[chanu]

Wow! how beautiful she looks, great job, congratulations! I will be happy even if I own a grille of a Mark II, but on a serious not I am looking for a Mark II grill.

[h14]

Thank you so much Chanu! Infact I was able to get this grille pretty easily, but it was the bumpers that were tough to find.

Got the pair of bumpers for Rs.1500 in the scrap yard and then had to spend Rs.2200 for nickeling the same.

[h14]

Finally my Amby and SS met each other at home The amby still needs a lot more attention to make it complete. Maybe I will be able to complete all by the first week of December when I will be at Coimbatore.

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by h14

Finally my Amby and SS met each other at home The amby still needs a lot more attention to make it complete. Maybe I will be able to complete all by the first week of December when I will be at Coimbatore.

Looks nice. See if you can get some original hubcaps from Coimbatore. Shouldn't be a problem.

Also, like to see Koyas upholstery work. It'll be nice if you could put some images here.

[h14]

Thanks Rudra! Have the wheel caps already. It is easily available. Planning to put them after the tire change. Believe me, even I have not seen the new upholstery :( The car has been on the workshop covers and they will be on until every bit of work is complete.

Will surely post detailed pics once I'm done with all the works.

[h14]

Things never really moved on and I was not able to spend time with the car until last week.

Really had a very tough time with the mechanic and so got the car back to Coimbatore in Nov with majority of the work incomplete.

Upon arrival at CBE, the self motor gave up and it was finally traced out to be problem with the conversion plate and not the motor and had to correct the same.

Once that was completed, had vibrations coming in from the joint and so changed the joint completely with the Contessa joint and the car was back home last thursday.

Friday, I got to Coimbatore and took a drive, everything seemed fine. So decided to change all the oils and filters. I was no more interested to go to any workshop as they all tested my patience a lot and so I asked the mech who works on my Palio and Linea whether he would be interested in working on the amby and he seemed pretty excited.

On friday evening he came home and we started work. Change the engine oil, gearbox oil, oil filter diesel filter and crown oil.

1. Engine Oil - Castrol 15w40 mineral oil
2. Gear box oil - Petronas Tutela
3. Crown oil - Shell Spirax 90 (1 litre) + Shell Spirax 140 (about 750 ml)
4. Radiator Coolant - Paraflu

Once done, we started to flush the radioator and found that there was a minor leak from the top. So decided not to change the coolant and asked him to come back on sat or sunday so that we can fix the radiator and then add the coolant.

He was back on Sunday, removed the radiator and gave it to the local radiator wala. He checked and suggested that the radiator is pretty good except for this small leak and suggested we continue with fixing this rather than getting a new one.

Got the same repaired and re-inastalled and changed the coolant. Also added Nulon engine oil additive and took it for a 10 kms drive.

The gear box felt really good after the change to synthetic oil.

Additionally, also got a pair of new head lamps and changed the tires.

Went in for Bridgestones.

Once all were done, I finally got to see the upholstery, yes the car came out of koyas with the workshop covers and the covers were on till yesterday and it was a huge relief to remove those and the seats looked lovely. A fabulous job as usual from Koyas.

Some more items pending as of now:

1. Speedo error - Roughly having an error of about 20 kms. Would show 80 if I do 100.
2. Temperature error - The temp guage goes for a toss, I switch the AC, it goes 5 degrees up, switch the head lams, it goes up further. I suspect the temp sensor to be the culprit in here.
3. Wiper Arms - Having a tough time with this. Been on the hunt for the wiper arms for long time now and unable to find one. I'm fine with black ones if not for steel.
4. Waxing and polishing.

I've asked my dad to start using the car daily atleastfor 2-3 kms. The car has been idling around for 3 yrs now and the engine I believe was standing alone for more than 5 yrs.

Please do pardon me for lack of pictures as I was in a hurry of getting back to Chennai. I will be back to CBE on April 11 and I promise many detailed pictures then.

Just one pic as of now:

[h14]

Some pictures from Friday's drive

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by h14

3. Wiper Arms - Having a tough time with this. Been on the hunt for the wiper arms for long time now and unable to find one. I'm fine with black ones if not for steel.

If you know somebody from Kolkata, get a pair. Shouldn't be a problem at all. More than half of total Ambassador count in this country, running there as taxi.

[h14]

Thx Rudhra, but not sure how many still have the original Mark II wipers. Let me check.

[Eminenttismo]

1988: The picture on the first page where you were sitting on the car.
2013: With a relentless passion you bring the car back to top shape!

Lovely restoration, nice job! Hope you crunch many more miles with it. Please post some more close up pics of car and interior. Thanks!

[Samba]

Am reading this topic from the very first line and i must say am loving every bit of it. Actually Amby is a car which is very close to my heart though we never owned one. I live in a place called Uttarpara which is near Kolkata and my place is just 1 km away from the Hindusthan motor company. From my childhood i have grown up seeing the ups and downs of this company. So it feels great for me if i see some one really maintaining a old Amby in a meticulous way.

[h14]

Thank you so much Eminenttismo

Back from a reasonable long drive in the amby. Had a great time. Close to 210 kms done today.

Some more pictures as promised.































The only original component inside the engine bay

[h14]

Last week had multiple highway stints on the Amby. Friday was Coimbatore-Pollachi-Anamalai-Coimbatore.

Drove pretty sedately as I did not want to put on any strain on her. Started early morning and the entire journey was with AC.

It was a pretty good drive and it gave me the confidence of taking her out on an even longer drive.

Sunday (April 14), being Tamil New Year we had planned to visit our native place temple and decided to do it in the Amby. I had my dad and mom for company and it was again an early morning start. Started from CBE and stopped in Kangeyam for Breakfast. I believe the max speed that I did was around 80 and mostly I was averaging in the 70s.

Brought back memories of me learning to drive in this very same car. The roads were void of traffic and it was an amazing feeling driving her on the highway.

In the return journey, my dad took over the wheel as its been what 11yrs since he last drove this car! He was initially reluctant as its been long since he drove without powersteering, but few minutes and he was in complete comfort and drove the entire journey.

These two trips erased all my worries on the car's condition and performance and every is absolutely fine.

Just a couple of minor issues that I have to fix:

1. Speedo error - The error is now -20%, ie., meter would show 80kmph when I'm doing 100 kmph

2. Temperature guage error and flickering - The temp guage I believe to have an error of about 5 to 7 degrees. That is it shows 85 if temp is 80. Moreover if the AC/indicator/horn/lights are used, the temp needle goes up few notches. Guess I have to chek the earthing.

Something to watch closely

While driving in stop and go traffic the temp seems to rise up pretty quickly. Afternoon sun and stop and go traffic results in the temp guage pointing at 100, negating the error menas it would be 90-95 degrees. Have to fix or change the temp guage and check again before deciding on further course of action.

Another friend who has the similar set up in his Mark1 amby says that his car always runs in the 90-95 degree mark with AC.

Will post further updates during my next visit to CBE. Hope you all enjoyed the pics and tons of thanks are due to all fellow bhp'ians and friends for their support and well wishes and of course to the mechs, electricians, tinker's and painters who worked on the car.

[sivadeep]

Hi h14,
Would it be possible for you share the total cost with some kind of break up on paint(quality), upholstery and any other major work pl?

Siva

[h14]

Sivadeep, I've lost track of the payments bro.

As far as upholstery is concerned, the bill from Koyas was 30k which includes new frames for bucket seats, new foam for seats all the seats, seat fabric, full 3 layer matting, new roof with fabric , new door pads with fabric, ply wood for speaker pad, diesel tank and Stepney bay, seat belts and new rexin for dash board.