Restoring my 25 year old Maruti Omni to its former glory

The entire motive behind carrying out all these long & painstaking restoration/modifications were to future proof the car, as far as possible.

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• Make & Model- Maruti Omni E 8 STR.
• Colour- Phoenix Red.
• Date of purchase- 22.10.1999.
• Odo reading- 120000km
• Engine specification- 3 cylinder 796cc F8B (Carburetor fueled) , 37 bhp (max power) & 6.32 kgm (max torque).
• Suspension- McPherson strut (front) & leaf spring with shock absorber (rear).
• Fuel tank capacity- 36 litres.
• Brakes- All round drum brakes without brake booster.

Circa 2002:

Circa 2023:

BRIEF HISTORY

On 22th October 1999, 3 days after my 5th birthday, our Omni in Phoenix Red colour came home. She has been with us since then, through thick and thin, through birth and death and everything in between.

This was the first car (or for that matter any vehicle, since we didn't ever have a 2 wheeler) that my father bought, also one of the first 4 wheeler bought in our extended family. Now why the need for a car arose is something I am not sure even now. In our family back in 1999 buying a 4 wheeler, that too a brand new was a huge thing. My Dad was a first generation settler in the capital city of Guwahati, was in his mid 30s, married with a kid (that would be me). Him buying a brand new car in 1999, is something no one could imagine (family & friends alike), but he did get the Omni home & 25 years later its still with us.

The story goes like this, within 15 days the decision to buy a car & bringing the Omni home was done, with the car loan being processed in record time by SBI New Guwahati Branch (apparently getting car loans back then was a bit difficult). I have been told that the initial booking was done for a metallic green Omni, metallic colours were kind of a new thing back then. The green Omni never came, we ended up with a pink Omni (which was readily available).

We were a family of 3 then (my kid sister is newer than the Omni), so my Dad deciding to get a 8 seater with 3 rows of seating is something that doesn't make sense even now . M800 would & should have made more sense, considering all things.

On the delivery day, dad, my maternal uncle, me & a driver (since no one knew to drive) went to take delivery of the Omni. I have some blurry memories of seeing her for the first time near the washing area, undergoing final cleaning. The Omni was bought from the only Maruti dealer in Guwahati operational at that time, Bimal Auto. My Mom (who is more into cars than Dad), tells me that on the first night Omni was home (we used to live in a rented place then), she couldn't sleep properly, she would get up many times & glance at the Omni. Getting a new car home was such a huge thing for our family.

The owner's manual:

Fast forward to 2012, Omni's replacement is here, a 2012 Punto MJD. Omni by that time had done 80k km & was in perfect shape (both cosmetically & mechanically). Omni till then had served us faithfully for 12 years, never broke down, never needed any more maintenance than regular service. The logical thing at that time was to sell the Omni, since there was no need for a second car at home. But of course selling the Omni was never an option, so she stayed. After that Omni's running came down drastically, I also went to college in 2013, got my own car in 2016. The Omni even in this period was always serviced on time, kept in perfectly running condition, whatever needed fixing mechanically was fixed (like a new half engine in 2013). The body though had started to rust at few places & the paint condition deteriorated over the years. Finally in October 2020, it was decided that the Omni will go through a proper cosmetic restoration, whatever needs fixing will be fixed properly.

With Punto on the delivery day (Jan 2012), Punto was sold in Aug 16, had done 103k km:

Chapter I- Restoration

Special thanks to dear friend & Dbhpian Leoshashi for guiding me through every step of the restoration, without him the restoration upto this level wouldn't have been possible.

As I had mentioned in the previous post, with time the body had started to rust at few places & also the paint quality had deteriorated. Paint quality becoming bad was anticipated only, since 1999 over a dozen people have learnt driving in the Omni, as expected there have been many minor mishaps here & there, & as a result many panels have been painted multiple times. Fixing the paint was relatively simple, fix the dents & paint the whole body in one go.

The bigger problem was the rusting body, a car body catching rust is like cancer, it will keep on spreading. Even if rust is taken care of, one can't be fully sure that the rust won't come back after some time. Even now, after all the precautions that I took during rust proofing, there's always a possibility that the rust might make a comeback someday.

Anyways after discussing with Shashi, it was decided that wherever possible, we will put new MGP panels, keeping the patch work to minimum. With new panels, chances of it rusting is negated to a large extent, whereas with patch work, there's a bigger chance of rust. Of course, we had to do patch work in few places, but in most of rusted areas, new MGP panels were put in. Then next was the process of welding, arc (or mig welding) vs gas welding. Shashi advised to go with arc welding, as it was the better form of welding w.r.t strength & rust proofing. With gas welding, there's always a risk of damaging the Zinc coating of the metal (due to heat). After visiting many garages, I quickly realized no one does arc welding here for passenger vehicles (at-least I couldn't find one), even MASS uses gas welding (though arc welding is what Maruti recommends). Finally we had to go ahead with gas welding, Shashi suggested the best we can do is coat the panels properly with rust proofing materials, so as to minimize the rust threat.

Next task in hand was to select a FNG for the job. My priorities for selection were clear, FNG should be open to listening to us, as I wanted the whole process to be done as I wanted (more like how Shashi would advice), under my complete supervision. Next in line was that rust proofing should be done properly, as thoroughly as possible. I was neutral about the paint quality, as long the car was painted in one shade, I was okay with it. After going to many FNGs, discussing, taking quotes, finally went with the FNG that I have been going for the last few years for Carb tuning works. The owner (& head mechanic) had good knowledge on old cars, workshop was big with sufficient mechanics (this meant the Omni was never left unattended to), also he had (still has) a 84 SS80 as his personal vehicle.

It was time to handover the Omni to the FNG, before that I wanted to take a proper look at the extent of the rust. So, Omni's under-body was thoroughly washed, I checked each nook & corner, clicked tons of photos to share with Shashi. We came to the conclusion that the main areas were free of rust, only the areas which were constantly in contact with road surface (wheel well, running board etc.) had badly rusted. Basically the areas where mud/water is sprayed were rusted, under-body cleaning (or for that matter proper washing) was not properly done in the 2012-2020 period which might have accentuated the rusting. Even otherwise Omnis are notorious for rust issues in all these places. The rest of the under body which doesn't come into contact directly with mud/water, was free of rust. The upper body (A-pillars, doors, window sills) as expected were free from rust, the Omni has never been parked in the open.

Underbody photos:

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