Toyota Qualis (2000): Ownership & Restoration

Ambylovers · 5th October 2015, 04:53 PM

Hi all,
Its good to start a fresh restoration work on my Toyota Qualis which i bought last year. Its a Single owner 2000 model Car, registered in my home town.

This is the First Qualis car i driven and owned. I heard lot about Qualis earlier that its a very good car with good long term reliability car. Some of my relatives were also owning and gave a very positive reviews about its engine and maintenance cost.

Last Year, from August we were searching for a Qualis car to my Friend. Saw many good Qualis cars in the market, but the owners were above 4 and the current owner were not interested in transferring the ownership. So we are not sure how many of them owned without transferring it. Adding to this, Qualis is having old model Clusters (Meter) which can be reset to whatever kilometers we want. The service records were not clear too.

So one very fine day on October 2014, we saw an AD in olx about a Single owner qualis with just around 110000 kms. Since Qualis were in a good demand still, we dont want to waste time and
immediately called the owner and confirmed the time to see the car.
Evening my friend and myself were promptly there at the given address to see the car.Owner of the car greeted us and took us to see the car.

First Look :
Car has been dusted and its not cleaned too. That showed us owner was not interested in maintaining the car. The space the car was parked can only suit to hatchbacks, Even Sedan will be difficult to park.
I was wondering how the car was parked in such a cramped space. Meanwhile we start our analysis of exteriors.

Back Door glass and Front door glass outer's were rusted,
Bonnet have many dents,
Third row outer have dents on both sides. (That happened while parking the car),
Rear Door had many cracks,
Top of the car too have some Dents (Due to this small Parking space),
Opened the Bonnet and saw the Battery was hanging in the wires. Stand was 75% rusted due to some Acid spill.
Front Bumper have many dents.

Interiors :
Its a 10 seater car, still having the same Toyota OE seats and Covers including Door Pads.
All the door glasses were rattling.
Dashboard has many scratches and have some old type steering cover,
Steering horn cover was in a very bad shape
Upholstery was neat.

Seeing all this my friend was thinking something, meanwhile Owner came up with the Keys. I got it and started the engine,and it made me smile a bit. It was smooth and it impressed me a lot. I requested owner to get the car outside for a small test drive which he agreed and took the car out of the tough parking lot.

I test ride it and found its good to drive with nice gear shifts and ease to drive in the city traffic. Since i reworked the Ambassador body, I don't think its that very hard to rework Qualis. I called my new Tinker and got the approximate quotation too. Informed all the observations to my friend
and he was 50:50 mood to accept my observations.
So we negotiated hard with the Owner and finalized the deal after seeing all the documents including service records. Gave an non refundable advance of 10000 INR and informed that we will take delivery the next day.

Actually they have not keen to maintain the exteriors and interiors. But under body parts including Tyre's are all taken car. In the last five years they have replaced/repaired the under parts and everything showed well in the test drive.

More than my friend, I was really very impressed with Engine. After getting the car, I told him to drive for some time and if he had any plans to sell the car in future,
i planned to get that since i don't have that much money at that point of time.

Big Twist :
Next day morning my friend called me and told that he was not interested in buying and planned to get the advance back. He got his mind changed with some of his nearby neighbors.
I replied him that if you are not interested, its fine. But it will be not good to get the advance back. But my friend was not easy to leave 10000 INR to go.

Seller called me up and told that my friend was requesting to give back the 10000 INR back and also informed me its not really good to see the deal goes like this.I called my friend again and told its not fair to get the advance if you are not interested, but still he was not in acceptable state. I always keep my words and don't want to end like this.Owner again called me and told that he will return the advance to my friend. I told him not to do that and hold for a day.

Since i was very impressed on the car, i don't want to miss that. Suddenly i thought why not we buy this car and drive for some time and sell it after 5 or 6 months.I told my plans to my parents and wife about the same. As usual they disagreed since its not easy to maintain 4 cars if we buy qualis. Somehow i convince them that i am going to sell it after some time. On seeing my interest they agreed and helped me to get the car with their money.

So called up the owner and told that i will take that car. By Gods grace we got the delivery of the car in the same month. From then till now it was fantastic driving this car around Tamilnadu and Karnataka. I believe in God always and as usual he gave a good machinery car.

My relative was having a Qualis Koyas seats (2 bucket seats, 2 baby seats and one 3 member seat). Replaced front and third row seats and kept the middle row as it is.
With in 20 days after buying the car, i got an offer of 35000 INR more than on what i bought. I replied to give me a week time to think about it which he agreed immediately.
After a month, By Gods Grace we got some good things happening around us and finally decided to keep the car with us itself.

Work done so far :
Replaced interiors Seats.
Replaced all belts along with outer sealed bearings.
Wheel alignment done.
Brake pads changed.

