Panda (Classic) Pandamonium

[Liquid Knight]

Having done a few disc conversions for Ford Escort and Capri axles I dare say it would be easier with the 4x4. If I had a spare axle I'd have a go.

 

[VmanC]

On the back brakes, would it work if the left caliper was mounted on the right and the right caliper on the left, with the cable then coming from above?

 

[MFrV1]

Wouldn't mounting the left caliper on the right and the right caliper on the left, with the cable then coming from above put the bleed nipples on the bottom of the caliper, making it a pain to bleed?

 

[Bartpanda]

put the bleed nipples on the bottom of the caliper, making it a pain to bleed?

You can always bleed the caliper by turning it again upside down, bleeding { put something to prevent piston to fall}, and assembling on its place. no prob for me.

 

[Liquid Knight]

In theory yes. You can either bleed the brakes before mounting them to the brackets or bleed them at the flexy pipe.

 

[Liquid Knight]

Okay today I decided to see how difficult it would be to make a template for the front brake calipers mounts. Rather than play in the snow and disassemble a hub on the car itself (only to have to put it back together again) I decided to use one of the Fantasia bottom ball joint units instead.

See my shed full of crap I've kept does come in handy sometimes. Took my grinder to it...

...so I have a centre plate and an off cut to make lugs with.

Don't worry I'm going for a twin caliper set up I needed it to be on the same level so I can get tacking.

A bit of tidying up around the edges and it'll be ready to go to Optima so the actual plates can be made out of five or six millimeter plate.

 

[Alixcompo]

Looks good..

 

[Liquid Knight]

Could work-ish. Wish I'd kept my my old Fiat Coupe' Brembos now.

 

[Bartpanda]

It's to fragile in my opinion, original fiat items"centerplates" for rear brake calipers eg. in lancia prisma, etc , are made of 7mm steel plate and they are rear , not heavier "loaded" front ones, It is common in Poland to put front disc brakes to improve fiat 126p front brakes{replacing drums}, guys are using thinner, but still 5mm laser cut steel plates. It is a matter of stiffnes, can't have any play here,
Original front item from panda is thiner than 5mm, but pressed steel, and it is " rounded" on its edges for stiffness, I hope you know what I mean since my english is not good enough to find apropriate words to name things sometimes}

My opinion is, that after making this nice prototypes you could make some measurements and give it to be laser/water cut in proper steel.Just for safety.



EDIT:

I did not read carefully your topic till the end sorry mate for not having a faith/trust in you I did not read this:

A bit of tidying up around the edges and it'll be ready to go to Optima so the actual plates can be made out of five or six millimeter plate.

Silly me

Rear hubs and plates from lancia prisma 1.6, I prepared during this boring winter to use in my fiat regata 2000 as rear drums to discs conversion, 7mm plates:

 

[Liquid Knight]

I have faith in my welding but not that much.

Once the template is finished and sent off to Optima to make the plates for me I'll be ready to fit the big brakes to the Panda racer.

I've also had a bit of a realisation. These plates could be used to fit standard Cinquecento/Seicento Sporting brakes as well if I wanted an upgrade that fits under 13 Inch wheels.

So if anyone would like a pair to fit Sporting brakes to your Panda let me know.

Otherwise watch this space and I'll let you know how much they'll cost to make and if they work at all.

 

[Liquid Knight]

I didn't bother with the gearbox. I thought I'd freeze myself playing with the front brakes.

Stripped the front down...

...I tried the template against the original mount bracket and had an idea...

...marked and...

...drilled the holes.

If this works it will save me a lot of time and money so I tried the caliper.

Made sure there's enough room to get to the wheel bearing bolts.

No problems so far...

...crap. Just as well I kept hold of the original Panda caliper bolts.

Perfect. I'm starting to get confident now.

Oh.

That's what grinders are for.

The car needs new bottom bearings so when I get a pair I'll cut and channel them properly but for now I just wanted to see if...

...it fits. :slayer:

The wheel didn't though...

