from the ceiling. 8 Years later, after a trip to Berlin and a chance to drive one on the Trabi Safari, I came home and started the hunt properly for one. Luckily one came up not far from where I was staying at the time, at the top end of my budget but looked like a good 'un!

The previous owner was on here and had a thread for the car, forum.retro-rides.org/thread/168686/1990-trabant-p601-special-action

Here is a dump of images from when I bought the car and the first few months of ownership, before any mods started.

[img src="











Then I started messing with it. I ordered a suspension kit from a shop in Germany, which was advertised as giving a 180mm drop but it turned out to be a bit less than that, which was ideal.











I also got the wheels banded by 2.5" to make them 6.5j overall, painted them white and fitted some smaller tyres on. These took a bit of fettling with the arches to get fitted without any rubbing but it was worth it!













I stopped round at a mates garage who's been helping out with fitting tyres and MOT's to show him the finished product, then broke down on the way home.







Met up with some fellow Trabant owners at a local breakfast meet.






Then I had to find a new garage space for the car. I was storing it in a small council lockup, but have recently moved into a larger unit which is shared between some friends.





And fairly promptly I got started on Phase 2 - the engine bay!






And that brings us up to today. My plans for the car are to get the engine bay as mint and minimalist as possible (shouldn't be hard given what I'm starting with!). After that is done I'll move onto the interior (I've already fitted some mk1 mx5 seats). Hopefully I'll be able to keep this thread updated whenever I'm tinkering away on bits and bobs!

Cheers
Kieran

[Paul]

Always had a soft spot for these after visiting (East) Germany and reading all about them - the drop and the wheels totally change the look...for the better. Awesome work!

[ianlea73]

Wicked cool. Always liked the front face of these. They look like a character from Pixar.

[mikehamid]

I'm loving the progress on this one! Makes me want to drop mine now too!

[austinpowers]

Out of interest how does it ride on the dropped suspension? I been thinking about lowering mine for a while now.
Just spent the last weekend stripping the engine on mine. The bottom pulley was wobbling about on the front of the crankshaft. And annoyingly you can’t just undo a nut and remove it. You have to strip the motor completely and split the engine case in half. Still whilst it was apart it gave me a chance to do some porting & polishing.

[ozzy]

miss my old 1974 trabbi. looks alot better lower

[07lilredwagon]

love the drop and the wheels, ect...

JP

[kieranv]

Cheers everyone.

Apr 11, 2018 21:41:19 GMT austinpowers said:

Out of interest how does it ride on the dropped suspension? I been thinking about lowering mine for a while now.

It's super stiff. Infact, the rear is like a hardtail, I'm sure the only travel there is in the sidewall of the tyres haha. The front did used to suffer from really bad bump steer on the original suspension which has been eliminated though so that's a bonus.

The car was never particularly comfortable to drive in the first place so it definitely hasn't taken away from the enjoyment any.

[austinpowers]

Thanks for the info, the only thing that would worry me is all the potholes around here. The roads are terrible in are area and plenty of people I know have damaged their cars.
On a separate note here is the sort of thing I just did to my barrels last weekend. This is one of my old spare sets that I had a practice on.
Nice and shiny exhaust port.

[kieranv]

Do you think it'll make much difference to the power? I've got a cat on my exhaust since apparently that's a requirement in Hungary where my car came from, I think I'll remove it though, free it up a bit hopefully!

Update Disclaimer : I can't weld.


Made some progress in the bay today, shaved off some unnecessary brackets



Found a wee rusty hole so sorted that out





I also welded up the holes on either side of the bulkead where the wiring loom used to come through, it'll come out from a different location once I drill some holes...



Fired some body filler onto the inner wings to smooth out some of the lumps and bumps around the place. I'm aiming for a nice clean look but I'm not sure I have the patience or required skill for a super clean bay!




Lastly I pulled off the wings to see what's hiding underneath there. The passenger side was fine, has had some repairs in there previously at some point. The drivers side has a bit of a hole and is looking a bit crusty around the arch.





Nothing too bad though!


Hopefully the next time I attack it I'll be finished with the filler and ready to prime the full bay. Then I'll work on welding up that inner arch.

[austinpowers]

The cleaned up and smooth engine bay will go well with the clean looking outside of your car. I have a Trabi over in Hungary and that had a cat fitted for the MOT a year after I bought it. It does kill the power a bit, and you lose some of the crackle sound from the exhaust.
If you fit a sports expansion pipe & 45mm system you will notice a big difference in performance. Also the Mikuni carburetor conversation is a worthwhile upgrade. A good gain in power and a lot smoother to drive.
I can also confirm that the work I did to the ports on my motor the other weekend has made a difference. It revs better and feels a lot smoother at higher revs.
It is now surprisingly nippy for what it is, and I don’t hold up traffic with it. Infant it’s the other way round now.

