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8th May 2013, 13:56 | #1891 | ||
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| Re: Pics: Vintage & Classic cars in India Quote:
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Cheers harit | ||
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8th May 2013, 14:21 | #1892 | |
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| Re: Pics: Vintage & Classic cars in India Quote:
The car would have come from the factory with a clock delete plate (pictured below), which would have been replaced with the accessory clock, had the buyer opted for it at the dealership. I'd assume that in this case the first owner did not opt for a clock, and later the clock delete plate was removed and replaced with a local ammeter, rather than have an ugly gauge plate installed below the dash. Picture courtesy: http://www.ctcautoranch.com/Used%20P...-Pages/GM.html Last edited by thebulletboy : 8th May 2013 at 14:27. Reason: corrected grammatical mistake | |
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8th May 2013, 14:51 | #1893 |
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| Re: Pics: Vintage & Classic cars in India
Batteries could be flogged for longer back in the day as they were mostly unsealed ones in hard rubber casing, enabling replacement of the plates in a dead cell with new ones. Having said that, I have seen my father use one particular battery (without reconditioning, nothing) for seven years, believe it or not. It was either an Exide or a Dagenite. He religiously practised the painful procedure of always cranking his car first time in the day with the starting handle (because he believed that a battery's maximum juice gets drained at first start, and at a discharge rate rapid enough to reduce battery life in the long run). The handle-cranking procedure was followed as a passionate ritual, something a distant observer could have been forgiven for mistaking as an ancient tribal invocation! First priming the engine without switching on the ignition with a a few slow rotations, and then switching on the ignition, and invariably managing to fire her up in one go. A 1000-watt beam on his face and a short jig each time could also be likened to a successful rain dance culminating in the first few rain drops, while the engine settled down to a steady idle. This was of course in the days of old-tech automobiles (whether newly manufactured Indian or old imported foreign metal) and batteries. Of course, whether using the starter motor or using the starter handle-cranking method, the ignition timing as well as carburetion had to be optimum so that the engine fired up with no fuss, helping prolong the battery. Apparently, the starter handle-starting, without switching on the ignition until the engine was primed also helped prolonged engine life by building up some lubrication from the chamber to the upper reaches (old crankshafts had little spoon-like scoops). Mustbe something to it. The old Amby still drives like new with more than two lakh miles on the clock of the standard motor! |
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8th May 2013, 21:27 | #1894 | |
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9th May 2013, 10:17 | #1895 | |
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Leather upholstery does not start to come apart after 5000 miles no way. I also tend to believe that this car has definately not run 105K miles. Somewhere down the line someone has fudged the mileage. They sometimes did that when an engine was overhauled. But a good car never the less. But for me not a true muscle car has the power but no body muscles | |
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9th May 2013, 11:21 | #1896 | |
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| Re: Pics: Vintage & Classic cars in India Quote:
Best regards, Behram Dhabhar | |
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9th May 2013, 11:46 | #1897 | |||
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| Re: Pics: Vintage & Classic cars in India Quote:
In those times you could buy branded batteries, or assembled batteries. I always bought branded because there was atleast some warranty available. Then there were the repaired batteries, these for me were a no no, but people did have a choice. But an Amby with 200K miles! (not KM) sounds a bit ambitious. For Bombay, Amby's were driven all the way from Calcutta on Kerosene and engines then could not last 200K whatever. Added to that, we had bad quality fuel, remember when Maruti was first introduced oil companies were forced to improve petrol quality, other added additives when filling up. Quote:
The next was STC Mumbai, which also had nice cars. And Madras which had the least, but even their cars came to Bombay for reselling. Maybe there were STC showrooms in Calcutta and Hydeabad, I don't remember. So one had a choice from the stock. Best selling cars were Mercedes, Honda, Ford, Toyota, the odd cars did not sell so well. Ofcourse there were exceptions like the Porsche and BMW which Vijay bought, or the Rolls Phantom V which Pranlal later got in resale. Obscure cars were ofcourse cheaper, but difficult to maintain, and often left aside. All cars needed maintainance, few owners understood that, the capable garages were like Swadi's, Apex etc. which were also not cheap. But cars maintained by them generally ran longer. Its just like a BMW, maintainance at the dealer is expensive, the roadside mechanic is cheaper, and generally not many 7 year old Beemers are seen on the road. In recent times Beemers are very often seed abandoned on the road, remember the 7 series car at Kala Ghoda? The biggest hurdle was the maintainance of automatic gearboxes. these would be 'killed' and then replaced with some manual box, and often a mismatch. And we also dieselised these cars. Quote:
