Project Fiat Panda 1.4 100HP
PART FIVE: We’re reminded again that professional car body repairs are time consuming and expensive as our battered and peeling Fiat Panda completes its makeover. It’s looking good though. Andrew Everett reports.
Once again, we’ve been reminded that professional car body repairs are expensive if done right. Unlike the previous Mercedes project where we had rust to deal with – but no previous repairs – the Panda has seen a serious amount of paint in the past of var ying quality with var ying degrees of success. Terrible lacquer peel, colour mismatch plus that smashed rear bumper made the car look like a complete shed so we knew it wasn’t going to be a cheap fix. Sorting out previous paint jobs took a lot of time and to add insult to injur y, last month’s budget aerosol can repair job didn’t work. It looked OK when it went on but on my return from holiday a couple of weeks later, it was already crazing – we reckon the lacquer used previously was something that the cellulose aerosol paint wasn’t compatible with. Oh well…
We were ver y lucky to find that 100HP rear bumper and that needed just rubbing down and masking up before priming and painting. Like the front bumper, the black plastic grille bits cannot really be removed because they are plastic welded on at the joining points – it was just easier to carefully mask it all up.
We also had the headlights rubbed down and lacquered just like we did on the Merc SLK . One of my first drives in the Panda was to Glossop and back across the Snake Pass at night and you literally could not see where you were going on dipped beam despite the beam pattern passing the MOT test. Now, they are just like new.
L astly, we had the slightly kerbed but ver y buckled alloy wheels straightened and refinished by our go-to wheel place, AP Tyres in Rotherham. These 100HP alloys are known for buckling and right now I’m choosing my routes and tr ying to avoid the biggest craters on our disgraceful roads.
PREP, PRIMER & PAINT
