Jii's Puma

[JiiHu]

Door open and lights on -beep was too loud so I wrapped the beep relay in STP damping mat. Now it isn't so annoying. Beep relay is located in the fuse box (if someone doesn't know) and this took less than 5 minutes. Maybe the best mod I've done so far?

Temporary boot open button until I get switch from Fiesta.

I also painted radio fascia silver. It fits much better to the interior now.

 

[Wild E. Coyote]

Yep, that is much better

 

[JiiHu]

I had some dirt in my MAF which didn't come off with the Air Sensor Cleaner spray. I read from some random forum that someone cleaned their dirty MAF with Q-tip so I tried it too. I soaked Q-tip's head with CRC Air Sensor Cleaner and then carefully wiped the dirt of. After that I sprayed cleaner fluid to the MAF. The dirt which was stuck came off and car seems to be working better than ever so apparently I didn't brake my MAF. If someone tries this too, remember to be exremely careful with the Q-tip. I also cleaned ICV. It wasn't very dirty but it doesn't hurt to clean it once in a while.

Pollen air filter was quite dirty too so I changed it again. It was last time changed 11k km / 7k miles ago. At the same I also cleaned air condition with CRC Airco Cleaner so that funny smell would go away. It usually came after AC was used. Now the car doesn't smell so bad anymore.

Boot light has been missing the whole time I've had my Puma so I fixed it. I had couple of extra led festoons so I thought that I'd use them. I also found old license plate light holders which were perfect for the festoons so I used those. I wanted to add light to both sides because it is just the same do this properly if I'm doing this at all. Light is much brighter in real life. My phone just makes it look like quite dim.

I added some STP mat under both door card's clips because door cards were a bit loosen. Now they sit much more tightly on the door.

Boot hatch was rattling with the bass so I made very ugly fix to that. I put some STP damping material to the hatch so it will sit more tightly with the seal. This seems to work quite fine. I also changed the old rear wiper to new one which won't rattle.

I took tweeters from mirror sail panels and installed them on to a-pillars. Now they sound much better. I just need new sail panels or carbon fibre tape the old ones because they have holes in them.

Both of the doors are treated with STP dampening material but still they didn't close with 'thud sound' like some expensive cars because there was this kinda weird metal noise. I noticed that plastic was worn off from both door's locking mechanism counterpart. I added some duct tape to there but it will be replaced with something more durable. Now doors close with 'thud sound' that I wanted.

I also tried to add seal doors' speaker closure. I took some aluminium from empty cans, glued it there and put STP mat over them. Now they are closed but the closure is still way too small for any speaker so it didn't make much difference. I guess you just can't get good midbass from Puma's front speakers easily.

While I sealed door enclosures, I noticed that apparently something is touching the speaker. There was hole in the speaker's rubber edge before and I thought that I had done it with screw driver etc. Now there was same kind of hole on other side of the speaker so apparently something has done it again because it is exactly same distance from the nearest screw hole. I fixed it with glue again but time will tell will it appear again. I looked and nothing should touch the speaker so I don't know what caused this.

I also need a new battery but I will buy it at fall so I have as good battery as possible for the winter.

 

[CherryVimto]

Maybe the grille part on the back of the door card has some plastic parts which are making the holes in the speakers?

 

[hewy]

Your negative lead for your battery needs looking at also. The connection needs to redone because it looks a bit bad.

 

[JiiHu]

Did you have the door cards fitted over the speakers?

Maybe the grille part on the back of the door card has some plastic parts which are making the holes in the speakers?

That is what I thought but they shouldn't be able to touch the speaker. But I took plastic off from the grill with knife so it shouldn't do any harm anymore.

Your negative lead for your battery needs looking at also. The connection needs to redone because it looks a bit bad.

Thanks for noticing. I should look that before I fit a new battery.

 

[Wild E. Coyote]

I have noticed you moved twitters to A pillars. Much better for stereo image, isn't it?
Regarding speakers, door crads shouldn't be touching them; I checked it with plasticine (putty) and there were no imprints left…

Nice work on your car!

 

[JiiHu]

I have noticed you moved twitters to A pillars. Much better for stereo image, isn't it?
Regarding speakers, door crads shouldn't be touching them; I checked it with plasticine (putty) and there were no imprints left…

Nice work on your car!

Yea it is much better. Every car should have their tweeters on ear level.
I also checked it but maybe I have taken door card off carelessly. That would explain the holes.

 

[rnnicol]

Looking good, how did you get your lights to look so clear, one of my lights is. Cloudy, can seem to get it clear.

 

[JiiHu]

I used polisher to polish them. Some people also use sandpaper (multiple different rougness) or Meguiars light restoration kit. Even toothpaste will work apparently. Couple layers of good quality wax will also help for a while. Mequiars kit might be the easiest of these as it is quite cheap and you can't go wrong with that.

 

[Glenn_]

A lad at work used that meguries kit on his head lights and it looked well for a while but there have gone shity.

 

[JiiHu]

There has been quite much done to the Puma since last post; new front brakes, new auxiliary belt etc. boring stuff
I also changed reversing lights bulbs to led ones which look much better.

There was also quite big hole on the rear muffler. I took the car to the garage and found out that some of the previous owners had welded themselves the end to the muffler and that was reason why it looked so odd. Whole exhaust was in bad shape so I bought new one: Sportex muffler and Hoffmann race tube. It sounds quite nice, eventhough it is somewhat loud.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NRNCexYSt4[/youtube]


Previous owner had also changed the gear stick to something awful. I finally bought an original Puma gear stick and it is much better.

I had a few holes in mirror sail panels because I had my tweeters there before I moved the to A pillars. Options were either to buy new mirror panels or tape old ones with carbon tape. I thought that the last option was much better. I should take some images in which these are installed.

