My experience restoring our 1984 Maruti SS80

One issue we faced again and again was the engine sometimes shutting down after running a few kms and missing while accelerating.

BHPian speedrider75 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

We bought this 1984 SS80 about a year back. My Dad and I have been painstakingly working on restoring it to as close to original as possible. Happy to share our experience with car so far.

The car is an original 30k km only run car and was in pretty good shape when we bought it with almost no rust and many originals intact (seat covers, headlamps, tail lamps, side view mirror, original floor carpets, tyre jack kit inside bonnet, door beadings, door cards, etc). We managed to source some of the missing original parts - headrests, SS80 ac vent, dicky strut mounting knob etc and replaced some of the essentials - Coil with ballast resistor, distributor cap (Japanese Century make), spark plugs, rear glass strut, new wheels and tubeless radial tyres, rear seat locks, chrome hubcaps, wipers etc. Plus many other small things like getting the air blower and wiper motor sprayer working again, securing door pads clips and all floor carpet locks, multiple plugs and grommets around the car.

One issue we faced again and again was the engine sometimes shutting down after running a few kms and missing while accelerating. Change of coil and distributor cap and a Carb tuning - air and fuel mixture screw adjustments and cleaning with multiple sprays of a carburetor cleaner over many days has mostly solved these problems. The car starts with a 'half self' now and has absolutely no missing or hesitation 99% of of time at any speed. My Dad and I have done a mini PhD on these Suzuki carbs by now . The last 1% will require a full carb cleaning and servicing, which we will look at a bit later.

The car itself is a total joy to drive - amazing acceleration with the long stroke F8B engine, totally 'analogue' and a whole lot of fun to drive.

As it stands now, the only thing the car is missing is the roof gutter beading (which seems impossible to find) and almost everything else seems to be in place. The car needs a replacement of Clutch/Pressure plate, Rear shocks and engine mountings, and we have sourced the same. Will have them replaced as we get time over the next couple of months. After these, there will hopefully be no more major work needed on the car.

Attaching a few pics and will post some of the interiors soon.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.