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-   -   Living one of my childhood dreams - my newly restored MG413 (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-vehicles/73950-living-one-my-childhood-dreams-my-newly-restored-mg413.html)

Some people call it the “gypsy bug” and others call it “every Indian child’s/boy’s dream vehicle”. For me, being from an Army background, I have grown up in one (ofcourse only in the back seat) and always had my eyes on it for long; so it’s more of a transition from the latter to the former. However, never bought one because I believed that Gypsy cannot be a primary car in a city like Delhi; hence, spending 6L on a new one did not make much sense. Then came the era of TeamBHP (I was introduced to the site in 2007), and I started to read about Army disposal restoration projects. After reading n-number of such posts and success stories, and talking to numerous people, I decided to go with one for myself. So here’s my story:

My first and most preferred route was to buy it directly from the Army, as I was aware that Army officers were entitled to an Army disposal during retirement. I requested my father to check the possibility of getting one via the formal Army HQs channel. After many phone calls (across 2 weeks) and requests (because most of my father’s colleagues and him retired a few yrs ago, so they had to further make calls), we learnt that only those officers who retired in the last one year can apply for a gypsy, and others cannot. So, the idea of getting it directly went down, and I then started pursing other options.

Like most people, my recce started with a visit to Mayapuri, which left me shaken with the prices the dealers were quoting (and I had a fair idea that their cost was close to 50% only – the mark up was just too high for me to digest). In addition to that, stories about engine seizing, low quality engine replacements, bad deals etc etc etc from Mayapuri made me very nervous; and so I decided to buy an individual/ dealer owned vehicle which is not a govt disposal or from Mayapuri.

This started my next phase of search which was the Internet (gaadi.com, adpost, car wale……), various newspapers, and magazines like autoX. Even after months of searching for the right buy, I did not find one.

Just when I was losing hope, I came across another guy who had been looking for months as well. We teamed up and agreed to go for Army auctions directly. Since he had recently registered himself for such auctions, we decided to invest in an entire lot in equal partnership. The first auction we came across was the CVD auction in Delhi on 10 Nov. We did all our spade work - visited CVD depot couple of times, identified lots worth investing , prepared excel sheets marking each lot as per priority, putting a price on them etc, and not to mention – taking the day off from work to concentrate on the e-auction. All prepped up for d-day, and the auction gets cancelled on 10th morning.

By now, totally disgusted with life, de-motivated and extremely exhausted with the running around, and the fact that i was losing sleep and sanity, and not to forget the hair loss :Frustrati I just had two options – either to quit the idea of owning a gypsy, or to go with my instincts blindly and just picking one up even at a higher price.

So, I went to this guy I had met before the Raid’09 and who is now a good friend and left everything to him – buying and the restoration job. At the end of it, I am very happy with the work on the engine, the mechanicals and the paint job that has been done. There were some hiccups with the electricals which can always be taken care off; coz what mattered to me was a good chassis as input and excellent steardy performance as output – which overall, a very excited and proud owner of my machine!

Here’s are some pics of the before and after job

BEFORE:







AFTER:

swell rebuild, looks very neat and tidy. could you share the rebuild costs plz?

Amazing make-over, Sorcererenator clap:! It looks like brand-new now...Congrats on getting Gypsy'd !

Carb King before ... an MPFI King after, correct?

congratulations on your dream becoming a reality with Gypsy.

thats a very good transformation from an ex-army gypsy to a white knight!

if you would like to share information about the transformation and its costs involved, where it was done. it would be very helpful for fellow members who want to do similar transformations in future.

drive safe and wear seatbelt.

Congrats on a neat looking Gypsy.
And welcome to the 4X4 world!!

Terrific job there. You did not tell us where your friend got it from. From a dealer ? or Mayapuri ? And the price.

Beautifully done transformationclap:. Congratulations. Do you mind sharing total expense and from where did you buy this army disposal?
Safe drive

Imran

Did you change the engine?

Congratulations on the restore, Sorcererenator.

The Gypsy bugs seems to be catching me as well. Would appreciate your sharing the costing of the procurement as well as restoration.

Cheers,

Congratulations on the gypsy,real sweet ride you have there.Job well done mate.clap:clap:

regards

renegade

Amazing work. The gypsy looks brand new. Where did you get the engine from?

Hi Abhay

Well done. It is frustrating at times but you will enjoy it in the long run.

The work quiality looks top notch! Will call you and meet up.

Cheers
Ankit

That looks neat . Congrats . Great rebuild done . Would be interested if you can share the rebuild story in detail with the costs . Please

Congrats.!!! This looks to be one of the 5* rated restoration projects. Too good and looks fresh out of showroom.

Yes, please do so. There are MANY MANY people interested in going down this route. So it will help if you could share the following:

• Is this a NEW mpfi engine? Where did you source it from?
• RTO/RC endorsement.
• Costs/Time/Reliability..
• Where was this done?

Again, congrats on a super job :thumbs up

Damn! Can you believe that. Look at the before and after pics of the Engine bay. Amazing stuff. Kudos man! Good job.