Homemade cars. "a dream worth living for" or a do-it-yourself car

AT automotive history Soviet period had one negative point: limited the lineup. But not only this forced citizens to make cars with their own hands. The process itself was important to enthusiasts, however, the results often turned out to be worthy. Some homemade products have survived to this day, and Avtotsentr was able to get acquainted with them.

The party and the government took the movement of automakers under their wing and called it “Samavto”, rightly judging: creative leisure in the garage is much more useful than intellectual gatherings “in the kitchen”. A man, creating a car according to his own drawings, pursued two goals - to get new car cheaply and without a queue, as well as self-realization. In fact, the time and money costs for the construction new car were no less than for the acquisition of serial.

Before those who decided to take a difficult step - to make a car with their own hands, in the country of eternal shortages, the problem of choosing components did not exist. Conceptual solutions were almost standard: for example, the body in most cases was made of fiberglass and epoxy resins. This material is easily formed and processed, allowing without additional equipment achieve the required shapes, it was strong and resistant to corrosion. And yet, some super-desperate craftsmen tapped metal body panels on wooden blanks. People who had already built home-made cars wrote books in which they shared their experience (“I build a car”, “A car with my own hands”).

In addition to the shortage of spare parts, there was another limitation on the flight of fancy for folk designers. Special Rules regulated the main parameters of the power unit, the dimensions of the car, the radii of curvature of bumpers and body corners, etc. As for the engine, its specific power should not go beyond 24-50 hp. With. per ton of vehicle weight. Therefore, in terms of weight for most cars, only motors from the Zaporozhets were suitable: 0.9 l (27 hp) and 1.2 l (27-40 hp) or, at most, from the VAZ-2101 - 1 .2 l (64 hp). It is also interesting that the minimum allowable clearance was 150 mm. In a word, the mentioned Rules were subject only to security and did not contain ideological overtones. So the State traffic inspectorate allowed to build any type of body. And often "home-made" chose frankly bourgeois body layout options - a coupe, a convertible, a minivan, less often a station wagon.

A distinctive feature of this coupe with a 2 + 2 layout (two adults and two children's seats) is that it is the first mass-produced home-made car in the USSR (at least 6 pieces were made). It is worth noting that in addition to complete cars, several fiberglass blanks for bodies were also manufactured. The press of those times wrote a lot about this bright representative of the All-Union Sam-Auto movement. Still, a stylish rear-engined coupe was created on the basis of the 965th Zaporozhets, the most primitive and non-prestigious car of its time.

One of the first-born of such a once fairly common phenomenon as the construction of a home-made car. Articles were not written about this car in popular science magazines, it was not taken to exhibitions abroad, because it was created exclusively as a means of transportation. The car is equipped with a homemade three-cylinder gasoline engine. Such a bold step of the designer is explained by the fact that it was difficult for him to find a power unit of the permitted power, and it could take several months to wait for it to go to the spare parts store.

On the sports coupe "Gran Turismo Shcherbinins" in 1969, there was a motor from the GAZ-21 Volga, which accelerated the car to 150 km / h. The heavy machine was equipped with more powerful engine, which was not allowed by law, but still severe at that time, the traffic police, subdued by the level of homemade products, gave the brothers license plates and registered the car. The history of the creation of the car body reflects the passion and "fanaticism" of the creators. The Shcherbinin brothers welded the frame of the future car in the courtyard of their high-rise building. Then she was lifted by a truck crane to an apartment on the seventh floor, where a body glued from fiberglass was put on the frame. After that, already downstairs, in the yard, the assembled body acquired power unit, gearbox, suspension, fittings.

This homemade product was registered both in the traffic police and in the State Inspection of small boats. The motor from the 21st "Volga" paired with a gearbox from the "eared" "Zaporozhets" on land accelerated the car to a respectable 120 km / h, and on the water - up to 50 km / h. Thanks to the excellent distribution of weight along the axes (50:50), the car had an enviable ride and stability on a suburban highway. Instead of a propeller for moving along rivers and lakes, the author used a water cannon, like in army amphibians, which allows you to move in shallow water. Made it easier for the car to storm the coast four-wheel drive. On the water, the wheels were lifted up along the sides by a cable winch, the hydraulic brake lines had high-speed "dry" connectors.

Another uncharacteristic for "Samavto" machine is "multi-circulation". According to one drawings, five cars were built on the basis of the Togliatti "six": two in Tbilisi and three in Moscow. For the manufacture of the body, both fiberglass, which was scarce at that time, and ordinary burlap, which was impregnated with epoxy resin, were used. The basis of the body was the metal bottom from the VAZ "classics", which was glued with fiberglass to avoid corrosion. Subsequently, one of these homemade cars was converted into an electric car.