[claymore]

I loved my old Trabbie, the only issue I ever had was finding spark plugs (Suzuki GT500 seemed to work fine) and the gear stick snapped in half, but it just so happens that a length of 15mm copper pipe works just as well

[kieranv]

Apr 18, 2018 21:56:32 GMT austinpowers said:

The cleaned up and smooth engine bay will go well with the clean looking outside of your car. I have a Trabi over in Hungary and that had a cat fitted for the MOT a year after I bought it. It does kill the power a bit, and you lose some of the crackle sound from the exhaust.
If you fit a sports expansion pipe & 45mm system you will notice a big difference in performance. Also the Mikuni carburetor conversation is a worthwhile upgrade. A good gain in power and a lot smoother to drive.
I can also confirm that the work I did to the ports on my motor the other weekend has made a difference. It revs better and feels a lot smoother at higher revs.
It is now surprisingly nippy for what it is, and I don’t hold up traffic with it. Infant it’s the other way round now.

I might give that a go then while the engine is out. I did contemplate ordering the sports exhaust but wasn't sure it was worth the expense, by the sounds of it it is! My car goes alright as is but does start to die a bit top end.

Apr 19, 2018 16:48:25 GMT claymore said:

I loved my old Trabbie, the only issue I ever had was finding spark plugs (Suzuki GT500 seemed to work fine) and the gear stick snapped in half, but it just so happens that a length of 15mm copper pipe works just as well

I've been using some NGK ones in mine, cant remember the number but they seem to be doing the job ok!
I did notice some wear on my gear stick where it goes through the bush into the gearbox selector, noting too bad though, should last a bit longer before I need to buy a length of copper pipe!

[austinpowers]

I have just fitted some DENSO WF20 lridium spark plugs to my Trabi and they seem to be working a treat. Got them from eBay £15.00p
For a pair.

[claymore]

Problem for me was, I had my Trabbie in the early 90's, there was no internet or any sort of information in the UK at the time.

[kieranv]

Slow progress is still progress....right?

I've been having too much fun over summer galavanting around in my limo that the Trabi hasn't received much love. However, I've decided it's time to pick up the sanding block again and get back to work!

Here's the limo



And here's the current situation with the Trabant, the engine bay is pretty much ready for paint.
I got to the point where I thought I was ready to prime, so i Primed....but as is always the case, that showed up some of my sub standard filler work, so I got the filler back out...






After that I got a much better finish, so Primered again and used knifing putty on the small imperfections this time.




I've attacked the front subframe with degreaser and pressure washed, it's come out pretty good but I'm going to have to get the wishbones powder coated, or just hammerite them.



And I've been tidying up bits and bobs on the engine, mainly the covers which I think I'm going to paint the same colour as the bay will be going.






That's all for now, progress from now on will hopefully be weekly rather than 3 monthly

[keyring]

Extremely cool! It looks mega with the banded steels!

[kieranv]

Mid week update!

I will remind everyone that I can't weld....


I've ran out of primer, so this evening I directed my attention towards the rust on the inner arch.



Cut up an old Volvo door I had lying around the unit for some donor metal.



Decided to start on the smallest and easiest section first.





Then moved onto one of the larger sections.







Just tacked on for now, will finish the welding next time I'm at the unit.

I've also primed the fuel tank ready to be painted, it'll be going the same colour as the engine bay.



And the engine bay is now all in grey primer ready for paint.




Next week I'll be finishing the welding on that arch and making a start on re-routing the wires into the engine bay.

[kieranv]

This week I've been carrying on with the welding and chucked the engine back in so I can work out some of the routing for the loom before I paint the bay.

Finished off the welding on that inner arch.





Got all the engine covers painted in what will be the final colour for the entire bay.





And I gave the subframe and wishbones a coat of paint to tidy them up.



I've also painted the exhaust manifold which came out really well!




And then it was time to throw the engine back in for a trial fit.








I'm not so sure on the colour of the airbox. I know now I don't want it to be black as it is now but I think white will be too much for it. Other suggestions have been body colour but then it's the only item in the bay that colour, or silver which would match the manifold, but I'm not sure on that one.

Anyone got any suggestions for that one?

Kieran