General New owner, old Panda

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General New owner, old Panda

Joined
Jan 25, 2011
Messages
64
Points
17
Location
Hampshire
Hi All,

Just a quick post to introduce myself.

I'm John and I was on the lookout for a cheap little runabout to get me the five miles from home to the railway station each morning, when i move house in a couple of weeks. The original plan was to pick up a £200 80s Polo, but the scrappage scheme seems to have removed all of these. The only one I could find didn't so much leak, as look like it had been dunked in a swimming pool, needed a replacement headgasket and a month of tax and MoT :eek:. The owner seemed surprised that I passed on it...

I was bracing myself for a year or two of having my soul slowly chipped away by a Micra, when my wife suggested I look at some older, more unusual cars. Years ago she suggested a VW campervan as well, hence the avatar... But that only comes out on the nice days.

Prowling round the free ads I found a 1992 Panda 750L in white. I always had a soft spot for small Italian cars, although never actually owned one before. I had a good search for a buyers guide (that's how I found this place) went to take a look and am now the proud owner of an almost rust free 49,000 mile Panda. I absolutely love the simplicity of it, and complete and utter lack of frills. Although there is a sunroof. Mmmm luxury:)

Of course there's a few things to fix...:)

Door locks
Rear hatch lock - photos once I've fixed these!

Cam belt
Alternator belt - No service history other than MoT certificates so probably wise

General tune up - the idle is a bit high and it needs a couple of minutes to get the choke into a point where it's prepared to drive. Equally I haven't driven a car with a manual choke in years so I'm happy to accept operator error on this one.

New tyres - the rears are a rather old pair of Pirellis, which look perished enough for it to have rolled out the factory on them.

And last night, after a whole 26 hours of ownership the bonnet catch decided to stop releasing! - Got a couple of leads from the search function though, and I suspect this has just got to the top of the jobs list.

Anyway I daresay I'll be along with a stream of daft questions in the coming months...

Cheers
John
 
Hi All,

Just a quick post to introduce myself.


Door locks
Rear hatch lock - photos once I've fixed these!

Cam belt
Alternator belt - No service history other than MoT certificates so probably wise

General tune up - the idle is a bit high and it needs a couple of minutes to get the choke into a point where it's prepared to drive. Equally I haven't driven a car with a manual choke in years so I'm happy to accept operator error on this one.

ect this has just got to the top of the jobs list.

Anyway I daresay I'll be along with a stream of daft questions in the coming months...

Cheers
John

Well, if it's on a budget here's my thoughts

Cam belt - Well if it breaks it wont harm the engine so I'd not worry

Tune Up - I've had 2 750's and both of them were pigs before they warmed up. They just never liked pulling away from cold lol

Very sweet little engines thou, would be my favourite of the FIRE's. They just sing like a little sewing machine!

Jim
 
Thanks for the suggestions, it seems like sweet little eager little puppy of a thing, and it's definately endearing itself to me. My wife has christened it Luigi - she's in charge of the naming of vehicles - and I picked up a Haynes manual last night. Hopefully the car they took to bits actaully bears some resemblance to what I've got... :)

Cheers
John
 
The 750 choke is a curious thing. I always found it best to first turn the key with no choke and then to gradually pull it out as the engine is turning over. It's easy to flood, but with practise you become a dab hand at it.

Like Jim says, if the cambelt does break it won't damage the engine, it's non-interference.

Enjoy it.
 
I read about the non interference engine before I bought the car. Seems like good engineering to me... Was going to buy a cambelt as a spare in case the original breaks.

Cheers
John
 
With the bonnet catch I assume the cable hasnt snapped? On mine it was the spring at the catch end which is supposed to push the bonnet up when the cable is pulled. I took mine out and "unbent" a bit to restore some force behind it. This appears to have worked. Before it was a question of opening the window, reaching in and pulling the cable whilst getting fingers under side edge of bonnet & pulling up. Bit undignified.
 
It doesn't feel like the cable has snapped. There is still a bit of tension in the handle, and it springs back into place. I'm hoping that it's just a little bit of misalignment, but I'll look to see what the spring is like as well.

The thread I found previously a was

https://www.fiatforum.com/panda-classic/149889-cant-open-my-bonet.html

I have a little free time tomorrow afternoon, so I suspect I wave some spanners around and see what happens.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, it seems like sweet little eager little puppy of a thing, and it's definately endearing itself to me. My wife has christened it Luigi - she's in charge of the naming of vehicles - and I picked up a Haynes manual last night. Hopefully the car they took to bits actaully bears some resemblance to what I've got... :)

Cheers
John

Depends which manual you've got as there were 3 produced for the Panda, first covered mk1, second mk1s and carbed mk2s and third mk1s and carbed as well as fuel injected mk2s. Lol.
 
Hi all,

Panda.jpg


The locks work again, so here's a photo. Apologies for the camera phone fuzzyness, and lack of photoshop skills.

The blue stripes are coming off just as soon as I can park within range of an extention and get a hair dryer on them. It would be okay if whoever put them on actually got them straight... Quite like the spotlights though. They're staying.

Got the bonnet open as well. Used the go-go-gadget arm technique of pulling the release lever and prising up the bonnet. The spring is a little tired, but it can be opened, and that's good enough for now.

Thanks for everyone's help, it's much appreciated.

Cheers
John
 
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