An all-wheel drive minibus with a front engine was built using units from the VAZ-2101 sedan. It easily converts into a pickup truck thanks to the removable metal sides and roof. For this, the car was loved by operators who filmed reports on the all-Union runs of Sam-Auto. The body of the "one-volume" is mounted on a riveted frame from a pre-war car, transfer case the creator borrowed from the wartime Willys MB SUV. The suspension, as is customary with the "correct" off-road conquerors, is completely dependent, spring. Although the car looks like a "loaf" UAZ-452, they have little in common. Despite the considerable capacity, the car easily fit into the size restrictions determined by normative documents for do-it-yourselfers. Then, in terms of the volume of cargo carried, the minibus was compared with the Volga station wagon GAZ-24-02.

The Soviet Lamborghini was built on VAZ-2101 units in fiberglass load-bearing body. Thanks to the streamlined shape, the car accelerated to 180 km / h. It was distinguished by a number of innovations, unprecedented for the then automobile industry. For example, the role of the doors was played by a part of the roof, which was lifted by a pneumatic actuator along with the windshield and side windows. The engine was started not by the ignition key, but by dialing a digital code on the keypad. side mirrors were not provided for in the design, instead of them there was a periscope, fortified near the hatch in the roof. But in order to obtain license plates, the mirrors had to be installed. The car helped its creator, engineer Alexander Kulygin, get a job at the AZLK design bureau.

Two front-wheel drive cars built by fellow engineers appeared simultaneously with the first mass-produced front-wheel drive cars of the USSR. In 1986, at the 100 Years of the Automobile exhibition in Prague, Nuccio Bertone himself was pleasantly surprised by the modern coupe and did not immediately believe that it was a homemade product. The engine from the VAZ-2105 was placed in front, the gearbox from the Zaporozhets was turned back to front (there were almost no other options for creating a front-wheel drive car in the Union at that time). The wheels were driven by CV joints from the VAZ-2121 Niva, the body was made of fiberglass.

Konstantin Shirokun
Photo by Sergey Iones

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

Original taken from aslan How to make a legendary car with your own hands.
In search of material for the community, I accidentally stumbled upon a blog in which the author described how he created the car. This was not just any car, but a legendary car with an interesting history - the Mercedes 300SL "Gullwing". I became interested in the history of recreating an automobile rarity and plunged into a fascinating reading about how a copy of the legendary car was made from scratch, and not just a copy, but a car assembled from original parts.
Later, I was able to meet with Sergei, who made his dream come true and learn some details about the creation of the car. He gave me permission to take text and photos from his blog and make a post for the community readers.

In the process of creating the Mercedes 300SL "Gullwing", the suspension from the Mercedes W202 and W107 was used. Remembering that the best is the enemy of the good, we put adjustable shock absorbers. Particular attention should be paid to the gearbox rear axle, usually it is with him that the biggest problems arise, which is why customizers love non-split bridges so much. On a Mercedes, this unit, along with the drives, is assembled on a subframe, which greatly simplifies working with it.

The stainless steel exhaust system complies with the Euro 3 standard, and fuel tank- a real work of art: so that the fuel does not splash, partitions and overflow pipes are installed in it. In one of the photos - the steering wheel lock

In the Gullwing project, it was decided to use the next generation of M104 engines with a volume of 3.2 liters and a power of 220 hp. paired with an automatic 5-speed transmission. The choice of engine was not accidental - it is more powerful, lighter and quieter. The gearbox is primitive, with a torque converter, many of these units are familiar from the Mercedes W124, W140, W129, W210. A hydraulic booster was also installed, all units are new, so there should be no problems.

We make a body.

Back in 1955, Daimler Benz produced 20 cars with an aluminum body and 1 with a composite body. We decided to try composite.

After the manufacture of the body and assembly of the chassis, the crossing of the body with the frame begins. The process is so painstaking and dreary that no photos and words will convey. Assembly and disassembly, adjustment - all this takes more than one day. Many details are finalized on the spot, and the body is attached to the frame through special dampers with bolts in 30 places.

All body parts are installed and adjusted - doors, hood, trunk lid. There is a lot of trouble with glass - they are mounted on rubber seals, and since all seals are original and designed for steel, you have to strictly observe the thickness of the frames of the openings. Each part is removed, adjusted by hand and only then installed in place.

Many parts for the most popular rare models are still produced in small batches in some workshops, which is actively used by all restorers. But what is there to hide: the factories themselves forge their rarities, especially Audi and Mercedes have succeeded in this.

In many museums there are candid copies. So recently, a lot of "Horkhov" has bred. This is especially interesting, given that all factory documentation was lost during the war. Dozens of workshops on the equipment of those years churn out fakes, passing them off as carefully restored products. The devil is in the details.

So we just bought and collected all the details that could decorate any rarity for 500 thousand euros. I assure you, every nut and bolt (I'm not talking about rubber bands) is correctly marked in 1955. Everything is original, even the seats.

The body has already been primed, and this is the most important point, because the composite is a special material in painting, because plasticizers and all sorts of other complex things are needed here. The secrets of the primer are kept and no one will ever tell you. But it looks nice.

