spartacus

I'm in France ATM with friends and after they asked I've been giving them the potted history of this fine vehicle since it's been in your ownership. I'm sure I've said it before but it makes me happy to see it being so well looked after and fettled, nice one cobblers. Good luck with the welding, I feel your pain there!

Well spotted JYD.
I think it's this part, the broken line indicates the path the cable would take.
Apologies for the schoolboy style graffiti.

 

Quick stop at 'Barter Books' in Alnwick, I could spend a small fortune there but at this stage in my life I would never have time to do all that reading.
I picked up a couple of books though...

Here's a shot now, sent by the vendor.

I've had a miss-spent youth and as a result I've got a little 'barryboy' left in me. Mrs Spart bought me a set of H&R lowering springs for the Panda, they're one of the better makes out there, it may seem unlikely but there can be a huge difference between good and poor quality springs. I took the chance to give the front legs a coat of paint and fit new bump stops and dust boots too. It's only lowered it by 35mm, Pandas sit fairly high as standard so it doesn't look too 'barried', and the ride is better.
I also bought a brand new grill, the one fitted in earlier pics is from a Selecta, the auto version of a Panda, the original grill was badly damaged and beyond even an enthusiastic repair.

Going back to my place I was driving towards a very heavy sky, I had washing on the line and I didn't want to drive the Panda in the rain, for fear it might dissolve around me, I got home just in time for the washing but the neighbours car was blocking my drive and I couldn't get the car into the garage until after the downpour!
Have an arty garage shot.

I've been using a 5l container of Auto Smart trade polish but it's not up to much. It doesn't bead well, or last long. I really like Zymol but haven't been able to get hold of any recently.

Previously I'd taken the back seat out and cleaned it, it came up well and I decided to take the front seats, the drivers in particular had acquired a thick layer of grime, like somebody had been driving it wearing greasy overalls.

I elected to take the seats out and remove the covers, it didn't take long and I put them in the washing machine, 40° easy care, in case you wondered. I have them a good scrub first using upholstery cleaner.

The difference in real life is even greater than the pics, I did both front seats and also cleaned the door trims, I'm really pleased with how it all came out.
After removing the front seats I pulled the carpet out too, it's a 15 min job and it too was filthy.

Again, I'm not sure if the pictures show how much better it looked after cleaning.

Bonus depressed 'Y tho'!
When I rebuilt the drivers seat I also swapped over the foam on the squab, it wasn't badly worn but it seemed foolish not to.
While I was at it I took out the knackered speakers and ordered a new pair. When I bought the car there was a Blaupunkt Bristol head unit in the boot, it's a tape deck/radio and hopefully it'll work when I wire it back in.

Wow! It's been 20 years but earlier in the week this car passed an MOT! As detailed in an earlier installment, the drivers side rear brake cylinder was seized and there was a damaged dust cover on a front ball joint. Miraculously the brake cylinder came off with no drama, the new went straight on and bled up easily. The dust cover wasn't much more difficult, just a little persuasion needed to separate the ball joint.
Having got the car back I decided to wait until June 1st to tax it, mainly to spur me on to do a few more jobs on it.

@busmansholiday that's a really kind offer, I'll take you up on that please, I'll PM you, thanks!
@Matty that's pretty much what's going on here, except it's not a threaded grub screw, just smooth. It's held in by the washer and nut on top. It's a genuine engineering 'thing', just not executed in a manner that would please a genuine engineer, if you get my drift.
You can just about make out the flats on the end of the threaded section, circled, the metal tab is fitted in this picture and is pointing to the top left. The arrowed part is the end of the drill bit that I used as a key. Ideally it would be exactly half way across the threshold of where the two parts meet, but working in the back of my van, using the tool box as a bench and drilling with a battery drill was as ideal as I could manage! It works though, so it'll do until it starts getting sloppy again.
I hope that makes it clearer.

I came up with a couple of methods of fixing it but was limited with the tools and materials available. 
Recently I've fitted quite a few shower screens, (bear with me, this is relevant), they come with a 2.5 mm drill bit to drill through the wall profile.
I have loads of these drill bits in the van, so I used one to drill in between the top of the rod and the edge of the tab, possibly better illustrated in the pics above, then I ground a small length off the chuck end of one of the bits and used it to make a 'key', I'm sure there's an engineering term for this.
It worked, really well, I don't know how long it'll last bit of it starts to go floppy again, ooer matron, then I should be better placed to make a different, hopefully more permanent repair.

