General What did you do with your Panda today?

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

So mrs J passed too?

gr J

Oh yes, but I'm not listing the advisories!

 

[The Panda Nut]

Noop took me to the hospital - good news from my surgeon, Ruby went to do the weekly shopping and Daffo went to the seaside. Weve had Barney our dog 5 years today so it was his treat. Bright dry and very warm. He dragged me a mile up the beach and back. Youngest and I then went to Sherringham for a large ice cream and then home. With thennew belts on Daffo and the plug sorted out Daffo is running really well and the get and go is now impressive. I need to address a patch of under bonnet corrosion near the engine mount and hes good for a few more years with luck. Im thinking of buying a sand blaster as its as cheap aspaying someone else, anf I can be certain its properly masked before the work starts.

 

[varesecrazy]

Treated it to a full set of Michelin Cross Climate 2’s and a wheel alignment.

Nothing wrong with the old tyres as such, other than being the original factory-fit ones from 2013

My panda is still on its 2013 contis too..

Summer wil bring new rubber

Interested to hear what you think of your new purchases

 

[The Panda Nut]

My panda is still on its 2013 contis too..

Summer wil bring new rubber

Interested to hear what you think of your new purchases

Im building up to at least 2 new boots for Ruby as one is now 9 years old. No cracling, or major loss of grip yet, but its down to 4mm or so, so nearing chuck out time. Its running Goodyear but Im thinking of options on other makes.

 

[lunchbeers]

My panda is still on its 2013 contis too..

Summer wil bring new rubber

Interested to hear what you think of your new purchases

Very pleased with them, they have a firmer sidewall so are slightly firmer over the bumps but with that cones better handling.

They’re noticeably quieter now they’ve had a few miles on… still too early to comment on any noticeable mpg gains…. if any!

Luckily havent had to experience any hard wet braking, but no reason to believe they wont work as well as they claim.

 

[Zootalaws]

SWWNL modified my daily driver two weeks ago.

I had just replaced tyres (Dunlop) and battery (Bosch), wipers (Bosch), front brake pads, various bulbs and air/oil filters.

It’s Sod’s Law - whenever I take an interest in the car karma reaches out for a quick cuddle to remind me who’s boss.

Luckily, within a day I had sorted a replacement - a 2015 Comfort in cream with alloys, folding mirrors, etc. and 70,000km on the dial, albeit at a $2K price premium on what the insurance paid out.

The towie said it was remarkably together given the size of the tractor she hit and that a Corolla or Mazda would be in much worse condition. ‘Er indoors escaped with seat-belt bruising and a sore nose from glasses meeting airbag.

Given how badly I stained the light coloured seats before, I’m going to put in car seat covers and might treat myself to a new CarPlay unit

 

[The Panda Nut]

SWWNL modified my daily driver two weeks ago.

I had just replaced tyres (Dunlop) and battery (Bosch), wipers (Bosch), front brake pads, various bulbs and air/oil filters.

It’s Sod’s Law - whenever I take an interest in the car karma reaches out for a quick cuddle to remind me who’s boss.

Luckily, within a day I had sorted a replacement - a 2015 Comfort in cream with alloys, folding mirrors, etc. and 70,000km on the dial, albeit at a $2K price premium on what the insurance paid out.

The towie said it was remarkably together given the size of the tractor she hit and that a Corolla or Mazda would be in much worse condition. ‘Er indoors escaped with seat-belt bruising and a sore nose from glasses meeting airbag.

Given how badly I stained the light coloured seats before, I’m going to put in car seat covers and might treat myself to a new CarPlay unit

Oh deers.. Im glad the driver wasn't too badly hurt. Its a shame to see a decent car reach a sad end.

 

[lunchbeers]

Unplugged my defunct blue&me unit and deleted it with a proxi-alignment.

Nothing wrong with it, just didn’t fancy it failing and its no use with the upgraded headunit.

As mentioned, mine was under the driver’s seat, and took 2 minutes to access, 3 plastic rivets in the cover and 2 long plastic clips at the front.

 

[The Panda Nut]

You might as well flog it as it wont get better for keeping!

 

[jrkitching]

You might as well flog it as it wont get better for keeping!

Unless you want to keep the new head unit and put the car back to standard when the time comes to sell it.

 

[lunchbeers]

It’ll be retained for setting back when it moves on.

