[Grace]

Dear All,

Mine is now a short one.










Well... I am talking about the chassis length. After years of search and drool at looking at other people's jeeps,in those hundereds of OTRs that I have participated since Jan 2006,I've finally found the perfect diesel CJ3B. Now folks,I can't call it a perfect,but the timing is perfect. I got this Jeep on Feb 15(happens to be my birthday). One in billion chance was that,this jeep was parked in an old man's basement and not started in over 16 years. This basement happens to be on the same road on which I live(24th house on right hand side) and I have never seen it in my 20 years of existance on this road.

The old man bought it as a gift for his son in the year 1990,who went to US and apperently never returned,so old man heart-broken. Cut to present: Old man not willing to sell it... but kahani me twist. Son has returned with bahu and wants to sell the old stuff(read clear out basement) and replace it with a shiny new silver Santro.

Tan tana tan .... Andy has his ears and eye open for a jeep and the good word is spread around with newspaper boys,soppu maaratgaru(saag bechne wala in
kannada),drycleaning delivery boys and house maids and vast network of apartment security fellows. (Esp Nepalis),Very helpful guys eh? So the word comes very ironically to Andy that a certain NRI wants to sell an old red jeep. Andy rushes there ASAP and finds that NRI is broke and is asking a bomb for the jeep,quotes aata,dal and tel ka bhav.

Well ...

On closer inspection , we find that Red Jeep is more or less spik n span,it is a 1990 CJ340,old man has disabled front shaft,which I got and fixed, tyres are new but in horrible condition, sidewall has torn due to standing in one corner for past so many years,has a beautiful soft top which can be brought down in an instant,bit of minor(UGLY) modifications, there is a double belt system, one belt from engine pulley runs the alternator, other belt runs the fan..probably thats how early 340s came with. Mechanically its in superb condition, needless to say FC is expired,it has run 26480 kms in old man's younger days, then on buried under old sofas and table lamp covers and old pillow cases. When I first went to see the jeep,we had to sift thru a lot of old household stuff heaped on it.

I call up folks whom I know have 340s. Sharath shetty a.k.a Samurai is a busy man. He said he will call me back... I am yet to recieve his call back. Suresh stephen though was very helpful and gave me a lot of pointers on what to look for in a 340, UBS sir also encouraged me, I am thankful for that, and this time I took it to my trusted Shabbir bhai for a closer inspection of chassis especially(one bitten,twice shy eh?), this turned out to be a good experience, as he apparently wanted to buy it himself for a "party" he said is readily available for a diesel cut chassis - "cut chassi"-- whatever that means. I was able to wriggle out and said those magic three words to that harrased NRI - "I
WILL BUY".

Well gentlemen,hope you aren't bored,but then apart from sharing a couple of photographs, I thought it would do well to give you this very interesting background.

Meanwhile,my orange jeep is finally out of the workshop and is 'offroad ready', I went to Indibele lake last sunday and the 540 performed flawlessly. Hope to
offroad with you folks with my short one in near future.

All those folks whom I don't know and yet have 340s,please give your inputs, it is for that love and those kind words from our seniors and famous jeepers and
'offroaders' that I keep coming back to this forum for.

https://picasaweb.google.com/raoanan...eepCollection#

Presetly i don't have many photos but trust that this will do:-)

Warm Regards
Andy

PS: Andy dreams on of Himalayas,Heaven and Jeeps. My soul craves for a LHD 4X4 petrol 3B ... next year folks !!

[MileCruncher]

Congrats Andy on the CJ340 aka Classic. The jeep looks in superb condition. Can you please post pictures of the instrument cluster and the engine bay please.

Cheers

[Grace]

Thankyou milecruncher, will post more pics shortly

[noopster]

Wow what a beaut. Your orange Jeep is quite the looker and it will be awesome when the fully restired red one joins the ranks. Do keep posting!

[Grace]

Thanks noopster,the orange jeep's roll cage/bar and top is to be worked upon to complete the restoration,in your opinion should I go for a black top or a offwhite/cream top? Your inputs will be highly appreciated.

Warm Regards

[swastikviji]

Hi Andy,
Congratulations on achieving the entire traffic signal with the red, orange and green jeeps.

[Jaggu]

Very good find and congratz. You need to remove that bull bars asap

[Samurai]

Congrats on your new Jeep Andy. I see quite a few mods on the Jeep.

Originally Posted by Grace

I call up folks whom I know have 340s. Sharath shetty a.k.a Samurai is a busy man. He said he will call me back... I am yet to recieve his call back.

Sorry about the confusion, I thought you were going to call back later at night. I was in the middle of a major crisis with an important client which went on for days. You also refused to tell me the reason for the call, so it didn't exactly leave a mark on my mind, so eventually it slipped out of my mind. Had you emailed or PMed, I would have followed up. But it is easy to miss a random call in the middle of hectic back-to-back meetings.

[Grace]

Thought I' surprise you, thats all !!!

[noopster]

Originally Posted by Grace

Thanks noopster,the orange jeep's roll cage/bar and top is to be worked upon to complete the restoration,in your opinion should I go for a black top or a offwhite/cream top? Your inputs will be highly appreciated.

Warm Regards

Offwhite, absolutely! It will offset the orange beautifully.

[Gypsy-Boy]

Hey Andy - Congrats on the buy!!

[DMehta]

Hey Grace.
A very good buy and a nice write-up too. It sure looks like its in a mint condition.
The fog lights look awesome.
IMHO, get a set of nice alloys.

[starter]

Hey Andy,
Have been reading your posts on TBHP and JT about the buying of 540, strengthening of its chassis and bringing it to good shape.
Was happy to see those pictures of your jeep performing in the OTR along with some Gurkhas.
And now a 340 too in the garage, sounds sweet!
Have fun and wish you luck in finding that LHD 3B
Cheers,
Deepak

[Shubz]

Andy bhai,

What is the current condition of the Jeep? (red) I thought you said you had to fish it out of heaps of other things?

PS: I saw your missed call and returned your call as well. May be you decided to pay me back in my own coin and did not pick

Talk to you soon

Re.
Shubz

[Grace]

Thankyou Deepak for those warm words.

Yes,the 540 performed very well. The finding of 340 and buying happened so fast that I did not even think where am I gonna park:-). Lately folks in my area have mistook my house for a jeep garage where 3 of them are lazing in the sun.

Andy