[Anil Vincent]

It all started with a call received from my brother Anish one day ‘Brother what you think of replacing our Gypsy with Gurkha?’ I was not all happy in even comparing Gypsy with Gurkha !. He tried his level best to convince me with reason after reasons but nothing worked and then came the trump card ‘We can easily makeover it to G Wagen’ her it goes and now things started to change. He then forwarded me some photographs of G Wagen make over done on Boleros which was very appealing, if this is possible on Bolero’s then why not on Gurkha which has some kind of inherited characters already from the original G Wagen.

I gave green signal to go for Gurkha and not so whole hearted agreement to sell the beloved Gypsy. Our decision to go for Gurkha was more on its possibility of G Wagen makeover than the vehicle itself, we were so much in love with Gypsy that even Thar was kept out of consideration all these times.

As a coincidence one of my best friend Biju, who is also a car enthusiast and heading the body shop operations of VW, Audi & Porsche also has called me on the same day and Gurkha topic came in, immediately he also asked top book one for him too and here is what we ended up with, let the photos to speak further.









After getting the delivery of both vehicles we felt one of them the first received one was not driving same as the second o one, there was day night difference in the performance and ride quality, even when took it back to the dealer for diagnosis of this issue first they informed everything is normal and no issues found; until their road tester and senior mechanic driven both the vehicles and did the comparison, Green vehicle was driving amazingly well than the other.

This issue was discussed in some other forums and groups and the comments received about the after sales service of Force Motors was very scary and concerning!. But to our surprise the response from Force Motors was unbelievable the deputed of of their technical manager to come and inspect both the vehicles, the first vehicle was accepted by Cochin dealer 'Poomkudy Motors' and returned to us in 5 days time with all issues sorted to the very minute details and perfection, whichever complaints we raised out of the initial frustration was sorted out at its best, Eg:- The gear shift was too tight especially to the 2nd, now it is as smooth as any other cars. There was a regular follow up also been done by the Force Motor guys about the performance of vehicles after the rectification repairs.

[Anil Vincent]

The mods are ON with Yellow one since we had to wait some time to completed the registration formalities and to sort out the above said mechanical issues with the other one. The main plan as of now is -

Cosmetic makeover of Front Fascia with Merc parts
Restructure the roof panel from the current slopping to an almost flat
Reshape the current wheel arches with Merc fender flares
Replace rear bumper and tail lights

These changes will bring out the hidden characteristics of the real G inside Gurkha

The modification works are being done at Marvel Motor Cochin, they are the people behind most of the modded cars in Cochin but are less known to public since they were always behind the curtains the credit for the show went to someone else. Rameshan one of the owners of Marvel is very passionate about what he does and he enjoys such challenging mods, he himself will be working of our cars too.

[lugnut]

Are the Merc parts a direct fit on Gurkhas?

danke!

[Anil Vincent]

Originally Posted by lugnut

Are the Merc parts a direct fit on Gurkhas?

danke!

No it is not an easy direct fit on Gurkha, the dimensions and sizes are matching but a lot of high skilled and precise fabrication jobs required for the fitment of merc parts, if you get the didn't get correct alignment and fitment then the result is gonna be worse.

[Anil Vincent]

Job is progressing but its taking more time than expected since the it is not easy to get the correct dimension, alignment and fitting, more over our fabricator Rameshan has seen a real G wagen only in photos and videos

Finally we managed to get a toy scale model of G for him as a proportionate reference & here he goes -

[Anil Vincent]

Front facia is almost done and now it's time to have the roof flattened, however not as easy as expected, when being flattened the overall length will also be reduced, which need either extension of the roof panel or tilting of rear pillar forward as in the real G or may be both, let the below pictures explain it better.


When flattened the length of roof panel is shortened and not reaching the rear pillar







Plan is to give a small tilt to the rear pillar as shown below which might solve the length issue of roof panel !!


