Panda (Classic) Pandani - 1000CL restoration

Nice and neat, love your new third brake light and the dashcam. May I ask which dashcam you purchased? I was thinking of getting one as well but I'm not too sure yet!

As for the carpet, would a mat cover that area to prevent a hole being made, or is it next to where a mat would go? I have some custom fit mats that I bought for £20-30 off of eBay and they fit perfectly!

I got the dashcam as a Christmas present from my brother and it's a nano q, I think he got it from Amazon. Mine doesn't show speed as it didn't come with the GPS mounting base that you also need inorder for it to work; something to bear in mind.

I've never had or used one before but I think it's a great job after playing about with it so far in the Punto for last while using the supplied cigar lighter charger. I bought two additional hardwiring kits to suit this camera in addition to the one in Pandani which I fitted first, each of these two new hardwiring kits is for the Punto and the Mito, and I'll follow up with an additional camera. I'll have two cameras in total but as Pandani is only to be on the road for six months of the year it will share its camera with one of the other cars. Wiring it into the Punto isn't as straight forward as Pandani, there's a serious amount of wiring in that Punto compared to the Panda with ECUs and 'multi timer units' to consider. I prefer the simplicity of the Panda though the Punto's been a very reliable workhorse that use for my job; only cost £800 with 62k miles.

Unfortunately a mat won't cover that worn area in the carpet were the clutch sits, I think the only solution is a large plastic or aluminium patch. I don't mind too much as the carpet came back from steam cleaner as good as new, especially when you compare it against my original carpet that in a real bad state with holes.

Stick up a photo of your custom mats and I'll see if they would cover it please; I'm open to other solutions. I've just thought of a single long mat that would go along both footwells and over the centre 'hump' and so cover the worn area, but maybe it will look odd.:idea:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351183810680

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Thanks for letting me know about the camera, I think it would be wise for me to invest in one, and perhaps one of these hard wired kits or something along those lines so that I can have other things plugged in as well. I haven't used the cigarette lighter but I know that if I got a dashcam I'd end up finding something, my father's sat nav every once in a while perhaps... considering the electronics in a Panda, I imagine it wouldn't be too hard a feat to hard wire it but we shall see

I think you may be right, it may not cover it. I have a couple of pictures of the custom mats anyway. My floor isn't a carpet so I don't have to worry about the clutch area issue you are having but they're useful for chucking the dirt out without getting it all over the bottom of the car anyway. Unfortunately the "grippy surface" underneath still doesn't stick to the floor and it just slides, so the driver's mat is currently stuck down with double sided tape. Works a dream though


Rear mats just because I've got the picture... let me know if you need any more pictures, these ones are back from when I got the mats last year!

Good looking mats...!
Strange you haven't got a floor carpet

lukmek - Thanks for the link to the carpet. I actually came across a similar carpet about 3 months' ago on ebay that was also LHD and charcoal colour and said I would get one if nothing better came along. Ricambio Int. were also going to sell me a carpet but it too was charcoal and LHD. A trip to Binhoker soon resolved that has his blue carpet was considerably better than mine and that was the carpet issue settled, apart from worn area that I've to patch.

FDNY21 - I like those mats, where'd you get them as I would get a set in blue. You can't go wrong with Panda electrics, at least not mine that's only got the traditional distributor and coil ignition and only relays and switches to work with elsewhere. I hate ECUs and things that require software but only because I don't have the diagnostics, I'm too tight to buy the equipment as I wouldn't get the use out of it. Having said that, I've caused an airbag light to come on in the Punto today after playing about with fuses with the ignition on.

It's strange there's no carpet in your Panda, yours seems to have a plastic tray liner instead which is probably more practical and easy to clean. I could give you a blue carpet if you want, it's even got large holes in it and needs a deep clean.

WASHER FLUID CONTAINER REPLACEMENT

Not much happening that's anyway big to my Panda at the moment unlike other members' cars, I'm just working on smaller stupid type tasks and basically just chicken picking about. I need to replace the rear suspension and axle but that won't be for a while yet and even then I won't be doing the work myself.

The previous owner(s) were very keen on insulating tape and block connectors, so I'm going through the wiring and replacing them with soldered and heat shrink insulated joints. Whilst doing this I'm also taking the opportunity of replacing the washer fluid container as someone had half fitted a replacement washer pump that was slightly too long to fit in the slot designed to hold it in place. I did a bit of research on why this came about and basically Fiat had changed the dimensions of the washer pumps to slightly longer ones and it must have been about 1990 when Pandani was made; Binhoker's Panda 'Lipstick' (believed to be the same year as mine) which donated me the replacement fluid container, used the longer (newer) pumps whilst mine used the older and no longer available smaller pumps.