Till now drive around 14000 kms and i was very happy with the car and planned to start the restoration work by this week. Even now the car is is running state only and
using it daily.Since FC date was nearing i planned for this restoration.

Note : Images will be followed soon as like my Ambassador thread.

TSIVipul · 5th October 2015, 05:13 PM

Glued!!
Qualis was a super reliable machine which laid the foundation stone of Toyota in India and looking at one getting restored will be awesome.

BTW 1,10,000 kilometres is nothing for even a moderately maintained Qualis, I have seen the cars with over 4 lac on odo when maintained well. awaiting the pics and updates

Ambylovers · 5th October 2015, 05:20 PM

Thanks TSIVipul.
Yes you are right, Lot of qualis has crossed 400000 kms mark. Surely will add more images to this post .

vijay · 5th October 2015, 05:26 PM

Glued to this thread, qualis as what vipul said we can see many of them on roads crossing 4L mark and still going on strong.
Surely the pictures would be as great as your amby restoration process was shared.Looking forward to see them.
Congratulations on buying this machine and good wishes on your restoration process.

Ambylovers · 5th October 2015, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vijay

Glued to this thread, qualis as what vipul said we can see many of them on roads crossing 4L mark and still going on strong.
Surely the pictures would be as great as your amby restoration process was shared.Looking forward to see them.
Congratulations on buying this machine and good wishes on your restoration process.

Thanks Vijay.
Interest from our forum members are really supportive throughout my previous restoration which will be for sure will there for this Restoration work too.

AppU · 5th October 2015, 07:25 PM

Congrats for Qualis

Waiting for the Pics eagerly

smooth rider · 5th October 2015, 08:23 PM

ambylovers congrats on your buying the qualis. its a very comfortable vehicle. i had driven one for nearly a thousand kilometre trip to wayanad. never felt tired driving it. do post some snaps of your vehicle.you buying the vehicle even though you didn't need it shows your love for vehicles. a true TAI ian you are.

TSIVipul · 5th October 2015, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smooth rider

ambylovers congrats on your buying the qualis. its a very comfortable vehicle. i had driven one for nearly a thousand kilometre trip to wayanad. never felt tired driving it. do post some snaps of your vehicle.you buying the vehicle even though you didn't need it shows your love for vehicles. a true TAI ian you are.

Saarji a Bolero driver will feel anything comfortable only.

If you can drive a Bolero to Leh, then I can expect you to find anything comfortable and the likes of your Vento, Innova etc as luxury.

smooth rider · 5th October 2015, 08:49 PM

TSIvipul i never felt tired driving any vehicle for that matter, but my bolero storm was super comfortable during my leh trip as it was heavily loaded, its steering was super smooth and the tyres were brand new yokos.

incarnation · 5th October 2015, 09:07 PM

Congratulations on the purchase Ambylovers. qualis is one car which can much miles with ease. its reliable and proven tried and tested companion. i have seen Qualis which are maintained well after 10+ years they have served thier keepers well. without major hiccups.

where are the Pics i can only see the matter but not the pic please post some pics.

Subscribed to this thread already.

rakeshkn · 6th October 2015, 10:08 AM

Congrats for the Qualis., Awaiting some pics and restorations.

Subscribed to this thread

Ambylovers · 6th October 2015, 02:53 PM

Thanks a lot aPPU, smooth rider , incarnation , rakeshkn for your hearty comments.

I have not seen any Qualis Restoration thread in our forum. Even i other forums too, i could not able to see a thread for Qualis restoration. So i planned to keep it bit detailed which may help many members.

@incarnation - Surely will post images what i have today. Tomorrow i will update many more.

Ambylovers · 6th October 2015, 03:29 PM

Hi Guys,
Attaching some of the images taken at the time of purchase. Tomorrow i will remove the fittings and post some more images with detailed points which may help some members in future.

Except last two images, Remaining all taken when we saw the Car for first time.

Iron Rock · 6th October 2015, 04:03 PM

Super thread, waiting for images!
a 110K run qualis has barely run-in - mechanically this is as bullet proof as it gets.

Just take a lot of care on the rusting aspects and make sure in the restoration they dont return back. Again i am waiting for the pictures.

Edit : Just saw pictures, a big thumbs up!

Ambylovers · 6th October 2015, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iron Rock

Super thread, waiting for images!
a 110K run qualis has barely run-in - mechanically this is as bullet proof as it gets.

Just take a lot of care on the rusting aspects and make sure in the restoration they dont return back. Again i am waiting for the pictures.

Edit : Just saw pictures, a big thumbs up!

Thanks Iron_Rock.
Me too thinking to put the running boards in Non rusting piece Brass (Tamil - Pithalai). I am not sure about the cost of that. Once they came up with the price, then i will plan accordingly.