Description
Here offered for sale is my 1988 Fiat Panda 4x4. I’ve owned this for over 4 years and in that time I have transformed this car from battered and worn to tidy and lovingly restored. I’ve had my fun with this car and with the project at a close it’s time someone else should take on this car and enjoy it while I work on many more projects in our collection! These Panda 4x4s are super rare now and really capable classic cars - it’s solid, resprayed and ready to go!
Background
The 4x4 was bought off a friendly chap called Stuart and his partner in London by myself in 2022. With ULEZ expansion coming in and the car only doing single digit miles in between MOTs it became apparent it was time for them to sell it after owning it for around 20 years. They had bought it off a friend and the car became somewhat of a London staple having been spotted by various “chod spotters” over the years. Despite the car’s appearances when we bought it and all the battle scars it wore it was still an on the button and ready to go car and even though we had just had our house offer accepted for our first home I just had to seize the opportunity as I wanted to bring this car to the next level!
Initial Work
After I got the car home, admittedly, I mothballed it for a while. The car sat garage stored for almost 3 years until I got the time in early 2025 to start doing bits with it – it was difficult to get to it with so many cars in the collection and the amount of work our house needed (and still needs hence the sale)! Initially we did some work before the MOT:
- Welding patches to inner upper sill areas both sides
- Rear brakes (cylinders, pipes and hose)
- Front brakes (pads, calipers and hose)
- Interior replacement (used interior from friend James Wood)
- Carpet replacement (used carpet from spares car)
- Bootlid and passenger door replacement (good used panels)
- Full service (oil, oil filter, spark plugs, air filter)
- Gearbox oil change
- New front gear linkage bush
- Propshaft repair (front shaft fully refurbished with new joints and gaiters)
- Repainted wheels with new Falken all-season tyres
- Horn button relocated and new horn fitted
- O/ S engine mount replaced
- New Fiat centre caps
- New rear lights (good used items)
- New front wiper blade
- New steering stalks
2025 MOT
In May 2025 the car went for MOT but did fail on a few items. The following was carried out to remedy and get the MOT pass:
- Strip/ clean rear shoes and drums, adjusted handbrake
- Full steering rack rebuild (new inner and outer rods, regreased fully)
- New fuel tank (POR15 treated after clean)
- New fuel filler neck (good used item from spares car)
The car was taken to a Refuel Italian car meet and did some green lanes at my friend’s farm in Devon and then sadly had some running issues. After this discovery a plethora of work was carried out:
- Head gasket replacement
- Head fully rebuilt and skimmed by South Wales Pistons
- NOS carb fitted
- New earth leads (negative cable from battery to body and body to gearbox)
- Cleaned o/ s hedgehog earths and replaced wiring to the ends
- New distributor (cap, rotor arm, vacuum unit and ignition module also)
- New HT leads
- New coil
- New fuel pump
- New manifold gaskets throughout
- New rocker cover gasket
- New belts (timing belt, alternator belt)
- New water pump
- New thermostat
- New fuel filter and hoses
- New battery
- Replaced choke cable and steering cowling
- Speedo drive leak sealed
- Coolant flush
Late 2025
I took the car to the UK Panda 4x4 Wales meet. I have frequented a fair few UK Panda 4x4 meets now and I always planned for the “ULEZ” Panda to be an off roader given visual appearances. The car performed incredibly bar the NOS carb that conked out on us so we swapped for a good used one at the meet and continued on. I did also pop one of my new Falken tyres on the “Bomb Hole” on Strata Florida but the car did the actual task with relative ease and it was a great event overall! After the Wales meet I used the car going to work a few times but otherwise it sat unused.
Early 2026
Having thought about the car’s place in our collection I figured we still have other 4x4s and I needed to thin the fleet. I decided it was in my best interest given the practically full mechanical resto that I may as well get the car looking nice and think about moving “ULEZ” on. I sent the car to my good friend Wayde at Mohawk Customs. He worked his magic and made the car look beautiful! The full respray was windows out/ trims off and the car looks incredible for it. The following happened early 2026:
- Full respray with Mohawk Customs
- Car undersealed and sills treated
- New rear shocks (I noticed they were worn out after the 4x4 meet)
- Rear exhaust welded (it started to blow at the 4x4 meet)
- Radio/ speakers fixed and new aerial/ door hinge covers fitted
- New boot strut
- New rear bumper (old stock from Scarborough Motor Works)
- New body trims and 4x4 side badging
- New rear Fiat badge and good used Panda 4x4 badge fitted
- New front tyres (after the tyre issue I had 2 wheels sorted with new tyres)
Late 2026
I took the car to Retro Rides Weekender which was an incredible show and “ULEZ” was well received at Goodwood. We got to park on the track and this felt like a proper cherry on top moment after all the work put into this project. The MOT was due again afterwards and did fail due to the new handbrake issue and also had to have a warranty replacement distributor due to the module failing. The following happened late 2026:
- Carb rebuilt (new rebuild kit, good parts of several carbs amalgamated)
- New headlining fitted (good used Sisley 500 headlining, beige to match)
- Sump guard straightened and repainted
- Bullbar repainted
- Oil and filter change
- Gearbox oil change
- New front gear linkage bush
- New central gear linkage rod support
- New distributor (warranty replacement)
- Cleaned/ greased handbrake cable
- New handbrake lever adjuster rod
- Refit front washer pipe
- New Pirelli spare tyre fitted (repainted wheel black)
- Cleaned n/ s hedgehog earths and replaced wiring to the ends
- Cleaned alternator wiring ends
- Good clean inside/ out
- Good used horn push/ steering centre fitted
- New dealer plates fitted
Issues/ Notes
In terms of potential issues and notes I’d like to be transparent:
- The bonnet pull cable is relocated to the front (in the grille area)
- The ignition switch has to be retracted a smidge after engine start for ancillary electrics to work (suspect switch may want replacement soon)
- Battery light appears sometimes but multimeter still shows 14. 4v charging at these moments and earths are already cleaned/ replaced
- Interior is much better than before and has no tears but is still slightly worn
ULEZ has had some welding to the underneath in the past but is solid, undersealed and requires no further metalwork. The car is MOTd until August 2027, running well and ready to go for a new buyer. This car must go to a good home, if that’s you then please get in touch! I can only add 20 photos to the advert so please message me for the rest!
