Cool Jeeps You Can't Have - Mahindra of India

[jscherb]

I’d love an aftermarket top like that for the JKU. (I mean a better one than the Smittybilt one.)

Delete the Alpine windows from the roof of the hardtop on my JKU and it's pretty close although my roof is a bit lower than the Mahindra (I needed my Jeep to fit in the garage with the roof rack on so I made the roof this height)...

 

[billiebob]

i really like the tummytuck...

 

[GlennA]

Perhaps importing some of the older ones is an option. Similar to the Japanese gray market vehicles that are showing up now.

 

[jscherb]

Perhaps importing some of the older ones is an option. Similar to the Japanese gray market vehicles that are showing up now.

I've been considering importing a Mahindra Savari for some time now. My plan would be to import just the body, and once in the U.S. I would put the body on a lengthened LJ frame, that way it would be registered as a Jeep and serviceable anywhere in the U.S. with good parts availability. I've talked to people in India about pulling the body off the frame and putting it in a container; they would get to keep everything I don't take as their payment for the work. The cost of a small container from Delhi to New York isn't too bad.

I'll cover the Savari in a lot of detail later in the thread.

 

[bitbckt]

Apropos of the India-America mashup, I’ve thought about putting together a Hindustan Ambassador gasser in the past. What a riot that would be...

Ahem. Back to your regularly-scheduled lowercase “j” jeep content.

 

[quickfarms]

I've been considering importing a Mahindra Savari for some time now. My plan would be to import just the body, and once in the U.S. I would put the body on a lengthened LJ frame, that way it would be registered as a Jeep and serviceable anywhere in the U.S. with good parts availability. I've talked to people in India about pulling the body off the frame and putting it in a container; they would get to keep everything I don't take as their payment for the work. The cost of a small container from Delhi to New York isn't too bad.

I'll cover the Savari in a lot of detail later in the thread.

It would be cheaper to stretch a TJ frame to fit

 

[quickfarms]

these seem like they could be a solid option especially in smaller towns where atv use is already prevalent and the local sheriff doesnt much care about what goes where.

The police don’t have to look the other way if it is legal.

Even CA has provisions to register vehicles for low speed, 25 mph, street use. Years ago I looked into it and found out that a farm plate was even better because it covered all the vehicles I owned

 

[jscherb]

It would be cheaper to stretch a TJ frame to fit

This wouldn't be a project where cost would be a prime concern for me. You can end up at the correct wheelbase for the Savari (114") with one splice in the LJ frame rails. I based my Wrangler pickup on an LJ, by cutting the frame at the back end of the parallel part of the frame rails and splicing the back half of a second LJ frame cut at the front end of the parallel part of the frame you can end up with any wheelbase up to almost 124" (roughly what the WB is on my pickup). If a second LJ frame (damaged in the front) couldn't be found, then TJ frames with two splices could be used with additional rectangular tubing to get to the right length.

This sequence illustrates lengthening the frame for my pickup project:

The finished result:

 

[jscherb]

Some Thar advertisments.

Notice the b-pillar behind the doors - the main hoop of the roll bar is integrated with the body sheet metal and the b-pillar stays in place when the top is removed.

Some aftermarket hardtops have a separate front roof portion which attaches to the b-pillar. The factory soft top is in two pieces, the red Thar above has just the front piece in place.

BTW 16.6 km/l is about 39 mpg.

 

[jscherb]

The MM540 preceded the Thar and was very similar, but fewer creature comforts and somewhat less advanced technically and in fewer trim details.

The opening windshield is nice:

Even though the MM540 came from the factory with a soft top, an option was a solid rear door upper that swings with the tailgate like a barn door. Like the Wrangler, a roll-up rear window was available, but the barn door is so much more convenient, too bad Jeep never made this a Wrangler option.

 

[givemethewillys]

love that opening windshield.... I wonder what the dimensions of it are. It may be able to be adapted to an early cj windshield, if it's even able to be imported to the US.

 

[jscherb]

love that opening windshield.... I wonder what the dimensions of it are. It may be able to be adapted to an early cj windshield, if it's even able to be imported to the US.

