After spending a considerable amount of time restoring my car, I’ve realized that patience is crucial in any restoration project, and you must be willing to get involved to see real progress.
I have been the proud owner of a 1995 Contessa for the past 12 years, and it has never let me down. Its engine starts perfectly every time, which is quite a relief. In 2016, I moved to Germany for work, and I left the car at my parents’ house. My father would occasionally start it and move it around, but not much driving happened since it doesn’t have power steering, which made it tough for him to handle.
When I visited home for holidays, I’d take it for a spin. Here are a few pictures of how my Contessa looked back then.
Living in a coastal area, I noticed that the salty air caused rust to develop on the body of the car. In just a couple of years, rust patches appeared, but surprisingly, the engine still ran perfectly. In 2022, when I returned to India for good, I decided it was time for a makeover. I wanted to change its color from white, and the interiors needed a complete overhaul because the original seats had become moldy and worn. My 10-year-old daughter loves this car, and whenever I thought about selling it, she insisted that we keep it.
I started looking for car restoration services in Udupi (Karnataka), but not many people were interested in taking on a project like this due to the time it required and uncertainty around available parts. Eventually, I found Santhosh, who owns a workshop named Good Gear. He agreed to restore the car and estimated that the work would take between six months to a year, but it ended up being close to two years. I made it clear that I wanted to preserve the car’s original condition without any modifications.
Once the assessment was done, we listed the main tasks needed for the car’s restoration. The body required extensive work, including rust removal, tinkering, and repainting. The interiors, along with the roof cushion, needed replacement, and we decided to redo the wiring. The headlights and other lamps had to be changed, the air conditioner serviced, and the carburetor cleaned. There was also a leak in the fuel tank that needed fixing, along with replacing the fuel level indicator. New tires were needed as well, since the original size (175/70R13) isn’t common nowadays.
Fortunately, the engine and gearbox were still in excellent shape, allowing us to drive the car to the workshop. Work soon commenced, but choosing a new color proved to be a bit challenging. I wanted something understated, similar to a former Vauxhall Victor, finally settling on a Metallic Blue. My wife preferred white, and my daughter loved maroon. After looking through various photos and reviews, we agreed on the poolside blue, which closely resembled a color from the New Wagon R.
We sourced new parts from various cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Cochin, and even Germany. The entire restoration took nearly two years.
The process involved a lot of tinkering, painting, and interior work, and the costs were mainly from these tasks, which covered about 70% of the total expenses. Some of the smaller jobs turned out to be really time-consuming, particularly the meticulous work required to install the original brown-tinted curved windscreen, which I was quite anxious about, but the team did an excellent job with it.
After all the hard work, the car was finally ready for a test drive, and I was thrilled with how it handled on the highways. We’ve had no issues in the past six months, and I enjoy the attention we receive when driving around. People often stop to talk about the car.
I also wanted to share a moment with the crew who worked on the restoration. We have developed a good friendship through this journey. What’s most important to me is the lesson I learned: patience is essential in restoration, and getting involved is critical to making sure everything moves forward successfully.