Project Panda Alessi: The Pandarin

[Aston Martin]

For Fiats Sake is a hero for helping me today.

[Aston Martin]

Here is an idea. Can we get hold of one Alessi man, scan/ draw and 3D print it?

Wasnt there somebody dabbling in that sort of thing?

 

That's the plan, eventually.

 

 

Anything else Alessi specific worth nabbing? Are parcel shelves rare or does the Alessi have special door cards or anything like that? Unique stereo or steering wheel? Special gearknob?

Mechanically I would think it’s all standard stuff but anything Alessi specific should be nabbed. In a few years time any spares you have will be super unobtanium.

Yes...

 

 

I've just had a 7 hour, 210 mile, half a tank of fuel adventure. I went to Halifax to pick FFS up, then to Stalybridge to strip the black Alessi.

 

We had no idea what the car was like, it was in a scrapyard. FFS didn't want the non-ripped, non-torn interior, it is a bit manky and he had no use for it. I cannot let a fairly rare interior get sent to the crusher, so I nabbed it. I also got the exterior plastics and the roof bars. (Which are unique to the Alessi, but not entirely rare.)

 

 

The interior seats/door cards in orange or green are unique to the Alessi.

The white aerial is unique.

The white roof bars are unique.

Speedo is unique.

The center console, floor CD holder/iPod holder is unique.

 

LHD ones were available with normal air con or climate control. Skydome sunroofs were optional on LHD cars.

Japanese cars were all automatics I believe. I think that all of them had climate control and not the regular air con and all had Skydomes.

 

RHD cars couldn't have a Skydome, auto or regular air con I think.

 

 

John tackled the interior and I did the plastic cladding. It falls off when you figure out how it's fixed to the car.

 

The green seats are filthy, but apart from the smallest pull in the drivers side, it's complete. I'm hoping to sell the seats and door cards to fund the bits I need. Finding a complete green Alessi interior is fairly bloody rare, so I might put in a cheeky listing on eBay. (Slightly cheaper on the Fiat Forum) Assuming someone can clean them.

 

Massive pic dump, including Pandarin himself. Who isn't that bad. The rear axle is however.

[For Fiats Sake]

It's got my panda juices flowing again, it's the first time I've been without a mk 3 for 5 years and despite them having too many doors to be a true panda (weirdly I see the 500 as the real panda successor!) there is something just right about them.

 

Personally I'd have a green alessi or an dynamic with skydome and a/c (not that I'm looking or anything). Never to darken my driveway again would be the fidgety 100hp and glacially slow 1.2 4x4.

Luckily for my neighbours the driveway is up to it's local authority limit and a potential trip next year to the home of the proper old pandas will keep these on a wish list for a while.

 

From 4 year ago:

 

[Aston Martin]

Luckily for my neighbours the driveway is up to it's local authority limit and a potential trip next year to the home of the proper old pandas will keep these on a wish list for a while.

 

 

Panda Monster for sale. With the fancy sat nav.

 

http://www.fordvarco.it/auto-usate-milano/fiat/panda/panda13mjt16v4x4monster-2373469

[Aston Martin]

Stupid sexy Pandarin.

 

Does the 2016 fit? Fuck knows.

[Aston Martin]

Upullit tomorrow to hopefully grab a tyre/wheel. Maybe a wing mirror and maybe a parcel shelf.

 

It's more of a gallivant, than anything. None of these things are necessary.

 

 

....

 

Monday I'm collecting the axle and springs from Rotherham... Then to Halifax, we're going to attempt to fit the axle, springs and shocks.

[vulgalour]

Are you not even a tiny bit tempted to put the green interior in your orange car?  I'm not sure I could resist.

[lesapandre]

 

 

Philippe Starck designed this lemon squeezer for Alessi - he also designed the Aprilia Moto motorcycle.

[Aston Martin]

Are you not even a tiny bit tempted to put the green interior in your orange car?  I'm not sure I could resist.

 

You're not the first person to mention that. I want all orange.

[Parky]

Have you thought about hiring a rug doctor with the upholstery cleaner kit? Bet that would get the Pandarins seats looking like new as well as freshening up the green stuff. Could probably cover the costs of the hire by asking a higher price for the green stuff once it’s nice and clean?

 

Plus you can earn brownie points by doing the house/rugs too. You would be stunned at the filth that comes out of seats and carpets with one of those beasties

[Aston Martin]

Have you thought about hiring a rug doctor with the upholstery cleaner kit? Bet that would get the Pandarins seats looking like new as well as freshening up the green stuff. Could probably cover the costs of the hire by asking a higher price for the green stuff once it’s nice and clean?

Plus you can earn brownie points by doing the house/rugs too. You would be stunned at the filth that comes out of seats and carpets with one of those beasties

I have a guy in Hull, who will be mopping all panels as they could do with a refresh and he's going to be using a wet vac, on the car and the entire green interior.

 

 

 

However that's low on the list as we need...

Rear axle

Rear shocks

Springs

One tyre

MOT

 

Cosmetics...

Refit arch molding (Have, but not fitted)

Passenger wing mirror

Parcel shelf

Wiper arms

Orange window tint

Rear bumper

Roof respray

I'm enquiring about 3d printed little man.

