[dark.knight]

Very good initiative I'd say, there are so many perfectly capable cars that are abandoned like this on a daily basis, reviving them ensures that their value isn't lost just as yet and is integral to the reduce-reuse-recycle policy which is so essential for a country like India. The work seems to be quite a lot but I guess the both of you knew that already. The floor pan rot has to be cut out entirely, are you planning to cut out the replacement panel from a scrapped Santro or will you be shaping from all new sheet metal?

Given the combination of electrical, mechanical & body repairs this should easily keep you busy for more than a few weeks. The Santro after being discontinued is now a cult car for India, it marked the entry of the biggest competitor for Suzuki and compete it does. I hope you keep it as stock as possible mechanically.

[LoneRidder]

Originally Posted by vsaravind007

Thank you so much everyone! This response was never expected by us, seriously we're excited!

Super guys! Way to Go! Now, lot more guys here would get inspired from your work.

It is very essential to number the parts in the order of dismantling. Else the hell breaks out when reassembling! I had once dismantled by dads Vespa, and had to burnout a big hole in the pocket after i failed to reassemble!

Your daily updates are well appreciated!

[Geo_Ipe]

I thought your might be the first Hyundai to be 'restored' internationally, but a quick Google search showed another guy restoring a 2 door Hyundai sports car somewhere in the UK! Though I'm pretty sure yours is the first one in India!

Also, your thread seems to have woken up a lot of pre 2003 Santro owners! She definitely is a little sweetheart. I learnt driving on my 2005 Xing which I still have, in top shape!

All the Best guys! Glued to your thread like a lot of other BHPians. Would have loved to come & pay you guys a visit, had it not been for geography!

Personal request - Do add a tachometer when you're doing the interiors, and let us all know in simple English as to how to get it done. My Hyundai A$S nor neighbourhood mechanic seems to be knowing how to do it. Other Santro owners who have installed a tachometer are welcome to respond.

[crdi]

Originally Posted by vsaravind007

We've heard about a place in Adoor, Kerala for getting parts. Its about 100km from our place. If its worth it, we'll be going there with a long list of parts!

The place you have mentioned is midway between adoor and kayamkulam. It is a kind of a breaking yard/scrap dealer shop. I travel that route quite often since the past many years and have seen many large and small older vehicles being torn apart, mostly 800s, 1000s, old ambys, trucks/buses and many two wheelers. It is a quite small area and not of the dimensions of Mumbai/Bangalore chor bazars or gujris. Yet to see a santro being killed there, apart from a recently butchered ford ikon, i rarely see newer vehicles there. In Trivandrum I have seen a larger collection of scrapped/about to be scrapped newer vehicles piled up by the side of the Kovalam bypass as you approach Tiruvallam. Either that place or the Thrissur scrap dealers will be your best bet for used parts in Kerala. There is also a hyundai mechanic in Enjakkal, two doors next to the kseb office, who has about 10 plus years of experience at the A.S.S. before venturing out on his own. He is a friendly chap & can be of help for advice or sourcing OE or used parts. I guess you are justified in opting a santro as a hobby project as you both are the 'mechanics' and it is for your own use. Less electronics in the car, ease of finding/fabricating spares and given the ridiculous prices of so called 'vintage' rust buckets further okays the project. All the best for you both, i hope this thread has a happy ending and is not abandoned midway.

[vsaravind007]

Originally Posted by Geo_Ipe

Personal request - Do add a tachometer when you're doing the interiors, and let us all know in simple English as to how to get it done. My Hyundai A$S nor neighbourhood mechanic seems to be knowing how to do it. Other Santro owners who have installed a tachometer are welcome to respond.

Hi Geo_Ipe, adding a tachometer is on top of our list! I'll post my experience with it as we complete.

In Trivandrum I have seen a larger collection of scrapped/about to be scrapped newer vehicles piled up by the side of the Kovalam bypass as you approach Tiruvallam. Either that place or the Thrissur scrap dealers will be your best bet for used parts in Kerala.

Hello crdi, the place here in Trivandrum that you've mentioned is in Muttathara, we've just given a visit there. They have parts from scraped Santro's. The only problem is that, they're asking too much! A door costs 1.7k after bargaining - that too, after giving in our old one! They have a body shell for the car. Then again, asking 25k for it! The problem we saw with that body is that, they've used brute force to dismantle the car. Almost all of the mounting points are either cut down or hammered out of place. The place in Adoor, however is quite economical, they're asking 1k for each door without giving in our old one.

