Cyberdyne wrote on 2024-10-05, 10:51:

My first car. I was 15-16. Rided illegally. Before it was my grandpapys car.

408? or 412? My dad had a 2140SL (1500SL) before I was born.

gerry wrote on 2024-10-07, 11:26:

Cyberdyne wrote on 2024-10-05, 10:51:

My first car. I was 15-16. Rided illegally. Before it was my grandpapys car.

that looks like a fiat 124, guessing it might be VAZ / Lada? that example look to be in great shape though

This is Moskvich car.

Calombuti wrote on 2024-10-07, 18:23:

Cyberdyne wrote on 2024-10-05, 10:51:

My first car. I was 15-16. Rided illegally. Before it was my grandpapys car.

408? or 412? My dad had a 2140SL (1500SL) before I was born.

IŠH412. That orange color was called corrida. And it would even run with a 10V battery. Because one battery compartment leaked and i just punched a large nail in there to close the circuit.

gerry wrote on 2024-10-07, 11:26:

Cyberdyne wrote on 2024-10-05, 10:51:

My first car. I was 15-16. Rided illegally. Before it was my grandpapys car.

that looks like a fiat 124, guessing it might be VAZ / Lada? that example look to be in great shape though

My second car was Fiat Ritmo. My auts car that she could not handle. 😆

And after that my first own and legally rideable car was Ford Sierra.

Cyberdyne wrote on 2024-10-07, 19:20:

Calombuti wrote on 2024-10-07, 18:23:

Cyberdyne wrote on 2024-10-05, 10:51:

My first car. I was 15-16. Rided illegally. Before it was my grandpapys car.

408? or 412? My dad had a 2140SL (1500SL) before I was born.

IŠH412. That orange color was called corrida. And it would even run with a 10V battery. Because one battery compartment leaked and i just punched a large nail in there to close the circuit.

Did you use the starting handle?

Oh yay, the Rio is making a funny noise. Wife is afraid to drive it until it's sorted. It's a hard to place chatter/rattle on acceleration at any speed, sometimes from very slow, so engine speed not road speed related, also not gonna be an undershield flapping in the breeze I think. Kinda going chakakakattatataaa... seems to be from pass side of engine bay, not inside motor... early thoughts are it's the belt tensioner acting up or something, bearing in the accessory system. It could be a very small gasket leak or pinhole vibrating a heatshield, could be exhaust or cat convertor baffles loose and rattling, it could be dieseling, not like pre-ignition, more like run on dieseling you get with no spark, so maybe a spark plug screwed. Annoyingly hard to place. Keeping an eye on temp gauge driving round and that's not either pulsing from combustion gases or wavering due to pump hitting due to bearing wear. So guess I am digging into the drive belts tomorrow, eliminate that. Damn cars are a pain the ass, why did we give up on horses, you can bribe them with carrots.

Oh great, it's gonna be one of those... no noise today. Wondering if it's a temperature thing, cooler day, possibly on the first tank of winter gas. Also couldn't do much troubleshooting because we had showers all afternoon, just not much point looking for waterpump bearing seepage or funny belt noises if mother nature gonna throw some wet in there.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-06-06, 14:26:

Yeah, let's raise a glass to cars you get more than your money's worth out of.

Like my old Ford Escort, what a trooper, bought it with 220,000ish km on for $500, put 250,000km on top of that... yes I spent a lot on parts over 10 years, but nothing you wouldn't expect for mileage, guesstimate of $5000 in repair costs all in, $500 a year say.

