Istorija lietuviškai: http://www.vabalai.lt/forumas/viewtopic.php?t=695
So, everything began on Monday, when I found out that there is a 1979 Bus in Klaipeda city, about ~300km from Vilnius, where i live. I contacted the seller and he assured me, that the bus is in top condition, with original paint and MOT and that he can sell it for a bit less.
So, without long delay, i decided to go there and take a look. Surely, i cannot do that alone and Juozas agreed to help me with that.
The cheapest way to get to Klaipeda seemed to be hitchhiking and as Juozas is an experienced hitchhiker what seemed to be the best way, especially when by doing so, we can save some money for later.
We left at ~2 PM from Vilnius and we were in place only by 8 PM. This was my first hitchiking trip and I'm quite glad with it :]
After a short walk in Klaipeda we got to a place, where Bus is staying and the view was not very promising... The bus was completely nothing like the seller said. Completely rusted and most of the rust is hidden beneath new non quality paint...
The engine is swapped to a 1.6l Audi one, but the work is done very shitty... Inside was also showing a lot of wear and unprofessional repair... So, a normal person would just go away from it... Especially when it cost all his savings...
Well, surely I couldn't do that... Walking away from it would have hurt too much, as i dreamt all day long about it and i knew, taht if i leave it, it will just become a pile of rust after a while, as the garage was full of water and the owner appeared to be full of it.
So, everything began on Monday, when I found out that there is a 1979 Bus in Klaipeda city, about ~300km from Vilnius, where i live. I contacted the seller and he assured me, that the bus is in top condition, with original paint and MOT and that he can sell it for a bit less.
So, without long delay, i decided to go there and take a look. Surely, i cannot do that alone and Juozas agreed to help me with that.
The cheapest way to get to Klaipeda seemed to be hitchhiking and as Juozas is an experienced hitchhiker what seemed to be the best way, especially when by doing so, we can save some money for later.
We left at ~2 PM from Vilnius and we were in place only by 8 PM. This was my first hitchiking trip and I'm quite glad with it :]
After a short walk in Klaipeda we got to a place, where Bus is staying and the view was not very promising... The bus was completely nothing like the seller said. Completely rusted and most of the rust is hidden beneath new non quality paint...
The engine is swapped to a 1.6l Audi one, but the work is done very shitty... Inside was also showing a lot of wear and unprofessional repair... So, a normal person would just go away from it... Especially when it cost all his savings...
Well, surely I couldn't do that... Walking away from it would have hurt too much, as i dreamt all day long about it and i knew, taht if i leave it, it will just become a pile of rust after a while, as the garage was full of water and the owner appeared to be full of it.
And after 5 minutes, we already got problems... Engine was heating up very fast, and the fans was not working at all. Also, gas pedal was stuck, and pressing it was a really precision job.
Well, when i saw the shape of it, I knew it was going to happen, but that was still quite disappointing. Thank God Juozas was with me and after few hours of work and driving in Klaipeda looking for tools, he managed to put that fan to the work and gas pedal to a condition enough to drive the bus back to Vilnius.
So, we got out of Klaipeda at about 11 PM and there was 340km to go. i must say, that this was my first time driving something bigger than a normal family estate, but despite of that I was very happy with handling.
Sadly, I cannot say the same about engine. It has some really big problems. We hardly did 80km/h .It seemed like this is the maximum speed of it and this wouldn't be a big problem, but it takes several minutes to reach it and that is very disturbing.
We did several stops to make sure everything is working well and we haven't lost any parts. We also had to rest, as to get the engine cool enough we had to drive with all the windows and engined apartment open. The mix of the heat from the engine, and the cold wind coming from outside was very disturbing.
Some of the fixing were done on the road. Juozas managed to get the radio going and we had some sweet tunes of Lithuanian folk music :]
Well, when i saw the shape of it, I knew it was going to happen, but that was still quite disappointing. Thank God Juozas was with me and after few hours of work and driving in Klaipeda looking for tools, he managed to put that fan to the work and gas pedal to a condition enough to drive the bus back to Vilnius.
So, we got out of Klaipeda at about 11 PM and there was 340km to go. i must say, that this was my first time driving something bigger than a normal family estate, but despite of that I was very happy with handling.
Sadly, I cannot say the same about engine. It has some really big problems. We hardly did 80km/h .It seemed like this is the maximum speed of it and this wouldn't be a big problem, but it takes several minutes to reach it and that is very disturbing.
We did several stops to make sure everything is working well and we haven't lost any parts. We also had to rest, as to get the engine cool enough we had to drive with all the windows and engined apartment open. The mix of the heat from the engine, and the cold wind coming from outside was very disturbing.
Some of the fixing were done on the road. Juozas managed to get the radio going and we had some sweet tunes of Lithuanian folk music :]
It was very fun to drive home at night as the road was so empty and this was midsummer day, so the night was very bright and warm. Big clouds of rain and lightning showed us the way. The Bus seemed to be handling quite well even during the rain.
I'm waiting the road trips we are going to make in this bus very very much :]
So, as i sed, we had some problems and the mid speed was about ~65km/h, so we reached Vilnius only about at 6 AM.
I'm waiting the road trips we are going to make in this bus very very much :]
So, as i sed, we had some problems and the mid speed was about ~65km/h, so we reached Vilnius only about at 6 AM.
Well, it's dam hard to drive this bus in he city because of the engine, but i hope we will be able to fix that.
Here are some overall pictures i made today:
So, it need a lot of work to be done, if we will be able to do some kilometers on it.
The only way is to gather a team to do that and I hope there will be people wanting to help to give this bus a new life !
That's it for now ;]
Here are some overall pictures i made today:
So, it need a lot of work to be done, if we will be able to do some kilometers on it.
The only way is to gather a team to do that and I hope there will be people wanting to help to give this bus a new life !
That's it for now ;]
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