1971 Met Panda "Rosie" - Now with MOT and TAX :)

[pskipper]

@polo2k There's still tonnes to do with respraying, rebuilding the engine and sorting out the interior etc! (Oh and grinding down all the welds)

[polo2k]

fear not young Danielson I feel your pain! lol

[pskipper]

She's solid all the way round, lots of grinding still to do though, pics soon!

[pskipper]

Okay, promised pictures back in November [coughs embarrassedly] here they are. We bought a reasonably large compressor so have had to get Rosie back on her wheels so she could come out of the garage to allow tidying and rearrangement. We're also waiting on a spit so she'll be stripped down completely so we can do the paint work (and check the upside down welding) properly. She still need the welds grinding down but I was incredibly relieved that not a single weld popped when she was supporting her own weight again!

Anyway here's the pictures....[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]Yes, I am sweeping out the garage, and that is the huge compressor [frame][/frame]The front drivers side suspension needs sorting but that was a known job.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

And lots of thanks to polo2k who helped us push her back into the garage late at night even though he had guests around!

[mmjosh]

are you putting rosie back as a panda car or are you changing the colour

[pskipper]

Back as a Panda so we're going to have to strip her down as the red paint is really badly done. We were going to have the shell sand blasted until we discovered an original quality control sticker so now we'll mask off that bit and use paint stripper.

[pskipper]

Garage is tidied and rearranged ready for the next phase of work and I've finally managed to get the front bumper and grill off without having to cut through the bumper mount. Unfortunately it revealed a bit more welding to do as the engine bay floor under the nuffield metals tag had rotted through!

[pskipper]

Welding to the main body is now complete as far as I can tell, eventually she'll go up on a spit so we can check her all over but we're changing counties soon so the plan is to grind down all the welds we can easily get to, put her all back together for ease of moving and then strip her back down etc etc. If there's time between now and the move do the door bottoms.

All this needs to wait until we've done some shopping as the angle grinder started producing white smoke

On the plus side the new house has a bigger, if slightly dilapidated garage and potentially the room to replace it with a long double

[polo2k]

Give me a shout if you need to borrow a grinder, ill be out in the garage in about 10 minutes

[pskipper]

Thanks for the offer, we're using the magic of Tesco Direct and will get it tomorrow.

Coming soon, review on the tesco value angle grinder!

[pskipper]

Tesco value grinder, on/off switch is in a bad place so you keep knocking it and turning the grinder off and it vibrates excessively. Fortunately the old grinder came back to life

1/4 of the way around the car, should really have done it as I went around welding I guess!

[pskipper]

Finished most of the grinding at the weekend, uncovered some bits that need more work with the welder but that's okay. Had a successful evening dismantling the completely seized up rear bumper (removed with bumper irons still attached) so will hopefully have all the new chrome bolts for reassembling it for transport.

Hopefully will get around to taking some pictures at the weekend!

[pskipper]

So, not quite the weekend as all the grinding got finished and almost all of the welding. There are still a couple of bits and pieces of cosmetic welding to do but I'm not too worried about doing them before we move house as once we've moved we'll be putting her on a spit and stripping her back to bare metal for respraying and I'm sure that one or two bits of welding will turn up then....

So latest progress, from what we can tell one of Rosies wings is original and used to chase criminals around the streets of London. Unfortunately rust had chewed up the wing under the indicator cluster and below it, but we decided to try and save the wing....
[frame][/frame]
Wing with bad bits cut out.

[frame][/frame]
Attempt at making a repair panel with only an angle grinder and a set of rat tailed files, pretty pleased with how it came out!

[frame][/frame]
One repaired wing, when it comes back off for respraying there is a little panel beating to do but otherwise I'm happy!

So the rest of the time has been refitting wings, bonnet, new boot lid and the kick plates and sill finishers...[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
Sill finishers line up nicely with wings so sill repairs are in place

[frame][/frame]
New boot lid is a lovely fit!

Our neighbour (http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=32242, polo2k) also suggested that we should check the rear axel alignment having replaced one of the spring hangers, pleased to say it was perfect (to less than a mm anyway)

Philip

p.s. we're having a bit of a clear out of car bits with the move, if you are interested you should check out the for sale section!

[pskipper]

Okay, slaving through sleepless nights and horrendous head cold to get the drivers side door bottom done! I thought some pictures of the inside would be useful as the restoration book doesn't have good ones and it turns out to be more complicated than they imply!
[frame][/frame]The triangular panel you can see is spot welded to the bottom of the door, not something I recall them warning you about!

[frame][/frame]The section protruding from the door is not included in the repair panels so don't cut it off, I'm going to have to rebuild the bottom of it as it was eaten away by rust

[frame][/frame]Before I lifted the seam this section looked good, with just a little surface rust at the join. I thought I should lift it to clean up and discovered more work to do I'm also going to have to rebuild the area around the bottom hinge plate as the recess down to the hinge which should be at the top of the photo was crumbly rust

Would it be wrong to point out again that we have lots of bits for sale, we can sort it out if people want to collect from Swindon (up to the 19th April), Lincoln (after the 21st April) or Cambridge (after the 16th but bought/requested before that)

[pskipper]

Door put back together (bottoms folded not welded to allow for final adjustments of shape) and back on Rosie ready for the big move! Anyone selling a decent car trailer around Wiltshire for less than £350?

[pskipper]

Doesn't really belong here but as we were moving cars anyway we thought we'd gather all the projects in one place![frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
He's actually in a lot better condition than we had thought, still a lot of work though and I'm a bit worried that the white fluff in the last picture is the remains of the asbestos heat shield!

[polo2k]

Looking good!
Glad to see the trailer is holding up well. did the increased hitch height make it more stable?

[pskipper]

Yes, thanks, that and the new axle! The wheel was completely wonky by the time we got Rosie to Lincoln. Just need to sort the brakes out now and then sell it as we really don't have the room!

[polo2k]

Gutted and Gutted!
how is rosie progressing?

[pskipper]

The garage didn't have power after all, the new one will do though with it's own RCD and good lighting! Rosie has been mostly sitting there while Lynda makes me decorate! I think it will be next years national as the target now!