It failed.
Not too dramatically, a ball joint dust cover and no effort on the O/S/R foot brake. I knew it would fail on brakes,I really wanted to know exactly what, now I know. I'm not messing about trying to free a seized cylinder off, I'll pick one up next week. I tried to get the ball joint apart to size up the dust cover but I don't have the required tools at my place, so that'll be a job for next week too.
I didn't want to waste the afternoon so I thought I'd tackle the spectacularly floppy gearshift. Part of the mech features a rod that rotates in two bushes, at the top of the rod are two flats and a tab locates on these flats and transmits the rotating movement to the gear linkage at the gearbox end.
Unfortunately the flats had begun to round off and allow some play, although not much, it was greatly magnified by the long gear lever. To further compound the difficulty of fixing it, the nut that holds the tab on is prevented from undoing itself with a blob of weld, why Fiat chose this instead of a nyloc nut is beyond me. Anyhoo, let's have some pics and a video!

20200516_153959_001.mp4
 

The new bumper brackets arrived after OMGcovid19postaldelayexcuse and I fitted them using new stainless nuts and washers. I haven't got my tap and die set at my place so ended up cleaning the threads on the special bumper bolts using a needle file... It was a tiresome job!
After giving the rear light clusters a polish and cleaning up the number plate lights I got giddy reassembling the rear end, as a result I forgot to take any 'in progress' pics, so you'll have to make do with the one I took at the MOT station.
I'm still not entirely happy with the bumper alignment, even after three attempts, but realistically it's a bottom of the range Fiat from the '80's, so it's probably better than when it came out of the factory.

I gave the rear panel a coat of paint, it's black but doesn't match the original colour, it doesn't really matter though as it's all hidden behind the bumper, what's important is the corrosion protection!

Well, I got pretty giddy thinking I might whip this in for a test, other things happened and by the time I got to it, it was too late. Not wanting to waste precious time though I embarked on a 'little' job, you can probably tell already that it involved a can and a lot of worms.
The rear bumper has never sat straight, it's had a knock on the drivers side rear corner and it's pushed the bumper in, the mounting brackets are a thin pressed steel sort of parrallelogram affair, all* I needed to do was whip the bumper off, straighten out the brackets and job done...
err, no.
As you can tell, from the photo above of the better one of the two, they're knackered. Unbelievably they're available new from various sources, I've ordered a couple, I could have made something up but with them being entirely hidden alignment would have been tricky and I've got plenty to get on with. They're held on to the bumper by a bolt with a large square head that sits in a plastic slot moulded into the back of the bumper, of course when I tried to undo them the plastic just deformed. My preferred method of removing nuts like this is to drill down the side of the nut, usually once is enough to weaken the hold but in this case each of the four nuts needed drilling twice, even when I'd done that I had to lever the nut away from the metalwork of the bracket, it was comprehensively rusted together.
They did all come off OK, I should be able to run a die down the threads and re-use the bolts. Because it's a Fiat there was a little rust proofing to be done. It's not too bad considering its vintage but there were a few places that needed attention. I got busy with the wire brush and then the Kurust stuff. With any luck I'll be able to give it a coat of paint tomorrow, then it'll be ready for the bumper to go back on when the brackets arrive.

Holy Thread Resur... Etc etc.
Mrs Spart has been working nights for the last few days and the lack of work and good weather enticed me out into the garage for a spell of Panda fondling. I'd taken the front bumper off to straighten out the mounting bracket but not got any further than that. The front panel wasn't in a bad way by any means but this is a Fiat, so any opportunity to help stem the invasion of rust should be taken.
By a stroke of luck I had a bottle of Kurust or similar in my van, along with a tin of Fortress straight to rust paint.

I forgot to take a picture after I'd painted it but if you could just try and imagine the same view but with no rust and very shiny, that'll do.
The front bumper was minging, so I have it a good wash them a quick wipe over with WD40, it looks 100% better.


Unfortunately one of the side fixings on the inside of the end had broken, so I glued it with some magic glue I had in the van.

