Happy birthday my lovely wife

Enjoying the view of Kuningan

 

Duhai bidadari bertabirkan halimun senja, selamat ulang tahun sayang. Ayah tahu bahwa Ayah tidak pernah memberikan hadiah terbaik untukmu, dan Bunda memang tidak pernah menuntut untuk itu.

You know what, dari perjalanan bersama kita Bunda lebih banyak memberi, dan tidak pernah mengharapkan imbalan apapun. I thank Allah for that for having a caring and giving wife. Having said that you are Allah's gift to my life, Bundalah hadiah terbaik untuk Ayah di dunia fana ini dan semoga berlanjut juga di akhirat nanti.

Semoga di usia Bunda ini semakin bisa bersyukur, bersabar dan memberikan manfaat lebih kepada lebih banyak mahkluk Allah.

Semakin sabar dalam membantu Ayah dalam mendidik anak-anak kita yang luar biasa, semakin tegar dalam mendalami ilmu dan semakin menyayangi keluarga.

Terimakasih untuk dedikasinya, terimakasih untuk pengorbanannya dan terimakasih untuk ketulusannya.

 

Love you Bunda,

 

 

Ayah

Mercedes Benz W123 suspension and interior restoration.

Having all the body works almost completed, I started to tackle the suspension and interior section. As part of the vision in building this car, I replaced most of the fast moving parts of this car. Surprisingly the parts’ price were not too expensive.

Razan my second son was so happy that day :)

At the same time I started to source the original Palomino interior for my car. Typically 1986 W123 came with velour type of interior, but I don’t like this kind of fabric because it is very difficult to maintain and very difficult to remove stain from it, the other thing is when touch to your skin it will make you itchy.

It was quite a challenge to get the full Palomino set, many MB W123 enthusiasts told me that Palomino is one of the most preferred color scheme, that’s why it’s very rare to find.

With the help of good friend of mind Wilfi Thalib and Irwan Dwiputranto, I managed to get two set of Palomino interiors. And Joshua Autoworks helped me in cleaning, repairing and installing it  to my car.

Selecting the best parts!



Cleaning and repairing at Joshua Autoworks

Only best parts are installed



All hands on deck!

Final detail is important!

Balancing and aligning

Details are everything

Polishing the head cover

Pheeew it wasn't easy

Polishing all the chrome parts 1

Polishing all the chrome parts 2

Polishing all the chrome parts 3

Boy, it was a very long and tedious process, thank god all the job is done now, only few things are left; Replacing the exhaust pipe, installing new window film, fixing the air conditioner, and polishing the front side windscreen.

Mercedes Benz W123 86 Engine Restoration

Mercedes W123 Engine Restoration

 

The engine was completely stripped down
 and thoroughly assessed

While being completely dismantled, I started to ask my mechanics to deconstruct the engine. The engine works really fine, and there was this accident when I forgot to left the key inside the car while the engine is running for more than 4 hours, but fortunately the temperature is still normal. And I drove the car multiple times reaching 120 km/hour with no problem.

Changed all the essential parts

Even though there’s no mechanical problems with the engine, with the same principle as the body, I also plan a complete restoration of the engine. I replaced and overhauled most of the parts, and keep all the invoices for my documentation.

As part of my childhood dream, I also replaced the gearbox to automatic, lucky for me the parts is still available.

Here are some of the list of the spare parts that was replaced;

Too many parts!

1.       CDI

2.       Radiator

3.       Piston rings

4.       Oil filter

5.       Air filter

6.       New throttle cable

7.       Fuel pumps/Rotax

8.       New spark plugs

9.       New cables

10.   New fuel filter

11.   New oil filter

Pak Rady is checking all the new parts, the car was on the background

New set of radiator

I also took the engine to the machine shop to have it ported, balanced and polished. When we tested the engine it runs so smooth. Thanks to Pak Rady for the great Job.

The engine was completely overhouled

I also took the engine to the machine shop to have it ported, balanced and polished. When we tested the engine it runs so smooth. Thanks to Pak Rady for the great Job.

The talented mechanic done a great job!

Mercedes Benz W123 Body restoration

Peeling the paint to bare metal

Mercedes Benz W123 is my childhood dream car, I love the design, durability and legend of it. Back in the 90s I was completely stuck with one particular color Maroon Red with Palomino Interior it’s a killer combination. So with this in mind I was targeting to repaint my car in red and change the interior to Palomino.

Some corrosion spot was clearly visible

By assessing the body condition, at first I was planning to just go with re spraying my car without thoroughly peeling the old layers, this is to minimize restoration cost and time. But my friend Dodo managed to convince me that it will good for investment sake to do a bare metal restoration. This is to minimize the risk of having rusted spot being overlook.

