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Old 24th November 2008, 20:12   #46
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WHOA......!!!!!!! finally, the beginning of the end (of the story) OR the end of the beginning (part of the story, your JEEP was destined to be in your hands).

As they say, miracles do happen, A Classic, very Stock (except the dirt) 1.3Lacs, no one can dream of one today. ---watching the space for more updates---

OT - (GTO & Trammway) - whats the bunch of colorful switches&/indicators on the dashboard? the red, yellow, grees ones. I thought GTO had some accessory on his Classic, but here too.?? Please enlighten...
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Old 25th November 2008, 00:16   #47
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Thanks to people like you, one abandoned Classic could be restored. I can imagine the effort and money that would have gone into the project and from that I get an idea of the passion you have. You tell the story in a nice way too, I am hooked !
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Old 25th November 2008, 00:38   #48
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I thought you would have noticed the point "Filmsy dash board with colorful indicator lights"

They are basically various indicators such as end of fuel, turn light, high beam, 4WD selector and 4WD low, oil level etc.
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Old 25th November 2008, 13:05   #49
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Readers, I'm sorry due to some illness this story will be paused for 1 or 2 days. Be Right back....

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO - Touring View Post
Trammway you got all of us glued! This CLassic is an absolute diamond in the rough. Didn't you have a Mahindra Classic Blog (in a black background)? I do recollect seeing exactly the same Classic.
Oh you are not GTO... I just noticed.

Anyway nice to see you here.. You are right it was/is my blog and the jeep is same as mentioned in here... anyway the read the rest of the story you will some additional info.

Last edited by Dippy : 11th January 2011 at 11:53. Reason: Back to back posts
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Old 25th November 2008, 14:59   #50
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trammway View Post
Oh you are not GTO... I just noticed.

LOL he is GTO. he uses both the id's. Anyhow, continue with your posts. Very interesting read.
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Old 25th November 2008, 16:02   #51
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Nice CL340 classic you got. Now please please please please don't do anything wild. Just do as follows:

Please get the vehicle serviced. Give it a good wash with diesel, then wash with high pressure water and air dry. Put a new battery (EF70Z) of Exide or Standard Furukawa or Amaron (no local stuff), check all oils and then JUST DRIVE THE DAMN THING FOR ABOUT 100 KMS. You will come to know everything. Report back and I will guide you in totality.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar
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Old 25th November 2008, 16:06   #52
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM View Post
Nice CL340 classic you got. Now please please please please don't do anything wild. Just do as follows:

Please get the vehicle serviced. Give it a good wash with diesel, then wash with high pressure water and air dry. Put a new battery (EF70Z) of Exide or Standard Furukawa or Amaron (no local stuff), check all oils and then JUST DRIVE THE DAMN THING FOR ABOUT 100 KMS. You will come to know everything. Report back and I will guide you in totality.
Excellent, I really was missing this advices a year back, actually what I'm writing(The Classic in that condition) here is about 1.2 years back story. There is a surprise awaiting for you, please give me 2 more days to come back to the next episode.
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Old 25th November 2008, 17:09   #53
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM View Post
Nice CL340 classic you got. Now please please please please don't do anything wild. Just do as follows:
Respected Behram Sir,

As Tramway said above - this whole thread till now is a 'flash-back' filmy ishtyle I strongly recomend to read the 1st 3-5 posts by tramway on pages 1-4, very nice suspense writeup. You will love all his experiences.
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Old 26th November 2008, 16:26   #54
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Hey Machha, think your story is building momentum slowly, waiting for the day you would post that final picture [or should I post the pictures now - less patient TBhpians???] of THE EXPLORER?

Good going!
Keep up the spirit!!
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Old 26th November 2008, 19:59   #55
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MillionSwords View Post
Hey Machha, think your story is building momentum slowly, waiting for the day you would post that final picture [or should I post the pictures now - less patient TBhpians???] of THE EXPLORER?

Good going!
Keep up the spirit!!

Ram, Don't do that... It is secret and I know many in here are already knew about it. But let me complete the story in fast track.
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Old 27th November 2008, 10:32   #56
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As mentioned in my last post, I can’t forget the word that the mechanic said. “Sir, Singam Siluthukinu Enthiduchi. The literal meaning of it is that “A Lion Woke up” and he continued to say “Kavalaya vidunga ottikinu ponga” means, “Don’t worry, Drive it and Go”.

It was like a Rajinikanth introduction song in a Tamil movie, my mind was full of butterflies flying here and there and very special feeling that I had… that was the day I first drove a Classic and also as an Owner of the great machine.cheers:

A week passed, I didn’t touch the jeep, as I wanted to really collect more info about availability of spare parts and mechanics etc. One thought I had in my mind was that, I would never go for used / second hand stuffs for my Jeep in this time. Also collected little bit of information about cosmetics on the Classic. I had noticed that the previous owner had done few of modifications to the Classic; I wished to restore it to the original shape without hurting my pocket.

