Sublime Pandamonium II

[Mr2Mike]

Liquid Knight said:

It's worth less now than the £1,000 I bid for it when the car was in a field. Seriously in that state the most I would pay is £600

It will take £3,000 to restore the car properly.

I can well believe it. The odd thing is they appear to have done some reasonable looking work on other projects (e.g. the 2CV), but butchered this one from the start.

[Liquid Knight]

I'm not a follower of the show.
The Porsche 914 they did basic repairs, run a mop over it and sold it back to the guy who they bought it from "fully restored".
The Morgan they replaced the chassis, fitted modified rear suspension and didn't replace anything else, sold it "fully restored" when it wasn't.
Even back in old days the MkI Golf GTI, they replaced the wheels, removed the chrome trim and fitted red trim from a breakers yard, washed it and sold it "fully restored".

The show takes the piss.

[Liquid Knight]

Just photo' dropping here so I can enrich other corners of the internet.

[mwstewart]

I was kindly pointed here by Mr2Mike. I've enjoyed the thread!

I'm just back from Tuscany where I was loaned a Mk1 for driving along 2km of unpathed road to get to our villa, and I kind of fell in love with it. Now looking for a Mk1 4x4 but not finding many for sale at all.

Keep up with the projects!

[Liquid Knight]

They are rocking horse poo in the UK there was one for sale in France and nearly got on a train until I found it wasn't a runner.

There's one on the Fiat Forum for £150 but you literally need to dig it out of a field (before I do).

I miss my MkI 4x4, the 965cc engine is arguably better than the 999 FIRE but the Steyr Puch running gear is bombproof.

[Liquid Knight]

Thinking of a more subtle approach than dropping my spare FTO engine there.

I have these...



...Abarth-esque stripes from a while ago.

Maybe.

[Liquid Knight]

Better this way round I think.

[Liquid Knight]

The FTO conversion is off. I finally dropped the gearbox and lifted the engine from my donor car and the gearbox weighs roughly the same as my spare Panda engine.

Unless I want the car to handle like an Audi with flat front tyres it's not worth the faff.

[Liquid Knight]

Found my digital tachometer in my bedroom today and decided to use a spare clock trim and fit it.



Looks good, powers up but will not work from the coilpacks. It needs a traditional coil to operate.

Still gave me something to do today waiting for the scrap FTO shell to be taken away and an eBay seller to get back to me with a time to collect parts for my other project.

I did take the washer bottle out, clean the gunk out of it so now I may be able to wash my windscreen instead of making it worse.

[Liquid Knight]

Then there were three.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111785261406?_trksid=p20...

Sort of.

[Liquid Knight]

One of my headlight bulbs smashed after a few potholes. So I had to take it off and clean this mess out...



...I fitted some clear square side repeaters to go with the clear indicators while I was at it.



My Pandas will have company soon...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111785261406?_trksid=p20...

...one of only eight Y10 FIRE models in the UK and 53,000 miles I'm guessing one of the lowest.

But if you'd like one of the other twenty nine Panda Fizz's left in the UK here's...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371454811635?_trksid=p20...

...your chance.

[Liquid Knight]

Just testing. One of the servers appears to be down and I can't access my other topics.

[vernonderby]

mwstewart said:

... Now looking for a Mk1 4x4 but not finding many for sale at all...

How about importing this from Italy?

http://www.subito.it/auto/fiat-panda-4x4-nuova-100...

Edited by vernonderby on Sunday 11th October 07:58

[QBee]

vernonderby said:

mwstewart said:

... Now looking for a Mk1 4x4 but not finding many for sale at all...

How about importing this from Italy?

http://www.subito.it/auto/fiat-panda-4x4-nuova-100...

Edited by vernonderby on Sunday 11th October 07:58

Do all Italian cars come with a free porcupine in the front passenger seat?

[Liquid Knight]

Eleven foot three inch car on a ten foot trailer. Trigonometry rules!