A short video from the painting process

In the meantime, the body is being painted, let's prepare the components for assembly. As I said - the devil is in the details, and there are more than 2 thousand of them in the car! Dashboard, she was looking for a very long time.

We also find devices and relays, of course, not everything turns out right away.

But with enviable patience and perseverance, you will have the opportunity to get a completely authentic instrument panel consisting of 80 (!) Parts.

The main thing is that it also works later: the devices are all expensive. Cheap is not good.

The body is covered in 6 layers of varnish, it is very beautiful and will not need to be pasted over with a chrome film. Yes, shagreen is a must, and the grain should be fine. Now they don’t paint like that anymore, they dilute everything with water, they have ecology, they protect nature. By the way, paint 744 (silver) is the most difficult to paint, any painter will tell you.

They finally married the chassis with the body.

Installed doors. It would seem that the matter is not tricky, but I want to tell you one story. The Mercedes 300SL "Gullwing" had many design flaws. One of them was the doors themselves: they were steel, heavy and hinged to the roof of the body, and were fixed by a spring enclosed between hollow steel tubes with hinges at the end.

In the extreme upper position, the spring was compressed, and when the door was lowered, stretching with a roar, the door slammed shut. When opening, it was necessary to overcome the resistance of the spring, which simply pulled out the door along with the brackets (900 euros each).

Experienced owners of "Gullwing" know that with inept use, this will inevitably lead to deformation of the roof, moreover, the brackets themselves simply break. The stem and spring assembly has become insanely scarce over time, and its cost has risen to astronomical heights. Each owner of such a rarity repairs these units once a season. We decided to go the other way and install gas shock absorbers.

It would seem that something easier, but it was not there. I had to develop the whole assembly, it took 4 months of hard work. Fortunately, there was a workshop that brought ideas and drawings to life. With full external authenticity, the doors today open like the rear fifth door of German SUV. The knot turned out to be so successful that it immediately became the object of desire for all owners of rarities, I think that soon all "gullwings" will have doors that open very effectively and smoothly, without knocking. Now this process has really become similar to the flapping of a gull's wing - gracefully and smoothly.
This is just one, and the simplest example of the tasks that had to be solved when building this car.

By the way, the door lock mechanism has also undergone changes. Despite the cost of 1,500 euros, it stuck very often and did not fix the door, but that's another story.

At the very beginning of the project, it seemed that interior trim was the smallest problem, since there are workshops for altering interiors at every step, so what, and now any master can handle leather. The business is to sheathe a bunch of details with leather, but as it turned out, this is a HUGE PROBLEM!
After four attempts to create interior details in tuning studios, I realized that everything is much more complicated.

Created products by no means wanted to look like the original. Everything looked like a cheap fake: the leather was bristling, traces of heat treatment were visible, the texture did not match, and no one could pick up the material. In short, I began to delve into the subtleties and found out that modern masters are completely unable to work with felt, wool and other materials used at that time. They stupidly warmed and stretched the skin, used foam rubber wherever they could, actively worked with an iron, in short, mercilessly destroyed materials, depriving them of their naturalness and nobility. I'm not talking about durability either.

After suffering for half a year, we came to the conclusion that only restorers are capable of such work. They have a special paralon and felt. In general, they found a company, guys - wolves, uncles, under 60 years old, who have been restoring only Mercedes for 40 years. What they showed us and told us is just a novel about the skin, and they guard their secrets in much the same way as the secret of making paper for the dollar.

The video shows an example of the process.

Interior details for my baby were made for 4 months. The skin is just alive.

I will also add that the skin that manufacturers offer today is chemical bullshit with impregnations. It is not for nothing that all the owners of Mercedes and BMWs go nuts after a year of operation - the interiors look like those of old redvans: not fresh, the skin stretches, peels off. As I said earlier, the devil is in the details.

I'm not talking about vinyl, widely used by the Japanese, and by all manufacturers in principle. Now in a Mercedes there is not enough leather even for a jacket, one bullshit, that's why options appear - "designo", "individual", "exclusive". Leading manufacturers, at least for 10-15 thousand dollars, will offer you real leather, but what they sew for you for 50 thousand rubles cannot even be called leather.

Wheels are one of the important parts of a car. So for our handsome man there were two types of wheels. The first were placed on the civilian version.

The latter were offered as an option. They came from sports - real ones, with a central nut. Of course, it is nice to have chrome wheels, but the price of 5 thousand euros per wheel is somewhat annoying.

How then to hit a nut with a hammer, knowing that it is gold? original disc for the classics is also not cheap - 3 thousand euros. So I think, I really want to save 8 thousand euros.

One of the main factors in the operation of the engine is the removal of exhaust gases (combustion products). I do not want to recall here the laws of thermodynamics, I will only say that the last 150 years exhaust pipe is a symbol of progress. Remember locomotive pipes, steamboats, blast furnaces. Remembering my love for details, I want to assure you that it was the pipe that was given the closest attention. This is a masterpiece of engineering.

