In our country, the classic UAZ (“Loaf”) model enjoys well-deserved popularity among hunters, fishermen and travel enthusiasts. Why do they prefer a simple and, at first glance, inconspicuous domestic car, when there are many more stylish imported analogues?
Perhaps the main argument in favor of purchasing a “loaf” is its time-tested and road-tested reliability. In addition, this car has a low cost, which is also an important factor for some Russians.
Of course, the UAZ is not without its shortcomings. So, it is very difficult to call it convenient and comfortable. However, this shortcoming of the developers is not explained by an omission, but by the true purpose of this vehicle. The fact is that it was originally designed for use in military affairs, so the question of its reliability and strength naturally came first.
However, comfort is a fixable matter, because by carrying out such a procedure as tuning a car, the owner of the “loaf” will be able to radically modernize and improve his vehicle, remaking it in accordance with his tastes and preferences.
It’s not that difficult; it’s enough to have at least minimal knowledge in this area and be able to use the tools correctly. As a result of tuning a car, you can improve any of its components - it all depends on the financial capabilities and imagination of the car owner.
If you are the happy owner of a car of a similar model and want to improve it qualitatively, you can get some new ideas from the tips below on how to tuning the interior of a UAZ “loaf” with your own hands.
Custom seats
Seat upholstery with foam rubber
An important problem that worries any UAZ driver is severe fatigue caused by prolonged sitting behind the wheel. That is why experts suggest making the driver’s seat more comfortable by tuning the seats with foam rubber. As a result of this simple procedure, you will get several soft and comfortable sitting and lying places for resting and sleeping, which is especially important when traveling over long distances. You can also install seats from another car.
Another steering wheel with electric or hydraulic power steering
Replacing the steering wheel
In order to avoid unpleasant pain in your shoulders, we advise you to install a more ergonomic component, complemented by a hydraulic booster, instead of a standard steering wheel. Alternatively, you can simply install a steering wheel from another car by placing it (the steering wheel) on an adjustable column. The ZF hydraulic booster will help the new control rotate smoothly. And if you install a number of additional devices, it will become even easier to control the operation of all automotive systems.
Wide tires improve cross-country ability, but increase fuel consumption
Installing wide tires and wheels
It will create the opportunity to minimize pressure on the soil and increase the stability of the car, and this will guarantee that the car will not sit on its “belly” on difficult soil.
The power bumper increases the “moral” cross-country ability of the car
Additional security elements
It will be easy to install a bumper in such an SUV - a thick and powerful pipe. You can buy a ready-made one (RIF bumper) or make it yourself.
Backup power system
By installing two batteries, a generator and emergency switches in a “loaf”, you will forever get rid of problems with recharging.
Replacing bridges
Do-it-yourself UAZ tuning also involves replacing bridges that were originally intended for military purposes. To increase cross-country ability, a special blocking device should be installed.
Interior thermal insulation
To maintain a comfortable and healthy temperature for the driver and passengers of the “loaf”, experts strongly recommend thermal insulation of the car. It involves laying a vibration- and noise-insulating coating with your own hands from sheet plywood, foam rubber or ordinary traditional insulation. The floor of the car can be insulated with thin aluminum sheets.
If you use polystyrene foam as insulation, its thickness should not exceed 50 mm. The advantage of this material is its excellent flexibility, making it ideal for laying in hard-to-reach places, such as bends. Expanded polystyrene has some disadvantages, in particular, it is flammable and releases harmful substances when heated in the summer heat.
To tune the “loaf” with your own hands, you can insulate the interior using penofol, which is foamed polyethylene equipped with a layer of foil. The thickness of such material is approximately 15-20 mm. The film is fixed with the metal side facing the interior. Thus, in addition to the expected insulation, the car will have excellent sound protection.
Sunroof in the interior of the UAZ Bukhanka
Hatch installation
To allow more fresh air into the car, you can install a sunroof.
Additional devices
Other dashboard and additional equipment
By default, from the factory, the car has a rather ascetic dashboard, and the instruments are not very informative. This can be corrected by tuning, namely: installing additional devices, replacing the dashboard from another car, and also installing additional equipment, such as:
- DVR
- GPS navigator
- Touch radio
- Anti-radar
- etc.
“Full luxury” in the interior of a UAZ Bukhanka car.
