Pics showing the wheels after a week of autumn driving. Practically spotless!

Looking good.

I see you clean the insides of your wheels ,How is this done as I leave mine alone

I took the wheels off individually and cleaned them inside and out using Auto Glym Alloy Wheel Cleaner, then rinsed and dried. Then applied the ArmorAll Wheel Shield inside and out, and left to dry for a couple of hours. The Wheel Shield gives a hydrophobic coating to the alloys, so that water and dirt slides straight off. In theory, I should just need to rinse any dirt off with water, although the wheels still look completely clean after the first week. The coating should last for about a month. I will report back over the next couple of weeks to let you know if the performance matches the ArmorAll claims.

Well, we've had the car for almost 3 months now, and it's just ticking towards the 1000-mile mark. I've fitted a pair of front mudflaps (universal type from ebay), but I'm unsure how to mount some rear flaps, as the bumper corners are hollow, meaning that you can't screw into any sort of flat vertical surface - anyone got a solution to this?
I've also fitted a iO Talk handsfree kit (got it new off ebay for £17!), which works well and also allows for streaming of music off my phone too.
An update regarding the wheel protector & paintwork shield - The paintwork shield has almost lost it's beading ability. I'll need to redo it this week (still don't think that 2.5 months is bad going though). The wheels stayed clean for longer, but I found that once I'd jetwashed the wheels to get muck off, the protectant must have come off with it. I'll need to redo them too, but I'm looking at switching to winter tyres in the next week, so I'll clean them up once I've removed them, and then ensure that they are scrupulously clean when stored over winter.

milesperhour said:

Ok, so the mods have started... Fitted some red mirror covers today. I'm also expecting a short aerial in the post when I get home. I've also got some genuine fiat carpet mats.
I'm not 100% sure on the red mirrors... So I'm keeping hold of the white covers for now until I've decided whether or not to revert to standard. What do you think?

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You can always change the right side to green.

Something like this idea: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DbBKH6117l8/TIJHMp-E-PI/AAAAAAAABJs/omPUL6IZfmg/s1600/VW-Scirocco-R-0.jpg

I've decided to keep the red mirror covers - they match the red dashboard nicely.
The original white mirror covers have found a new home with Catnash on his Pop.

I'm currently in the process of sourcing some 14" steel wheels to use with winter tyres. Proving to be more problematic than I originally thought. I bought some odd Punto wheels off ebay, but 3 of them were ET48 for a mk1 Punto, and 1 is ET35. I've just got off the phone with a guy who has a set of four punto 5.0x14 wheels, but they are ET33... Ideally I'd get the original panda/500 wheel, but there doesn't seem to be any reasonably priced sets locally (Yorkshire/Lancashire).

Just fitted my Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited bulbs. They are a little whiter than the standard Osram Bilux bulbs, more noticeably so on full beam compared to dip. I tried to take some pictures showing the difference between the old and new bulbs, but it was imperceptable on my smartphone camera. One thing that I thought was unusual was the method that Fiat now use to hold the bulbs in place - it always used to be a sprung wire bracket which hinged down out of the way, but this car has three metal tabs which need to be deflected out in order to get the headlamp bulb out. I had to use a screwdriver to give enough force to move the tab, and the n/s headlamp isn't easy to access because of the fuse box location.

I will get to test if they are any better than my old bulbs when I drive home tonight. Until then, I will reserve judgement.

milesperhour said:

I've decided to keep the red mirror covers - they match the red dashboard nicely.
The original white mirror covers have found a new home with Catnash on his Pop.

I'm currently in the process of sourcing some 14" steel wheels to use with winter tyres. Proving to be more problematic than I originally thought. I bought some odd Punto wheels off ebay, but 3 of them were ET48 for a mk1 Punto, and 1 is ET35. I've just got off the phone with a guy who has a set of four punto 5.0x14 wheels, but they are ET33... Ideally I'd get the original panda/500 wheel, but there doesn't seem to be any reasonably priced sets locally (Yorkshire/Lancashire).

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You can also use 6x15" ET 31 Barchetta wheels, and use the same winter tire size as summer 185/55R15" tire size.

Well I've already bought a set of Hankook Winter I*cept Tyres in 175/65R14... so I need to get the 14" wheels to match...

If anyone has a set of Fiat 500 / Panda 14x5.5" ET35 Steel (or alloy?!) wheels, please get in touch.

At the moment i drive with the 5.5x14" steel wheels as my winter set up.
Also have a set 6x15 ET 31 Barchetta steel wheels stored.

milesperhour said:

Well I've already bought a set of Hankook Winter I*cept Tyres in 175/65R14... so I need to get the 14" wheels to match...

If anyone has a set of Fiat 500 / Panda 14x5.5" ET35 Steel (or alloy?!) wheels, please get in touch.

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I've got a set of steelies from a 500 Pop if you're still looking?

impromptuandy said:

I've got a set of steelies from a 500 Pop if you're still looking?

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I sure am, I've sent you a PM to discuss.
Thanks!

Finally ended up with a set of 14x6" Alessio Montecarlo alloys to use with my Hankook I*cept RS winter tyres. The wheels were a bit scraped and scuffed when I bought them off ebay (albeit only cost me £60), so I sanded them down, sorted out the damage, and resprayed them with rattle cans from Halfords. They've turned out ok, but the Halfords "Silver" alloy wheel paint turns out more like gunmetal, so thankfully I didn't go for the anthracite (as that would probably have come out black!).
Pics to follow once I've got them off my phone.

In primer, then after paint.

Apologies for the poor picture quality - the camera on my phone has broken, so I can only use the low-res user-facing camera! I'll try to take a better one later, because the colour is so rubbish on this picture!

Ok, so the wheel weights caught on the handbrake bracket... I never thought of the problem before, but it is because the standard 14" steels are 5.5" wide, not 6", and the offset of these alloys was et38 instead of et35. So a pair of 3mm spacers from halfords were required, purchased, and fitted. Problem solved. Just another example of me trying to save money by buying 2nd hand, and ending up costing me more...

Been busy with our new 500l trekking this past few weeks, which we love by the way. Gave the panda a good clean and polish last weekend, and it looking new again.
Though I should post a couple of pictures showing the mudflaps which I got off eBay and fitted a while ago. They do seem to really stop a lot of the muck from spraying up the doors and the rear of the car.

Some pics of our perfect 2 car solution...

You lucky thing, I had 500L envy when we were buying our Panda. They had a lovely yellow Trekking in the showroom, my fave colour! Maybe we'll upgrade to one when we reach the end of the PCP on the Panda lol.