Maruti 800 from Poland ;)


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I bought Maruti in 2010 by chance. I sold my old Ford Escort and I was looking for small, cheap car with LPG onboard (my work is 35km from home, that’s why LPG was needed). I found Maruti in advertisement on Internet, went to look at and bought despite of fact that was much affected by corrosion. I thought that I drive it about one year and sell to a scrap-yard. But year passed and I didn’t want to sell it already 
Decision – quick renovation. I drove Maruti to my brother-in-law 420km far from home and leave it him to welding and painting. He’s professional welder and has quite big garage, I arrived sometimes and was doing some mechanical things (suspension, brakes, wheel bearings etc.)
Important thing – Maruti 800 in Poland is rare car, it had some popularity in ‘90s (Suzuki imported some cars to Poland and it was named no Maruti 800, but just „Suzuki Maruti”) - now it's hard to find any. Therefore all job with body/chassis was totally hand-made work – you can’t get any elements of body (unless from scrap-yard), mechanical parts – better thing, but forget about original Maruti parts – parts you can get are cheap and short-lived or good but very expensive. And there are some parts you can’t get anyway – for example 53701M84010 STRUT ASSY, PARKING SHOE RH – it was available few years ago and price was about 70 USD /both sides, but now – no way. (I write prices in US dollars, because I’m not sure my currency calculator). Fortunately some parts fit or almost fit from Daewoo Tico – quite popular car in Poland.
About my Maruti – ’94, carburaetor, original wheels were bent so I changed them from Daihatsu Cuore (i think so), 190kkm, engine was changed (the same type, I’ll write something later about it)
Plans for the future I’ll describe next time – it was challenge for me to write so many sentences . I hope you’ll understand something.
Some pictures:
before renovation
1.JPG
2.jpg
3.jpg
4.jpg

during renovation
5.jpg
6.jpg

after renovation
7.jpg
8.jpg
 
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Lovely, heart warming effort Michal[clap]!!

Thats a lovely little red car - the first left hand drive 800 that I have seen. Good to see you putting efforts to keep it running. I too have a 1994 model 800 which was our first car - 1.8 lakh km on the odo and still going strong. 800 spare parts are freely available in India and at very reasonable prices too. Perhaps you could get the spares required by you shipped from here.

Whats the brand of tyres on your 800 and how does the car perform during the cold, snowy Polish months? Oh, and whats the kilometre/miles reading on the odo? Not sure if Poland follows the British/metric system but I could see the speedo calibrated in Km/h.

Oh, and nie martw się; your English is good enough. Musze ćwiczyc moj polski:biggrin:.

Post more on the Forum. Powodzenia[thumbswink]

Regards,
Sam
 
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Great Effort Michal and thanks for taking the time and posting it on our forum, lot of M800 enthusiasts here and you never know you might find someone here who can help you source parts!

Please tell us more about the car the goods/bads and your motivation behind the purchase.
 
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@michalgrem, Welcome to TAI.

Indeed Maruti exported few LHD cars to Europe. I have seen in Belgium too. You can also find Alto (Zen MH410) and Alto (Indian Alto), but I guess those were produced by Suzuki Hungary.

Coming to your car, it has been restored well. As Sam mentioned parts are easily available in India and you can get them from here if required.
 
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Welcome on board michalgrem.
nice to see you restoring your M800 well.Many owners you would find here owning and enjoying their ownership with this car.
Where is the rear wiper after the restoration?
 
Thread Starter #6
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I see my thread was moved, I couldn't find it :)

Anyway...
Sam Dinkar – great knowledge of Polish :D
The tyres are our Polish product – Debica Passio size 135/80/12. They are M&S type. On the pictures Maruti has old tyres, I’ve change them recently.
Our winters are not so raw (mostly 0 to -15 Celsius degrees in January/February, today we’ve got 2 degrees above zero), so I haven’t got problems with car, rather with LPG.
We’ve got metric system so everything is calibrated in km/h.
Rear wiper came off - I don't worry about it, because wiper's engine is out of order so I don't use rear wiper :)
About spare parts – I thought that I find shop in India, which can send packages abroad, but I couldn’t find anything (and I can’t imagine how much costs to send abroad).
And about quality of restoration – hmmm, could be better, but we did it in a little hurry, so some things I need to correct. (some places should be painted one more time, chassis is poorly prevented from rust etc.). Some NEW mechanical parts should be replaced also (or I’ve replaced them already)
Maruti goods/bads –I have Citroen Xsara yet as „family car”, so there is no comparison with Maruti :) but… I just like this small, smart car which I can repair myself, without plenty of electronic things. One thing I necessarily must change is ignition (I have to do electronic ignition).
 
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Wonderful to see a Maruti 800, that too a left hand drive. First one that I am seeing.

What are the speed limits in the town/highways you drive. Does the car perform up to the expectations if you drive it on high speeds?
 
Thread Starter #8
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Speed limits:
town - 50km/h
local road - 90km/h
highway - 140km/h

High speeds are not good choice for Maruti 800 in my opinion :) so I try not to exceed 90km/h.
 
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Greetings michal! Lovely to see your car here and to know you ride this little beauty to work daily. I'm sure if you come to any problem regarding your car, members and 800 experts here, would be ready to help you. Good going with the restoration. [cheers]
 
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Hi michalgrem, welcome to TAI and also the 800 club !!

Your car looks great and also has all the missing features from the Indian version.
Does the car come with 135/80 size tires car too small. Here the stock size is 145/70.

By the pic's I can see the alternator is bigger than the one provided with our cars.
Do post the pic's of the engine bay.

Please update the thread regularly.
 
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Hi Michal, welcome to TAI!

First time I saw a M800 LHD!

Few questions:
In one of the pics, the fuel tank and doors were removed, any issues with the tank?
Is the rear wiper+washer thing OEM? or was it a modification you did?
Since your car has 135Rxx tyres, how is the road grip? any plans to upgrade the width?

Please upload engine bay pics too. Your english is really good.

If you browse through the forum, you will find a lot of M800 enthusiasts here, informative threads and also restorations. All the best.
 
Thread Starter #12
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engine bay (I have only this picture now)
9.jpg

fuel tank has some rust and we have to remove it. Fuel pipe is strange [;)] because it's sink pipe [surprise] (I bought with this modification already)
12.JPG
short after renovation I had to change the engine. I remove it on the street, neighbours probably think that I'm crazy [:D]
10.jpg

The tyres 135/80/12 - it's not original size, yes, I explain - in Poland we had very popular car, Fiat 126 and we have a lot of Dawoo Tico, both cars have 135/80/12 size. Tyres are much cheaper than 145/70/12 and easier to find. Road grip - I have no comparison with original tyres but I can't complain.
Rear wiper is original equipment of my Maruti.

Thanks for all comments.
 
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Hi Michalgrem,
Surprised to see a left hand drive Maruti 800!Appreciate your efforts to keep it running.If you need some spares do let me know.Shall try to get it for you.
Regards,
Aneesh.
 
Thread Starter #15
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Varun560061 -> Your Marutis have different suspension? [surprise]
Booster - from what car will fit?

Is there any www site, where can I check prices of parts online?
 

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