[ashvar87]

Dear Bhpians,
I am starting up this thread to post the compete work in progress pictures and my short restoration travel with 1984 SS80, which I am going to gift my dad.

I was totally not in an intention to pick any SS80 at all, but it was totally a magic which all happened in just 5mins, as I was restoring my low bonnet jeep in garage, I found this beauty lying aside inside the garage and i was told it is up for sale. In no intention to pick it, I just went underneath the 30yrs old beauty and took a look, to my surprise it was still glittering in original paint with absolutely no rust or any sign of re-work in the vehicle. Just fired up the engine and the next moment I decided to pick it up immediately and give a surprise to my dad, as he is an Originality Snob, he loves to own vehicles in its very original Factory sealed form.

Next was the RC, had a quick look and found it is a single owner, lady driven vehicle and all papers absolutely current till 2015. Everything minute thing in this vehicle started surprising me in each and every phase of restoration. I should really appreciate, thank and salute the lady for maintaining this beauty in top condition for its age. The was not even a single drill hole in the vehicle.

Finally i made up the deal with my mechanic and after replacing all the fluids, filters and timing belt, drove the vehicle to my place Krishnagiri to start up the restoration.

Restoration is going to be very very detailed in every phase. Posting some WIP pictures for you all. Firstly we removed all the fittings and stripped the vehicle in my in-house garage and moved the vehicle to Tinker shop, as even minute parts of SS80 are becoming hard to find. More to come and will keep updated.

Regards,
Ashwinraj

[ank.nsit]

OMG, SS80 was our first car ever.

My dad bought it in 1988, just after my birth & kept it for around 8-9 years.
At that time it was an import from Japan(I guess).

Dad loved this car to the core & never wanted to replace it. But the constant nagging from us forced him to do it.
But now I realize the value & attachment with your first prized possession.

I am sure your dad would love the gift.

[DeepakMenon]

Seems like a strong project; pictures dont tell any major horror; But restorations is all about unexpected

Waiting to see how it ends up

I am surprised to see sound damping in the floor of the 800

[ashvar87]

Thanks you for your wishes and interest on my project friends. Coming on to the restoration. Two corners of the running board needed a small patch up with sheet metal and it was neatly patched up. But for this, there was no other welding or patching required as everything was in phase.

Best part of this restoration is, all the doors except the driver side door was factory sealed and we are the first to tamper it. Even the plastic covers inside the door pad had zero damage, I have safely removed and kept those plastic covers to fit it back.

so work carried out as of now is, running board patch up, Tapping, all the old sealant paste which was applied in factory was completely sanded as there could be hidden rust in the sheet metal joints.

After sanding, a complete manual water wash was done to clean up the under-body and inside platform. Followed by water wash, complete under-body, door panels and all hidden areas were manually cleaned with kerosene and made sure everything is rust and oil free for application of primer.

After cleaning, a neat and thick coat of red oxide primer was applied both for under-body and inside platform. The hidden areas and inside doors panels were manually applied with primer using cotton waste.

So this was the task completed as of now. More WIP updates to be followed up tomorrow.

Thanks for your support.

[Twinn]

Hey Ashwin, congrats on the impulsive buy. Kind of confused on the way you have put up. You say there was no work at all, and I see the vehicle being stripped for a long list of works?

Anyways cheers on the find hope the final outcome is great.

[ashvar87]

Originally Posted by Twinn

Hey Ashwin, congrats on the impulsive buy. Kind of confused on the way you have put up. You say there was no work at all, and I see the vehicle being stripped for a long list of works?

Anyways cheers on the find hope the final outcome is great.

Thanks a lot for your wishes bro, despite being a factory sealed vehicle with no major works for her 30 years of ageing, she has to be attended and restored properly in every bit to prevent future Hick ups. As I stated before, this is going to be a no compromise restoration in every phase.

