Practically Classics Forum

I luckily have an exempt vehicle because Genghis wants everyone to use his wonderful Tube to get into London ... and conveniently put my three or four most convenient tube stations just inside the ULEZ zone.

In fact just before one station are a set of traffic lights where you turn left and the station carpark is about 50m away. On that set of lights is mounted ... the ULEZ camera ...

P4 has been loaded up for its run down south tomorrow morning.

Think I managed to round up all the spares.





Two hours plus change it looks like if the traffic plays ball. Pretty sure the return trip will take a bit longer!

All being well I'm hoping to be home between 1500-1600.

This evening I had a bit of a poke around with an old PC which arrived here last week. Tiny little desktop system - smaller than a whole bunch of portable machines even.



Seriously, this thing is *tiny* - here's a Spectrum for scale.



Internally it was actually surprisingly clean - and thankfully turns out to be equipped with a Dallas clock chip rather than the NiCd battery which was so commonplace in systems of this era and has killed tens of thousands of systems when they leak and start dissolving the motherboard.



This does mean that I'll need to do a little surgery to that chip to allow it to use an external CR2023 cell. That's infinitely preferable to trying to coax a motherboard which has suffered corrosion damage back into life.

The seller had tested it and rapidly switched it off when they smelled the unmistakable smell of capacitors letting the magic smoke out. So I was planning on a recapping session for the power supply.

Quite a few small form factor systems used an external power supply brick, but this one has it internal. In this tiny, very densely packed little cuboid.



Which predictably wasn't exactly the easiest thing to service, but thankfully it does "hinge" open on one side.



The majority of the caps in there are made by our old friends at Nichicon...so there's our target! Their caps probably account for about 98% of the repair work I do on equipment from the 80s and 90s.

Sure enough...



Thankfully these have only recently started to leak it looks like so there was no damage on the board (a nice change for me!). Much better.



The Rubycon ones were left alone as I've never had any issue with a single one of those unless the hardware in general has obviously been absolutely hammered.

Given how densely packed this thing is when it's folded back together I was a little apprehensive to apply power to be honest. Thankfully it didn't go bang when powered up though.



No nasty smells or anything, and even better after a few power cycles it correctly POSTed.



The hard disk is running and sounds healthy - though that doesn't necessarily mean anything yet.

Sadly this is as far as I can get now as Amstrad in their infinite wisdom have used a proprietary keyboard interface. So I'll need to see if I can find an appropriate keyboard or adapter if someone has made one.

This would actually have been a pretty punchy little machine back in 1990/91. It's running a 20MHz 80386SX, would have been nice to see a full-fat 386, but the 20MHz clock speed (I'm more used to seeing these clocked at 16MHz) should help, and they've provided 64K of cache as standard, and have provided a co-processor socket. It came with 3.5Mb of memory, an 80Mb and had an SVGA capable display card (which can also emulate CGA, EGA and Hercules modes). They have also managed to provide two half-length 16-bit ISA slots. Not a bad spec at all for the time - especially for something taking up barely a square foot of desk space. It's really a densely packed little machine, and as you would expect weighs a tonne for the size it is. Probably doesn't weigh all that much less than the Compaq desktop it's shown next to earlier.

This one came with a card in one of those slots which I'm curious to investigate once I have the system up and running.



This it turns out is an Amstrad made clone of the Ad-Lib sound card. Should be an interesting little machine once I've got it up and running. The compact form factor could be quite a bonus in terms of being something genuinely useful for playing around with older software and such.

Have a great trip

This morning I was setting out to go drive the P4 120 miles south to swap over to the Trabant. The P4 has many good points, but currently the heater delivers approximately 15% it's rated output and there's no way to direct air to the windscreen. The wipers are also absolutely awful.

Of course it dawned a cold, humid, rainy morning. Perfect!



The first hour of the journey was basically spent frantically wiping the windscreen every 30 seconds. Having the passenger window wide open and the driver's quarterlight open would *just about* keep the screen clear if I was on the open road, but every time I stopped it would almost instantly fog up again. It made the trip between MK and Oxford really quite stressful as the traffic was stop-start in several areas. Stress levels weren't helped by my phone's windscreen mount exploding about ten minutes into the trip. Thankfully thereafter it cleared up and I was able to engage juggernaut mode on the dual carriageway/motorway down towards Portsmouth. The remainder was a fairly pleasant trip aside from being freezing cold. I regretted my decision not to take gloves as my fingers were well and truly numb by the time I got there.

I then spent far longer than I had planned sitting here waiting to head for home.



Simply because I had to wait for Hagerty to answer their phones...which usually is a matter of about 30 seconds. Of course today it took 20 minutes. Nevertheless, I eventually got through and they then got the policy transferred from the P4 to the Trabant in less than five minutes and we were off.

Two and a half hours later we arrived home.



Only actually ten minutes later than Google had estimated which I reckon wasn't bad at all.

I can't quite say she didn't miss a beat, as she did have one singular cough after I'd been sitting in a queue for about 15 mins at one point, I'm guessing one of the plugs had just loaded up a bit as it never happened again. Aside from that though she ran flawlessly and was quite content to buzz along at 56mph with plenty more to go. I was deliberately taking things easy as I know this car hasn't been in all that regular use for a while, so a 120 mile motorway run was a bit of a trial by fire. So I just slotted myself in with the HGVs and bumbled along.

We used almost exactly half a tank of fuel, which by my math equates to approximately 45mpg, not bad at all. I'll get exact figures when I fill up.

This is quite possibly the strangest little car I've ever driven.







Okay...*nearly* the strangest car I've driven...that title probably falls to this little menace.



I guess my brain was kind of prepared for it to be in some ways reminiscent of the Lada, but it really isn't (other than being exceptionally noisy at speed). In the Lada everything is heavy (except the excellent gear shift) and fairly vague. This is really the polar opposite. All of the controls are light (the clutch in particular you could press with a finger), and the car feels light and really nimble.

Actually gets up and goes a lot better than I had expected given the blazing 26bhp on tap.





The fact they have put sound deadening on the underside of the bonnet to attempt to tame the ridiculous amount of noise generated by that engine does somewhat amuse me.

The vast majority of my experience with two stroke engines has been with a couple of Detroit diesels...which share one thing with this, the fact that biblical amounts of noise are generated...I don't think a bit of padding really is going to make much difference!

The car was absolutely happy to buzz along at 55mph and definitely had more to give it needed - but I was definitely taking it easy on the trip home. Not least because I was having to lean halfway into the passenger seat to see where I was going because the driver's side wiper is loose on the spindle and only wipes about 1/3 of it's intended stroke (most of the time).

Ride is a little bouncy but not at all jarring. Kind of unavoidable in such a light car, especially with such a comically short wheelbase. Surprisingly comfortable I found, even if the driving position is exceedingly odd.



The seat is very low to the floor, and because of where the wheel tub is the pedals are massively offset to the right, the accelerator being well over the centre line of the car I think.

Nice little period accessory on the dash, intended to track fuel usage.



This currently seems to be jammed up but I'll see if I can get it working. Would be nice to be able to set it to when I next needed to plan to refuel.

A feature this car shares with the Lada is a heater which could double as a blast furnace.



It is *fiercely* effective. First air cooled car I've driven which actually has a halfway decent heater, even if it did take me a few minutes to figure out the controls.

Which is a good thing as otherwise keeping the windscreen demisted might have been a bit of a chore given I've apparently got the optional indoor swimming pool specified.



Not particularly surprised. The windscreen definitely leaks and there's signs of water ingress from around the rear windscreen too - I'll look into that in due course.

There are some areas where the wiring will definitely be needing some TLC.



We've ascertained that there's also an earthing issue somewhere in the vicinity of the offside headlight as the indicator is back feeding into the sidelight circuit.

