[lucifer919]

Originally Posted by asivan

Your thread inspires me to do a complete revamp of my old Palio, something which I've been wanting to do for a really long time lets see if I can save up some M and then hopefully i can fulfill my wishes.

Please continue updating the thread on regular basis. Thanks!

Thanks Asivan. I would definitely recommend maintaining a Palio for as long as you can. I cant seem to find a replacement for this gem in a price bracket that makes sense. Best of luck with restoring your Palio if you get down to it.

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg

12 KMPL is actually a very good mileage if driven with 100% AC on inside the city. I get exactly 8.5 on my GTX. It was nice meeting Kiran. The work done by Ravi with the available man power he had was awesome. The 1581 cc big bore short stroke engine is complementing your gearbox it seems.

Thanks Amit. The 12KMPL with 100% AC was only on the highways. i don't use the AC in city as i have the windows rolled down most of the time. maybe only 25% AC usage in the city. But even with this, i am getting a consistent 12KMPL (around 480 KMS in 40 litres of fuel). And in case anyone is wondering, i am calculating the mileage from a tankful to tankful and trip meter reading.

Cheers!

[lucifer919]

Alright folks, i'm back with some more updates on the car. I was supposed to go to Ooty to meet up with the FMC guys and check out the restored S10s, but as luck would have it, something came up and i could not head out. Was home throughout this weekend so decided to give this rebuild a kick in the pants.

Dad, wifey and I got our hands dirty and stripped out the car completely. Everything in the car except the roof lining and the engine bay was stripped out.

This did bring some surface rusting to our attention but its nothing that a scrub and an anti-oxidation coating cant fix.

I have cleaned all the internal plastic trims and then coated them with the 3M interior dressing. All of them look fresh out of the factory now. YAY!!

Washed all the carpets and doorpads (which left my bathroom needing a good scrubbing in the end) and they are spotless now. I was really apprehensive about these needing replacement, but the way they cleaned out has me jumping with joy. No doubt it took a bit of scrubbing and getting myself dirty, but they really cleaned up well.

Some pictures of the before and after of the car interiors, below:

[lucifer919]

Reached the attachment limit on the previous post so here are the pictures of the interiors after i was finished giving them a good scrub.

You will also notice that the front cross member has a small dink in it that needs fixing. Also the rear of the car has taken a hit which in turn has caused the rear wheel well to get dented. Already have showed this to the tinkerer who says its not a big deal to fix.

Cheers!!

-Kiran

[lucifer919]

Forgot to put up a picture of the insides as they currently stand. Here it is.

MODS, i was unable to add this to the previous post, so please do if you are able to.

[SunnyBoi]

Wow, you're a brave man to remove the carpets by yourself.

The feeling of fresh interiors is priceless I took 2 days for my first interiors deep clean and it was well worth the effort!

Get a bottle of Meguiar's Odour Eliminator, spray it on the carpets, seats and inside A/C Vents when you fit it all back in. Keep the doors closed for ~12 hours. Car will smell super fresh and will not smell of soap/others.

[rlg]

Fantastic work. Could you explain how to go about removing the bumpers ?

Also the door pad clips, do you have to replace them or are they reusable ?

I'm fed up with the service centers here, planning to do some things on my own now.

[lucifer919]

Originally Posted by rlg

Fantastic work. Could you explain how to go about removing the bumpers ?

Also the door pad clips, do you have to replace them or are they reusable ?

I'm fed up with the service centers here, planning to do some things on my own now.

The bumpers are pretty straight forward provided you have the right toolset. You have 3 screws right where the bonnet locks (Normal No. 10 ring spanners will work here). There are 4 on the bottom holding the bumper to the lower chassis structure. And last but the toughest are 2 screws on the fenders behind the wheel well lining. The screws in the bottom and fenders are Philips head allen-keys (the ones that look star shaped). Make sure you use the correct tools or you will end up stripping the heads and will have no option but to cut the screws with a hacksaw blade.

To remove the bumper, i would suggest you start with removing the wheel well lining first. there will be 3 screws on either side holding the lining to the bumper itself (edge of the wheel well). Take these off first. There will be one more screw holding this lining to the inside of the engine bay (it will be located just next to the suspension strut). Take this off and it will allow you to get access to the screws on the front fender. These will be where the fender and the bumper meet.

Removing the door pads are the easiest of the lot.