Non-standard version of internal tuning
You can install an automatic sofa in a UAZ car with your own hands that responds to commands from the control panel. When you press a button on the remote control, the sofa can easily be transformed into a comfortable bed. Another button will allow you to give the sofa compact dimensions and put some other piece of furniture (for example, a small table) in its place. In addition to the automatic sofa, you can purchase a TV with DVD, which will help you spend long hours of travel with interest.
It is worth noting that even such home-made innovations cannot guarantee one hundred percent protection of your car from breakdowns (after all, the assembly of a UAZ is not distinguished by innovative methods), but its ease of use will increase by an order of magnitude.
This, naturally, will cost you certain financial and time costs, but as a result of all these simple manipulations you will receive a fundamentally updated exclusive UAZ “loaf”, distinguished by an original design solution, increased functionality and ergonomics.
The UAZ 452 is in great demand among hunting and fishing enthusiasts. High cross-country ability, unpretentiousness and large capacity are the main advantages of the car.
However, due to the lack of comfort, many drivers resort to remodeling the interior and technical equipment of the UAZ “Loaf” with their own hands.
Sofa in UAZ loaf
The internal filling of the loaf body can be upgraded by car enthusiasts at their request. One of these upgrades is the installation of a sofa loaf in the back of a UAZ instead of the rear seat installed by the manufacturer.
This modification increases the comfort of the loaf on long trips and long periods of time fishing and hunting, because sleeping on the sofa instead of the standard seat is much more comfortable.
DIY sofa in a loaf
If you wish, you can make a sofa for a loaf yourself. This process is not difficult. First of all, you should decide which sofa will be installed - the design of its frame depends on this.
The second step is to determine the parameters of the future sofa by measuring the width and height of the body. The third is to select materials for the cladding.
For reliability, the frame of a sofa in a loaf is usually welded from metal and securely attached to the floor of the body. The base of the seat and backrest is laid on the bare frame - thick padding polyester or other material chosen for this purpose.
The synthetic winterizer must first be prepared by securing it to a wooden base.
The base with seat and back cushions is fixed to the frame. If the bases were not initially covered, then you will also need to cover the sofa with fabric, securing it with staples.
Buy a sofa in a loaf
Not everyone decides to make a sofa on their own. The main reason for not making it yourself is the lack of necessary skills or time. It’s easier to buy a ready-made sofa and install it in the car body.
But where can you buy it?
Standard sofas, which can be found in any furniture store, are not suitable for installation in a car. Even if the width and height parameters are the same, a problem arises with attaching the sofa to the floor of the car.
Therefore, for installation, a branded sofa from other cars is purchased (you can find it through advertisements on the Internet and newspapers or at car dismantling sites). Another option is to buy a homemade sofa.
This method has advantages - you can order the sofa that you want to install in the car (from the size and type of mechanism to the color of the upholstery).
Folding sofa in a loaf
This type of furniture is becoming increasingly popular - if there is enough space in the cabin of the loaf, installing a folding sofa there instead of a back row seat provides the driver and passengers with an additional sleeping place.
The version of the folding mechanism is selected by the owner of the loaf independently in accordance with personal preferences.
Among the installed sofas there are both standard folding mechanisms and sofas with an accordion and transformer - the choice depends on what is more comfortable for the owner of the loaf.
Drawings of a sofa in a UAZ loaf
When creating a sofa yourself, you don’t have to develop a drawing, but use ready-made options. The required diagram for the sofa can be found on the Internet and is freely available.
To watch online, click on the video ⤵
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Tuning the interior of a UAZ loaf
One of the troubles of our homeland - bad roads, or their complete absence, have made off-road vehicles very popular. SUVs, or jeeps, as they are called in the American style, are in strong demand among residents of remote areas, where there is an acute shortage of asphalt on the road surfaces. And for lovers of fishing, hunting and other types of active recreation, an all-terrain vehicle is a must-have attribute, because it may simply not be possible to get to the place where the fish are biting well and the animals are found in a regular car.
All-terrain vehicles from Ulyanovsk
Hunting, fishing, as well as active tourism, are most often a group activity, so it is most convenient to use an all-wheel drive minibus, which on board can deliver a company of seven to eight people to their destination.
A very popular car with a multi-seater interior and excellent cross-country ability is the UAZ 452 , which was popularly nicknamed “loaf” . The Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant has been producing these cars since 1957, and during this time minibuses have proven their reliability, unpretentiousness and ease of maintenance.
