https://www.fiatforum.com/auction-watch/215832-another-red-mania-birmingham-4.html?p=2337798

I decided to start a new thread for the rest of the work on Charmania here, in the classic Panda section, where it should be, I was feeling out on a limb charting progress on the thread shown above, and as the work is closely linked to what I'm doing to my 1000CL in ' Farm hack rescue', it seemed neater to have them both here.

The link above takes us from ebay listing, through purchase, mot work, to legally in use. From here on I shall cover the fun stuff while I try to make her look a bit more sporty, hope it's of interest to some of you.

Watching both with interest, Vern!

I thought of you this morning working on your cars in the cold when I started mine (first time) at -5.....

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Pandarus said:

Watching both with interest, Vern!

I thought of you this morning working on your cars in the cold when I started mine (first time) at -5.....

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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Yeah me too. Poppi was covered in frost. First turn of the key and she fired up.

Pandarus said:

Watching both with interest, Vern!

I thought of you this morning working on your cars in the cold when I started mine (first time) at -5.....

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Click to expand...

Yes, it's certainly not the best time to be doing this sort of thing, but now I've given myself two threads to feed I'll just have to dig out my thermals . Today, however, I will be mostly doing my day job .

i'm to wimpy to go outside. still need to clean all that mud!

Apart from the alfa alloys and painiting the bottom of the doors dark red what else have you got planned?

CLXCraig said:

i'm to wimpy to go outside. still need to clean all that mud!

Apart from the Alfa alloys and painiting the bottom of the doors dark red what else have you got planned?

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Well that's now destined for the other car along with some gold details (the Alfa wheels will be sprayed gold too), a good sort out of the interior along with some upgrades.

This one will get the 127 sport wheels, a different side stripe, sportier interior etc.

Neither car will be as radical as my 750L, which I also have to finish, as that was aimed to test and practice skills I'd never used but always wanted to have a go at. These two will be quick and easy by comparison but, hopefully, will stand out from the crowd in a good way.

Beauty, of course, is always in the eye of the beholder, and most of the non Panda owning population should have gone to specsavers .

Not much to report from yesterday, I was too busy at work, but did clock up another 120 miles of enjoyable motoring. The standard wheels may be skinny, I've got wider alloys on both of the others currently in use, but they are better on the motorway as they don't stress the suspension as much and create wheel wobble over 70mph. From my experience wider wheels and tyres + less than perfect standard suspension gives high speed vibration, Lewey and I discussed this when I first started posting. I think, Lewey, that your uprated setup must be the solution to this one, but welcome any suggestions as I'd like to get to the bottom of this one as all of my Pandas will be wearing bigger boots.

Apart from the different look of alloys, up grading from 135's to something more substantial has great safety implications, I know the standard tyres were the major contributor to the rolling of my very first Panda 15 years ago! It must be a bit like the difference between walking in high heels or trainers, I can only speculate of course .

One bit of good news though, I won a front hub/bearing assembly on ebay for £6.70 inc. p&p, I think these are normally about 40 quid, so result .
The current bearing will have to grumble on till I do the suspension though as it makes sense to change it then.

Right, I've got a little time today so better get out there!

Removed back seat and passenger seat yesterday, but left the drivers as I'll be using her between now and the new ones going in.

The interior cleaned up quite well in the end so if anyone needs the old seats, they are available. The drivers seat has sagged a little and it has a small ciggy burn, but everything else is quite good.........



Just so that those in the future don't have to go through the link at the beginning of this thread to see what has been done so far, here is a quick summary, starting with a couple of pictures taken yesterday..............




And one from the first day of purchase.............





£103.00 purchase price.
£ 20.00 fuel for collecting.
£ 31.41 exhaust tailpipe.
£ 80.00 welding.
£ 5.75 4x spark plugs.
£ 2.50.
£ 13.10 4lts semi synthetic oil.
£ 1.99 air freshener.
£ 6.70 hub bearing kit.

£264.45 Total.


Now has 12 months mot and is in use.

You've done so much. Looks fookin amazing mate! Well done- If only i was as capable with my spare time

Blurredman said:

You've done so much. Looks fookin amazing mate! Well done- If only i was as capable with my spare time

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Cheers, but plenty more to come from her yet .

I remembered to put the radio on today, haven't had a working one in a Panda before.
The rear speakers don't work at all, o/s/f works on low volumes, otherwise it distorts like crazy, and the n/s/f joins in for a few seconds if I go over a large enough bump. Think I'd rather listen to the wheel bearing .

Really starting to come together Vern, with a little tlc it's looking really cared for and shiney

Wow, so now its taxed and legal to play with on the road-what are you gonna do with it? keep it? sell?

You've rescued a car which would otherwise have been scrapped. Of course, it cost maybe a bit more at the end of the day- but its rust free for the time being and is perfectly sound in every way!

The beauty of fitting speakers into the panda Vernon is its so easy! no dash or big bits of trim to move or get in the way. Few screws and the carpet is up and you can hide any cables down there.

I stuck the parcel shelf that came with the fizz back in the other day and the difference is incredible.

Still need to find time to do a full build

Blurredman said:

Wow, so now its taxed and legal to play with on the road-what are you gonna do with it? keep it? sell?

You've rescued a car which would otherwise have been scrapped. Of course, it cost maybe a bit more at the end of the day- but its rust free for the time being and is perfectly sound in every way!

Click to expand...

Yep, it's a great little car, I'm really enjoying using it while I do all this work.
As for what happens when it's finished? Well that could be a little complicated.You see this is my Daughters car, even though I found it and am doing all the work, so when it's done it will be going to her in Hereford and I will get my 750L back. But this may be short lived as she may prefer Farmyard ( as I now call it ) when it's finished, in which case she's welcome to swap. Whichever one she doesn't have will then be sold, after I've had a bit of fun first .

I stuck the parcel shelf that came with the fizz back in the other day and the difference is incredible.

Click to expand...

That's good to know, I'll look forward to getting mine working .

Had some time for Pandas this weekend, so first job was to fit a set of brake pads to a Ford Transit. Bare with me.
In case you hadn't noticed, it was a bit nippy out there, so I struck a deal with a mate. I'll fit his brake pads if I can use his workshop. Still no heating mind, but at least it was out of the wind.

Next job was to get out the upholstery cleaner and give the front seats I was given the once over, then a twice over, and probably a third. They were very dirty, no wonder he gave them away! Still, they will suit very well once they're added to the interior from Farmyard so I'll keep going.

The next job took some thinking about, removing the Mania stripes. They were in very good condition so it seemed a shame to lose them, but they weren't saying 'sporty' so had to go. I hope there are a few other Manias about to fly the flag. I did take some photos first though, for future reference.

Sorry, got logged out, here they are......






So it was out with the hot air gun, not too much or they'd just snap off every centimetre. Get it right though and I could get a run of 6" if I was lucky.

Here she is stripeless, but only temporarily.........



On my 750L I painted the stripes, I chose to do this because my design was not available off the shelf and was much cheaper than having them specially made up.
The stripe I have in mind for Charmania though is easy to do from off the shelf Kits, and is cheap. Also, If I or a future owner prefers it without them, it will be easy to revert back. So this evening I ordered the following items from ebay.

Twin 150mm viper stripes in silver.
Twin 150mm viper bonnet stripes in dark grey.
Single 6mm pinstripe in dark grey.

Looking forward to thier arrival.

None of those eBay links have worked Vernon.