Dear Team-BHP,
[LONG post with LOTS of pictures!] - PART 1 of 2
With immense joy, I would like to share with you all an experience that is very close to my heart.
From when I was a little boy, I remember being fascinated with houses and cars from the era gone by. I would always love to see vintage and classic cars on the roads of Bangalore and would imagine what the city might have been like 50-75 years ago, old houses and these beautiful automobiles plying on the very same roads.
When I was in college (early 2000) I developed this burning desire to own a classic automobile and started looking for one. My very dear friend and myself thought of doing a joint venture and buying one as neither of us had enough money to buy one ourselves! Being a native of Bangalore and Ramanagaram being the birthplace of my Mother, I knew that there were a lot of these old American cars still doing the rounds in Ramanagaram. So my friend and I drove to Ramanagaram and saw a couple of Dodge Kingsway cars. Most of them were in deplorable condition but one was exquisitely maintained but was way out of our collective budget! Disappointed we dropped our car buying plans.
In 2008 I again started to look around and came across a Morris Minor, beautifully restored. Again, way out of my, by then, fairly healthier budget (keeping in mind that I was working).
Then, I came across Vinty, a 1960 Fiat Select 1100. It was in fairly good nick and in running condition, still with the first owner. I finally bought her in December 2010 and drove her from Chandra Layout to my home in Basavanagudi, filled with pride and a sense of accomplishment. This was the beginning of realising my childhood dream!
Vinty was in pretty good shape when I bought her.
- The side beadings, front and rear glass beadings (metal), front bonnet and grille Fiat monograms were all intact.
- The front (small round) indicators were almost opaque with age, side indicators were NOT the original Fish Eye type and the rear tail lamps were from a later model (with a square reflector).
- She was running quite well, except for a few timing issues, transmission noise and needed some work on the suspension, steering and brakes.
- Interiors were redone by the previous owner
- The car had NO spare wheel. Three of the 4 wheel rims were the original ones. The 4th was from a later model of Fiat.
- The body lines were quite good. Body work needed some tinkering to removed minor bumps and misalignments.
- The original Dynamo was removed and replaced with an Alternator by the previous owner.
- Brakes were a little iffy.
Here's what she looked like when I bought her!
Then began the restoration job.
The restoration was initially started by a mechanic close to my house. I was not at all happy with the output and then shifted over to Kannan and thanked my lucky stars for that!
Anyway, off she went for Tinkering to a garage in Wilson Garden. Spent a few weeks there with work being done on the body.
- Running boards had to be replaced.
- Floor boards were in remarkably good shape.
- General body work
In the meantime, all the chrome bits were removed and sent to Vijayalakshmi Enterprises for Electroplating. The parts returned and were individually photo-catalogued. Here is a snap of all the parts, still covered in news paper, just back from electroplating.
We were able to get the following original parts for Vinty.
- Rear tail lamps (WITHOUT the reflector in the middle)
- Aluminium boot hinge covers
- Fish Eye turn-indicators for the side
- Round turn-indicators for the front.
- Front and rear glass - the original ones that came with the car had too many scratches on it which made driving at night a bit of a problem.
With the seats removed, the car was then off to the painter, Mr. Anantharaj V. His garage is located near the Infant Jesus Church in Vivek Nagar.
Vinty went through a complete rub-down before a couple of coats of Duco Black.
Here is what she looked like at this stage with Duco Black and the floor boards painted aluminium.
Now, we took the car back to the garage for some mechanical work and to fix the chrome parts and the front and rear glass. The car would then get a final coat of glossy black paint and 3M polish.
The challenge here was, the car had NO seats and NO fuel tank (this was sent for cleaning). So the mechanic sat himself down on a small stool and kept a 5 Ltr can of fuel next to him with a pipe connecting it straight through the dashboard and into the bonnet! This was the makeshift fuel tank!
It was quite a sight to see a Fiat, in this shape, driving through the streets of Bangalore!
In the meantime, the seats were given to Mr. Seena of Royal Auto Works, in VV Puram (near JC Road). He did a brilliant job with the interiors.
Once the car was fitted with the chrome parts, front and rear glass and got the final coat of paint and polish, we then took it to Royal Auto Works to get the interiors fitted. This included the seats, side boards, roof lining and the dash.
The car was, according to the mechanic, done. But I was not very happy.
- Engine, though tuned, was not running well
- Carburettor needed replacement
- Differential rod was making a lot of noise
- Clutch release was not very smooth
- Brakes were TERRIBLE
- Steering was tight
- When the car went on a speed bump, the front left wheel was touching the wheel arch
- Speedo was not working. The car had too many custom fitted dials for Fuel, Temperature, etc
- No Fiat 1100 Monogram on the boot lid
- No spare wheel
- Tyres were not original
- 3 original wheels and 1 from a later model
- Paint work was showing a crack on the bonnet and some bubbles on the roof
- Electricals were iffy.
- No handbrake assembly.
- The front and rear metal beadings (windshield) were misplaced
Quite unhappy with things, the car was kept in my Garage at home for many months. Then a friend of mine introduced me to Mr. Venkatesh, son of Kannan. I then was asked to take the car to LCK Garage and thats when I met Kannan in person. Such a nice person!
He looked at the car and said… "Sir, first lets fix this mechanically. Then we can work on the cosmetic bits" and started the mechanical work.
- The suspension needed work, the front spring was broken and needed replacement.
- We had a peculiar problem, that was possibly an after effect of some shoddy work by the tinker. The distance between the left front and rear wheels was 1.75 inches MORE than the distance between the right front and rear wheels! This caused the front left wheel to hit the wheel arch when the car went on a speed bump. Kannan came up with an ingenious solution to fix this. I have a hand-drawing that kannan made with a chalk piece on a blackboard at his Garage to explain what he did. I will upload that as soon as I find it from my archives.
- The steering column needed adjustments to remove hardness
- The engine had some shockingly SEVERE misalignment in the timing chain and this was set right.
- The old brake system was giving way. So Kannan suggested replacing the old brake system with the latest brake system. This finally gave the car some predictable braking!
- New battery was fitted.
- Kannan got a Fiat 1100 Monogram custom made in brass and fitted it to the car.
- Kannan asked me to give him photographs of the dashboard from a stock Fiat 1100. I knew a car in Mysore which was in factory condition and I got some photographs from that car and gave it to Kannan to give him a clear idea of what the original dash looked like.
- The original Tape speedo, fuel and temperature gauges were fixed. The extra custom gauges were removed.
- Turn indicators and high beam lamp on the dashboard were made functional.
- Only the handbrake lever was on the car, no other mechanical parts were to be found! Kannan sourced these parts and got the handbrake functional.
- Set of 5 new stock MRF tyres were sourced.
- As I had mentioned earlier, one of the 4 wheels were from a newer model fiat. This was put in the trunk as the spare wheel. Kannan sourced one original Select wheel rim for the 4th wheel.
- Kannan sourced the original rear view mirror (with a small light in it), got it painted, got a new mirror cut and fitted, and the entire assembly painted.
- Electricals were re-wired and everything was fixed.
- Plywood cover for the spare wheel with a screw and a mat for the boot.
- Original Jack for the Fiat was sourced and nicely painted.
- Sun visor was sourced and upholstered to match the roof lining.
Continued in PART 2 of 2
Cheers,
Praveen