There is an idiot in every one of us!
Most of you might have understood what I am going to say, reading just the title and the opening line of this post. Yes... 1992 NA Tata Sierra is being reborn as I type this...
First, a little background - I needed a nice rugged vehicle for my restaurant in Bangalore. I was looking something which would is capable of suffering abuse from the hands of a driver and to take on the non-existent Bangalore roads without a frown on its… ahem.. grill…
A Sierra seemed a good option because I thought I can use it over the weekend for joyrides. So the search began. I dint find much of luck. One broker even showed a Sierra which was rusting outside a house for donkeys years… The insides of the vehicle rivaled those of “sulabh sauchalay” and he quoted a cool 70k for this… IMHO the price was just a decimal point off…
Hot potato… dropped it and the other 4-5 “cars” I saw.
Finally picked one from a friend. It was not maintained properly but it was better than any of the ones I saw before. Got it serviced and spent 7k on servicing and got it to the road.
We were using it for the hotel for about a month and suddenly one night, someone stole the damn battery!
At the same time I got busy with other, more important stuff and left this sierra in the rain for a looong time (read 3 months). Finally I bought a new battery (SF Jumbo 80 AH for Rs 4900) last week and set out to meet the old man... I mean the sierra.
There he was... standing in knee high vegetation. There was a building construction going on next to where the car was parked. Cement was spilled all over the bonnet. It was ugly…
A tractor had, apparently, hit the driver side door a few weeks back and knocked it up… but it wasn’t that bad… a minor dent – by sierra standards.
I was praying that everything will go smoothly and that the car will start once we plonk the new battery. It took about 10 mins to fix the battery in the dark.
Turned the ignition… wheezes… like an old man… but engine doesn’t fire… fingers crossed… going for the second try… turn the key after heating the coil.. growls and gets back to life… tap the gas and he sounds like he is saying “It feels great to be alive again”.
Happy ending right?
Well not quite… My house is about 12 odd kms from where the car was hibernating for 3 months. Looking at the car under the good lighting in the parking lot, I felt that the cement was an ugly sight…
I had found a new garage on the way to work a few weeks ago. It looked pretty decent. So I called them and arranged for the car to be picked up so I could probably get it repainted... right? Costs about10k, give or take a few K… no sweat…
When I reach the garage, I peep into the engine bay and see that most of it is eaten by rust... the engine is still a peach cos it is behaving itself and doesn’t overheat etc. There are no known mechanical problems with the car for the brief while we had it (and my friend had it for 3 years).
The roof had leaks and water seeped into the platform. The platforms were eaten by rust too. The running boards were totally gone. And there was rust in most of the joints. Hmmm... it would require a major metal work… lots of welding and tinkering. I bit the bullet… and give the go ahead to bring the old fellow back to top shape… I have pictures and will post them.
I will be using the vehicle for my own use for about 60 kms everyday and a mandatory outstation trip in the range of 1000kms both ways, every month. I have a few questions and hope someone can give pointers.
1) The car is registered as white with the RTO. Will the RTO have any problem if I paint it black or red or whatever?
2) Anything to keep in mind when getting it repainted? What paint? How many coats etc?
3) The car is devoid of any ICE. It doesn’t bother me really. I am ready to spend about 30-40k on top of the cost of tinkering/repainting. Assuming the car is mechanically sound, can you give me some suggestions on what can be added to the car? Like dual a/c or aluminum radiator/extra electric fan etc. The tyres are pretty ok and I don’t want to change them right now. So for 30- 40k what else can I do to the car? I prefer functional accessories than aesthetic ones…
I am also curious how much is a good amount to spend on only the tinkering and painting for the car. I already fixed on a price but wondering if I paid too much… or too little…
I will post pictures soon. Problem with the speed of the net connection… I will keep everyone informed about the progress as well.
There really is an idiot in every one of us! cheers: