The Green Beast

[Nas]

Hello all,

Just thought I'd share my wee puma project with you...

Rear

• Nas
• Mar 8, 2013

Front

• Nas
• Mar 8, 2013

There is a track day at Knockhill on the 24th of this month I hopefully going to make it to, got a bit of work to do yet though...

Work In Progress

• Nas
• Mar 8, 2013

Bit of work to do yet!

• Nas
• Mar 8, 2013

The story so far...

Full Sportex Exhaust
300mm Brake Upgrade & Stainless Lines
AP Coilovers

300mm Brakes & AP Coilovers

• Nas
• Mar 8, 2013

Battery Relocated

Battery Relocated & Reat Strut Brace

• Nas
• Mar 8, 2013

Rear Spacers
Polybushed
K&N Filter
AC System Removed
PAS & Rack Removed

Power Steering Removed + AC Pump

• Nas
• Mar 8, 2013
• 1

Stripped Out Interior / Bucket Seats / Harness / Steering Wheel

Stripped Out

• Nas
• Mar 8, 2013

Front Upper/Lower & Rear Strut Brace
Light Weight 16" Alloys & Yoko's
Repainted Rusty Bits & Hammerited Everything

Still to do...

Fit Manual Rack (Clean & Paint)
Fit Anti-Roll Bar (Clean & Paint)

Manual Rack & Original Anti-Roll Bar

• Nas
• Mar 8, 2013

Fit Aux Belt (Fiesta mk4 1.25)
Make & Fit Front Splitter

Front Splitter Template

• Nas
• Mar 8, 2013

Make & Fit Rear Diffuser
Make & Fit Side Skirts
Fit Bonnet Vents & NACA Duct

Focus RS Vents & NACA Air Duct Position

• Nas
• Mar 8, 2013

Remove Dash Board
Fit Rear Spoiler (Paint)
Make Battery Enclosure
Fit Oil Pressure & Temperature Gauges
Fit Shift Light
Fit Inlet Manifold (Clean & Paint)
Fit Oil Catch Can

Finally get her book into get geometry setup & take her for a shake down before the track day.

Although most of it is not essential for the track day, it still stuff I would like to get finished off, so its going to be a busy couple of weeks! I'm keen to find out if the light weight and aerodynamic improvements will make up for lack of power?

Better get the old oiler suit back on and into the garage again.

Cheers,
Neil.

 

[PumaJay]

Really liking that, dont see too many modded green ones and that looks great... excellent choice of wheel, makes me regret selling mine!

rest of the plans look pretty damn good as well, looking forward to seeing the bonnet, ive been toying fitting Focus RS vents in mine for a while now.

One thing i will say is dont like how the battery is secured, looks very poor IMO, personally i would buy a battery box and mount it further back or as i did fit a small race battery under the passenger seat.


Edit... i didnt see "make battery enclosure" my apologies!

 

[Nas]

Thanks mate; the green and black does go together really well, hopefully the black spoiler, splitter and vents will all look good too. I'll get some more pictures up once I've got them fitted. Only £35 from ebay, I had to dremel out the rough edges and put a hole in the first slat, but fairly good quality.

Your right about the battery, it defo needs a box, it is pretty secure as its racket strapped through eyebolts to the floor, but it doesn't look to great and not sure how a track day check would go? Don't want to risk it. Where did you get your race battery and does it need an enclosure too? I was thinking of a gel battery like I've got in the motorbike.

 

[grayfox]

That's quite a lot to take in in the first post! I like it too, quite impressive stuff making your own wood splitter. Did you base it on anything existing?

 

[PumaJay]

Your right about the battery, it defo needs a box, it is pretty secure as its racket strapped through eyebolts to the floor, but it doesn't look to great and not sure how a track day check would go? Don't want to risk it. Where did you get your race battery and does it need an enclosure too? I was thinking of a gel battery like I've got in the motorbike.

I got mine from rally design, then just bought a metal frame from JJC race rally to secure it down, cost me about £70 to do it all i think

 

[Nas]

Cheers, I'll go check out the race battery.

Another pic of some bits ready for painting.

Bits primed and ready for painting!

• Nas
• Mar 11, 2013

Spoiler
Anti-Roll Bar
End Plates
Focus RS Vents
Engine Cover
Part of Air Box

Everything satin black, except the anti-roll bar and engine cover that'll be red.

Also, here is what was left of the power steering bolt once I managed to get the little bugger out!

Steering Rack Bolt!!!

• Nas
• Mar 8, 2013

After math of trying to get the damn thing out!!!

 

[PumaJay]

Love having a good painting session! makes everything look like new again

 

[Nas]

Yip lots of nice shiny bits!

Anit-Roll Bar

Painted Anti-Roll Bar

• Nas
• Mar 13, 2013

Spoiler, End Plates & Vents

Spoiler, End Plates & Vents

• Nas
• Mar 13, 2013

Nice Red Engine Cover

Engine Cover

• Nas
• Mar 13, 2013

I wasn't sure about the red, but I think it looks good now its done! Might highlight letters if...

Cleaned & Painted Manual Steering Rack
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Bit of TB Flowing
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The antiroll bar & manual steering rack have been refitted. Bit of a pain as access is a bit tight, especially replacing the steering rack bolt; I had to leave the anti-roll bar loose to allow enough space for the M8x60 bolt to fit in the opposite way it came out. Then fit the steering rack and anti-roll bar brackets, got there eventually!