There was another service, car valeting by Anna and his boys. Nobody in Bombay could clean a car better than his team, they even used toothbrushes to reach crevices, when the car was sold it really was clean. These three posts took me back to the 1980's, I have seen these activities when these were the norm. Cheers harit Last edited by harit : 9th May 2013 at 11:52. | |||
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9th May 2013, 14:30 | #1898 |
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| Re: Pics: Vintage & Classic cars in India LOL, true thsi is bringing back great old memories. We used to have to get the 6V batteries buit using old casings as no modern company in India made car sized 6V batteries then. Then there was the business with the re treaded ties, also popular in those day Then the clocing issue, we used to buy three year old Maruti cars, usually with mileage in 60/70K range. Then fix the suspension give them a coat of paint, pull out the sun film and seat covers, they would be fresh again and of cource one was compelled to clock them to 23K KM to match the refreshed look and sell them on. |
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9th May 2013, 21:58 | #1899 |
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| Re: Pics: Vintage & Classic cars in India Cars that were imported duty free had to be sold to STC. There was a huge lot on Rajpur Road, Reg. Transport Office, in old Delhi that used to be full of mostly American cars, USAId, American Embassy, Ford Foundation being the largest importers. I beg to differ with Harit on the makes that were offered. Honda did not exist in India in the 60s or 70s. Toyota had Corona and a larger model named Toyopet . These were mostly from embassies of Asian countries. There were Holdens, Opels, many English makes. BMWs were not a popular . Of course Mercedes was a most desirable make. Auctions were held regularly. I recall a Ferrari sold for the unheard of price of 6 lacs. So, who bought most of these cars? Private Taxi operators who would try to outbid any one because these cars would become DLZ taxis. Delhi had Impalas, MBs as DLZ taxis. For the peasents , there were DLY taxis, mostly Ambys. Most American cars were manual shift and six cylinder as V8 & Auto were considered un fixable by Indian mechanics and the parts were hard to get in the open market. India Tourism Development Corpn. on imported for its own fleet of DLZ taxis, first several hundred 1959 Plymouth Belvedere ( all two tone blue & right hand drive, slant six engine & Manual shift) and then a few years later 1964 Dodge Polara, again the basic model (metallic beige ). These cars were also allotted to other states as DLZ, mainly to cater to our foreign tourist trade. What happened to them after there useful life with ITDC, is not known. At least they were not seen being butchered in Hindi movies ! As a side note, in the 50s, I saw Chevy, Ford and Plymouth black/yellow taxis, then Hindustan 14, Austin , Hillman & Landmaster and later of course Ambys. Recently I saw the old Film 'Aarzoo' (Rajender Kumar, Sadhana & Mehmood) . It had, guess what ? two 1949 Hudson Hornet black/yellow taxis at Srinagar Airport and also a black 1946-47 Dodge Fluid drive in which Rajender Kumar has an accident ! Please see photos of 1959 Chevrolet Impala , Fazal Bhais's posting . What a nice clean car , now on way to complete restoration, as if it needed it ! Last edited by priyo : 9th May 2013 at 22:12. Reason: add a note re: pristine condition of 1959 Impala elswhere in this thread |
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10th May 2013, 13:20 | #1900 | |
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| Re: Pics: Vintage & Classic cars in India Quote:
Cars which were imported duty free had to be given to STC, who gave the depreciated value and made a killing. But also those cars imported by the eligible and where duty was paid, could not be sold for 5 years and a bond was issued. This had to be cancelled, and those who had to sell their vehicles due to circumstances before 5 years were forced to give it to STC again at depreciated rates. And those cars which never made it past clearance for whatever reason surrendered the cars to customs and the customs auctioned them off. There were also tourists who brought their vehicle along on a carnet, they did not pay duty and if they had problems they also surrendered their vehicle to customs, not to STC. As far as the model range went, it was European and American cars in the 1960's and early Seventies, but the Japanese became stronger and pushed the Americans aside. Holdens came in because of RHD, as did Australian Fords. German cars were all available in RHD. The Americans themselves shifted to Japanese cars, as did the Russians. In fact many Russians did take their cars back with them, I have seen a 2CV Citroen go, and a Chevy Impala 197odd. And their many Toyota's. Many of the Russians diplomatic employees learnt driving in India. It is true that Honda's came in later, maybe late 1970's but they were always in demand. Datsun was very popular, then they became Nissan somehow their popularity in India sank and very few were seen in comparison to Toyota and Datsun. I do not remember a Ferrari coming from STC, but exotic cars like Porsche, BMW stretch, Alfa Romeo and sports cars were also bid for by private individuals who had