Toyota Echo Hatchback (Vitz) 2001 Story | Restoration | DIY's

[humayun.chughtai.7]

2016

The love story started in 2016, when I got this UK or Australian model (I am not sure) Toyota Echo 2001 similar to JDM Vitz 1st generation. It came with 2nzfe 4 speed AT from factory hence driving pleasure is very good as compared to 1.0 Vitz.
The car has many optional features, that a JDM Vitz lack e.g.
- Stock Leather seats
- Immobilizer
- Rear reclining & sliding seat
- RPM in the cluster
- Speakers in front doors
- A clock which displays outside temperature, average speed, and fuel consumption in both KMPL & MPG.
- Turn signal & Wiper switch assembly were on the opposite side in this car, later I got the JDM one for the right-hand side.

This car was cleared via Amnesty Scheme back in 2013 by my father's friend, a very dearest uncle of mine. He kept it with great care for 3 years though the mechanical condition was a little bad when I got it in 2016. Got done all the mechanical work required i.e. suspension overhaul, bearings, AC work, bodywork i.e. lights & bumpers etc.
The car came with very high mileage but was rust-free with clean chassis.

Here are some pics from 2016, after getting all the due maintenance done. The car had a very prominent British Green type metallic colour, which is very pearly, attractive & appealing when clean, I actually loved this colour.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

2018

During my ownership, I got many little upgrades like
- OEM front bucket seats that came in vitz RS version
- Rear tinted door glass
- Retractable mirrors (yes the car wasn't equipped with them from factory)
- A decent Kenwood head unit (not the Chinese copy)
- OEM arm rest/centre console box
and many little things which I don't remember now as its been 5 years.

Then comes march 2018, I was very happy with the ride & never gave a thought of letting it go but the dear uncle from whom I got this, requested my dad to give it back as he was not happy with his newly bought Cultus 17.
All in all, with my not so happy face, I handed the keys & documents to the dear uncle, but with a promise that he will again give it to me, whenever he will sell it.

This is when she was leaving me, behind it, the white civic is what I got as my upgrade back then. This is 2004 JDM civic hybrid 1.3

In these 2 years, I added 30k kilometres to the clock.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

2020

Fast-forward to September 2020, according to the promise, I again got the same ride back from the dear uncle & this time it was pretty messed up, body was full of little scratches, dings & dents. The headlights were in horrible shape. Engine wiring was messed up.
Uncle g got its complete engine among the gearbox replaced a year back. The power train failed when he was riding on the motorway on his way back from Karachi & the gear oil cooler leaked upon him, which caused gear oil to mix with coolant resulting in frying up the gearbox, which ultimately stuck in 1st gear. And due to strict Covid-19 lockdown, no workshop was able to help him in Sukkur as well as no carriage option was available, so he was left with only one option i.e. drive the car with dead transmission stuck in 1st gear with RPMs around the redline @ 50 km/h all the way from Sukkur till Peshawar, with frequent stopovers. This resulted in crank or rod noise from the high mileage engine, which is why he decided to completely swap the power train. Luckily the engine didn't seize on the way & he reached home safe & sound.

I never thought of documenting this restoration, so didn't take any BEFORE pics.
A horrible big scratch at the rear left door, there were similar scratches on the fender & bonnet as well.

Such scratches were the deciding factor for me to respray the whole car.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

The day I got her, we landed at the workshop, got all the fluids replaced & necessary maintenance work done.

Previously, hard local rear springs were replaced by uncle for better ground clearance & there was a rubber tube in place of rubber cushions or dampers, got everything done properly.

There was a knocking type sound coming from the engine, upon revving at idle. Initially it felt like the noise is coming from engine internals, however my mechanic diagnosed that the noise is from intake manifold & he was correct, we replaced the manifold & noise vanished.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

During the intake manifold replacement, I asked the mechanic to open the VVTI filter & clean it, just for the sake of mind.

Here is its location for your convenience.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

Inspected fuel filter & it was fully choked, so replaced it.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

Set of freshly restored & smoked headlights, replaced the lenses & they are as good as new.

Installed the headlights & notice the encircled scratch & dent.

[aziz.rehan]

In Sha Allah ️.U will restore it nicely just like corolla.
Btw how many vehicles do u own?

[Hassan1991]

MASHALLAH nice one.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

I personally own these two i.e. corolla & vitz, however we also have swift, city & corolla 18 in the house. Alhamdolillah.

And this project has been done since January 2021. I am posting it here now as I have nothing else to do in these boring Eid holidays.

[aziz.rehan]

Ma Sha Allah ️.May Allah give u more.

[aziz.rehan]

U use this wax.right?Is the price ok.I want to buy for corolla.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

yup I use this. Plz note that it is very hard to take off this wax, so apply a very thin coat & then buff of within a minute or two. It is a pain to take in off, if it dries on the panel.
Price is fine as well.
i noticed that some people intentionally dry the wax applied by parking the car over sunlight. This is a wrong practice. So, be careful.

[aziz.rehan]

Ok bro thanks.Is the result good after waxing?And u bought it locally?

[humayun.chughtai.7]

Its time to prepare the car for paint shop.
For the love of DIY, I removed all the Trims, Bumpers, Shields, Side Skirts, Door mouldings/golay, Air press, Antenna, Roof rubber strips, Badges, Lights, Wipers & its trims, Door handles, Door rubbers & every single thing myself.
Here are some clicks

Ignore my old general window AC.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

Took some clicks with reference of a measuring tape, so that I could re-locate the Badges exactly at the time of re-installation. This trick really helped alot.

Rear seats, spare wheel & all other accessories removed from trunk as well.

[mehran]

Very interesting restoration narrative. I think it's a UK spec car especially as the indicator and wiper stalks were on the opposite side and speedometer showed speed in miles too. UK spec cars usually have such arrangements. Please continue the posts.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

Jazak Allah for your interest. Btw speed & odo reading is in kilometres not in miles. But the cluster has option, we can change it to miles as well. So you might be right about it being a UK version. However, in UK, it never came under ECHO badge, those were all Yaris'es.

Can't say anything about its origin, its mysterious.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

I strictly instructed the painter to sand down the whole car properly as I want the use of filler/putty to be minimum. And he used filler at some spots, which were beyond repair with sanding only. Rest all the finish is putty free, so you might notice some dings in below pics.
Please bear with those as I really hate the wavy reflection on panels, which are prepared using fillers, that is the only reason for not using filler. We even left some minor dings/dents as it is, instead of using filler.

Sanding Process

Sanding & filler work done

[humayun.chughtai.7]

First coat of primer applied.
Note that I purchased complete set of NEXA i.e. Primer, Base coat & Clear coat myself & agreed with the painter to give him labour charges only, as i provided all the paint material, sandpapers, masking tapes etc. Just to make sure that quality must not be compromised.