[QBee]

Liquid Knight said:

Eleven foot three inch car on a ten foot trailer. Trigonometry rules!

Never thought of tying down that way - so much quicker than the conventional method:



13 foot car on a 12 foot trailer, and yes, I did raise the rear supports and remove the ramps before driving off

Edited by QBee on Wednesday 14th October 15:01

[Liquid Knight]

That's a lot of car for a single axle. I was surprised VOSA didn't stop us yesterday.

[QBee]

Liquid Knight said:

That's a lot of car for a single axle. I was surprised VOSA didn't stop us yesterday.

After 30 track days with never a breakdown, accident or puncture, I thought I had better play safe and get a trailer.....remember this bit...!

I bought the trailer three weeks before I needed to use it, made sure it was big enough for my 4 metre by 1.8 metre 1060kg car, and spent the intervening time throwing money at it.

The trailer is very solid, as it is made from sheet steel welded/bolted to a caravan chassis. I changed the winch for one that will load 2500 kg, and bought new straps to tie down. Changed the lights for waterproof LEDs, all ready to go.

The car can tow 1800 kg.
The trailer is plated for 1600 kg.

I took the whole thing to the public weighbridge and weighed it - Trailer with car on it was 1420 kg, so all ok except for the tyres, which were 92 load rating (630kg each).

So i bought some 15 inch alloy wheels off Ebay as I couldn't get suitable tyres for wheels that small (14 inch), and ordered a pair (and a spare) of steel belted van tyres which can carry 850kg each (I think their load rating was something like 102). So 1700 kg carrying capacity.


The tyres were delayed and finally arrived at 9 am on the morning I wanted to use the trailer. Chased the courier all over town (he called when I was on the phone finding out when they were going to be delivered and I didn't hear the bell!), got the tyres, took them to the tyre place to have them fitted to the bigger alloy wheels.
Got home, pouring with rain, fitted the wheels to the trailer, loaded the car, strapped it down, and discovered that the new wider tyres were now rubbing on the edge of the trailer bed. Jacked the whole thing up and fitted 5mm spacers. Breathed sigh of relief, loaded all my trackday stuff, spare wheels and tyres into the Saab and headed off.

3 miles - discovered the indicators weren't working.....my fault, wired them wrongly. It's amazing how easy it is to position yourself so folks know exactly what you are about to do.
50 miles - mudguard flew off after rubbing through on the tyre - bigger wheels and tyres need bigger mudguards....DOH!
75 miles - brand new jockey wheel unwound itself and trashed the wheel on the road.
125 miles - nearside wheel came off the trailer on the A429 in the Cotswolds at 50 mph. I walked back down the road, found the wheel, called the RAC - no wheel bolts. It would seem that, in my haste in the rain, after fitting the spacers and putting the wheel back on I forgot to torque up one side that crucial last quarter turn.........
Police turned up and got busy protecting me from the traffic and seeing what they could do (some times being respectable looking and elderly helps), RAC turned up, police suggested taking two bolts off the other side to get me mobile again and sent me on my way. RAC man tried to make me some bolts, but basically gave up after 1.
Drove the remaining 25 miles to Castle Combe with 5 out of 8 wheel bolts.


Great start to my trailering the car to avoid problems, but it has done about 700 miles since without incident.

And I have at last had a breakdown on a track day, 80 miles from home - holed radiator. So trailer justified.

Edited by QBee on Wednesday 14th October 15:02

[Mr2Mike]

Alloy wheels are not generally a good idea on a trailer, especially a heavily loaded one, as the load rating of the wheel may become the limiting factor. This is the reason that generic after-market alloys on vans are prone to failure.

[QBee]

Mr2Mike said:

Alloy wheels are not generally a good idea on a trailer, especially a heavily loaded one, as the load rating of the wheel may become the limiting factor. This is the reason that generic after-market alloys on vans are prone to failure.

Useful info - I will check the spare to see if it has any info on it. Thanks