The exhaust system is made of stainless steel, which no manufacturer can afford, and is a complex system of thick-walled and thin-walled pipes mounted one into another, which, with the complete authenticity of the appearance of the pipe, solved the problem of "gulving" - noise and heating of the passenger compartment. Well, the main thing is the sound of the exhaust, it's just a song. The problem was solved with the help of resonators installed inside the system.

If you want to understand what kind of car you have - look at the exhaust pipe!

Don't pay attention to the date on the photo, just bought a decent fotik. They snapped it off, but they didn’t figure it out with the instructions, it turned out to be the wrong date. Well, to hell with it, everyone interested, enjoy.

We have made many changes to the design, we try to do everything as authentically as possible. A very clever hand.

With a tank, a separate song, they made their own from stainless steel, slightly changing the location of the neck, but this is a separate story.

There is a good saying - it is better to see once than to read about it a hundred times. Everyone who reads and watches my blog knows my favorite expression - THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS. These are the details that I will show you today. There is no point in writing for a long time, you will understand everything yourself.

Braided harnesses and wiring, well, I think you just haven’t seen this yet, a two-tone horn, in short, just look, all this is called TECHNOLOGIES.

The main task facing the implementation of this project was to create complete authenticity of all interior details. It would seem that it could be easier than copying an existing sample, but as they say, everything is not so simple, and much more difficult than even restoring.

So, we had to get all analog devices working, and work correctly with electronic blocks modern units; stick a bunch of additional equipment into a cramped little car, such as air conditioning, hydraulic booster, brake booster. All this should work from standard toggle switches and switches. The dampers of the stove used to have mechanical drives, as on the Volga Gaz 21, so the stove had to be completely redone. But the biggest problem was the manufacture of the gear selector.

The whole difficulty lay in the fact that the car was originally built for sports, it was small and very low, even the engine had to be placed at an inclination of 30 degrees so as not to break the silhouette of the car. The box was located in the tunnel and had a direct articulated drive.

There was no more than 2 cm of free space between the box and the box itself. I have already said that the car itself was cramped and very noisy, and this problem had to be solved. Since a standard engine-box pair was taken, the task became even more difficult, because automatic transmission much larger in size and has a completely different control principle.

After much torment, a hinge and a linkage system were designed, which made it possible to completely imitate this assembly, which can be easily seen by looking at the original.

Well, the most interesting: if you carefully study the photos, you will see that the seats are much lower than the original, this is also a trick. The fact is that the car was so cramped that a person with a height of 180 cm rested his head on the roof and was forced to sit hunched over at the steering wheel, but I like to drive with straight arms, so I had to change the angle of the steering column to ensure comfort and not disrupt the overall look. How this was achieved is a novel, from the manufacture of the unique sled to the alteration of the floor and seats.

I'm not the first to decide to recreate the legendary car. Back in the late 70s, similar attempts were made in America, with Tony Ostermeier, a former mechanical engineer from Gardena, the furthest advanced. He managed to build about 15 cars in 10 years using units from Mercedes of those years. Today, these machines are themselves rarities.

I saw them, of course they are not as high quality products as we would like, but this is the best thing that has been done. In the 1990s there were attempts American company"Speedster" using Tony's matrix to implant it on the components of the "Chevrolet Corvette C03". Only 2 cars were made. One of them is now in Ukraine, and the other in Moscow. The cars were sold for $150,000.

Actually, that's all. True, there were attempts to put shells on the SL and many more high-profile statements, but all this is zilch, people ran ahead of the locomotive, as with our yo-mobile: there is nothing yet, but 40 thousand applications have already been submitted.

By the way, working with a composite is very difficult. Only its high-quality painting costs about 10 thousand euros. Well, and most importantly: FORGING AND COPYING ARE TWO BIG DIFFERENCES.

They say that everything in the car should be perfect, both the engine and the trunk. On the first car, they decided to use gas shock absorbers to open and fix the trunk lid.

We redesigned the filler neck a little, reasonably considering that if it would fit tightly to the trunk lid. this will reduce the risk of spreading the smell of gasoline inside the passenger compartment in the event of a spill.

I didn't like the idea. On this car, they made it closer to the original, changing only the shape of the filler neck (the steel funnel around the cap should prevent fuel from spilling onto the Carpet).

Of course, it could not have done without a collective farm: they built a leather condom around the filler neck. It seems to look nice, and they abandoned the shock absorbers, putting the native mechanism (stick) for fixing the trunk lid. It was possible, of course, to get confused with the springs, as on modern machines, but I think it will kill the very spirit of the machine. The open trunk looks great.

And yes, the back looks great. Considering that today everyone already uses tubeless tires, we decided to free up space by placing a stowaway in the trunk instead of a standard wheel. Now at least there is a place to throw a string bag.