This photo shows the newer type fluid container with the longer pumps set against their fitting slots. New replacement pumps are still available and so will fit as a direct replacement.


Here I'm cleaning the area below the fluid container and treating the small rust patches with Kurust prior to painting. I've also replaced the dodgy tape and connector blocks that were within the loom to one of the washer pump plugs as well as the headlamp unit; the replacement joints are soldered and insulated with heat shrink tubing.


This shows the old washer pumps still attached to the old container, a newer type washer pump is held up against it to show the difference. I've acquired a number of washer pumps which I'll keep as spares and as I'm fitting the newer type container it will accept both new and old type pumps. It's easier to fit something small into something big than try something big in something too small.

lukmek said:

Good looking mats...!
Strange you haven't got a floor carpet

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Cheers! It is a bit strange indeed, but easy to clean and doesn't look bad after many years of use

Pandani said:

FDNY21 - I like those mats, where'd you get them as I would get a set in blue. You can't go wrong with Panda electrics, at least not mine that's only got the traditional distributor and coil ignition and only relays and switches to work with elsewhere. I hate ECUs and things that require software but only because I don't have the diagnostics, I'm too tight to buy the equipment as I wouldn't get the use out of it. Having said that, I've caused an airbag light to come on in the Punto today after playing about with fuses with the ignition on.

It's strange there's no carpet in your Panda, yours seems to have a plastic tray liner instead which is probably more practical and easy to clean. I could give you a blue carpet if you want, it's even got large holes in it and needs a deep clean.

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They are nice. Checked back on the old purchase and I bought these ones: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fiat-Panda-83-95-Velour-Black-Red-Trim-Car-mat-set-/350520418241

The company does a wide variety of colour combinations, if you want some blue outline ones then here's that, but I recommend checking their other ones to see which ones would suit you best: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fiat-Pand...hash=item3a6e9d94a2:m:mq7Cymsu4IjP_sxVCSS6wDQ

My Panda has the dizzy, but nonetheless it's not all too bad when compared to the mind boggling amount of electronics in new cars...

Yes, it's like a plastic/rubber type liner, I like it because it won't wear massively over time and it is easy to clean. The mats make it even easier to throw the leaves out and gives it a good look with the black/red combo as well, just one of those neat little things I had to have when I got the car!

Not sure how the blue carpet with holes would look in a red Panda

Thanks FDNY21 for the link to the mats; just gone ahead and bought a set of blue ones with black trim. I like the fact they're custom made to suit the car. Brilliant

Nobody wants my old blue carpet with holes. Can't think why. Anyways, it's probably just as well as I'm thinking of cutting a piece out of it and getting it edge bound to make a patch for the worn bit, hopefully to make it look like it was always meant to be there.

That plastic floor liner you have would be a good job for 4x4 Pandas that like to be in and amongst the muck, I've seem many 4x4 interiors destroyed for this reason.

Pandani said:

... I'm just working on smaller stupid type tasks...
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No task is to small to work on, while you do small repairs your 'horizons are getting wider' so you can move further to more and more complicated tasks (we're still talking about pandas).


If I recall correctly I've been in the 'two type of pump' situation and I think I've manage to take them apart ( pump and motor assembly) and swap what was broken.

I didn't even think about taking the pumps apart but once I came across Binhoker's washer fluid container that was going spare it was a no brainer once I knew it accepted longer pumps.

A previous owner's mechanic had half fitted a longer type pump into the container with the pump body hanging down below the container base and held there with a cable tie; real rough looking botch. What's more the electrical connection had been replaced with crimp connectors and covered in a big lump of grease to keep it dry; someone actually paid for this as I have the receipt included in the included documents. A good tidy up of the engine bay to get rid of this and other messy past efforts is what I'm at now as well getting new tyres all round and the wheels blasted and painted.

Someone previous has fitted two decent horns to replace the standard Fiat one which is certainly something that's beneficial and I'll be keeping as it really makes others aware that you're there and/or pissed off when you use it; people are surprised that such a small car can have such a loud horn. They'd wired the two horns via a relay and I was going to get rid of the relay and rewire the horns directly to the horn/cooling fan circuit but have decided not to as I'm not too sure on the circuit loading of the horns and don't want to be left with no horn and an overheated engine just when I don't need it.

Just seen that you're after front seats, remove the fabric and give it a proper old school hand wash in warm water, brush and detergent. Don't forget to give them 24 soak first. They will come up as new.

kolza said:

Just seen that you're after front seats, remove the fabric and give it a proper old school hand wash in warm water, brush and detergent. Don't forget to give them 24 soak first. They will come up as new.

