General Farm hack rescue.

[VmanC]

It's not all high life and glamour being a Panda owner you know, some times you have to get down and get dirty with a bit of a wreck. I've decided to chart any progress on my latest aquisition, partly as a motivator to see the work through and partly in case it is of interest to anyone else, I'm sure the problems I'm likely to come across will ring true with many of you. So now, as you can see, I will be working both ends of the Panda spectrum........



So, let me introduce you to my new car. It's a 1987 1000CL bought last week on good old ebay for £20. It was owned by an elderly lady who retired it in August when it failed it's mot. She replaced it with another Panda, a Selecta, so is obviously a fan, but we won't be seeing that one around as she now lives in France.
Since August it has lived on a farm being used as a workhorse by the stable girls (no pun intended).
It failed the mot on a tyre, a couple of bulbs and rust around the o/s rear sill area, so not too much really. On the plus side it does have two wheel trims and a mudflap as extras .

On the 50 mile drive home it ran very well, confirming it's 70,000 miles, the only two obvious issues being a noise from the engine which I suspect is the cambelt tensioner, and no wiper motor. Fortunately it was a dry afternoon and I gave the windscreen a wipe with a rag before setting off, but I couldn't get rid of a film of tiny spots which was all over it so pressed on regardless.

This car is the answer to a problem I had with Charmania, the Panda I'm doing up for my Daughter ( see https://www.fiatforum.com/auction-watch/215832-another-red-mania-birmingham.html), in that I had two possible plans for it but couldn't decide which to go for. I was either going to go classy, relatively, or sporty, well now I can do both. this is going to go the sporty route.

 

[VmanC]

Gave it a quick wash and inspection yesterday and took some more pictures..............










I think they pretty much speak for themselves, only to add that after washing it off I found the whole car to be covered in overspray, It must have stood a little too close to a car that was being sprayed silver. So that's what was on the windscreen .

This is going to take some serious polishing!!!!!

The interior is no better, when I tilted the rear seat forward I found a pool of water filling the well in the floor, a catch on one of the rear side windows is broken, and the bit of wire holding the window shut is failing miserably, letting in the rain . I wouldn't have minded so much if it had washed off some of the mud!

Still they did leave those usefull seat covers in it, not sure if they were there to keep the car clean or the occupants?

 

[Blurredman]

Wow look at you. This car was on ebay for 20 squid and no one went for it?

Im glad your doing a report throughout your progression of the car, it could be handy to myself and otehrs of course

 

[Pandarus]

But a car for £20? Incredible.

Looks fairly straight too, Vern.

This is exactly what I will be looking for next year (with twin roofs!)

 

[VmanC]

Ebay has been kind to me this year, My blue CLX, Charmania, and now this one all coming in at bargain prices.
I think it may be a good idea to keep a log of costs too, it will be interesting to see how much the end product has cost me by the time I say enough is enough. This, as are all my projects, will be done on a shoe string.

And so it begins...........

 

[VmanC]

RUNNING TOTAL OF COSTS:-

1. £20.00. Purchase price of car.
2. £ 5.00. Fuel for collection (Dad's car, panda got home with what was in it).

Total so far £25.00.

 

[CLXCraig]

looks er... promising vernon.

Do you use a machine polisher or elbow grease?

 

[Captain Mike]

Gave it a quick wash and inspection yesterday and took some more pictures..............

That's what it looks like after a quick wash

Must of been very quick

 

[VmanC]

looks er... promising vernon.

Do you use a machine polisher or elbow grease?

I did try borrowing a mates cheap electric polisher when I cleaned up Charmania ( I'm still not comfortable with giving her a name ), but found that elbow grease gives more torque . To get all that overspray off of this one torque will be the key, and a pretty harsh rubbing compound.

 

[VmanC]

That's what it looks like after a quick wash

Must of been very quick

. To be honest, it was making so little impact that I didn't even bother finishing it.

 

[james2609]

Looks great, I really hope the red comes up like Poppi's, it's a beautiful colour £20 a bargain!

