Mixed amongst the usual Soviet vehicles are some '50s and '60s American cars including what appears to be a '51 Packard in Moscow.

http://gaz-24.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=30436&start=90

I'm back after a few year's absence. I see some posts have come and gone during that period. I hope this link is useful.

Here's somebody's Russian-language blog with a Chaika driver's manual posted. What's useful here is the text can be translated via Google Translate or Bing.com's equivalent.

http://belretro.com/2008/03/30/%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%B7-13-%D1%87%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BA%D0%B0

Sorry, I didn't mean to hyjack the thread. (With these sub-divided forums I'm never sure whether to continue a thread or start a new one.)

Thanks for your kind words,

Brian

I'd be happy to post some pictures of my project. I'm going for a slightly worn and weathered look. Engine has been finished to look grimy and dirty through a combination of paint and artists' media (chalks and such).

I started with the basic engine block and heads from a '62 Pontiac, removing all detail, and making the crankcase and oil pan from bits of plastic sheet.

Unfortunately, many of the pictures are a bit large. I was learning a new camera along the way and didn't notice how big they were coming out.

The last picture is my 1:43 diecast that started it all.

Note that to open the rear doors, the fronts have to be open due the hinge design.

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Thanks for your welcome. I do not have a full-sized old car to play with. I have enough unfinished model projects to tell me that a 1:1 project wouldn't be a good idea...

Hi I just joined this message board.

I have been fascinated by the Russian limos since I got one of those 1:43 diecast Chaika models in the late '80s or so. I have been working on a 1:25 scale model of one, pieced together from several plastic kits. So far I have an engine done, and have the chassis/suspension roughed in.

Chaika engines are mainly aluminum, and are of presumably European origin. One article claims they came from a FIAT design:

(Original German article)
http://www.zuckerfabrik24.de/fiat/fiat140.htm

(Translated text)
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zuckerfabrik24.de%2Ffiat%2Ffiat140.htm&sl=de&tl=en&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1

The GAZ engine has been used in trucks and industrial applications as well.

Another thing to point out is the Chaikas employed a 1957 Cadillac 75 limo style chassis (cruciform, with rear leaf springs) for both the GAZ-13 and the GAZ-14 version that followed...well into the 1980s!

According to what I have read, the vast majority of Chaikas were painted black. A few early ones were painted in bright two-tone schemes for publicity purposes IIRC. This next site has scans from brochures, as well as photos from a restoration of a Chaika (to a two-tone color scheme).

http://www.gaz13chaika.narod.ru/ (3rd link at the top of linked page is Restoration, the 4th is Archive, and the 5th is History.)

I like this early prototype (in disguise, I think?):



This final site shows the restoration/customization of another Chaika. (Scroll all the way down):
http://egorov.msk.ru/eng/auto/4/21.html

Another more heavily customized one from the same site:
http://egorov.msk.ru/eng/auto/5/46.html

Thanks for a fascinating thread. Many of the pictures posted here I have not seen before.

Keep it going.