Panda Mr & Mrs Blu's Panda 100hp

blu73 said:

so did you sell [John the CDA that was on your car... I might have just read your 100hp through lol... I notice the standard wheels you had have the same tyres as mine does, i know John bought some wheels from someone so maybe it was you...

Did you sell the 100hp in the end?

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Ahaa It was me yes

Still got the Panda, for now (I've been saying that for at least a year now!)

Re: Mr & Mrs Blu's Panda 100hp

So one of the tabs on the ring base for the gaiter is snapped off, that will be why it came out so easy then lol... I'll keep my eye out for pandas in scrappers so I can grab another sometime.

That said, it's all fitted and looks pretty decent.



Just need to paint the little plastic top piece now...

If you are still after a name for the car we called it Baymax which me and Beth thought was rather fitting

yeah i know mate... I only watched Big Hero 6 last Friday for first time. I do like it but i think Amy wants a more Star Wars themed name, not put much thought into it yet though.. I don't mind Baymax but we will see, I will of course update the thread when its decided.

I guess "Jabba the Hut" is a bit long for a car name.

Where'd you get the pressed plates from btw?

Eklipze3k said:

Where'd you get the pressed plates from btw?

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From here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272742156603
They are good quality, its what was on Amy's 500 before we got the 100hp, I also have a set for Charmander. Luke and Amber have since also got a set and all are tip top. I like them mainly cause the the makers name and BS number are such a light grey that you just cant really see them unless you go in to look.

And the italian flag plate holders are from Poland lol.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262970150681

Nice, I'm not convinced the plate holders will work on the front of the Alfa with the curve but might buy some anyway and see

I dunno, i think as its curved you should buy some holders.. even 3M tape which is miles better than the cheap crap stuff that comes with plates struggles to hold plates on a curve.. The cheap stuff that comes with the plates, dont even bother using that, Lukes rear plate is coming off and thats on a flat bit lol. 3M stuff held them on the 500 good and proper but hardly any curve to where the plates go. I guess you could spend a while trying to curve the plate to match the bumper though... Hmmmmm

In other news, noticed from time to time the starter solenoid sticks open for a couple of seconds after starting.. Not really a big issue yet but ordered a genuine fiat re-manufactured starter.

Eklipze3k said:

Nice, I'm not convinced the plate holders will work on the front of the Alfa with the curve but might buy some anyway and see

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I need to get round to getting my plates on the G, gonna be using plate holders so will find out!

Freebo said:

I need to get round to getting my plates on the G, gonna be using plate holders so will find out!

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We'll have to get them together soon for some pics

yeah you can hang out together, you'll be like the crap wheel club :nerner:

blu73 said:

yeah you can hang out together, like the crap wheel club :nerner:

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well, not much to report on this car really but as i havent posted on here in a while i feel i should update lol..

since last post its had a few washes, properly cleaned inside finally. Has had new oil and filter. I've got new spark plugs as looking in the history it seems its about time for that. Its developed a exhaust leak from the flexi section so will look at getting a replacement soon. The starter doesnt always disengage the solenoid when you start it so it screeches a touch when you start from cold, got a new genuine starter on ebay for a steal but yet to fit that.

erm, what else. Oh I got a puncture thanks to a pothole and as i'm not overly impressed with goodyear eagle f1 tyres i changed both rear tyres to nexen su1 (what i run on my suzuki atm) and they are defo quieter and imo just better all round tyre for less money, fronts will get changed to same when they need changing (prob soon looking at them).

Ah yes, also took the bilstein shocks off the back and tigersealed the top bushes, mainly cause there is a knock and i thought that might be it, alas it wasnt that - but it does drive ten times better without all the slop in the shock bushes so no bad thing i did it. The knock i speak of is only noticeable if you are quiet in the car but its defo there - it only does it when there is weight in the back, basically only if someone is sat in back seat. I still not got to the bottom of that but thats cause i need like 2 helpers to do it, one to sit in it, one to rock the car back and forth so i can go underneath and find it cause just using a pry bar etc has got me nowhere so far.

thats all i can think of atm.