History of the multi-seat UAZ loaf
In the Soviet Union in the late 50s, when this SUV was being developed, the country needed reliable vehicles for military purposes. At that time, the Cold War with America was in full swing, so the main task of the designers was to create a strong all-terrain vehicle that, under any conditions, could deliver a group of people from point A to point B. The vehicle received very good maneuverability on any surface at any time of the year, and also a simple and reliable design of all components and assemblies. Naturally, no one thought about the beauty of the interior and the ergonomics of the driver’s seat, therefore, for convenient operation of the UAZ, the first thing you need to do is improve its interior. Indeed, the interior of the loaf consists of painted body panels, hard seats and metal handles: this interior resembles a cross between a paddy wagon and an animal transport van. But with all this, the UAZ Bukhanka is perfect as a blank for realizing almost any wishes of the car owner: be it a car for long family trips or a hunting house on wheels or a comfortable UAZ all-terrain vehicle with expensive tuning.
That is why among the owners of these auto-tuning UAZ salons, the loaf is a topic of increased interest.
Replacing seats
Installing seats from a foreign car instead of standard ones is one of the best options for tuning the UAZ interior. Quite often in this process, the complexity of the work is at a relatively low level, and the cost of second-hand chairs is also often low, and the result can exceed the best expectations. Sometimes UAZ 469 or Hunter are equipped with leather seats from luxury foreign cars (BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, etc.). Examples of such installations can be seen in the photographs below.
Front leather seats from a foreign car (BMW X5).
Rear foreign-made seats from BMW X5 in the UAZ interior.
Replacing the seats and covering the floors and doors with corrugated aluminum.
Guide to tuning the body and interior for the UAZ Bukhanka
On a UAZ Bukhanka, tuning the body and interior is not particularly difficult and can be done on your own. Remaking a car is attractive due to the ease of making changes, the availability of spare parts and the necessary equipment. Having excellent maneuverability and a reliable power plant, the vehicle is deprived of comfort, since it was designed for law enforcement agencies, transportation of oil workers and geologists. Therefore, most of the effort and money is spent on modifications of the UAZ-452, creating comfortable conditions for the driver and passengers.
Refinement of the dashboard
The standard dashboard of the UAZ 469 is not just minimalistic and restrained - it is simply absent. The devices are built directly into the metal elements of the body. In this regard, if you have decided to turn your UAZ into a comfortable car, then you definitely cannot do without a thorough modification of the dashboard. Fortunately, it is easy to find ready-made solutions to this problem on sale. Installing such dashboards will not be difficult, and the appearance of the interior will sparkle with new colors. Most often, the steering wheel must also be replaced along with the dashboard, because The standard one is not convenient or ergonomic. Of course, unique tuning options are not uncommon. So, often, car owners completely replace all UAZ 469 devices with devices from another car (and not necessarily domestically produced).
Another good idea is to organize a so-called “shelf” above the dashboard. It allows you not only to create additional useful space for placing small things and maps, but will also serve as the basis for embedding additional electrical appliances such as a walkie-talkie, radio or additional light.
Floor covering
Well, this word speaks for itself - gender. The vast majority of UAZ Hunter owners try to cover all the floors of their car with linoleum. And this is justified. The good noise and heat insulation of this material is excellent for a car that often becomes home for long trips.
Here the operating algorithm is simple. All seats are removed. Material is spread over the entire floor of the UAZ Hunter and the pattern is cut. Then it is transferred to linoleum purchased in advance and spread on a flat surface. It is cut to the desired shape and placed in the interior. It is attached to self-tapping screws using aluminum strips. Then the seats are installed. The smooth and warm floor is ready.
Important! The rear of this SUV is a favorite resting place for fishermen and hunters. Very often a folding table, a small bar and a refrigerator are installed there. When designing a coating, it is better to immediately provide for the possibility of installing these “additional options”!
Reupholstery or complete replacement of standard seats
The standard seats in the UAZ 469 are not comfortable. And, often, if the car was bought second-hand, then there will be nothing to retighten. Fortunately, the market for aftermarket spare parts from foreign cars comes to the rescue. Without much difficulty, seats from HONDA CRV, NISSAN JUKE, BMW x5 and other foreign car models will fit into the UAZ. At the same time, it is absolutely not necessary to buy new spare parts. The cost of used seats is quite comparable to the price of new “original” seats on a UAZ. However, the advantages are difficult to overestimate:
- Leather trim. Despite a number of contradictions, it is, in any case, beautiful, stylish and durable.
- Possibility of installing heated seats. Simply invaluable for those who plan to operate the UAZ in winter.
- Great possibilities for transformation. Properly fitted seats, when folded out, can turn your UAZ 469 into a double bed.