Actually, the case is inexorably moving towards its logical conclusion. Of course, it's nice that everything ends so quickly, it remains to smear with a movilchik and stick the wheels.

The wheels are temporary so as not to spoil the original.

That's basically it!

Let's go around the car.

I can only add one thing: before you start doing something, think carefully about whether you have enough strength to finish what you started.

After arriving in Russia.

Video from inside the recreated car.

In this video, you can see how the Germans are restoring the hero of the report, the same "gullwing".

Click the button to subscribe to How It's Made!

Subscribe also to our groups in facebook, vkontakte,classmates and in google+plus, where the most interesting things from the community will be posted, plus materials that are not here and a video about how things work in our world.

Click on the icon and subscribe!

The Ford Sollers plant is located in Naberezhnye Chelny (Republic of Tatarstan). In addition to it, the KamAZ enterprise is located in the city. Until 2011, it produced ssangyong cars and Fiat, and even earlier - "Oka". Now the factory makes crossovers Ford EcoSport, and in 2015 will be added to them Ford Fiesta. In total, there are three Ford Sollers plants in Russia - two more are located in the Alabuga special economic zone and in Vsevolozhsk. The Village visited an enterprise in Naberezhnye Chelny and learned how cars are assembled there.

Ford Sollers

Location: city ​​of Naberezhnye Chelny

Employees: 1 200 people

The plant abounds with bright colors: yellow welding guns, blue carts, red monorails, orange balancers and hangers, multi-colored wires. It is interesting that an industrial designer was engaged in the design of the space - to create a comfortable atmosphere.

Parts for EcoSport are imported from more than ten countries, but now the localization program is actively working, thanks to which the plant has 50 Russian suppliers. By the end of the year, they want to increase the share of Russian components to 40%. At the same time, not all suppliers can cooperate with Ford Sollers: their production system must comply with Ford requirements.

First, on the lines in the welding shop, individual components of the car are welded - engine compartment, front floor, rear floor, underbody and sidewalls. Then the robotic complex forms the body. This process is fully automated. After the geometry is formed, a roof is installed on the body. This is done with a video system. Errors that occur are displayed on the control monitors, and this helps to correct the work.

Every fifth design is checked for compliance with quality standards in the geometry measurement laboratory. They find out if everything is welded correctly. In this room, the air temperature is always kept at +20 degrees to compensate for the seasonal error: in winter, the metal tends to narrow and expand in summer. The measurement takes place on more than 200 points using the mechanical touch method. Permissible deviation from the norm - 1.5 mm. Reports with measurement results go to the welding shop for line correction.

Before painting, the body undergoes preliminary preparation in 11 baths. Here, washing, activation, phosphating, cataphoretic priming of the surface, application of anti-noise and seam mastic take place. After that, the body is dried and enters the painting booth, where robots cover it with a secondary primer and color coating. Eight colors are currently used, but their number may vary - depending on dealer orders. After the final polishing, the sparkling body can go further.

Then he goes to the conveyor belt to the assembly shop, which consists of three lines - "Trim", "Chassis" and "Final". First, protective covers, soundproofing, engine compartment, cabin bundle harness, airbags, brake pipes, pedals, air conditioning,
IP panel. So that the worker knows which parts to use, a manifest is attached to each machine - a document indicating the type of equipment .

At the second post of the line, the doors are removed. Later, they will descend onto the same car they were taken from. Up to this point, they are supplemented by a power window, electric wire, noise and vibration isolation, panel, speakers, rear-view mirrors and other parts.

There are many women working in the shop. According to the head of the department, it is they who basically become foremen. In general, despite the fact that automobile production is considered to be heavy and time-consuming, back in 1914, half of the functions did not require physical exertion from people and could be performed equally successfully by both men and women.

At some posts, racks with parts are equipped with burning flashlights - one in each compartment. When a worker picks up a part, he turns off his flashlight so that he doesn't pick it up again by mistake when assembling the same car. Together with people in the workshop, one robot works: it applies glue to the glass. Automation of the process avoids the ingress of an excessive amount of adhesive mass and prevents leakage.

On the "Chassis" line, the body moves along hangers, each of which rises to a certain height - depending on the height of the person who works at each post. Interestingly, the principle of vertical position at work was introduced by Henry Ford exactly 100 years ago: “Raising the working plane to arm height and further fragmenting the working movements ... led to a reduction in working time to 1.33 hours for the chassis,” he wrote in his autobiographical book . On the Chassis-1 line, air conditioning tubes, thermal protection, a fuel tank, shock absorbers, filters are installed, logos are glued. The bolts on the bottom of the body are marked after each tightening - so that the worker knows that he not only baited it, but also tightened it. Clients sometimes unknowingly take such markings as a sign of marriage.

An important part of the assembly is the docking of the body with the transmission (at the factory it is called "wedding" or decking). The transmission is supplied by automatic shuttles that move on a floor ring monorail conveyor.

