[Jai3033]

Congrats Tonrag for the amazing restoration. I was more impressed with the detailed documentation and presentation. Hats off to your team also.

[Neel]

awesome restoration and a wonderful write up. i'm short of words but definitely understand how you must be feeling now.

[suren181]

Tonrag, a truly well documented restoration this is and a guide to future newbie restorers. Thank you for the same and btw do we get to read/see the resto process of your MG TC, Austin Seven et al in the near future?

If not restorations probably a pictorial on them?

[ameenmaj]

Tonrag,
This was an amazing piece of restoration. The level of detailing was amazing.
I can imagine the level of patience and pain that you have had. Kudos to you, your wife and your team. All have been quite dedicated.

I got goose bumps while reading this

PS: You are very humble and the words you have given for your wife applies to you also.

[jimmy_iaf]

Tonrag,
You must really love cars to be able to see the possibilities under the skin of that piece of junk portrayed in the first picture! I am happy that you were able to complete the work in time - and happier still that you work for the Government. It should clear any misconception that people may have about quality work under the auspices of the Government.
It was also great to see the pics of your restored cars in the 'intro' post.

[evo]

Totally fantastic.

The simpe physical greatness of the job!
The great, almost manic attention to detail.
The amazing amount of work done by yourself (5 hours to make the Bowtie! etc)
The brilliant choice of colour.
The very amusing and lucid narration.
The fact that you have a roll top desk!

Thank You.

[Rossiter]

Fantastic! You have an admirer in me now. I thoroughly enjoyed the step by step detailed explanation and log of the entire process. Kudos to you sir, and a legend breathes again because of your efforts.

[gostel]

Amazing work Tonrag.
What can I say? Gosh.
Couldn't believe from the 'before' pictures that the 'after' could be really achieved.
All I can offer you is my admiration and good wishes.

[Sujith1100]

Fantastic work
Mind blowing hard work, my eyes filled with tears reading the story and seeing the car BEFORE and AFTER

[prabhuav]

Sir,

This is truly mindblowing effort. For a car that you dont even own - my God this is amazing.

Vijay

[Dussey]

Originally Posted by tonrag

Thank you very much for your appreciation and generous comments. I was lucky to have a good team to back me up. Those of you who have gone through a restoration will agree that chasing people to work on your car can be a horrendous experience. My own car, an MG TC, took 14 years to restore. Things had reached such a desperate stage that finally I had to learn a lot of skills myself, to finish the car. Sometimes there were hilarious results too; for instance, when I first did the wiring on a car, a Morris Minor, the windscreen wipers would work everytime I stepped on the brakes!

There have been lots of questions as to what is the current situation with the car. So the other day, I dropped in to the workshop to see my old friend. She had been brought out of storage in a closed shed for some work. Five years on, the interior looked good, though the outside was a little dusty and decorated by a prolific crow. The dashboard didn’t look as bad as I thought! Her next outing will be next week, when the Chief Minister is expected to visit Tataguni estate. She runs smoothly and without fuss, as she is still lovingly tended by the team that brought her back to life.



I have written to the trust giving details of the few things that remain to bring her upto scratch and hope that they'll give me the green signal soon.

tonrag. A great restoration and a brilliant account of how it was done !

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by tonrag

So the other day, I dropped in to the workshop to see my old friend. She had been brought out of storage in a closed shed for some work.

Five years on, the interior looked good, though the outside was a little dusty and decorated by a prolific crow. The dashboard didn’t look as bad as I thought! Her next outing will be next week, when the Chief Minister is expected to visit Tataguni estate. She runs smoothly and without fuss, as she is still lovingly tended by the team that brought her back to life.

So this restoration was carried our 5 years ago. I was thinking you just finished it. How long did it take from start to finish?

[ask77]

another of the Roerichs car . A Dodge preserved at their estate in Naggar dist. Kullu Himachal Pradesh , then united Punjab

[tonrag]

Thanks again for the appreciation, BHPians! Really does wonders for motivation to take up my next project. I’ve also told my wife about the rave reviews and though she tries not to show it, I think she’s thrilled too! To the various questions asked, here are the responses:

Suren, I'll try and post pictures of my earlier restorations after scanning old photos. They were not as well documented as the Chevy one, as digital cameras didn’t exist then, but the stories are more gory. The Austin and Morris restorations were rolling ones; the cars were out of commission for short periods only, particularly because the Austin was mechanically perfect and I couldn’t afford to have the Morris off the road for long periods; it was in daily use for close to 5 years. The MG was quite a job, a worse basket case than the Chevy. As I was quite inexperienced at that time, I made some horrendous mistakes too and correcting them was quite a task.

Thanks Jimmy, for your appreciation. Yes, we chaps in the government are favourite whipping boys I know, but there are several people, both politicians and officers, who work with a lot of dedication to keep things running. They don’t hit the news, because bad news is good news! Yes too, for me, old cars are human. They speak to you and doing them up is the closest I’ve been to meditation.

Evo, the roll top is just great. When I roll the top down a complicated set of levers behind ensures that all drawers are locked automatically. In other words, central locking.

Mpower, the work was started on Aug 17, 2004 and finished on Oct 18, 2004.

Ask77, thanks for the picture of the Dodge. That car was owned by Nicholas Roerich, Svetoslav’s father. Is the car running?

[SuperSelect]

Tonrag, this is mind blowing.. well almost mind numbing ! The speed, your dedication, your team, and finally the result. Salutations to you brother, for a job truly well done - from the heart AND mind.
This entire thread deserves to be printed out, hard-bound, and kept as a reference - a reference not just for Chevy Fleetmasters, but as a template to restore ANY car.
Please do post your other restos too, particularly the MG.