Youtuber Shows Off His Beautifully Restored Hindustan Ambassador [Video]
India loved the Ambassador, and it still does! We still get to see a lot of modified or resto-modded Ambassadors around, but finding a tastefully restored one is tough. In a recent video shared on ‘That Car Guy’, the host gives us a detailed tour of his beautifully restored Hindustan Ambassador. It took him 1.5 years to get the car into the near-ready form that it is in today.
In the video, he talks about the labour and pain that have gone into the restoration process. The donor car was White, and the YouTuber transformed it into a Classy Black Ambassador that stays true to the original form. The car now gets a clean paint job and the grille, headlamp surrounds and bumpers have been re-Chromed.
The wheels are painted in Satin Silver. Thankfully, the owner hasn’t gone for fancy (read ugly) alloy wheels or oversized tyres. To boost the aesthetics further, Sidharth (the host) has added new Chrome wheel caps as well. The tyres are fresh 185/65 R15 units.
The entire lighting has been replaced. It now has new headlamps, indicators, tail lamps, and even a new set of powerful LED fog lamps. The stock headlamps on the Ambassador weren’t too powerful. Back in its day, the roads were not crowded and almost all vehicles had comparable levels of illumination. It was thus OK to have these.
But if we are to use this car today, a headlamp upgrade is necessory- one that could spoil the classic appeal of the car. The host here has found a harmless solution by installing small LED lamps, which donot interfere with the aesthetics at large even while staying functional.
You can also see new door- handles, door chrome surrounds, windshield rubbers, ORVMs, multiple Chrome embellishments, hood latches, gas caps, badges and number plate light holder. The tail lamps are sourced from the Ambassador Grande. The exterior has been done so well that the car now looks majestic.
The interior gets a dark Burgundy Red colourway with faux leather upholstery. The door pads get diamond stitch patterns on them. The front seats have been sourced from a first-gen Honda CRV, and thus come with a collapsible tray table/ cup holders. Fitting these into the Ambassador took much effort, as custom brackets and mounts needed to be made for the same. Most of the other things inside are kept true to stock. The headliner, sun visors, steering wheel, instrument cluster, air-con vents and AC.
This car came with air conditioning from the factory, and the same has been restored to a fully functional form. The owner has also fitted it with an Amazon-sourced music system, JBL speakers, and even a tiny analogue clock! It even has the factory key and can be cited as an example for a very original Ambassador that’s being well-kept.
Talking of the powertrain, this car has a diesel manual powertrain, with floor-mounted shifter (conventional gearbox setup). It gets a 2.0L Isuzu diesel engine mated to a 5-speed transmission. This engine-gearbox combination was in high demand among Ambassador owners back in the day.
The host says the car was in bad shape when he first acquired it. He had to invest a lot of time and energy into getting the mechanicals right. He did not tweak the engine much, nor did he replace stock parts with aftermarket ones. Instead he got the engine stripped, serviced and machined into a new-like form. To give it a better cooling, a Force-traveller-sourced fan is being used.
This guy deserves huge appreciation for restoring the Ambassador- a piece of Indian automotive history- into a period-correct shape and form. This car is definitely a looker.