UAZ 452 (Buhanka)- Soviet 4x4 van

[UAZ-Boris]

It's been a while since I registered here on the website. A lot of life changing stuff happen in the mean time... but now I want slowly to pick up traveling again etc.

Uazzz what? UAZ is actually a Soviet car manufacture that mainly produces off-road vehicles for the red army. Like the 469 which looks kinda similar to a Jeep and the 452 vans (nickname: Buhanka) which is probably based on the Ford forward control back in the day. Funny enough Russia still produces 452 van under a different name today with some minor updates.

Ironically the first time I saw a Buhanka was like 15 years ago in place called Lviv in Ukraine when I was there on holiday. There it was standing in the streets of the old town. I had never seen such a vehicle before and I loved the looks of it (if I can find a picture I made back then I will place it here). Since there is no brand name on the car and just a logo I had no clue what it was. Later I found it what it was and back then there was not such vehicle for sale in the Netherlands. Fast forward 10 years later my previous girlfriend wanted to have a small van as a camper to travel around. She sended me some different pictures from campers but they all look boring plastic boxes. Until she send me a picture of an UAZ.. and I fondly remembered the one I've seen back in Ukraine and decided to hunt one down.

Surprisingly while searching for one I found out that in the mean time were some UAZ's driving around in the Netherlands already. And even one dealership that sells them new! And some other people who imported old ones from post-Soviet countries and sell them here. I've did a test drive in two old Buhankas and my god they drove horrible.... I've got some experience with old cars but this is something else! I was not happy how I found out how they drive and slowly trying trying to forget the Buhanka.

Then I found a very old UAZ in Austria on the internet for sale. If I wanted a Buhanka then it should be very old since this has a lot of tax and rules benefits here in the Netherlands. So we drove to Austria and did have a look at the UAZ. Then we drove the UAZ on a ski slope during summer time. The seller was driving in front a steep hill, stopped, put in 4x4 and low-gear and there she goes! It is such an awkward feeling and sight when you see a van go up such an angle (especially when you are from the Netherlands and everything is flat.. LOL). I WAS SOLD!





We shipped the van over to the Netherlands. After it arrived back home and got it registered then I actually found out that the engine was totally rubbish.. We decided that the van needed some serious upgrades. And after that we send it to Poland to a company who is specialized in soviet cars. I could do the stuff all by myself but did not have the time or space to do it.

Upgrades they did:
- brand new 2.7L engine with injection 110HP ( old one was a 2.4L carburetor with 60ish HP)
- 5 speed gearbox
- disc brakes around
- painted it in bed liner RAL 7010
- new wheels and tires
- small repairs overall

It took a cruel 2 years for them to finish the van...
During that time it wasn't that great at all. All the waiting, we had the pandemic and the horrible Russian invasion in Ukraine (and it also sucks for spare parts for the van).
But previous summer we could pick it up.. At last! Some positive stuff right? Nope.. my relationship shortly after we got the van back stranded and it was a major roller coaster in every way.

I decided to keep the van anyway and trying to enjoy some small trips around.


At a cars and coffee meet

part 2 comes soon ;)

 

[El-Dracho]

It's been a while since I registered here on the website. A lot of life changing stuff happen in the mean time... but now I want slowly to pick up traveling again etc.

Uazzz what? UAZ is actually a Soviet car manufacture that mainly produces off-road vehicles for the red army. Like the 469 which looks kinda similar to a Jeep and the 452 vans (nickname: Buhanka) which is probably based on the Ford forward control back in the day. Funny enough Russia still produces 452 van under a different name today with some minor updates.

Ironically the first time I saw a Buhanka was like 15 years ago in place called Lviv in Ukraine when I was there on holiday. There it was standing in the streets of the old town. I had never seen such a vehicle before and I loved the looks of it (if I can find a picture I made back then I will place it here). Since there is no brand name on the car and just a logo I had no clue what it was. Later I found it what it was and back then there was not such vehicle for sale in the Netherlands. Fast forward 10 years later my previous girlfriend wanted to have a small van as a camper to travel around. She sended me some different pictures from campers but they all look boring plastic boxes. Until she send me a picture of an UAZ.. and I fondly remembered the one I've seen back in Ukraine and decided to hunt one down.

