Panhard Dyna

My Panhard before it became mine

Well something interesting happened today. I went to the hairdresser for my (always somewhat tardy haircut). It is always hard to get motivated when your hair is definitely on its way out but still hanging on in pathetic denial of its destiny. Anyway I was at the hairdresser and a man walked in - not as he explained for a haircut - even though as he offered "he might need one" - no he wanted to present the man with a Panhard with a book.
When I have my hair cut, I am always asked to remove my glasses, so my vision was via a mirror and hazy but I asked the man to leave his name and address so that I could thank him and he presented me with a Panhard Dyna "Manuel d'atelier" in English - something so rare I didn't even know it existed.
Owning an old car can seem like a daunting proposition but as I said to the hairdresser "more things go wrong but they are easier to fix".
Truth is she was profoundly uninterested "Didn't your car come with a manual?" she asked. Wondering perhaps why anyone would be so pleased at the gift of a dirty old book. This isn't typical, usually hairdressers attempt to respond to my no doubt oft repeated reflections on hair loss or whatever it is I happen to be doing. Just as I try to remember what my plans are when they ask whether I
am going out this Saturday. Still she did a good job and we ended with the ritual offering of the mirror to the back of my head - while I scrabbled for my glasses and responded positively to the "How does your hair feel at the back".
Now the Panhard Dyna Z is a rare car so what are the chances of there being two independently owned ones in one small Yorkshire town? Well there is another one in this town so in due course I shall contact the owner.
This could become a Panhard blog - not very attractive to the general reader but to the enthusiast a source of little bits of information that might help in that endless problem solving quest that old car ownership becomes.
An example from this week is "starting". On my Panhard after switching on the ignition, you pull a handle that engages a gear and at a crucial point switches on the starter motor. Lately the starter motor has not switched on - so not expecting much I squirted it with WD-40 - the car starts. Today the WD-40 doesn't work so I think "perhaps tapping it with something will loosen it up" - success.
Next time however both procedures may fail and so comes exploration, undoing bolts cleaning things. hoping you don't drop some vital part somewhere you can't find it and then putting it back together.

The joy of an old vehicle is that things are less likely to fail comprehensively more likely to be repairable with a cloth or a file or innovated in some way. On the other hand taking it to a garage or expecting a new part to be available are far less possible than with a modern car.
Panhard owners club

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