Smurf Blueish

[Wild E. Coyote]

Still not happy with the colour choice, but admire the quality of work and have to admit it stands out from any crowd. Top job, really, a credit to you! clap-clap-clap!

Ps: I would always just go for OZ ultraleggera

I'm with Sinisa on the OZ wheels.
Barry

Hmm. In what colour would suit best? I think silver..

I would go for silver, yes

[Brian']

I'm a big fan of the pro race 3 that you have on. I also think it looks good with the black..

Haha, thanks that makes it a lot easier. I also do think they look good but an inch bigger might just fill the gab that much better. I do think it handles better with 15" and therefore I will keep them. (They are Borbet Type E's btw )

That's really nice. Color is a matter of taste, sure looks finished now! Time to enjoy and drive it I'd say
I'm not sure of 205/45 /16 tires on the Puma. It was much better on mine with 215/40/16 . Just felt better on the road. In your case, I would also in the future think about replacing those TA Technix coilovers but it's your choice offcourse, it's a lot of money too. Anyway top job on the car !

Hi Tyler, alright. Thanks for the advise! It did drove good on 205/45's and there is also more tyre options with 205/45. And yes, I will be changing the TA Technix. I'm thinking of buying either AVO or GAZ. Heard that AVO's are really good on the road but when driving my brothers XR3i I did find the GAZ coilovers really good and they weren't setup properly either. Still loads of things to do and suspension is one of them

This car is awesome. Simple.
Fantastic work.

Love the Mk3 XR3i too, still miss mine after 10+ years
Very rare beast now, my Mk3 was a carbed XR3 and I absolutely loved it.
Still love a bit of old skool and still have my Capri, so all good

The XR3i is really nice. It is kinda built up as a track car with coilovers, half stripped out and carbed (Twin Webers). F
eels really nice in the corners, shifting through the gears is a bit of a problem right now since there is no H-shifter in the gearbox nor in the gear selector so it's a bit of a hit or miss when shifting. I believe my brother is looking into a different gearbox (maybe a built one). If you would like to check out his project thread it is on this website. Everything is written in Dutch though but there are plenty of pictures.

Looking nice!

Thanks Isa!

[FRPCurn]

Looks great. Shame you cant keep the wheels your bro lent you as they really suit the car and your color.

I like the pro race but OZ is a good shout too. Good quality lightweight wheels always feel better too

[Brian']

Here with a quick update. Haven't done a lot these last few weeks, had a few hiccups with the Puma but these were luckly all easily solved or just magically vanished.

Today I fixed something that was bugging me for a long long time. And that were the little rubbers that sit in the front headlights. In one of my first posts in this thread I opened up the headlights (split the glass from the headlight itself). After I glued them back I also glued the little rubbers to the lamp leaving a lot of glue and gunk on the rubber itself making it look really nasty. This is what they looked before:


And this is how they ended up:

A lot neater me thinks!

Another thing I did today was removing the headlining... I but a faux suede over the original headlining material but didn't use enough glue and stored it wrongly causing it to sag after a week when fitted in the Puma. Was quite the challenge to remove it without removing the doorcards, but luckly I managed to get the job done. Right now it's drying (with loads more of glue) and I will refit it tomorrow. Bit weird driving without a headliner

Also decided what I should do with my wheels, I went for the cheapest option and decided to spray the Borbet's silver. Not just a silver but Moondust Silver, a back to the cars' original colour! Will be respraying them in a couple of weeks! Really looking forward to that!

[Brian']

Nearly forgot this one. A while back I sent my steering wheel to Sinisa (Wild E Coyote) to get it retrimmed by his guy. It turned out amazing and feels so much better than the skai Zetec S steering wheel. Result (Don't mind the dirty interior!):

[Wild E. Coyote]

Glad you like it, mate! I think this one turned out just nice

[Brian']

Done a few things over the last weeks.

First thing I did was cleaning the throttle body. For since I owned my Puma I always had a bit of a sticky throttle on cold starts. Causing a little bit of hesitation when accelatering. So I bought a aerosol of carb cleaner and cleaned it thoroughly, there were even a few bits that were really cooked on and were really hard to remove (probably the buggers that caused the sticky throttle)

Didn't make a before photo because it wasn't really looking dirty. The butterfly was a little black but cleaned up instantly.
So here's an after photo:


Second and last thing I did these few weeks was respraying the wheels back to a 'stock' looking silver. Moondust Silver to be exact! A wink back to it's original colour! The wheels itself were really clean so didn't require a lot of prep. Althrough took a good evening, causing me to return to home on the stock propellor wheels!

