Bunged-up bear
My last Our Classics update on the Panda saw me trying to bodge a (temporary) repair on its corroded exhaust using layers of aluminium tape and Gun Gum. Anybody want to hazard a guess how long it lasted? Weeks? Days? Hours? Minutes? Well, it was more a question of velocity than time. Pootling around town, the Panda was fine and nicely quiet. But the moment I ventured out on a fast road that called for any acceleration – and trust me, with a 50bhp eCVT Panda, you need all the oomph you can get – the repair quickly came unstuck and the Panda was back to being a very noisy little bear indeed.
New middle exhaust sections for Panda 1.1 Selectas are now near-impossible to find, because the model was only available on the British market for about three years. So I was forced to bite the bullet and go secondhand – not something I’m keen on with things like exhausts. A search on t’internet revealed a Selecta being broken in Wellingborough, with its rear and centre sections available. They looked in reasonable nick, so I ordered them and had them couriered to Dawson Motors in Peterborough for fitting. Ordinarily I would have just picked them up myself, as they were quite local, but with the Volvo estate out of MoT at the time, I had to make alternative and more expensive arrangements instead. Craig had no problem fitting them; the trouble came when he tried to start the Panda. It just wouldn’t run at all. Closer scrutiny revealed that the back box was completely bunged up with wadding. Fortunately, new Selecta rear exhaust sections are easier to source, so there was no option but to buy and fit one. Suffice it to say that my wariness of buying used exhausts has now increased. It also makes me wonder if that was the reason the donor Panda – which otherwise looked in good order – was scrapped. It would be a shame if it was, for something so simple.
Still, it does have some rather natty Fiat accessory roof bars and trims fitted and available. I’m very tempted, now that everything else is fixed on mine.
Well, at least for now…