Hi,I have been lurking in for some time here, but I thought it was about time to put my project here, a Mahindra Jeep.
I came across this when looking for a Willys MB jeep, which are by all accounts are very expensive, and not very user friendly, doing 40-50 MPH on a good day
The general advice for these is not to enter a motorway which makes sense, but if I am going to get one of these, I want it to be able to get along with normal traffic. Which is 70 MPH in the UK and ideally a bit in reserve as well, say 80.
So then my mind goes into modifying ideas, but the problem is that this devalues the car, which just does not make sense to me if you spend a lot of money in the first place.
Like most iconic cars, people had a go at imitating it, most notably the Jago Jeep, based on an escort MK2. Many people have done home grown replicas, usually based on suzuki chassis.
Neither of these interested me much, as it is just too far away from the real thing. There is, for us in the Uk an alternative though: the Mahindra Jeep.
So what is it?
They were sold in the UK between 1990 and 1995. They were license build Willys jeeps, build in India with the blessing of Jeep. Their spec is based on the Willys CJ3B Jeep, which is the latest and greatest Willys jeep ever build; They have a 4 speed gear box (as opposed to 3 speed of the original Willys), hanging pedals with a brake booster, a Peugeot Diesel engine, A dana 44 rear axle (very strong) and a chassis made out of thicker material.
They seem to be out of favour as they were withdrawn from the UK market due to quality problems with many warranty claims and a following dispute between the importer and mahindra over who was going to settle the bill. Problem is of course that if you try to sell a car 50 years after it was originally was designed, you will have to deal with different expectations.
I suppose it didn't help that Top Gear did a feature on the worst car ever made, and guess which car came out on top; Indeed, it was the Mahindra.
Anyway, That sounded like a recommendation (what do they know anyway).
I decided it is worth looking into. The rolling chassis is basically identical to the MB, so a replica MB body bolts straight on. The only real difference is it being RHD, and there is no such thing as a RHD Willys MB. So a bit of modding will be required in this area.
It is also possible to lower the bonnet and bulkhead and replace the wings, grille and screen to make it look like an MB.
Anyway, A mahindra it is, and this is what I bought:
From 1990, with a V5 on diesel and a body falling apart from rust holes, it was ideal for what I want with it. And it was very cheap. Engine did run, but the clutch was seized solid. 50K miles on the clock, these things don't travel far, as they aren't very quick.
with a bit of work I dismantled it into this:
Into this:
Attention so far has mainly been on the chassis. There is a strip spot welded to the bottom of the chassis rail, and this formed some rust sandwich of about 5mm think in places.
I removed the strip, by drilling off all the spotwelds. This also meant all the spring hangers had to be removed. This means drilling off 2 rivets and grind through 2 welds.
After all this, I replaced the rear crossmember and front bumper for willys MB items:
In jeep world, replacing a cross member means drilling of the rivets, and bolt on a new one, which costs £50.
So this is where I am now, plan is to fit PAS, discs, overdrive and more engine under the bonnet, topped of with a willys MB body, to become my modern day classic car.
Thanks for reading,
Daan
that said I am all up for more modern running gear under the proper looking body 
