[frankmehta]

ive raced this car:-) and lost! congratulations. those pictures just took my breath away. the new wheels do her a whole lot of good. enjoy her to the max!
cheers!

PS: im going to show amey these pics. he will be super flabbergasted!

[khan_sultan]

Oh man, the linea alloys do look HOT. VERY HOT.

PS: do get the '100' monogram pasted along with 16V on the sides. Looks hot.

PPS: Did the GTX come with black color OVRM?? Looks cool.

[cooldude1988765]

Raveendra your gtx look hawt. The linea alloys go very well. congrats on the purchase.
When are you changing the colour ?

[extreme_torque]

Even after all these years, the Palio still manages to look pretty handsome and can give today's cars a good run for their money.
The Linea alloys are looking fantastic.

[evo]

@ Ravveendrra

That is one brilliantly written driving experience. What I loved most is the straight, matter of fact way you wrote it.

Thank you for a wonderful use of 5 minutes!

[downsouth]

Ravendra,

Envying the car, seriously there is a sea of change since I last saw palio. It seems like completely transformed. Wondering are did you get the wet look paint job? I am going to track this thread.

[trrk]

Hi,

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra

trrk mentions in post no. 43 here that he saw a set of GTX alloys in the showroom and that they were priced between 3750/- to 4000/- per piece, I presume that the Linea's would be priced in the same range.

That particular person to whom I was talking (and who ever he approached to ask about the alloy) were not even sure of the model for which the alloy was displayed. Since there was a Safari display nearby, he actually told me initially that itis for Safari.

I won't be very sure of that price. It has been quoted at 7000+ in the posts seen in Palio user Group.

[bottle]

The alloys look hot and looks like you have enough space in the wheelwells for bigger discs too

[pranava999]

finally get to see the photos. car's looking good as always and the wheels add that extra dimension with the logo.

[karthik247]

The Linea alloys really look good on this car. Get some fatter rubber and it'll look even better.

[YC.BALENO.CHD]

Indeed, the new alloys gel in perfectly with the Palio. And frankly speaking they look more apt than the 'tele-dial' alloys that came with the car (though they were quite unique). Also are their any plans of getting the ORVMs painted to match the body colour? Weren't the mirrors body coloured on GTX? I guess the Sports and the S10 had painted ORVMs.

[Allroad]

Ravvendra, Can I get the name of the mechanic you worked with in your purchase?

Name?
Where in Hyderabad is his shop located?
Is he a Fiat expert?
Knows Fiat 1.9d diesel engines?
His contact?

I may need to consult him for a Fiat 1.9d I am looking.

Thanx!

[motionfreak]

Changes that you can do, I've done all this. Just minor details but to a Palio enthu. they matter.

Open bith the doors and stick the black strip on the B pillar, in between the doors, so that u don't see the orange line when they are shut and complete the glass house effect.

Get the rear wiper adjusted to the propwer position ie horizontal. u can do it at home too., just open the base cap and adjust the nut.

Costly
You can replace the stock mirrors by Stile mirrors. bigger, much better and look cool due to dual tone colours. Not necessory though.

[Ravveendrra]

Thank you, everyone, for your kind words of appreciation for my feeble efforts at doing up the GTX and posting the same here.

Originally Posted by trrk

.......I won't be very sure of that price. It has been quoted at 7000+ in the posts seen in Palio user Group.

Today, I checked with another GTX owner - he confirms that the 'telephone dials' are around 7K each and we expect that the Linea wheels will cost about the same.

Originally Posted by bottle

The alloys look hot and looks like you have enough space in the wheelwells for bigger discs too

That is an interesting proposition that I will look at in the future after all the kinks are ironed out.

Originally Posted by karthik247

The Linea alloys really look good on this car. Get some fatter rubber and it'll look even better.

I do not think I can fit in any fatter rubber. It is already running 195/55 R15s and the tyres are looking rather fat already. The steering is just right now and the initial pick up has dropped due to the tyres which are 2.13% bigger than stock (about 3.1% bigger than the tyres that were on the car when I got it). IMHO fatter rubber will put undue stress on suspension parts, steering and also affect performance.

Originally Posted by downsouth

. .....Wondering are did you get the wet look paint job? .....

Originally Posted by cooldude1988765

........When are you changing the colour ?

LOL, the paint job will have to wait for the recession to end. I did get Prabhu to get a Maguire detailing done today.

I am torn on the choice of colour. The existing Tangerine Mist would be the easiest. I am partial to the Fern/Forest (Dark) green that the Palios came in. I am also thinking of a light yellow or white. I am toying with a dual tone job with a kind of a 'swoosh' along the sides.

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

........
PS: do get the '100' monogram pasted along with 16V on the sides. Looks hot.

PPS: Did the GTX come with black color OVRM?? Looks cool.

Originally Posted by YC.BALENO.CHD

..........Also are their any plans of getting the ORVMs painted to match the body colour? Weren't the mirrors body coloured on GTX? I guess the Sports and the S10 had painted ORVMs.

The OVRMs are body coloured on the GTX. The previous owner replaced the OVRMs but had not got them painted. I quite like them in black as they offset the body colour rather well. I will consider painting them when I repaint the car, perhaps next year.

The "100" monogram is missing on one side. I will have to work at sourcing it.

Originally Posted by motionfreak

Changes that you can do, I've done all this. Just minor details but to a Palio enthu. they matter.

Open both the doors and stick the black strip on the B pillar, in between the doors, so that u don't see the orange line when they are shut and complete the glass house effect.

Get the rear wiper adjusted to the propwer position ie horizontal. u can do it at home too., just open the base cap and adjust the nut.

Costly
You can replace the stock mirrors by Stile mirrors. bigger, much better and look cool due to dual tone colours. Not necessory though.

Thanks for all the suggestions. The wipers (front and back) need to be reset to the correct positions. I normally start looking at cosmetics once I am done with the mechanical stuff (which is never-ending! )

UPDATE

I collected the car this afternoon from Prabhu of New Mars. The following work was done: (Total bill = Rs.24.5K)

Painting and fitting the rear bumper,
Replacing all 4 struts, (Springs are not available),
Replacing strut plates, mounts etc.
Checking lower arms, and replacing some rubber suspension parts,
Wheel alignment,
Throttle body cleaning (without disassembly),
Internal and External detailing,
Checking and aligning all doors.

I have driven very little since the car came back, my first impressions are:

The car has stopped feeling like a bullock cart with no suspension and all noises from the suspension have disappeared, the car tracks correctly now. I however need to increase the tyre pressure now. I am currently running 28 psi all around.

The slight 'stickiness' in the throttle has gone.

The cars 'wet look' looks neat from afar, up close though, all the blemishes, scratches, cracks and chips in the paint are showing more than before.

Note: I noticed that the A/c. is far more effective after we cleaned the radiators (from the outside) using compressed air first and then water under medium pressure.

The FE returned was 33 Litres for 310 Km i.e. 9.34 Kmpl (9.59 after considering the odo error due to upsized tyres). This was the best achieved so far, the car now returns between 7 to 9 Kmpl, which is about par for the course considering that it is all in the city with heavy footed driving and 100% A/c.

I hope to finish all pending work in another week thereby completing the acquisition and initial ownership experience.

Cheers,

[arbind85]

raveendra awesome car. alloys are also the right fit.