Work on in full swing at Bharat Motors Hi all,
Got the vehicle from Saleem after completing the electricals day before afternoon. Total costs for electricals came to around 9.6k.
Took the vehicle to Amjad to get a quotation for the seats, lining and canvas hood. Picked up two imported seats that he had, which have a height and recliner adjustment feature. his costs are expected to be around 15k, but the damn welder who is going to do the seat fitting wants 3k! (and throws in plenty of bad attitude for free). Will go with Amjad definitely, but not too keen on the welder.
Decided to check out Bahadurpura to get another quote before confirming with Bharat. It is the mayapuri / dabwali equivalent of Hyderabad and filled with jeeps of all shapes, sizes and colors. Some pretty neat ones also plying the local roads there. Got a quotation from a local mechanic. I liked the chap, but the factors that worked in favor of Bharat are - covered and locked workshop area, closer to my place so easier to do daily evening visits (comparatively) and peace of mind guaranteed. I figured that I can afford to get top quality done on my work and since Bharat comes highly recommended, there was no second choice.
So drove the jeep to Bharat and handed over the keys to Venkat anna around 7pm. He said that he will start work on Wednesday and by evening should have a list of parts which would need to be purchased.
After work on Wed, drove down to Bharat and chatted with Venkat, Sudhakar and the other mechanics. They had dismantled most of the parts and had cleaned several parts. Very detailed cleaning procedure (several rounds of kerosene and water wash). You can actually see the shine on several of the cleaned parts in the pics below. Check out the brown front differential in the pics..seems water had got into it and there was no oil to grease its movements. The engine, clutch, differential had been dismantled. Some of the nozzles in the engine were to be sent to an expert for checking and repair. Anna showed me some parts which had worn out terribly, been welded together oddly or were spurious fittings. Gave him the go ahead to replace all of them.
He prepared a list of items required and his mechanic Naseer came along with me to Rex Automotives, Afzalganj to pick up the parts...again highly recommended for original Mahindra parts at a good rate. What I also liked was that Naseer checked each of the parts to make sure they were upto the mark, even the nuts and bolts individually before they were billed. Parts which did not meet his standards were replaced. Very professional attitude though it was closing hour for the shop. Total bill came upto 11k. More parts will probably be required in the next few days when more of the engine and mechanicals get checked.
Have attached some mobile quality pics of work at Bharat Motors and purchasing the items at Rex. More updates after my visit today evening.
Cheers,
Spyder |