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Old 8th December 2023, 15:16   #16
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

A few updates over the past few days:



- Went to Hyundai Mobis and placed an inquiry of over 35 spares (suspension bushes, window beeding/liners etc). They'll confirm what all is in stock. Rest is to be attempted either from Boodmo or Avto Korea as suggested by a member above.

- There is some rust in the FR LH passenger footwell. It's probably due to distilled AC water leaking into the cabin - mechanic said that the mats were damp and that the AC return line was clogged:



My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-rot-fr-rh-floor.jpg
My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-rot-fr-rh-floor-2.jpg

-This has since been cleared away with a grinder. A lot of the debris is actually the thin adhesive mat that is the very first layer on top of the metal:



My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-rot-fr-rh-floor-cleared-1.jpg
My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-rot-fr-rh-floor-cleared-2.jpg
My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-rot-fr-rh-floor-cleared-3.jpg

- There is a section of the LH RR rear door near the window that has been entirely rotten away by rust. This is serious in itself but OK otherwise because it hasn't spread, and this is not a structural element. It will be corrected shortly. It is mostly caused due to water leaking into the car through the seals.


My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-rot-rear-left-door.jpg

- There is also a pocket of rust in the driver door side. This is caused from the inside due to accumulation of water. This too will be corrected.


My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-rot-fr-driver-door.jpg

All said and done these discoveries weren't pleasant but the rest of the car is entirely rust free so it's not a shock to me by any means.
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Old 17th December 2023, 00:44   #17
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

Congrats on your new fun car. Personally, I would have taken it straight to a garage and changed the fluids and given it the overall once over before starting the long drive home. Don't worry though, just something to remember for your next car. It takes a lot of courage to set out and negotiate and drive home a car with a shady history like this. Truly a decision taken by the heart and I'm happy to see you follow through on it.
I'm currently fighting a battle between head and heart on picking up an old Octavia, city or even a audi/bmw for cheap and working on it. Hopefully I get the courage to follow through on it one day.
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Old 17th December 2023, 11:02   #18
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

Congratulation on winning the rust bucket rolling trophy. Damn I thought my car had rust issues, but anyway mine are fixed now and yours are far worse than mine. Don't forget to pass it on to the next guy you find with a worse car when yours is all sorted
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Old 18th December 2023, 18:26   #19
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

I love the old cars. No nonsense, practical and very non prone to niggles ( for the time they had come) wishing you all the best and keep this thread up to date with progress, please!
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Old 18th December 2023, 19:56   #20
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

Quote:
Originally Posted by greenhorn View Post
Congratulation on winning the rust bucket rolling trophy. Damn I thought my car had rust issues, but anyway mine are fixed now and yours are far worse than mine. Don't forget to pass it on to the next guy you find with a worse car when yours is all sorted
Uh this is not bad at all actually. None of the structural members have rust. We opened up the fuel tank as well and it's squeaky clean. 2-3 spots here and there don't matter.

Starter motor opened up for a service, to clean off the carbon from the brushes:


My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-20231214_181000.jpg

It is observed that the solenoid switch for the starter motor is a replacement part and is not original. The starter itself is original and in good condition. No worries here.
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Old 19th December 2023, 09:27   #21
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

The spares sourcing has begun. My strategy towards restoration is simple: spend where you have to, where its a functional issue, and don't spend on cosmetics unless necessary. Anything that directly affects the running of the car will not be compromised in anyway - I need brand new OEM parts from Hyundai. Thus I'm sourcing all the mechanical parts from Mobis or Boodmo. Many spares I'm importing directly from Korea. The body parts I'm sourcing from vendors who part out cars - I've found all 4 door handles, 2 fog lamps (backup), 4 hub caps, the hood ornament, a power window winder mechanism, and even the radio antenna power winder - that one was tough to find but I found it! I got all these for a fraction of the price of buying brand new.

I'll share a detailed cost breakup once the imported parts order is placed with Avto-Korea.
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Old 19th December 2023, 18:59   #22
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

Hey ads295, how long do you think that restoration will take? Also, what's the plan for using the car i.e. will it be used within a city or will be a highway muncher?
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Old 19th December 2023, 19:09   #23
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

ads95, congratulations on the new buy! Hope your restoration is smooth sailing because the Sonata will make for one great cruiser when fixed up!
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Old 20th December 2023, 08:41   #24
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

This Sonata was the first 'fast car' I drove. Boy, I was blown away. The way it accelerated was something I had never experienced before. As long as you are on a arrow straight patch of road, you're good. Anything less than this and you're asking for trouble. The suspension is comfort first before anything else.

