Trabi/IFA Chat Forum

Do you have any mates who can weld it for you for a either a couple of pints or a favour?this sometimes becomes more expensive though in the long run,but I've had some interesting trades in the past although my wife has told me no more cars or bikes as payment it's cash only from now on

Yeah, my mate who can weld lives 30 miles away. Again if it was MOT'd I would drive it there and he would do it for me for a few pints, but I don't want to risk getting nabbed by the plod. Think I'll just shell out the £100 and grin and bear it. It'll all be worth it in the end (I hope).

At least you won't get burnt literally a couple of weeks ago I had a whole weekend welding my nephews fiat up the cost at the garage would have far exceeded the value of the car but the car lives for another year and my burns have healed

Just make sure the mobile welder cuts out the rust first rather than just slapping a plate over the top ( which is quicker and easier for him) also once it's finished get some wax-oil on rear of repair otherwise it will rust out again quickly

What have I done to my trabi today,went to an auto jumble to make it earn its keep and finished running it in so no need to stick to 90kph,so I gave it a bit of a workout definitely goes faster now previously it used to do 112 kph it managed to go to the alternator light before I took pity and slowed down a bit it will now maintain a 110 cruising speed,just about what most modern cars are doing,it's just they hardly notice it I can't hear the radio or anything else

So now I have some 6v stuff for sale. A serviceable battery, generator, assorted 6v bulbs, 2 coils, voltage regulator. Also 2 front removable panels with aluminium grilles, 2 J shapes heater silencers, air filter box (no air filter).
Any offers?

Corrosion where the battery sits to be fixed hopefully tomorrow by the mobile welder. Notice the battery retaining bracket completely gone which will have to be fabricated also. And today, I stripped out the boot and discovered more rust and loose paint, so got to work on that. [ATTACH=full]4868[/ATTACH]

unfortunatly the more you look for rust the more you find on old cars,your battery area isnt to bad compared to some cars ive seen but its also not so good me and my daughter share a morris minor pickup which was much rustier and turned into a weldathon,have you checked the floor under the battery area?the water will have got in through the hole and may have rusted the floor

You are so right. I removed the carpets from the boot and front passenger area and was presented with about 20% of the total area was affected by rust. So that has kept me busy today treating and painting it. The welder didn't turn up and no reply from text and phone!! What is it with tradesmen these days?

Get yourself a 4.5" grinder . They are a very useful tool and not that expensive . A wire wheel will strip rust and a 1mm cutting disc can cut out rotted metal in seconds . Be brutal/honest with your rust removal there is little point in keeping very thin rusted metal. Cut it out and grind back until you reach clean thick metal .When you do get it welded the preparation should save you money . Now's the time to have a good look at the sills and all four wheel arches to check for rust and filler/fibreglass

The cheap!sorry cost effective angle grinders fron aldi are perfect for doing this sort of job and they cost under £20 just make sure you get some decent goggles the cheaper ones are rubbish and don't fit very well,the wire wheel will rip holes in thin metal so you will end up cutting a bigger hole than you thought,you could have the missing battery bracket moved a little further away from the other so you can fit a more standard/cheaper battery when you eventually need one

OUCH! That is bad. I though you were talking about surface rust.

I'm sure this wouldn't pass MOT but I have made patch templates out of paper mache using newspaper, water and flour. I made a templant for the passenger side valance on this Fiat 131. Someone had hit something and about 1/3 of it was gone. I made a templant off another 131 I had and then applied fiberglass and resin to the mache templant, then attached that with some adhesive over top of the boogered up section. Then went over it with truck bed coating and a textured roller to cover up any bodged body work. I only gave $300 for this car!

In the UK rusted out metal within 300mm of structural areas ie suspension or seatbelt mountings must be replaced with welded in steel,on a small car that's pretty much all the floor

As a self employed tradesperson you wouldn't believe how many jobs I get because I'm the only person who actually turns up to look at the job,some people just don't seem to want work,the best trader to use is one who's been recommended to you by someone whose had them do work for them

Kev, what kind of tradeswork do you do? I guess we call them contractors over here.

That seems to be the norm wherever you go. You either find a contractor who returns after the estimate, shows up on time or doesn't show up at all or won't return phone calls. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground.

I try to do everything I can myself whether it be electrical, plumbing, installing floor tile, painting, etc. Mainly because if it's something I can do myself, why not. The other reason is labor is very expensive in the US. I make about a 1/4" of what some people charge for labor per hour in this country.

One thing I can't do is recharge my HVAC system on my house because you have to have a licence to buy R22 which supposedly hasn't been produced since 2010 so when the supply runs out, I'll have to get a new system. Yet I can buy R-134a for my cars at an autopart store and charge my cars without a licence. Makes allot of sense...

A few years ago my hot water heater developed a crack around the bottom heating element and was leaking. The heater was located in the worst possible location in my house underneath the steps in my basement and my father and I build a wall and a small access door around it when we remodeled my den. Last time I replaced the bottom heating element, there was so much calcium packed in the bottom, I had to pull the element out and dump 60 gallons (~ 240 liters) of water to the floor because the drain was clogged up!

This was a job I really didn't want to tackle myself, however if I could get the heater relocated, if i needed to replace it, all I have to do is disconnect the wiring and water pipes and roll it out. So I had a plumber to relocate the hot water heater to the corner of the garage near the garage door.

But the thing was, I called a couple of plumbers to get a quote and got in touch with this one guy up and got a quote over the phone. He was on a job but he gave me a quote over the phone and I said that was fair and let's do it. Well two days when by and he didn't get back with me. So I called him back and got in touch with his wife and said your husband quoted me a price for a job and I agreed to let him do it but never called me back the following day. I told her my water heater was cracked and was leaking and was afraid it was going to really start leaking and needed to get it fixed ASAP. So he calls me back within a few minutes, apologizes but comes out and installs it.