Thank you

[t3ofil4us]

Just yesterday while returning from my office , I had the rare opportunity to look at on of these sturdy classics. My aunt learnt her driving on one of these and being the first car in my close family I was kinda attached to the car. I was wondering why no one bothers to restore one of these and hey presto! I get to see this article on T-BHP. I am exhilarated to know that you could actually get a car in such pristine condition. I hope you manage to surprise your dad more than you expect.
Cheers,
theo

[ashvar87]

Originally Posted by t3ofil4us

Just yesterday while returning from my office , I had the rare opportunity to look at on of these sturdy classics. My aunt learnt her driving on one of these and being the first car in my close family I was kinda attached to the car. I was wondering why no one bothers to restore one of these and hey presto! I get to see this article on T-BHP. I am exhilarated to know that you could actually get a car in such pristine condition. I hope you manage to surprise your dad more than you expect.
Cheers,
theo

Thank you for your wishes friend. I am very confident that, this vehicle is going to be back on road, as it rolled out from factory in 1983.

So regarding the restoration, there was a slight delay in our schedule yesterday, as we were waiting for the 3M body sealant to reach us from coimbatore, to re-fill all the body panel gaps which were already sanded and applied primer. It arrived late evening by bus and immediately work resumed and all the panel gaps, sheet metal joints both under body and inside cabin were neatly sealed.

Now no more drumming effects in bonnet for lifetime, the 3M body sealant has done the job, we have filled the sealant inside the hood channels (between the metal sheet and the hood channel) and the hood is very firm now with zero drumming effect.

We left whole night for the 3M sealant to cure completely. I just rang up my tinker and got the update that surfacer is being applied for under body and inside cabin. Hope we will complete painting the under body and inside cabin by evening.

Sorry for the quality of pics as it was taken in dark. More updates to come by evening.

Thank you.

[ashvar87]

Update for today,
Surfacer was applied by yesterday morning and after a soft sanding of surfacer inside the cabin, a neat coat of paint was applied both inside and under body. Surfacer was applied to the 3M sealant applied areas also, so that the paint will firmly hold on it.

Hidden areas were all soaked with paint, using cotton waste manually. Inside the cabin, two thick coat of paint was applied wet on wet yesterday evening and after a soft sanding by today morning, final coat with clear was applied to ensure a cleaner finish.

Now let the pics speak

Thank you.

[Ananth_shukti]

ashvar87 , too good & thanks for the updates.
Every one in this forum are sure that your restoration would come up 'fantastic'.
keep posting

Ananth

[vinod_namakkal]

Dear all,
Kindly excuse me if I am posting in the wrong thread. Moderators pls move the posting if required.

I have an issue with my M800 94 model.
1. My indicator won't work. (Tried changing the flasher)
2. When the head light is turned on both my fuel gauge pointer and temp gauge pointer in the the dashboard shot up to high and when head light turned off both pointers come back to normal.
3. Both the indicators Inside the dashboard light up at the same time when headlight is on. But the exterior indicators won't work.

Kind suggestion for DIY is requested

Thanks in advance
Vinod

[ashvar87]

@ Anand shukthi, Thank you for your wishes bro.

Originally Posted by vinod_namakkal

Dear all,
Kindly excuse me if I am posting in the wrong thread. Moderators pls move the posting if required.

I have an issue with my M800 94 model.
1. My indicator won't work. (Tried changing the flasher)
2. When the head light is turned on both my fuel gauge pointer and temp gauge pointer in the the dashboard shot up to high and when head light turned off both pointers come back to normal.
3. Both the indicators Inside the dashboard light up at the same time when headlight is on. But the exterior indicators won't work.

Kind suggestion for DIY is requested

Thanks in advance
Vinod

@ Vinod, This is not a major issue to worry. This is nothing but a simple wiring problem which a good electrician can solve it. Or it can be due to faulty combination switch.

Restoration Updates,

Day before yesterday the vehicle was taken to the paint shop. Two assurance which I took up from the painter is to maximum avoid body filler and give a premium paint touch.