 

[Nas]

Typo...

Cleaned & Painted Manual Steering Rack

Fiesta mk4 Manual Steering Rack

• Nas
• Mar 13, 2013

Bit of TB Flowing

Bit of TB flowing

• Nas
• Mar 13, 2013

 

[PumaJay]

what spoiler have you got

 

[Nas]

To be honest I don't know, I only bought it for £20 from a guy in Newark as I was passing by. It was a bit scabby, but after a good clean up and a paint it looking pretty good. The mounts were pretty rubbish so I'm getting some new ones made.

I hope the weather improves for next Sunday, its not looking good at the moment!

 

[Nas]

That's quite a lot to take in in the first post! I like it too, quite impressive stuff making your own wood splitter. Did you base it on anything existing?

Sorry I thought I'd replied to this comment...

Its not based on anything imparticular, I had a look at a few other designs to get an idea of size etc but just ended up bolting a large piece of thin plywood to the bumper and marked out the shape to get the template. Cut it out and refitted to check. I'll make a few changes to the final version to cover more of the engine bay and include a naca duct to direct air to the sump. I might try direct air from the two vent holes in the front lip to the brakes if I have time.

I'll post the final design up on here too.

 

[PumaJay]

the woodern front splitter is a nice design but it looks so heavy, you could have a word with kizza on here and see if he could make you a fiberglass one

 

[Nas]

The template is only 3mm plywood and it is really light, the final version will be 9mm or 12mm, so 3 or 4 times the weight which I don't think will be that much. If its supported correctly and the load evenly spread across the surface I could get away with the 9mm version. I guess its only the front lip that sticks out that needs to be strong to prevent flexing?

 

[Nas]

Started cutting out hole for the vents...

Starting Focus RS Vent hole

• Nas
• Mar 14, 2013

I also had to modify the alternator bracket to take up some of the slack in aux belt after removing the PAS and AC. The belt is a original ford fiesta 1.25 non PAS/AC type, but there was to much slack. The only way to doing was space out the alternator like this...

Modified alternator bracket

• Nas
• Mar 14, 2013

The spacers are actually the cut off track rod ends that were still attached to the manual steering rack...I can always find a use for something. It worked perfectly, tight getting upper and lower bolts back in but they went eventually. Thats another thing ticked off the list.

Also removed the idler pulley as it wasn't required anymore and removed the cam belt cover.

 

[Nas]

Today's progress...

I used the plastic packaging from some cheap vents I bought from ebay. I thought they were cut in ones but they were stick on ones which wasn't what I wanted, still the box they can in was useful and i'll use the vents in my front splitter.

DIY naca duct from packaging!

• Nas
• Mar 17, 2013

Cut out holes for bonnet vents and tried them on, i think they look pretty good. I need some strong epoxy to stick them on.

Focus RS vents

• Nas
• Mar 17, 2013

I had to replace the bottom half of the steering knuckle with one that came with the manual rack. Drill out the plastic tabs, hammer off the old one and replace with new one, it is pretty tight but wd40 helps! Fits perfectly!

Manual knuckle is smaller of the two:

Steering rack knuckles

• Nas
• Mar 17, 2013

Steering rack knuckles

• Nas
• Mar 17, 2013

End result...half puma & half fiesta steering knuckle:

Steering rack knuckle

• Nas
• Mar 17, 2013

Removed dash board; there is a good how to guide on here I used. Need to make a support frame for the instruments and gauges now:

Dash board removed

• Nas
• Mar 17, 2013

All the bits I don't need. All airbag & pre-tensions wiring came out too. Figured I don't need the heating matrix so that'll be next to be binned. If its cold I'll wear a hat, if its hot I'll open the window.

Surplus to requirement!

• Nas
• Mar 17, 2013

Pretty big weight saving there, the dash weighs a ton! Also need to paint floor pan, it's looking a bit scabby, I think hammerite smooth black will be my colour of choice!

 

[Nas]

Nice empty interior, no more heating system, quite easy to remove...

Heater matrix removed

• Nas
• Mar 19, 2013

Air Con & Heater Matrix

• Nas
• Mar 19, 2013

Oil cooler?

 

[PumaJay]

That's some serious weight loss is that! I thought I was keen!! Couldn't do without my heaters though, nothing worse than getting in a car that's stripped out and be freezing cold, takes forever to even get a slight amount of heat in there the amount of exposed metal just keeps the cold in.

When I was at donington in October last year it was such a cold morning but just had the heaters set nice and everything was well with the world.

Like the RS vents, Wondering if I can bring myself to cut more holes in my carbon bonnet now

 

[Nas]

Morning,

I may live to regret the lack of heating but if its really bad I can rig up some kind of 12v heating system. Its really only for fair weather track days, but thick socks may be required!

The vents look really good, I'm pretty pleased with them, just need to glue them in place now. Deliberating whether to fit the naca duct on the bonnet right above the filter as a clean cold air feed, I don't want the bonnet to look to 'busy'.

What do you recon to modifying the heater matrix into an oil cooler? Is there any reason why it wouldn't work?

 

[PumaJay]

Cant see why it would work in theory but depends on what fittings you'll need, oil coolers aint that expensive anyway i got my kit off ebay for £105 inc mocal oil cooler, pipes, sandwich plate and a few brakcets