General Bart's trekking 1200 fire.

[Bartpanda]

Some weekend pandaring with other classic cars. Weather was briliant!




and the final proof that panda HAS magnetic personality, dudes were lke:

....." mmmhhhhmmm carrera.... mmmhhmmm yyyeeahh, right ..... OOHHHHH LOOK !! A panda 4x4!!!!!!!!!!!!! "

 

[Bartpanda]

Some fun with paint leftovers and sharpened match , I had no decent small brush in the garageAll covered with clearcoat.

 

[Bartpanda]

another old bangers meet

 

[Bartpanda]

On tuesday I have decided to store panda in the garage and use regata, because front susp. was in such a bad shape I was worried the ball joints will break into pieces{ they had about 2cm play up/down}. I made a check list ,what to prepare before long "may weekend" for front susp overhaul in panda. But yesterday being a complete moron I took the car for local meet regardless the danger of loosing the wheel and..... it did not fall off Well, it did not fall off yesterday but today it did I was just going to do some "heavy" shoppng for my mother like 12 liters of mineral water etc, and because I am lazy I took the panda again, and she showed middle finger this time

Silly me was lucky again,and the joint crushed when I was going 5mph over the "sleeping policeman" the slowing curb 300 meters from my place. The only damage is some scrached black paint from the fender near the plastic wheel arch, a bit bent tip of the fender near the missing part of the arch ,and a piece of plastic missing{ but I have the missing part, so glue will fix it}, because the wheel/macpherson moved totally to the back having no contact with the rest of the susp, and rubbed on, for a sec, before I stopped the car. The temporary fix was to undo both shock to hub nuts, put the ball back into the balljont leftovers and put all back together, the car is driveable, so I returned back home veeery slowly those 300m.
I was a bit busy bodging the car standing in the middle of the street so no picts, but just two after the "fix"

It could be much worse....




All this will be much needed tommorow

 

[AndyPanda4x4]

Oh my! Lucky escape!

 

[Bartpanda]

Plastic wheel arch/bent fender repaired, because I 've found only one piece of missing plastic and the other was gone, I had to use trustworthy 3M duct tape and some black paint. Dust will cover it nicely and equalize the color change.





I secured the balljoint with some transport belt and made safely 5 miles trip to the garage, Have replaced both hubs with very good hubs with balljoints taken from front susp of lancia y10 turbo. I bought just brakes but the scrapman was lazy and had sent me whole front hub/arm/calliper/ bearing etc{ SKF bearings in very good condition too, nice freebee } After the polish panda meet in Kowary, old abandoned uranium mine:slayer: in mid June I am going to start front susp/brakes/1.2 l engine/box etc transplantation.






the other side was not better the whole balljoint was moving up/down damaging rubber boot.

 

[Bartpanda]

I had an hour or two, went to the garage, was going to do something else but then neighbour came and asked if I have any use of his broken snow shovel..... eeeerrr... nope..... BUT WAIT!!!........

two layers of 2mm alloy plate reinforced with pressed grooves and coupled with rivets should make a good rear diff protection plate work in progress

 

[andyholli]

if I have any use of his broken snow shovel..... eeeerrr... nope..... BUT WAIT!!!........

two layers of 2mm alloy plate reinforced with pressed grooves and coupled with rivets should make a good rear diff protection plate work in progress

Genius.

 

[Bartpanda]

Almost done, just need a big u-shaped exhaust clamp for the front and two longer bolts/some washers for differential cover.I added 4mm flat piece of steel between the two alloy layers at the front "T" section where holes fot the clamp will be, just for stiffness, but it is still reasonably light, but robust.

 

[AndyPanda4x4]

Looks good Bart!

I used to have one on mine, I took it off recently though as it just seemed to plough the soil up, it ended up getting full of mud and stones all the time.

 

[Bartpanda]

on the steelies again

 

[Bartpanda]

Progress with panda stopped for a while, because there is a new dog in the pack
Croma mk1 2.0SX. 76000 miles, some rust on usual places for croma{ door edge, rear wheelarch} but overall good condition with beloved by me stripes from fiat accesories catalogue, so 80's




I always disassemble the whole car after buying it in search for tinworm and also to clean all interior.No worm here

 

[Bartpanda]

34km more and it will be 10000 km since I have bought the pandabella. To celebrate that, this weekend finally I am going to remove the 903ccm ohv and prepare the car for punto 1200 and 4x4 gearbox Though terribly undertorqed ,903ccm ohv is very nice and revy engine. It will land under the bonet of my friends fiat 127mk1, so good fate for this little engine ,still full of life.
Have bought set of cromodoras for croma, one of my favourite types of 15 inch wheels, lancia delta integrale 6x15 ! Now I have 7x15 rims with 205 tyres, not very comfortable, though they are original set of Borbet A rims from fiat accesories catalogue for croma mk1. I prefer narrower 6x15. with 185/60

 

[Bartpanda]

One can have garage plans for the weekend and then comes the lady and wants to do biiig shopping on saturday:bang: So only the spare wheel landed on the roof .Yesterday I tested one strap variant, but the wheel was moving a bit, so two straps crossed, and all sits firmly. Engine removal postponed...



And new wheels onboard.

 

[Didge3]

Love the mk1 Croma , wish they were obtainable in the UK

 

[Crewie]

I have enjoyed reading your blog, it's the kind of stuff I like to see.


Seat of the pants engineering, Brilliant Stuff..


Keep up the good work.


Cheers


Crewie

 

[Bartpanda]

Finally empty space under the hoodI am starting reconditioning the engine bay, will add some soundproofing etc...

 

[Bartpanda]

Old cars are like cats, you just can not have just one, and after third you stop counting I was going to buy nice cheap marbella as a "winter car"{ those salty winter roads here in Poland} but then this bucket appeared, and since I do not need any more parts for pandabella and could use some details for croma, here it is, another croma,this time 2.0 ie automatic, 120GBP car, so do not expect much scrap-heap condition but it works,is roadlegal,has LPG instalation, and has some usefull parts, details in better condition than in my first croma , oh and it has airconditoning, not working now, but looks repairable.I 'll work out how to transfer the A/C ,and the other better parts to the silver croma wthout making this one "road-useless"

 

[kolza]

You could easly photoshop mk2 panda photo to this look, definately part of the same family/era.

 

[Bartpanda]

You could easly photoshop mk2 panda photo to this look, definately part of the same family/era

yup! the same " corporate face" of the mid 80's fiat. I really like those sqare lights and horizontal"bars" grilles. In all proportions, panda regata croma.... damn must buy mk1 uno now:idea::idea::idea::idea::idea::slayer: