[ebonho]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

Dear Vistasp - thank you Doc for your kind words, it feels so nice as it makes the whole effort worthwhile! Wow, the number "MRG 2" itself would be nice to own. I very vaguely remember seeing it somewhere but I can't place the exact location. If you still know anybody who still has fiats, do let me know, I'll be delighted to guide them in the correct direction. Too many cars have suffered because of "not knowing what to do" and more importantly, "what not to do".

By the way, I still have MRF 6466, there's a whole thread on it in this section itself, have a look, I'm sure you'll be delighted! .

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

Yeah it was a VIP number and she was beautifully maintained. A blue grey color. Just the repeat starter issues. I have a lovely photo of my eldest son as a 1 year old sitting on her bonnet beaming his cute toothless smile. He is a huge 6' 3" giant now, giving his 12th boards. How time flies man .....

There is a decrepit old Amby in my neighbors bungalow if you want to have a look. Been sitting out in the open for years now. And a few obvious valuable vintage beauties she keeps under covers ....

Btw, you're a total celebrity man. I saw you on TV the other day on a segment they were doing on that vintage drive from Mumbai to Panchgani. A legend hobnobbing with legends!

[HimuraKenshin]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Yeah it was a VIP number and she was beautifully maintained. A blue grey color. Just the repeat starter issues.

I recently had my bout of starter issues in my S1.
The field coil in my stock starter was made of aluminum, and the bendix drive teeth were broken. I went to koliwada, and picked up a used motor with a copper coil for 500.
Now its back to starting on half a click
@Behram, I got the starter from Sanjay

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by HimuraKenshin

I recently had my bout of starter issues in my S1.
The field coil in my stock starter was made of aluminum, and the bendix drive teeth were broken. I went to koliwada, and picked up a used motor with a copper coil for 500.
Now its back to starting on half a click
@Behram, I got the starter from Sanjay

Sadly there was no Team BHP in the late 90s, and even sadder, I did not know Behram then. We used to give it to an old mechanic of ours at Bombay Garage, and finally we just got tired and bought an Esteem.

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Dear all - I am attaching 3 photographs which were taken during an early morning photoshoot in Mumbai. This is exactly how I wanted the lights to locate and look, with the mounting very robust and also completely concealed. Enjoy! .

Next in line is the custom exhaust system with a built-in expansion chamber. Watch this space!

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[rakesh_r]

DB sir,are those Hella 550f driving lights?One thing i want to ask,since these are not yellow lights (fog lights to be precise),whats the best place to mount auxlights-
1-Below the main headlights
2-In line with the headlights,Or
3-Above the main headlights.

I have used the 550s (with an HID) on my Karizma and they served me quite well(visible in my DP). Right now am using Hella comet 500 in my swift ,placed in line with the headlight.

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Dear Rakesh - for headlight effectiveness, you need area coverage and good spread of the headlight beam. Also, convergence of both beams must be exactly at the car centerline and parallel to the distance of the headlight center from datum, otherwise you will get a headache during full night driving in the mountains. I love full night driving and I don't want a headache, so I know. To answer your question, auxiliary lights should be placed slightly below the headlights, so as not to let the beams interfere with each other. The best auxiliary headlights I have ever driven were the Hella Rallye 3000 pencil beams, phenomenal!

Please see the location of the mounting bracket on my Scorpio MH15BX3184. The second photograph is the result of photoshopping by a very talented TeamBHPian, the lights were physically not there (neither was the grey paint)! . My vehicle was a black LX with grey interiors, black wheelrims, without wheelcaps, without the faux-pas scoop on the bonnet, without the no-utility and bulky looking stupid door claddings and without the completely out of sync side footsteps /rear footstep and without the silly front number plate locating surround! I had designed and manufactured this front guard with a vendor in Nasik to mount my Hella Rallye 2000 spots. They sold some 300 odd pieces a month for quite some time. .

In my LHD, the headlights themselves are 140/110 watts with Finolex wires and Bosch relays, so I don't really need anything else, I have daylight in front of me in any case! The main reason to do this was to give a very balanced and nice look to the front of the car. I had this thing at the back of my mind and wanted to do it, I have finally realized it now. The lights on the LHD are 450s, the 550s are at home!

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[rakesh_r]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

Dear Rakesh - for headlight effectiveness, you need area coverage and good spread of the headlight beam. Also, convergence of both beams must be exactly at the car centerline and parallel to the distance of the headlight center from datum, otherwise you will get a headache during full night driving in the mountains. I love full night driving and I don't want a headache, so I know. To answer your question, auxiliary lights should be placed slightly below the headlights, so as not to let the beams interfere with each other. The best auxiliary headlights I have ever driven were the Hella Rallye 3000 pencil beams, phenomenal!

DB sir,thank you very much for your answer. That clears my doubt. The problem with the swift (maybe my personal observation) is in the high beam, i somehow felt the light throw and intensity at the middle region to be lesser.Heck my K10 had better light throw than my swift. Hence I had aligned the 500s in such a way that it used to fill in the "void" on High beams but somehow felt a bit distracting partially one of the factors being the light slightly visible from the cabin hence distracting me. I guess its better i lower the lights.I have attached a pic which I had taken during last monsoon drive to Lonavala. Please ignore the bad alignment of the aux lights which I later rectified as I couldn't find the right spanner in my tool box.