That kind of reminds me of the 1961 Hillman Minx IIIC I've got - for DKK 1,000 (around $140 today) in around... 2013 I believe. Now I an unsure about the milage - also since the ODO is only five digets if I remember correct, so could have been reset by driving at least once. However it was looking good, althoug standing outside for at least 10 years, had a lot of water inside (windscreen seal were removed - new one was included) and the windscreen were fitted only with, at pickup already old, duct tape, tires were getting flat, the parking brake couldn't quite hold the car we realized, and it had rust in the usual places for the model (panels in front of the rear wheels, in some boxes in the engine bay and the spare wheel well. It was however sold with three "halfly-filled" bozes of various parts, including some quite good looking ones (parts included the new window sill as mentioned, chromed window trim, extra hub caps (6 I believe), extra wipers, extra grill, new brake pipes, sun shader, noice reduction carpet, extra mirrors, some Lucas parts, bulbs and more) and original manuals including workshop manual, apare parts list and driver's handbook.
I had it transported from pickup location by a flatbed with some old towels and t-shirts inside to suck up moisture while being transported which I then could throw out. When arrived at my workshop I removed the old carptes (which had turned from beige to black!) - I only kept the part from the transmission so I can make one by making a kind of block to shape it - this was still (mostly) beige, I also removed the seats (benches) to make sure they could get aired out - when doing so I found a Czechoslovakian coin from 1962 - more about this later.

The photo here is taken after arrival at the workshop:

My friend and I let it sit about a week so his friend who had the workshop could come and inspect it before we started it up. He approved and we made the first smoke test. It took some convicing: A new battery (used but functional was given to me for free) and removed air filter for it to start, but she went smoothly - even on the old fuel!
The Zenith carburator was removed, dismantled and cleaned up so the choke could move freely again and after this, it started every time with air filter on. It did need a constant charge (hybrid before they were cool?) - I later changed the brushes in the generator since both were worn and one had one of the cables broken off (cheap part).
I have also bought some new mirrors (rear mirror had lost all the backing and I wanted a matching set of wing mirrors), wood for the door trim and maybe a few other parts - but I still need to buy a few things.

I have a running video of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO5nKD1OWjQ
And a driving video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLapFn-LcYY (there is some wierd effects thanks to YouTube's cleaning or stabilization function at the time)

Now some of the important work that have to be done is to fix the rust holes (I eventually, after much try got to create a hole in the floorboard) - and create new panel, fix the brakes (I believe there is some leakage in the system as I have blead the brakes many times, but next week is again soft), create new carpeting and door decore.

Now to the story (backwards): I bought it from a guy who had it for 10+ years in his garden, he got it from a friend as a part of payment for some job he did for the friend. The friend used to work in Prague and was one day at a car museum where people could have their vintage cars stored and he was interested in buying it. The museum contacted the owners and he was later told that he could buy it, so next time he went to Prague he had a one way ticket - and the license plated from his Volvo Amazone packed in the suitcase so he could drive the car from Prague to Copenhagen, Denmark.
The car is a 1961 model and was owned by an anglophile doctor in Czechoslovakia - apparently from new according to the coin which was dated from 1962. It was later taken over by the daughter and she was the one having it on the museum. I think I have found her online, however she did not reply on my questions for her, but the name fits the registration so if it was her, she definately inhareted her father's (?) interest in British cars as she had photos in British classics.

Wow, what a story. If I had to guess where one of those was found outside the UK, I'd go Australia? New Zealand? India? and Czechoslovakia and then Denmark would be wayyyyy down the list. I had a soft spot for Rootes group cars growing up, I liked it's stablemate the Humber Super Snipe, I wanted to make my first car a Singer Stiletto or something like that, but my Dad was against them for some reason, maybe it was because he was "A Triumph man", though he was equally discouraging when I found a Triumph 1300 in perfect shape.

Good luck with the restoration, I am sure she will be a real beauty.

edit: heh, haven't thought about them in so long my brain is getting crossed up, the Singer model was the Chamois, the Sunbeam was the Stiletto.

Calombuti wrote on 2024-10-07, 21:15:

Cyberdyne wrote on 2024-10-07, 19:20:

Calombuti wrote on 2024-10-07, 18:23:

408? or 412? My dad had a 2140SL (1500SL) before I was born.

IŠH412. That orange color was called corrida. And it would even run with a 10V battery. Because one battery compartment leaked and i just punched a large nail in there to close the circuit.

Did you use the starting handle?

Nope. That is the thing. It started just fine with 10v. Ok, it was summertime.

