We restore old cars – we save the car from destruction, and ourselves from routine

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We are pleased to announce the start of our large special project “SM Lab in Persons” about the people who work at SM Lab. We want to show them not only as highly qualified IT professionals, but also as creative, interesting individuals who skillfully combine work with a variety of hobbies. From this special project you will learn what it is like to restore a vintage car, how a multi-instrumentalist works, be in the shoes of a photographer, get acquainted with cargo biking and much more)

We'll regularly share stories from our employees about what they do in their free time, how it helps them take time away from work and achieve true work-life balance. After all, this is one of the key values ​​of our company.

Follow our updates and be inspired by the stories of our work-life balance heroes! And we will start our special project with vintage cars.

Hi all! My name is Dmitry. I work at SM Lab as a systems analyst for the Product Gateway product, and in my spare time I enjoy restoring cars. Now I am the happy owner of a VAZ-2102 “Zhiguli” (in common parlance “Dvoika”). In this post I want to share my experience of buying a car and searching for spare parts, the nuances of restoring and owning such a car, funny cases and the main motivators that do not allow you to give up everything halfway.

Enjoy!

Where it all started

I tend to think that car owners fall into two categories: those who simply use them as a means of transportation, and those who love cars. And I consider myself to be in the second category.

The passion for cars came quite early. I practiced my first driving skills at the age of 12 with my father. And then, as an adult, the moment came when both a financial resource and the need to start a hobby that would switch me away from the routine in work and in life appeared. And somehow suddenly it happened that I became the owner of a wonderful car.

It was at night. I couldn’t sleep, and I was sitting on an advertisement site. You know, how it happens with men when they scroll through the feed with advertisements for the sale of things that they will never buy. So I came across a car that eventually became mine. The owner was in Volgograd, and it so happened that I had a friend who lived in this city. I immediately, at half past three in the morning, called him and asked him to buy a car. The man was understanding, responded to my request and bought it a day later. The car was parked in Volgograd and was waiting for me for about a month, until the long-awaited vacation arrived, when I was able to pick it up.

The car did not cost very much money – 43 thousand rubles (this was 2018). Back then it was not the most popular model. Only a few years later, the guys drifting on the Krasnoyarsk “Red Ring” in “Twos” and “Fours” made them popular and the price tag skyrocketed.

Recovery process

During the first summer vacation, I drove the “Dvoyka” to my homeland in Chuvashia, and on the second I began restoration. The car was pretty battered by the life and use of its previous owners, so first of all, technical and cosmetic defects were eliminated. My father and I painted it, replaced the first version of the suspension with a more non-standard one, replaced the gearbox, inspected its technical condition, and I was able to return to Moscow with it. By the way, during this time the car was repainted twice. The first time we did it handicraft, ourselves, and the second time I turned to people who know their business well and understand how to do it correctly.

If we look at the car holistically, only the headliner remains untouched. I modified everything else in one way or another, changed it, or replaced it with something else. The restoration of the car smoothly moved into the stage of refinement and additional twisting, which has been going on for the last three to four years. For all this time, the most difficult thing was to find rare Soviet spare parts and good craftsmen who were ready to take on the repair of an old car with certain nuances.

I tried to keep the interior and exterior original. Of course, the car doesn’t look brand new from the factory, 50 years have already passed, but you won’t find any rally mudguards or hand guards on it. As for technical things, in my opinion there is almost never any point in using authentic ones, because they are outdated. So I support this part with current spare parts. In this regard, I was lucky: the classic Zhiguli did not change much structurally from the 70s until 2010, so many things are suitable for modern cars. Plus there are still a lot of these cars in the country, so there are no problems with finding and purchasing consumables and spare parts.

There are problems only with original spare parts specifically for the Deuce. The exterior and interior had to be assembled in parts throughout Russia. And if you want to maintain authenticity, you have to try. This is despite the fact that my car is not very rare, but still it is not as common as, for example, “Kopeyka”. And there are spare parts that were installed exclusively on Deuces. So a rear bumper in good condition is now very difficult to find and it can cost half the price of the car that I paid in 2018.

I spent about three two-week vacations on basic restoration work. But it is important to note that some processes extend greatly, one might say, for years. Much was done gradually: until you found some part, ordered it, until it arrived, you went and installed it. All I managed to do at once was technical equipment, painting and interior.

Despite the fact that the car as a whole is not difficult to restore on your own and I thought of some things myself, in some cases my father and the Internet helped, it would hardly have been possible to complete the work if not for the help of enthusiasts like me. I am a member of two car clubs in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Car owners of modern Zhigulis, Ladas and others gather in the Moscow one, while retro fans gather in the St. Petersburg Auto Club 2101. There are other models of Zhiguli, like mine – 2102.

Communication with teammates, in my opinion, cannot be overestimated. These people have dozens of years of invaluable experience and can help in word and deed. Moreover, it seems to me that the first is in many ways more important than the second.

Exploitation

The fact that I began to travel frequently in this car influenced the process of its development. We can say that in pre-Covid times I did not sit still at all and constantly moved throughout the European part of Russia. My first trip was from Chuvashia to Volgograd. When I had almost completely completed the car, I drove it to Moscow and lived here for some time. Then the second wave of Covid hit, and everyone was transferred to remote work – I went to live in Sochi. Then he returned to Moscow again until he finally settled in St. Petersburg. So we can say that the car was completed in a variety of garages throughout the country.