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Dear all - hello on this thread after more than a year. The LHD was in very safe hibernation in my stilt parking for a year (without a battery of course) and all covered up with a Honda City car cover.

Brakes failure analysis: last month, I uncovered it as I wanted to start it. I found "no brakes at all"! No oil in the container, no pedal pressure at all and absolutely no sign of any external leakage, absolutely nothing! No sign of external leakage was very surprising, because there has to be a logical explanation. OK, so I resigned myself to a full day of work over the weekend. I filled fresh brake fluid in the container and pumped the pedal to bleed the system. I did not expect it to bleed, but it bled, and the brake force got immediately restored. So, I got to the next level. After bleeding the last wheel which is nearest to the master cylinder, if the pedal force gets restored in around 10 to 15 seconds of keeping the pedal in the released position and not pumping the pedal after the bleed nipple is closed, it indicates a healthy master cylinder. This happened, so the master cylinder was absolutely perfect and so were all the brake pipes. But this still did not answer my root cause question, "where did the old brake fluid go"? So I opened all the brake drums. As expected, all the wheel cylinders had completely leaked off and soaked the insides of the brake drums and all the brake liners. The old brake fluid had accumulated inside the brake drums and had dried out, so nothing came out for me to see underfloor. This was the root cause. So I replaced all the wheel cylinders and all the brake liners with brand new Brakes India parts. Also as a measure of safety and as I had opened up the system, I replaced the master cylinder with a brand new Brakes India part. Of course I have to keep the brake and clutch pedals as they are, because these parts are unique to the S1 LHD, the Brakes India system allows master cylinder replacement as the whole thing is a 2 piece construction. Worked from 11am to 6pm, the brakes are brand new again. I have found a good source in Pune for servicing and greasing, the car goes for a full scrub, washing and greasing treatment next weekend.

BIL has now introduced aluminium wheel cylinders in many models, but these continue to remain cast iron, which is prone to this issue of leakage. I'll check whether we can use Aluminium.

This was a good learning, so sharing here! .

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[prabuddhadg]

Wow! I didn't think of that! Thanks for sharing.

[Vmax1200]

Very rare Left hand drive Premier Padmini

Recently, I drove a LHD Padmini. The car is 1996 model which was imported from Dubai in the year 1999. It was single owned and clocked only 21,000 kms. The previous owner was an old guy. He find it difficult to find drivers who can drive LHD. So, the usage was very minimal.
The car still has original fabric upholstery, original tires, Factory fitted AC etc. The plastic cover in the door pads are not even removed till date. I noticed following things compared to normal Padmini.

• The floor shift is very precise
• Starting and idling is very smooth
• Powerful than normal Padmini
• Steering is very light
• Original working foot well light
• Original wheel caps
• Back tyres are original (Mfg date is May 1995)
• Unused spare tyre
• Zero body rattles

Attaching the pictures of car.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by Vmax1200

Recently, I drove a LHD Padmini.

Wow.

Do you know where the car was made? The VIN could probably tell us that.
With regard to the engine, it could well be the AVL designed one which was available in India as the S1. This engine had a very different sound and the car was quick off the line compared to the standard 1100cc engine. Do post photos of the engine bay.

[Vmax1200]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

Wow.

Do you know where the car was made? The VIN could probably tell us that.
With regard to the engine, it could well be the AVL designed one which was available in India as the S1. This engine had a very different sound and the car was quick off the line compared to the standard 1100cc engine. Do post photos of the engine bay.

This car was made in Kurla factory and exported to Dubai. The car has S1 engine which is more powerful than standard engine. Posting engine bay picture.

[justin.das]

Originally Posted by Vmax1200

Very rare Left hand drive Premier Padmini

Recently, I drove a LHD Padmini. The car is 1996 model which was imported from Dubai in the year 1999. It was single owned and clocked only 21,000 kms.

Nice to see an LHD in the original condition. Photos of this Padmini was doing rounds in all Premier/Fiat-based What's app group recently no one seems to know the owner of the car. There is one more running LHD Padmini (Indian Made)in Kerala and one Italian 1100D with a 1221cc engine in none running condition.

[funkykar]

Owned the RDH version of this car. Its simply refined and awesome to drive. Engine and exhaust is too silent (which I hated it! How can anyone miss the roar of a Fiat). The gears were butter smooth. It felt smoother and softer than the 118NE. The throw was very long though. Never gave me the classic feel and felt as if I was driving a modern day car.

Most mechanics failed to tune this carburetter properly and i used to get merely 6-7kmpl in city. Cruising at 70-75kmph on highway used to deliver 21-23kmpl for me.

This was the car when I owned it:


Was bought by someone and re-restored to below:

[FIFTH GEAR]

Few years back there was a LHD Padmini in Pune too. It was in beige colour with local registration (MZA or MZE). It was a daily sight on Pune - Mumbai Road with a sticker affixed "DEAD MAN WALKING". I always wondered how can a Padmini be LHD. I guess it must be one similarly imported.