Pickle_the_Panda_001.jpg

Panda (Classic) Pickle the Panda.

Introduction

May I introduce my latest Panda, Pickle.









You may have seen him recently in the classifieds. He'd been sat in Matt's ( Matchbox) front garden for the last several months, but a new arrival prompted Matt to sell.

It's a 1995 1000clx with 42,000 miles on the clock. I'm sure Matt won't mind if I say it's currently a little scruffy. There is also no tax or mot left on him so this will have to be attended to.
I was attracted to Pickle simply because he looked to be a very nice late Panda under the surface. Matt had assured me that the only area of rust was on the bottom of the passenger door, and that the seats were in great condition. After checking around today I can confirm that Matt was dead right (y), the underneath is muddy, very muddy, but totally rust free.
Pickle also comes with a good service history, in fact he's the first Panda I've owned that still has it's handbook AND service book!

So the plan is to get him through the mot and give him a really good clean up, then see what we have. As he stands he looks very dull to my eyes, and I don't mean the faded paint, so all I want to do is throw alloy wheels and viper stripes at him :p. But I will resist until I have made him as nice and original as I possibly can, who knows, I may want to leave him just like that.

You know this idea of giving your car a name as if it were a person really didn't appeal to me at first, but now I try to do it if I can, it really helps to create the enthusiasm needed to look after it properly.
Pickle, by the way, was already named by Matt in view of his reg. no., I quite like it so the name will remain stuck.
Looks nice and clean . (y) theres panda`s every were around you

is the Colour called Blue line or capri blue? as it looks verry similar to my old 899 cinq colour , i LOVED that colour , and it dose come up a treat

I'm always surrounded by Pandas, currently there are 17, but not all of them are mine. (y).

Colour is capri blue, yes I'm hoping it will compound up a treat. :)
 
Had a bit of time for Pickle today so started off cleaning up the faded paintwork........







And as we thought this colour is coming up well. :) The passenger door is a hopeless case though...........



I'm using this stuff at first, it's so much better than Tcut :yuck:........



The back bumper has a small mark and crack in it, not serious but as I'm expecting this one to look really tidy when it's done I felt I had to fit a new bumper. While I had the old one off I took the opportunity to give the underside a jet wash so I could examine the rust situation more closely.........













I'm pleased to say that underneath there is no rust, the small amount you can see on the edges of the rear seams is just surface and doesn't penetrate at all. I'll be very liberal with the cavity wax before the new bumper goes back on.
I checked the rear bodywork behind the bumper and there's not a scratch so it must have been a very light bump that damaged the bumper.......



Last job of the evening before it went back out into the night was to fit a new interior light bulb, bottom one is the new 16 LED bulb, much better than the original. (y)......

 
Hi Vernon
I'm glad Pickle has proved to be as clean (under all that mud) as I thought and that he is being restored to his former glory.
Just to put your mind at rest, the rear bumper was swapped out with my Sisley's during the restoration. Pickle has never had a bump!

The paintwork is looking great!
 
Hi Vernon
I'm glad Pickle has proved to be as clean (under all that mud) as I thought and that he is being restored to his former glory.
Just to put your mind at rest, the rear bumper was swapped out with my Sisley's during the restoration. Pickle has never had a bump!

The paintwork is looking great!

Hi Matt,

It all becomes clear now :). My first thought was that the story about your 4x4 being bashed twice was actually about this car and that you'd had a senior moment. I could see two little chalk crosses on the bumper where an inspector had marked the damage so this helped to compound my fears. :eek:
 
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