rog8811 Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 Just to get the pact under way, I owned this Jeepski for around 3 years... then I got married and moved... to a house where, if I wanted to use the garage, the roof had to come off For the eagle eyed amongst you that is a rover V8 in the load bed, I was toying with the idea of a transplant but decided it would be a shame to do that to such a nice vehicle. I have to say it was a very useful vehicle, I used it to carry equipment around my nature reserve, it never got stuck in areas where ford rangers and navaras fear to tread . Shown above doing light easy work, there never seemed to be a camera around when it was chucking it down with rain. Regards rog8811 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferretfixer Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 Nice looking vehicles these, I have often looked 'sideways' at them at shows! Wouldnt mind one myself, though I hear engine wise they are a bit unreliable. Is this so, do you know? Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andreadavide Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 You mean you are going to sell her? A pity, she may look crude, but can go wherever a Land Rover goes... On the continent she may get a nice price... Andrea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rog8811 Posted February 8, 2010 Author Share Posted February 8, 2010 (edited) though I hear engine wise they are a bit unreliable This one had the side valve engine, it always ran when I needed to use it. I have only driven this one and "fast" it isn't, not sure if it is typical of the breed. I used to take it to work occassionaly, a 60mile round trip, the only time it let me down was when the dynamo failed, luckily I had a spare battery on board which got me home.. I had to rebuild the starter motor and the dynamo, that was about it. Switch gear is poor, before I set off I would flick the indicators on and off a dozen times or so to be sure they would work when I needed them, Regards rog8811 Edited February 8, 2010 by rog8811 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 Don't they use a Ford drived engine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rog8811 Posted February 8, 2010 Author Share Posted February 8, 2010 Don't they use a Ford drived engine? I know that the engine looks almost exactly the same as I have seen under the bonnets of a couple of jeeps I looked at, so I would guess that is a yes.:-) Regards rog8811 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 I know the Dodge T214 engine was copied, and Ford's were built under licence. That's why I asked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastblock Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 Nice original Gaz you have there. It still has the sidelights and the "warthog" tow hooks on it. The ex-NVA ones miss those features. The Gaz are very off-road capable and a lot more comfortable on bad roads than a Land Rover due to their soft suspension. The Gaz factory in Gorki was founded by Ford in the 1930's. Here is mine: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schliesser92 Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 Nice original Gaz you have there. It still has the sidelights and the "warthog" tow hooks on it. The ex-NVA ones miss those features. The Gaz are very off-road capable and a lot more comfortable on bad roads than a Land Rover due to their soft suspension. The Gaz factory in Gorki was founded by Ford in the 1930's. Here is mine: [ATTACH=CONFIG]22414[/ATTACH] The red star on the "original" is really a no-no! From my observations on the transit Autobahn to Berlin, Soviet "B" and civilianised vehicles had a white circle with a miniscule red star and "CA" (cyrillic SA) on the doors. Love the NVA version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastblock Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 (edited) The NVA did a rewire on the Gaz69 but unfortunately no diagram seems to be available. They put in a lot more fuses than it would have had originally. My Gaz does not retain the original side-valve engine but has a S-21 OHV engine out of a Polish Zuk van. It is pretty much a bolt in replacement and it has 10bhp more than the sv engine. The Gaz69 was only manufactured at the Gorki factory for a couple of years. It then moved to Uljanovsk. This explains why most of the Gaz69's have "Uaz" on the front and not "Gaz". Edited February 15, 2010 by Eastblock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iannima Posted February 24, 2010 Share Posted February 24, 2010 Glad to see a thread dedicated to these beauties :-D... This is mine: more recently with me by the side: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rog8811 Posted February 24, 2010 Author Share Posted February 24, 2010 (edited) Looks good, is that a new canvas I see? I think they must use vegetable dye on them, in three years I saw mine go from that colour to light brown... even though it spent a lot of time under cover. Regards rog8811 Edited February 24, 2010 by rog8811 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulob1 Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 yes and they are made of tissue paper, mine fell apart on the trip from poland...needs a new one completely so will try to get one from the czech republic when i go over...trouble is mines a 4 door too and these have to be done individually to each vehicle so i can not order one off the shelf... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iannima Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 (edited) My canvas is indeed a new old stock one, but I don't think it is of the same make as yours, as probably the shade of green is distorted on the photograph. As many other details tell (and indeed my uniform :-D) my vehicle is in East German finish and the canvas is a DDR product. I think there were different cloths used in the DDR for these canvases, and some have a laminated shiny finish, which I strongly suspect to be the "self'destructing-material" we DDR collectors dread, but I have never seen one up close. Mine is different. I have noticed that in Germany, the Gaz69s retain the DDR canvases even when the entire vehicle is converted/restored to Soviet colours. Occasionally DDR canvases appear on Ebay.de and they fetch SERIOUS money. I once had a chat with the guys of Trapper Industries and they say that an original Russian canvas has a life span of a couple of