F2eeman
Member
No longer is it a game of puma roulette ... Now only the Blurple Beast remains.... Read further down.
I thought I'd start this thread as a car diary to start with, possible "project" in a few months time. So here is my rant... I'm sure after the first post, posts will get significantly shorter
RANT COMMENCE! :twisted:
Having owned a blurple puma a few months back, then swapping to a cougar, I decided I much prefer pumas! (and after owning 5 cougars thats saying something!)
Well I'd been searching for a puma for only a couple of days after selling my Cougar, when I came across a local £295 1.7 black scrappy saver. Asked what was wrong with it and owner said "Nothing, just needs a battery as it's been stood since Feb." Brill, I think, its worth a look so popped over with my mechanic friend....
2001 multi spoke wheels = Good.... Leather interior = Good.... MOT until Feb = Good ....Paintwork = Bad.... Rusty bits = Average... No number plates? = Bad
Asked what the deal with the number plates were, apparently was on a private plate they'd just taken off and were waiting for the old number plate cert to come through along with amended MOT cert etc = Bad.
Mechanic friend pops on some jump leads (to the cars, smart ass) Alarms going off, people scrambling for fobs... the fob didn't work, into the door the key went and it stopped. Starts up after a few seconds and sounds quite the rough, rev needle is all over the place! ABS and TC lights. Took it for a quick roll down the road and back, bang bang bang from the back end.. Sounded like calipers were ceased or something. Rolled it back to their house, said thanks but no thanks and walked away.
Came home and there had been a new puma put on auto trader whilst I was out, again only down the road. Went and had a look, dragged mechanic friend with me. 1999 1.7 Lovely shiny red, really good condition inside and out (apart from obligatory poorly arches). Just had a service ran really well, gear stick was a bit sloppy but I could live with that, tracking seemed out a tad, again nothing couldn't sort easily... So put down a deposit, as was told couldn't have it for a week.
A very slow week dragged by and the collection day came. I had a text that morning from the owner of the black puma, asking if I was interested in the puma at a reduced price.... I got thinking, perhaps if cheap enough I could at least have the alloys and the leather interior to swap into my car, then sell it on or break it and recoup some of the money! Also apparently the new reg cert had come though etc etc... Anyway in the end I managed to haggle it down to £200 including them getting the new plates made up which I thought for a leather interior, alloys with half decent tyres and any other bits I wanted then scrapped/broken for at least £100 isnt bad at all. So told them I'd be down later that evening.
Roped my mechanic friend in again to take me to get the Red Puma, get back to mine, borrow the battery from it, hot foot it to the black puma... Anyway I get there, had to fit the plates myself (she was an inexperienced lady by the looks) got the battery on, and started to drive her home... The banging slowly disappeared, the engine settled down nicely and actually drove really well, slightly better than the red one (mind the black one has 35k miles less on the clock) although the clutch was slipping a quite a bit, the heaters were stuck on hot, abs/tc lights still present, radio kept going off and on randomly, brakes were juddery and..... there was a horrid smell of scented candle air freshner.
Get home, and have a relax after all the money that had just left my account and got thinking... This little black puma... 81k miles on the clock, is going to be taken off the road forever, after spending the last half a year sat doing nothing, sad way to go... So the next morning I decide to give it a really good wash (it hadn't been washed for months) and wow, there was quite a bit of sparkle under all that dirt, got the MOP out and did the bonnet with some AG paint renovator... And it got to a liveable standard pretty quickly... This got me thinking.... Should I take the chance on the little black puma? I mean theres nothing wrong with the red one but... its already...'done' and I love fixing things!
Sooooo I'v decided to keep the black puma!! And sell the red one for at least what I bought it for (will be in the for sale section next week!... *Shameless Plug*) and use the proceeds to soften the blow on what the black one will cost me, if not cover it all.
Yesterday, I went to the local eurocarparts and bought it a battery of its very own (got annoying having to swap batteries just to move it about) a clutch kit and a new cylinder, got my mechanic friend coming to help me fit it tomorrow on the drive, lucky him! (I'm an 'emerging' mechanic ha) also bought it a gift of smoked side repeaters off ebay
Today, I was bored so went back to eurocarparts and got, fuel filter, oil filter, pollen filter, air filter, oil, , spark plugs, front discs, pads, HCV and various shift it sprays. Tackled it all by myself, first time I'v done a full service on my todd and it wasn't too bad at all ha. Only part I'v struggled with is the damn side repeaters, stuck solid... looks like an arch liner out jobby. But overall a productive day! Still the ABS problem to sort out, fit new radio, give a full MOP (I'm still learning about detailing so may come out worse!) get alloys sorted and then full sportex system, 300mm brake conversion, gas shocks and springs (that hopefully actually lower the car as I want it for looks more than anything and it seems some lowering springs do not lower very well) K&N Panel or Cone filter, possibly some nice 16" alloys, subtle boot spoiler, maybe fast road cams and a remap, but ultimately I want a 180-200bhp turbo conversion (PumaNoob will bully me until I do, I think ha) but I doubt that will be until next year.
If you've managed to get this far without skipping the odd paragraph, fair play! I'v fallen asleep twice writing this :lol:
And now for the piccies!
