Hello everyone. That would be the story of my currently ongoing project.

Last update 20/10/2020

Vroom Vroom started its life in 1993 as (I believe) 4x4 Trekking model. I don't have a clue how has ended up in Eastern Europe. I got it by very slim chance by what might be its 3rd owner who did some welding respraying (and some changes to the leaf springs (as later I've known) So it was in a not bad shape when I got it. Pretty darn cheap!!!

We needed a second 4x4 car (I had a subaru forester xt 2.5 turbo which I've recently sold) cuz we live bit outside of the city and they do not snowplow the road all the way to my house. Since the subaru was mostly broken by the time i got the panda (totally my fault because of my driving ) I got to drive the panda pretty much every day. I fell in love in the little bouncy, funny looking minecraft model of a car even before realizing what an offroad monster that is. I havent made a lot of pictures at the time but I would post a few from my endevours.







I started going more and more offroad just for the fun of it apart of when covid came and we had lockdown on the cities i managed to get out trough the forrest and hill and skip the lockdown police barriers in order to go paragliding Thanks to the panda! I even managed to climb to some places (not without a damage) where normally some really heavy offroaders go. When they saw me on the top they did not believe their eyes...







Even pulling some friends for a final run down the tracks when the bikepark lifts have closed

Now, everybody keeps telling me what beasts those cars were back in the days. But by my way of driving and the. Current times the panda is rather slow. Since i sold the subaru i decided i would invest into the panda minimum the amout of money i got from selling the subbie. So here we go! Since I don't plan on going much offroad anymore with this panda (i would buy another one) i wanted to make the panda shine!

I'm by no means mechanically educated and everything is in the wrong order (the way i was supposed to do it) so pardon me but I just wanna play with stuff please don't be too harsh else i might like it
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I found those alloy wheels 6J ET 13 R13 from some Alfa Romeo they are pretty slick will need some polishing of n the sides but the panda is really much better in cornering at the moment no clearance issues at all they stick outside a bit in the front but thats ok with the police guys (so far)





Ive found and ordered some wheel cap stickers on ebay but gave the wrong address so i have to reorder them they would look pretty darn good.

As you can see the door was rusted the paint was chipped and generally the looks of it were not good so I had to respray it. The time came before i was thinking it would but yeah I had to do it now... (long story short i could get the respray for free if i pay for the materials).

We started taking stuff out and to my surprise the Panda had very little rust (the previous owner had some places patched up already it needed 2 small ones near the wheel arches and because of the twisting the car of my "offroad" there were 2 minor cracks in the side columns which have been properly welded.




After cleaning the underbody of the car it was sprayed with this


including the back of the car (behind the rear bumper) and tomorrow we are spraying the floor at the back with it





Its some really though stuff!

Panda was a pain to plaster, it had many dents and the top of the car and the hood were the hardest as the metal is pretty soft and was mooving all over but we managed to kit the car and spray it with filler





Them wheels maan!!!







The colour i have chosen is hard to justify from this pictures so you will have to want till its done (we have already resprayed the interior and engine bay)

While the panda is still in the paintshop I found a local upholster who made made me new panels and the under-dash thingy. Its alcantara i think the colour is "aero" a very deep blue (much better live than on the pictures)





Now we wait for the car to get out of the paint shop within the next days and will continue on with the story.

Generally we will respray all plastics as well interior and exterior i have already bought some seats i want to put in and than change everything suspension wise. If time allows i will do 1224 8v engine swap too but lets see how far we will go. Just you wait!

Sprayed the front skirt (infront of the radiator) under the windshield with some mat black polyurethane paint which was left in the paint shop from some previous project




The floor at the back, as well as the side skirts were painted with the same Cobra Paint as the one i've shown above I imagine that that would add some noise/vibration damping.






Tomorrow we are doing final sanding before the body spray (we plan on doing the doors separately)

Ok the body has been sprayed and it looks amaaaazing!!! it took 8 hands base and 2 hands clear as it the colour turned super transparent. Its impossible to get real perspective of the colour as on pictures i cant get to see the metallic particles in the paint but yeah....






I test fitted one of the alcantara pieces



In the sun the car looks pinkinsh trough the camera



Can't wait to get the doors finished.

I've purchased some SilentCoat (sound and vibration) insulation material which i will be putting tomorrow.

Today I have put silent coat to the hood and behind the dash I dont plan to use the original silencer on the hood. I got 3mm silent coat in black


For behind the dash and other areas (doors, floor etc) i took the gray one 2mm) the size of the sheets fitted perfectly on the dash that was nice



I bought 2 seats from Mercedes A class (169) which are really comfy compared to the original. I didnt have my phone with me when we were doing it so no pictures in progress but We just cutted the heels of the railings underneath the seat. and they fitted perfectly side to side with the original slider railings so we welded them together. They feel pretty solid and the sliders work so if i am ever to take more than one passenger in this car i can (hipothetically) squeeze them.

Looks really good. I like the colour. I'm a bit surprised how well the wheels work with the panda, I wouldn't have imagined that.

Seems like your doing a proper job. When I did my camel trophy I didn't have the time or energy to take the whole car apart.

Keep up the good work!

/Albert