Hell's Angel - Suzuki Zen Estilo LXi - Midnight Black - March 2007

[bhvm]

Looks like my cars have a Companion.
Safari did about 95k ish
i10 did roughly 50k.
Age is around 13 or so years.

The use Since 2020 has been less than 2000 Km Till date.

 

[deville_56]

January 2021 - Bye-Bye Seat Covers

Survived good 13 years. Now cracking and disintegrating.

Removed one by one. Stock fabric seats. Still intact, but 13 years of dirt.

Dolphin. One of the finest covers available then, when local art leather was rare and brands like Autoform wasn't common down south. Bought from Car Palace, Trivandrum for ₹ 4,800.00 in April 2008.

All out.

Washed.

Still a beauty.

Clearer picture. Seats are in good shape. Needs thorough cleaning. Confused whether to go for new covers or retain the fabric seats, which is the current trend.

The rear seat had the most dirt, always spilling stuff, that seeps through the seat cover. Tried cleaning, but out of my capacity, needs professional help.

i noticed that seat cover also removed due to cracking

Spot on. Removed at a later date.

 

[VISHNUCARCRAZY]

The fabric will start degrading as it hasn't been exposed to the outside world, since a long time. It is better to go with New seat covers.

 

[deville_56]

The fabric will start degrading as it hasn't been exposed to the outside world, since a long time. It is better to go with New seat covers.

Still tempted to keep it as such for some time before going for new covers. Still not cleaned as the car hardly sees the road.

 

[deville_56]

August 2021 - Misc Updates

Job of cousin's pesky kid.

Lancer rims are still a looker.

Started leaking from an old edge puncture. Repaired with tubeless radial patch, which is stuck from inside.

Did wheel rotation + balancing + alignment, ₹ 900 total damage including puncture patching at Nayana Tyres. Tyre still good for at least 5000 more kilometres. Continental CC5 was available in 165/65R13.

Almost 10 years since the tacho install and still love the flying red needle.

 

[deville_56]

August 2021 - New Wiper Blades

Bought a pair of Minda Soft Super Blade aka frameless.

Size chart. 21"/12" recommended, but most of the time it will be 21"/13" available/preferred.

MRP ₹ 256.00 for 21" and ₹ 164.00 for 13", got for ₹ 236.00 and ₹ 151.00 respectively from Manikantan Automobiles.

Both March 2021 make, packed in May and June 2021.

Comparing side by side. Old one also Minda.

Difference between 12" and 13". Works fine without messing with each other.

Central lock remote starts malfunctioning. Light always lit up, low battery.

Spare remote. Still good as new. Just 14+ years old.

Surprisingly, the battery has never been changes in 14 years and has never leaked. Runs on CR2025. Swapped the battery from other remote, and it started working again, but range reduced drastically. So, started using the spare and parked the primary one.

 

[deville_56]

August 2021 - Bluetooth Addition + Misc Updates

Our Kenwood HU was a sweet sounding unit despite its age. Added aux in previously. Aux cable became kinda obsolete and a nuisance.

Stumbled upon my old home amplifier, which I made in my +1-2 vacation, 20 years ago to be precise. It was based on old school and common 4440 IC and added a Bluetooth module at a later period.

Since it was rarely used, nicked the Bluetooth module from it, originally stolen from @bikerharis

Fed through 7805 IC, which was already with it in the amp. First installed on the HU heat sink.

Later added a dedicated heat sink as the area of contact with HU sink was non-existent.

Audio out of module connected to CD changer connector, same as the aux in connection before.

Module covered with heat shrunk sleeve and secured under the HU.

12V for the 7805 fed from the HU remote wire for amp, so powered up only when HU is on.

Test run. Lost the video.

Done.

 

[deville_56]

August 2021 - Tale of Two Antennas - 2010 Recap

Hell's Angel had a longer antenna, which added a bit of toy car touch to it. AFAICR, I haven't mentioned the story before.

Back in 2010, a friend of mine managed to roll over his Matiz during wee-hour food hunt.

The car wasn't mechanically great, drinking oil and coolant and returning single digits and the current garage was quoting an insane figure for restoring the car in the 80k range and another guy quoting 35k. The wiser option was to scrap the car (again), so did we. (It was a once-scrapped car, touched up and sold to my friend by a now-reputed used car dealer in town ). Before scrapping, went there to reclaim all our (horrible) custom audio install and any useful stuff. Thus, I got my share, the antenna

`

Turned useless at first as the fitment was exactly opposite, female vs male.