I threw it all back together earlier, it's looking good I think. I also charged up the battery and checked all the lights, one of the indicators had a poor earth so I cleaned that up. I might whip it in for an MOT tomorrow, even if it fails it'll give me a target to work to.

You're a glutton for shite punishment, you'll fit in well here.

I nearly didn't look at this thread but I'm pleased I did. That interior is fucking awesome. Of I owned this car, everyone I locked it up I'd have to glance back through the window to remind myself where I've just been sat. Ace!

Where does the time go?
I started using the Panda to drive over to Mrs Sparts place every now and then, it's about 30 miles away, so a decent run. It drove OK but had a flat spot that was bugging me and needed fixing, I wrote a list and started to work through it. Without boring you with all the detail I've fitted new plugs, new leads, cleaned the carb out, replaced the cambelt and fitted a new alternator belt. Non of these things completely solved the issue but I'm happy to have done them, the cambelt was so loose I could turn the tensioner by hand and the alternator belt literally had chunks falling off it.


In my head, when I'm doing these jobs, I'm taking loads of pics and keeping a detailed photographic record of my work...
In reality you've got a couple of pics of knackered belts.
Although, while I had the engine mount off I gave ita quick coat of paint, it's some sort of spray stove paint, goes on well, dries quick and gives a reasonable matt finish.

That's real bad luck, on the other hand, I've enjoyed your pictures of your day out!
Better luck next time.

Wow, that's in a right state, I'm in for this.
I'm loving the wound up extension lead with probably a welder plugged into it too, just for added danger, as if a rusty Fourtrak isn't 'life on the edge' enough for you!☺

"There's a lightbulb expert ?"
Ah, the innocence...☺
 
Great thread. Does it need much mechanically?

I've had a miss-spent youth and as a result I've got a little 'barryboy' left in me. Mrs Spart bought me a set of H&R lowering springs for the Panda, they're one of the better makes out there, it may seem unlikely but there can be a huge difference between good and poor quality springs. I took the chance to give the front legs a coat of paint and fit new bump stops and dust boots too. It's only lowered it by 35mm, Pandas sit fairly high as standard so it doesn't look too 'barried', and the ride is better.
I also bought a brand new grill, the one fitted in earlier pics is from a Selecta, the auto version of a Panda, the original grill was badly damaged and beyond even an enthusiastic repair.

But now, tonight's main event!
I picked this car up over four years ago, it's lived in my garage ever since and I've never washed it. Today was the day to change that. The weather was forecast to be overcast, ideal for washing and polishing so I set to. The car was covered in all sorts of crap from the last 20 years, (stored in a garage before I bought it), and I'd heard good things about 'snow foam' type stuff for lifting off dirt and contaminants. I bought a 'Demon Foam' that comes supplied with the gun to fit to your hosepipe. It was shit, the stuff wouldn't come out off the bottle into the gun, so after that initial disappointment I went back to a bucket and sponge. Here's a before pic...

The car has a cassette deck fitted and I've bought one of those adaptors that plugs into a phone. I had Dave Pearce trance anthems on, I was very nearly lost in a '90's throwback, although the doves mentioned in the title are nothing to do with that famous rave pharmaceutical but my watchers for the day...

I can recommend them, they're peaceful, quiet and soothing to have around.
Anyhoo, back to car washing. Because the car is small and it was minging it didn't take long to make a massive improvement, today I went light on it and just gave it a good wash them a quick polish, it came up well I think...

It's looking good.
It must be satisfying to have bought a good starting point that needs little or no 'fixing', so you can get straight on with the interesting stuff!

I've had a miss-spent youth and as a result I've got a little 'barryboy' left in me. Mrs Spart bought me a set of H&R lowering springs for the Panda, they're one of the better makes out there, it may seem unlikely but there can be a huge difference between good and poor quality springs. I took the chance to give the front legs a coat of paint and fit new bump stops and dust boots too. It's only lowered it by 35mm, Pandas sit fairly high as standard so it doesn't look too 'barried', and the ride is better.
I also bought a brand new grill, the one fitted in earlier pics is from a Selecta, the auto version of a Panda, the original grill was badly damaged and beyond even an enthusiastic repair.