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Panda (Classic) My Purple Panda Parade Progress log

Introduction

Well folks, after keeping it under my hat all week (to avoid any embarrassment if the ebay winner actually collected the car) I have bought the purple panda parade from another user on here, neeny. They had sold it on ebay, and to cut a long story short the winner of the auction didn't collect, so the transaction was cancelled, and I offered to buy it in his place (I had actually nearly bid on the car on the original run but I confused myself and thought it was LHD which wouldn't have been any good to me) So I made the trip to fife (and on the way crossed the forth road bridge and saw the forth rail bridge which is a bit of an ambition of mine) and collected it. It took some getting used to driving! My current daily is a Citroen C2 GT, and the two cars are very very different. I have prior experience driving Fiats, as my first 3 cars were a mix of mk1 and mk2a puntos, and the first car I ever drove was my dad's tipo.

Anyway I digress, I drove it home in blizzard conditions and am very impressed with it! The only thing is that it has sat for a while and the brakes are very spongy (not a criticism of the previous owners, they were extremely honest about the car and answered all my questions, they were very kind and nice people and I hope to see them again, perhaps at a show) The Mohair twin sunroofs were slightly damp on the inside (again, not a criticism, it has been extremely wet in Scotland recently, and there is only so much it can take) not leaking or anything, just slightly damp, so I aim to treat this with fabric water repellant. There are some decals and stickers on it which aren't to my personal tastes, so I will remove these, and keep the ones which are to my taste :) The rear sunroof needs a new strap, so I will need to source one of these, or get my fiance to make a new one if I can get a hold of some leather or rubber if I find they are unavailable :)

I am very pleased with my new purchase, and consider myself very lucky to have managed to get it, the buyer on ebay should be kicking himself! And also I am very lucky to have met such kind people as Janine and Stewart, and to have found a forum with such helpful people. Anyway folks lets get down to business...photos! I apologize for the poor quality of some of these photos, it was dark before I took some of these and it is very cold so my hand was shaking. Hopefully you join me on my journey folks :) The panda is currently in my garage being aired out in an attempt to part dry the sunroofs before I bust out the hairdryer tomorrow :)

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Thanks mate, just glad there are good kind folks to help me and encourage me on here :)
I know exactly how you feel ( as a new Panda man myself).
You think you are doing the right thing and are very conscientious, only to find that you've potentially made something worse than it was if you had left it alone!
The thing is, if you had just taken Purple Panda to an average garage, what would they have put in? Would you have been any the wiser?
 
Will certainly think about a general guide although the sticky section is getting a bit big... There are how to do sections on the forum for classic panda stuff already with handy tips.

Click on guides at the top of the page...
When you refer to "the stickies section", do you mean the guides, or somewhere else?
 
I know exactly how you feel ( as a new Panda man myself).
You think you are doing the right thing and are very conscientious, only to find that you've potentially made something worse than it was if you had left it alone!
The thing is, if you had just taken Purple Panda to an average garage, what would they have put in? Would you have been any the wiser?

While I cant speculate as to the work, and care and time taken by the average garage, I can safely assume that I wouldn't know for sure what fluids had been used. I like to do as much of the work to my cars myself, and failing that my dad helps me out a lot where and when he can, Im pretty lucky that way.
 
The stuff I had in Grumbleweeds Y10 'box was 1b. Ran with that for over 100000 miles in a 'box which already had 150k on and it's in considerably better nick than the 40k box I've just put in (dammit!) so I think that's going back on at some point. The wear on that 'box is astonishingly minimal for a box that age so...controversially, unless anyone has a higher mileage box to compare, I'd say the yellow metal issue can't be that major. Definitely not going to chew away your gearbox as soon as you roll off the drive with it in anyway so don't panic. Mixing oils probably more of an issue though so for now if you have enough gearbox oil lying around I'd say drop what's in and refill with whatever you've got & don't fret.

Ditto. I ran a Panda gearbox up to 160,000 with probably half of those miles on EP oil in the gearbox. Probably didnt do any good but it still worked. Nice motor by the way (y)
 
I went to my local post depot to collect my parcels today, and got everything Ive ordered from ebay!
Fuel Filter
Timing belt
Head Cylinder gasket
Clutch Cable
Headlight Covers
Timing belt cover(only received one half, other half is in the post due to seller mistake)
Exhaust rubber
Gasket seal (instant gasket)

Should make some headway with these being in :)
 
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I just cannot believe the sheer brilliance of the fuel economy on my car, I filled the tank IN KIRKCALDY (which is 90 miles from my home) 3 weeks ago, and used it as my daily and it is only just reaching a quarter of a tank left! to fill it was 40 quid, for comparison, in the c2 I would have spent about 90 in fuel by now. So you can see why I am so pleased!
 
I just cannot believe the sheer brilliance of the fuel economy on my car, I filled the tank IN KIRKCALDY (which is 90 miles from my home) 3 weeks ago, and used it as my daily and it is only just reaching a quarter of a tank left! to fill it was 40 quid, for comparison, in the c2 I would have spent about 90 in fuel by now. So you can see why I am so pleased!

Mines all over the place, but when it's good... it's really good. :D


Fuelly
 
I don't understand why yours is so erratic, not pulling etc compared to Fizzle.

I've been told that some Panda's just don't want to go while others just do!

Why don't you swap a few bits of the selecta and see if it improves?

Mine is not particularly fast, but it gets to the speed limit in a decent time, and is improving every time I work on it :) the new spark plugs made a big difference :)
 
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