Jims £350 Scrappy Save

[maybeso]

Hi everyone, well it's finally happened, after lurking for a while I finally saw another puma on here thats inspired me to get the finger out and make a start on a car that I originally intended just as a cheap runaround for a couple of months.

Managed to pick up a bargain from a great guy in Ashford for a mere £350, she had 6 month tax and MOT, the usual tinworm in the door shuts and the wheel arches and lot's of marks and scrapes, but for the money I didnt expect much.

So far I've done the following (barely started)

Replaced the bonnet with one from a scrappie (Gas Road in Sittingbourne, nice clean black one if you need any bits)
Ground out the rust in the door shuts and the rear arch and primed the surface to protect it for the moment
Washed it
Fitted a set of Ford Mudflaps that I found in the scrappies, had to get a new set of clips from Fords as the old ones were rusted into single blobs.
Smaller Antenna on the roof
Aftermarket radio fitted with a 1 din adaptor
Cleaned the engine bay
Replaced the 501 bulbs with LED equivalents in the sidelights and the number plate lights
Had the Air Con serviced

Things I need to do are an ever increasing list

Started getting the bits to service it, so far I have the timing belt kit, fuel, oil, air and cabin filters, and a set of spark plugs. Need to pick up the oil, a set of new leads (it's the older ones with the retaining clips) and a new coilpack.
Start sorting out all the niggles in the paintwork
Find out what the knocking noise is coming from the passenger side
Fettle the bonnet so it actually lines up with the headlights, it stands out a bit at the front at the moment.
Decide where I'm going to go with mods

So not very much, but after reading loads of threads and specifically seeing those pictures of Al's beast I want to get it properly sorted.

A few pictures before starting anything

You can see the state of the bonnet, the laquer was completely knackered

Drivers side, nice manky wheelarch

And the backside

Passenger side was pretty good, just the corner of the door shut, the wheelarch was fine.

 

[jifflemon]

Nice save! And welcome aboard!

 

[Brian']

Another puma saved!
Goodluck with your project man! 8)

 

[evilrob]

Nice one! k:

 

[yippeekiay]

:thumbs:

 

[maybeso]

Thanks for the encouragement guys, really appreciate it . Been doing a couple of small things this morning, I had a bit of a floppy parcel shelf so after having a look it turned out the hinges had come away from the pressed board of the parcel shelf. Had a chat with my mate Rob and he came up with a brilliant solution thats worked a treat.

Basically what we did was cut around the very edge of the hinge plate and squirt some spray glue into the gap thats opened up between the cloth covering and the board of the parcel shelf, let that stick the cloth back in place and when the glue had gone off we used a hot glue gun to glue the actual hinge back into place. With the hinge and the cloth both glued back it looks perfect and it's firm as you like. I fixed the strings as well as every time I closed the boot they seem to come off the little nipples that hold them in place, pushed a 1/4" tap washer over the top of the fixing on the boot lid and it holds the string in place and doesn't look out of place. I'll take some pics and post those later.

 

[jifflemon]

Drilled and bolted mine.... seemed easier! :lol:

 

[maybeso]

I did think about that, I've got some nice dome head allen key bolts that would have looked quite nice but Rob persuaded me to keep it looking factory. It's holding up OK so far, nice and solid. Just have to wait and see if the hot glue can stand a hot sunny day, if not back to the bolts it will be . On the same vein the rubber trims along the tops of the door cards don't seem to be attached anymore so I need to find a suitable glue for those.