Well fitted the BMC CDA that John gave me with the car. It had some damage to the actual carbon part where it had been sitting on the threads poking out the side of the battery tray. So cleaned it up good and proper, light scuff with some sandpaper, filled holes with some liquid metal, left to cure and sanded back a little to neaten it up. Forgot to take any pics of this process though.
Then cut said threads off the battery box (anyone know why they are even there?), Ground flat with Dremel and then lick of black paint.
Obviously while i had the filter apart i cleaned teh filter element and reoiled it - damn it was so disgusting i'm so glad that i did lol.
Then I could finally fit the CDA. I gotta say I'm not hugely impressed with the overall design but overall very happy. Just 2 little things annoy me about it, firstly the CDA itself is so tight in the gap that no matter how many times I fiddled with the bracket I could not get it to fit in the gap and not rub somewhere - in end I've settled with it just touching the front corner of the battery box and wedged a bit of rubber between them (with much difficulty) - hopefully this will prevent future rubbing through the carbon, time will tell I suppose. Secondly the oil breather, it really isn't best position as just couldn't get it on and it not touch the ECU - so bit of spare rubber pipe, cut it open length ways and then around that part of the intake that touches and held on with cable ties, this I'm confident will be fine but can't see why they couldn't have had that branch come from slight further down the pipe or even just at a different angle with a bend in it to get across to the factory breather pipe.


Fitted pic but is before I added my little rubber protection bits.

So despite my little quibbles I am kinda amazed how different it sounds, I mean I knew it would but the pandas little resonator section is clearly a very well designed one, never know an air filter to make such a huge difference in sound. Yes it's probably picked up a teeny tiny amount of power but not enough to really feel but the placebo is real lol. I suspect the mpg's will go down a bit while it becomes normal, currently can't help myself flooring it all the time cause of the noise it now makes haha.

Now the engine bay looks dirty cause you can actually see the engine now so got some cleaning up to do, maybe one day I will actually get around to it lol.

New mid pipe ordered but not arrived as of yet, apparently will be delivered today. I also decided to change the backbox, nothing actually wrong with it atm other than being super crusty and ugly really but can see it having issues in next year or 2. So as I'm changing mid pipe may as well do it all at once.. ordered one of the Ulter rear boxes with the smaller available tailpipe (80mm iirc). So will wait for the rear box to arrive before doing the midpipe.

Other than that... Still need to change starter and whole car needs cleaning.

Well that's the midpipe arrived..



Quite impressed with quality of it for a pattern part tbh. Now do I just whack this on or do I get some vht paint so it lasts longer even though I'm sure it'll last longer than we own the panda as is... Mmmmm tricky one lol.

So should have updated this but i forgot.

The back box arrived as well, its an Ulter one. So heres it and the mid pipe.


Taking the old exhaust off.


And off.


New mid pipe fitted.


And back box on.


How it sits, not quite central but I'm happy with it, its the actual midpipe causing this to not sit perfectly in middle of the hole rather than the actual back box, but I quite like how it sits so I'm leaving it.



Recently I went to a local scrap yard cause was told there was a panda there. All i wanted, if you recall me saying earlier in the thread, was the ring for the bottom of the gear gaiter as mine has one clip broken and the gaiter doesnt sit quite right as a result. Got that

But the added bonus was it had longitudinal roof bars too. I got the gaiter ring and the roof bars for £10, WIN!

Couple of pics with the roof bars (the Abarth is my mums car)



Only other updates I can think of is its had new oil and filter not long back, and new spark plugs. During which i discovered, like most probably, the coil plugs are a bit buggered and one of the coils is damaged where the plug plugs in. It doesnt seem to be causing any issues at all but I have 4 new NGK coils to go on and also got some new plugs so I can de-pin the plugs and put nice new not broken ones on there. Just havent got around to that yet but soon.

Right, think that everything upto date.

I'm extremely jealous of the roof bars!!

Yeah they were such a bargain! I really should have spent the time to paint them before I fitted them as they are a bit faded, what can I say, I got a bit excited lol

blu73 said:

Yeah they were such a bargain! I really should have spent the time to paint them before I fitted them as they are a bit faded, what can I say, I got a bit excited lol

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Exactly what I would have done!