Attachment 1615822

[Anil Vincent]

The main body mods are almost done -

Roof flattening is completed, the desired shape is almost achieved. Some more final refinement are on going after which it is ready to go for body preparation and then to paint shop.

This was the third most trouble some mod to bring a tilt to the rear pillars, first of all Gurkha doesn't have reference point to make this tilt and further to which its length (upper edge) has to be made aligned with the flattened roof.



Finally it looks the roof got decently flattened and almost in line with the G dimensions!, anyways i am satisfied with this since i don't intend to replicate point to point of real G Wagen but to bring Gurkha as much close to it


Here it goes with the rear view, decided to close the rear windows too, that was more of an LR Defender looks

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the 4x4 Section. Thanks for sharing!

[dhanushs]

Great Job Anil. Looking forward towards a superb finished product.

I know you and the workshop will take care of every minute detail, but, just a humble suggestion.

Focussing on getting the merc parts fitted in shouldnt result in the tyre staying too much inside the fender. Ideally, the tyre should stay inline/slightly negative offset for the rugged look of an offroader.

[Anil Vincent]

Originally Posted by dhanushs

Great Job Anil. Looking forward towards a superb finished product.

I know you and the workshop will take care of every minute detail, but, just a humble suggestion.

Focussing on getting the merc parts fitted in shouldnt result in the tyre staying too much inside the fender. Ideally, the tyre should stay inline/slightly negative offset for the rugged look of an offroader.

Attachment 1618185

Thanks Dhanush, your are absolutely right with the wheels and tyres, it has to be inline and aligned with the fender flares but Gurkha's tyres even with its original fender flares are positioned inwards.

I already have a 40mm wheel spacers installed at the rear and still its a lot inward with the new merc wheel arches installed.




I am searching for -ve offset wheels and still will have to use spacers at the rear to obtain the desired look at the same time we are also worried about the possibility of any wobbling issues or increase in turning radius, already Gurkha's have a high turning radius making U turns impossible at one stretch.

We are finding it hard to find alloy wheels with all the specifications matched, we are looking for 17inch, -ve offset, Min 8J width, PCD 139.7, which is not an easy find it seems.

[dhanushs]

Originally Posted by Anil Vincent

We are finding it hard to find alloy wheels with all the specifications matched, we are looking for 17inch, -ve offset, Min 8J width, PCD 139.7, which is not an easy find it seems.

You can get offroad steel wheels. Will cost you a max 25k for 5. Comes in -30mm offset. Doesnt really fit the G-Wagon looks to the T, but, Off-Roader yes.

Too much offset will wear off bearings fast. Turning radius should be fine.

[benbsb29]

Looks to be an interesting build. Is this still work in progress, or has the build completed?

[4x4addict]

Originally Posted by Anil Vincent

We are finding it hard to find alloy wheels with all the specifications matched, we are looking for 17inch, -ve offset, Min 8J width, PCD 139.7, which is not an easy find it seems.

Anil, I thought Gurkha is 160 PCD? Cause they use to run the same steel disk as the NGCS MM 550. Please check before you buy. If it is 139.7 PCD, the best option is to buy the XUV500 disk which is 139.7 PCD.

[Anil Vincent]

Originally Posted by 4x4addict

Anil, I thought Gurkha is 160 PCD? Cause they use to run the same steel disk as the NGCS MM 550. Please check before you buy. If it is 139.7 PCD, the best option is to buy the XUV500 disk which is 139.7 PCD.

Thanks Sir, I also thought the same, even the same info was found when googled also, based on which initially we ordered spacers for rear wheels 160 PCD and when went for installation we had the surprise find that the PCD is 139.7

Later we got to know from some Gurkha experts that the model prior to 2013 was 160 PCD and newer models from 2013 onwards is 139.7.

[Dry Ice]

This is going to be an interesting build! Are you planning on retaining the color or changing it to something else?

ATB with the unique build.