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Old 24th June 2009, 22:52   #1
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Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration

I will narrate the tale of acquiring 2 Maruti Gypsies from the Army Auctions in Pune, an excersise that I recently undertook and accomplished successfully.

My special thanks to my friends, Kaustubh (who bought the second gypsy) , Tarkesh (team bhp member "Ricky_3007" who provided the most important information to accomplish this task) and Kaushik ( team bhp member "KSM-Vtec" who picked up the third gypsy of our lot)

In this thread, I will be detailing the process of how I acquired the beauties the process of restoring them.

I will be needing a lot of inputs from senior members here to get this ambitious project through to its logical conclusion.

regards,
Dr. Abheek Ghosh
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Old 25th June 2009, 00:08   #2
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Congrats Abheek on the new purchse. Get going. Will follow the thread
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Old 25th June 2009, 00:34   #3
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hey this is not fair! you just posted a teaser about the gypsies and left!

post some photos along with your narration of the story!
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Old 25th June 2009, 04:06   #4
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The Prequel.....

Owing a 4x4 , open, capable vehicle was always at the back of my subconscious mind for a long time now. I cannot really figure out since when , but this feeling has grown steadily over a long time now. It must have been the time in my childhood that I spent in the hills of north Bengal where such vehicles are used for daily commute, or the childhood remembrance of the open jeep of my dad's friend in Nagpur , or the numerous journeys to the school in my dad's company owned gypsy in the 1980's , or the sight of numerous gypsies in the jungles of central India.... that the desire to own such a vehicle grew steadfastly over all these years.

I began my initial serious research into the execution of this desire in 2008 when I started interrogating the Gypsy drivers of the central Indian forests which I have been frequenting for the last couple of years now for the purpose of Wildlife Photography and NGO work. Initially I used to go to the jungles taking my workhorse 2004 Maruti Alto Lxi and subject it to some serious offroad driving inside the jungles. Over the years, I realised that I needed a vehicle which was open so as to get the best angles for my shots and to go to those places where I could not dare to take the Alto to. I began tying out my hand on the Gypsies in these jungles and I decided on the gypsy to be the vehicle that I would like to buy considering the fact that it was light, noiseless, had a large bay area and being an extremely capable offroader.

In the second half of 2008 i started looking at the various civilian models that were on sale in Nagpur and on the various online forums like carwale and team bhp. I simultaneously started reading the various threads on the restoration of ex army jeeps on team bhp (notably Harjeev's and Tarkesh's mm550 and the various gypsy restoration threads) . I was notably inspired by Harjeev and also spoke to him on a couple of ocassions about this. I evaluated about 30 civilian Gypsies in Nagpur and elsewhere between December 2008 and March 2009 but none of them was priced in my budget and most of them were pre 1995 models. In January 2009 , I had the chance to extensively drive a 1993 model ex army gypsy in Jabalpur belonging to a patient of mine and I had as good as made up my mind to buy it at the cost of 1.4 L . I however did not buy it and kept looking at other options.

Around January 09, I had a chat with my friend , Kaustubh Thombre, a naturalist working with Taj safaris at Pench Tiger Reserve and both of us decided to form a team to hunt for 2 Gypsies together. This teaming up was the break that I was looking for. This event and the knowledge that e-auctions of army vehicles are held through the website M S T C Limited propelled my desire further and I then started researching on getting my gypsy through this route. I tried registering myself as a scrap buyer on this website but failed as i could not furnish documents to complete the registration. While browsing the mstc website , I came across an auction listing of a lot of Gypsies by the KAFVD, Pune. I then started making enquires at my level by telephoning KAFVD and getting a confirmation about the auction. I had shortlisted a lot of 3 Gypsies in the auction. I also wrote on team bhp regarding this http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-ve...ml#post1199423 and was rewarded by an answer from Tarkesh who said that he was also looking for a gypsy and thus he initially formed the third member of our team.

Having made our team, we entered the auction. The Auction was on 17th March and we inspected the lot by visiting the depot on the 16th. The gypsies in this lot instantly won our hearts and we decided to go for them even at the cost of slightly inflating our bids. To cut a long story short, the next day we were successful in bidding for lot number 375 containing the 3 gypsies (two 1999 model soft tops and one 2000 model hard top) for 2.5 L + 12% taxes.
We were to get the delivery of our lot in a month's time.

We celebrated the next day by driving down to Karnala, Alibagh and Bhaje.
Attached Thumbnails
Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration-alto-jungle.jpg  

Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration-during-online-bidding-sitting-scrap-dealers-office.jpg  

Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration-post-bidding-fooling-around-jackhammer.jpg  

Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration-post-bidding-celebratory-drive-karnala.jpg  

Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration-photographing-karnala.jpg  

Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration-photographing-karnala-1.jpg  

Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration-sea-me.jpg  

Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration-sunset-bhaje-caves.jpg  

Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration-_dsc5425.jpg  

Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration-_dsc5424.jpg  

Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration-_dsc5415.jpg  

Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration-_dsc5418.jpg  

Tale of 2 Gypsies : The story of my Ex Army Gypsy Acquisition and Restoration-_dsc5414.jpg  

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Old 25th June 2009, 08:04   #5
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Hi Abheek,
Nice to see your thread finally, well your gypsy seems to be in nice shape, only thing missing is the seat covers which is not a big deal. How is work going on your gyspy ? Keep the pics rolling

Amar
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Old 25th June 2009, 10:22   #6
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Hi Abheek

Congrats on your new purchase!! The vehicles look quite clean. Are both the Gypsies Carb models?

