just a question,
When i bought my 05 plate panda from 'dodgy john!' all was well (ish) then after a few months i noticed a few blemishes on the wheel arch so took a look to find road dirt had acuminated up the wheel arch next to the fuel filler. I removed almost a bucket of it! Thinking that was the problem all was well but 4 years later the rust around the filler cap is pretty bad on all the screws that hold the fuel pipe to the body BUt further down the wheel arch had really gone rusty, then i noticed the sill just after the wheel arch had some rust stains which on closer inspection turned out to be the start of a 4 inch hole in the sill hidden by the plastic rubbery paint used to protect them.
Just wondered if this is a known problem with the panda or did i get the 'Friday afternoon special'?
The rest of the care body is mint. On the plus side the hole in the sill is in a good spot for welding so not overly worried.
The car did spend an afternoon that November up to its sills in flood water but there is a drain hole just next to the hole so either that was blocked or ive just been unlucky!

The underneath the sill is the First place the rot shows MOT failure and structural

£50 a side for a dirty plate over the top.

the other side will only be a year or so after.

In my experience it a sign the car is getting towards its end of life.

You will probably be able to get another year maybe two

You can keep patching it up for ever. However they don't stand up well in a crash and in this condition they are only worth £200 with 12 months MOT. Its up to you how much you throw at it before chucking in the towel

With covid-19 there's a shortage of cheap small cars at moment so might be better patching at the moment.

When you patch it, drill some 20mm access holes away from the water splash areas. You can then blast body wax inside to protect the bare metal around the welds. Fill the holes with blind grommets. Leave those welds bare inside and it wont even last 2 years.

This sort of stuff. It needs a suitable applicator gun of course.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wax-Oil-Tanned-Dark-For-Molded-Case-Protective-Cavity-Car-Body-Car-Vespa-LT-1/333634985287?hash=item4dae31dd47:g:MY4AAOSwVjheAixo

Search "blind rubber grommets" on eBay for seals to keep the weather out.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1311.R4.TR4.TRC2.A0.H0.Xblind+grommet.TRS0&_nkw=blind+rubber+grommets&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_osacat=0&_odkw=car+body+blind+plug

Thanks, £50 was the quote i got. Only reason im doing this is because l had new front suspension and top mounts last year and the engine only done 61K.
Im only looking to have another year with Marmite then its back to Fords!
In the 4 years I've had her I've never spent so much money keeping a car on the road. That 'its only done 37K mate when i bought it should have been a warning that it spent a lot of time at the garage, even had new steering rack less than 3K

We hsd ours 15 years.. lived outside

No rust

Sounds like yours had been damage repaired

We didnt put a bulb..or fuse in ours

So major work like steering..alternators etc never featured in 90+ thousand miles

My last Ford sounded like that.. poorly rebuilt 'wrongun' bought for top dollar at a dealer..

Not touched that kind of place since

I had a Ford Galaxy insurance repaired after a sill was damaged in an accident. Two years later the sill was rusting through from the inside. There were some other issues with the repairs but basically they had done the metalwork then just blown over the paint. There was zero internal corrosion protection. Insurance sorted it out but the second repairer said the bodge had caused enough damage to nearly write-off the car.

varesecrazy said:

We hsd ours 15 years.. lived outside

No rust

Sounds like yours had been damage repaired

We didnt put a bulb..or fuse in ours

So major work like steering..alternators etc never featured in 90+ thousand miles

My last Ford sounded like that.. poorly rebuilt 'wrongun' bought for top dollar at a dealer..

Not touched that kind of place since

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getting quite common

you can't see it from the side

A few inches forwards of the rear join right underneath. A lot around the 05 mark are getting paper thin in this area.


If you look on some MOT histories it shows up as rear suspension mount

An early warning is through-bolts like rear seat mounts (not necessarily seat belt) going rusty where they poke through. Whip them out and treat the threads with high solids anti seize.
More worrying are the rear suspension mounts. Remove out a bolt - if the inner end is rusty you need to get a boroscope look inside. Even better, assume its failing from the inside and get the cavity properly treated with water dispersing anti rust sprays.

just the First car I picked 04 from a Google search

koalar said:

just the First car I picked 04 from a Google search

Click to expand...

Not exactly typical though..

Low miles and bad brakes !!

varesecrazy said:

Not exactly typical though..

Low miles and bad brakes !!

Click to expand...

I just picking older ones from Google images that was the very first

2nd one i checked no MOT after 2018

3rd and 4th okay

and 5th

not seen an axle yet on a MOT check. Although there is a car near me for sale with a broken one.


Just getting to that age. Where spending the money on a 15+ year car doesn't add up. Especially with the higher road tax ones.

Some sellers on ebay of these older Pandas are now blanking out the reg so you can't history check

koalar said:

not seen an axle yet on a MOT check. Although there is a car near me for sale with a broken one.

Click to expand...

Rusted axles will fail the MOT. New axles are £120 could be worth checking it out.