The story of getting behind the wheel of this car was from a test drive. This was sometime in 2002, FM Tharian and I went into the Hyundai Showroom to get a test drive. No car on site. The good folks at the dealer offered to send the car home. I was like WOW. Two sales chaps came, suited and booted. Were we potential customers for the car? No. Heck I didn't have money to buy even a third hand bike. Forget a car. Anyways, once the sales chap reached home, it probably didn't take long to realize we were not serious customers. In any case, they handed us the car. No fuss at all. I got behind the wheel. Reached Ring Road and floored it (Back in the day not a soul existed. This was quite literally your "need for speed" zone in Bangalore). I am pretty sure we saw 150kmph+ and it got there fast. Folks will laugh at these numbers today but hey, it was a first experience for me. I loved it. That adrenalin rush, first time driving an automatic was all an experience. The car was first class. Beautiful assembled interiors and a sense of high quality. Clearly, the car has stood the test of time, looking at photos of your car.

I don't think you'll have any mechanical trouble with this car. Its all the ancillary bits that will fall apart due to age and sourcing Quality parts won't be easy, as the model was not sold in large numbers in any part of the world.

All said and done, Hyundai did really well with this model. This was a start of the Korean battle with the Japanese for this segment of car.
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Old 20th December 2023, 15:12   #25
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

Quote:
Originally Posted by youknowitbetter View Post
Hey ads295, how long do you think that restoration will take? Also, what's the plan for using the car i.e. will it be used within a city or will be a highway muncher?
The spares will arrive approx 1st week Feb '24, so I think the car should be ready within a week after that. I'll get the body work and painting done here in the meantime.
The car will be used as a weekend ride and for short (<100km) highway stints. Eventually I plan to go forced induction (turbocharging) but that's at least a year away.
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Old 30th December 2023, 02:15   #26
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

A few updates on the rebuild.

1. I got my first batch of spares from a guy in Kerala who has an OK car but is parting it out. These are the spares I got:
My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-20231223_100546.jpg
Door handles, fog lamps, radio antenna, the all-important hood ornament, and the OE fog lamp covers (I've ordered new units from Mobis but what the hell).
All this stuff cost me a grand total of ₹6,500.
The guy from Kerala wouldn't respond to my messages for 8 days straight and suddenly started replying. I was lucky enough to find him on Facebook Marketplace while randomly searching for "Sonata" everywhere I could get on FB.
I also got 4 OE hub caps (the plastic pieces that cover the center of the wheel and hide the lug nuts) for ₹600 apiece. Win!

2. Spares from Korea ordered through Avto-Korea as mentioned by our team member on this thread. Thanks for the reference! The total for this order comes to USD 614.68 excluding shipping and customs. Expenses are ounting up but these are all one-time expenses.

3. The car went to the body shop on 27th Dec. I will post pics before and after. Below is one of the pics. The rust spot on the driver door I showed earlier? There's actually deep rust inside that panel. All of this will be fixed.
My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-20231226_113126.jpg


Also, because the seats and the interior are completely removed, the car goes to the body shop with my trusty mechanic (brains of this entire operation) heading out sitting on a stool:
My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-dsc_0374.jpg

I'm definitely above budget above the rebuild on this car but I can see it coming back to life...
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Old 30th December 2023, 13:17   #27
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

Good to see that you are bringing the car to life. A word of friendly advice. Don't overspend on parts and the garage bills that will take up for tinkering and fixing this will be astronomical and more than the price you brought the car for.

I ran into the same trap with my ikon tdci pouring twice or thrice the amount into it than I brought it for. It was never perfect come what may and I took a hard stop on spending any more money on it.

Luckily sold it to cars 24 for less than 50 k and they scrapped it . Which coming to think of it now was what the car was meant to be.

Please put a cap on spending and a deadline in when the car should roll out. Else mechanics and scrap dealers are the only ones who profit from these.
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Old 30th December 2023, 18:17   #28
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nanolover View Post
Good to see that you are bringing the car to life. A word of friendly advice. Don't overspend on parts and the garage bills that will take up for tinkering and fixing this will be astronomical and more than the price you brought the car for.
I get where you're coming from, but I've been prepared to spend on this car from the start;

1. Being able to buy a car so cheaply (a new Access 125 costs ₹1.08L OTR) means any sort of spend on the car will seem expensive. It's been almost stupidly cheap to buy. I spent ₹4k on petrol alone driving down to Rajkot Who spends 4% of their car's value on driving it home after purchase? Hahaha

2. The Sonata was a premium CBU model when it was launched here. Spares were never going to be cheap. That said, they aren't too expensive either. I was prepared for this too.

3. I want to rebuild the car such that I don't have to look twice for the next decade, barring accidents or catastrophic engine failure (touch wood). This means going above and beyond the routine oil change.

