Lada Niva "A" class build

[De-Ranged]

Right boys and girls here's the latest bit of fun to hit the shop

A bog standard Lada Niva Cossack... yea I know I've heard all the jokes but at the end of the day ya can only laugh so long at a FREEBEE ... motor still runs sweet only issue other than the half finished panel beating is a worn out clutch

After several brain storming sessions and plenty of shed fuel it was decided to do it up and race it in the trials... now thanks to a change of career (De Ranged is now my full time job ) I'm not very flush anyway with that in mind and the fact its just a Lada I'm gona try and keep it under a grand for the whole build

So here she is




Right what I'm working to is NZ4WDA Trials rules for "A" class so max tires of 31", no suspension modifications, but I am allowed to cut and modifiy the body to fit the tires , roof is to go and a 6 piont cage to go in, I want some more power (stock motor is only 70hp ) and I'll consider changing to an auto after I've done that we'll see how much money is let and what I can do with it

Please post comments here I'm gona try and keep this thread for the build tech

I need a bit of imput from you guys I need to know the weak pionts on these things... this is my first time building one so if you know of any problems, oh and any good jokes post em in the linked thread.... also need a name for the little girl, might even give away a bit of engineering if some one can come up with a really good name

Cheers Reece, De Ranged Engineering

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Time for an update
I've finally got the rules sorted, don't help that just about everybody has an opinion of what the rules mean, compeditors, competion managment and the person who it boils down to the scrutineer

Anyway now I know what I'm allowed to do and more importantly not allowed :smokin

Slowly gathering the bits and pieces for the little girl
Motor bit of an issue with this I'd assumed "wiring, electrics etc..." to mean I got a computer hopefully I can sorce one cheaply from some where the budget is getting tight

Seats... two new bucket seats off trademe, not the lightest but not bad considering they cost me $410 delivered
My flash bling steering wheel got nicked but I've found another on trademe... the bastards nicked it after I'd converted the original steering wheel into a steering boss for the new one

I'm still waiting on the trans.... thats a bit of stuffing round on there part and mine hopefully this week
And I picked up the new radiator for it yeasterday as the orginal wont handle the new motor.... this was a bit of fun to sort as they arn't very tall... end result after a day digging through wreaker yards... one subaru legacy radiator and fans that with a wee bit of modification will fit
Now that I've got the radiator I can now mount the motor.... hopefully over the next couple of days

Anyway heres what I've been working on, got told it was all good to modifiy the rims :smokin wheel base has to stay the same wheel track can be modified so how does another 4"s sound
Ground out the welds holding the centers in and flipped them round...
Before .... and after

Heres a shot showing the work


Now this has made the comment about trimming the gaurds a little bit more of an issue this is with the wheel at full drop too so you can see I'm gona be doing a bit of bending :really


Right time for me to go play

Cheers Reece, De-Ranged Engineering
027 541 8794

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Right been busy with clients trucks heres a wee update... I'm about to start carving the engine bay so I can fit the new engine trans etc
As you can see from the last pics above with the offset rims there is a bit of a clearance issue with the gards and thats with a worn set of 31"s if I can get a wee bit of sponsorship from a tire company so I can stretch the tyre budget, currently at $550 to a new set of something nasty then I'll have to look at a bit more trimming still got a few bits for sale off the ole girl to add a bit to this

I'm trimming the gard bit by bit on one side till it fits all nice and then I'll use it as a pattern for the other side that way I can work out how much sheet metal I have to weld back in to keep the scrutineer happy I'll then use it to fill the lights etc
Oh a side note with the wheel clearanced I've found out why the steering boxes on these things die and it is easily fixed, more soon
As an added bonus I've picked up another lada for free (busted steering box) I stripped the running gear and suspension out of it as spears, just got to dispose of the rest, that was the deal

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Right heres another update....
Before fitting the motor and trans I needed to know how much space the radiator was gona take up so I fitted it

theres a couple to comparsion shots the grill opening before and a shot of the old below the new oh and the new one comes with a trans cooler in it

Heres the engine mounts, had a bit of drama with these as I built to take the ones that came with the motor only to find one had started to seperate after I'd started so I'm going with the lada ones and a spacer to help line them up

to fit it over the diff I had to do a wee bit of clearance work on the sump

But all the effort was worth it I've got it under the bonnet.... infact I've got enough space I can slide my hand up between the highest piont and the bottom of the bonnet

[SMOKEY]

Hi Reece, I have found that those cotton reel type mounts allow to much movement and will need a good hold back strop/wire to stop the motor going through the radiator. I am enjoying the build keep up the good work and posts.

I'm NOT TRYING TO TELL YOU HOW TO SUCK EGGS,

FITZY.