Surprisingly while searching for one I found out that in the mean time were some UAZ's driving around in the Netherlands already. And even one dealership that sells them new! And some other people who imported old ones from post-Soviet countries and sell them here. I've did a test drive in two old Buhankas and my god they drove horrible.... I've got some experience with old cars but this is something else! I was not happy how I found out how they drive and slowly trying trying to forget the Buhanka.

Then I found a very old UAZ in Austria on the internet for sale. If I wanted a Buhanka then it should be very old since this has a lot of tax and rules benefits here in the Netherlands. So we drove to Austria and did have a look at the UAZ. Then we drove the UAZ on a ski slope during summer time. The seller was driving in front a steep hill, stopped, put in 4x4 and low-gear and there she goes! It is such an awkward feeling and sight when you see a van go up such an angle (especially when you are from the Netherlands and everything is flat.. LOL). I WAS SOLD!

View attachment 285508
View attachment 285509


We shipped the van over to the Netherlands. After it arrived back home and got it registered then I actually found out that the engine was totally rubbish.. We decided that the van needed some serious upgrades. And after that we send it to Poland to a company who is specialized in soviet cars. I could do the stuff all by myself but did not have the time or space to do it.

Upgrades they did:
- brand new 2.7L engine with injection 110HP ( old one was a 2.4L carburetor with 60ish HP)
- 5 speed gearbox
- disc brakes around
- painted it in bed liner RAL 7010
- new wheels and tires
- small repairs overall

It took a cruel 2 years for them to finish the van...
During that time it wasn't that great at all. All the waiting, we had the pandemic and the horrible Russian invasion in Ukraine (and it also sucks for spare parts for the van).
But previous summer we could pick it up.. At last! Some positive stuff right? Nope.. my relationship shortly after we got the van back stranded and it was a major roller coaster in every way.

I decided to keep the van anyway and trying to enjoy some small trips around.

View attachment 285510
At a cars and coffee meet

part 2 comes soon ;)

Hi Glenn,

Great write-up and awesome rig.

Enjoy the trips with it.

Bjoern

 

[UAZ-Boris]

When the weather and shoulder slowly went better I started to work on the UAZ again. First I wanted to fix the front seats since they were crappy and not fasted to the car(!). I managed to find late 90's Toyota Corolla G6 sporty interior and customized the metal frame to fit in the van. The seats barely fit and had to grind and weld couple of times to fit it perfectly. I really dig how to seats feel and how they look. They look very similar to the livery of the Japanese HKS brand. I kept the fabric of the rear seats to reuse it in the interior of the UAZ later.


Snug fit between the door and the engine lid in the middle.

Then I went to a little festival on a creative camping ground for a weekend which you could only go if you had a non-normal camper vehicle. There were a lot of cool vehicles from vintage American ones, a lot of old German firetrucks converted to campers, old London bus converted to a driving hostel and so on. There was live music in the evening at the big living room of the camping. Weather was wet and cold but really enjoyed it! The vibe was great!



The old UAZs have a service hatch in the roof which you can unscrew to let a hoist get through the roof for lifting the engine. I made up a second hatch which has a pipe through it. So can easily swap it in and out to use it for my Cubic mini stove. It's not an ideal way of heating up the van. I mean... it is a lot of work to make small wood blocks and if you are away for a long time you need a lot of wood. But for the weekend its fine and I really enjoyed the nice heat when I was sitting inside when the weather was crap.



The interior in the back still needs a lot of work. But before I'm making a proper one the van needs to be technically perfect first. So for now I will keep it basic with a cheap carpet and a raised wooden board to put on my air mattress and sleeping bag.
But I think it will take a long time before I will start on that. I mean.. the quality of an UAZ is very horrible! I've never seen such a bad vehicle in my life. Even the new engine is leaking oil already.. A steering joint which is new has play. The new gearbox shifts crap. The body need some proper welding. And the seams at the roof where it meets the side of the car need to be replaced first. Its raining inside ;)

Still a lot of work to do!

