What's Wrong With the Trabant's Taillight and Seat? | Unscripted & Casual
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- Опубликовано: 14 май 2020
- Way back in November I went to Washington DC to the parade of Trabants. Here's what happened. Well, here's two things that happened.
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"Aging wheels, only lazy" or AWOL for short. :D
"Lazily Aging Wheels" LAW for short
Haha
The smiling Doggo really helps.
@@gavinendsley LGR would be proud.
Am I the only one who immediately thought “Hi, Dr Nick!” after the first sentence?
hahaha Nice comment!
"Well if it isn't my old friend Mr. McGreg. With a leg for an arm and an arm for a leg!"
No you are not alone.
No I immediately thought that
I cant unsee this now.
Someone remove my eyeballs and fill in my ear holes
"That's either coincedence or related. I can't Tell at this point"
I feel you
That do be how it goes with electrical problems. It's enough to drive anyone mad!!
I promise you that it is either coincidence or related.
This is how I felt 90% of the time fixing old computers when I started working on those, I fear the time I'll run into it with a car. Lol
Lights that Light when they aren’t supposed to are being used by another device to steal ground that they no longer have...make sure EVERY circuit has adequate grounding and your troubles will vanish.
I was going to say the same thing! :_O
Especially problematic on composite non conductive constructed things like Trabants and boats.
Exactly!!! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
It's possibly that big rusty hole with the washer. That was probably the ground and the washer isn't grounding correctly, possibly because of painted metal.
@@tarstarkusz I totally agree
true trabihead has enough parts in his truck to build several trabants at any time
From what I've been hearing about the things you probably need 3 Trabants worth of parts just to the keep them on the road.
It seems entirely appropriate to me that a Trabant Parade involves the Trabants not actually moving!
have you heard the news Beavis was crying
Aging wheels being back makes me profoundly happy.
Horsehair pad on the bottom of that seat. Old VW's had the exact same style of construction of seats!
clearly the west stole that horsehair technology from the superior soviet system
Yup i have a 1972 VW Bus and the seats are filled with the old horsehair, it's holding up remarkably well for as old as it is.
@@MrKroogur the horse used conditioner. I most know, I was the barber
I had a BMW 320i that had the same thing in it.
It's fiber from coconuts.
I love it when you try to fix something and half a dozen other problems only vaguely connected seemingly appear from nowhere. But it looks like the seat under repair is actually disintegrating in front of your eyes.
Take a wire from the engine ground to a lamp ground connection on the cluster if that fixes it you need to reground the cluster probably that rust hole is the ground that's missing
This is the correct answer.
To quote Moog fro MCM: "Seats are like teabags that works in reverse."
Yuck!
@Dan Tallsten got to pay for multiple cars per year somehow
Dan Tallsten you can watch their content for free so I’m not sure what you are complaining about. And they are selling their own merch and books. It’s not like they are shilling for other trash companies like so many others do on youtube.
If you want to know what the Title of the Trabant-manual says it's roughly "How I help myself"
Nitpick: It's "How do I help myself", it's phrased as a question.
That's kinda cute, to be honest
The sticker on the back says "if i grow up i will be a Mercedes" :D
Thanks I was wondering about it the whole time
I remember that parade. Thanks again for taking me and my friends on a ride. We’ve all been huge fans for years and it was awesome.
Looks like you had two problems, one of them was a grounding issue that the part swap seems to have fixed, but that should make finding the remaining issue easier to find.
"are the brake lights working" idk why i replied "yes" out loud but i did.
Good news: You are very empathetic, trying to help.
Neutral news: You have something in common with the Trabant's light
Bad news: It's that you might not be the brightest bulb, either
16:18 That is horsehair. Very common on older cars (at least German ones) and old furniture to use horsehair pads, they unfortunately don't respond well to moisture or age.
Thank you for the awesome knowledge. I was wondering what that was too
I though it is "seagrass", as you can find it inside high quality mattresses and cushion fillers.
Yup, my VW seats were horsehair. Reproduction mats were made out of coconut husk. Look and feel very similar.
@@piwex69 The problem is this is a car from East Germany, so
My VAZ 2106 has the same.
This car brings me immense joy
Same
I think this is my favorite of all the cars he has.
Your German really aint teabag!