Next comes the installation exhaust system, cardan shaft, the final assembly of mechanical groups takes place with the help of manipulators for an electronic programmable tool. Seats, bumpers, wheels, a spare tire are also installed on the Chassis line, connected steering rack. At the end there is a control post - they inspect the body there before sending it to the "Final". Brake, washer and coolant fluids are poured into the car. After that going backdoor trunk and front engine compartment. Headlights are also installed there and doors are attached, and electronics are checked using a scanner. The controller checks the build quality.

Factory employees check electronic systems cars, wheel alignment and headlight beams. Then the car passes dynamic tests on a roll test - it is checked how the engine and gearbox work when accelerating to 110 km / h. At the very end, the door closing speed is tested and paintwork, the resistance of the car to leakage is checked. Then the car goes to the test track, where its final test in action takes place. Then the car leaves for the warehouse of finished products, after which it is sent to dealers.

Photo: Ivan Gushchin

Did you like the Crazy Hands section in the TV program While Everyone is Home? It's so cool - to make a useful device out of nothing. Maybe you know how to weave ropes from old plastic bottles or masterfully make laundry baskets from newspaper tubes? And how about using screws, pipes found in a landfill, and a set of a young chemist to build ... a car? Yes, not just a layout, but for him to drive? In our country, such a hobby existed quite recently. Moreover, in some moment it acquired almost industrial scale. At the same time, none of the manually created models closely resembled either domestic or foreign cars. "Around the World" recalls the Soviet Kulibins and their iron "pets".

Both the Swedes and the Reapers

The do-it-yourself grassroots movement had some of the most famous names. First of all, these are the twin brothers Alexander and Vladimir Shcherbinin. I must say, they did not really resemble people obsessed with technology: they worked as graphic artists and spent their free time in a bohemian environment, sitting in the Hermitage Garden and discussing painting with their comrades. However, this did not prevent them from not only getting involved in automotive design, but also being well versed in components and assemblies. Back in the late 1960s, the brothers set out to build a sports car based on the Volga.

Shcherbininskaya GTShch

The frame for the first sample was welded right in the yard, then the car was lifted to the seventh floor, where the fiberglass body was glued. Then the structure on ropes was lowered back through the balcony, and there, in the open air, they continued to work on the suspension, engine, and interior. The car received a double body type "Grand Turismo", hence the unpronounceable name of the model - GTShch (the last letter meant the name of the designers - Shcherbinina).

Soon, the brothers designed another model - a coupe, which was given the outrageous name "Satan" (later assembled in the image and likeness of this car by other enthusiastic Algebraist brothers, the model was called "Yuna"). The Shcherbinins had matrices for the manufacture of body parts, as well as all technical documentation, so anyone could use the developments. And a few people have done it. Therefore, there were at least a dozen such cars in the Soviet Union. Some of them have survived to this day and sometimes flash at exhibitions of rarities.

I would go to the designers

The heyday of the automotive "amateur" came in the post-war years. Circles of car and motorcycle enthusiasts arose in the country, where they not only dealt with the repair of components, but also learned how to design. Successful models were talked about on the pages of newspapers and magazines, such as Technique for Youth. Largely thanks to this publication, in 1957, the traffic police developed technical requirements for homemade cars mobiles and the rules for their registration, which allowed such cars to drive on public roads. The latest version of these requirements was published in 1987.

Just the same, the “Satan” of the Shcherbinins traveled for a long time without state registration plates. There were several reasons for this, one of them was that the “homemade” movement in the 1970s was so popular that everyone recognized this car anyway. Specifications the cars did not fit into the norms allowed by the traffic police, but they made an exception for the Shcherbinins, since they were artists and illustrated the new version of the Rules traffic USSR. In exchange, they were allowed to register their cars.

Dreams Come True

One of the most famous Soviet automotive homemade products was called "Yuna". Its designer, Yuri Ivanovich Algebraistov, dreamed of becoming a pilot, but did not go to flight school due to his health and became a first-class driver. From his youth, the future designer repaired his father's "Victory", which the family got a bat and neglected, and over time he knew every detail, every screw of the car. Having learned about the homemade products of the Shcherbinin brothers, Yuri, together with his brother, also set about building his own car. The algebraists joined the Shcherbinins to work on "Satan", and then, on the basis of this experience, they assembled "Yuna".

Yuna by Algebraist brothers

From idea to implementation, when the finished car on the numbers began to travel on the roads, six years passed - from 1970 to 1976. The first car of the series went to his brother, and then Yuri began to assemble a car for himself. He completed it in 1982, three days before the Moscow-Baku run of home-made cars. Right from the garage, the second "Yuna" went to the test and on the first trip "made" 14 thousand kilometers.

Algebraistov's machine starred in the film Testers, which was released on movie screens in the second half of the 1980s. Later, the audience recognized "Yoona" on the streets and applauded. By the way, the very name of the model is an abbreviation for "Yuri and Natalya Algebraistov". In numerous interviews, the designer mentioned that the manufacture of the car and all subsequent improvements were only possible thanks to his wife Natasha, who supported him in this field.

