My abandoned Tata Estate: Restore it for 1.5-3.5 lakh or scrap it away

One of the garages found out on inspection that the engine isn't rotating & would require a complete overhaul.

BHPian Sanidhya mukund recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello all!

Hope you all are doing well. I seek your objective views on what would be the best fate for this car.

It is a 1993 Tata Estate that has been in the family since it was brand new. It ran until 2009-10, but it was laid up for some reason. It sat for a few years before it was fixed up and donated to a charitable organisation in 2014. However, as far as I can remember, there was an issue with the brakes and radiator, so the car came back to us and sat abandoned in one of our garages until 2021.

In 2021, the driveway got flooded, so it had to be redone. The car was pulled out of the garage and left in the open. This is when I got interested in fixing it, but none of the mechanics of the tier-III city where the car was located was ready to work on such a project. Earlier this month, I came across the contact details of a garage that is involved in modifying and restoring cars. I gave them a call and they said that they can handle the project. This garage was about 80KM away from the car’s location, so I got it towed there.

Now that they have the car, they have sent me an estimate of about 3.5 lakhs for fixing the whole car. Now, there is absolutely no way I am spending that much on a car that I don’t have any real use for.

They claim that the engine isn’t rotating when they tried to do so externally. They have soaked the engine with oil and are now trying to see if that helps free it up in any way.

They also believe that all the mechanicals seem to be shot and would require a complete overhaul.

However, a mechanic with a much smaller establishment has told me that he can manage to source second-hand parts, repair parts wherever possible and charge me lower labour costs, and thus fix the car for 1.5-1.8 lakhs.

I hence seek your advice.

• Should I just ask them to get the car to running condition and fix the brakes so that I can bring it back home and continue with the restoration project with the local mechanic?
• Should I ask them to not do anything to the car and simply get it towed to the local mechanic’s place instead?
• Should I simply scrap the car and forget about it?

Attaching the rough estimate and car pictures for your reference.

Here's what GTO had to say about the matter:

One must carefully choose a vehicle to restore because it takes a LOT OF WORK & RESOURCES. Not just while restoring it, but even after (a 30-year-old car is still a 30-year-old car, despite restoration). They need attention. It's especially important to be very emotionally attached to the car / model for you to restore it.

An old Jeep, Gypsy, Padmini, Ambassador, Beetle etc. Sure. But an old Tata Estate that has been abused, abandoned and been through a flood? No way, man. It wasn't an impressive vehicle to begin with (other than the styling at its time) and is a lost cause today.

Don't throw good money after bad. Scrap it.

Here's what BHPian shankar.balan had to say about the matter:

What a fantastic labour of love it will be if you decide to restore it! I, for one, will stand on the sidelines and cheer you all the way.

I do understand some of the pain involved in this, because I have painstakingly brought a cancerous Gypsy, the green spitfire, back to life in 2018-2019. And it is flying around happily now in the hands of its new pilot, except that he has christened it Green Beret.

If you do decide to restore the Tata Estate, then it is better to do it locally where you can keep an eye on it and ensure period and parts authenticity as much as possible.

This car was like a substitute Mercedes Benz E-Class when it came out. At least it seemed like that when we used to see these in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Here's what BHPian V.Narayan had to say about the matter:

The antecedents and reputation of this garage will need to be checked thoroughly. This sounds like a regular garage wallah and not a high-end car restorer. His claim he can do the job should be double-checked. For someone like you, Rs 3.50 lakhs is not a big sum provided for some rational reason you want to restore what was in some ways India's very first self-designed first-line passenger luxury car - luxury for that era.

In case you have not driven it yourself this is a heavy car by today's standards - heavy and unrefined on the controls I mean. If you have to then restore it to its former glory all the way and keep it as an heirloom - for that this estimate looks small. But to restore it to simply working conditions is not worth the effort IMHO. All the best.

Here's what BHPian condor had to say about the matter:

One suggestion:

Break down the restoration into parts:

• Engine
• Gearbox
• Electrical
• Body + Interiors
• Tyres & suspension

Start with this mechanic, and ask him to get the engine ready first. If that can be done, and based on the cost + quality of work, move down the list. If he can't get the engine ready, then no point in going ahead with the other parts.

Take a call. 2L may be a fair figure for the work. If things don't look positive after #1, you will still have the satisfaction of having given it a shot.

Also check if you can put in a NA 483DL engine from a Sumo, instead of re-doing the original engine.

The quote of 3.5L shows the cost of tyres as 50k. That's too high. The car must be running on 185 in 15R. These don't cost 10k a piece. If I use this part as a benchmark, then I think that quote looks inflated by some.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.