Greetings from Germany :D
Btw: It doesn't really surprise me that there is some sort of organic filler in the seat. Foam is made of oil, and oil was rare in the GDR. And it was probably more expensive than birds' nests too ;)
AvE reference
Like the horse hair in my W123 Mercedes.
@@timma_thy
-_-
This is a proper car and was built on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
@Dino Lino do you mean the side where the Trabant was build? The best side? XD
@@timma_thy and so did every one of my Bugs
I was at the Trabant Parade, it my was first time going too, or even just seeing Trabants in person altogether. I had a great time, I even got to ride in one, and it was one of the most fun things I’ve done in years! (Even if the Trabant was having issues and couldn’t get to 4th gear) That parade will definitely be a yearly tradition for me.
I think the Dacia models that were there were Dacia 1300s, the 7 bit might have just been part of the year of production. There was also a KGB Lada there too, which was pretty cool. I also got to briefly meet you, but I didn’t want to bother you too much because I was sure you had better things to do. On a side note, I remember saying “I thought you were a little crazy for the bus-cargo-camper idea”, in hindsight, that sounds kinda rude, and I hope I didn’t come across that way as that wasn’t my intent. What I meant was that the idea itself sounds crazy, not you. I just worded it poorly.
Anyway, another great video, enjoyed as always! Yeah, because of this video, when I get a Trabant I am DEFINITELY replacing the seat pads, because that was nasty!
So cool to see a Trabant 601 in the US! I'm a Hungarian expat and my first car was a Trabant 601 station wagon in the early 2000s. Nice that you kept the Hungarian export plates too.
2:51 I am romanian and my grandfather owns a Dacia 1300. I get to ride in that car every week.
Another romanian on this channel?!?
Awesome!
@@Rob-326 :)
Whoa there's others on here?
@@qpSubZeroqp wait, there isn't only me here? nice.
@@lanimereala 4 romanians so far in 20-ish minutes.
Two thoughts. 1) your casual and unscripted videos are nearly indistinguishable from your planned and scripted videos. You’re just naturally entertaining to watch. 2) you give hope to people like me because, like me, everything you touch breaks worse before you finally fix it. I can’t stand people for whom no bad things happen. Great videos. Love the Trabant.
Coconut fiber, known as "horsehair". VWs used that until the late 70's too.
yep, it's used in hard mattresses to this day.
"That blinker works fine!"
takes almost 3 seconds to blink.
You know there'll good content when aging wheel's back!!!
3:33 Good job, pronouncing "Wie helfe ich mir selbst". Aging Wheels Unscripted & Casual , abbreviation : Agwhee Unsca ! Sounds good. Sounds like a deadly 8x8 V12 US military vehicle to conquer remote USSR swamps . Or like a spicy hungarian potato soup . Nomnom.
i want you to turn the wheego into the worlds fastest garage door opener like you said
It is a classic ground failure, just to check with a ground wire from the battery and to the chassis of the tail light and you will be happy 😊
alternatively, the continuity between the left blinker positive wire and the tail light positive wire.
@@lanimereala Well yes, however it doesn't explain why the blinking light & taillights glow when the brake pedel is pushed.
A ground failure is right on. Also to remember it is 6V With that said, you needed high quality connections and high number of mm2 wire.
To remember this car is manly non conducting, that requires a special attention to ground.
In the olde days, when I was an apprentice I saw it so many times specially on VW Beetle 6V but in general on all 6V cars.
Just for the fun of it, I found an electrical diagram on a 6V Trabant 😂
1. It is a 1 circuit light system however divided into 2 fuses L & R.
2. Left site flashing lights are frame connected to the horn.
3. 2.5 mm2 wire has been used for stop lights & flashing lights and 0.75mm2 for the taillight.
4. For some unknown reason, they have used 1.5 mm2 wire for the frame. Maximum load on the wier is 21W + 21W+5W+ horn = 7,8 Amp + Horn.
1. If there is an error on the light switch, there is no back light on the car.
2. if the diagram fits you will make all the bulbs light up on the left side if you press the horn, it will probably not make a big impression on you, according to the sound pressure.
3. is as expected
4. The only explanation can be that the distance to the frame is very short. I haven't been fiddling around with a "Trabi" ever, so how much metal is in the car I really don't know and how much of it is grounded goes the same way.