I got a contact number from a friend of my father. They said they've a car with top condition body with a dead engine. We'll be paying there a visit tomorrow to see it and to have a talk. We don't know the legalities of swapping a body shell as the chassis number is punched on the shell along with the engine number badge. They said they've sold a number of body shells for similar cases and its totally legal. Swapping the part where chassis number is punched is the way to go they said. However, I highly suspect this as there are possibilities of giving us the shell of a stolen vehicle or a vehicle without any proper paperwork. I contacted Hyundai A.S.S near our place and they said it'll cost a hell lot for getting a shell from Hyundai, even if it is available.

We honestly don't think that this body shell can be repaired since it is in dead condition. All of the company welds holding the car together has rusted an is flaking - it'll be a hell lot of welds everywhere if we're going to use this itself. I'll post pictures after removing the engine. We're working on removing the wiring kit from the engine bay now. We successfully made the engine frame rest on concrete blocks and We've removed both suspensions from the front of the car and loosened up the bolts holding the engine frame to the body shell. Now its a matter of disconnecting the sensors and other connections to the engine and then gently sliding out the shell, leaving the engine on concrete blocks. Its a theory now, don't really know what will be the result until we get to it.



More photos will be posted after removing the engine Once again thank you all so much for the support!

[ps_abhijith]

Originally Posted by vsaravind007

Hello crdi, the place here in Trivandrum that you've mentioned is in Muttathara, we've just given a visit there.

Hi vsaravind007,

Glued to your thread from the first day, has become my routine to check the thread every morning and evening. Great effort there.

For parts, this may be a wild guess, but you can try to visit the scrap dealers in main road, Chinnakkada, Kollam. I have sourced few parts for bikes from there and have seen car parts also. Prices may not be cheap.

My house is near Kilimanoor, really would love to come see the action live sometime. Keep up the work.

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by vsaravind007

I contacted Hyundai A.S.S near our place and they said it'll cost a hell lot for getting a shell from Hyundai, even if it is available.

The Santro bodyshell [BIW] used to cost approx 1.28 lacs(1.45 with paint) few years ago. But if a trouble free and rust free installation is desired, that's the way to go. No amount of tinkering, will be as good as the factory welds.

And all they best guys for your restoration. It takes hell of a courage to restore a car from such a condition. And you guys are doing a fantastic job with it.

The pleasure derived after seeing a fully restored car is simply outstanding.


Rating the thread a well deserved 5* - Please keep the thread flowing with pictures and updates. I am sure you have a large audience eagerly awaiting the developments, me included!!

Regards

[vsaravind007]

For parts, this may be a wild guess, but you can try to visit the scrap dealers in main road, Chinnakkada, Kollam. I have sourced few parts for bikes from there and have seen car parts also. Prices may not be cheap.

My house is near Kilimanoor, really would love to come see the action live sometime. Keep up the work.

Hi ps_abhijith, We're going to Adoor today, we'll be checking out the place you mentioned. BTW, you're welcome to visit us, let me know when you're coming!

he Santro bodyshell [BIW] used to cost approx 1.28 lacs(1.45 with paint) few years ago. But if a trouble free and rust free installation is desired, that's the way to go. No amount of tinkering, will be as good as the factory welds.

Thats quite a lot for a body shell! We're trying to fix it at a low cost. For that amount, we can get a used Santro Xing in top condition!

Update

The engine has been removed finally! Please find the photographs below. We completed the dismantling at around 10PM yesterday and thats why the photos are a little dim.



There are some connections to the engine that can only be removed after moving the shell a bit. These connections were not accessible as is. We had to move the shell a bit backwards before removing it completely to disconnect these. We didn't see the connections at first!


Lifted the body shell using jacks to be sure that the shell will come out easily. You can see the engine frame resting on the concrete blocks.


If you look closely on the below picture, you can see the rod for connecting the steering rod to the column assembly. This particular part comes inside the body shell and the connection to the steering rod and this is made inside the body shell, near the foot pedals. The problem we faced with it is that, we had to lift the body shell significantly to free this up - no easy task for 2 skinny guys! But we did it somehow!




















We had to call our father to help us, when we lifted the body and tried to move it backwards, it tried to roll out fast and we couldn't control! We asked him to stop the car from rolling out uncontrollably. Now after removing the engine, the damage is more visible, the body shell was held together by the engine frame! Front extreme edges of the shell, where the fenders are held wobbles now! That's definitely not a good sign!
Anyways, today we're going to Aadikaattukulangara, a place in Adoor, Kerala to checkout the place to see if we can get something useful from there. We won't be working on the car today. I'll update the news after coming back from there. Thank you all so much again for the encouragement you all have given to us, its a community driven project now!

[srinath34]

One the best threads I have read in TBHP in a while!! Keep it going Restoration Brothers!!

Looking forward to the progress in the coming days.

Good luck!!

