CatatonicChimp Posted April 2, 2018 Author Share Posted April 2, 2018 So I am guilty of leaving this thread with no update in a long long time... So where to start... At the end of 2014 I decided that I wanted to try a new career path, and to do that I needed to move to Sydney.... so with little to no warning I did just that, and I bundled up all my stuff including the Trabi and put it on a slow boat over the tasman... Thankfully this was before Australian customs went mental on any little spec of asbestos, and it went through customs with only one slight issue, they bitched to me about how much my car was worth, I had given them the original bill of sale, but they want me to detail all the work that had been done on the car, "If you had done it yourself, estimate how many hours and multiply that by a fair wage.", I didn't keep track of those details and I don't want to know how much I spent and also fuck them, so luckily a friend of a friend was a car importer, and went out and valued the car at a predetermined value. Next became the mission to register the Trabi. The Australian Design Rules "ADR's" are a bitch, they are/were a good 5+ years ahead of almost every other country in the 70s and to fully register a car you have to meet the ADR's of the year of manufacture (from after I think 1972)... and there was no way the Trabi was going to comply, it would fail on rear seatbelts, on front seatbelts, on side instruction, lack of headrests and on emissions. The only other option is for Historic Club registration, which exempts you from complying, but means you have to be a member of a car club, and you are restricted on driving your car to and from car club events... So first thing, this sucks... second thing, try finding a car club that would suit a Trabant, not be in the middle of nowhere, and not full of wanky old farts. There was little in the way OldSchool in terms of a melting pot of different kinds of cars and people, the car club scene seemed to be dominated by wankers in $100K hotrods and "Australian V8" or specialty MG, Mini etc clubs... anyway I found two suitable clubs in the end... one that happened to be meeting just down the road from me... which sucked in regards to short distance to drive, but were willing to sign me up straight away, and had just signed up for the Historic car 60 day logbook trail in NSW. The 60 day logbook meant I could drive the car and do other things for 60 days of the year, but I had to keep a logbook, and had to turn up to a certain number of club meetings per year. (meets at 7am on a sunday really screw up my saturday night drinking plans) Anyway things were fine with the car, and in fact I found another Trabant less than 2km away from me, followed by 6 more on the other side of the harbour (6 were owned by the same person) The One that was 2km away was a 1989 Trabant KubelWagen used by the east german military, and the owner brought it directly from the factory just after the wall fell, currently only has 3000km on it and purrs by comparison to my car or Rodney's (The guy who owns 6). As far as the owner was aware (and based on the full documentation I've seen) it's the last 2stroke KubelWagen produced and the only one sold directly to a civilian with all the military radios etc... so that was quite exciting to find that hidden in sydney. Anyway things ticked along fine till end of 2016 when another Trabant in South Australia came up for sale, and I flew down and drove it back to Sydney via Melbourne and I was looking forward to having a second car which mean I could use them for 120 days a year. The Trabant Kombi make the journey with only the only problems been a temperamental starter motor, and a hole in the front window seal (only a problem when it started to rain 2hrs away from Sydney), however despite make it all the way back it was full of structural rust, the entire roof was swiss cheese and due to the way it was imported back in 1994, there was no way I could get it on the road even if I did fix it. In case you're wondering how I drove it back then, there is a loverly quirk in Australia called unregistered vehicle permits, which allowed me to drive it ~1600km unregistered from Adelaide to Sydney. ^ Taking full advantage of my extra wide single car park space and small cars, pretty sure I could fit a third in there as well if I tried... So I ended up striping it for parts, which means I now have a spare engine, gearbox etc etc etc... sad but there wasn't really any other options available for it. So anyway back in August I got approached by my old job to come back, and it happened to suit me at the time, (so much for changing careers) and now I am back in Wellington, with the Trabi #1 and now 3 east german MZ ETZ Motorbikes... after having to wait a few extra weeks as the moving company lost an key employee who was supposed to be doing all the paperwork, I finally got access to the car and just drove it over to VINZ (shhhh don't tell the police) where it got re registered without and issue (didn't even have to reinstall the centre stop light) so is now occasionally cruising the streets of wellington central.. only things I need one is a couple of little paint touch ups and to get new window seals all around as the grey seals I have all hardened and the rear window is now leaking, it's now a known problem with these reproduction grey seals as they had to substitute some chemical that is no longer allowed to be used in the EU, and well it doesn't work as well as it should, so I'll end up having replace the seals with black ones 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2052NV Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 the two cars in one park is amazing!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatatonicChimp Posted September 4, 2018 Author Share Posted September 4, 2018 So I sold the Trabant a couple of weeks ago, its still in Wellington, but no longer with me at the wheel. It has been a Fun few years, but time to move on to something else! Nothing planned yet, and will probably buy something sensible first... I do still have my 2 bikes I am restoring, but after who knows Hopefully when the bug hits me again, I'll have some new Digs where I can house all the bits and pieces without having to pay for storage or shed access. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocker002 Posted December 21, 2022 Share Posted December 21, 2022 I have a spare engine in my shed if the new owner is interested? I intended to put it in a chopper frame to make an absolutely ridiculous one of a kind vehicle but too many projects... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve West Posted October 5, 2023 Share Posted October 5, 2023 On 21/12/2022 at 22:33, Rocker002 said: I have a spare engine in my shed if the new owner is interested? I intended to put it in a chopper frame to make an absolutely ridiculous one of a kind vehicle but too many projects... Just the engine, or the transmission too? Curious what it all weighs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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