years at most, regardless of treatment, but that DDR ones were better. This is not to say that it is all hunky-dory :cry: as the canvas of a four door vehicle is really difficult beast to fit... it is SOOOO tight that every single time that the frame is put up or taken down the entire back must be loose. That means that I cannot do as it was originally intended and nail the canvas to the sides, but I need instead a way of undoing and re-doing it fast. I used turn-buckle fittings. I also added an extra strip of material to gain precious centimetres and strengthen the fabric. Four turn-buckle on the side and one round the corner at the back. This way I can take the canvas up or down on my own. Before it could only be done with four men with three hands each... as the front would never fit properly on the windscreen frame, given how tight the canvas is. Edited February 26, 2010 by iannima Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iannima Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 I have published these photographs before on another forum, but there the interest is not so much historical. I have noticed a couple of people who obviously are also members there, so I do apologise to them for the repetition. Perhaps others on this forum will find these of interest :cheesy: besides having obtained a new section of the forum dedicated to Warsaw Pact vehicles, it is only appropriate to beef it up with new posts, and what better way to start than with the beloved Gaz 69? :-D In East German service the two basic photographs reproduced in all manuals are these: 2 door (obviously intended for radio too given the aerials): 4 doors (one of only two photographs available... :cry: ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iannima Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 Leading a convoy: The armoured vehicle behind is a BTR40 and behind that a P3 DDR Jeep. The motorcycle is an MZ ES250 (Thanks Michael :-D). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iannima Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 This a radio one in service with the Grenztruppen (=Border Guards) as testified by the green border on the roundels. The truck behind is a DDR produced Robur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iannima Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 Some kind of radio/direction support for that nasty looking thingy in the background Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iannima Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 This is rather old. It has surfaced in a batch of old photographs dating back to the first Berlin Wall in 1961. Probably taken somewhere in Berlin. The VP on the numberplate stands for Volkspolizei (=People's Police) as the border guards at the time were still technically a police force (Deutsche Grenzpolizei) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iannima Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 This one I have scanned from one of the many coffee table books of photographs that the DDR produced to celebrate its armed forces and their fraternal comrades: It probably shows a parade after(or before) one of the joint exercises which the Warsaw Pact routinely did for propaganda purposes more than for anything else. The Soviets are in the vehicle first on the left. The Poles at the extreme right. The second vehicle from the left I presume to be the Czechoslovak but I have doubts as neither the uniforms nor the flag are that clearly identifiable. The East Germans are obviously to the left of the "Czechs". Notice how they are actually riding in a 2 door Gaz unlike all the others. The NVA had very few Gaz 69A like mine. The records show only 95 held in 1991 as opposed to over 700 2 doors. So presumably on this occasion they found themselves short of one of the 95 like mine, and they had to match the others... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iannima Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 Fitted for Radio: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iannima Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 The Gaz was also used by the paratroopers but these are very special ones... ...as they belong to one branch of the Stasi guards regiment. Notice the NOTEK blackout light on the fender. Very much a feature carried over from Wehrmacht vehicles. The later headlight covers that clip open, which we probably all know, are part of the Nachtmarschanlage 74 (=night convoy arrangement) introduced in 1974 and implemented over a number of years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iannima Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 It obviously is an engine change in the field, but it is important to me as it is practically the ONLY other photograph (aside from the manuals' one at the top) of a Gaz69 A in NVA service. It can only be identified as a 4 door one by the bolt with which the canvas is attached to the top of the windscreen. The truck is obviously a URAL with a crane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iannima Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 This really should not count as being in East German service any more, although the officer IS East German. It comes from some photographs acquired by a fellow collector of uniforms from the family of the officer. He probably was observing a Soviet exercise. It is of interest that he is wearing the much rarer 1960s field uniform for officers with subdued insignia. These uniforms are VERY rare and fetch some money on Ebay... :shock: The German heritage (Reichswehr and Wehrmacht) of the uniform is obvious. The vehicles I think are Soviet. A white stripe is visible on the canvas of the 2 door one. It was used as a recognition device during exercises where all vehicles of one particular side would be marked with a white stripe across. I have seen footage of the Soviets convoys sent to suppress the Prague Spring in 1968 sporting such markings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iannima Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 This I guess is Soviet... but have no idea where... Afghanistan is one possibility but the Paratroopers (VDV) were the ones chiefly involved in the protracted Soviet engagement in Afghanistan and the VDV tended to have all the latest equipment which in this case would mean UAZ 469s rather than Gaz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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