 

[JiiHu]

Winter came and went and brought some rust on my Puma I'm not sure if the guy who did the rear arches for the previous owner, did a great job. Or is it normal that arches have to be fixed multiple times on one Puma?

I also tinted rear lights a bit with that cheap Ebay tint. There are generally two shades of dark tint: grey and black. I chose grey, but it looks quite dark still. Luckily the light comes still nicely through. I also have a set of LED bulbs coming so that lights wouldn't be any dimmer compared to untinted lights. Fog lights have also been tinted after taking the images.

New summer wheels changed. Previous 15" tires were coming to their end, so I bought used wheels, which havent been driven so much. Size is 205/40R17 and the ET is 20 because they were on some Peugeot originally. Rims will be painted black some day. I feared a bit that they'd look stupider than they do, because I have no coilovers. Though car would definitely look better with coilovers.

 

[trublustu]

the rear light tint looks good on the silver, it seems to let plenty of light through although i`m not sure what an MOT tester might make of it!
Where did you get the tint?

 

[JiiHu]

Tinted lights are illegal in Finland, so I propably just take the tint off before I take the car to MOT. I also have to change HID's to normal bulbs so tints will go at the same time. Luckily MOT is only once a year.

I bought the tint from Ebay. There are hundreds of vendors to choose from and they all propably sell the same kind of tint. Here is the link to the product I bought: http://www.ebay.com/itm/251735778115" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[demonskull13]

I've been reading everyone elses storys about their Puma's and I thought that I'd show you my Puma

I bought my Puma about 4 and half months ago and it was driven 190 000 km (about 118 000 miles). It is 1998 model with 1.7 engine. Car was in quite good condition, eventhough it is driven quite much. Cambelt was changed about 20k km (~13k miles) ago when I got the car. I have now driven about 6k km with it. Also rust on the rear arches had been taken care of nicely. I haven't done much to to the car but this is mostly because I'm still student (with student budget).

I have mostly focused on audio and upgraded speakers etc. I would like to lower the car some day, but I doubt that it would happen anywhere in the near future.

Things done before me:

• 
  - Muffler changed
  - Clear side repeaters

Things I have done:

• 
  - Changed original CD-player to Alpine CDE-173BT
  - Alpine subwoofer + amplifier
  - Installed Rainbow SL-C 6.2 speakers in front
  - JBL 2x60 watts amplifier for Rainbow speakers
  - Dampened doors and boot hatch with STP Silver damping material
  - Led lights to license plate
  - Led light to cabin
  - Tinted rear windows with 20% film
  - Polished lights and whole car

Couple of the first pics I took from Puma. Notice the muffler, which gives slightly better sound than stock one, especially on high rpm. Front bumper, which usually is black on all Pumas, is painted silver by previous owner. I think it looks quite good when it isn't black.

CD-player changed to Alpine CDE-173BT. It has bluetooth handsfree and audio streaming. Player adapter frame is black because Ford parts dealer said that "this is the only color we have it", so I took it. I should have painted it silver, but it didn't come to my mind then and now I'm too lazy to paint it.

Rainbow SL-C 6.2 speakers fitted and they sound superb. I had to cut the metal with tin snips so the 6.5" speakers would fit there. I screwed tweeters right to the sail panels. Speakers were 6.5" because I took them from my old car.

Subwoofer in trunk. Rear deck tray was kinda broken when I got the car so I took it off. Of course I could fix it but I had some problems with the boot solenoid so I'm not putting the tray back, so that I'm able to open the trunk from inside if solenoid gets stuck again.

Led lights to license plate and cabin. Leds are super bright compared to the old bulbs.

Polished headlights. They should be polished even more, but I will do that later.

Whole car polished.

Random pic.

Heater Control Valve broke and I was 300 kilometres away from home. Luckily we found a way to fix it by bypassing the HCV with pipe connector.

I changed pollen filter ages ago. Air filter and spark plugs were changed just recently. Pollen filter and air filter were quite bad. Spark plugs weren't so bad, but I changed them anyway since I already had bought them

I have considered painting summer rims black. What would you think?

So that is my Puma, hope you liked

There is some service to be done and also winter tires will be changed within a week. Biggest problem now is that Puma wont rev over 5k rpm. This is apparently caused by faulty camshaft position sensor ( http://reallymeansounds.com/forum/threads/ford-puma-1-7-not-revving-over-5000.125414/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ). Does anyone have any idea that what could also cause this?

Also heater control panel doesn't work. It gives the HVC 12 volts all the time, whether it is on hot or cold. It should give 12 volts on cold and 0 volts on hot setting. I cleared this problem by disconnecting the HCV cable and now it gives hot all the time :grin:

what did you use to polish your headlights as they look mint and i want to do mine?

 

[JiiHu]

what did you use to polish your headlights as they look mint and i want to do mine?

I used machine polisher to polish them. You might also want to use Meguiars kit to headlights, I've heard a lot good about it.

 

[JiiHu]

After my last update I've done quite dome changes. Firstly I painted the 17" rims black. Now they don't have to be washed every week because of brake dust

I also plastidipped roof black. It looks quite fine, eventhough the plastidip is not shiny as paint.

Suspension was on its way to trash bin so it was changed to TA Technix coilovers which made car A LOT better to handle and drive. The tint on rear windows was also changed to a lighter one. The new 40% suits much better than the old 15% tint.

And last, a few pics from a photoshoot with my friend, who took these awesome pics.

 

[red]

good update and nice pictures.

 

[MattyD34]

Hi there.
Your puma looks fantastic! Love the black and silver trend you have going, as mine is very similar. Where did you get the white LED reversing lights? I've been looking for exactly that for ages and can't seem to find ones that work :-( .