good taste. Most of the cars were sold to dealers. One day I walked into the STC showroom and saw a Chevy Nova with Taxi plates being taken in. I walked in and had a chat with one person there. He told me that STC sells these cars for use as Tourist Taxis at a concession. And these cars were returned after a few years of use. So there was indeed a special arrangement for Taxi's. ITDC imported cars for taxi use, the Mercedes 200D 123 series for the Asian Games all became ITDC cars and were posted all over India. The Government imported the Plymouths and Dodges, and I know that these cars were used as taxi's but also as Governor Cars, Air India got some, and many went to public sector undertakings. ITDC also auctioned off the cars after their service was over. Many of them had to be reconditioned. The taxi's in India were big American cars, Ford, Chevy, Dodge, etc. Later when smaller cars were introduced like Austin, Morris, they were termed as baby taxi's. Later they became the norm, the big cars were replaced by smaller cars. Regarding Fazalbhai's 59 pillarless car, that was to be preserved as it appeared at the Circus show in Delhi. The owner mentioned that being strongly told not to respray the car, he would keep her as is but will not use her in this condition. This post brought me back to 3 decades back, nostalgia, those times were different and will be soon forgotton. Cheers harit | |
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10th May 2013, 23:39 | #1901 | ||||
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| Re: Pics: Vintage & Classic cars in India Quote:
Well, we had no qualms about using 'local' new batteries occasionally, or to even get a faulty cell or two of the old one (branded or local) reconditioned. Some of them were pretty big names in the locality, you know! A little corollary - You could source the exact Bata shoe made by a vendor if you knew where to look, at a fraction of the cost, with only the Bata label missing! The trick was to get the right size for your vehicle, 9-plate, 11-plate etc. for optimum amperage to your vehicle's need. And good quality plates to start with played a big role. A rapid discharge rate is anathema for a storage battery.. Quote:
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Btw, Maruti introduced OHC to India with an engine boasting new technology and better tolerances. However, one of the reasons that older cars got away with lower octane rating was because of their lower compression ratios, compared to the new breed. Octane-rating aside, quality of fuel is another matter altogether. Cars actually got allergic to that more with the advent of fuel injection! Maybe we also got less, or no-adulterated fuel where we used to stay!! But I wonder why even in this day and age, amongst the modern cars some need an overhaul early, even within 50k kms, while some just go on and on... Quote:
Edit: I don't remember exactly where now, but it was somewhere near Alipore/ Lansdowne Road probably. I'm not very good with the civilian localities of Cal, as I've mostly stayed in the cantonment areas, and that too for a cumulative period of totally 3 years of my life! Last edited by Prabal : 11th May 2013 at 00:07. | ||||
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11th May 2013, 07:06 | #1902 |
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| Prabal, The multifuel engine was of Man called shakti-man truck in India. In the IC engines book there is one topic on 'M' type combustion chamber. |
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11th May 2013, 22:03 | #1903 |
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| Re: Pics: Vintage & Classic cars in India
Spot on, Manish! Yes, the MAN's M-Type combustion, with the spherical depression in the piston, for tangential spraying of fuel in a swirling motion caused by the special inlet valve...! Gosh! |
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11th May 2013, 23:42 | #1904 | |
Senior - BHPian | Re: Pics: Vintage & Classic cars in India Quote:
Wasif a coat of paint on a three year old car? Those cars always sold better with original paint. A repainted car was a no-no. And I would catch you on the repainted car & clocking of meter on a 60/70k km to 23k km car. You'd need to have 5 tyres of a set for such low milage and the date would have to match close to the manufacturing year and month of the car, for all 5 tyres even the spare!!! A same set of tyres could tell you how genuine the milage was of a much older maruti, that and original paint. Last edited by deutscheafrikar : 11th May 2013 at 23:48. | |
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12th May 2013, 11:56 | #1905 | |
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| Re: Pics: Vintage & Classic cars in India Quote:
Some of them didnt need any paint, just a good buffing n waxing was all that was required. We used to move 4 to 5 of them each month, around 10 to 12K on each was not a bad deal. In those days nobody inspected the tires. The Maruti engine was such a gem but the suspension would be falling apart driving on Indian roads for three year and the parking lights n tail lights would fade. Polish / remove seat covers, tint etc, new battery, tail light n parking light covers, new suspension bushes adn the cars would be back to as new......not to forget the clocking There was an entire industry doing re treaded tires, they would cut the top of a bald tire and fit like a cap on it with grooves and the tire would be sold as a re treaded tire. Last edited by wasif : 12th May 2013 at 12:05. | |
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