Anyway it was time to understand the body and mechanical condition of the Jeep, so in the subsequent week I took the Jeep to another mechanic whom I got introduced through the auto consultant to help me doing up the initial cleaning of the jeep. We did a clear water wash; application of grease, oil change and few parts for breaks were changed. Also I bought a new battery, unfortunately not a company one, as I knew the Jeep restoration was going to take a long time. I didn’t like to invest heavily on putting a branded one when the Jeep may be stationed in a garage most of the time.
Mahindra Classic - Jeeping exercise-2212684820_afbfcf4b37.jpg
So after doing the above, the Jeep was taken only for highway ride upto 200kms in 3 days. Slowly, I started getting to know the condition of steering (hell of wobbling), non-working 4WD levers, lots of rattling sound and so on.
Mahindra Classic - Jeeping exercise-2211894533_62986efe60.jpg
I started to keep a notebook dedicated to note down all the known issues without fixing a single one. One weekend early morning I took my Jeep to ECR (East Cost Road) and drove it towards my house in a connection road that runs between ECR and OMR (Old Mahabalipuram Road), It was really a deadly ride as the Jeep was totally on wobble mode like no control and I was hitting 60+ kmph. The body tub of my Jeep was in totally worn out condition, one could break any part of the body just with a simple kick. So I decided to run the Jeep in a gutter to see if any rattling parts were falling apart.

The Jeep was speeding up to hit the gutter and I prepared myself to accept any major damages to the Jeep. I hit the gutter with an explosive sound from the rear side of the Jeep and following this the Jeep jumped out of the gutter and stalled. Woah… It was actually more than what I expected, as the whole rear body tub was broken apart from the chassis and sat on the tyres.

I was not really worried about it; I had some good amount of rope and wooden pieces etc as I was expecting to break something on the Jeep. So managed to bring up the Jeep’s body tub with the help of some local people and put it on the chassis with bit of rope knots.
Mahindra Classic - Jeeping exercise-photo_0093.jpg
With this exercise, I found almost all the issues that needed to be attended. I had 4 pages of the notebook filled with issues found on my Classic.
Mahindra Classic - Jeeping exercise-photo_00011.jpg
I started collecting all possible cosmetic fitments for my Jeep that are either worn out or damaged due to prolonged exposure to open sky.
Mahindra Classic - Jeeping exercise-photo_5002.jpg
Mahindra Dealerships in Chennai are pro Scorpio or Bolero people, I was in a doubt if they could take my jeep restoration at this condition. I was not sure of which mechanic would be doing my Jeep work.

Hence I was searching for a good garage to host my project Mahindra Classic restoration. I didn’t want to go to Pudupet since I was not confident because of the suspected involvement of used spare parts and disorganized service charges.
Mahindra Classic - Jeeping exercise-photo_5006.jpg
Although I made up my mind not to go to Pudupet for my project, I went there to take quotation of the total work, so as to compare my future negotiations and benchmarking of garages.
Mahindra Classic - Jeeping exercise-photo_5011.jpg
Finally I took a weird decision of doing the Mahindra Classic restoration project…

to be continued...
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Old 27th November 2008, 11:40   #57
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Can't believe you actually tried doing destructive testing.

PS: The parts catalog actually says CL340 DP Classic.
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Old 27th November 2008, 12:12   #58
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Thats right, but I had left with no other options as I have decided to built the Jeep from all basics. The future posts will justify my actions.

Hey, Thanks for pointing out. I did notice the CL 340 DP - Classic on that book now.
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Old 29th November 2008, 11:35   #59
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trammway View Post
One thought I had in my mind was that, I would never go for used / second hand stuffs for my Jeep in this time.
Spot on! When you intend to retain a car for a long time (as your Classic), best to opt for the highest quality OE parts.

Quote:
I hit the gutter with an explosive sound from the rear side of the Jeep and following this the Jeep jumped out of the gutter and stalled. Woah… It was actually more than what I expected, as the whole rear body tub was broken apart from the chassis and sat on the tyres.
That truly is destructive testing. I am surprised you subjected the ol' boy to such a harsh situation. Intentionally!

Where have you been sourcing parts for your Classic? How come the decision to paint it red?
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Old 29th November 2008, 13:18   #60
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Don't try destructive testing again. For best results, remove the body from the chassis during restoration. The wobbling may be due to loose wheel spokes. If I were you, I would replace these wheels with normal steel wheels.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar
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