[MaxTorque]

Wow nice initiative guys. This car is laid the base for Hyundai in Indian market. Eagerly waiting for further updates.

[vsaravind007]

One the best threads I have read in TBHP in a while!! Keep it going Restoration Brothers!!

Wow nice initiative guys. This car is laid the base for Hyundai in Indian market. Eagerly waiting for further updates.

Thank you so much srinath34 and MaxTorque!

Update
We just came back from Aadikaattukulangara, the place is just awesome! Its a grease monkey heaven! An unsuspecting byroad from the main road leads to a completely different atmosphere! We've seen nothing like this before, ever! What crdi saw wasn't the real place people talked about, we saw the place crdi said, it was on the road side. We had to take a byroad to reach this place.

The place is run by two brothers, Noushad and Riyas. Its their family business, their father ran this place before them. They're quite friendly and are passionate about vehicle restoration. They've almost 25 employees there at their yards. There are two yards - one specializes in heavy vehicles while the other is dedicated to small and medium vehicles. We went ahead and had a look for ourselves. Honestly, our jaws dropped to the ground! There were cars everywhere! Engines and drive trains lying here and there, piles of wiring kits, piles of pressed car shells, rims, carbs, steering assemblies, I don't know what all! I'll let the photographs do the rest of talking! We've seen quite a lot of Santro's there. We could easily count 15 Palios there, we're sure, there will be more! 800's, Alto's, Zen's, Esteem's and Indica's were too common. The soil there is almost black in color - engine oil and grease! We spent almost 2 hours there and during that time, we saw 3 cars getting delivered for tear down - 1 total loss Accent, a Tata Ace and an Indica.













Pile of wiring kits and ECU's from different cars! We saw Skoda's and Mitsubishi's ECU's getting rain and sun!


















This this really caught our attention, its a DIY car crusher made by them from salvaged parts of a JCB. The lorry in front is the powerhouse for this crusher. The engine of the lorry is connected to the hydraulic pump. From the number of crushed body shells that we saw, we concluded that this is their workhorse! It can be seen on the next photo.
















We found what we were looking for, Santro shells! There were 5 Santro's belonging to the same year as ours, 3 were best for our purpose. The owner said, we could choose any and all are having the same rate. There was this Red one, sparkling body with a dead engine. It was in the car porch of a house(workers stay there I guess) opposite to this yard, the car is in perfect shape. No signs of rust or dents on the body. The engine has seized, they ran without oil. Oil pan is hanging down because the engine case is broken, bumped onto a stone or something. The body of the car is in top shape. Saw the paper works and it all seems good. He said his people can dismantle the car in 1 hour. The plastic parts are free and he said he'll take our old shell and will give the shell at a nominal cost.















I'll post the rest of the photos as next reply as I can't seem to attach more than 30 images on one go.

[vsaravind007]

Contd..











Now that we've seen the options we have, we need to decide. Using the old shell is not an option, it'll be welds everywhere. Suspension mounts after welding won't be strong enough. But the car we've seen is a 1999 model. We are not sure about the compatibility of the parts. People there said, they're completely compatible but the wiring kits are different. We need to address it somehow to make it work. Anyways, this was one hell of a day for us both! Will do more updates tomorrow.

Thank you so much guys

[Tinuvilla]

Originally Posted by vsaravind007

The body of the car is in top shape. Saw the paper works and it all seems good. He said his people can dismantle the car in 1 hour. The plastic parts are free and he said he'll take our old shell and will give the shell at a nominal cost.

When they say that the plastic parts are free, what all plastic parts come with the body shell?

On another note, is it not easier to use this better body shell and the engine from the dismantled Santro?

[vsaravind007]

Originally Posted by Tinuvilla

When they say that the plastic parts are free, what all plastic parts come with the body shell?

On another note, is it not easier to use this better body shell and the engine from the dismantled Santro?

Hi Tinuvilla, there are a lot of plastic(PVC) parts on Santro's, door trimmings, dash board, D pillar trims, floor trims.. the list goes on. They're not at all interested in the plastic parts, they're after the metal and wire.

We're also thinking of using the engine from our car on this body shell. But, its a huge task in hand. We'll be literally building a Santro from scratch! The wiring kit is not the same(the ECU isn't the same, our car has the newer engine used in Xing's while this car is a 1999 model.) they said the engine will fit in perfectly. Brake drums on our car looks different, its slightly bigger than the old model, even the door hinge mounts are different even though they look exactly the same. We need to look into the differences closely.

[pramodkumar]

Hi Where is Aadikaattukulangara? I would love to pay this place a visit. A goggle map would do. Do they have any bike parts? Are there lancers in their yard? I needed a front bumper for my car and wanted some bike parts.

Thanks,

Pramod