This is Juppy. He's a MK2 4x4 Panda. He belonged to my friend Jim until now (August 07) when Jim decided to finally sell him to me. Juppy's very well known in Fiat Panda circles, yes Pandas have their own little community. I've been keeping Juppy on the road now for Jim for a few years now so we start his history from work carried out up to the present.
Juppy as he was in his prime.
You can see Fred the bear looking out. He's Juppy's mechanic.
He's been well used over the years and travelled about. Here he is passing Big Ben.
Juppy arrives at my house for work to be done on his sills for the Mot. Sylvia the Panda was already there after just having sill work done as well.
Front inner arches neeeded a little patching so it's up on the jack to start with.
Drivers side inner arch needed a couple of little patches to the edges. I seamsealed after welding.
Passenger side was pretty much gone in the same areas.
Sills were the next thing to do and after a quick look I realised it wasn't going to be a 5 minute job. So space was cleared in the garage and passenger side jacked up. Bits were falling off before I even touched anything.
The next 3 photos show what I was greeted with.
Needles to say there was a lot of grinding to be done and Juppy was looking a bit smokey from the experience.
It took about 3 hours to get the passenger side sill welded up. The entire sill had to be done.
The rear passenger side inner arch was a bit tricky. You can't see from the photo but I had to weld right up the side of the suspension mount and there wasn't much room. I the photo below you can see a new piece of straight metal jutting out. This is were the sill should have gone out to and I had to make a full new piece up.
New metal now fitted in. Not pretty but once the weld is ground smooth it will look like new.
Sill all welded and then covered in copious amounts of stone guard.
Exactly the same thing had to be done on the drivers side. It was well worth it and after all the welding was completed the entire underneath was covered in 3 seperate coats of stone guard.
Jim discovered more rust under the air vents below the windscreen. He removed the screen and the vent.
To reveal this.
From the inside.
So Juppy was put on a trailer and brought back up to my house for more TLC.
Once he arrived it was out with the grinder again. This is how much had to take out to make sure I was back to good metal.
All back together again. You can see a little of the rust eater dripping down below the vent. I sort of overdid with the stuff but wanted to make sure it doesn't return.
Jim asked me to fit a new roof to Juppy. This is something I had never did before but said I'd have a go at it. It was a very easy job to do. The roof is only held on by 2 rails that are pop riveted to the roof through the cloth. There are the arms of course and they are just held on with 10mm nuts. The hardest thing I found was getting the right size rivets and they have to be thick but small in length as they have to stop short of the inner roof strengthener cross bar. You can just about make out the holes in the roof were the rivets go.
Once the roof bars were off I painted them in hammerite as they were looking a bit tired. These are the bars that sandwitch the cloth to the roof.
New roof now fitted. It was easy enough to do but I had to run round a bit to find the right size of self tappers. They are thick and quite stubby. I forgot to get their exact size though.
Roof from the outside. Looks good and tight.
Juppy's back for more work. Little bits of rust on the door frame.
22/09/07. We're now bang up to date. Jim who owned Juppy and named him so has decided to pass him on to me as he has enough Pandas on the go. Jim left Juppy up to my house today so I will be trying to get him (Juppy not Jim) back on the road as soon as I can. Juppy has been sitting for a while now and his windscreen got damaged while out so he needs a new one along with some more welding to the seat belt mounts.
My mate Jim brought me up seats to go into Juppy as the ones that had been in him were used to keep another Panda going.
They are not the same as the original seats but I think once everything is matched up it will give the car an updated look. I'm hoping some of our Panda friends from the Fiat Forum will come to our rescue for door cards and dash. The seats are a bit dirty from sitting about so out with the steam cleaner to spruce them up.
Juppy now in the garage, meets Wee Gem for the first time. I can get the little bit of welding that needs done, done now.
Did a bit of poking and the hole isn't as bad as it could have been. awkward little corner to work at but I will be able to put in new metal ok.
Got the hole welded up and seam sealed. Also painted rust eater along all the edges to make sure nothing else comes through.
Once I checked there was nothing else doing welding wise I got the rear seat and the nice clean carpet back in. A few little bits are missing to finish the inside off but it won't take long to sort these out. "I hope"!
14/12. Since fitting the new carb Juppy he wouldn't start, but I poured about a teaspoon ful of petrol into the carb this morning and off he went straight away. He is going so well I used him to get this blue Panda started so I could get it into the garage to change it's springs.
30/12. Took the towbar off the MK1 Panda and put it onto to Juppy today as it will come in handy for towing the little trailer I have around.
I got the towbar on pretty quickly so since I had a spare radio I put it in to. I just need a few liitle things to complete Juppy then I can get him mot'd.
26/01/08. While sifting through all the bills belonging to Juppy I came across photos of Juppy when his owner in England Richard B restored him from a bit of a reck to be honest. He obviously seen the potential in Juppy and followed this through to what Juppy is today. The photos were scanned in so the quality is not first class but gives you an idea of the amount of work Richard carried out.
I can only assume this is the first show Juppy attended once the restoration was finished. Richard did one very good job.
25/02. Carrying on Richard work and after a lot of polishing and fettling. I think I now have Juppys body finished. I may take the wheel trims off and finish the wheels as in the photo above. I think he is now looking like his old self. All I need now for the interior is door cards that match the seats and that would be the inside done to.
As a final touch I had these Panda headlight protectors hiding away in the attic. I was keeping them for the MK1 Panda but I think they would be more fitting on Juppy.
And fitted.
