General Rescued Panda!

[pooroldcodger]

OK thanks. I will make enquiries next week.
I am thinking that at least one of my sills would be better replaced than repaired.

Well this weekend I finally managed to have a thorough look at Belladonna's underpinnings. Well it had to be done, but let's just say I have found more work.
It seems that I have the A-Z of Panda rust spots!
For your entertainement here is a selection of pictures.
And to add to the fun, when I got the floor covering out, the driver's side footwell was very wet. So I need to track the source down. If you have any ideas please let me know!
On the brighter side, the brakes all round look ok. The paintwork is generally very good. The engine sounds strong. The clutch bites about the right point.
O'h and I found 6p under the seats

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Still nothing to major IMO

 

[purple haze]

Sound proofing/underlay/floor material or whatever you want to call it you can get from classic car places. It's called Haduria or something like that anyway. You can buy it in different lengths or sizes on a roll.

I used it in my Bianca rebuild so details will be in the thread. Great stuff and better than the original..

 

[pooroldcodger]

Sound proofing/underlay/floor material or whatever you want to call it you can get from classic car places. It's called Haduria or something like that anyway. You can buy it in different lengths or sizes on a roll.

I used it in my Bianca rebuild so details will be in the thread. Great stuff and better than the original..

Ha ha . I meant the source of the water in the footwell! When I first got her, the 2 little drainpipes on the bulkhead under the bonnet area were very wet, so I unblocked them.
May be it could be something to do with that? I don't think it's the sun roof because the seats are dry.

 

[pooroldcodger]

Still nothing to major IMO

Thanks a lot. I like encouragement from somebody who can put it into some perspective. Having never owned a Panda before this is all new to me.

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

It's a very good chance it was the drains that you cleared. Spray some water at the front of the car now and see if the puddle reappears. Was the 6p rusty too?

 

[VmanC]

Well done Andrew, Definitely worth pushing on with it.

 

[panda1408]

Looks like all the common Panda spots, all doable but it will take a fair amount of work to do it properly. You will need to cut the outer sills off to repair the inners correctly, anything else is a bodge imo. Of course you are bound to find more when you start cutting aswell. Are you going to be having a go at the welding yourself or getting someone else to do it?

 

[pooroldcodger]

Looks like all the common Panda spots, all doable but it will take a fair amount of work to do it properly. You will need to cut the outer sills off to repair the inners correctly, anything else is a bodge imo. Of course you are bound to find more when you start cutting aswell. Are you going to be having a go at the welding yourself or getting someone else to do it?

I would really like to have a go myself, but I don't think it's realistic. I don't have any kit and I don't have any experience, so I think there's a fair chance I would make matters worse rather than better if left to my own devices! The problem with that (apart from cost of course) is it all depends on finding a welder who knows how to repair Panda's as opposed to just being a welder. If you know how to hang wallpaper yourself, but pay somebody to do it, then you know if they have done a good job or not, but if you don't know welding, you don't know if they're doing it the right way. Does that make sense?

 

[Giacosa]

I would really like to have a go myself, but I don't think it's realistic. I don't have any kit and I don't have any experience, so I think there's a fair chance I would make matters worse rather than better if left to my own devices! The problem with that (apart from cost of course) is it all depends on finding a welder who knows how to repair Panda's as opposed to just being a welder. If you know how to hang wallpaper yourself, but pay somebody to do it, then you know if they have done a good job or not, but if you don't know welding, you don't know if they're doing it the right way. Does that make sense?

To get it properly repaired by a professional could cost an awful lot. Professional welders although their welds can be beautiful are not always that diligent about recreating the original structure. I managed to repair my car using a £100 Kende welder off screwfix even if it wasn't ideal weapon of choice. You may suprise yourself.

 

[pooroldcodger]

Had you any experience beforehand?
If I were to tackle it, what type of kit would be best to get hold of, bearing in mind I am not planning on making a career out of it? !! There seems to be a bewildering choice of welding gear. I looked at Machine MArt alone and there were about 6 pages worth!

 

[panda1408]

I bought a second hand mig for £200, got a load of scrap and practiced for a while until I tackled any of the welding on my Panda. I had welded some very thick plate together a couple of times before but that is totally different to welding on a car.

You can get a garage or welder to stick some plates over the rusty bits for a couple of hundred quid which will get you through an MOT, but you'll be in the same situation in a few years time. If you do it yourself it will cost a few hundred to get set up with the right kit, but you'll be able to spend some time doing the repairs properly, cutting out the old metal and making the correctly shaped repair panels to weld in.

 

[Giacosa]

Had you any experience beforehand?
If I were to tackle it, what type of kit would be best to get hold of, bearing in mind I am not planning on making a career out of it? !! There seems to be a bewildering choice of welding gear. I looked at Machine MArt alone and there were about 6 pages worth!

