Technical Project Bucket.

[homeward]

thats the plan,or should i say hope.

If it's existing condition is anything to go by -- and I was parked next to it, all day... -- it will outlive the lot of us! :slayer:

It almost looks like a modern work of art, as it is; and attracted a lot of positive attention... -- but I'll let Vernon "we acid dipped the whole car, and this is all that's left" VmanC fill you in on that...!

It's going to be stunning...!

 

[VmanC]

I'm really glad I took Bucket along to Mitcar, I think it was interesting to see for many people there, a couple of them thought I'd found a new shell in Italy!

 

[purple haze]

I'm really glad I took Bucket along to Mitcar, I think it was interesting to see for many people there, a couple of them thought I'd found a new shell in Italy!

Not true if no pics..

 

[homeward]

Not true if no pics..

I was parked next to it, all day, and didn't take a single one. I even had my DSLR hung round my neck, for most of the day, as well.

Perhaps it was all a glorious dream....

 

[panda1408]

I would have had a photo, if I hadn't left the battery for my camera at home in the charger:bang:

 

[homeward]

It obviously doesn't need to be painted black, to disappear, then....

Like vampires and mirrors, Buckets obviously can't be caught on (digital) film....

Saying that, dozens of visitors took photos. I wonder what I should search for on Flickr...?

 

[VmanC]

Well I can't talk, every time I thought about taking a pic I seemed to get into conversation with someone and it went straight out of my head. :bang:

Just so that no one is disappointed if a pic does materialise can I point out that Bucket was not driven there, it's still naked and on a trailer.

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

I can vouch for that as I saw it yesterday

 

[Palio]

I thought I was looking at it too, but it seems to be collective hysteria as there were NO photos from anyone there!

 

[onemanmade]

I think there were some strong paint fumes at this "Mitcar" event, if indeed the event ever did take place and wasn't just a collective panderers "memory"

 

[panda panda]

What a bunch of dolts

I'm sorry I missed the show due to my nocturnal working as I was looking forward to seeing the gleaming bucket

 

[JamieK]

Of course (Stealth) bucket was there! Here's a photo I found, its parked on the grass between the 2 rows of parked cars..

 

[panda panda]

Why do folks manage to park better on a field than in Tesco's car park?

 

[firstcar-Y10]

Why do folks manage to park better on a field than in Tesco's car park?

Field's full of people that care.

 

[homeward]

Field's full of people that care.

...or are being carefully guided into position by dombooth...!

 

[dombooth]

...or are being carefully guided into position by dombooth...!

Hell yeah! :slayer:

Dom

 

[firstcar-Y10]

Need Dom in Tesco's.
...aaand one full turn to the left

 

[homeward]

No photo (nor of Pippin, neither... ) -- but this page includes this sentence...!

The first generation Panda would appear now to have quite a following, and there were several of these, ranging from a regular 45 to a number of variants of the popular 4×4 model, one of which arrived towing a bare metal shell of another one.​

 

[panda1408]

I can see half of Bucket is some of the photos, proof that it was there at least! First photos of mine I have found aswell, although I disagree with the regular bit!

 

[VmanC]

Ok, this is a biggy.

Work on the shell has been relentless as I want to get it back to SPL asap.

First job was to get him on the rotisserie.........










Now there has been a couple of welded repairs already which were fine for some distant mot of the past but not good enough for this restoration. As we had to repair what was behind them anyway they were cut out and done again. This is before we had touched them......






Also, some areas where two or even three panels joined each other we found that Fiat had been very sparing with the spot welds, and not too accurate with the ones they did choose to put in, it seems they would rather rely on seam sealer to hold the car together. This next pic is looking under the rear wheel arch at the seam where the inner arch meets the floor and chassis rail, often this area rusts badly and when you see it less paint and seam sealer you can see why............



There are very few spot welds here, out of the the ones that made it a couple are right on the very edge. So as well as cutting out and replacing the rusted areas we also puddle welded some of the panel joints that had more daylight between them than they should.


Although Bucket has a very good shell the areas that did require attention were often hidden behind good panels, the inner sills for example. The only thing for it to do a proper job was to cut out access holes in the good panels, repair the rust, then weld back in the good section. I have so many pics of us doing this that it's probably best to put them all on and let them speak for themselves. They don't necessarily follow in the correct order but I will try to show some form of logical progression................







































































Interestingly, we also found a couple of tiny stress fractures at the base of both B posts, I guess there must be a few more Pandas out there with this under the paint.





We're nearly there now, just the frenching for the MK4 Panda badges on the C pillars to go.

I did think that with 15x6.5 wheels fitted there would be a need to modify the wheel arches but after trial fitting them on Oslo it turned out that this wasn't necessary. Pics of this very soon, I think you've probably seen enough for one post.

Phew!