Some exciting bits coming soon hopefully, including a better headunit

 

[Panda IIs]

TA 4x4. Finally manged to obtain the 7mm square tool to relieve the tension on the ancillary (serpentine) belt so swapped that out; not been done in my ownership and it was ready for it!

Also got around to fitting the new sump guard (as described elsewhere on here I abandoned thoughts of fabricating a stainless version despite buying the material). Gave a quick coat of Hammerite smooth and swapped now dodgy 10mm hex bolts to stainless allen bolts and washers.

 

[The Panda Nut]

I finally decided to have a look at the front pipe bracket on Daffo, our 2011 169. I found three of these brackets on Auto doc for £21 including carriage so should be able to replace both cars and have a spare. Some / most suppliers wanted north of £25 each!! I am suprised how substantial the brackets are. But not as suprised as I was how the bolt craked undone and then came out with fingers. The worwst part of the job was squeezing the new bracket closed after fitting so the bolt would go through.

I then moved on to starting undoing 2 years of negrlect on the bodywork and interiors of the newer pair. It is going to be a long job recovering these to the standard I like to maintain, but we arw now off to a good start.

 

[FiatMatt94]

I've got the whole weekend off work for once so finally got round to installing the new speakers I purchased a few weeks ago & can say they are a huge improvement over the original blown speakers, I can now drive down the road with the window open whilst listening to the radio at a decent volume with no distortion

 

[FiatMatt94]

Well, haven't been on here in a while due to long hours at work & sorting bits on my Mini so the Panda hasn't had a lot of attention lately until this week when I gave it a damm good clean, it was well needed & my old magnetic roof mounted DAB aerial decided to break so I shelled out £70 on a replacement from Dynamic Sounds on eBay & have to say so far it is much better than the one it replaced, it is 2 parts that stick to the windscreen with the inside part being the aerial lead that goes to the stereo & the outside part being the aerial mast itself which the angle can also be adjusted & also the aerial wire itself is quite thick unlike many of the cheaper ones

 

[varesecrazy]

Last night's weather report said it was to be "ok" for the next couple of days and indeed the sun was shining when I got up so today's been a "bonding with Becky" day. After I took Mrs J her cup of tea and ginger snap - careful if you start that sort of thing lads, you'll never be allowed to stop! - I made myself a nice big bowl of porridge and wandered round in my garage assembling the stuff I was going to need.

Getting that pesky thermostat changed was the priority and I was intending to suck the coolant out of the header tank (on the 169 Panda it goes right down the side of the rad so you can almost empty the system if you've got a syphon of some sort, which I do, but I needed to make up a small diameter extension hose to get in with. After a rummage in my odds and sods boxes I came up with this:

View attachment 215785

I could have just pulled the bottom rad hose but I want to keep the coolant spotlessly clean for reuse as it was renewed less than 2 years ago and it's 5 year OAT coolant. Pumping it into a clean bucket makes this easy.

Hi Jock,

Stumbled across this lock down era thread..

Nice pump!
What is it?

I've just bought a cheap plastic SEALEY variant.. It was cheap @£12


Like you, I need to reduce hose diameters

Might use electrical "heat shrink " on the joins of hose..?

I plant to syphon engine oil.. So cannot be too hot

 

[The Panda Nut]

Hi Jock,

Stumbled across this lock down era thread..

Nice pump!
What is it?

I've just bought a cheap plastic key SEALEY variant.. It was cheap @£12


Like you, I need to reduce hose diameters

Might use electrical "heat shrink " on the joins of hose..?

I plant to syphon engine oil.. So cannot be too hot

Home enema kit

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Hi Jock,

Stumbled across this lock down era thread..

Nice pump!
What is it?

I've just bought a cheap plastic key SEALEY variant.. It was cheap @£12


Like you, I need to reduce hose diameters

Might use electrical "heat shrink " on the joins of hose..?

I plant to syphon engine oil.. So cannot be too hot

It was one of those "when it's gone, it's gone" items from Lidl - or might have been Aldi? Made in Germany I think. I can't look at it just now as I lent it to my boy. I used self amalgamating tape on the joins as you can stretch it to accommodate the different diameters

 

[varesecrazy]

Home enema kit

Looks worse than that..

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Looks worse than that..

For horses maybe? It can really shift some fluid!