Trabant Manufacturing in East Germany

[Pawel66]

Some of you may find this footage interesting: https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=519418022747568

I do not remember this, it was early 70-ies, I was told by my family: we had one of those Trabants late 60-ies, early 70-ies. We lived in an apartment building, on the second floor. These ball bearings on the crankshaft had to be replaced quite often. My dad used to take this engine to the flat do it on the kitchen table...

[FGN59]

These times were harder (a lot more so for those who were in the ‘east’). Not sure we (collective we) are any happier now, but we certainly have it easier.

I still shudder when I think of the time I had to repair the clutch (new clutch plate) on our first car which was parked in the street in central Paris. It had to be done quickly, as otherwise the car would be towed away and all kinds of fines would have had to be paid (no long term parking allowed), we didn’t have a lot of money, I thought I could do it (l had never done anything remotely like it), I was young and full of energy and optimism. I didn’t have a lot of tools, no light, no lifting equipment so had to put two wheels on the sidewalk to get underneath to access some bolts, it was the middle of winter and (it felt like) below freezing. Had to borrow a special tool from the nearest dealership to extract the old plate (I think), they just let me have it over the weekend (!). It got done, just as dusk was turning into night and I couldn’t see anything anymore, and before I froze (not to death but it felt really really cold). I returned the tool on the Monday morning at 7 o’clock sharp, it felt good to be able to say ‘I did it’. Brrrrrr……

[Pawel66]

Great story! What car was it?

[FGN59]

1968 Peugeot 204 roadster

I think this is why the dealership workshop manager let me have the tool: it was sitting on a shelf somewhere, gathering dust for ages, he wasn’t going to need it soon, and even though I probably looked like a harmless - and probably also hapless - but trustworthy guy, I’m quite convinced it’s the car that did it (or rather the car’s registration card, as he never saw the car); others were taken in by that look too, as they let me become CFO and some similar responsibilities later in life.

[Pawel66]

Plus he expected you would probably not go anywhere...

[FGN59]

Touché!

When your father was working on his Trabant engine, were you watching him? My father never had the slightest inclination to work with any kind of tools, except paint brushes (I'vee never seen a man paint that many shutters in his life)

[Pawel66]

I did, but I remember very little: yellowish table cover, some metal in the middle. I remember he said a cat ate the crankshaft... my dad was an engineer, so he did a lot himself around the car. He was specialized in rocket engines (fashion of late 50-ies), but never worked in rocket or military industry.

[mdsalemi]

I think of the time I had to repair the clutch (new clutch plate) on our first car

Ahh, youthful exuberance! I remember one of my early cars, a 1970 Datsun (Nissan) 510. In the middle of winter I needed to change the clutch. Turns out it needed a special tool. I called the local Datsun dealer; they would not lend me the tool, nor would they rent it, nor would they sell it. But, they let me look at it...

So I go up there, with graph paper, a pencil, a machinist's scale and a caliper and micrometer. I quickly sketched it out on the graph paper will all the essential measurements. Gave the paper to my dad who worked in a research lab, and was friendly with the stern German who ran the machine shop. (you could eat off the floor he was so fastidious about keeping the machine shop clean). My dad never failed to do a favor for anyone, and thus he was rewarded with the same level of favors. One afternoon, the machinists made the tool for me. Then, they also suggested some other tricks (headless bolts) to assist.

Under the car in the winter, with an electric heater blowing on my freezing fingers (it was quite cold in Massachusetts) I was able to do the clutch job without issue.

[Pawel66]

Yes, those days, in communist countries the most common way of living was in the apartment buildings. They had parking lots. Saturday afternoons you could meet all your neighbours as everyone was out in the parking lot working around their cars. And those were cars requiring permanent attention unless, you had a new car, which was rare.

And it also was the time: you bought a new car (if you waited long enough or got a special paper assigning a car to you by the Party), you paid, say, 100 000plz and you could take it to the free market and sell for 5x100 000plz, which was worth half of a medium priced flat. hard to imagine today - economy of permanent shortage of everything...

That Trabant you can see made - if you managed to get a new one for a state regulated price - you were the "chosen one"!

[FGN59]

you paid, say, 100 000plz and you could take it to the free market and sell for 5x100 000plz, which was worth half of a medium priced flat. hard to imagine today

Not so much: we just call it capitalism 

In the most egregious case, nothing to be proud of, but I guess so are base human instincts

[WRe]

Hi,
there are some other videos about building a Trabant.
- https://youtu.be/nZJHAqo-cCY
- https://youtu.be/emoF0EFxjjA
...WRe

[AndrewB]

No health and safety for the Comrades building cars for the masses of Eastern Europe !

Spray booths without masks, no ear defenders, no safety guards to prevent fingers being cut off on band saws and no other safety measures on display.

There are many "champagne socialists" who like modern products but keep on lecturing how bad the capitalist system is. It has its weaknesses, but I am not sure they would want to go back to the "good old days" when the workers lived in a socialist paradise

The video (and others on similar themes) should be compulsory viewing for people who want to change the system based on nostalgia for the alternatives.

If you take out incentives and subject everything to central planning, the number of choices start diminishing rapidly, and scarcity / rationing takes hold (unless you are one of the privileged few with connections).

[Pawel66]

You would be surprised how many would like the "good old days" to come back here. Mostly uneducated,  unemployed (although you really need to focus on it to be unemployed here).

[FGN59]

France is a rather egalitarian country (after all, it says ‘égalité’ in the country’s motto; it also says ‘liberté’ and ‘fraternité’ but…). After tax and social transfers (for low income, poor health, disability, unemployment, housing, large family, you name it we got it) it comes out even or better than most other European countries in the ‘gini’ coefficient (an internationally accepted measure of inequality). Yet we still have barely 50% in favour of capitalism, and undying breeds of ‘sans culottes’ revolutionaries (like the gilets jaunes and the far left), altogether not far from 30% of the population. I guess we like to fight yesterday’s wars, like our friends the Poles (there’s another thread alive on the same theme).

[zak]

Startling memories. In the US it was a bit different, but in the early 60's everyone worked on their cars right on the streets. You could leave a car up on jack stands for a week and no one would ticket you. I remember many sidewalk crawl unders. My dad was an electrical engineer who during WW2 worked on the Manhattan Project. He loved those giant ,big finned American cars and was appalled when at 17 I bought my first car - a Saab 96 V-4 that I crashed, then an Alpine Sunbeam that rusted under me, and then a 1958 Alfa Giuletta Sprint Veloce that I bought for $ 200. Wow great memories.
Thank you.

jz

[georgem]

So do these stories provide an alternative to the  classic "shade tree" mechanic - we now have "gutter " mechanics

[FGN59]

 

[Mike Hughes]

For many years, a man who lived nearby could be seen driving to work in an old pre-war M.G. in all weather (he fitted motorcycle motocross tires to the 19" wheels for better traction in snow). He acquired the PB while studying Physics at Bristol University in the early 1960's and it was his daily driver until the day he died just a few years ago.  Being a penniless collage student, he couldn't always afford the road tax, and one couldn't leave an untaxed vehicle parked on the street in Bristol.  So he would dis-assemble the PA, storing the body tub, engine and transmission in the garden shed; the windscreen, lights, seats,wheels, fenders and hood panels under the bed and behind the sofa, and the chassis frame with attached axles would be leaned upright against the side wall of his rented digs until he was in funds again and could afford to pay for another tax disc.