I have just negotiated a deal for the 45s VIP and will be collecting it next weekend.
I have been after a mk1 for a long time.
My wife had one as her first daily driver (after her Strada), and when we got married it took us on honeymoon, we commuted down from London to Bournemouth many times, bought our kid's out of hospital in it.
It was a white 45s on an A reg.
However I decided it needed a resto 15 years ago so I stripped it to a shell and got it sand blasted. The company said it had done cars before and when I picked it up all looked o.k.
However a day later everything seemed buckled including the roof.
So I located as many spares as I could including a brand new roof, new door,
new A panels even some Abarth tuning parts.
However the garage I was renting didn't have mains power so I had to use a generator and it didn't work my welder so sadly scrapped the shell and left most of the new parts behind in a house move (even new bumpers).
Always regretted that so when I saw this one on Ebay I knew I had to have it.
Watched the auction and didn't bid because I was scared of spending too much.
When it didn't reach reserve I contacted the seller and now we have made a deal with me collecting it next weekend.
I don't know how much it's going to cost me in fuel as it's nearly a 500 mile round trip and I am using my Range Rover 4.6 to tow our trailer.
Happily it runs on LPG but there may be issues getting it topped up as it's not as common as it used to be.
I can't wait to get her home and start using it.
Will look into getting agreed valuation insurance on it.

jerry2 said:

I don't know how much it's going to cost me in fuel as it's nearly a 500 mile round trip and I am using my Range Rover 4.6 to tow our trailer.
Happily it runs on LPG but there may be issues getting it topped up as it's not as common as it used to be.

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Just pre-plan your trip and you should be okay for LPG. I know my mates LPGed V8 Range Rover Vogue only returned 6-8MPG on LPG when towing a series 3 behind it on a trailer

If it's the VIP recently on eBay however, I believe its drivable home isn't it Not sure on the need to tow it?

Looking forward to seeing some pics

Take the train and revel the drive homeb

Trying to plan the trip.
A 1 way train ticket is £91.20.
Don't know if I'm going on my own yet so thought about using the Rangie.
Another option would be to hire a transporter (my son works for a vehicle hire company) and do it that way.
If I get my son to drive me there it means 2 lots of fuel for the return journey.
Yes it is the VIP from Ebay.
Will get a cost for the transporter tomorrow as I reckon it will be about £200 in fuel for the Rangie.
I've got a few plans for the car mostly a rolling resto and getting it mint.

jerry2 said:

Trying to plan the trip.
A 1 way train ticket is £91.20.
Don't know if I'm going on my own yet so thought about using the Rangie.
Another option would be to hire a transporter (my son works for a vehicle hire company) and do it that way.
If I get my son to drive me there it means 2 lots of fuel for the return journey.
Yes it is the VIP from Ebay.
Will get a cost for the transporter tomorrow as I reckon it will be about £200 in fuel for the Rangie.
I've got a few plans for the car mostly a rolling resto and getting it mint.

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that should be easy, the car is really really good from what I remember welcome and congrats man

Take the train and drive it home!

I picked my 1988 4X4 up from Halifax, in the snow, after it had been in a hoarders garage since 1998. It was serviced, MOT'd and driven the 260 (A Road) miles home.

It was great. You get a sheep dip in where everything is, braking distances, seat position, handling, the whole lot. I loved it.

Go on, you know you want to

jerry2 said:

A 1 way train ticket is £91.20.

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Last time I bought a car (July 2014), train from Norwich to Manchester (via London) was only £40-£45.

No wonder people don't use public transport with those prices!

I'm glad Charlie (not my choice, blame Kev!) will be getting some love. The VIP deserves to be restored, and it's something I considered doing - lack of use and other projects determined it wasn't to be for me though.

It drives beautifully by the way. It's smooth, quiet, and quite quick. Should be absolutely no problem driving it - I don't see why you'd want to trailer it personally. Anyway, the Range Rover will probably break down, bless it!

Make sure you keep us updated over on the Facebook group too. The last 3 owners are on there, as well as most of the other Panda fans.

Hi,
If you need any help with agreed value insurance then please feel free to drop me a line. Would be only too pleased to try and help.
Regards,
Dan.