4. My mechanic is extremely honest and he knows exactly where the costs spike, so he avoids the same. He rebuilt my accidental Kawasaki ER-6n from the ground up for a labour charge of ₹35k.
Thread here - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/super...aki-er-6n.html (Review: Brembo brake pads on my Kawasaki ER-6n)
The car will be painted right here in my factory for example - we'll buy the paint ourselves and hire the painter to do his job and leave. We have a compressed air connection so all the painter has to do is show up with his spray gun.

I certainly get what you're saying though. This has been a heart over mind matter and I'm going above the budget.
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Old 3rd February 2024, 23:17   #29
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re: My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC

Hello all

I wanted to update this thread since long but I never got around to penning everything down. This post will focus on the repair side of things, the next post will cover the spare parts purchases.

Some updates on the car:
The car got back from the bodyshop on 13th Jan '24. All the rust stands corrected, and most of the dents have been corrected as well. The car will now go for a re-paint. I wanted to go for black but my mechanic is firmly against that, saying the car will get very hot during the summers and it won't look good either. Let's see, I'm checking out a colour palette tomorrow.

Pics of the repairs done - before and after:



Rot on the driver door corrected - inside view



My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-tbhp-repairs-1.jpg

Rot on the driver door cut out and replaced - outside view



My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-tbhp-repairs-5.jpg

Rot on the rear windshield cut out and replaced



My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-tbhp-repairs-2.jpg

Rot on rear left window cut out and replaced with a thicker gauge of metal



My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-tbhp-repairs-3.jpg

Minor rot on front passenger footwell corrected



My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-tbhp-repairs-4.jpg

This is just a glimpse of what was done, actually all the dents on the car have been lifted. I don't want to inundate this thread with too many pictures. There was another spot of rust on the foot "step" - the part of the car body that your feet touch whenever you enter - that has been corrected too. It came to light only when the "Sonata" sticker was removed.

My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-dsc_0409.jpg

The total cost of all the bodywork came to ₹20,000. It's not cheap but I think it's good value considering the detailing that's been done on the car.
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Old 3rd February 2024, 23:31   #30
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Comprehensive restoration underway

The hunt for OE spares



The second batch of spares from Kerala have arrived (spare headlights, tailights, all 4 power window motors with winder mechanism, chrome strips for all doors). The seller didn't send the air purifier I'd asked for, though. These are all backup spares and nothing will actually go on the car right now.

Below are the spare parts orders that I've placed so far. I began with Hyundai Mobis India and ordered the rest through Avto-Korea.
Shoutout and my heartfelt gratitude to tBHP member “KK_HakunaMatata" - his references were invaluable in my spare parts search! Both of these companies were recommended by him earlier in this thread.

Mobis India order 1 - placed 30/11/2023:



My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-order-1-30th-november-23.jpg

Mobis India order 2 - placed 13/12/2023:



My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-order-2-13th-dec-23.jpg

Mobis India order 3 - placed 26/12/2023:



My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-order-3-26th-dec-24.jpg

Avto-Korea order - placed on 28/12/2023: (I subsequently added 1 small part worth $6 which isn’t shown here)



My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-avtokorea-order-281223.jpg

Kogoos parts Korea order - placed 15/01/2024.



Since the windshield is removed, the rubber moulding that seals in the windshield is done for and has to be replaced. I was told to get one for the front as well in case I wanted to change the front windshield later. I asked Avto-Korea and they didn't have them! It was a jolt for me because I thought they carried everything. However, help came in the form of Kogoos spares Korea who had the exact parts in stock - in fact they arrived the first!

They arrived on 30th January 2024. I was pleasantly surprised that India Post did not charge customs (the technical limit for customs duty exemption is goods value worth ₹1,000+. The box clearly mentioned parts worth $40). It was a nail biting 2 days for me when the EMS tracking showed "Present to import customs" at Ahmedabad.
One quirk was the Korean newspapers lining the parts when I opened up the box. My wife is a BTS fan and was chuffed. Here are the pics of the mouldings.

My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-1.jpeg

My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-2.jpeg

My Pre-Owned 2005 Hyundai Sonata 2.7L V6 | Ownership Review, Restoration & TLC-3.jpeg

Now the pending work is as below:
- Full body repray
- Interiors to be refreshed - seats, roof lining, fabric upholstery on the door cards
- Spares install. Nearly all spare parts yet to arrive! Mobis India is taking their own sweet time.

The project is taking longer than I imagined but then that’s the price of wanting to do a 100% thorough job. I can’t wait to see the car put back together after a complete respray!
Request to mods - please alter thread title to "Restoration and TLC" because this is more than just an ownership review!

Last edited by ads295 : 3rd February 2024 at 23:36.
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