General Today I adopted my Panda...

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General Today I adopted my Panda...

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Today I officially belong in this sub-section of the FF community :D

It's been a year and a half, but I'm finally the owner of a 2005 Fiat Panda Dynamic 1.2.

I drove it down from Junction One in Antrim, Northern Ireland today, a decent drive to get used to it and put my foot down a bit! It was fairly quiet and smooth to my surprise, just being a little bouncy over bumps on some of N.Irelands less finished road surfaces!!!

Nevertheless, it works amazingly. The pedals all feel firm the way they should. Brakes sharp but not too sharp. Short, comfortable gear position. Chunky steering wheel, but quite commanding feeling! I enjoyed the trip computer too, an upgrade for me.

We found a name for the Panda, it's called 'Argento'. Italian for Silver, though I did find it's actually grey, I prefer Argento anyway! haha


Spent all evening cleaning the exterior with Turtle Wax Shampoo and Wax and the Halfords car cleaning kit for £5 - mostly for the cloths/sponges it had. Also bought a handy ice scraper for the winter and my 5am starts at work!

Bought some Turtle Wax upholstery/carpet and Turtle Wax interior cleaner too. I've just used Windolene on the interior of the glass. I'm half way through cleaning the inside. It got dark so it was too difficult to see. Thankfully, only light stains on the blue seat fabric which should come off!

Spending tomorrow cleaning it again, getting the metal on the door and door edges clean, and touching up missed spots.

Planned upgrades simple include the new Fiat logos, hoping to find them on eBay perhaps! I also want a little scale model on the dash, but waiting for the right price and hopefully colour to show up on eBay. I need the little round bit for the back left window roller which is missing too!

My crappy insurance company 'DialDirect', decided now that instead of £111 per month, I will now pay £160 per month for insurance so I now spend 100% of my monthly income on insurance... The joys of being 19 and on an 8 hour contract but hey.. there's hope for more hours.. And btw, I can't cancel because I have a claim from my last car when it rolled into someone else at 2mph in a car park - I accept the fault for it and was stupid, but GOD am I having to pay now!!

Loving the Panda so far :) Now, just need to shift that dead Corsa sitting next to it, up for £250 because MOT is out soon :/
 
Check the rear axle, particularly where the bottom of the springs fit in the pans.

Unlike the car's body, which should usually be rust free, the rear axle can get really rusty around this age, as does the engines sump and one or two other bits and bobs underneath.
 
Hi and welcome.
When your insurance is due for renewal please feel free to drop me a line. I'd be only too pleased to help out.
Regards,
Dan.
 
I will check these tomorrow in the daylight, if they are rusty can they be treated? Replaced?

Surely something I can keep on top of to get another 5 years at least? :O

If needed it's not too hard to jack up the rear of the body and support it.
Remove the rear wheels.
Undo the top shock mounts (they'll be easier to undo than the bottoms) and swing the axle down.

You'll be able to remove the springs and clean up the worst of the rust with a wire brush (on a drill) while rolling around on the floor!

The around the pans on which the lower end of the springs fit is a water trap and can get quite rough where they attach to the axle, so particular attention is needed.

Treat it with a rust eater like Krust and let work before a couple of thick coats of Waxoil.

It's probably best to check it all out first and get all your bits ready as it's common if the axle is rusty, the springs and perhaps shock bodies will be starting to rot too.

Also it's a common niggle on these that the top bush in the rear shock eyes wear away.
This causes a knocking at the rear over bumps, so it's worth checking them out before you refit.

If the sump is rusty, I'd just clean it up and treat it as above, then Hammerite it, the stuff that goes on straight to bare metal and rust.
The sump pan is pretty thin metal, so if rust has got hold, you'll only really slow it down before it pin holes and drips.

It's a bummer if you discover a few rusty items underneath, but sorting out these bolt on bits is far easier than tackling rusty body work, which they don't seem to suffer too badly with.

I tackled my sisters 2004 this time last year and as it costed her so little over the years we decided we'd get away with cleaning up the axle and replaced all four shocks and springs.
We also chucked on some new pads, disc, shoes and a good engine service, it all cost around £400 DIYing.

The only trouble it gave me was a seized hub to front shock bolt that needed cutting and a trip to the dealers for a new one, but generally they are so simple to work on.
 
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