Speaking to the current owner the tyres don't seem too good.
I have a new set so was thinking of fitting them if I was going to drive it home.
I need to see if my son can take me next week so I can drive it home.
So many choices plus I need to get some funds sorted too.
I have seen a whole side panel for the car it goes from the rear bumper, includes the side window hole, goes along under the door, goes along above the
door and finishes where it meets the front wings. that should sort some problems out.

First purchase for this car even though I haven't collected it yes a new set of Goodyear 145/70 13 tyres to go on my refurbished steel wheels ready to be fitted before I drive the car home on Saturday.

jerry2 said:

First purchase for this car even though I haven't collected it yes a new set of Goodyear 145/70 13 tyres to go on my refurbished steel wheels ready to be fitted before I drive the car home on Saturday.

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Welcome to the embarrisment (the collective term for Pandas ), a good choice in tyres, we bought some of these to replace the 135s before driving to italy and was the best decision we made, to say they transform the car is an understatement.

Picture of my refurbished steel wheels complete with new Goodyear 145 / 70 tyres and new centre caps.
I have 5 wheels of which 1 more needs refurbing .
Had to get the wheels from Italy and they were intended for my Terra van but thought I would put them on the new car as I don't like the wheel trims it comes with, plus these are what my wife's '84 45s had so it's a bit of nostalgia too. Back then though we couldn't afford branded tyres so had to have cheapos,
Going to fit these before I bring the car to it's new Bournemouth home.

Collected the car today from Freddy in Stoke on Trent.
Was quite a road trip as we live in Bournemouth so set off nice and early with my son driving his Focus ST so we could collect the car.
Fitted my wheels to the car in Freddy's workshop topped up the tank and then put some miles on the clock.
The car totally behaved itself although the steering wheel isn't straight and the
steering is a bit heavy so will book the car in to get tracking done.
Cleaned off some previous over spray on the rear light and a side repeater.
Nearly wrote the car off on a local journey when 2 people following each other decided to turn right into a minor road straight across the front of me and I had to slam the brakes ,on the car skidded and I had to swerve to avoid hitting them. People waiting to cross the road and an elderly driver turning out of the same turning couldn't believe it, nor could my wife who nearly had a heart attack.

Picture of it behind our Range Rover , 2 totally opposite cars 1 a 4.6 v8 the other a .9 straight 4

Looking at the car the worst areas of bodywork are the rear wings which are ripply especially above the arches. The filler neck looks wrong as well as it is a flush one like what's fitted to the mark 2. We had a mk1 that had a sticky out one and that was the same model year as this one.
There is an mot advisory stating rusty filler neck so maybe that's why this one was fitted?
Would like to strip the underside of the car as it is really solid still and give it some nice thick paint so may start that when we get some good weather.
The fog lamp and heated rear window work intermittently so does the clock above the mirror so need further investigating. May track down another door switch to operate the interior light from the passenger door, well it is a VIP model so deserves the best.

Good to meet you yesterday Jerry, I'm glad you made it home safe and that the V.I.P has gone to a good home where it is going to get the TLC it deserves!

With regards to the filler neck, it could well have been replaced I guess, although the cap surround is different to any mk2 Panda so I don't think it is a later part and could be original? Could do with some original V.I.P press photos to see what they had.

Been trying to find some pics of the v.i.p but don't show that side.
Maybe if someone has a brochure it may have a piccy.
Meanwhile been cleaning the engine bay on the offside, so that's the rear of the front panel, inner wing by the coil, the headlight, the air filter inlet pipe and the top of the air box.
Fitted the mudflaps back to the car again.
Want to treat the underside next weekend while it is still in good shape so will get it on some ramps and hope for some good weather.
Need to get some footwell mats.
Also fitted my disclok to the car.

I don't think we ever got an answer to the fuel cap question. Kev mentioned it in his members motors thread, but I don't recall a definitive answer.

I do know that mk1's had at least 2 different cap designs - both were sticky out, but one much flatter. It's entirely possible that the VIP had another again, but you'd need a brochure really - there are plenty on EBay.

Good work so far man