Club 80-90 Forums

Have now returned tot he dark side and got me'sel a T3 of the Stinko variety.
Me n Cliffbase (from The 'Yard) flew to Estonia in June and bought back two. I realised i missed T3s so much i promptly sold my T4 and had the T3.
My SiL is Estonian so we had accomodation arranged and her family were blinding and did all the translating/taxi-ing etc.

Mine came from the middle of a forest about 20miles from the Russian border. We had helluva road trip driving the two back thr latvia/lithuania/poland/germany etc.

Caravelle C with new engine 20k km ago and ALL front end bushes/ball joints replaced. Is now on a J plate (92). Underneath is MINT - i guess due to lack/no salt on roads. Was imorted into Estonia in 2007ish - believed to be Finnish Army border patrol bus before.

The roads are RUBBISH until you get to germany. Poland was single carriageway A type roads at best , latvia and lithuania were worse. Besides the 2 or 3 main routes the A roads are similar to our B roads but only the middle 6' of tarmac is intact - the outer few feet on either sides are broken up. Also very long stretches (miles) of road works which was bonkers- roads people had ripped up both lanes leaving the road like the Somme - main route to western europe at 10 mph in mud!!

As for B roads ? MILES of what could be called forestry tracks with sections of heavily rutted/holed dips and miles of 'washboarding' where ya teeth fell out. After 25 miles at 30mph you didnt care,feel anything anymore.

As before , helluva trip and will do more pics/write up when i have time but heres some pics- random polish service stations pic,. the one at night was taken at midnightish in the middle of Warsaw, the old house is a derelict 'manor' house or similar - proper spooky and in the middle of no-where.

Nice work Elvis....

a 14" border patrol one, most seem to have been 16" judging by what Busman has been selling - did yours have radar on top/big air vent ?

I love to hear about T3 trips, it is quite exciting being thousands of miles from home in an old T3, but they do bring an enormous amount of satisfaction to a road trip that you just dont get from a more modern vehicle.

(where does the name Stinko come from?)

Simon.

Top road trip! I call mine the shonkro, 'cos it's shonky...

Stinko = syncro! about as risky as i can get away with on here

Simon - my reg is 503 but same as yours otherwise. Exeter DVLA are the bestest . visted at 1pm on a wednesday and got tax disc/paperwork back/letter of authority 9am on the friday. Log book came 7 days after that!!

Will get me bum in gear and write up summer hols someday -made it to russian border and back in 4 weeks!!

No radar or stuff. Was apparently a 'crew bus' , nothing as sexy as that. Cliff nearly bought a finnish ambulance. LOADS of paperwork (military log book/service signed every 6k km by junior rank and countersigned by NCO and seperate sections for oil/engine/mechanical/electrical etc work)
Interstingly it was originally whte but was sprayed/fitted out as full ambulance conversion with scancam paint.

Would you recommend this route to a novice looking a importing one next year? Are they any cheaper? Would love a hightop ambulance

Cheaper ? yes-lots .condition? LOTS better than UK. hassle ?-LOADS!!

We had free translators,room,taxis cortesy of my extended family on my SiL side. Hardest part is putting in leg work and hours of emails/phone calls. Even then we struggled as the girls struggled to translate car/tech words into english.With no contacts its will be difficult. Not many over 25 speak englsih - in the sticks even less.
Estonia was commie until 15 or so yrs ago so all Vws are imported in from other EU countries.
We had a few lined up to view - its a long way to go to be ripped off/sticthed up on.
Their DVLA (ARK) is a nightmare. Hours of queing up at various different counters. Lots can be dodged if you know the lingo/easy route. But they are hot on paperwork. We could not get insured by any UK firm on foreign cars without a V5. Estonia will only insure you tot he border. There is a way around it which is expensive and ricky (but legal)

Took us a week in all. At one point we drove for 26 hrs with 3 hrs sleep just to make time up the roads were so bad.

More than happy to share advice but personnaly wouldnt recommend it unless you have resources in place.

With no contacts its a MASSIVE gamble.

Cheers for reply, nothings ever easy eh!

This is how Busman can charge 30 to 50% more!!

True, but i didn't think his prices were to bad for the caravelles he's got [considering he's a dealer of sorts]. Now i know his mark up i could put in a crazy offer on the red 14" he's had parked up for a fair while
You never know your luck eh

Can you trailer vehicles out of these countries?

yep,however............................

You still need export paperwork at the ARC or risk confiscation/feds etc etc.

If you drive out you obviously are adding an extra 4 days to your journey + ferry costs for vehicle and trailer + fuel compared to the cost of sleazyjet flights. It does not make it a finacially viable trip TBH.
We considered buying a trailer out there and driving 2 back and trailer one. The cost of secondhand twin axle trailers in eastern europe soon made us rethink (3 times the price than here so obviously initial purchase + loss on resale etc etc)
Beleive me, we researched and priced every option. One posibility involved a stihl saw........................