It was one of the best decision in this project, Dodo and his team were peeling all the paint back to its bare metal, it was a long and meticulous job, and Dodo was right, there were many little spots already rusted and easier for the team to remove it from the body shell. Yes it needs an experience hands and eyes to do the welding job, luckily one of Dodo’s team is really good so we managed to keep the original curves and lines of this car.

While we were doing the deconstruction, we also pull out the interiors, engine and suspension system.

 

Really looong process!

This was a long and frustrating process, since your car was exposed and I realized that I had to tackle this tons of jobs.

Priming started after welding process is done

Despite all the troubles, it’s really worth the effort!

 

Solid right trunk platform

Left trunk



Priming and checking the original lines and corrosion spot

First layer of the paint

Engine hood and trunk were separately painted

Sanding off

Engine bay

Started to shine

Rear end

Rust free body

Mercedes Benz W123 280E 1986 restoration

The first time when I saw this car in my best friend's house

I never thought that it will take such a great effort to restore this car. Firstly because based on my research, parts availability is abundance and secondly my car condition was really intact, the first owner is protecting the car with anti rust treatment.




Straight body, thanks to Ziebart antirust formula

 

]But it turned out that I had to take an epic journey (seriously) to get it done. One of the reasons is because there was no project manager assigned to supervise the whole restoration process. So I have to juggle in between my hectic schedule to supervise the progress.

Roof fabric is still in great condition

In general we can divide the restoration process in two five main criteria;

1.       Body and paint.

2.       Engine and wiring.

3.       Suspension system.

4.       Interior.

5.       Detailing.

My strategy was to restore the body first, and while stripping it off then started to restore the engine, electrical, suspension system and interior.

Will completely restore the engine

Apparently if you have high standard reference in restoring car, you really need to spend time to brief all the mechanics to make sure that they have same understanding, and to get the best result possible.

The biggest challenges are many of the restoration team members is not professional enough, they don’t provide you with detail timeline, cost proposal and there’s no regular progress report informed to you.  

To make things worst, many of them don’t have quality control system which ended up in you spending more time to check and ask them to rework to match the quality you requested.

Will update you guys with the final result.

Happy Milad Raka, you're officially a tenager!

Raka turns 11, you are officially a teenager now.

 

Anakku Raka, makhluk Allah yang indah akhlaknya, hari ini usiamu bertambah sekarang kau sudah 11 tahun usia teenager yang penuh tantangan.

Raka besar di era dimana; banyak manusia berpendidikan tapi sedikit yang berperikemanusiaan, dimana profit jangka pendek mengalahkan kepentingan jangka panjang, dimana ambisi diri mengalahkan nurani dan nilai2 yang hakiki. Kuatkanlah dirimu nak, tempa fisikmu dengan latihan Cimande, Push Ups, Sit Ups dan lari, perdalam ilmu agamu dengan memperbanyak kajian-kajian ilmiah dan tekunlah dalam mempelajari ilmu di sekolah.

Hilangkan semua kebiasaan jelek dan bangunlah kebiasaan-kebiasaan yang baik, hal-hal besar terjadi karena dibangun dari hal-hal kecil yang rutin dilakukan.

Masa depan yang akan Raka hadapi akan jauh lebih menantang, derasnya informasi baik yang positif dan negative sudah tidak terbendung lagi, dan semakin mudah untuk mengkasesnya dimana dan kapan saja. Ambillah informasi yang positif nak, pergunakanlah seluruh panca inderamu hanya untuk berbuat kebaikan, karena sesungguhnya itulah perwujudan rasa syukur yang sejati.

Happy milad Raka, Ayah dan Bunda akan selalu mendoakan untuk kebahagian dan keberkahan Raka dan akan selalu memberikan support agar Raka bisa meraih mimpi-mimpi besarnya.

 

We love you!

 

 

Ayah

Rasyad turns three on June 19 2014

Happy birthday dear Muhammad Rasyad Suryakusuma

Wow, you’re growing up so quickly. You’re already 3 years old today! It just seems like yesterday you were 3 days old. Happy 3rd birthday!

You’re special gift to our family, I wish you happiness to greet every morning with gratitude. Oo Rasyad the enlightened one happiness is you

Do or don’t there is no try

 

 

 

 

 

 

Setelah mencoba menjalankan beberapa bisnis sambil bekerja sejak tahun 2007 dan selalu mengalami kegagalan, ahirnya pada tahun 2010 saya memutuskan untuk berhenti bekerja sebagai Business Director Young and Rubicam dan menjadi full time entrepreneurs.

 

 

 

Keputusan yang sebenarnya sangat berat, mengingat posisi, pendapatan dan juga suasana pekerjaan saat itu sangat baik. Terlebih lagi saya termasuk perintis yang mulai hanya dari 7 orang karyawan. Tapi mengingat bahwa saya ingin membangun perusahaan sendiri dengan lebih focus, dan juga saya ingin mengembangkan diri dengan lebih optimal akhirnya saya tinggalkan Young and Rubicam untuk memulai usaha di bidang Information Technology.

