There were a lot of Chinese and old Figo/Ikon/Fiesta alloys available, but I wanted the original Indica turbo style wheels.
BHPian greenhorn recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Finally I get to post my own alloys in this group. And it’s more sweet because a lot of hard work has gone into it. I have always wanted a set of alloys for my Indica, but it’s never happened. I came dangerously close to getting one in 2010 when BHPian Nikhil offered me a sweet deal on some aura alloys. I was about to seal the deal when fate took my life in a different direction, and I had to focus on other things.
For a while the lack of alloys hadn’t bothered me, but recently after seeing alloys on virtually every car, I felt I wanted to close the gap. There were a lot of Chinese and old Figo/Ikon/Fiesta alloys available, but I wanted the original Indica turbo style wheels:
Got lucky to see a set of 5 posted on FB classifieds. The alloys as posted on FB classifieds:
Went there to check it out, This was a 1 hour drive from my home. An indigo GLX was getting scrapped, and these were the wheels on that car. I had the wheels checked on an wheel balancing machine for bends – there were none. was also worried that they may not hold air, but they were already running tubeless tires with tubeless nozzles attached.
After a wash. The rims were too damaged, but these are very well made Hindalco/Aura alloys – much better than the Chinese stuff you get today. Decided to get them redone:
Pain stripper aplication in process:
Paint stripper in action:
Lots of corrosion underneath:
Wheels after sanding:
Primered:
Painted:
Finally installed, with new center caps from boodmo:
Yes they look very generic and silver – I could have had them done in any colour, but I wanted the stock look, so here we are !
Keyword: How I found and restored an OE set of alloy wheels for my Tata Indica