Northern Auto Tech - ECU and Blue & Me Repairs
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Panda (Classic) John Dragon Man's 4x4 Sisley

Overview Gallery Discussion

Introduction

Hello!

Well, I have been waiting a long time to do this!

Introducing (Drum roll please!).....

Edit: about half way through the time it took me to get the car on the road it found the name Talon. So everyone Meet:
Talon. My Fiat Panda 4x4 Sisley:

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Great Looking car.. As i am sure you all agree!

It has its Good points:

No Horrid noises in any gear and the 4x4 system works and sounds brilliant! Its a Sisley! And it came with some nice extras such as the light grill covers.

and also nice low mileage.
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And it has its bad points... Lots of bad points:

Mid body rust, This is the worst on the drivers side (in the UK) front wing:
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The Doors are Rusty.. Ok, i did expect this as it seems to be a common thing on most Fiats over 10-15 years old:
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And the other Door, Not as bad.. I may be able to save this side!
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"Phantom Electronics" the electronics do what they want to do, when they want to do it. No Switches necessary!

Also the Fuse box now lives here :( That means that a flap has been cut in the pocket :(
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The Exhaust is very broken, in multiple parts. even the down pipe!
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Lastly and by far the worst, Under body rust. Now its not as bad as it could be. The rear sills on both sides have a small 1 - 2 inch hole in them. No biggy.
I have still yet to remove all the plastic wheel arch liners and have a proper look.
Here's a picture from the front drivers side wheel arch, its only a skin so a easy repair:
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A bit of work needs doing to the brakes, pads i think. The fluid needs changing and the drivers side front brake pipe is corroded so i will replace that.

Also the engine needs a good cleaning up, a full on service replacing the water pump, cam belt, tensioner pulley, distributor cap and rotor arm, filters, oil, radiator, coolant and starter motor.

I also need a few things like a locking filler cap, the little clips that hold the air box together, a new boot gas strut and a non damaged back bumper.

Its the car I have always wanted right from when I was a young lad. So you can imagine how I was when I won it on eBay for a grand total of £547. Getting it from Wales To my home town of Derby Cost me £135.

With some love, care and late nights I reckon I can turn it into a cracking motor!

Oh and stay tuned as I will be keeping a Video Log of what I will be doing to the car on Youtube!

This is the video i took just as the car transporter left from delivering it:




See the rest of the videos Here: Fiat Panda 4x4 Sisley Restoration Video Logs

See my Youtube Channel >>>Here<<<

Also Click Here for more up to date pictures of this car!

I am so very proud to be the owner of a Fiat Panda 4x4 Sisley!

:D:D:D


Edit: this is how Talon looks now:



:eek::cool::cool::cool::yum:

Since then Talon has gained more lights, and now has some blue rust free Seat Marbella doors. I had also converted him to Fuel injection, however the parts i used were old and worn so now it is back on Carburettor.

This thread has its ups and downs but through the years Talon and myself have pulled through.

When you are done reading this thread, be sure to check out the little red scrap yard rescued Seat Marbella thread and also Project Fallout!

Peace all and enjoy the thread, videos and pictures!
  • Like
Reactions: The Panda Nut, ben, FDNY21 and 23 others
Click to expand...
all 3 carbs are fine.. again artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity

clever boy forgot to plumb up the vac servo for the brakes.. so huge air leak.

Talon works flawlessly with the carb now. starts better than it did with fuel injection.. it was a poor fuel injection system though.. the cinq one would have been soooo much better.

thurther mentioning of this again will not get you in this mods good books :p
 
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hmm talon needs yet another drivers side outer CV boot.. i wish i could figure out why it rubs on everything. i have tried them in all positions but they always rub and ware through.

this is its 5th CV boot... one "universal", 3 lucas, and one which cost me a fortune direct from fiat. every one rubs and eventually spills all the grease all over everything.

i think its going to be one of those things where i will worry about hiding it come the MOT and just leave it. sadly i see no way of fixing the problem.

any such thing as a low profile CV boot?
 
A temporary "fix" until you work out what if causing it could maybe be to fit a cheap universal boot over an official one (basically reinforcing it)?

If nothing else it would buy you more time until it leaked because whatever was wearing it down has more rubber it needs to get through.
 
i dont think theres any crash damage.. i did have to replace the strut on that side but i did replace it with one from bex that was quite new. it was a 4x4 strut i replaced it with.

i was thinking of just filing the holes bigger and sliding the whole strut up.

talon needs 2 new front struts but they are super rare to find and i just cant afford them.
 
never messed with a 4x4 panda but generally speaking front shocks are bolted to the spindle (or some mount that attaches to the spindle) making it a fixed point and the driveshaft goes through the bearing in the spindle. This makes all these things fixed in relation to each other..... So this to me can only mean the mount on the bottom of the shock (or mount that sits between the shock and spindle) is either bent or wrong or the shock is somehow damaged or not the right one.. Spindles generally being cast won't bend, they would snap so unless the spindle is the wrong type i doubt its the spindle itself. Have you had both struts off and next to each other to compare them before???

This is all conjecture being that i don't really know the setup but hope that makes sense.
 
I must admit I have noticed a lot of 4x4s shocks/struts are different at that point on the base of them. When I replaced both of mine it originally had one gas strut and one oil strut on the front - they were both different on the base of them.

With my suspension being lifted I have to use the universal "cut-to-fit" CV boots, and cut them down quite far to clear this issue (as the angle on my shafts is greater than standard) maybe give those a try John?

If you buy new front shocks for the 4x4 they come with the strut new anyway, they don't come as in insert. They're about £60 a pair and involve changing the top bearing and coil spring over from your old ones before bolting them in place.
 
As far as I remember there is "one finger" gap between boot and suspension components in my 4x4. Something is bent or shock absober does not meet OE fiat standard sizes. Quick repair is one mnute job with a grinder and a grinding disc to the base of the shock IMHO;)
 
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I've been through a few different shocks and boots on the front of Grumbleweed and had the same issue a few times, just some boots that are bulkier and some shocks a slightly different shape at the base. Not much clearance as standard so doesn't take much to upset it.
 
in keeping with my "lets actually find out how much metal you can bolt to a panda" way..

this:





i think jubilee clips will be more than enough to hold this on :D

it may not be as nice or neat as the one you do Vman C but it cost me nothing to make as i have the check plate given to me for fixing up a lawn mower for some one! :D

bring on the 4x4 day.. im looking to get this baby scratched up :devil: :slayer:


now to see how bad it hits the exhaust...
 
as far as i can see nothing is bent.. the CV boots have all been fiat ones.

i had it all apart again today to see if i could fix it, but i dont think i can.

i am looking to get new dampeners for the front, and also will be adding the Felicia springs. this means that i will have to alter the camber.. while i am doing that i think i will drill the holes out a bit and make it so the gap will be bigger.

its a pain because its preventing me from doing any long distance travel. even after a quick drive around the estate, all the grease has come out and anything metal is bone dry again :/

im thinking of swaping the whole arm over with fallouts.. i just wish it could hold on just a few more months.. then i will have fallout road going.
 
Thinking about your CV boots problem John, is the part number 6 , the spacer present on talon? I think it is still possible to fasten the big cv nut without this spacer, and it moves the cv 1 cm deeper= boot closer to the susp. components. It is easy to forget about this part when you disassemble the whole front susp like you did some time ago with talons.

PS: I used this spacers in my 127 mk1 with swapped 1.0 fire engine and box from y10, I also used shafts from y10 on 127 mk1 and to "make them longer" I used this panda spacers to push the driveshafts towards the gearbox by 1cm.

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