The fuel usage meter is currently dead as when the tank was replaced the sender for that apparently was also removed. They're pretty cheaply available though so that should be simple enough to reinstate. It doesn't actually give you any numbers, it's just a bar graph based on flow rate. There is a kit you can get which gives you an actual fuel gauge to fit in the same space in the dash, that's something I may also consider picking up as I do admit that I'd kind of like to have a fuel gauge.

The taped in switch was originally for a fog light installation, that will be ousted for a correct switch which actually fits in the dash which I'll probably run a reversing light with as that's actually useful.

With a really good deep clean throughout and a little bit of paintwork I think she will be looking a lot better.

There's been quite a lot of work done in the last couple of years. The rear suspension has been completely rebushed, a new exhaust has been fitted, new front brakes (including an upgrade to the disk brakes as fitted to the later VW engined cars), a new fuel tank was fitted, and all new electronic ignition components have been fitted.

All in all, quite taken with it so far. It's a wonderfully bizarre little car, and my immediate reaction is that yes it has shortcomings, but it doesn't seem anywhere near as bad in any way as the urban legends would have you believe. Yes it is basic, it's lightweight, but it doesn't feel anywhere near as thrown together as the Ladas I've owned. It strikes me as a much more cleverly designed little car.

Progress report.

The issue with the headlights/indicators has apparently self-healed.



No amount of pushing, pulling or wiggling any wires in this vicinity could cause the issue to reappear...so I'll just need to keep an eye out for it I guess. I will be tidying a couple of wire joins in that corner that are currently taped up with proper adhesive lined heat shrink to save future hassle.

The wonky windscreen wipers were actually really simple to sort.

The arms are held onto the spindles with grub screws.



Said grub screw on the driver's side was barely finger tight. There is a fair amount of play in the spindle itself, but there's now about an inch of rotational play in the system rather than being able to move the wiper a good 1/2 the way up/down the screen freely.

Well this definitely won't be doing the weather proofing any favours.





Not sure if there should have been an infill in there originally or if the seal has just shrunk. Either way I'll be plugging that hole soon.

You can see daylight through the gap in the seal on the rear screen too, albeit a far smaller gap.



It doesn't look like there's any provision for the gutters to drain at the front of the car unless I'm missing something and there's a plugged hole in there.



This will have been encouraging water to run down into the door aperture, and I've no real idea how weather proof or not the door seals are. I'll park the car facing uphill from now on to prevent that happening. The gutters just end at the rear so there's no similar water trap there.

I did attack the carpets with the wet vac today to try to pull at least some of the moisture out as there's a lot of water in the car. Unfortunately removing the swimming pool in the rear foot well was hampered by it getting down to -5C here last night so the water in the carpets there was basically a block of ice.



I'll need to revisit that obviously. Likewise the passenger door pocket which has about 1" of solid ice at the bottom of it.

I did get a load out of the rest of the carpets though.



Doesn't look much different, but there was a good 3" or so of water in here when I was done.



Shame my dessicant dehumidifier died, as that was perfect for jobs like this as depending on the setting it also worked as a 600/900W fan heater. Was absolutely magic for drying out damp cars. If they weren't so expensive I'd definitely pick another one up.

While I was vacuuming I discovered this under the driver's seat.



Hmm...I see absolutely no evidence at all that this car has ever had a history of electrical gremlins...there are plenty of dead ones rolling around the car as well.

A definite issue while driving was that the gear shift was really stiff in the horizontal plane, making shifting between 2-3 really awkward and reverse a right struggle to get into.



A thorough greasing session around all of the bushes (I think it was the one immediately behind the dash plastic that was the main issue) has sorted this. The gearshift is now nice and light and really precise actually. I've really not driven many manual cars with a column shift but this is definitely one of the better examples that I can recall.

High on the "Okay now I've found that I need to fix it..." List is having discovered that the front bumper is currently affixed using nothing but a couple of zip ties. The mounting points for the older style bumpers that have been fitted at the front apparently don't line up quite with those for the square style ones. Nothing I can't remedy with a metal plate with a couple of holes drilled in it. That will be one of tomorrow's jobs. Likewise is adjusting the fan belt which I think is a touch loose.

