Upgrades, decisions and modifications

After heavy snowfall through the night on Friday - we had a really productive weekend on the Panda front. First of all was the decision about the route we will be taking. Of the three options we've plumped for the northerly one - passing through Moscow. The chance to screech the Panda through Red Square is one not to be missed. We can also make use of the travel guides for Latvia and Lithuania that we already have - and the map of Western Russia.

During the day on Saturday Ben and I did a tour of local car spare and repair shops in the hunt for useful bits and bobs. Then we proceeded to modify the car.

The 95-piece toolset came into its own as we replaced the fuel filter (with a new see-through one), the distributor cap, rotor arm and air filter. We also ran a piece of ducting up from the manifold into the air intake to give the engine some warm air for these cold days.

Here you can see how the engine looks with all it's shiny new bits.

After that, we replaced the lame "meep meep" horn with a real "hooonk hooonk" air horn, so that we can be heard as well as seen.

We've also got hold of some other bits and pieces for our next workshop session - including radiator cleaner, a rocker head gasket and some rather natty orange plastic paint which will be adorning some parts of the car (its a surprise!).