'86 Pontiac 6000 LE in Moscow, Russia

[alex_van_gee]

Hi everyone! My name is Alex, I live near Moscow in Russia. I've wanted old american car for a long time and last November finally found one I really liked and could afford.
I planned to post in Introduce yourself thread, but the post have too many pics in it, so I decided to post it separately.

A-bodies are somewhat rare in Russia. I've seen one Celebrity in neighborhood five years ago, now that man is driving Chevy Caprice. I know a couple of live 6000's and seen a couple on junkyards. Once have seen Olds Ciera in Moscow. There are a number of Buicks I know but still Crown Victorias, Town Cars and Caprices are much much more popular among russian American cars enthusiasts. As for me, I like full-size cars (DeVille especially), but they're expensive in buying and repairing, it's hard to park on our small parkings and drive them on our narrow roads. So I prefer mid-sizes and wanted some coupe badly, even saw one Regal coupe, but it was in really bad shape and needed a lot of money to look and drive good. So I've got what I've got for about $2650.

That's my '86 Pontiac 6000 LE.

http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alvangee/view/521020/

http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alvangee/view/521016/

In spring I've found white stripe tires (it's extremely hard to find here in Russia). Looks really better than with just black walls.

http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alvangee/view/464440/

Beginning of August was very bad as some douchebag hit my car when it was parked and drove away. As no one seen who did it and local police is pretty useless, I had to repair it for my own money.

http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alvangee/view/510751/

http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alvangee/view/510752/

Repairing in process:

http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alvangee/view/518345/

Final result:

http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alvangee/view/518348/

As you can see at one of photos, original rear license plate frame was cut by some previous owner to fit russian license plate. Backward light also was not original.
From man who gave me taillight for repair after accident, I also got original LP frame and finally my car looks like it should be.

http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alvangee/view/519866/

I've tried NY plate, but think California is better looking.

http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alvangee/view/519869/

And just for fun here's my another car. It's russian (I'd say, Soviet Union's) car - 1983 Moskvich-2140, the car of same year as I am =)

http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alvangee/view/521023/

My father bought the same model first in 1978 and another one in 1981. His car still looks like new.

http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alvangee/view/521026/

[Unistarlx]

Awesome, glad to see A-bodies are still taking the world by storm!! These cars know for handling snow well, how does it do for you in the snowy weather? It'd be a really good idea to get a good undercoating on the car to prevent the rust that eats many of these cars alive.

[Carlton]

Nicely done on the repair.
I see you have the 3rd brake light on the luggage rack and behind the rear window, was wondering how that's wired, do both work? Mine has the rack but just a hole where the light is supposed to go.

[86euro]

As a professional bodyman, I must say that is some impressive metal straightening on that quarter panel! You are lucky to have found someone that can do work like that, it is a lost art.

[a1veedubber]

Welcome to the forum! It is pretty awesome that there is an A-Body in Russia. Strangly enough, I have a liking for
the older Soviet era cars. You almost never see them here in the USA though. My particular favorite is the 427 estate.

You will find a lot of fellows here who can help with any troubles that you may have with your Pontiac. There isn't much we have not fixed!!

[alex_van_gee]

BTW, this car was made for Canada and it has Rochester carb without electronic mixture solenoid and doesn't have on-board computer system, oxygen sensor and Check Engine light. Funny, before I realize all that, I thought my CES lamp was broken, took off the whole panel intending to change that lamp and realized that there are no socket for it )
Carlton, the third stoplight works fine. I am pretty sure somebody just teared off the socket with the lamp. It's easy to wire - you just need to get the wire from stoplight and route it wherever you want.
Last winter I didn't have any troubles driving on the snow, thanks to FWD and maybe Michelin winter tires.
I really wanted to get undercoating (the same guys do it which did straightening) before autumn starts, but spent a lot of money on repair and don't know when I can afford it.
86euro, I was impressed with the straightening too and tell guys that you appreciate their work =)
Thanks to all for replies!

[a1veedubber]

My 86 coupe is a Canadian built one too. The nice thing about them is that they retained the old style laquer paint. American built cars in 86 swiched to a water-dispersion enamel due to environmental regulations. It is not near as durable and is known for peeling badly (especially my white and your blue colors!!)

[RIPBARNBURNER]

Welcome to A-body.net. That is a great looking 6000 you have. Glad to see these cars still popping up world-wide. The A-body, I think, will live on forever. After the world's over, there will be only cockroaches and A-bodies left. The repair looks great!

[mechanizeddeath]

That thing looks amazing. Might I suggest an older style Michigan plate? They were blue and always look sharp on blue cars.

[a1veedubber]

An old Iowa 86-95 Iowa plate would look good too. A nice dark blue with an '86' date on it which matches the car. I have loads of them and would be happy to send one!

My garage wall a few years back, the dark blue is the older Iowa plate, most of the others are the newer Iowa plate:

[RIPBARNBURNER]

Cool pic, A1!

[a1veedubber]

Cool pic, A1!

Thanks!

Little known fact: Achieva spoiler looks great on 89+ A-Bods.

[RIPBARNBURNER]

I bet it does! Is that a Century decklid in that there pic of yours?

[Century7667]

An old Iowa 86-95 Iowa plate would look good too. A nice dark blue with an '86' date on it which matches the car. I have loads of them and would be happy to send one!

My garage wall a few years back, the dark blue is the older Iowa plate, most of the others are the newer Iowa plate:

Got one from Cherokee?

Ken T.

[alex_van_gee]

Sorry for asking not-car-related question... I am translating subtitles for "That '70s Show" for a bunch of fans of this series and I am stuck with one expression. "You make me feel like hips". I understand this can't be translated literally, but I can't be sure what this expression mean. Google didn't help me. The best I can figure out is "You make me to want you" or something like that.
I feel like an idiot, can't finish a whole episode translation because of this. Translated two and a half seasons and this is the first time I can't find a solution.