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Nidhi Taparia Rathi
When the first three-wheeled example rolled out of Karl Benz's workshop over a few hundred years ago, little did he think he should manufacture spares in abundance! Today owners of vintage and classic cars will go any length to find the perfect spares to restore their antiques and get them running in perfect working condition.
For the aficionado, the Internet has been a handy tool. Explains VCCCI Chairman Nitin Dossa, "I had been looking for specific tyres for my 1947 Packard for two years. I found it on the Internet within a few minutes on the Packard site. A few emails were exchanged detailing specifications and I got my tyres delivered to me within a few days."
He is not alone. Ashok Shah, who has a collection of 27 cars and 50 motorcycles in Lonavla, near Bombay, has been using the Internet extensively for restoration for the last three years. "I use search engines or post my requirements on HemmingNews, which is a bible for collectors and antique dealers. Often I get a reply within a few days. I had been hunting for tyres for my 1926 Studebacker for two years. I found it via classifieds on the site. But getting them through the customs can sometimes be a task. Currently, I am trying to hunt for molding strips and monograms for a recently purchased Lincoln."
Not only does the Net make life easy for the car owners, it allows them to compare prices online so that the dealers cannot take them for a ride. Vintage car parts available on the Net are of different types - the original box parts, the made to order parts and the copies made in China and Taiwan. Expert restorer Manvinder Singh Barwani has found parts for all kinds of cars online. "Unless it is a rare car or from East Europe, where the factories were burnt in the Second World War, most other car parts are simple to find. Also, if they are rare cars, one has no choice but to buy the part at the price quoted. In fact, there are interchangeable manuals available online, which allow you to use a part used in Car A in Car B and show you how."
Though restoration of cars is a painful job, building a vintage car from scratch is an accomplishment that most car collectors enjoy. Explains Govind Thakker who bought an Alfa Romeo and restored it by himself, "When you resurrect a vintage car and bring it closer to the standard that it once attained, the value of these vehicles increases and they become prized possessions."
Agrees 26-year-old Aniruddh Kasliwal. Among his prized possessions, that he has managed to find online, is power window switches (termed 'rockers' in vintage speak) for his Cadillac and a digital radio for his Packard. "It's a 70:30 risk that one has to take because these parts are just not available in India. Most of us also run background checks with vintage car clubs or with other collectors for their reliability. Another good way to check is to look up the part numbers, which are exclusive to the car made in a particular year. Digital pictures and specifications are available online, which also helps in making life easy. Most vintage car collectors predominantly collect American cars and hence find most parts from the US and UK that are well connected. European countries are not so well connected and also language can pose a problem sometimes."
Most car collectors are even willing to take the risks most other Internet users may not be willing to take -- trusting strangers online. Yuvraj Himanshu Gondal, a Mumbai-based collector says, "Via HemmingNews, I managed to find parts for the 1947 Lincoln that I owned. But the gentleman did not have a bank account where I could wire the money. He wanted my credit card number or to be paid in cash. I wasn't sure whether he was genuine. But all my car collector friends advised me to send him the money because most dealers listed on HemmingNews are considered very reliable. I managed to get all the parts in perfect condition. Another experience was when a $170 molding did not arrive for a month, they actually shipped me a replacement immediately… They assumed that part was lost in transit. When both of them arrived on the same day, they gave me the other one free to compensate for the delay."
Gondal admits that while he has never used the Internet to chat or email, his passion for his cars actually makes him spend hours online looking for the perfect part. He says, "I might be supposed to spend 10 minutes online looking for a part. But once I get hooked, I even look up parts for my friends and their cars… In fact, now that I am so proficient at finding them via the Net, I am even considering taking up restoring cars professionally."
Car collectors, wary of buying on the Net, use the Internet for sourcing information. Explains Pune-based collector Zahir Vakil, "I usually source parts on the Internet and have my brother in Canada pick them up for me. This sorts the payment issues. Also, it gives me a perspective on what is available abroad." Others like Adil Darukhanwala also used a go-between to buy him some special tyres for his 1949 two-seater Topplino from Italy.
Though the Internet can also be misused says Barwani. "Sometimes Indian owners look at the prices available for a model of their car on the Internet and then quote a similar price for their car. Not realising that their car is not in such a good condition as the car shown. This can hike the prices of the cars in the Indian market, when actually they are not valued so highly!"
Barwani also sounds a note of caution, "Indian car collectors are not very knowledgeable about their own cars and sometimes get confused with the vast variety of catalogues available online. Sometimes, they may end up paying a huge sum for a cheap copy that is being mentioned as an original and get fleeced. Usually, I research their parts on the Net and ask my clients to order it."
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