I only drive it in the summer: I ride on weekends or go to some events, and I continue to travel actively. For winter I have an old Land Rover, but in the future it might make sense to buy other Zhigulis and tinker with them.

However, as a weekend car it is used very actively. Last year I drove almost 4 thousand kilometers on it in May alone, and this year it’s about 5.3 thousand.

By tradition, every May our Moscow club Lada.cc organizes car rallies. We collect a certain number of cars and go somewhere not very far to meet the holidays. Last year it was Brest. I first came to Moscow in a Zhiguli, met with the guys, we formed a column and drove to Brest. And then through Minsk and the Pskov region I returned to St. Petersburg. This year we were planning a route to Kazan.

He also took part in the opening of the retro season at Zhifest and the Oldtimer Gallery exhibition in St. Petersburg. We gathered in the city and drove out in a column to the exhibition site, lined up in the parking lot, showed off our cars and talked with each other and with visitors. Such events are held annually.

Curiosities

During the time I owned the car, there were some funny situations. This happened when I was still living in Moscow, in the center, and working not far from the Kazansky station – at the Red Gate. Usually the car was parked in the alley behind the office: the parking lot near the house was always full, and I only drove on weekends.

And then one day I urgently needed a car: doctors discovered polysinusitis and I needed to go to the hospital. I come, but there is no car.

While I called the police and waited until everything was examined and processed, I was late to the hospital. I had to take a new direction and immediately go to a completely different clinic, where I was injected and bedridden for several days. As soon as he left, he began to look for the loss in parallel with the competent authorities.

Friends advised me to contact automobile communities. The car was found quite quickly – the thieves took it for a ride and abandoned it in Mytishchi. There she stood, torn apart, in some bushes. In it, the children managed to organize their headquarters, jump on the roof and thoroughly litter.

Due to the strict hospital regime, I was unable to come for her. The car waited for three days until the valiant law enforcement officers drove it to the Krasnoselsky district.

Plans

After this incident, I spent a long time restoring it, changing the doors, and repainting it. But, unfortunately, the roof cannot be simply repaired – it needs to be completely digested. This is quite long and expensive, you need to look for a person who can do a good repair. Many people don’t bother with old Zhiguli cars: it’s easier for them to quickly digest a modern car for the same money than to tinker with an old one. Plus you still need to find a good spare part.

If we get deeper into this matter, it would be nice to strengthen the body. But it is pointless to do such global work without a thorough restoration of the body, and in total a large budget is needed for everything. What can really be improved here and now is the engine, suspension and interior.

In general, different engines were installed on the Zhiguli. My own one has a volume of 1.2 liters. Depending on the model and year of manufacture, they put 1.2 l., 1.3 l., 1.5 l., 1.6 l., 1.7 l. and 1.8 liters, the largest, were installed on the VAZ “Nadezhda”. For the future, I purchased and began tuning a 1.8 liter engine, and am slowly purchasing spare parts for it.

The new engine will increase the dynamic characteristics of the car, depending on the degree of tuning. You can assemble it in standard and, of course, then it will slightly increase the return. Let's say in the original 1.2 liter engine. – 54 hp, and 1.8 liters. about 80 hp By tuning, you can increase the output of a new engine almost three times. We have an example of such a car in the St. Petersburg auto club. The guys made a very cool car: “Kopeyka” accelerates to 100 km/h in 7 seconds. Vesta Sport, for example, in 9.6 seconds.

Maybe someday I'll make myself an air-controlled suspension. The current one is enough to use the car every day and travel a lot during the season. I thought about doing modifications this winter, but the finances went to other purposes.

And by the way, about finances. Initially, I didn’t see the point in counting exactly how much I invested in the car. Because the work is almost always extended over time, and the amount of money that I spent on it six years ago is not at all indicative of current realities. Now, when investing in a car, I limit myself to common sense. I don’t install bumpers for 30 thousand rubles, although I would like to.

Tips for beginners

Is it difficult to start restoring cars? In my opinion, there are no special pitfalls. The biggest difficulty will be finding a good car with which you can still do something, because the years do not spare anyone. If you want to restore the Zhiguli, you need to take into account that for a long time they were popular among young people, who were also not particularly thrifty. And now a suitable car will cost a multiple of what I once bought.

For the rest, the main thing is desire. There is a lot of information on the Internet; there are even more people who are interested in restoring cars. Therefore, do not be afraid, you can take it and start.

Let's say you found a suitable car and purchased it. Next, the most important thing is not to give up when the first difficulties appear. And it’s better to immediately worry about finding a place where the car will be stored safe and sound. I learned this truth the hard way, and now the car is always in the garage.

For me, the best motivation was the people who surrounded me. At some point, when it was difficult with spare parts, I thought about giving up and referring to the age-old “it will do.” But then I looked at my teammates’ cars, which were ideal compared to mine, and immediately wanted to improve my own. And it’s great when you have like-minded people who show by their example that there is still something to strive for.

In any case, this hobby is a great way to relieve your head and forget about routine.