Hello, I work up in the middle of the night with this great idea.
Rather than trade in my trekking against a 2nd hand 4x4 with high mielage and high prices, just convert it. Can anybody shed light on whether this is a great idea ( or not) and if there are known conversion kits? I am fond of my Panda but I want more! Many thnaks for any comments and suggestions, Oli.:bang:

Welcome, Oli.

How to break this to you gently. You're not the first person to have what seems like a brilliant idea in the wee small hours, only for its attractiveness to fade in the cold light of dawn.

I'm not saying it couldn't in principle be done - everything's possible - but unless you could do the conversion work yourself, the labour costs alone would be absolutely huge, and that's before you factor in the necessary alterations to the chassis, and sourcing the gearbox, axle & drivetrain parts, switchgear etc. There is no way that it would be a cheaper option than chopping in your Trekking for a 4x4.

And why bother? With the Trekking's nifty traction control, and a decent set of M&S tyres, you probably already have 70% of the 4x4's off-road ability.

(There are some threads in the Classic Panda forum on here about converting a 4x2 into a 4x4, but that was a much simpler beast, with a much cruder 4x4 set-up, than the current Panda)

New rear axle exhaust gearbox ECUs wiring loom prop Shaft and mounting
And that's just too or my head
You'd pretty much have to but a 4x4 to get all the parts you needed

If you believe the Trekking could struggle in normal driving, buy an '05-'10 4x4 if any left. Jeremy Clarkson loved it, and he's not easily pleased.

As well as need ing a complete propshaft, rear diff. rear suspension etc, you'd need a new gearbox in the car, to add the drive from that to the transfer unit (which you'd also need) to connect to the front end of the propshaft....

As others have said, buying a used 4x4 would be cheaper! Only viable alternative would be to find a lightly-crashed 4x4 and swap everything into your Trekking's body shell.

Or, if your Trekking's a diesel, this might work (but at 99k miles, maybe not worth it) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fiat-Pan...044084?hash=item5db8012ff4:g:AcEAAOSwey1fmVuU

Why would you want to?
The Trekking didn't last long in production, I seem to think yours is one of around 700 on the uk roads.

There's thousands of 4x4's and Crosses.

The Trekking is a rare breed and it's worth keeping it the way it should be.

F*ck, why did I sell my Antarctica? There's only 186 of those on the uk roads!

https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?page=1&q=fiat+panda
Ok, who has the Panda Bella?

Yes - comparative rarity, along with greater mechanical simplicity, will boost Trekking residuals. A quick online check of Pandas currently for sale suggests that secondhand values of Trekkings are right up there with 4x4s.

Goudrons said:

Why would you want to?
The Trekking didn't last long in production, I seem to think yours is one of around 700 on the uk roads.

There's thousands of 4x4's and Crosses.

The Trekking is a rare breed and it's worth keeping it the way it should be.

F*ck, why did I sell my Antarctica? There's only 186 of those on the uk roads!

https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?page=1&q=fiat+panda
Ok, who has the Panda Bella?

Click to expand...

No wonder I've never seen another Antarctica on the road!! Only 86 TA versions, of which mine is one! Last time I checked those figures when we first got ours those figures were around 200 or just over? Considering there were supposed to be 300 models I believe in the UK? Maybe they never sold that many?

Project 192 said:

No wonder I've never seen another Antarctica on the road!! Only 86 TA versions, of which mine is one! Last time I checked those figures when we first got ours those figures were around 200 or just over? Considering there were supposed to be 300 models I believe in the UK? Maybe they never sold that many?

Click to expand...

I've only ever seen two other Antarcticas on the road.
One on the A2 in Kent near Blue Water (late 2014) and another I spotted in Aberystwyth (2015).
It was parked at the far end of the seafront and I clocked it from the other end of town, miles away.
If I remember correctly, when we walked past it someone had fitted horrid seatcovers to it.