It was a broken, rusted metal shell with an engine that you could just about start. But within a year and a half, a shiny navy-blue Singer Roadster was reborn out of the mess. That is what Dilip George, a civil engineer, does at his three-year-old venture, AutoGenie Classic Restore in Thiruvananthapuram. He takes in vintage cars like the 1950 model Singer Roadster and infuses them with a new life.
Talking about the Singer Roadster, he explains: “The body of that car is basically an aluminium panels fixed on a wooden frame. We spent a year and a half on it. The carpenter took months to finish the wooden parts. Often, the pieces wouldn’t fit and we had to start from scratch again.”
Parts that cannot be sourced or made in the city are imported. For instance, the unique wheel-cups of Singer Roadster were brought all the way from UK. “Many car clubs run by enthusiasts in UK are very serious about vintage cars and can help you source the necessary parts. I have a friend there who helps me get the parts I need,” he adds.
Many parts, although costly, are easier to get if the car is from a country like Germany, UK or Italy, where there has always been a thriving automobile industry. Some parts of a 1979 model Mercedes-Benz W123, that is being restored at AutoGenie, were bought from Germany recently.
For Dilip, the aim is to restore them as closely as possible, to their classic look and features, with no modern additions. “I believe in maintaining a car just the way it was. So, I am not interested in adding AC or any other modern-day features to the restored vehicle. Thanks to the Internet, we can get a lot of information regarding restoration easily. Old restoration manuals are available online for anyone to read,” Dilip explains.
Before opening AutoGenie, three years ago, he used to restore his vintage vehicles at home, all by himself. The AutoGenie workshop was set up in the unused factory space in Kochuveli industrial area, where Dilip used to run a factory a few years ago. Initially, his clients were people who already knew him and his love for vintage vehicles. But word about the quality of his work has been getting around. “That black ambassador parked outside came all the way from Odisha. It belongs to a diamond merchant. He was not satisfied with the restoration work done by a mechanic there,” he says.
Dilip’s own decades-old Standard Companion lies in the yard, waiting for its turn to be given a makeover, while inside it is a treasure trove of vintage beauties. A 1979 model Mercedes-Benz W123 and a 1973 model Volkswagen Beetle are under restoration, while a fully-restored 1936 model Morris 8, a soft-top car, rests next to the Benz.
Mechanics who know to work on vintage cars are rare, and AutoGenie employs only two regular workers. You need skill and, moreover, patience, to tend to the old. Painting, electrical and upholstery works are outsourced. So if the car is in a particularly bad condition, it will take more than six months to restore it. Both Jeevan and Muthuswami, who work here, are veterans in their respective fields of engineering and patchwork. Often, Dilip too joins the fray.
In the end, it is all a gamble. A restoration need not necessarily mean a car that will cruise the streets. Sometimes, even the cars restored at AutoGenie, instead of being driven home, go back after restoration on the same flatbed trucks that brought them, or whatever was left of them.
Dilip adds, “I have seen restored vintage cars break down before hitting the 1-km mark. Old cars with sidevalve engines won’t survive the bad roads and traffic of Indian cities. Overheating or a minor electrical issue will be more than enough for a breakdown.”
More than that, it will be really difficult to drive them, as we are used to modern cars. So, the best you can do is take them for a short ride once in a while. But those models with the more modern overhead valve engines, if restored well, will be a great ride.