[myavu]

Originally Posted by yuv3447

[b]Hello guys! I’m Yuvraj from Gurgaon and I’m gonna talk about my 1999 Maruti Zen which I restored during lockdown.

Kudos to you.

My humble request. Kindly retrofit a battery pack worth 100+ kms range and motor. Give this evelasting beauty a second chance in NCR.

Cheers!

Vinu

[yuv3447]

Originally Posted by myavu

Kudos to you.

My humble request. Kindly retrofit a battery pack worth 100+ kms range and motor. Give this evelasting beauty a second chance in NCR.

Cheers!

Vinu

Haha! converting this free revving beauty to some funny looking electric contraption would be depressing. It my be slow but I sure do get a smile on my face when I take her all the way to 75-80Km/H in second gear

[yuv3447]

Originally Posted by Sumedik

Great work. Sadly these cars can never be legally driven on our roads again. I had enquired about this once in Kolkata RTO, but they themselves admitted that it is too long a process. The main glitch would be not passing PUC under the latest norms.

Unfortunately yes. We cannot drive these cars in Delhi NCR, though she's restored now and here to stay. No plans of selling her off! I will be using my ZEN for track days now and a small drives around the neighborhood to keep her tuned.

Originally Posted by rampalliviswa

Hi,
Looking at your thread, couldn't help sharing the pics of our 800 that we won in a saree store raffle in 2008. Definitely younger than yours, but maintained well and family has no plans of selling it all whatsoever. Mostly stock and serviced regularly, used mostly over short distances and for any errands. We had a Zen too, but it was sold around the same time (2009) because it was involved in an accident.
Attachment 2241776
Attachment 2241782
Regards,
Viswa

Beautiful little M800! Keep her running for generations to come, Oh yes! and do get new bumpers for her. They're dirt cheap!

[MelvinPhilip]

Been watching you restore the car from scratch to what it is now! The number of efforts invested in can be seen now! Also, you've got quite a collection there with the 1.6 Scross and the Captiva. On another note, after Maruti discontinued the zen the true successor to it feels like 2010 released K10. Small, fun to drive and FE friendly.

[yuv3447]

After the paint stripping process and body work I sent the car off to a nearby paint shop since I did not have an air compressor. I sent the car away disassembled without its hood and fenders installed. I paid around Rs.3000 for the paint and got the front grill, RHS fender and hood painted. The paint finish was alright but the color match was HORRIBLE





Some how got the car back home! It was on a failing fuel pump which would give up any minute! Had a pretty heated argument with the painted about the messed up paint match and imperfections through out the paint coat.



HORRIBLE paint match I was talking about



Somehow managed to live with the Horrible paint for 4-5 months before I stripped the car again, this time at home and sanded the life out of this mismatched garbage before laying another coat of "color matched" paint... this too at home.

Alright starting off with the painting process.

1. Disassembly. Is started off by removing all the panels I was going to paint. removed the hood, both fenders and the front grill. Car was later covered in plastic to avoid foreign objects in the engine bay.



2. Prepping the panels for paint. I started off by sanding by all the panels with 600 grit(wet) I didn't apply primer since the panel had already been painted before.






After sanding I used a cotton towel, They're available at any paint shop by the name of (Dhoti) soaked the towel in PU(polyurethane) thinner to decontaminate the surface and remove dust and oils before painting.

3. Paint matching. It is a good idea to take a body panel with you to the paint store when getting new paint. I prefer taking the Fuel lid if its made of metal and hasn't faded over time (happens with plastic lids if the car is old) otherwise you can also take a side mirror cover with you. In Gurgaon the nearest paint shop is called RAJA PAINT. They supply paint to most painters in Gurgaon like Heera Motors and many others. matched the paint the the fuel lid and was pretty satisfied with the results so went ahead with painting an old number plate to see how it goes.




Now after I tested the paint on the front grill and the old number plate I went ahead with the Hood and fenders. Pretty satisfied with the Orange peel free paint finish!




Paint came out looking fantastic and matched up just like OEM

Adding some pictures of the finished product!






Next up I'll talk about the interiors and engine bay!

[yuv3447]

Originally Posted by MelvinPhilip

Been watching you restore the car from scratch to what it is now! The number of efforts invested in can be seen now! Also, you've got quite a collection there with the 1.6 Scross and the Captiva. On another note, after Maruti discontinued the zen the true successor to it feels like 2010 released K10. Small, fun to drive and FE friendly.

Thanks for complimenting the collection Melvin! I really appreciate you following the build and yes K10 truly feels like the spiritual successor to the ZEN!

[petrogeek]

Yuv3447,

This is a labour of love and hats off to you for your time, passion and hardwork in restorating this class car. I owned the exact same model and colour up until 2003. This brings back many happy memories of driving a carb engine. Will keenly follow your next steps in this project. Any thoughts yet of doing anything to the wheels and the lights?

[yuv3447]

Originally Posted by petrogeek

Yuv3447,

This is a labour of love and hats off to you for your time, passion and hardwork in restoring this class car. I owned the exact same model and colour up until 2003. This brings back many happy memories of driving a carb engine. Will keenly follow your next steps in this project. Any thoughts yet of doing anything to the wheels and the lights?

Thanks!! Wow! even you had the same color and model, quite rare! Also yes I have done a paint correction and I've done some cosmetic changes to the tail lights. Keeping the steel wheels though.

[BeemerBug_06]

I know that I am extremely late to this thread, but well, better late than never

As someone who has been following the restoration since the very start, I am super glad to see how far you have come with this project. The fact that you have done majority of it all by yourself despite several hurdles is absolutely fantastic and applaudable and I know that things will only get better for you and the Zen hereon !

They say there is no better teacher than real practical experience, the car and entire project sure are a great learning experience for you and for those reading about it.