Well where should I start.

Myself and dad have been incredibly busy working on the Panda's over the last 10 days or so.

Firstly, dad's new Selecta is now Taxed and his daily run about, all good there. She also had the timing belt changed on 2nd Sept, so that's good, and she's off to see a body work specialist on Monday week to have the odd blemish, and a spot of rust on the drivers rear wheel arch sorted so that she is 100% imaculate!

My Selecta has also been worked on. The bumper origionally from Alan.D is now fitted, and the headlamp washing kit all installed and fully operational

We managed to get the Damaged bumper off of my Selecta just about and I think this pic says it all


The bracket that took the smack when I hit the transit looked like this


and should have looked like this


It had also slightly bent the front pannel of the car where the bracket bolt's on, but with some brute strength and ignorance, we managed to be it back so the replacement bracket went on straight

Luckily we managed to use all the mounting bracket's and clips etc from our Donor 750L Panda, so I didn't need to order any new brackets and bits from our Fiat dealership.

Before the bumper went back on I then had to move the air horn's from their origional place, because they were located where the washer bottle was to go, so I removed to origional horn, and replaced it with one of the air horns as the pair wouldn't fit behind the bumper with their origional bracket


Once the bumper was on, I then fitted the headlamp washer bottle and then wired in the pump.


I did try and wire in the system with a relay so the headlamp washers were only operated with the screen washer when the headlamp's were on, but I got a relay which opened a circuit instead of close a circuit, so until I get the correct relay, they work all the time with the operation of the screen washer at the mo.

And the end result is this


And here is a pic of both of the Selecta's together out on the road. Just ashame about the weather


Jon.

Awww.... dont they look well!!!

So whats with the whole family driving panda's then?

(you've probably told us but I've forgotten)

Jim

e505jpy said:

Awww.... dont they look well!!!

So whats with the whole family driving panda's then?

(you've probably told us but I've forgotten)

Jim

Click to expand...

I don't know really. Dad got the 750L in Sept 2000 from a friend of his with only 35k on the clock for only £200 as the 2nd hand market had slumped, and his friend was actually going to scrap it even though it was a perfectly good car

Then in 2004/2005 we saw a 1000CL in the same colour looking sorry for it self advertised at £100. So we enquired and brought it for £80. I think the NI plate appealed . It had everything thing wrong with it (at this point we knew nothing about Panda's, or much about car's ). Had load's of welding for the following MOT, then started to make a grinding noise in the gearbox, only to be a leaking CV boot resulting in loss of gearbox oil. A friendly chap at the garage we took it to said 'If it were mine, I'd scrap it', so we politly pointed out it wasn't his, and told him to F off

Then she had the bushes on the rear shocks go. Followed by a brake calliper. Then the accelerator cable, the other caliper, and then ended up with a problem with the carb, which we had cleaned out and re-tuned, but hasn't helped .

During all this, the poor 1000CL was also getting knocked left right and center. She's been forced up the side of a roundabout by a lorry (and it still hit her, see my gallery) and had a old boy in a vauxhall reverse into the front of her.

I then saw my Selecta on eBay with on 15500 miles on the clock and snapped it up with the BIN. This was July/Aug 07. At this point the 750L was still my daily drive. Come Sept 07 the Selecta then became my daily drive and the 750L is having 2 year's out until my sister passes her test (hopefully sometime after March next year) and then she'll become her daily run about. Oh yea, and the 35,000mile 750L we brought has now got 113K on the clock, and is still running sweet as a nut .

Then I mention dad wanting a Selecta because he liked mine (and I think he was wound up that my 1108cc Panda had a bigger engine than his 999cc Panda and mums 998cc Yaris ). Then 'Carlt' said he had got one he was wanting to sell, and things went from there. Collect that Selecta back in July/July, and come the first of this month, she was Taxed, and is now dad's daily drive.

So we're currently going around in 2 white Selecta's and really confusing everyone. And am planning to do it even better when 'the plan' of making them identicle falls into place :yum:

Unfortunatly mum isn't a Panda enthusiast like us, and prefer's her Y-reg Yaris, which is fair enough. She will be a passenger in a Panda, but in the 8 year's we've had one in the family, has yet to drive one

So that's the story really. SO FAR.............

1. Sept 1989 F-reg 750L brought in Sept 2000 with 35k on clock - current mileage 113k
2. 1991 (we think) NI plated 1000CL, brought 2004/2005 with about 85k on the clock I think - current mileage 117k
3. July 1993 K-reg Selecta (1108cc), brought Aug 2007 with 15,500 on the clock - current mileage 30,600 and constantly counting.
4. June 1993 K-reg Selecta (1108cc), brought June 2008 with 17k on the clock - current mileage 17500 miles, and counting slower than the above Selecta

Jon.

Ah... reads like poetry

Man, thats some hardcore panda'ing there. I thought I had it bad

Your mum will come round soon I'm sure She'll be hooked the second she drives one

Si

lightweightmick said:

Ah... reads like poetry

Click to expand...

Lol, reading it back, dosen't seem to bad concidering I wrote it at 3am

pandamonius_maximus said:

Man, thats some hardcore panda'ing there. I thought I had it bad

Click to expand...

I don't know, We've been lucky on the rust front, nothing to bad or structurally damaging (appart from sills). You've done bloody good job's with it around the windscreen etc on your Panda's!

Jon.

It's all good - but this bit's the best:

'If it were mine, I'd scrap it', so we politly pointed out it wasn't his, and told him to F off

lightweightmick said:

It's all good - but this bit's the best:

'If it were mine, I'd scrap it', so we politly pointed out it wasn't his, and told him to F off

Click to expand...

Lol, yes, very much so he still condent understand why we'd spend money on a car in such a state, but at the end of the day, if something has been fixed, it shoudn't need doing again, but if you get another 2nd hand car, you could have exactly the same problems!

Jon.

Some more pic's of the headlamp washing kit;




Anyway's, we've finally started on the body work on my Selecta. Dad started on the rust on the wing, and I got the old polish out.

At this point I want to thank MandaPanda for recomend such a great product, Turtle Wax Ice (as in pic below)

This stuff really seems amazing, with little work, the car really started to shine, and unfortunatly show the parking marks . I've not done much of the car, but what came up best so far is the rear bumper



Only question I have, if anyone knows why it says one the packet 'Do not use on windows' Now I normally would follow instructions, but got a bit carried away, and done some of the windows , It's not going to cause any damage is it

As said previously in the post, dad was busy sorting out the rust on the wing so thought I'd take a few more pic's to post;

The wing after the rust preventer had been applied to it.


The wing with lots of filler.

Looking better already. Now all smothed down, and although not painted looks much better than bear rust. Shall be finished tomorrow hopefully.

That's all for now

Jon.