Panda (Classic) Digger the Yellow 4x4

panda1408 · Nov 9, 2014

Last weekend I was able to put Digger up on my ramps and today I cut the passenger side sill off. If you don't like rust, look away now!

owain126 · Nov 9, 2014

Hi Freddy, there is a lot of work here, fair play to you for taking 'Digger' on. I don't envy your work to get the sills sorted. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished article. I hope you keep it in the yellow, it suits it.

Most Easterly Pandas · Nov 9, 2014

I really do take my hat off to you and your awesome fabricating and repair skills Freddy :slayer:

Giacosa · Nov 10, 2014

I love rust pictures :yum: How far up the inner sill are you going to cut it off? or are you going to try and replace it completely

Trenshaw · Nov 10, 2014

Reminds me of my 1980's classic mini the amount of rust you have there lol. Good luck with the restoration

nitro_warrior · Nov 10, 2014

Giacosa said:
I love rust pictures :yum: How far up the inner sill are you going to cut it off? or are you going to try and replace it completely

You rust slut Kris!

Now in terms of a solution i'm just going to leave this lying around for you...

https://cdn.mediacru.sh/13j7mkoQqYx0.jpe

Something like 120x60 hollow section. Pretty popular mod in other monocoque chassis 4x4s

panda1408 · Nov 10, 2014

owain126 said:
Hi Freddy, there is a lot of work here, fair play to you for taking 'Digger' on. I don't envy your work to get the sills sorted. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished article. I hope you keep it in the yellow, it suits it.

Thanks Owain, I will be honest, it is more work than I wanted to take on at the moment but now I've started I will get it done. At least once its done I'll have a very solid car that will last a long time before needing further structural work and really, most other rough 4x4s will need similar work anyway.

The yellow will be staying, although the sills may end up another colour if I cant find an ok match to the rest of the car.

Most Easterly Pandas said:
I really do take my hat off to you and your awesome fabricating and repair skills Freddy :slayer:

Thanks Jon, although my fabircating is still pretty crude compared to some people, have a look at this thread if you want to know what I mean:

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/70135/panels?page=1&scrollTo=935860

Giacosa said:
I love rust pictures :yum: How far up the inner sill are you going to cut it off? or are you going to try and replace it completely

I'm not sure at the moment, the inside of the inner sill has quite abit of surface rust so I will need to clean that up before deciding what to do. Ideally I will just cut the bottom off, leaving the curved section in place, but I will have to see what its like once its cleaned up.

Trenshaw said:
Reminds me of my 1980's classic mini the amount of rust you have there lol. Good luck with the restoration

Yes I know how badly Minis rot! A Panda has nothing on them! I am currently doing a full nut and bolt rebuild on one that is going to be used as a wedding car. The shell needed some serious work to get it solid!

nitro_warrior said:
You rust slut Kris!

Now in terms of a solution i'm just going to leave this lying around for you...

https://cdn.mediacru.sh/13j7mkoQqYx0.jpe

Something like 120x60 hollow section. Pretty popular mod in other monocoque chassis 4x4s

Already ahead of you there, I have a length of 50x50 box left over from something else which might fit quite nicely

onemanmade · Nov 10, 2014

Looks in a similar condition to mine, glad to see im not the only one.

panda1408 · Nov 10, 2014

onemanmade said:
Looks in a similar condition to mine, glad to see im not the only one.

Are you planning on doing the welding on your Sisley yourself Cameron?

onemanmade · Nov 10, 2014

panda1408 said:
Are you planning on doing the welding on your Sisley yourself Cameron?

My dad and I are going to weld it together with him starting it, and showing me how to, and hopefully I will pick it up and do as much as I can myself. Failing that if my dad is too busy then I will have to pay to have it done somewhere. No idea how much that would cost though. Any rough estimations as a matter of interest?

panda1408 · Nov 10, 2014

Well if its as bad as Digger (both sills, boot floor/rear crossmember and other smaller repairs) and you want it doing properly then you would be looking at £3000 at a minimum in my opinion, probably more, especially when you factor in painting etc. I would certinaly not quote any less than that if someone wanted me to do it for them. This sort of work is really time consuming, epsecially when there are very few replacement panels avaiable, meaning lots of time has to be spent fabricating them instead.

onemanmade · Nov 10, 2014

panda1408 said:
Well if its as bad as Digger (both sills, boot floor/rear crossmember and other smaller repairs) and you want it doing properly then you would be looking at £3000 at a minimum in my opinion, probably more, especially when you factor in painting etc. I would certinaly not quote any less than that if someone wanted me to do it for them. This sort of work is really time consuming, epsecially when there are very few replacement panels avaiable, meaning lots of time has to be spent fabricating them instead.

Ok dokey thanks for letting me know!

Palio · Nov 10, 2014

panda1408 said:
Well if its as bad as Digger (both sills, boot floor/rear crossmember and other smaller repairs) and you want it doing properly then you would be looking at £3000 at a minimum in my opinion, probably more, especially when you factor in painting etc. I would certinaly not quote any less than that if someone wanted me to do it for them. This sort of work is really time consuming, epsecially when there are very few replacement panels avaiable, meaning lots of time has to be spent fabricating them instead.

Thanks Freddy - nice to know what you'd charge as a reference point - my Sisley had all that work on the cills (not the boot floor, although also shock absorbers etc).

Now you see why I bought a cheap mk3 in case I bent the cills again! The fact it's turned out to be a great little car & worthy of the name Panda is a real bonus - I really like it & recommend this route to anyone looking for a cheap off-roader which won't be "structurally compromised".

Giacosa · Nov 21, 2014

nitro_warrior said:
You rust slut Kris!

Can't help myself. The other sections are

when it comes to rust.

Bartpanda · Nov 21, 2014

Can't help myself. The other sections are when it comes to rust.

For your and others entertainment I can make some photos of the underneath of my trekkng.... lots lots lots of rustporn there

similar or worse condition than yellow Digger

Giacosa · Nov 21, 2014

Bartpanda said:
For your and others entertainment I can make some photos of the underneath of my trekkng.... lots lots lots of rustporn there similar or worse condition than yellow Digger

Yes please :yum:

panda panda · Nov 21, 2014

Giacosa said:
Yes please :yum:

Got a hardcore set of dirty rust porn of LVJ on one of the threads

Most Easterly Pandas · Nov 22, 2014

Steady lads, the classic panda section will become X rated at this rate

VmanC · Nov 22, 2014

Hi Freddy, finally got around to making a comment.

Digger looks great, especially for what you intend using him for. As usual I agree with everything you've said about the rust situation yes he will last you years once you've finished.

onemanmade · Nov 22, 2014

Did someone say rust??

Panda (Classic) Digger the Yellow 4x4

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