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I last sat for hours on end in a workshop, sipping Chai and eating Vadas about 6 years ago, when I bought a Govt. CJ3B in pathetic condition and did up the whole thing with an Isuzu petrol engine and an Isuzu 4wd gearbox. Not content, I went on to add power assisted disc brakes and power steering and bucket seats etc.
I then proceed to get sick of it and sold it for a grand sum of 1.2 lakhs.
After listening to all the young and crazy folks at T-BHP, the bug bit me again and I started looking for a jeep. The CJ3B was not my scene anymore as the inherent drawbacks inside the city and on the highways put me off. Not to mention that owning a 4X4 safari with 130 bhp had made me quite soft!!!
Well then I came across an ex-army MM550, in relatively good shape and with a newly worked on engine and most importantly clear and correct papers. I proceeded to pick up this jeep for a pretty high sum of 180K.
I drove it for about a week(sorry no pics) and then decided that if I wanted to make this a daily driver, I needed to spruce it up. I decided to remove the body and replace all the mounting bed bushes and check the chassis for cracks and also to paint it.
While that was happening I decided to replace the engine with an XD2S, a peugeot 2.3L turbo diesel with 80 bhp on tap. I also picked up an Armada Grand BA10/5 gearbox with an electric shift transfer case. I removed the electric shift transfer case and replaced it with a Borg warner manual shift transfer case.
This mod made it mandatory for me to replace the rear diff (semi floating with the crown on the right) to a full floating commander unit with a centered crown. I replaced the limited slip diff from the 550 onto the commander unit.
I then decided to try out a pair of fibre glass spring plates and replaced the perch and mounting bracket to that from the Bolero. These look good and have a better rocking motion while stationery. The supplier asked me to try my best to break them.
I then decided to procure a power steering unit for the Bolero and while I was doing that decided to replace my seats with a pair of leather electric seats as I got them cheap!!! I also decided to go for the plain sheet metal dashboard to go back to the plane Jane looks. I also decided to aircondition the jeep.
I went ahead a got myself a set of 5 NANKANG tyres which were the same size as the 7.50X16 sandgrips, namely the FORTA FT7 23585R16 tyres.
The status of my jeep now is that the chassis has been stripped, re-inforced, painted with quality polyurethane paint and fitted with fibre spring in the rear.
The body is being worked upon and the dashboard and fire walls are being made ready.
Hopefull the engine and gearbox will go in this week.
Some pics, enjoy

Some more pictures of work in progress.

Wohoo! Thats practically rebuilding 60% of the car, if not more. Excellent effort,none-the-less. Good luck with everything.
Any pics of the new tires?

Every jeep has a story and with every story, there is something new to learn.
Congratulations on your new baby jyobeb.

Regards,
Krishna.

Good to see another MM540 project in progress. Looking forward to the completed pictures...

hi there,

excellent start to a build up. i do have a query. what are fibre glass spring plates ? Do these replace the existing leaf setup? I am learning more things from this thread. Are these been in the market for a while? If so where can I get them?

Also can you please elaborate on the powersteering unit? Is it placed inside the engine compartment or is it visible outside? How much does it cost?

Any pictures of the tyres?

Regards

Firoz

Very interesting, would definitely love to see the progress and the final result.

Well John, nice job, am interested in the single leaf spring and its supplier!

Cheers

Thats a great gist of the modifications. Kindly elaborate on the followigs:
1) How much did the PS unit of bolero cost you.
2) What exactly is a electric seatstupid:? From which car you picked it up?
3) How are these Chienese tyres? They must be pretty cheaper compared to the other branded AT tyres?
-regards,

Add one more to the list of folks wanting to know about the fibreglass leaf springs. Look interesting. I am sure the squeaks and creaks fron the leafsprings could be a worry of the past.

Well the springs have been fitted but will take a month before the jeep can be driven. The springs cost 16K but I have been given avery good deal to try them out. If I break them, my money gets returned!!
The manufacturers are ARC industries in Coimbatore.
I bought to Bolero power steering unit for 18K and will be fitted in the same place as the Bolero. i.e near the front right end of the chassis.
The seats are off an imported SUV and cost me 8K
The tyres cost me Rs4800/- per tyre.
Will post pics soon.
Oh, I also picked up Chinese 8000 pound winch for 22K

Did a quick google and found the below: Arc Industries - Composite Leaf Springs, Picking Sticks, Artifitial Limbs

The product looks the same as posted by jyobeb above. Anyone have more details. This looks good for coastal weather. Sorry for OT on this.

Some photographs of the seats and the tyres.
Seats are yet to be cleaned.

The seats and tyres look good.
Are the seats genuine leather??? They look like it!

I was looking for tyres with the same specs but couldn't find any. So had to settle for sandgrips.
Even tramway has some chinese tyres on on his classic!
Alas I think they are not available in NCR

Beboy, Those are Light truck tyres. 7.50x16. Meant for use in 407s,etc. Im sure you know it.
Please exchange it for ATs.