Dear all - I am clarifying once again, there was never any "BU". If you have seen a badge, it is not original. Floor shift gear cars were just "Deluxe" with an "e". There was never any "Delux". If you have seen such a badge, either it is not original or it is broken or it is purposely cut. There was never any "Executive" also. You will never get to see the original tracings as they would have disappeared now, but I can proudly state that my signature was there on most of the drawings in the row of "appending engineer" with GM (R&D)'s signature in the final approver's row. One good thing about working there irrespective of everything was that - IN PRODUCT ENGINEERING, WE WERE EXTREMELY STRONG AND THOROUGH. All this thoroughness is helping me today also.
On reverse lights, all "Deluxe BE" and "Deluxe" series of cars had factory fitted reverse lights. If you observe carefully, you will see a sheet metal projection jutting into the passenger compartment on the top right side of the front left footwell only in this series of cars. We made this to incorporate the reverse light actuation switch which was fitted on the left side of the transmission, otherwise the switch was hitting the body. One wire was red, the other was black with a golden stripe on it. There was a grey coloured insulation on these wires. These wires passed between the legs of the speedometer cable locating bracket on the firewall. You should know all such minor details also. Just for information, there are numerous such small changes, like introduction of button to hold the speedometer driver gear on the mainshaft (1986), introduction of metallic speedometer driven gear only for Mumbai taxi supply cars (1988), introduction of 10 leaf rear springs only for Mumbai taxi supply cars (1988), introduction of cross wheel spanner with unequal length arms and different head attachments in one piece construction (1987). Introduction of small indentation on the top front face of the muffler to provide relief for the handbrake acutating rod of S1 BE cars, but commonized across models (1991), introduction of plain washer instead of metal strip to hold the front exhaust pipe on the "Y" bracket (1988), elimination of jute felt from the inside of the rear door inner handles of "Deluxe" cars only (1986), elimination of whitewall tyres (1986), introduction of "hold off" type wiper arms for "Deluxe BE" and "Deluxe" cars (1987), introduction of 12 mm * 12 mm * 0.8 mm deep indentations on the firewall upper to facilitate incorporation of batter cable mounting brackets for Premier Padmini 137D cars but commonized across all models (1990), introduction of clip on carburettor tray for holding the temperature guage sensor wire (1987), reducing the length of the horn mounting bolt only for cars having single horn (1986). There are numerous such FPC, RDS, OEG and EEG documents which we would release (Future Production Change / Release Delete Schedule / Optional Equipment Group / Extra Equipment Group). These are engineering documents which control the product specifications and deliverables to the end customer.
OH REE GEE NUL ITY ? THINK ABOUT IT.
Best regards,
Behram Dhabhar |