.

Then we're done. I wanted to spend under £1k all in, might have smashed that.

[Jim Bell]

 

 

.

.

 I wanted to spend under £1k all in, might have smashed that.

 

 

Well worth it though.

[Kiltox]

You can always go wrong with a cheap Panda

Sure this will be nice when it’s finished though

[Aston Martin]

Considering this idiot is trying to get £5700 for one.

 

https://www.acumenroi.com/mk06-xsa

 

I dont mind a slight overspend if it happens.

[Kiltox]

Wow!

[Aston Martin]

It's worth about £1500.

[hairnet]

Are you not even a tiny bit tempted to put the green interior in your orange car?  I'm not sure I could resist.

 

 

You're not the first person to mention that. I want all orange.

Hehe

 

Nearly works

[For Fiats Sake]

I'd be tempted to get new tyres all round, none of them look great or have much tread on them and some are cracking on the sidewalls.

 

Saying that I've a stack of mk2 panda wheels and tyres sat doing nothing, not new mind, newest ones are about 15 years old!

[Aston Martin]

Stupid bloody upullit.

 

 

I wanted panpan bits.... All fucked or missing.

[hairnet]

panda of much spinnage got beasted to blackburn services today

 

prior to that 1500 miles of town

 

needed a blowout - hits 100 on speedo

[Aston Martin]

The car has 155/80/13s a guy said he'd fit part worn 155/70/13s for £80.

 

Yay or nay, to slightly smaller tyre?

[artdjones]

Black circles are doing 155/80/13s for £37 each fitted.

[Aston Martin]

You know that thing when you live in Hull, have to collect parts in Rotherham and then take the parts to Halifax?

 

 

The plan for today is to fit the rear axle, rear springs and shocks from a 2016 Fiat Jellymold. Giving me a wider track at the rear, not unlike an F1 car...

 

4 tyres. Possibly questionable part worns, well see.

 

Swap boots. Mine is nice, John's mums has lacquer peel. As my car has a hammerite roof and is getting a repaint eventually. It makes sense to get the roof and boot repainted on mine.

 

...

 

Things to glance at today:

 

With all the wheels off, if the front brakes or suspension need anything. The rear end will essentially be 2 years old, so should need nothing.

 

I'm not going to dump the oil, but if the plugs and air filter look manky I might change.

 

 

 

 

We're not going to rush anything. I can always return another day, hopefully the next time won't be a 70 mile detour.

[Parky]

If you go for the 70’s rather than the 80 profile tyres, you will upset the speedo gearing slightly. However the change isn’t going to be much so shouldn’t be an issue in reality. May mean your speedo shows 70 but you are actually doing a smidge less but no speedo is 100% accurate anyway.

 

If the tyres are good, and cheap, it’s probably worthwhile. I might be inclined to cross ref my sat nav speed with what the speedo is saying so you can establish if you are getting an over or under reading.

 

Mrs P’s Fiat has a fairly accurate speedo, my Leon generally reads over by around 10%.

 

Good luck with the rear suspension stuff today - might be worth giving Pandarins rear suspension a WD40’ing before going out, you never know it may help later!

[Aston Martin]

Anyone care to join me in setting fire to Pandarin?

[jollysmart]

Anyone care to join me in setting fire to Pandarin?

Things that bad? Wait until November, good excuse then.

[Aston Martin]

The new axle, springs and shocks were fitted in 3 and a half milliseconds.

Removing all the old gubbins, took ages however. The old shocks did nothing, they just pushed in and didn't move out.

 

I got robbed with the tyres, they're absolutely dogshit.

OSF shocker probably has a year left in it.

 

 

Now here's the problem, the brake pipe nut came off and turned fine. It also decided to turn the pipe, causing it to split. The car is currently on John's drive with cordial bottles catching the fluid.

 

Neither one of us wants to fit copper pipe front to rear, however if I work backwards, it'll be an easy clean job...

 

Look at my handling pack!!! Torsion bar dealio.

 

Hero of the day is ForFiatsSake again.

[Aston Martin]

I've had a little nap, front brake pads had plenty of life in them, front discs had the usual lip. Air filter was clean, wipers all seemed fairly new.

 

Apart from the exhaust and front shocker, in theory... there should be nothing else it needs down the line. Apart from tyres not made from recycled bin bags.

 

Later in the week, I'm going to go back and attempt to fit front to back brake pipes.

 

 

My favourite Italian woman was not working. @1:54

 

 

 

I think it was down to my iPhone bluetooth.

[Parky]

Oh dear. What brand are the tyres? At least 155’s won’t be too expensive to replace, a quick squiz at Tyreleader shows a few cheap 80 section options, such as Nexen N’Blue, Toyo, Falken, and even Uniroyals in at less than £35 each.

 

If you go low profile with 70 section tyres, Uniroyals come in at less than £30 each! Of course you have fitting to contend with but at least you know you have decent boots on.

 

Damaged brake pipe - feasible to cut off the damaged section, flare the pipe, and fit a longer hose from something else or are the fittings some sort of Whitworth Imperial hybrid?

[Aston Martin]

3 'Event' and one Firestone that looks like it was found in a river.