Hi Robert! I was the in the trabi behind you when the seat broke. Me thinks it was a long stop light, slightly up hill. From my view you stopped, and soon after fell/ starting wiggling backwards. Really thought you lost brakes, or were trying to stomp a rat on the floorboard! I've been staring at that manual on your wall. He showed me it when we went on a quick ride around the "plaza". Still waiting to see a video of all the cars puttering around.. Met a lot of nice people that day. One lady said she had waited her whole life to ride in one of these. After a few laps around, she said it was worth it.
Never ceases to amaze me how such a simple car can bring so much joy.....
I was in the car ahead, looked behind me and he was disappearing!
Loved being at the Trabant Parade! One of my favorite experiences! Thanks for being just as genuine and awesome on and off the screen Robert.
Best 20 minutes and 48 seconds of my day! (and I'm having a pretty good day). Nice to hear about the Washington visit. I came very close to dropping everything and attending the Spy Museum thing last November. Had my travel arrangements figured out and everything but something urgent came up at the last minute. At some point it could make a cool episode. If this is a sample of the 'casual/unscripted' approach, I gotta say, it works! Great episode!
Cut a piece of pipe lengthways, wrap it around the break, weld it up, it'll be better than new.
Aging wheels looks different every time I click on one of his videos.
Still lasted 40 years longer than a BMW :)
Pretty sure it lasted way longer than it was intended when it was first engineered.
@@Rob-326 I'm pretty sure if you asked the guy who helped build the thing, he probably would have expected the engine to fall out by now
Sadly, my 23-year-old BMW seat broke the same way. Fortunately, it was parked at the time. I think it broke on that side from the force on it getting into and out of the car. When you get older, you tend to push on things more than you did when you were younger.
14:00 i literally thought i had a bug on my screen, then realized it's the pen rolling down the table
Thank you for the video, we missed you !
Finally some quality content on RUclips !!!
Wow, that seat dust looks... absolutely carcinogenic. At the very least it looks like you should avoid inhaling it for fear of it causing hallucinations.
That's poo dust. Made from seat filtered farts. Highly toxic and a hallucinogenic.
The seat went "Oh snap!".
Videos on the Trabant are my favorite on your channel. Such a cool little car.
Great to have you back!!!!
It's an earth (grounding) issue. Re-ground all if possible the lighting fixtures and all shall be well. Plastic body don't make this an easy task mind.
@@yt45204 It is made from Plastic. Some weird combination of cotton and Phenol-resin in an around 50 / 50 ratio. First you make the cotton to some kind of fleece and then you coat it in this Phenol-resin. The GDR had an metal shortage so they tried to avoid buying metal from other countries for a lot of money. The frame which holds this "panels" is made out of steel, though. So Trabants can rust (and do rust).
The resin was produced in the GDR, they had chemical production plants. You have too keep in mind that communism works differently than Capitalism: Everything you can produce on your own is (practically) free. If you can produce something on your own you will use that whenever possible, no matter how ineffective it is compared to other materials you could import. Because in Communism it isn't cost-ineffective; only in Capitalism where you have to buy every material anyway it makes sense to import from another country metal than buy something more expensive produced in your own country which in Communism would be (practically) free.
@@yt45204 Yes, its somewhat different than the plastics we are used to. Our Plastic usually isn't shattering in a million pieces if you drop it ("slight" exaggeration).
But it's completely synthetic, so , as you said, it is technically considered plastic although it is very different from our modern ones. Although I never was able to touch Bakelite because im too young. In German there is the word "Kunststoff", too, which translated means something like "unnatural matter" which sums up the definition of plastic perfectly.
@@99Cafer99 NOTHING is free, every good or service takes time, energy and materials to produce, the economic system makes no difference.
@@JeffDeWitt Of course. But the people in an Communist country have to be fed, housed etc. anyway, regardless if they have work or don't have work. So when they produce something it is almost free. They additionally maybe need transportation to their workplace and this workplace constructed, but that's it. And when you are able to produce the stuff needed for this workplace and transportation it is in the same way "free". It makes sense in Communism to produce everything on your own when you have an very weak currency and imports get very expensive because of that. Communism tends to create an very unproductive Workforce with all it's problems.
@@99Cafer99 Countries with communist economies are very poor because as an economic system communism just doesn't work. Being poor they don't have the option of buying better goods from other countries. It's much like a subsistence farmer in the US from a century ago, while he could have pulled out the Sears catalog and bought far better clothes and tools then what his family could make on the farm he was too poor to do so. It wasn't free for the farmer to make those goods... it took a lot of time, but he didn't have any choice.
