Panda (Classic) Pandani - 1000CL restoration

I think I've gotten away reasonably lightly with regards to rust and rot when I see the state of some members' cars, especially the 4x4s which have suffered some serious abuse.

Sills in good condition for 26 years...


...until you see below...



...and the sill's end. Apart from the obvious sill repair, there's a whole section of about half the panel behind the plastic trim rotten out that can't be seen here.


The rear driver's side arch/sill was by far the worst rot that needed attention, so not too bad when all's considered.

I'd the usual mice nest made from insulation in the engine compartment that so many others have encountered, a sea of liquid bitumen below the driver's footwell and a pretty well knackered carpet and seating fabric; the interior was very grubby and needed a deep clean. The electrics need a good tidy up and I want to add a few small extras along with a radio cassette to make the car look 'of its time'.

The black underseal that's been applied by a previous owner must have done some good for the main part of the floor pan as there's no hidden rust nasties lurking below as may be expected. Happy days.

Engine runs well (apart from some piston slap when cold) but needs some fine tuning to get it to its best. At the moment the focus is on getting the bodywork complete, some Dinitrol into the cavities and the exterior trim refitted.

PHOTOS DURING BODYWORK STAGE

Only major work required to the body work was the bottom of the driver side rear wheel arch and the sill, this was in very bad condition and was totally rotten and totally gone behind the plastic stone guard hiding it; a new section's been made and nicely welded in position.



Small bit of rot at rear bumper mounting bracket not yet dealt with at time of photo.



Welding carried out and sealed at bottom of passenger side rear arch and sill.



I've no photos of the remainder of the minimal amount of welding carried out to the floor pan nor the new door skins. On eBay I'd obtained original Fiat door skins to replace the rotten ones and these were old new stock that had been lying about in a warehouse, John Charters who was doing the work did a really professional job that can't be faulted.

Below shows the preparation prior to respray.

COMPLETED PAINT JOB

John and his team have done a superb job that I'm sure anyone will agree, not only in the paint job but also removing dents and attending to small imperfections that I didn't notice until they were pointed out to me. Dunmurry Crash Repair/John Charters came highly recommended to me so for any of you in the area (Lisburn, Belfast area) needing bodywork done, give him a call.





The rear screen was replaced with a second hand one which I'd obtained from Binhoker, the windscreen was replaced also with a second hand one as the original shattered during refitting thanks to a stone chip.

This sorry looking Panda 750 was what donated me a replacement windscreen, it's whereabouts kindly mentioned to me by Binhoker; I think it was used for keeping chickens in judging by its interior After driving all the way to Armoy I took my opportunity of getting a few other pieces like the wax stat from the air filter as well as a new wheel as one of mine is leaking air due to a badly rusted rim and a few other small pieces.



Pandani's now stored in the garage which is ideal as I want the paint to fully cure (I believe it takes a few months to 'gas off') before waxing her, during these few months I'll reassemble the trim and interior ready for the spring and summer. I've a new rear axle which I'll get fitted in the spring (£99 from Partsworld - bargain ) as well as getting the seats reupholstered which may prove difficult as I want to match the existing fabric. Not forgetting I've also to get new tyres due to them cracking with age, all the wheels blasted and repainted, the electrics tidied up and who knows what else I'll decide to do as I go along.

Really love the deep shine of the paint; it really does look brand new. Thanks to Kolza for advice on removing and refitting the black roof rails; easy when you know how.


Had to get this on; I was pleased to get a new old stock 'Panda 1000CL' badge on eBay as well as a new rear 'Fiat' badge. Would anyone know where to get a new 'Fiat' badge for the radiator grille as mine is terribly scored and faded?

Looks like they did a great job. That paint has certainly brightened up the car, nice shiny new 1000CL badge you got there too!

I had a look for a new Fiat badge for my post-facelift grille on my Panda but had no luck. I know Blu managed to find one on eBay but he was lucky as they don't come up often! A search just now threw up nothing from Ricambio/Partsworld or even on eBay. Good luck finding one, one will come around at some point, just keep looking

FDNY21 said:

Looks like they did a great job. That paint has certainly brightened up the car, nice shiny new 1000CL badge you got there too!

I had a look for a new Fiat badge for my post-facelift grille on my Panda but had no luck. I know Blu managed to find one on eBay but he was lucky as they don't come up often! A search just now threw up nothing from Ricambio/Partsworld or even on eBay. Good luck finding one, one will come around at some point, just keep looking

Click to expand...

Looks like they're like hens teeth to get which is a pity as a new one is really what I want I was thinking of trying that stuff that is used to clear up cloudy soft top windows and other plastics that have aged, maybe that's really all it would need as the acrylic has been badly scored.:idea:

HEADLINING REPLACEMENT

The headlining was in very poor condition with dirt, score marks and a large sag at the rear. No amount of cleaning would have restored it to an acceptable standard especially with the score marks all over it. Thankfully Binhoker's Lipstick Panda yielded a half decent replacement which once cleaned with Autoglym Interior Cleaner came up very well, it's not perfect but a damn sight better than what was there. The photo below shows Binhoker's cleaned headlining against my filthy one.



