Recently I started rebuilding my Mahindra MM 540DP Jeep so thought to document here..

From childhood I am interested in Jeeps, particularly in Army Jeeps, however that interest got suppressed as I grew up because of many reasons ..

However couple of years back again I got a bite with 'Jeep Bug' and this time I thought I will definitely buy one.

I started asking different ppl about the Jeep restoration and opinions about purchasing a old Army jeep etc, but most of my friends said "no" because they felt its not worth to buy a old jeep , and few said that finding a army Jeep is very difficult task and maintenance will be more for a jeep and it requires owner's attention always.
However very few friends said "yes" you can manage to get a old Jeep and its worth to restore and suggested to search near by Panjab etc.

Initially I was looking for auctioned Army Jeep's but soon realized that getting Army auctioned Jeep is almost impossible if we don't have time and patience..and it become almost impossible for me to spend time on search for army jeep because of my office work and other personal commitments.

so later I thought to buy a modified Jeep instead of getting Army Jeep so that I can avoid time/effort rebuilding ..however when I checked about the prices in local market, asking price was unbelievable and its almost unreachable for my budget :( so again I got disappointed and took some break..

In meanwhile I had a nice trip to Goa with my collage friends, one of my friend had 'Wangon-R' and we drove it from Hubli to Gao..journey was awesome & I drove it for around 150 KMs on ghat road with full of curves, so drive was thrilling and I really enjoyed the ride ...during that trip again i started thinking about my 'own' jeep.. started dreaming about taking it for these kind trips etc ..i was really excited when I thought about driving a jeep in hilly area because I know 'Jeep' drive will be awesome in hill areas :-)

Once I am back from Goa trip immediately I discussed with my dad about my idea..initially he almost laughed and said why you are looking for old Jeep and why you are getting these kind of stupid ideas :( however later he encouraged me to buy old Jeep , may be because inside he also like jeeps a lot ( my dad used to have jeep with Khargosh engine( guess he mean tractor engine) when he was young ( I think during 1975) )..actually his stories with jeep created lot of interest in jeep ...

Later I discussed with my brother and told him to look for old army jeep and let me know if he can find any..but nothing moved really ....days are passing & didn't get any update on Army jeep availability & many ppl said I can try near Mayapuri for old army Jeeps ..however on internet classified asking price was too much and i was really disappointed after seeing asking prices for 'rust buckets' ...so stopped thinking about army jeep.
Meanwhile started looking for civilian model i.e MM540 and planned to rebuild my self if I can find a good mechanic ...

So started searching in internet seriously about jeep restoration process & read info on Jeeps restoration experience and cost & time required to rebuild a jeep .. got so much interest after seeing several pictures of modified 'jeeps' ..and soon I realized that 'jeep bug' is more deep inside me ...and I thought I can't go away from it until I buy & drove a jeep for some time.

After reading several stories online about Jeep restore project, I felt like restoration project will be possible if I can find good old Jeep and good mechanic, later I felt little relaxed and started thinking that 'jeep restoration' may not be 'impossible' if I properly plan and execute it correctly, so my day dreams continued ....

so my search started again, this time mostly I contacted local mechanics and inquired about the old MM 540s etc but most of them do not have any info on when they will get one, and they were just saying the "will let you know once we got " I know what that mean :-)
and few mechanics have couple of 'jeeps' and they are in their dying state with full of rust and quoting price was too much ..

Also started searching in online classifieds and found few old mm 540's in Bangalore itself but rates for old jeeps are almost at sky level...so I started looking at different locations like Kerala, Tamilnadu & Hyderabad etc ..
Finally I found one 1995 civilian mm 540 in Hyderabad for reasonable price ..I asked my brother to call that guy and told bro to meet him in person and asked to take some pics and send it to me...

in photos jeep was looking OK & maintained, and quoting price was also reasonable, so without thinking much or any further delay I met him and asked for one test drive...honestly in test drive I couldn't make out if it is mechanically in good condition or not..however it was looking maintained so with that only one test drive & negotiations immediately I paid advance and I became the proud owner of mm 540 jeep :-) ..... and first day while I was driving it ..I was like a kid who got his lost toy ..I really enjoyed the drive .. and immediately I fell in 'love' with it once again :-)

However since it is old jeep and was in stale condition for several days, it was not moving freely, and my father wanted to give it for immediate restoration so that we can take it home after restoration..however i didn't like that idea much...i wanted to drive it for some time and then give it for restoration.. for justification I had below points in my mind ..