Length difference, Matiz (L) vs Estilo (R).

Estilo vs Matiz vs Beat (L to R). The whole thing came up when I was checking any one of them fit our Fiesta or Polo.

Solution, the DIY adapter. Took an M6 bolt and cut the required length. It was just accidental, was holding both antennas and screwed them together thinking something else.

Perfect.

Stock antenna.

Matiz antenna.

Stumbled upon the Matiz once again, perfectly restored, owned by our body shop guy. Came across when I went there to inquire about painting Beat back in 2014.

 

[bhvm]

That Matiz seems to have a soul of a cat.
Nice to see cars being restored rather than ending in some scrap pile though.

 

[deville_56]

That Matiz seems to have a soul of a cat.
Nice to see cars being restored rather than ending in some scrap pile though.

Cat succumbed naturally at 15 years. It was daily runner till then.

 

[bhvm]

So it was Re-Registered?
Hows it being used with an Orange skin?

 

[deville_56]

So it was Re-Registered?
Hows it being used with an Orange skin?

Clicked in 2014 and expired in 2015. Seems, he didn't renew it.

 

[deville_56]

August - September - October 2021 - Quick Misc Updates

Debris in coolant tank.

Removed and cleaned.

Topped up the tank with MGP Ecstar coolant.

Installed back. All is well.

OE carpet degraded, nearing 15 years.

Quick wash (n wax)

One puncture every month.

Next month. This needed a radial patch from inside as it was closer to the wall and regular puncture strip didn't hold well.

Antique breaker bar.

Cleaned all door lock linkages, 15 years of muck, inspired by @allhyundaicars

Wurth Rust Off

With bigger younger bros.

 

[deville_56]

December 2021 - Major AC Overhaul

The compressor was making noise and died just before the initial lock down. Shown it to AM Motors and a freelance AC mech showed up and checked and confirmed the compressor to be gone and gave a quote of 20kish for replacing compressor and doing a leak test and gas filling. Gave it there after getting financial approval and paying advance amount for the compressor. Part was exclusive for first gen Estilo and not shared with any other Maruti models. Took 10 days for the compressor to arrive after ordering.

Car sat there in this condition for that whole period due to delay in parts arrival.

Back home. Chilling cool, but bill wasn't cool. Total came up to whopping ₹ 28,000.00. Replaced compressor, condenser, evaporator, suction hose, AC belt. Compressor alone was ₹ 17,005.00 (part number 95200M59KA0). Replaced the cylinder head cover gasket also as there was an oil leak for quite some time.

Wanted to do DIY cabin filter installation, but they already made the cut, but didn't install the filter. All I have to do now is to get one.

Suction pipe. Messes with the air filter box clips.

Compressor and condensor.

Subros make.

Areon Bubble Gum - ₹ 350.00

My favourite. Used to get the can, but spray seemed better bet. Need to spray only when the car is going to be used; on the other hand, the can gets wasted even when the car is sitting idle.

 

[deville_56]

December 2021 - Seat Cover

Checked many seat cover vendors, none of them offering a satisfactory output, just plain template work with average finishing and high price. Stumbled upon this guy's advertisement in Facebook Marketplace, but no location details. Got an approximate location from one of his videos (accidental YouTube geotag ), found the shop to check the quality of work in real, but wasn't open that day. Added to Google Maps (fetish) and returned another day, checked materials and quality work and got the rates. Location was a bit remote with no scope of public transport. He offered to drop back or return the car with driver seat, but came back as cousin's pillion.

First thing first, the steering. Asked for full wrap, but due to some misunderstanding by his assistant, ended up as steering cover, but neatly stitched.

The stitch is what impressed me the most. No vendors here give such an attention.

Finally, the seats.

Asked specifically double stitch and in white colour.

Another neat touch. Most of the seat cover guys screws up the rear side, sometimes pyjama strings tied across, sometimes bikini style half cover, some kind of mess up. He used carpet material.

Did vinyl flooring, since 15-year-old carpet was mostly disintegrated.

Totally charged ₹ 10,000.00 (₹8000 for seat + ₹3000 for flooring + free steering cover - ₹1000 discounted). Shinu Upholstery Works