First thing, take off the lower door pockets and any speakers you might have installed. Then, take off the power window switches and it lets the top of the door pads free. Slide your fingers around the edges and the clips pop out one at a time as you go through them. Make sure you DO NOT pull the pad outwards when removing the clips or the door pad itself might crack around the clips (it looks like its made of a think cardboard sheet).

All the clips are re-useable. in case you do end up breaking a few (very rare as they themselves are quite well made/moulded), they are available on 99rpm.com. you might want to order a pack of them, just in case, before you start with this operation.

Hope this helps,
Kiran.

[lucifer919]

Another short and sweet update is that the car is going to be in for body and paint work next week.

Below are a few photos of the interior bits that i have cleaned up. My cupboard is now full of the S10 Interiors!!

[lucifer919]

Quick update on current status of the car.

The folks have finished taking out the dents and dings in the car. They have filled and sanded down the right side and the left is WIP.

Some pictures below:

[lucifer919]

The dents and dings were pulled out and levelled using the thicker white body filler. Post this, it was sanded down and the current paint on the body was also scrubbed down as much as possible. Using 200-300 grit sandpaper.

Post this, the thin (fine) grey body filler was used to level out any remaining unevenness and sanded down using 500-600 grit sandpaper.

We then washed down the car using soap water and sprayed the first coat of surfacer (DuPont). The surfacer as-is does not aid much in showing up any blemishes on the body surface so we mixed a bit of yellow paint in it.

The front cross-rail was also damaged. we straightened it out and fixed the damage. The radiator support at the bottom was also skewed as a result of the cross-rail being damaged. this had caused the radiator itself to be off centre. Straightened out the radiator support as well.

Below are some pictures for this process

[lucifer919]

Reached the attachment limit on the previous post so continuing here

[lucifer919]

Few more updates:

The car now has its first coat of base yellow. This will be spot checked again and sanded down, followed by another coat of base yellow. Once this is finalized, the car will go to the booth for the main yellow paint and clear coat.

Some pics below:

[Captain Slow]

Originally Posted by lucifer919

Few more updates:

The car now has its first coat of base yellow. This will be spot checked again and sanded down, followed by another coat of base yellow. Once this is finalized, the car will go to the booth for the main yellow paint and clear coat.

Some pics below:

Good paint Job! Details of the location please?

[lucifer919]

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

Good paint Job! Details of the location please?

Thanks. The paint job is being carried out at Pavan's Garage (Bugstop) in Jakkur, Bangalore. Final external coat will also be performed by the same painters, but in the paint booth at GT Tuners (Jalahalli), Bangalore.

To provide a further update, the car was scheduled to go for its final paint, so we decided to get the interiors painted before the exteriors, to prevent overspray/damage to any exterior component, when painting the insides.

We also took off the front windshield, because the earlier rubber beading for the windshield was half peeled off and had allowed water to stagnate/seep into the area. Good thing we did this, as there was surface rust under there.

Pictures follow:

[lucifer919]

Reached the attachment limit in the earlier post so continuing here:

Once the interiors were painted, we sprayed another coat of the yellow base on the exteriors of the car and allowed it to dry overnight.

The car was towed by our friendly neighbourhood tow jeep (front wheels hooked and rear wheels dragged) to the paint booth at GT Tuners. unfortunately, i was out of station this last week and could not be present for the crucial paint job. Pavan was in attendance and ensured it went as required.

The overcoat was sanded down and cleaned, post which the paint booth was pre-heated with the car inside. After allowing it to cool for a short while, the base Galsurit paint was sprayed.

Once this paint was sufficiently dry, the S10 stickers/logos were pasted at the required areas. Big THANK YOU to Nimish for procuring these for me!! After the stickers, we sprayed the Glasurit clear coat and left the car in a heated booth overnight. The car was retained in the booth for 2 days, to allow the paint and clear to harden with no dust/impurities around.

We drove to the booth today to take a look at the car and it gleams!!! i could not be happier with the paint quality and outcome. True to Glasurit tradition, the paint shade looks different, in different lighting conditions. It looks a white based yellow (Mango?) in the shade and in direct sunlight, it seems almost fluorescent (green based). The lighting in the room with the car in it was not great, so don't have pictures that do justice to the paint/workmanship. A few cell-phone pictures attached below.

The car will be brought back to the garage tomorrow morning via a flat-bed truck. Then, starts the assembly.

Aim is to have the car finished by the coming weekend (8th November 2014). Will keep our progress posted on here.