Show yourself, look at others

The state not only did not interfere with independent designers, but also helped them in some way. As we have already said, self-made cars could be registered with the traffic police. In addition, runs were regularly arranged, where you could show yourself and your car. Each time it was an event of all-Union scale. In his memoirs, the designer Yuri Algebraistov said: “... the runs of home-made cars of that time were simply amazing. Pioneers with flowers stood on the road between the villages, the traffic police led us from beginning to end, changing at the borders of the regions. And you had to see the faces and eyes of the people who met us, those who were shown on TV ... "

Another Soviet home-made car - "Pangolina" - and its designer Alexander Kulygin

About car homemade filmed TV shows. Especially often this topic was pedaled in the computer program - “You Can Do It”: both “Yuna”, and “Pangolina”, and the amphibian “Triton”, and many other unique models were mentioned in one way or another in the releases. Wrote about "piece" cars and authoritative magazines, such as "Behind the wheel", "Model designer" or "Technology - youth." Any Soviet boy knew the names of homemade products. Moreover, in the late 1980s, the book “I am building a car” was published, written by Vasily Zakharchenko and Ilya Turensky. Special sections also appeared, such as the Moscow section of amateur car design, which at some points was attended by up to four hundred people.

* * *

Names Soviet homemade were very different: in different years, “Gnome” and “Ant”, “Trud” and “Asterisk”, “Gepard” and “Proton” drove through our streets. Undoubtedly, good car, designed by hand, was a lifesaver and an excellent substitute for a hard-to-find stock car. And yet, we should not forget that most homemade products were built on the components and assemblies of the same Zaporozhets, Zhiguli and Moskviches, and sometimes Volga. It turns out that it was not only a shortage, but a desire to stand out, realize your design ideas and get behind the wheel of something unusual, not like everyone else.

Unfortunately, in the 1990s, the samavto movement gradually faded away. For many, a car has ceased to be an unattainable dream, there is a choice, and for their own inventions, the majority did not reach their hands, and there was no time. In addition, the fashion for "homemade" has passed, giving way to the prestige and comfort of foreign cars.

Photo: ru.autopedia.wikia.com (x3)

Do you have a car that you designed and built yourself? Then, to be able to, you need to register it. However, not all homemade cars can be registered, but only those maximum weight which is not more than 3500 kilograms. In addition to cars, you can arrange motorcycles, trailers and semi-trailers.

Procedure

You need to start with the requirements for the design of the car. They are put forward by the testing laboratory. It also issues a conclusion on the conformity of the design of your car. There are certain parameters that must be observed. Therefore, we recommend that you first coordinate the design of the machine by contacting the Automotive Research Institute. In the same research institute, your vehicle will be tested, after which you will be given a test report.

You are required to present a document that confirms the legality of its acquisition. If you assembled a vehicle from components old car- you need to get a certificate about it in advance. If you bought a previous car from your hands - attach it to the documents notarized. All this you will need to present to the traffic police.

After receiving the test report, you need to go to the Institute of Road Safety. This authority will issue you an opinion that your vehicle is safe to drive in the city and that it is of the correct design. To obtain such a document, you must provide a test report. Certification must be carried out within a month after you submitted the relevant application to the state authorities.

After the work done, you can go to the MREO. There you will be given a decision that your car does not have an identification number. Then you will need to go with this paper to the forensic examination bureau, where they will prepare a referral to the traffic police for the car for you. There you will have to present the following documents:

• passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation;
• conclusion of the Institute of Road Safety;
• conclusion of a forensic expert from MREO.

The traffic police will assign an identifier to the car and prepare a conclusion on applying the number. After the number is filled, you must go to the MREO in your home-made car, taking all the documents received during the procedure. Then your vehicle will finally be registered.

Note that for each document you will have to pay state fees. After registration of the car, you will receive technical certificate. In it, in the column "Brand" will be indicated - "home-made". In "special marks" they can indicate on the basis of which model your car was made.

Video review of homemade cars of the USSR:

About trailers

If you plan to register a trailer or semi-trailer, the conditions for the procedure change slightly. You will also need to present a purchase receipt to the traffic police. In addition, you will need to provide the technical passport of the machine with which the trailer will be used.

A bit of history

Making homemade cars has become popular for a reason. This was preceded by certain historical conditions. The fact is that during the time of the Union, cars were not produced that would meet the requirements of a specific group of consumers - only mass models were produced. In this regard, our craftsmen created cars with their own hands, from improvised means.

Then, from three old non-working machines, one new one was assembled. In the villages, enthusiasts turned car bodies into trucks. They independently lengthened the bodies and increased the carrying capacity of the vehicles, since at that time the trucks were not provided for personal use. Craftsmen even created amphibians that were able to overcome water obstacles. All to make your life easier.