I used Jim Magill's tip of using self adhesive Velcro strips to sort out the sagging part of the headlining. I added some superglue to the strips that were attached to the headlining to ensure it would stay stuck as the felty texture of the headlining may not work too well with the self adhesive backing of the Velcro.



Before fitting the headlining I installed the cable between my new dash cam position and its power supply which was positioned behind the large black plastic oval blanking section below the driver's seat belt real.



The finished job looks well and the Velcro's removed the sagging section. A larger centre stud was used to hide the slightly damaged area around the original smaller stud which happened whilst taking it out of the donor car.

DASH FABRIC REPAIR

OK, this was only a small annoyance but the repair was very effective; the corner of the dash fabric kept uncurling its self from where it was hooked on. To sort this out I glued the two pieces of the fabric that are folded against each other with just a small dot of superglue at it's far end to stop them separating, then a small piece of plastic was cut and this was glued to the fabric to form a projecting tab.



When the fabric's put back into position and the air vent's fitted the fabric is held neatly in the correct position.



It's important to let the superglue set overnight as I've discovered in the past that even superglue can fail if you stress the joint too soon.

Hardly an engineering marvel, but useful if you find yours doing the same.

3RD BRAKELIGHT

I'm wanting to keep Pandani mostly original, however I have made some exceptions such as fitting things from higher specced Pandas (clock, internally adjustable mirrors etc.) and also a 3rd brake light. I think safety reasons alone justify the 3rd brake light and I've managed to get a suitable one from Amazon for about £8 that is the correct size and style to match the Panda's boxy shape.



The steel bracket wasn't suitable as supplied, however i modified it by bending it to suit the shape of the tailgate; cutting off the excess of one of the bracket's 'leafs' and then bending it to form a small box section, a hole was drilled and a small grommet fitted to allow the cable to go directly into the tailgate's hollow section through a larger hole that had been drilled into it. I primed and painted the bracket prior to refitting as well as shrouding the three cores of the exposed cable with black heat shrink tubing and it looks reasonably well. The cable was then jointed to another newly positioned extension cable within the tailgate hollow section that led down through the flexible tubing/conduit that links the tailgate wiring to the car body to enable connection to the brake light circuit. Getting the cable through the conduit was a real bitch of a job and you probably wouldn't want to waste your time trying the same. Maybe just running the cable outside the conduit would be a lot less grief.

If you are looking for an original fiat linea accessori 3rd brake light let me know
Cheap here in Italy around €30
Love your updates!
[emoji106]

Brand new old stock
£40 plus p+p

You will need the tailgate support

Second hand
Lights + tailgate support
£30 plus P+P

I have a thread ongoing
PANDA PARTS REQUEST
In future if you need just post a request...
I will try and find it for you
[emoji16]

lukmek said:

I have a thread ongoing
PANDA PARTS REQUEST
In future if you need just post a request...
I will try and find it for you
[emoji16]

Click to expand...

Already stuck a request for four screw clips thanks. Useful to know for future stuff.

Pandani said:

Already stuck a request for four screw clips thanks. Useful to know for future stuff.

Click to expand...

Great to help! [emoji106]

'NEW' CARPET

Yesterday I collected the carpet I previously got from Binhoker about three months' ago after it was steam cleaned (3 times) to get out all the dirt and grease. Looks nearly new. Won't be fitting for a few months yet though, still have to Dinitrol the car and other personal commitments in next few months will hold me back. Nothing stopping me from buying stuff in preparation; another trip made today to Binhoker's for more small stuff off his donor car to have at the ready.

I just need to get some kind of steel or rubber plate etc. to cover the worn area at the clutch and stop it going the way the original did with a hole right through it as indicated by the white plastic bag that's been stuck to the carpet's underside.

DASH CAM
We've all seen these before, but I thought I'd quickly show how I concealed my new dash cam wiring by placing it behind the headlining and hard-wiring it to avoid using the 12V socket. The dash cam bracket was stuck to the painted steel section of the roof to avoid impacting on the windscreen too much and it fits there nicely between the interior light and sunvisor,



The power supply and fuse were fitted to the back of the large blanking plate that is below the driver's seat belt real, so providing easy access if required but also concealing all the wiring. The yellow 'parking guard' wire was connected with the red +12V wire as I wasn't using the 'parking guard' feature but still wanted the yellow wire to be protected by a suitable fuse instead of the main circuit fuse at the fuse box which would be too large for the small size of the yellow wire in the event of a fault to earth. Really the manufacturer should have included an inline fuse for the yellow wire as well as the red. The power supply was in turn connected to the brown/white striped cable (feed to rear wiper motor) therefore the camera only comes on when the car's running.