 

[VmanC]

Looks great, I really hope the red comes up like Poppi's, it's a beautiful colour £20 a bargain!

There is a Poppi twin in there somewhere I'm sure. Good luck with the Parade, you must have been inpired into action on Sunday .

 

[CLXCraig]

I might look inot getting one for use with our compressor, only needing it for colour restoring and polishing i'm hoping it will come up reasonably well.

 

[Inward123]

I To get all that overspray off of this one torque will be the key, and a pretty harsh rubbing compound.

Vernon, As I mentioned the otherday I used to work in a good bodyshop and the thing to remove overspray is a clay bar along with all the other c**p paint attracts over the years a kit can be had from halfords any good independent for less than £20 quid the Meguiars one is good. Other bars that are good are sonus and Bilt hamber but you will need to send away for them. If you start using compounds you remove a fair bit of paint.

Try Autoglyms SRP it is very good on reds.

 

[VmanC]

Vernon, As I mentioned the otherday I used to work in a good bodyshop and the thing to remove overspray is a clay bar along with all the other c**p paint attracts over the years a kit can be had from halfords any good independent for less than £20 quid the Meguiars one is good. Other bars that are good are sonus and Bilt hamber but you will need to send away for them. If you start using compounds you remove a fair bit of paint.

Try Autoglyms SRP it is very good on reds.

Thanks Paul, I must get a clay bar and try it, I've often wondered what they were like.

 

[firstcar-Y10]

gotta be 20 quids worth, nice mudflap too
be interested to see what you get up to on it.

 

[VmanC]

gotta be 20 quids worth, nice mudflap too
be interested to see what you get up to on it.

The mudflap's yours if you want it, impressive as it is, sadly it doesn't figure in my plans.

Talking of which, I've changed my mind about the plan, the sporty looking one is now going to be Charmania and this one will be the relatively classy one, don't worry sporty fans coz I'll be doing both cars at the same time, so will start the 'Charmania - chapter two' thread tonight.

It may seem a bit crazy to do two at once but I figure that with two to concentrate on there will always be something going on to one or the other. If one is stuck waiting for parts or funds, the other one can be worked on and vice versa.

My reason for making this one classy rather than sporty is down to the condition of the bodywork really. The door bottoms are typically rusty so will need sorting, and as the plan included new paintwork for the lower bodywork anyway it seemed logical to carry it out on this one.
Also, the sporty look will be relatively quick and easy to achieve on Charmania, so the overall workload will be less.

I'm not aiming for a concourse finish, just two nice tidy cars, so aim to have both finished in about three months .

 

[Johnbee]

OMG

I cant believe that she looks so much like Poppi and even has the same interior (although a little grubby) Think even for a basic Panda the interior in yours and poppi does give it a bit more of a posher feel. I used to be a big fan of the CLX interior, full length door panels and all that but think the whole red exterior and the grey and white trim do go together so well.

good luck with it mate would be nice to see her as another original standard D plate panda.

Noticed she had the added option of a ariel so slightly more than poppi has.

Noticed in your first post that you say she is a 87 model. makes her slightly newer than Poppi as she is a late 86.

 

[VmanC]

OMG

I cant believe that she looks so much like Poppi and even has the same interior (although a little grubby) Think even for a basic Panda the interior in yours and poppi does give it a bit more of a posher feel. I used to be a big fan of the CLX interior, full length door panels and all that but think the whole red exterior and the grey and white trim do go together so well.

good luck with it mate would be nice to see her as another original standard D plate panda.

Noticed she had the added option of a ariel so slightly more than poppi has.

Noticed in your first post that you say she is a 87 model. makes her slightly newer than Poppi as she is a late 86.

Thanks guys , I agree with you about the interior. I'm afraid my plans will change things about a bit, but hope you approve of the outcome, after all, there is only one Poppi, especailly when yo get those white stripes back .

 

[paulo arrigoni]

Blinkin hek!! £20. I thought my last 2 Pandas were bargains at £200 & £250 and it makes my latest Panda seem way too expensive. Good luck with the project, will be interesting to see how it turns out.