Something I'll be changing soon as well are some slightly crusty tyres.



Two of the tyres are really quite old and have perished badly (the inside sidewall of this one is way worse than this side), and are random budget brands. Two are Toyos I think but are also pretty old (I can't remember the date code now, but they were definitely not made yesterday). I'm just throwing a set of decent rubber on so they all match and I know it's been done. A tyre was supplied with the car destined for the spare (which looks to be the original, and is in about the condition you'd expect), though it's a different size to what is actually on the wheels. I think it's close enough for the spare though, and would be absolutely fine to get me home in an emergency.

The tyres would probably be fine for ages yet, but having had a blow out at speed in the past it's just something I'm paranoid about. Plus having seen how awful the budgets on the Partner are in the cold wet weather compared to what I've come to consider normal has just reinforced my belief that cheap tyres are a false economy. They're a massively safety critical part, and I treat them as such.

A replacement panel I could really do with is a bonnet as this one has a crack in and a little chunk out of the leading edge.



I imagine whatever impact caused the crack was also responsible for detaching the latch (held on by the bolt) and having the badge exit into the scenery. Unless that is somewhere in the giant box of bits that I've yet to have a rummage through.



At least there's a better looking washer bottle in there.

The bits were immediately obvious that I needed to put the passenger door back together. The card is still hanging off, but at least the handle and window winder are back in place so it can easily be opened from the inside again.



Had the car out again today to run a variety of errands and yep, it still has me grinning like an idiot.

Had several people looking very confused when I opened the bonnet to put fuel in though. Speaking of which I didn't spot yesterday that the fuel gauge is actually present and correct.







It is actually graduated in 2 litre increments to show how much fuel is in there. Something you'd need to know when adding if out of a can or something as you need to know what's gone in to add the appropriate amount of two stroke oil. Not so much of a problem from a fuel pump obviously as that clearly shows you what's gone in with far more precision.

Looks like my visual guess at usage yesterday was a bit off as I got a figure of 38.9mpg, but that's probably a worst case for this car given it was all motorway work - plus there may have been a bit of give/take in whether I stopped with the fuel in the tank at exactly the same level, we'll see what it averages out at. I don't honestly care what the number is, I'm just honestly curious.

Do I regret making the swap I did for the P4? Nope. They're very different cars which each have their pros and cons. I think for chucking around MK roundabouts this is probably the more fun of the two though.

Fascinating read, is the body made of resin/grp type thing?? You really ought to get a dehumidifier to dry it out.. can you borrow or hire one?.. ive used mine on several cars.. usually its for water damage jobs where the suspended toilet has been leaking for several years. Really worth the investment,

Dick wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 7:15 am Fascinating read, is the body made of resin/grp type thing?? You really ought to get a dehumidifier to dry it out.. can you borrow or hire one?.. ive used mine on several cars.. usually its for water damage jobs where the suspended toilet has been leaking for several years. Really worth the investment,

The actual structure of the car in a strange bit of coincidental symmetry is astonishingly similar to that of the P6. The car is based around a rigid structural base frame, with Duroplast panels covering the gaps/keeping the weather out.

Duroplast is similar to fibreglass insomuch as that plastic is involved, but is actually a very different material. It's based around many layers of cotton fibre and phenolic resin powder which are combined in a high temperature, high pressure press. This results in an extremely strong and lightweight panel, I'd say based on my entirely unscientific poking for the same thickness it's more rigid than fibreglass and no heavier. Critically though it's a quick production process - insert mat into press, push the button, remove panel, repeat - so it's far more suited to a mass production environment.

For all it was a case of them using what they had available, it doesn't seem a bad choice of materials. Similar to fibreglass it performs far better in an accident than you'd think to look for it, in that while it tears what looks like very easily, it absorbs an awful lot of energy while doing so. When the 601 was crash tested in the early 80s, the results compared to many contemporary small cars were surprisingly decent. The single biggest headache with it in terms of whole vehicle life though is that (kind of like fibreglass) is that it's basically an immortal material once it's made, so burying it in landfill is really the only option.

This might sound a silly question, would the duraplast panels absorb moisture? I'm wondering about the puddles you have on the floor? Would drilling a hole let the water out? Some of my first cars were suffering from the same problem so I took the rubber bung out of the floor...

Dick wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 6:33 am This might sound a silly question, would the duraplast panels absorb moisture? I'm wondering about the puddles you have on the floor? Would drilling a hole let the water out? Some of my first cars were suffering from the same problem so I took the rubber bung out of the floor...

I don't think moisture absorption is big issue with Duroplast. Certainly not aware of seeing any evidence of that around the edges of anything.

I'll need to take a look, if there is one in the rear that could be removed at least in the short term that would be useful. Won't be much help in the front where the floor is flat though.

Obviously the correct fix is to get the car weather proof again!

-- -- --

Yesterday's short update, as interrupted briefly by an ImgBB outage.

I may have been slightly premature in declaring the windscreen wipers to be fixed.



Still a hundred times better than it was when I drove it home when the driver's side wiper would barely clear the rear view mirror.

I can see that the spindles are quite badly worn, so guessing the same is true of the rest of the linkage. The "ca-chunk ca-chunk" soundtrack when the wipers on also supports this theory.

I did find these in the box of bits that came with the car in a ziplock bag.



Which (aside from the random nails) to my untrained eye look like bits of the wiper mechanism. The spindles are definitely less worn than those on the car. So that's a project for investigation sooner than later.

The car is booked in on Monday to have new tyres fitted which will be nice to have ticked off the list.

If I get time today I may go after the carpets with the wet vac again now it's warm enough that any remaining water should at least be in liquid form again.

This afternoon water eviction was the order of the day.

Can you tell which side had been attacked with the vacuum cleaner?



Witness marks from long term dripping make me suspect that the offside windscreen seal may be one of our main suspects.



I'm also somewhat suspicious of the passenger door seal, though hard to say if the water sitting in the bottom of the channel was just condensation as there's condensation all over everything at the moment.

A "small" amount of additional water was removed.



Initially after this I set up my older dehumidifier to help speed up the drying process.



I could tell though that there was still a bunch of water trapped in the sound insulation under the carpets themselves, so when I got a spare half hour later in the day they were also pulled out.

I really appreciate cars where you can do this without needing any tools whatsoever.



As predicted, the felt underlay was absolutely sodden. It is currently hung over the back fence with water literally running out of it.

The carpets have been stuffed in our spare room to dry out. This doesn't feel like a material which will really hold on to moisture.





When the weather is warmer I'll probably attack them with some detergent and the pressure washer.

Again in sharp contrast to Lada where the carpets are the cheapest of the cheap and will disintegrate if you look at them wrong, these are really sturdy. If they were a bit smaller I'd honestly have no reservations about sticking them in the washing machine. I don't have any doubt they would emerge completely unscathed.

Definitely was a good call. No real damage done save for a bunch of surface rust as far as I can see, but it feels like the clock was *definitely* ticking.





Whatever is under the top coat is black so it looks worse than it is. No holes I can see other than those which are meant to be there and even the worst looking bits shrugged off the screwdriver test.

I'll give this a scrub down with the wire brush a good dousing with Vactan then some protection once the car has dried out. Still need to get the mat out of the boot but ran out of daylight today.

Don't think there's much mileage in drilling holes or anything as the carpet underlay is going to act as a giant sponge once refitted anyway - tracing and sorting the leaks I think needs to be the main mission.

In other news, doesn't this look better than a gaping hole in the dash?



I do have what I believe to be the original radio, but sadly don't seem to have the knobs to go with it. I'll have more of a dig around though, and if the turn up I'll refit the original one.