None at all. I practiced first with a few welds on an old PC case which later became part of the sill structure. There are pics of what I did here

https://www.fiatforum.com/other-fiats/261214-white-hen-rebuild.html

With the welder the best thing to get a good quality one second hand one if your looking to save money. It will have a few different power settings which is very important and will be alot easier to use than a cheap new one. Gasless MIGs are ok and what I use but they are probably pretty miserable compared to one that uses shielding gas.

A decent cutting tool like a dremel with a flexible extension I find works much better though maybe slower than the blunderbus that is an angle grinder.

If you have a garage with an electricity supply then you already half way there.

 

[pooroldcodger]

None at all. I practiced first with a few welds on an old PC case which later became part of the sill structure. There are pics of what I did here

https://www.fiatforum.com/other-fiats/261214-white-hen-rebuild.html

With the welder the best thing to get a good quality one second hand one if your looking to save money. It will have a few different power settings which is very important and will be alot easier to use than a cheap new one. Gasless MIGs are ok and what I use but they are probably pretty miserable compared to one that uses shielding gas.

A decent cutting tool like a dremel with a flexible extension I find works much better though maybe slower than the blunderbus that is an angle grinder.

If you have a garage with an electricity supply then you already half way there.

I saw your pictures when i was searching the words "welding and "Classic Panda" !
That's an incredible job and you are to be congratulated. It looked past saving to me in the early pics!
So, a good-enough quality welder means MIG, with different power settings is ok. Doesn't have to use gas?
What about these arc welders you see in Machine Mart, Lidl or Aldi or something similar for less than £100. Could they be any good?

 

[panda1408]

Arc welders are no good for thin steel, you will blow the metal to nothing. Something like this is what you need: http://www.weldequip.com/clarke-160tm.htm

Have a good look on this site, the tutorials helped me alot:
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

 

[Giacosa]

I saw your pictures when i was searching the words "welding and "Classic Panda" !
That's an incredible job and you are to be congratulated. It looked past saving to me in the early pics!
So, a good-enough quality welder means MIG, with different power settings is ok. Doesn't have to use gas?
What about these arc welders you see in Machine Mart, Lidl or Aldi or something similar for less than £100. Could they be any good?

Ta It was a piece of junk and tbh it still needs yet more welding.

As mentioned above Arc welder will just burn holes, Lots of practice with a MIG on scrap steel and you will know when you have mastered it. A welding helmet that automatically dims when you create an arc but goes see through again when the welding stops is a great investment.

 

[pooroldcodger]

Ta It was a piece of junk and tbh it still needs yet more welding.

As mentioned above Arc welder will just burn holes, Lots of practice with a MIG on scrap steel and you will know when you have mastered it. A welding helmet that automatically dims when you create an arc but goes see through again when the welding stops is a great investment.

Thanks for the advice. I will weigh up the options.
Lucky escape last night. A hefty 5' x 2'6 board that has been happily leaning against the wall since we had the loft insulated 2 weeks ago suddenly got caught by a freak gust of wind last night and lanced on poor Belladonna. Luckily the impact was broken first by the wing mirror, which even luckier, didn't break off!
Signs of a change of luck for her perhaps? !

 

[pooroldcodger]

Well being as it was a lovely day oop north today and the ferrets and whippets didn't need exercising, I spent a couple of hours on Belladonna.
First job, clean up the seats. The driver's seat is a bit dirty, but not too bad. The rest look pretty good.
I then had a good look under the driver's side wheel arch, now with the liner out.
A nice little hole through in to the engine bay. Extra cooling perhaps? Maybe not.
Then I cleaned the floor mats and left them to dry.
Then an Emirates A380 came over, which is always a bit of a treat! It is so big, but so quiet. Amazing.
Funds are limited at the moment so I am limited to finding all the welding that needs doing at the moment, and then tackle those parts later.

 

[purple haze]

Keep up the good work.... I saw an A380 at a commercial airshow. It not only flew very low, but also with its wing tip pointing at the ground..amazing.

 

[pooroldcodger]

The A380 comes in evry day to Manchester about mid day and leaves again 2 hours later heading for Dubai. We get a good view from our garden.
Anyway, back to Panda-ing!
I have noticed that the seat recliner on the driver's seat doesn't seem to work.. The lever is connected to a rod that goes across the back of the seat and is supposed to rotate, but the rod isn't moving. It looks like there should be a spot weld fixing the end of the lever to the rod.
Does that sound right?
Also, the spongy material that was behind the air vent at the bottom of the windscreen pillar. Mine has disintegrated so I have bought some draught excluder, which seems similar. Where exactly should it go?