Periode 2010-2011 adalah masa yang menggebu-gebu, semangat saya sedang tinggi-tingginya karena secara full time bisa meluangkan waktu untuk mengembangkan ide-ide bisnis. Di November 2011 juga saya mendaftarkan diri dalam program Founder Institute dan lulus di Februari 2012. 

Di 2011 juga tiga perusahaan baru saya dirikan; PT Pandawa Integrasi Sinergitama yang bergerak di bidang application development, PT Oriens Integrasi Mediatama yang bergerak di bidang marketing produk dan jasa IT dan juga PT Data Sinergitama Jaya yang bergerak di bidang data center.

PT Pandawa Integrasi Sinergitama berpusat di Bandung, karena memang seluruh engineersnya berdomisili di Bandung. Visi kita saat itu adalah menjadi apps developer yang menggunakan metode development berskala intenasional, dengan misi menciptakan produk IT berkualitas tinggi. Dalam perjalanannya PT Pandawa harus bertahan hidup dengan mengejerkan beberapa custom projects.

Kondisi yang sungguh tidak nyaman mengingat banyak sekali project yang sebenarnya Business Requirement Documentsnya belum matang. Sehingga dalam pengerjaannya banyak sekali change request yang terjadi dan mengakibatkan team menjadi frustrasi dan juga secara waktu pengerjaan menjadi jauh lebih panjang dari yang kita prediksikan.

Ironisnya banyak juga development produk-produk kita sendiri dikerjakan dengan kualitas pengerjaan yang sangat rendah sehingga mengakibatkan produknya tidak bisa kita jual.

Dengan kondisi diatas dan juga ditambah satu kasus bisnis yang fatal, akhirnya di September 2012 management memutuskan untuk membubarkan PT Pandawa. Sebuah keputusan yang sulit, mengingat begitu banyak harapan yang kita gantungkan disana dan banyak produk yang belum selesai pengerjaannya.

 

Di sisi lain PT Oriens Integrasi Mediatama (Oriens), juga tidak berkembang sesuai harapan. Produk yang kami buat di Oriens adalah sebuah platform IT untuk membantu perusahaan asuransi dalam; mendesign, membuat dan memasarkan produk-produk Micro Insurance. Sebuah kategori produk yang relative baru di Indonesia dan belum ada perangkat hukum dan perundang-undangan yang mendukungnya.

Sebaliknya PT Data Sinergitama Jaya (DSJ) justru membuahkan hasil yang sangat baik. Di awal tahun 2012 DSJ memenangkan sebuah tender besar yang sangat penting dan sangat meningkatkan brand awareness dari perusahaan ini. Tender ini dimenangkan dengan sangat berat mengingat competitor-kompetitor yang berpartisipasi adalah perusahaan besar dengan pengalaman yang sangat panjang di bidangnya.

Beberapa pelajaran yang dapat diambil dari kejadian-kejadian diatas adalah;

1.      Sangat penting untuk terjun langsung ke bisnis dan merasakan setiap desir adrenalin tercipta dari setiap keputusan yang diambil. Somehow I kinda addicted to this feeling :D  

2.      Satu-satunya hal yang pasti dalam berbisnis adalah ketidakpastian. Disini diperlukan attitude dan juga spiritual skill yang baik dalam menyikapi setiap peristiwa yang terjadi.

3.      Dengan akses informasi yang begitu luas, being smart jauh lebih baik dibandingkan dengan being financially lucrative dan corporately behemoth.

4.      Sebaiknya focus mengembangkan satu perusahaan sampai perusahaan tersebut mendapatkan cashflow positive baru kita  mengembangkan perusahaan lainnya. Ini terkait dengan kondisi keuangan yang terbatas di perusahaan saya pada waktu itu.

5.      Dibutuhkan monitoring system yang baik dan menyeluruh dalam setiap proses development.

The game will never be over, because we’re keeping the dream alive (Freiheit)

 

 

 

Happy 7th birthday my dear son Muhammad Razan Suryakusuma

A very special child, a great ball of energy, a very cheerful and opinioned person. Jan 13 2014 he will turn to 7 years old. There are few things I notice that very special about Razan;

 

1.     He is very expressive; he can make funny and surprising comments instantly. This is probably because he has a unique word processing capability J.

2.     His knowledge in cars is amazing; he knows many brands and many variants which always surprise our family.

3.     He has great source of energy, especially when he does something that he really loves like riding a bike or playing wii.

4.     He has a very strong and flexible physique; his vertical jump is quite high for his age.

5.     A very extrovert/easy going person, he makes friend easily with anybody.

6.     His English skill is amazing; I guess he learns from movies, games and by having conversation with me and my wife.

We love you dearly; you inspire us to be always passionate in what we do. Grow son grow, be the channel of Allah's blessing in your every day life. We will always be there for you.