There were also aesthetes who were concerned not only with technical and performance characteristics cars, but also appearance. They created a wide variety of vehicle options,. All these masterpieces were paraded at exhibitions and quite legally traveled on city roads.

AT Soviet period homemade cars were not prohibited. Restrictions appeared in the eighties. They concerned power (50 hp per ton) and dimensions (4.7 m - length; 1.8 m - width). But the then motorists used some tricks. For example, they registered with Rostekhnadzor under the guise of tractors. Due to the mild requirements that were imposed on homemade products, a large number of hand-assembled vehicles were registered at that time.

Homemade car ban

In 2005, the registration of homemade cars was banned altogether. This was justified by the need to develop clear requirements and standards for such vehicles. However, the true reason for this, most likely, was the emergence of a new phenomenon in the automotive markets - the sale of "constructors". The scheme was simple: to evade taxes, craftsmen imported them into the Russian Federation, and then collected them and registered them as self-made.

But in practice, this ban also affected those who really made their own hands. domestic cars. However, motorists did not lose their enthusiasm because of this. This is evidenced by the holding of annual exhibitions "Auto Exotics", which presented home-made masterpieces. Unfortunately, these cars did not have numbers, were brought on tow trucks and could not be used for driving on city roads. The most annoying thing is that many homemade products could give odds to some serial machines. Later, the authorities nevertheless signed an order, according to which it is allowed to issue vehicles made independently.

Certification Norms

In order to, you first need to get certified. The requirements that determine the order of the procedure are approved in the relevant order of Rostekhregulirovanie. Now cars are evaluated according to a simplified scheme - as a vehicle, which is produced in "small series". A small series is understood as a single copy of the machine.

This is a little trick of the state, with the help of which it was able to get rid of the import of so-called constructors. The number of machines in a small batch is carefully checked. It is clear that the author of a home-made car that he has assembled for himself will not produce more than one vehicle of the same type. Thus, for those who are engaged in industrial assembly, it is already unprofitable to work according to such a scheme. It is not possible to re-certify.

European requirements

The requirements for home-made cars are no lower than the standards established. There are no "indulgences", in addition, such vehicles must comply with the standards of the European Economic Commission. True, certification of small batches is carried out according to a truncated list of requirements. However, this is still a rather serious procedure that not all homemade products go through.

The video shows a homemade Ukrainian sports car:

In accordance with a document approved by the European Commission, cars are checked for compliance with the following requirements:

• traumatic safety;
• braking performance;
• and places of their fastening;
• glass quality and, as well as the correctness of their installation;
• , light signaling;
• good handling of the car;
• high stability of the car;
• low level of harmful substances in the cabin;
• low level of harmful substances in the exhaust pipe.

All of these requirements apply cars made by yourself.

Good news

When you submit your car for certification, you don't have to worry about it getting damaged during testing. In accordance with the norms, single vehicles are subjected only to those tests that will not cause damage to them. Instead of testing that damages the machine, peer review of the design is allowed.

After carrying out all the necessary examinations, the owner of the vehicle (if it meets the established standards) receives type approval. This document allows him to go to the place of registration. When registering a car, all data is entered into the register.

Video review of a homemade car SPACER:

Restrictions

Registration is not subject to home-made cars made on the basis of components that were imported into Russian Federation for more than six months. They must be provided with relevant documents confirming the legality of their appearance on the territory of the country. All of them must be certified. If you make any changes to a registered vehicle, including its constituent parts, spare parts and additional equipment - you will have to re-pass the certification and declaration of conformity procedure.

If you are not certified

If your homemade vehicle does not meet safety requirements, you may be denied registration by certification authorities. You have the right to appeal such a decision in court. However, it will be much more effective if you try your vehicle in accordance with the reasons for the refusal. After the changes, you can apply again for approval of the refurbishment.

If you re-equip the car, in accordance with the issued conclusion, and use the units that, for example, your friend who received the permit used, then things will go much faster. Of course, in the event that he handed over a similar model for certification. However, do not forget that for each car you can get permission on an individual basis. To approve mass production homemade cars will be more costly.

Video review of a homemade Ferrari:

If refused, you can convert the vehicle to or in a repair shop. Of course, you can do this work yourself, but you still need to get a certificate of their implementation at a certified station. After the conversion, the electric vehicle will need to be certified again for compliance with the requirements and conditions defined by the expert organization. These organizations include testing laboratories that have a valid certificate of accreditation in this area. If now you are given permission, go to the MREO and register your car.

Car lovers should understand that in most cases it is much easier to assemble a car than to register it. Therefore, before you issue a homemade vehicle, think about whether you have enough patience and money for this. When passing the certification and registration procedure, it is necessary to pay state fees.

But if all this does not scare you - go for it! Now that you know how to register homemade car, you can start assembling your masterpiece. By the way, it is quite possible that you can do it, because today some models of home-made cars are very popular among lovers of luxury cars.

Please leave your comment on the article! We are interested in your opinion.