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Panda (Classic) BEX, The Blue Sisley 4x4.

Introduction

After spotting Bex on Ebay a few minuets after the ad was posted i made >>This<< post requesting the car to be saved.

after showing my mum, she said i could have it. rather than it being broken and parts sold off it, with intent to fix it up (gearbox failure being the reason why it was off the road.. however read on for a bit of a twist.) and after repairing it, selling it on to help fund my addiction. (aka the quest to make Talon the perfect panda).

So now i have a wild Bex parked on the driveway.

Bex is a previous Forum car. the original thread can be found >>Here<<.

Sadly, somehow in the last year Bex has had it a little rough!
There's a hole in the sill (not rust but a puncher wound!)
Each lock has a different key, (drivers door lock opens with any key!)
The filler pipe has been damaged by some fuel thief. (thankfully not the plastic pipe, only the rubber seal.)
and there's a dent in the sill (that i can pull out using a tack weld dent puller)

also the wheel arches have started to go that tell tale bronzey orange stain in some parts telling me that rust is trying to set in and kill off that nice new respray it had not long back. think i will have caught it in time though.
sadly the underseal used on the car (if any) after the previous repairs was not very good :( i am not sure what was used but the last 3 years of time it has washed it all off back to bare metal.

the gearbox.. hmm though i have only been able to test this with the engine off, all gears seem to be there. its a bit stiff and has the tell tale sign of a snapped weld on the nut on top of the connecting arm. (loads of play in and out of gears.. fine moving left and right on the box though.) will check oil levels and CV boot conditions tomorrow in daylight.

ill add photos in a bit.. again in daylight. and yes, again ill be doing video logs on the Bex's progress.

least this one seems like easy fixes. just tidying up. nothing structural. the important thing is that the doors are in good condition! yey a panda with no rusty doors!!

here are the photos:



















Nice one Dragon Man, well done for saving it! Sounds like it might be the easiest one yet for you! Hopefully ;) Did it come with a back seat? Couldn't see any in the photos on ebay. Looking forward to some decent photos later (y)
 
John - congrats on your new purchase :thumbup:

Check the gear linkage arm under the car, the stepped one which joins the main long shaft from the gear lever. If this stepped arm is bent up from off-roading damage it will cause the stiffness that you are talking about. The whole linkage is easily removed from underneath - you don't even have to undo the welded nut. All the bushes for the linkage are still available from Fiat for not alot of spendage :)

Might be worth a try with the linkage before taking the box in bits :)
 
well, i dont really know what to say besides filler.. rust.. and no undersealing. so i guess ill just let you guys see for yourselves.

















bottom of drivers door:


and a pile of ex..BEX on the driveway...


is it just me.. or am i a rust magnet?

i would have had pictures of it before i cut the sill off but naturally my phone was flat. even though it came strait off the charger. literally. gods know what happened there.

my hopes of selling the car on after fixing the few small faults for a bit of a fund boost to get Talon looking good have kinda died. oh well, if it was not for bad luck, i would not have any at all.

so.. does anybody know where i can get some new sills from?

edit.. dear gods. i didnt expect sills to be £80 each without postage. things just keep getting better.

so now it turns into a fight to try to break even. its not looking good though.
 
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Damn that is one badly rusted bucket....:( John , I love your enthusiasm towards the small fiats, but did you have a chance to look under the car before buying it or was it just a "movement of the heart" without any reasonable actions? I think you have to be tougher when buying a car. I never buy any old italian piece of iron without checking under the car on a pit or car jack.
 
Not much chance of jacking it up and checking underneath, you'd just watch the top of the jack appear through the floor:eek:
Didn't want to hurt Harlequins feelings at the time but having seen the car just after the respray.....well I wouldn't have bought it then.
 
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Not much chance of jacking it up and checking underneath, you'd just watch the top of the jack appear through the floor:eek:
Didn't want to hurt Harlequins feelings at the time but having seen the car just after the respray.....well I wouldn't have bought it then.

I've just looked at the original thread & my first though was how the **** did it go from that to the pics above in a year??!! :eek:

Clearly it wasn't as good as it looked in the pics, hence your comment about how good it was after the respray.

Having just had really major surgery on my Sisley underneath - VmanC will confirm how bad it was (as will my bank balance :( ), and that's from one that looked really solid & one of the nicer Sisley's before all the holes were revealed. :cry:

Good luck with the work John - it's in good hands. (y)

This and mine should be a timely warning that even the best Sisley's are likely to need serious work to keep them on the road. :hm:
 
yeah i must admit i am super shocked as to how it has achieved that level of rust. its insane. all the previous welds have just dissolved.
i think it only happened because none of it was rust protected..

i only hope that this is a lesson for others. this just shows how essential rust protecting a car after re-constructive repair actually is.

i have taken a bit of a video of the car. kinda got carried away though. so i missed a bit when it came to the "finding the rust" part, mostly due to the fact i lost my camera.

anyway i have been busy all day today so i have not had a chance to play with Bex.

so the hunt to find the cheapest place that would sell me a sill skin is on.

i found one on Ricambio but like i said i find £80 quite steep for a sill skin? without postage.
can anybody recommend me alternate sources?

ill stick the video up when i have rendered it. i have not done any videos for a while so it will be nice to get back in swing with it.
 
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hmm i wish it had the original sills still on it. i bet i could have repaired them more easy.
sigh, filler is a pain in the ass.

been cruising around the "Places, online shops etc for panda parts" sticky thread looking for the cheapest sills.. found one for £80 shipped.

still looking though.
 
As a Sisley the car has inherent 'worth'.
"Don't panic Mr Mannering"

What about cutting cill sections off someones donor. The amount of rust you have you could do a whole floor section/cill transplant.

I am sharing the pleasure in my project. The rust I antisipated is not too bad; but the rust I had to look for............. Had gone on holiday and just left a hole..:bang:
 
hmm i wish it had the original sills still on it. i bet i could have repaired them more easy.
sigh, filler is a pain in the ass.

been cruising around the "Places, online shops etc for panda parts" sticky thread looking for the cheapest sills.. found one for £80 shipped.

still looking though.

I paid £80 each when I bought some a couple of years ago, need to re stock now though. It's not cheap but you have to cut the outer sill off in order to repair what is behind it properly, so I can't see how a repair to the outer sill is possible.

Assuming the respray and upper bodywork is done well, having a solid underside that will last for a few years should make this Panda worth £2000+, now that's got to give you a profit. (y)
 
well i have been looking around online and have found a few places over seas that sell sills quite cheap. like £30 cheap. some ship world wide but others dont say. i have sent emails/messages asking if a shipping cost could be calculated and how much it would be.

shame we could not do a bulk buy of sills... that would knock the price down somewhat, and the shipping!
 
well i have been looking around online and have found a few places over seas that sell sills quite cheap. like £30 cheap. some ship world wide but others dont say. i have sent emails/messages asking if a shipping cost could be calculated and how much it would be.

shame we could not do a bulk buy of sills... that would knock the price down somewhat, and the shipping!

If you are doing a bulk buy John let me know I'll join you and buy some
 
John, if I were you I would replace the door step/jamb aswell, like I did with my Mk1, your sill panels will come with the whole thing and you will get a much better end result, and it will be a whole lot easier as you wont have to seam weld the entire length of the sill. Instead you will only have to plug weld inside the door opening and seam weld the A panel and rear quarter.
 
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