So late on news as lots of family crap going on but just a taster...

Panda on a trailer off for media blasting, body work and of course PAINT!





Carb has gone off for reconditioning and the powder coating and rear spring work is ready for collection.

Several boxes of bits arrived and a trip to see Ricambio planned.

Visited Jacob in Scarborough and have a special few parts ready to prep.

More in a few days.

Happy New Year Panda People!

Excellent, this is starting to look great!

Shameless plug for the guys doing all the hard work.

https://m.facebook.com/HRAutoworks/

Count down to wales trip eh ,,, !,, All the best( rebuilds take longer than you expect )

Full Metal Panda (Might Use That?)

So the team at HR Autoworks asked if I wanted to see the media blasting and they didn't have to ask twice!

A 1956 Beatle went in first and boy does it show up previous repairs and Mr Rot.

They have some more images which I will put up later.


These guys come to your site and seem to thoroughly enjoy the whole process despite the cold wet and dusty experience.

So another shameless plug.



Having seen the price of the recon kits decided to have the carb rebuilt and set up professionally. I think it was worth the pennies even if I could have done it here.





Courtesy of Paul at[FONT=&quot] www.weber-carbs.co.uk

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Powder coating and rear springs look lovely so will post some pics of them tomorrow if the sun comes back.

More later!

Full Metal Panda Pt 2

Some before and afters.

The 1956 Beetle and its Italian mate getting ready for strip show.



Engine bay with the gunk from the sound proofing.



Man with a gun...
Aim is to strip the corroded areas, engine bay and as much of the gunk (sorry underseal) on the sills and underneath. The rest of the upper panels are in good order and wont be fully blasted as don't want to make more work.







And the afters.
Another VW in the background going under the sanding machine soon.









Had wondered how we'd get the sun roof out. Well the body needed to be rapidly dried and then primer'ed to stop the rust coming back. Tons of heat and hey presto out the frame pops!



Quick etch primer...





More magic to come.

The powder coating came up .... well sparkly..... as intended.






Engine mounts



Rear springs need a bit more work and taking a risk with coating them but the prep should minimize flaking in use.

Its all about the look I want now and its going to get really Marmite soon.

Thanks for looking!

Tackling The Rot

Few before and after for NS Rear Wing
Have 2 new front panels.
Due to the issue with rear repair patches Ben at HR noticed the arch contour is mirror front to rear so he just used another front wing as metal donor.

So from this...


To this...




More later...

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Sjvarley said:

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Click to expand...

So I read 4 out of 10 so far?

Winging It

Work continues and we are closer to the paint shop that we were a few days back.

Lots of bits in the house as the (small) garage is chocked.

While the panda was away did a rescue job on a friends Yaris (ugh!) needed a longer dip stick (2 liters short) discs pads and coolant (1 litre). Acquired from her sister who apparently meets all the 'girls and cars' sexist standards:bang:. For 3 years she thought an MoT included a service

Anyway few pics of the Panda progress...

Parts and more parts!


Front wing just needed a good spot-weld drill.



Spares?



Riciambo panels pretty good fit!



Now the other side!



Have a good day

Getting The Wings Sorted!

Some more from the body shop guys. Ben has been using the spare front wing panel to good effect on the rears so here's a few job shots.

Front Wing Inners



Off Side Rear Before



After



Off Side Front inner weld



Near Side Arch marked up for the cut.



Then nice stitching on the Near Side rear arch



Then leveled



Floor hole plated.



Front Near Side Arch tidy



Obtained a front set of bars from Jacob in Scarborough. Accident damaged but having access to a foundry for a day or so managed to straighten it up pretty well (bit of help from an artistic steel instructor).:worship:



Then made a bit of artwork to fit. One of those creative course days.





Unlikly to get MoT approval so 4 x M10 bolts welded on to clamp it on for 'show days'...

Go go go you will soon be deep in mud !!! Off roading !!!

Final prep before the paint shop. Clean up underneath and under-seal laid down.



Wing and Arch repairs covered.



Floor Repair already blended in.



Sill will be colour coded as will arches.



Rear end cleaned up well.



Repaired arch blended in well.



Under-body existing under-seal given a bad press by me but was still doing the job. Now supported by a full coating.



Just started to pull the half shafts apart.

Anyone talk to me about getting a full set of CV boots the market seems to be from cheapo to bloody expensive and unclear about what a 'full set' is.

Ta

Looking excellent Derek, I'm impressed with how solid it is. I can supply you with a full set of gaiters, including propshaft if needed. Send me a message.

Full set should be 4 2 inner 2 outer. Usually about £9 each some are rubber some are neopreane which is probably best but yes it’s pretty hard to ones you want from the websites

I did my gaiters last year - I got the 2 gaiters (with the bearings as well) from Ricambio (you can see the inner drive shaft boot kit listed on this page: http://www.ricambio.co.uk/69-fiat/60-classic-panda-1981-to-2002-/483-rubber-boots-and-gaiters) and I got my outer gaiters from Freddy Sounds like you're sorted there if you drop him a message though Looking good!

panda1408 said:

Looking excellent Derek, I'm impressed with how solid it is. I can supply you with a full set of gaiters, including propshaft if needed. Send me a message.

Click to expand...

Have to admit when the blasting started I was expecting a sieve to appear.

PM sent on the gaiters. For some reason it was doing my head in as every one on line had different sizes specs and images.

Sjvarley said:

Go go go you will soon be deep in mud !!! Off roading !!!

Click to expand...

Sincerely hope so. Running gear this weekend then engine and gearbox clean up.
Guy doing the seats let me down so just looking fo someone else to laugh at my ideas. Artistic genius is so often ridiculed

Derek C said:

Sincerely hope so. Running gear this weekend then engine and gearbox clean up.

Guy doing the seats let me down so just looking fo someone else to laugh at my ideas. Artistic genius is so often ridiculed

Click to expand...

But when finished admired.

Spray Booth Time

Well Max and now Harry are well into the best bits.

Setback was the drivers door that is about to get re-skinned.

Anyway a large amount of preparation was underway.

I am getting seriously worried I did enough marking, labeling and photographing to get this all back into a moving vehicle.



Touch of perfection in these guys. Even the film is almost crease free.





Paint Teaser....flake poppin!



Primer applied.







So shaft rebuild underway and Freddy hopefully coming up with the needful.

Thanks for looking.