I thought I'd start this thread as a car diary to start with, possible "project" in a few months time. So here is my rant... I'm sure after the first post, posts will get significantly shorter
RANT COMMENCE! :twisted:
Having owned a blurple puma a few months back, then swapping to a cougar, I decided I much prefer pumas! (and after owning 5 cougars thats saying something!)
Well I'd been searching for a puma for only a couple of days after selling my Cougar, when I came across a local £295 1.7 black scrappy saver. Asked what was wrong with it and owner said "Nothing, just needs a battery as it's been stood since Feb." Brill, I think, its worth a look so popped over with my mechanic friend....
2001 multi spoke wheels = Good.... Leather interior = Good.... MOT until Feb = Good ....Paintwork = Bad.... Rusty bits = Average... No number plates? = Bad
Asked what the deal with the number plates were, apparently was on a private plate they'd just taken off and were waiting for the old number plate cert to come through along with amended MOT cert etc = Bad.
Mechanic friend pops on some jump leads (to the cars, smart ass) Alarms going off, people scrambling for fobs... the fob didn't work, into the door the key went and it stopped. Starts up after a few seconds and sounds quite the rough, rev needle is all over the place! ABS and TC lights. Took it for a quick roll down the road and back, bang bang bang from the back end.. Sounded like calipers were ceased or something. Rolled it back to their house, said thanks but no thanks and walked away.
Came home and there had been a new puma put on auto trader whilst I was out, again only down the road. Went and had a look, dragged mechanic friend with me. 1999 1.7 Lovely shiny red, really good condition inside and out (apart from obligatory poorly arches). Just had a service ran really well, gear stick was a bit sloppy but I could live with that, tracking seemed out a tad, again nothing couldn't sort easily... So put down a deposit, as was told couldn't have it for a week.
A very slow week dragged by and the collection day came. I had a text that morning from the owner of the black puma, asking if I was interested in the puma at a reduced price.... I got thinking, perhaps if cheap enough I could at least have the alloys and the leather interior to swap into my car, then sell it on or break it and recoup some of the money! Also apparently the new reg cert had come though etc etc... Anyway in the end I managed to haggle it down to £200 including them getting the new plates made up which I thought for a leather interior, alloys with half decent tyres and any other bits I wanted then scrapped/broken for at least £100 isnt bad at all. So told them I'd be down later that evening.
Roped my mechanic friend in again to take me to get the Red Puma, get back to mine, borrow the battery from it, hot foot it to the black puma... Anyway I get there, had to fit the plates myself (she was an inexperienced lady by the looks) got the battery on, and started to drive her home... The banging slowly disappeared, the engine settled down nicely and actually drove really well, slightly better than the red one (mind the black one has 35k miles less on the clock) although the clutch was slipping a quite a bit, the heaters were stuck on hot, abs/tc lights still present, radio kept going off and on randomly, brakes were juddery and..... there was a horrid smell of scented candle air freshner.
Get home, and have a relax after all the money that had just left my account and got thinking... This little black puma... 81k miles on the clock, is going to be taken off the road forever, after spending the last half a year sat doing nothing, sad way to go... So the next morning I decide to give it a really good wash (it hadn't been washed for months) and wow, there was quite a bit of sparkle under all that dirt, got the MOP out and did the bonnet with some AG paint renovator... And it got to a liveable standard pretty quickly... This got me thinking.... Should I take the chance on the little black puma? I mean theres nothing wrong with the red one but... its already...'done' and I love fixing things!
Sooooo I'v decided to keep the black puma!! And sell the red one for at least what I bought it for (will be in the for sale section next week!... *Shameless Plug*) and use the proceeds to soften the blow on what the black one will cost me, if not cover it all.
Yesterday, I went to the local eurocarparts and bought it a battery of its very own (got annoying having to swap batteries just to move it about) a clutch kit and a new cylinder, got my mechanic friend coming to help me fit it tomorrow on the drive, lucky him! (I'm an 'emerging' mechanic ha) also bought it a gift of smoked side repeaters off ebay
Today, I was bored so went back to eurocarparts and got, fuel filter, oil filter, pollen filter, air filter, oil, , spark plugs, front discs, pads, HCV and various shift it sprays. Tackled it all by myself, first time I'v done a full service on my todd and it wasn't too bad at all ha. Only part I'v struggled with is the damn side repeaters, stuck solid... looks like an arch liner out jobby. But overall a productive day! Still the ABS problem to sort out, fit new radio, give a full MOP (I'm still learning about detailing so may come out worse!) get alloys sorted and then full sportex system, 300mm brake conversion, gas shocks and springs (that hopefully actually lower the car as I want it for looks more than anything and it seems some lowering springs do not lower very well) K&N Panel or Cone filter, possibly some nice 16" alloys, subtle boot spoiler, maybe fast road cams and a remap, but ultimately I want a 180-200bhp turbo conversion (PumaNoob will bully me until I do, I think ha) but I doubt that will be until next year.
If you've managed to get this far without skipping the odd paragraph, fair play! I'v fallen asleep twice writing this :lol:
And now for the piccies!