I haven't measured the Thar windshield but it may be slightly wider than the TJ/YJ/CJ windshield because of the step-out of the tub at the cowl that I pointed out earlier in the thread. I'd be happy to measure one the next time I'm in India, or if anyone knows someone with a Roxor they could measure it - the Roxor windshield would be the same width as the Thar. Even if it were the same width some modification would be needed to the frame - the TJ windshield frame is very different than the Mahindra frames and different from the YJ/CJ frames.

The windshield on the TJ/YJ/CJ is just a flat piece of laminated safety glass and getting a new piece of glass cut to the proper size for a Wrangler can be done at almost any glass shop, so a fairly simple way to do this would be to alter a Mahindra glass channel to fit in the Wrangler window opening and leave the main Wrangler window frame as-is; the new glass in its modified-to-fit the Wrangler channel could be mounted on Mahindra hardware in the stock Wrangler frame.

A few closer views of the hardware for an opening window...

On the inside you can see the props that hold the glass open:

Mahindra offered opening windshield on earlier models as well, this is a CJ3b I photographed at the Jodhpur Fort in Rajasthan:

And these are inside views of a military Mahindra CJ3b:

The "hinges" are just pieces of steel that flex when the window opens:

This style of hinges is in very common use today for minivan rear vent windows and extended cab pickup windows but the Mahindra's use of that style predates all of them.

About importing parts to the U.S., that's not hard, you just need to find someone in India who will source the parts and ship them to you.

Another way to add this feature to a Wrangler would be to look to the marine market for parts - all the parts you'd need are available for opening windshield on boats. Bending the channel that frames the glass would probably be the only difficult part but props and hinges for those applications are readily available and could be adapted to the flat Wrangler windshields.

None of the any of above applies to the curved windshield Wranglers (JK and JL).

 

[givemethewillys]

I haven't measured the Thar windshield but it may be slightly wider than the TJ/YJ/CJ windshield because of the step-out of the tub at the cowl that I pointed out earlier in the thread. I'd be happy to measure one the next time I'm in India, or if anyone knows someone with a Roxor they could measure it - the Roxor windshield would be the same width as the Thar. Even if it were the same width some modification would be needed to the frame - the TJ windshield frame is very different than the Mahindra frames and different from the YJ/CJ frames.

The windshield on the TJ/YJ/CJ is just a flat piece of laminated safety glass and getting a new piece of glass cut to the proper size for a Wrangler can be done at almost any glass shop, so a fairly simple way to do this would be to alter a Mahindra glass channel to fit in the Wrangler window opening and leave the main Wrangler window frame as-is; the new glass in its modified-to-fit the Wrangler channel could be mounted on Mahindra hardware in the stock Wrangler frame.

A few closer views of the Thar window...

On the inside you can see the props that hold the glass open:

Mahindra offered opening windshield on earlier models as well, this is a CJ3b I photographed at the Jodhpur Fort in Rajasthan:

And these are inside views of a military Mahindra CJ3b:

The "hinges" are just pieces of steel that flex when the window opens:

This style of hinges is in very common use today for minivan rear vent windows and extended cab pickup windows but the Mahindra's use of that style predates all of them.

About importing parts to the U.S., that's not hard, you just need to find someone in India who will source the parts and ship them to you.

Another way to add this feature to a Wrangler would be to look to the marine market for parts - all the parts you'd need are available for opening windshield on boats. Bending the channel that frames the glass would probably be the only difficult part but props and hinges for those applications are readily available and could be adapted to the flat Wrangler windshields.

None of the any of above applies to the curved windshield Wranglers (JK and JL).

Thanks for posting the pictures of the thar windshield! It looks really similar in size to that of an intermediate cj5. The challenge that us early CJ guys are having is that the H channel for the original ventilating windshield is unavailable and impossible to replicate (mostly on the bends) without some serious equipment that nobody has.

I'm intrigued by this possibility. I have never actually seen it done for real, but it was my understanding that the early cj5 windshield was a bolt-on swap into the roxor. I may have to find someone to ship one from India!

 

[Zeep]

Hmmmm. Possibly a preview of your next project Jeff?


Just Kidding!

 

[jscherb]

Hmmmm. Possibly a preview of your next project Jeff?


Just Kidding!

I am in India a lot so I could round up the necessary Mahindra parts for the project, but I don't feel the need for this on either of my flat windshield Jeeps, I've got lots of other ideas I'll be working on.