Most of the time when batteries get down to 10V the rest of the cells are in a really bad state too and can't deliver the Amps, so a physically damaged cell on an otherwise good battery would mean the other cells are not so weak and starting on lower voltage is more likely. Depends how tight the engine is, higher mileage are usually looser, and whether it's DOHC or single, whether it has hydraulic lifters that bleed down in a short time, all sorts of variables in how easy it spins.

Hand cranked an 80s V6 once, the battery only had one "wuhuh" in it. However, since it wasn't built for it, the socket came off on the crankshaft bolt and I had to let it run 15mins in the driveway to warm up and get enough in the battery to stop it and take off the socket, then it started again off the battery on first pop.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-10-09, 13:02:

Most of the time when batteries get down to 10V the rest of the cells are in a really bad state too and can't deliver the Amps, so a physically damaged cell on an otherwise good battery would mean the other cells are not so weak and starting on lower voltage is more likely. Depends how tight the engine is, higher mileage are usually looser, and whether it's DOHC or single, whether it has hydraulic lifters that bleed down in a short time, all sorts of variables in how easy it spins.

Hand cranked an 80s V6 once, the battery only had one "wuhuh" in it. However, since it wasn't built for it, the socket came off on the crankshaft bolt and I had to let it run 15mins in the driveway to warm up and get enough in the battery to stop it and take off the socket, then it started again off the battery on first pop.

Dude, read previous posts. Buzzwords: physical damage, acid spill, huge nail....

I know, I was spelling out why his situation made it more likely to work, whereas usually when you encounter a battery at 10V it's fucked all the way through, not just in one cell.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-10-08, 01:27:

Oh yay, the Rio is making a funny noise. Wife is afraid to drive it until it's sorted. It's a hard to place chatter/rattle on acceleration at any speed, sometimes from very slow, so engine speed not road speed related, also not gonna be an undershield flapping in the breeze I think. Kinda going chakakakattatataaa... seems to be from pass side of engine bay, not inside motor... early thoughts are it's the belt tensioner acting up or something, bearing in the accessory system. It could be a very small gasket leak or pinhole vibrating a heatshield, could be exhaust or cat convertor baffles loose and rattling, it could be dieseling, not like pre-ignition, more like run on dieseling you get with no spark, so maybe a spark plug screwed. Annoyingly hard to place. Keeping an eye on temp gauge driving round and that's not either pulsing from combustion gases or wavering due to pump hitting due to bearing wear. So guess I am digging into the drive belts tomorrow, eliminate that. Damn cars are a pain the ass, why did we give up on horses, you can bribe them with carrots.

Gah, didn't get any more clarity from thorough investigation. Three plastic panels were loose and squirrels left walnuts in strange places... any of those could have been rattling when more vibration transmitted by engine mounts when they were compressed by torque. The waterpump seems fine. The idler pulley is partially suspect... there's an extremely slight tick feeling in multiple revolutions, like there's a small scuff on one ball out of 20 or however many are in this one, and it's sometimes sitting in the north south plane and sometimes in the east west plane, therefore maybe making a noise sometimes. IDK why it would only do it under engine road load though, since you'd figure belt load would be higher on full AC, lights all on etc to load alternator. Can't hear it from revving engine. Unless again it's to do with compressing the engine mounts but instead of engine vibration coming through to something else, that noise gets through when it's not audible otherwise. All kinds of fun, gotta give it a good drive around to see if fixing loose plastic panels is doing anything.

Edit: noise not happening on a couple of 20 min drives... IDK whether to declare victory or not yet...

EditII: Driven ~300km on it now, new car quiet, touch wood, I still don't know whether to declare victory or not... I'm crossing my fingers.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-10-09, 12:26:

Wow, what a story. If I had to guess where one of those was found outside the UK, I'd go Australia? New Zealand? India? and Czechoslovakia and then Denmark would be wayyyyy down the list. I had a soft spot for Rootes group cars growing up, I liked it's stablemate the Humber Super Snipe, I wanted to make my first car a Singer Stiletto or something like that, but my Dad was against them for some reason, maybe it was because he was "A Triumph man", though he was equally discouraging when I found a Triumph 1300 in perfect shape.