The Gypst King GB13 carb engine and gearbox are bullet-proof! It will go on for ever if serviced regularly.

Cheers
Ankit
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Old 25th June 2009, 12:09   #7
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Ok so here we go!!! Best of luck with the restoration bro

@ Abheek - Have known these 2 monsters in and out hence NO questions. Lets keep it up bro!!!

BTW for the information of all the other guys, here is the link to my thread on third gypsy from the same auction lot -
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-ve...ter-gypsy.html

Last edited by KSM-Vtec : 25th June 2009 at 12:12.
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Old 25th June 2009, 12:31   #8
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congrats on your puchase , those vehicles look notably better than the standard stuff that you fond in most Army auctions
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Old 1st July 2009, 16:49   #9
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Hi Bro,

Great!! Finally you started the thread. Take it from me the restoration process is very rewarding. You will feel like you have invented something new .

What about registration? Done?

All the best and congrats !!

Tarkesh
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Old 1st July 2009, 17:06   #10
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Abheek,

Congratulations. Gypsies seems to be near good condition. Hope you can retain the color and camoflage.
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Old 18th July 2009, 05:25   #11
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Hi Abheek, need to know about the latest update on your Gypsy. What work have already been carried out. Gypsies are my favorate too, specially after seeing them in action in Rally Desert Storm. They rocks. After completion, perhaps you can plan a trip to western Rajasthan to make strom in desert with your Gypsy.
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Old 23rd July 2009, 00:48   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Amar82 View Post
Hi Abheek,
Nice to see your thread finally, well your gypsy seems to be in nice shape, only thing missing is the seat covers which is not a big deal. How is work going on your gyspy ? Keep the pics rolling

Amar
Thanks amar. I will be going ahead with the detailing of the work that has been done and that which is on cards

Quote:
Originally Posted by GoSlow View Post
Hi Abheek

Congrats on your new purchase!! The vehicles look quite clean. Are both the Gypsies Carb models?

The Gypst King GB13 carb engine and gearbox are bullet-proof! It will go on for ever if serviced regularly.

Cheers
Ankit
Both of the gypsies are Carbed Kings. I always had a liking for the carbed ones over the mpfi kings for the various pluses these carbed kings give us over the mpfi's

Quote:
Originally Posted by KSM-Vtec View Post
Ok so here we go!!! Best of luck with the restoration bro

@ Abheek - Have known these 2 monsters in and out hence NO questions. Lets keep it up bro!!!

BTW for the information of all the other guys, here is the link to my thread on third gypsy from the same auction lot -
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-ve...ter-gypsy.html
Kaushik , this project could not have been possible without your active participation and help/

Quote:
Originally Posted by hellstar View Post
congrats on your puchase , those vehicles look notably better than the standard stuff that you fond in most Army auctions
On none of the restoration threads here have such extremely clean and mechanically sound vehicles been sourced from the army. I feel our threads should point towards trying to get the vehicles out of the army ourselves rather than go through the agents at places like mayapuri. Costs are also lesser than what you get at the agents.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ricky_3007 View Post
Hi Bro,

Great!! Finally you started the thread. Take it from me the restoration process is very rewarding. You will feel like you have invented something new .

What about registration? Done?

All the best and congrats !!

Tarkesh
Registration is almost done. Thats a totally different story again, to be told some day here on the thread. And yes, the feeling is just like what you describe.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dwaraka View Post
Abheek,

Congratulations. Gypsies seems to be near good condition. Hope you can retain the color and camoflage.
I am planning to retain the camoflage colour. Is there anything against not being able to retain them ? Whats the law anyway ? Any examples do we have of camouflage coloured vehicles on this forum?

thanks for all your inputs guys.

regards,
Abheek
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Old 23rd July 2009, 00:50   #13
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I do have plans to take the vehicles on an extensive touring of India in the next year.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DesertKing View Post
Hi Abheek, need to know about the latest update on your Gypsy. What work have already been carried out. Gypsies are my favorate too, specially after seeing them in action in Rally Desert Storm. They rocks. After completion, perhaps you can plan a trip to western Rajasthan to make strom in desert with your Gypsy.
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Old 23rd July 2009, 01:01   #14
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The first challenge thrown to the two Gypsies : 900km drive from Pune to Nagpur

This has to be an unprecedented event so far on team-bhp. Over the next few days, I will enumerate how we drove down our 2 gypsies - which were just out of the army depot (not registered / not repainted / only basic servicing done ) - how we drove such vehicles from Pune to Nagpur without even a single major problem on the way.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story that will unfold with pictures and videos.

regards.
Dr. Abheek Ghosh
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Old 23rd July 2009, 09:31   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by abheekg View Post
.....I always had a liking for the carbed ones over the mpfi kings for the various pluses these carbed kings give us over the mpfi's
Can you just elaborate this point listing what are the advantages?

Quote:
...I feel our threads should point towards trying to get the vehicles out of the army ourselves rather than go through the agents at places like mayapuri. Costs are also lesser than what you get at the agents...
Undoubtedly the vehicles you have sourced are way way better than the usual army disposals. Definitely its better to take the approach ourselves, but it really takes quite some enthusiasm & patience. I guess your effort is one of its kind!
Quote:
.....I am planning to retain the camoflage colour. Is there anything against not being able to retain them ?
You simply can't retain the same, yes this is by the law.
-regards,
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