...so 10mm spacers and long bolts to the rescue.

She'd sit a lot prettier if there was an engine in there.

I'll keep the template in case I decide to make a Superleggera version later.

 

[Liquid Knight]

Fantasia

Missed me? I've been messing about with a Transit Luton that's now de-boxed and the chassis is in my garden (just) waiting for me to make it into a transporter.

I had a choice this month between taxing my Panda or getting Transit bits. So I charged the battery overnight and gave the old girl a try today. Hmmmm, tuning over just fine but the fuel pump isn't picking anything up. No matter how I primed it I couldn't get any petrol through the pump. The petrol gauge said I had quarter of a tank but we all know how reliable they can be. Put a can's worth in the tank and tired again. I can prime the car up okay and she started for a few seconds before cutting out and the filter was empty again.

New fuel pump on it's way and I'm cycling to work again.

 

[Liquid Knight]

Fantasia

New fuel pump fitted and she's alive again.

Shame I can't take the car out for a run to see if all the problems have been solved but I can't afford to Tax the Panda and buy bits for my Transit. Even if I did decide to rent the log book for another six months I would be able to fill the car with petrol so it would have been as much of a waste of time and money getting a bit of paper as it has been the stater motor. I have a thread on another forum basically I'm building a transporter out of an old Luton Transit chassis. Bought a starter motor only for the immobiliser to decide it wanted to work.

With any luck the HMRC will remember my tax code this month so I'll have a little extra to play with when the payday fairies visit again.

 

[panda panda]

Re: Fantasia

You will be our go to guy for collecting off the road pandas then

Have you got a link to the transporter thread?

 

[Liquid Knight]

Transporter

As it breaks forum rules I don't think I can post a link to another thread on another forum but as it is completely non, Fiat related I'm sure if you happened to find yourself on the PPC forum you'd see a thread called "Transporter?" or in the Commercial Break section of Pistonheads a thread called "Transporter bed fabrication".

I say non-Fiat but obviously the runners will be wide enough for a Multipla and narrow enough for a 500/Mini. I have a target weight of 1700-1800 Kg so I'll be able to lift 1700 Kg and tow 2000 Kg. That should be enough for my track day Panda at least.

If/when it's finished you guys are all more than welcome to use it provided you have the right licence and insurance to do so.

 

[Liquid Knight]

Oh crap! My Panda my be in PPC next month as a work in progress prelude to the £999 Challenge. Gulp.

Better get some work done on today then.

 

[Liquid Knight]

My poor Pandas are feeling neglected. I can't afford to tax my Fantasia and my £999 Challenge project...

...has become a storage facility.

Time for a tidy.

A couple of weeks of miscellaneous bodywork and we'll be ready for paint.

 

[Liquid Knight]

Transition day today. Basically that means I did a day shift yesterday and will doing a night shift tonight. To compensate my shiftlag I have a couple of hours in the afternoon before I need to think about work to get the odd little job done.

Today I cleaned the passenger side of my Panda interior.

I had kind of forgotten it was a car but now looking very office like again.

I have an ever increasing stack of Punto and Grande Punto bits amassing in my shed. The plan is sell or swap these for a complete FIRE engine to get the old girl buzzing for the event at least and worry about a quick engine later.

 

[Didge3]

You can have the lovely 1.4 8v out of my GP if you want. Its been lovingly cared for and outputs a mighty 77bhp.
Only catch is you do have to buy the whole car...

 

[VmanC]

Transition day today. Basically that means I did a day shift yesterday and will doing a night shift tonight. To compensate my shiftlag I have a couple of hours in the afternoon before I need to think about work to get the odd little job done.

Today I cleaned the passenger side of my Panda interior.

I had kind of forgotten it was a car but now looking very office like again.

I have an ever increasing stack of Punto and Grande Punto bits amassing in my shed. The plan is sell or swap these for a complete FIRE engine to get the old girl buzzing for the event at least and worry about a quick engine later.

Does cleaning the passenger side involve putting everything in the drivers side by any chance?