1) I can drive it personally some more time and understand how it works and what its capabilities etc.
2) Actually I can learn 'Jeep' driving better with this old jeep because in learning process if i do any thing stupid also fine, and it doesn't cost me much because it has to undergo for restoration sooner or later.
3) Finally I can do some research and think about the design etc ..

with all these justifications I thought i better not to give it for immediate restoration ..so now next plan is to drive it to my native which is around 160KM from Hyderabad and use it for some time and then later plan for restoration, since it was already late in the evening and my father was not really interested in night driving because we don't know exactly what is the condition of tires/engine etc, so we planned to start next morning ..honestly with excitement I was not able to sleep that night :) & got up in the morning around 4 and started driving it on Highway ...I must say I really enjoyed the jeep drive on NH7.
However since we do not know exact condition of jeep, we were little scared and anxious while driving ..and my dad said this would be its fist test and if it passes this test then we can say that it is worth, I was very confident on my jeep, so without any second thought, I said definitely it will pass. I don't know why i had that blind confidence on it or may be my love making me blind :P ....finally without any issue we reached home and of course it passed its first test !! in a single stretch we drove it around 160KM and never felt it like its a old jeep ( drive was not so smooth as a new car/SUV but it was not too bad either, jeep drive was lot smoother than imagined), moreover it gave mileage around 15KM/L ..that was a surprise to me and I was really happy because it's not only powerful but seems to be economy aswell :)

Then my dad continue to use this jeep for 3 months and I must say he really liked it so much, whenever I call him he was just telling about the Jeep stories, he used to tell always about its performance and uniqueness etc.

He stopped using car for his travel and was using only jeep for short distance.
My friends and my relatives started showing so much interest in jeep, many asked why u suddenly thought about buying old jeep and few said it is really good and its looking different to have a jeep in 'car' era...kids were loving jeep...they literally cry to get into jeep and their joy will be at sky level if we take them for one ride!!

During these three months we didn't change any thing major, one day just dad replaced accelerator wire for 40 Rupees and did engine oil top up because we felt little oil top up is required & nothing wrong in top up & drive it until we give it for full restore. Also we were noting down all issues related to its performance/handling, we made a note of the issues and few observations .

1) Jeep Back body was making so much noise because of one broken seat leg and because of few nut/bolts, it was easy to repair however we wanted to give it for complete denting work, so we didn;t plan to fix the rattling issue right away.

2) Braking , braking was really horrible, we hardly felt like it has any break, however we could able to stop it because of its sluggishness, jeep used to slow down automatically like a lazy bull whenever we take out feet from accelerator, however despite it doesn't have proper breaks I still tried to drive it around & tried to climb a rocky hill and was able to climb that small hill very easily with out facing any issues,its power was amazing.

3) Radiator was leaking a bit , may be it was due to our rough handling, however local mechanic said that radiator water assembly is gone bad and it may cost around 700/- .. we planned to manage it by making sure radiator is always filled with water and we ensured that we never drive it without checking water level( this is very imp otherwise Jeep engine will overheat and it may cause permanent damage to engine)
4) Back tires were almost end of their life, they never gave any trouble and took all the abuse for three months, however one of the back Tyre got puncture the exact day before we sent jeep to garage and tube costed me around (270/-), i knw new tube was not required, but since I have to travel 160Km back to hyderabad to leave my jeep at garage I changed the tube for that one time journey :(

Here is the pics of jeep from my native.

Story continues ....

After three months of restore/modifications it transformed as ...

Hope you liked it, am simply loving it :)