 

[UAZ-Boris]

Shortly after the weekend camping I would have a new weekend camping meeting. And this was a meeting I was looking forward for a couple of years to join since you only could join it with an UAZ Buhanka. In the Netherlands there is a club for these vans and has the name 'Aanmodderaars' which means in Dutch muddlers. In the Netherlands there are around 200 UAZ vans registered on the road and about 40 vans would join the weekend!! And some people from Belgium and the UK would join as well. I found it amazing to see all those vans together on a field and one day to have a tour with them. In the Netherlands there is almost non posibilty to go offroad sadly but the organizers did put out an amazing route and with some even for Dutch standards an amazing offroad part. I'm glad to see I was not the only idiot who bought an UAZ ;)





Got a cool sticker from the organizer and it deserved to be on the back of the van next to the Ukrainian flag. Don't want to discuss about politics but yes.. Putin and his friends may go to hell.

And great video about the weekend made by the organizers:


After all the jolly around it was time to get stuff done again.

While being busy to to figure out where the new fuel and electric lines etc.. will be. I started to poke underneath around the chassis. I found out the metal area behind the seats and wheel wells were rotten. DARN more work to do.






As always with rust that is what you see is just the tip of the iceberg.



Weld some new material in.



And finished welding! I've showed only one side but the other side had the same job as well. Some caulking here and there and some paint it was good to go. I did some more bodywork underneath and took out both petrol tanks and made them rust free and a new layer of paint.



One of the tanks didn't had a fuel level sender. AFAIK the UAZ should have on both sides fuel sender and with a switch you could read out each tank with the gauge. But somehow mine didn't had one nor even a hole for it.I could stick in an original UAZ sender in it but I was slowly getting tired of the bad quality these cars are. So decided to get an aftermarket one which had a tube with magnet in it or something. Cut a hole in the tank. Fill it up full with water to get the leftover gas and fumes out. Weld a ring to mount the new sensor. Cleaned it al up and painted it. And mounted the new shiny sender in the tank.

So that was my summer ;) .. I would love to have more work done but the busted shoulder was still a big pain sadly.

Lately the engine starter wouldn't start. First I thought I was the starter it self and dismantled the whole thing and checked. But It was fine. Then It failed again and was fed up with it. So I followed the whole circuit from back to front to find out it was actually the old crappy soviet fuse which started to have some resistance. Even during driving one of the other fuses started bugger and caused a jitter effect on some relays to blown even more other fuses! Someday I will replace that old junk fuse system.

This van gives me a lot of headaches! After fixing all the random reliability issues I wanted to do something more fun. I saw pictures of the Eneos Grenadier online and it had a cool overhead console. This gave me an idea to make one for the UAZ to put in some gauges/switches etc. I started making a mold from wood. I'm definitely not the best woodworker but I gave it a try. My idea was to cover the wood with some fabric from the rear bench that I got the the Toyota to fit the front seats. I've never used to do something like sewing or stitching but after watching some youtube videos I would give hand stitching a try. And to be honest it turned out pretty well! I sprayed the metal front with VTH wrinkle paint and if may say it looks great together with the fabric. There will be a GPS gauge on the left and a fuel gauge for the right side tank. Some bulky NOS soviet aeromotive army switches which have a glow in the dark dot on the lever. Above the switches will be pilot lights with symbols in it. The small red button is to activate the fuel pump to pump over the fuel from the right tank to the left. This will be done with a timer which you can control the timing with the small potmeter sticking out the front. I'm stilly busy to make switches and little interior lights under the console and have to order some black screws for the front plate.











I'm always suprised how much time these DIY customized stuff will take. It's a lot of research...headscratching...measuring... screw it on.. screw it off.. measuring.. drilling.. on and on and on. But it's fun when it goes well!