Good luck with the restoration, I am sure she will be a real beauty.

edit: heh, haven't thought about them in so long my brain is getting crossed up, the Singer model was the Chamois, the Sunbeam was the Stiletto.

They were quite a success I've read altough there aren't many left: I've seen a bunch of them in USA and in Denmark they were also very popular. My mother's uncle had one, and once I am done with the restoration I am planning to apply for his old license plate (I can do so as a family member) - if it is not in use already and his son finds the dias where it is visible. Once he and my grandfather took their familys to Sweden (I think they still drove in the left side back then) - Arvid in his Hillman Minx and my grandfather in his Ford Cortina. At the motorshow from the attached photo in my post I also met a man who remembered it from young where he worked for a grossier who also used it to haul fruits and vegetables from the market; it is a quite spacy car although not as big as the contemporary American cars. I think a good amount of them also drove as taxis here.

Once it is complete and registered I will need to take my parents (and my wife and son - in our Camry) on a small weekend holiday: Many years ago I had the plan to work in it very focused so I could take my mom on this holiday within ½-1½ years: sadly I lost my job in a redundency process and thus had to cut off the workshop so I didn't get to create the new panels and have them welded on. I have a new workshop (part of my vintage car club) now, but at the moment there aren't any available space. In the club there are also several smiths who can help out with fitting a new panel. I have some (spray) cans with the original colours, so hopefully everything will look good. At the show I had covered up the holes in the panels with aloy tape - quite shiny!

So what was/is the way of payment for your car?

Cash, leasing, loan, ... ?

I always buy (everything) with cash (bank transfer). Never had any leasing or loan in my life 😉

kixs wrote on 2024-10-10, 10:58:

So what was/is the way of payment for your car?

Cash, leasing, loan, ... ?

I always buy (everything) with cash (bank transfer). Never had any leasing or loan in my life 😉

I wrote a check to the dealer for my last car. In the past I have financed but paid it off early. I really hate owing money.

kixs wrote on 2024-10-10, 10:58:

So what was/is the way of payment for your car?

Cash, leasing, loan, ... ?

I always buy (everything) with cash (bank transfer). Never had any leasing or loan in my life 😉

Two of my cars and all my motorcycles have been paid cash. The Camry is financed through Toyota (they had the lowest intrest on the market, so that was pretty good).

kixs wrote on 2024-10-10, 10:58:

So what was/is the way of payment for your car?

Cash, leasing, loan, ... ?

I always buy (everything) with cash (bank transfer). Never had any leasing or loan in my life 😉

I've always bought in cash/transfer too

the upside is that there isn't a monthly outgoing and that the total spend isn't increased by having to pay off interest on debt. cars lose value so quickly that the thought of being in debt while my car races to the lowest price point isnt good

the down side is that, obviously, you have to save up to buy the car and it will mean buying used cars and needing to look out for one cheap enough, there's only a limited choice and the car you get is older (for me typically 5-10 years old at the time i buy)

i've found that even if a car is a step down in terms of features etc from a previous one it doesn't matter after a few weeks, you get used to whatever you are in - whether its 'better' or 'worse' than another car you were used to. pretty soon its the same roads same traffic anyway, the appeal of a newer car isnt strong enough to get into debt or to spend a very large % of any savings i might have been able to build up.

lots of folk buy on lease where they just pay a few hundred $ a month basically forever, but get a "new" car every few years. that seems a very expensive deal over time, although they do drive nice cars 😀

gerry wrote on 2024-10-14, 08:39:

lots of folk buy on lease where they just pay a few hundred $ a month basically forever, but get a "new" car every few years. that seems a very expensive deal over time, although they do drive nice cars 😀

My wife is seriously considering leasing her next car.
But then she has more disposable income and doesn't like old things. Financially I don't think it makes much sense but either does spending money on old computers.
Just another "as a service" business, soon some people will own nothing.

On the other hand I've no wish to ever buy a car new even if I could, You loose too much as soon as it leaves the showroom floor.
So I need someone to buy the car initially so if that's a leasing company then so be it.