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Thanks Kolza. I had actually washed the passenger side's seat fabric in the washing machine on a delicate 30° wash and it came up great but the fabric has faded incredibly with years of sun exposure. This caused the machine to flood the floor as the long plastic clip on the seat cover pressed against the machine's door seal. Anyone attempting the same should bear this in mind.

Lukmek has kindly forwarded my pictures onto a company who makes seat covers that fit the Panda. Whilst the fabric pattern can't be matched, I'm looking forward to seeing what they can come up with as an alternative before making my mind up as to whether or not get new ones or make do with washed existing ones. Binhoker's Panda Lipstick has the same fabric which I may use, but again his are badly faded too but not as badly worn. The fabric's so faded the pattern has almost disappeared in parts.

I'm really wanting the interior sorted now and I'm ready to fit the nice clean carpet I got steam cleaned, but want to Dinitrol all the box sections before doing so; the bloke in Portadown who is the NI agent I'd asked to get me Dinitrol at start of December still hasn't got back. Getting impatient.

Eventually got the washer fluid container replaced. Fitted the longer type pumps after giving them a thorough clean and thought it all was done, but no, one of them leaked straight away through its casing and the other pump screamed like a banshee when operated and didn't pump any fluid. I shouldn't have bothered giving them a clean. I ended up using some of my spare pumps that are a bit smaller and loose in their locked positions on the container, so had to drill a small hole and hold them in place with cable ties. All works well now and a damn sight neater than the mess that was there.


Now to get that horn wiring tidied up along with the rest of the mess.

NEW TYRES AND PLATES

As the four Pirellis had cracks in them due to age I wanted to replace all of them and thought I may as well upgrade them to a bigger tyre for safety reasons; after some guidance from other members I've settled with 155/70 R13s and went for Dunlops.

Got the rims blasted and repainted for only £15 each.


Fitted them without the wheel trims for now; think the bare steel wheels look well.



I've only shown three here as I'm doing it in two stages while the car was left supported on two spares and a jack.

I got the new number plates off ebay for only £17 and they're pressed aluminium to give a slightly more continental look. Some may wonder why I went for the 'GB' logo instead of 'NI', but as G734 JWJ is clearly a GB registration I thought it would look odd having 'NI' against it; car originated in Sheffield/Leeds area so another reason to stick with the 'GB'. I would have liked an 'I' for Italy but as my brother got a bit of grief from the police for having a 'D' on his Golf's plates I thought I better not bother.

Did this car used to live in Belper, Derbyshire? If so, nice to know its gone to a good home

Ian_Fearn said:

Did this car used to live in Belper, Derbyshire? If so, nice to know its gone to a good home

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Originally registered in Sheffield.

Ian_Fearn said:

Did this car used to live in Belper, Derbyshire? If so, nice to know its gone to a good home

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It did indeed live in Belper as per some of the receipts amongst the lots of history that came with it and a previous ad I found on Car and Classic.


I bought it on eBay from a guy in Shipley who was selling it on behalf of his wife. It's being well pampered here and getting lots done at the moment whilst I can, as I'll be unable to for a few months around March, April & May; I want it ready for a large local car show (Kilbroney) I've entered it into. I really love it and by the time it's finished I probably will have spent about £4K altogether, but it will be worth it as I've no intention to sell it on.

Kolza's 100% about it hailing from Sheffield as per the original plates; don't know if GT Cars exist still but that's where she was bought new.

Are you or do you know a previous owner?

The new tyres and plates look nice and fresh. I went for the pressed metal plates on Pandino recently as well, they work really well. I didn't go for any logo/abbreviaiton though, just the plain plate on mine.

Those wheels look great too, mine are a nice shade of black gone brown, apart from one which is ish silver that used to be a spare. I have the wheels from Chaz/Erwin to go on Pandino now, they're Uno Turbo wheels that were painted black - I'd like to have them back as original though, or as a gunmetal grey, or even a white. I'll probably end up putting the black ones on until I decide, that's when I decide to tell insurance - got the wheel trims to cover my steels for now though

FDNY21 said:

I'll probably end up putting the black ones on until I decide, that's when I decide to tell insurance - got the wheel trims to cover my steels for now though

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Yeah, the large full sized wheel trims, I've got a set them too as they came with the car along with the small black ones. Now that I've got nicely refurbed wheels I can show them off and may even get a set of these if I can souce them.
https://www.fiatforum.com/gallery/data/3570/image525.jpg