[De-Ranged]

Cheers for that Fitzy, I've got alot of spare room.... almost 50mm between motor and radiator fans as I'm not running the power steer pump and they seem alot stiffer than the stock nissan ones find out when its going

right here goes a bit more....
I've sorted the steering with a "cheep fix" welded on some bump stops that the steering arms hit on they arn't the best and will flex some due to the angle the contact pad must be on... but thats the angle that the steering arm moves to as the suspension travels so its the best I can do and it will take the pain off the steering box steering stops, and should prevent it blowing

When I convert it over to power steering yes after I've proven I can enter trails for $1000 I might just let loose on it and do some fun stuff and power steering will be top of the list along with more power anyway when I do that I'll toss these bump stops and make some that bolt onto the bottom balljoint

The bottom bit is the new steering wheel couldn't resist hey got to have a bit of bling, but I"ve also moved the steering collum out a bit so its more inline with the driver

Before I started to plate the inner gards in I decided to fix some rust so I cut out all I could find painted all the areas inside the that I could reach with underseal and welded on some new plate... surprisingly only the drivers side floor area was rusty


I've also mounted the front diff but forgot to get photos, will try to remember for next update

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Fun day yeasterday got to machine up the joiner universal between the trans and the transfercase
the trans output has a slip joint in it so I decided to use the whole joint, unfortunatly they have the factory crosses that are crimped in and you more than likly will kill stripping down, so I decided to machine it as a whole, universal jiont and all not an ideal as any machinest will tell you

Next off I had to make a flange to bolt up to the transfercase, I machined this to a moderate tollerance fit to help align it on the UJ spot welded opposites to control weld warpage and let loose, as best as I can measure its got .05mm run out

Also got a good part of the mounts for the transfercase and the trans sorted I'll finish these today

Right time to go

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The transfercase is in just got to get a new trans tunnel and the trans X member mounted
Right due to the use of a slip jiont at the back of the trans and the amount I've clocked the transfercase I've had to cut the old mounts off and build a whole new setup to mount it
I've stayed with the original mounts as I've gotten 4 of them now and they are slotted for adjustablity I've just added another on one side to stop the box being rotated in the mounts

to help with sideways alignment I'm putting washers in between the mounts and the X-member so I can swop them from side to side, up and down is just gona be shims between the body mount and the rubber mounts

[De-Ranged]

right heres a couple of extra bits

Worked out the clearance to fit simex's under the gards at the back.... there's a bit of trimming needed

the second shot shows what I cut out sitting on the wheel, for those that know these toys I've pretty much cut out till I'm level with the inner gard all the way round
Now I need to weld some of what i trimmed off back in there to join it up level, little bit of luck and neibours willing I'll get one of the gards done tomorrow (slight issue with me making noise out of hrs )

Been working on the transtunnel, in keeping with the budget thing I opted for ultra flash pre-painted and pre-loved panel steel I've just about used up all I had so I've dipped into the budget for $10 worth of new pannel steel just to finish it off
Heres a shot from drivers side, cammera ran out of batteries before I could get any more


Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the levers back in and hooked up brakes back in and plumbed up and the seats mounted, also got to mark out the front gards as since I made the call to fit simex's I'll need to trim a bit more may even get some of the welding on the rear gards done ...

[nivaman]

http://www.veytisou.com/lada/Lada_Niva_ ... ration.pdf
Have a look here Reece.

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Sunday was a write off ..... ended up spending it with the misses

But yeasterday wasn't too bad got a bit of time to play on the toy....

Seat mounts are sorted


And I got one of the rear gards finished, there's been some drama about removeal of metal when clearancing the gards, to avoid any of this I was gona use any bits I cut off to fill holes like the front and rear lights etc, but..... my ability to make life more difficult kicked in and I came up with this wonderfull idea

Half a days work later I have one gard done

What I did was start by cutting the inner gard off the trimmed piece, then I cut the sat the gard flear up on the gard and worked out where I need to cut to spreed the "arch" so it would fit and worked out where the ends needed cut, trim and weld... this left a couple of bits I needed to fill, I folded these out of bits of the inner gard

I then cut and welded sections of the original inner gard back in to fill the gaps and strengthen it all, the end of it all is this little bit

which I tacked in place just to keep any rules lawyers happy

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Had a bit of time up my sleave so I managed to sort the drivers front gard and almost sorted the passangers one as well

[GotFlex]

hey hows it goin?? ask jay at the Little Tire shop for some sort of sponsering??

[De-Ranged]

hey hows it goin?? ask jay at the Little Tire shop for some sort of sponsering??

He is on the list of people I was gona approch, I'd rather jack up sponsorship with one of the smaller local guys I've always backed the small guys

[nivaman]

I think this is the site that has the transfer case mod, it is in french but you could use babel fish or look at the pictures.
http://nivaventure.forumactif.com/

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Right time for an up to date... remember back when I cut the gards how I said I'd thrown another inch n a half clearance round the tire I sorta forgot to measure the tyre first it wasn't a true 31"
I borrowed a spare tyre off a mates truck 33"*12.5" to test today and make certain they would fit

just a wee bit short got it there in the end


Took a bit of cutting to open it out to fit

Looks like I've got me a job tomorrow filling in the gaps and doing the same to the other side then attatching the gard to the outside again