Well, I am setting my self a two month challenge to have this unloved 4x4 back on the road.
99% of the welding has been done, the body is in reasonable shape with the important bits solid (sills, boot lid, bonnet, doors)



A very bad photo (taken 10 mins ago with long exposure)

Tomorrow I will check the suspect engine out... if its solid this sat me and a few friends are going to pull it out and put my working mk1 block in it.

Looks great! Can't wait to see the finished product. Don't forget to add yourself to the mk1 owners list!

Also just wanted to thank every one on here, I know I have a great habbit of posting then dropping of the earth for months, every one on here is always so helpful, kind, and great to talk to at meets

Good luck with the doorstepdazcan'tbelieveit'snotmargarinepepsiwhatstheworstthatcanhappen challenge

Any long term plans for the beast? Keeper or sell on?

Keep it, I'm not in this to make money, I have always wanted and loved fiat panda's and I do this for the love of all small fiats.

Plans are to get the old girl running, and check state of play from that point onwards.
She is called Phyllis

Good man I thought you were thinking of harvesting it for spares, so glad that it's a doer upper rather than a donor. Looking forward to seeing another mk1 saved good luck with it.

So what is the plan with the other 4x4? Surely it needs to be put back on the road at some point with with amount of work you have done?

It depends if this one needs running gear or an engine. The shell will be moved to storage and when I have a better unit it will continue to be worked on

Looks ace! Will be great to see it back on the road. Looks like a great starting basis. Best of luck Sam.

Good to hear you won't be giving up on it Do you know what happened to the engine in the new one? Has it seized due to lack of oil, overheating etc or from being sat for so long?

Again...well done and good luck with it...

Thanks pH, the bloke clames he knows nothing, he bought it as a none runner and has not investigated it, it sat for a long time before he got it.

I'll do investigation tomorrow and see if I can free it up...I hope its just time or something stupid....but I'm not that lucky

Good luck with this! ...and to think I gave away a Mk1 engine that had only done 12,000m - mind you it did go to another dedicated Mk1 owner
cheers
mick

Perhaps worth soaking the bores with penetrating fluid for a day or two before seeing if you can turn the engine by hand?

panda1408 said:

Perhaps worth soaking the bores with penetrating fluid for a day or two before seeing if you can turn the engine by hand?

Click to expand...

First thing I did when I got it after I established it wasn't locked in gear and the clutch worked.

Great minds think alike

Well I thought about photos but john impressed me with his vblog to I thought I would YouTube the process

Nice! yet the underside does seem very nice! makes a change from what i have been looking at these past few days with fallout!


i wanted to see the engine though!!
>_< i have never seen the OHV mk 1 4x4 engine before.

Schweeet! most difficult bit looks to be around the windscreen. Underside looks groovy though :slayer: and a lovely shine off the paintwork as well. Definitely the best colour I've seen a panda in

I had a dig around for a rear carpet but no luck yet. I am sure I took one off a scrapper but it's not where I would expect it to be. Might be under some stuff in the shed so will have to look in there when the rain stops.

I'll get some detailed clips this weekend John as I plan to strip this one to find out what happend and why it won't turn over :-(

Update 2,

Got back from my few nights away to recharge my battery's

Today the game plan was to check over the panda in the back to make sure the engine still turned over (its been stood a loooooong time) and to then make a start on cleaning Phyllis. The skuttle panel is a mess, but I can save it.

Here is todays update

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