And yes, communism creates an unproductive workforce, or as the East German's put it, "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay".
Even if you don't fix something, there's adventure and entertainment in the process of trying to. Thanks for another fantastic video!
Man I can just smell my grandfather's truck when you started messing with the seat. You plop down in his truck and this foam dust comes out and that smell is just unforgettable. I miss the old guy.
Miss the truck or the grandfather?
@@lightningdemolition1964 both really.
I like the unscripted/casual format Robert. Thank you.
Check the grounding for that tail light.
Typical symptoms of a bad ground.
I love the idea of you changing the order of "Casual & Unscripted" every time you say it
I'VE BEEN WAITING!!!!
AWOL : Aging Wheel's Occasional Laments. lol
Looks like the blinker is grounding through the red tail light because 2 bulbs have double the resistance so glow at half brightness. Put a ground wire from the blinker bulb GND to a solid chassis GND.
On the other hand it kind-of works fine on the hazards but not the blinker stalk switch, so it could be there.
Who else was thinking to themselves "Dang that is a nice rear end... And the car doesn't look half bad either."
Excellent choice, Misses Aging Wheels.
I can't remember any Dacia to have 7 in it's model name...
Except for the Dacia 1307.
My favorite is the Dacia 1300 (aka Renault 12)
Rob 326 I love that car as well. The roof has a super cool design
Welcome back!!!
I'm so glad you made another Trabant video! I love them so much! Anyway thanks for the entertainment on my one day that I'm not studying! Have a good one and stay safe!
7:40 -- A literal participation trophy.
And the fact that it's broken just seems fitting since it's a Trabant
I can't get over how good your new camera looks!
I am fixing the seats right now, and this video was helpful! Thanks! :)
Aging wheels.....video gold. I like an unscripted free flowing video, it's fun.
Unscripted & Casual is perfect for stuff like this
It's so good to see a Hungarian licence plate though on your Trabant. I am from Hungary and I always smile when I see any kind of Trabant 😇💞 and the sticker is so cute 😭
Little story from my dad: he had a Trabant when I was a couple weeks old, and I wouldn't sleep like, ever. He thought it was weird that I've always slept in his car when we went somewhere. So this genius man though, oh I'll just bring her down, start the engine, she'll fall asleep and I'll bring her back to her bed.
WRONG!
HE wasted so much petrol because of me and his genius idea, because I always woke up when he decided to stop the engine and bring me back 😅
Weld up the seat & cut down some foam to roughly match the old stuff.. Or to match your contours. Get the seat fabric re-made at an upholsterer?
The father of a high school friend had very problematic lights on his old car and decided to run a separate earth wire round to all the lights. He got almost an extra volt at each point. I don't think that would be too difficult on a simple little car like the Trabant. You are building a BUS after all :D Relying on the earth return through the body doesn't seem to be working very well. Always a joy to watch your videos. Cheers
Love the orange sticker in the back, it's in hungarian, meaning:
"If I grow up I'm gonna be a Mercedes" :D
A while back you mentioned your struggle with depression and taking medication to treat it. I also have been dealing with this for quite some time now so truly respect how you express your creative nature as it relates to tinkering with old cars and making a living doing so.
Respect!
If you ever need help translating German/English, I'd be very glad to help out. I'm German-American and am a native speaker of both languages. I have also lived and worked countries extensively.
As for the build quality of the Trabant, well, it was truly crap as you've noticed yourself.
We need more Trabant merch. I haven't thought of any yet but when I have an idea I'll come back
I had a 1962 ford cortina that had horse hair underlay under the dash board, floor carpet and even lined the hood trim. Stinks like shyte when it gets wet, and burns like crazy when its dry. Great stuff.
The brown, fibrous material reminds me of the pads used in swamp coolers, and it may have been used to allow airflow under the seat. My guess is to aid in drying if someone should crap their shorts because of the surprises they get when they're driving a Trabant.
didn't expect a vid, glad to be watching
I dont know if you know, but the sticker next to the plate says: If I grew up im going to be a mercedes 😂
Excellent work and thanks for the content
We had a Skoda who’s driver seat resembled your seat , the frame was a bit stronger though … I’ve seen seat filling like yours on several ’30s and ‘40s European cars we owned in NZ back in the’70s and I guess that Trabant had plenty of supplies when the wall went up to keep making the traditional style seats …. I love your eclectic collection !
