Panda attacked by predators
1993 FIAT PANDA 1.1 SELECTA
Call the World Wildlife Fund – the Panda’s been attacked. Well, possibly. Having gone to the cinema one night, I returned to the car park where I’d left the little Fiat to find its passenger door hinge-mounted aerial hanging off. I didn’t think much initially – it’s a 26-yearold budget Italian car, so things have a frequent tendency to randomly drop off – although I didn’t remember it being like that earlier in the evening. But then I also noticed further curious things – such as the door mirrors being out of kilter and the reflective/protective door strips both absent. That was quite a bit to have gone awry in a short space of time, even on a Panda.
The next day, while washing the Panda, I also noticed that the offside front bumper quarter was off its mounting. It did seem like it had received some unwanted attention. It had been next to a new Fiat 500 in the car park; perhaps its owner had got jealous at how much more cheaply he or she could have had a diminutive Italian city car for.
Fortunately, the issues were easily resolved. I had spare door edge protectors, as when bought originally, four had been supplied. The aerial was dead simple – it just clipped back into place over the door hinge, although I did notice that the earth wire on it is quite fragile. The bumper was a little more complex – I had to unscrew the plastic wheelarch lining sufficiently so that it could be pulled back to allow access to the dislodged bumper mounting. Fortunately, nothing had broken – it was just a case of manoeuvring a 13mm socket in and then, by trial, error and feel, managing to work the bolt through the holes in the bumper and inner wing, then doing it up tightly. Job done, and no real harm done either.
Hopefully, the Panda will be left alone in future. They bruise quite easily.