Painter inferred that vehicle requires some tapping work and he promised to get it done by himself to reduce the usage of body filler.

Yesterday morning firstly surfacer was applied and we started up with tapping work, there were lot of undulations in the top and we had to work hard on it, as a glossy red paint can easily reveal the metal undulations. Utmost care was taken in locating all the possible errors in the body and correcting it.

The day was totally restless and squeezed the guys to get the best job out from them, kudos to Gafoor, my painter. By late evening we completed the tapping works and cleaned up the car for body filler work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61U2T...ature=youtu.be

Back by today morning Gafoor already applied the 3M bondo body filler and was working on it. I have already told him clearly to never use any sort of blade or do filing to surface the body filler. As instructed ,he patiently sanded the body filler manually with sanding paper.

Using his muscle power he was able to complete 70% of sanding work today and the rest to be done by tomorrow. Meanwhile our local stockist was out of stock with Dupont Putty, but thanks to my friend Padmanaban, who instantly sent the Dupont Putty from coimbatore and it is almost to reach me in few hours. Hopefully if everything sails smoothly, we will be applying putty by tomorrow evening.

Padmanaban has also promised to get me all possible cosmetic fittings and beadings for SS80 and he promised to let me know in a days time. And my Facebook buddy Michael Jackson who owns a beautiful SS80 from Ooty has also extended his help to get me the essentials for SS80

More updates to follow tomorrow.

Thank you.

[ashvar87]

Restoration update,
Yesterday morning since I had to leave out for some official work, I sent the Dupont putty which I received from coimbatore to my painter through my staff and yesterday fully I was not able to be in the paint shop. Spoke to Gafoor and he said, he is going to apply the putty and will leave it cure for 24 hours and will work on it by today morning.

I just paid a visit by today evening and I was surprised to see a full surfacer coat on the body, means putty sanding work finished. I just saw Gafoor, he just gave a soft smile and said Saab!!! tomorrow I am applying base coat. I was really thrilled

So next process is to apply base coat, check for errors, correcting errors and again a base coat, and final coat with clear.

If everything moves on positively, final coat will be done by day after tomorrow.

Meanwhile got updates from Padmanaban about the cosmetic spares, and almost all mandatory cosmetic stuffs will reach me by tomorrow.

I could not get the weather strips and runner beadings anywhere and finally narrowed down with a guy named Anvino from Kerala through the Facebook SS80 page and paid a premium price for runner and strips, I was cloud 9 that I got the SGP stuffs from Anvino and opened the parcel from him, but all my expectations just vanished the moment I compared the strips which he sent, with the OE strips which I had in my car. It was an altered weather strip of some other vehicle and does not fit into the aluminium channel and the door itself and the runner beadings were from Type 1 M800 and not the original SS80. Spoke to the guy Anvino and asked for a replacement with SGP strips but he said, he has no stock and promised to refund the cash in 21 days. Only thing which makes me think bad is, getting premium price for a stuff which is non genuine and explaining that it is imported etc etc, Anyone can make a juggard and no need to give a premium price for it. We pay premium price only to get the original spares and not a juggard. Now I have to bear the up and down courier charges and wait for 21 odd days for refund

Any ways here are few pics for you. You can see a express speed work on SS80 on the coming days.

Thank you.

[kutlee]

nice to see the preparation effort. Take time for perpetration. Painting will be only as good as the preparation. One suggestion, try to use a foot long sanding block to find out the waviness on the metal. most of the guys use really short sanding blocks and they may not reveal the waviness which will look sad after painting.

[audioholic]

Appreciate the attention to detail you are giving to this car. I bet it has reached the right owner from the seller. It will complement the effort the previous owner had put in keeping the car in top shape. Your dad will definitely love it. How about the engine and mechanicals? I see only body related work being done here?

Please keep the thread updated. I am glued and like seeing the whole process.