Oh god! You're back! Finally some good fucking content!
Hey Robert, I'd check the wiring going into the tail light assembly (I know you changed it so it was exactly the same as the last one). I had the same problem with a Ute here in NZ. I found the Earth and tail light wires were swapped around the wrong way. Changed them so they were correct and never had an issue since
Finally, some quality content.
That hay stuff is apparently common in older cars. My 1986 Nissan 300zx was built the same way with the foam over the hay/horse hair padding.
Who else misses Aging Daily? These unscripted vids are great.
Usually the blinking issues and glowing are a bad ground. I once had a dual filament bulb where one filament broke and then rested on the other filament. This energized the other circuit causing a connection between blink and running lights. This looks like that. You may want to check all of your dual filament bulbs for this since it could occur on other locations while still functioning normally at the broken bulb.
The protective layer over the springs / frame of the seat is referred to as ticking. It's usually a heavy weave cotton cloth and is designed to protect the padding from springs poking through and causing damage.
Those seat covers remind me of the '92 Hyundai Excel I bought. The seat covers had been on most of its life and when they wore out, the previous owner just put another layer on, the bottom most layer was disintegrating into brown powder just like that
Finaly! Missed ya
I owned two Trabi's just after I got my driving license. In the 90's, here in Poland, they were the cheapest "cars". I owned 6 and 12V (from 80's) versions. The latter ones were much reliable. The weakest point of Trabi was the engine - (pistons, rings etc) very vulnerable for constant close to top-speed drive (over 80km/h) The second weak point was the corrosion of the underbody. The problem with lights seems like bad grounding. I'm very happy that still are such enthusiastic people ready to put a lot of work to convert such garbages like Trabant into usable vehicles :) Alle the Best from Poland. Beata
re: Seat padding.. it's "Horsehair", found in lots of older Euro cars, particularly Volkswagen. it's not literally horsehair but instead coir - a fibre made from coconut husks. You'll always find decomposed bits of it under the seats in a Type 1.. which makes *awesome* kindling for when some lardass flops down in your back seat and shorts out the battery terminals on your exposed seat springs.
When re-assembling, I hog-ring down a protective layer of burlap or other cheap fabric to the metal springs & frame to do not erode the padding so much.
Yes! Don Robert uploaded video!
When you shook the dust from that seat cover towards the camera I actually retched
simple interesting videos. no flash, good conversation...and no glasses on hat good job!
When I was a kid my Dad got a late 60's/early 70s Mercedes 300D - the back seats were stuffed with straw much like you found in the seat. No foam - just the straw mat material. It was a very cool looking car, but what a dog.
Weld the seat, reupholster the seat with modern foam and fabric, your backside will thank you. And fix the ground issue in that car! Great video and content.
Love your Trabant videos.
Please more of it.
This video made my day. It just did lol
Ford Sierras and Escorts were known for flashing brake lights and indicators due to bad earthing (usually due to rust) so may be worth checking, especially as the Trabby has a plastic body.
I would be tempted to check the left cluster's grounding connection to the vehicle's body. This issue used to happen here in the UK with Ford, Peugeot and a ton of other cars. The cluster would ground through the other lamp circuits and make the bulbs do strange things.
I watch all your videos but my favorite are always the Trabant ones!
Casual & Unscripted, would be the best.
YES! NEW VIDEO!!!! LETSS GOOO!
Yeah, so i looked for the answer on other eastern european forums concentrating on your electrical problems in Your Trabant, and um - problems with left blinker with headlights on were connected (no pun intended) to the ground cable that leads to the horn. Cleaning the connectors wouldn't hurt either, Trabbies liked to stay moist after the rain...or just by standing around for too long ;)
Maybe it won't help but that's something to get you started ;)
We had the seat break just like that back in the day. My dad traded a can of beer for a replacement.
Coconut husk fibre. Coconut Husk Fibre was very popular for seat upholstering and such back in the day. Who would of thought "Safety Glasses" were a "thing"?
Man opens up ancient car seat, shouts about dust 😂
But hey, good entertainment, and good to see you in fine form, stay safe!
Still surprised he's posting more than 2 videos a month
Funny and entertaining as always
Oh I might actually make the hike from Boston to DC to come see you this November then