General .....long live the Panda

[The Beard]

After 12 years and 112,000 miles I've decided that my '05 Panda MJ and I were going to have to part company. After a couple of years I thought about changing for a newer model 12 months or so in the future. I then decided that I would keep her until I came out one morning to find a pile of iron oxide and four alloy wheels on the road.

It hasn't come to that, but as the starter motor had started making the odd screeching noise, the steering has suddenly started getting heavier and there is a rather worrying patch of rust on the nearside rear sill, it's time to change. Even though it would be another 50,000 miles before the cam chain needs replacing again and the clutch was only just replaced 1,500 miles ago, I decided that the likelihood of having to spend several hundred pounds replacing the steering gear, starter motor and dealing with the sill as well as needing a new back box and having to have remedial work on the previously repaired rusty tailgate meant that on balance, it was time to part company.

So the Panda is dead............

Long live the Panda..............

A black '63 plate Panda 1.2 Easy is my choice to replace the MJ. First registered in September 2013 as a demonstrator by Stoneacre and then bought by the service manager for his wife, the car has spent all its life so far less than a mile from where we live and has three service stamps in the book.

As offered for sale it was the blackest car I've ever seen this side of a drug dealer's Audi with no chrome and its original silver wheel trims replaced with black halford-esque covers.

Part of the deal was that the alloys from my old car could be put on the new one and as the newer one also had matching Contis with only 18,000 miles on them, as opposed to my mixed Vredestein/Avons with considerably less tread the rubber these were also changed. The Easy now looks less black than it was, in fact the old metallic blue Panda looked quite good with the black trims.

The next thing I have to decide is should I try and make it look even less black by fitting red mirror covers and maybe even matching red roof rails. But, there is a cost, namely somewhere north of £200.

I'll try and post some images of the new car and invite opinion as to whether it should stay unadorned or whether I should spend Mrs. Beard's housekeeping on some red plastic.

 

[Goudrons]

Start with the red mirror caps.
Seen them on fleabay for £30.

Wrap the roof and the panel above the rear window on the tailgate with matching red vinyl and leave the rails black.

The darker, diamond cut alloys from the Antarctica would look good too, though they aren't cheap, use a set of red centre caps.

I saw a similar setup on a new Swift recently, though it was dark grey and the red on the tailgate was a spoiler. The dark diamond cut alloys had red decals on them, it did look very smart.

I presume the seats are red trimmed, what about the dash panel and door panels? You can get red ones of those, shop around the breakers.

Bin the orange bulbs in the front indicators for chrome ones.
I did this with my Antarctica, it rids the front of that cross eyed look you get with the orange bulbs inboard of the headlamps standing out.
There's no real need for the rears, the orange ones don't stand out that much.

I saw some Italian flag badges on the front wings of a 500 recently (part number 50901681), curved rather than square.
I don't think they'd work on a lighter coloured car, but on a dark or black one they'd break up the plan dark side view.

Finally, tint the rear windows.

 

[oyumurtaci]

There were also some sticker packs in the Panda brochure if I'm not mistaken. Might spruce the black up a little more.

 

[AB100]

As cheap as they come and 'andsome with it. Your existing tyres may even fit on these.


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SET-OF-F...783781?hash=item569d82d1e5:g:sSsAAOSwhilZZNvt

 

[The Panda Nut]

After 12 years and 112,000 miles I've decided that my '05 Panda MJ and I were going to have to part company. After a couple of years I thought about changing for a newer model 12 months or so in the future. I then decided that I would keep her until I came out one morning to find a pile of iron oxide and four alloy wheels on the road.

It hasn't come to that, but as the starter motor had started making the odd screeching noise, the steering has suddenly started getting heavier and there is a rather worrying patch of rust on the nearside rear sill, it's time to change. Even though it would be another 50,000 miles before the cam chain needs replacing again and the clutch was only just replaced 1,500 miles ago, I decided that the likelihood of having to spend several hundred pounds replacing the steering gear, starter motor and dealing with the sill as well as needing a new back box and having to have remedial work on the previously repaired rusty tailgate meant that on balance, it was time to part company.

So the Panda is dead............

Long live the Panda..............

A black '63 plate Panda 1.2 Easy is my choice to replace the MJ. First registered in September 2013 as a demonstrator by Stoneacre and then bought by the service manager for his wife, the car has spent all its life so far less than a mile from where we live and has three service stamps in the book.

As offered for sale it was the blackest car I've ever seen this side of a drug dealer's Audi with no chrome and its original silver wheel trims replaced with black halford-esque covers.

Part of the deal was that the alloys from my old car could be put on the new one and as the newer one also had matching Contis with only 18,000 miles on them, as opposed to my mixed Vredestein/Avons with considerably less tread the rubber these were also changed. The Easy now looks less black than it was, in fact the old metallic blue Panda looked quite good with the black trims.

The next thing I have to decide is should I try and make it look even less black by fitting red mirror covers and maybe even matching red roof rails. But, there is a cost, namely somewhere north of £200.

I'll try and post some images of the new car and invite opinion as to whether it should stay unadorned or whether I should spend Mrs. Beard's housekeeping on some red plastic.

Keep trawling Ebay as these things keep coming up for less. There are some good deals from some dealers on the net as well. I too am tempted to add some colour but on my dark blue one none of the colours seems to be a good match. I do think the red on black looks good and cheers things up abit too. I hope the new car does you proud.