Finally got round to taking the rear beam off the spares car to refurbish it. I had already had a look at it a while ago, and it looked OK, but a bit scabby. I've bartered some welding time with a friend, so the plan was to refurb and fit it to whichever of the Pandas was in most need. Got a couple of 500 hubs from a really low mileage breaker to fit to it as well.
The spares car was a 2004, 140k miles, which sat abandoned on grass for 2+ years without moving, and another year on hardstanding since I've had it. It seems to have had a hard life when it was on the road, and the service invoices seem to have mostly been aimed at just passing MOTs. Expectations were pretty low as it failed it's last MOT with a big list of brake, suspension bush and damper problems and got took off the road.
Anyway, disconnected everything (apart from one lower shock bolt which has defeated me for now - rematch at the weekend following PlusGas & 3 Weetabix) and dragged it out from under.
Shocked at the state of it, but not for the expected reason. It still has most of the original black paint, and most of the scabs virtually disappeared when wiped over. The spring cups have no visible damage or cracks.
The hubs and drums are about the state I expected (seriously knackered, drums rusty, almost no brake linings), and a couple of the handbrake clips are a bit deformed, but all of the rest is good enough to refit as-is.
I will be cleaning it up, repainting and re-bushing it anyway, but I was surprised enough at the condition to want to share. Panda rear beams seem to have got a lot of bad press lately...
The spares car was a 2004, 140k miles, which sat abandoned on grass for 2+ years without moving, and another year on hardstanding since I've had it. It seems to have had a hard life when it was on the road, and the service invoices seem to have mostly been aimed at just passing MOTs. Expectations were pretty low as it failed it's last MOT with a big list of brake, suspension bush and damper problems and got took off the road.
Anyway, disconnected everything (apart from one lower shock bolt which has defeated me for now - rematch at the weekend following PlusGas & 3 Weetabix) and dragged it out from under.
Shocked at the state of it, but not for the expected reason. It still has most of the original black paint, and most of the scabs virtually disappeared when wiped over. The spring cups have no visible damage or cracks.
The hubs and drums are about the state I expected (seriously knackered, drums rusty, almost no brake linings), and a couple of the handbrake clips are a bit deformed, but all of the rest is good enough to refit as-is.
I will be cleaning it up, repainting and re-bushing it anyway, but I was surprised enough at the condition to want to share. Panda rear beams seem to have got a lot of bad press lately...
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