Greetings, Citizens.

Last week's 5th gear call involved a very hurried clean-up of the Panda (although the old girl still scrubs up quite nicely), but I didn't have time to do anything about the wheel trims on the near side.. they've obviously been kerbed a couple of times (before I bought it, I hasten to add) and the paint hasn't come out of it too well.

I bought a couple of sets of trims off eBay (Panda and Cinq) some time back, couple of ratty ones but thought I could get a good set out of the lot. I've been painting them up today so it's photo time...

First of all, the Cinq ones. I like the simplicity of the design, but once they were on (somewhat badly painted, it has to be said, I sanded and primed them but they were just blown over with some silver) I thought they didn't suit the car. Maybe if they were body coloured it would work better, but I wasn't happy. However, in the cause of science I took a photo in case anyone else was thinking of fitting them. For the record, the valve/wheel bolt orientation is different to the Panda trims, so you can't line up the tyre valve with the enlarged hole in the wheel trim. Annoying.



After I decided that they weren't for me, I was a case of getting a refurbished set of Panda ones. I managed to get a half decent paint job done at the second attempt and they now look quite spiffy..



I still managed to scratch one as I was fitting it though as the paint was still soft, so I'll being doing them again at some point over the weekend . What fool decided it was a good idea to bolt the wheels on through the trims?

Cheers,

Plug

2nd set look much better. Agree with the bolt thing, it's a pain in the arse.

I agree with fuzzy but i prefer the original look

at least they don't get nicked

I prefer them bolting on the wheels through the trims. Like Martin said, they can't get nicked and it also stops them breaking free and making off in another direction to the car.

The Panda trims look much better, the Cinq ones don't suit it at all. Looking good.

:yeahthat: even though i'm a bit of a hypocrite and bought a set of alloys for CLX

Alan.D said:

:yeahthat: even though i'm a bit of a hypocrite and bought a set of alloys for CLX

Click to expand...

When all is said and done, a nice set of alloys improves the look of any car, even a Panda.

Glad the 2 sets of wheel trims you bought off us earlier in the year have gone to good use.

Second set look best !

Alan were those the ones you bought not knowing if they were going to fit or not?

look nice either way...

They are yes, they have gone to an engineering company to expand the the hub size as they were a bit small.

New trims look much better, i liked the way the wheels bolt on through the trims. Stops them falling off whist you're driving along. Made me wonder why nobody else uses this method

Steven said:

When all is said and done, a nice set of alloys improves the look of any car, even a Panda.

Click to expand...

totally agree, Steve

makes the panda look a little mean and racey...

Alan.D said:

View attachment 26328

Click to expand...

Damn Blast & F**k it all, got them back & they now fit the hub but won't fit over the calipers on the selecta not sure if they will fit the 4x4 as dics & calipers are slightly smaller

So far owe me £51 for the alloys, £40 for the engineering & £24 for the wobbly bolts

Just thinking I might get away with 5mm Spacers? although I really don't like them.

Bad luck Alan. If all else fails you might get your money back on eBay for them.

you'll probably need longer bolts to go with the spacers Alan... the good news is there seems to be plenty of empty space behind the brakes to screw through.

bad luck with the calipers... and it'll get worse when you have tyres fitted, as they use the area where the calipers pass close to the wheel for the lead weights.

I do mate tried the only spacers they had a available to experiment 10mm which were too big and covered the entire hub so the wheel couldn't centre & the bolts were no where near. So will have another look soon. I know about the weights as willie threw a few last time his alloys were ballanced.

Scrapped the idea of the spacers etc and took it to a friendly garage to see exactly why they aren't fitting and it's only the top & bottom 2mm of the caliper mounting that's catching so I'm going to get it shaved as per pic the caliper itself is fine & not touching so will go looking for a mate with an angle grinder tomorrow

Sorry Garry for Hijacking your thread BUT finally got the alloys to fit :woot:

I get the feeling that there may be very slight rubbing due to the limited clearance on the caliper mount but can't see it being a problem

Alan.D said:

Sorry Garry for Hijacking your thread BUT finally got the alloys to fit :woot:

I get the feeling that there may be very slight rubbing due to the limited clearance on the caliper mount but can't see it being a problem

Click to expand...

nah!!!... you'll be fine.

just don't brake too hard or you may snap the weakened caliper brackets

and while we're talking wheels... got the nankangs on and boy oh boy do they make the steering lighter. that smaller radius means the speedo is 3.8% more than actual speed. 155/65/13 vs 165/55/13 if the standard is 155/60/13 then it's 0.9% exaggerating. the steering is so light now it's begging to be thrown round corners.

I want a Y10 anti-roll bar for my birthday now.