Excuse for the bad photo! Night was just falling in!


First base coat on:


The working place and a coat of clear coat on:


Finish photo out in the open, just before rebalancing them. Had an annoying wheel wobble at 60mph before and that's now eliminated :


And the final result I took when airing up the tyres up.


Should take a few more detailed photo. The wheels back in silver really makes it more of a car! Really pleased with the result.

Not a lot of things left to do now before it's done (said no one ever..). I'm looking at buying another brand coilovers. The TA Technix are good for their value but just don't cut it. They are too limited and only really do their work if you slam them to the bottom.. Which is not really me. I think I can get a nice 'stance' with a Gaz set without destroying the driving capabilities and still improving the performance.

Second thing that needs changing is the exhaust. I can't seem to get it right.. it keeps hanging low (like it's living it's own life..). So I decided to go for a custom exhaust (midpipe that is) and use a cat (currently de-cat). Maybe even an extra exhaust hanging in the corner nearby the fuel tank.

To be continued! Will be attending a meeting next week and hopefully I'm able to get some nice pictures so that I can post them up here!

[ArtfulHussy]

This is a cracking wee thing. Wheels are looking sharp. It even looked well on the props!

[Brian']

This is a cracking wee thing. Wheels are looking sharp. It even looked well on the props!

It did drove a bit weird because I had to put the hubspacer from the back to the front. Giving it mad offset. And the propellors had old ditch finders on them.

Did like the look as well and will be respraying them too, got enough paint left so why not?

[ArtfulHussy]

If you're going to be driving it all year the props would make good winter wheels with some snow grips chucked on them.

[Brian']

If you're going to be driving it all year the props would make good winter wheels with some snow grips chucked on them.

Yeah, with a small spacer on the front to clear the ST150 calipers. But the propellors are not mine, they are originally from my mum's Puma I can just borrow them whenever I want since she's running 16" OZ F1's.

[Rost]

good work so far, how have your headlights held up? I don't think I've seen anyone else take them apart to clean them up.

I also clean my headlights, but still the light is not good (

[Brian']

Done a bit of work to the Puma this weekend. Was freezing to be honest, but was just itching to do something since it's been weeks since I've actually done something.

A few months ago I removed all the heatshields, with in mind to refurb them and put them back in a short amount of time. Now were here, two months later and I still haven't refurbed them nor fitted them. Today I did one of these things.

The reason I removed the heatshields was that they were just really filthy but also not fully attached anymore. I removed them when doing my underproofing but managed to break a few of those threaded things that they attach to. So they've been rattling for quite a while and it was literally driving me mad. So I removed them with in mind to clean them up and fit them back correctly. (Not really sure how I'm going to do this. I might go for rivnuts and big washers. Don't thing you're able to fit new threaded things once they broke off?)

Anyway, too much talking. Time for some pictures. I'd have to say that it was really satisficing to clean them. In the end I decided to give them a thin layer of silver paint to get them completely fresh looking.

This is while cleaning, this photo is more of a 50/50 shot. With the left side cleaned and the right side still dirty.


Once cleaned it looked like this:


And once painted it looked like this:


I did the same for the other pieces of heatshield. But cleaning the big centerpiece was the most satisficing and turned out just great!

Untouched, how I removed it from the car:


Partially cleaned:


Fully cleaned, before paint:


And once painted and dried:


That was it for today. Will hopefully fit them quickly, hopefully before spring. Really need to figure out how I will mount them, don't know if rivnuts is possible as you need to drill holes and I don't know if I will end up drilling in my inner carpet then.

[tuonokid]

Hi Brian
The easiest way of re-fitting the shields if you've broken off some of the threaded things is to drill a suitable sized hole through the floor and screw a self tapping screw down into the hole from within the car or if you grind off the remains of the existing screw you can put the self tapper back in it's original place.
Barry

[Brian']

Hi Barry,

Was also thinking about that. Will be going for a different method though. Will be using rivnuts, bolts and large washers.

Thanks for the tip though! Really helpful, much More helpful that the guys on the Puma Facebook group

[tuonokid]

Cheers Brian, I just thought it would look more "factory" as the fasteners will still be available as they are even on MK6A Fiestas.

[Brian']

Cheers Brian, I just thought it would look more "factory" as the fasteners will still be available as they are even on MK6A Fiestas.

It is a good way of fixing. But I think I need to remove the carpet then if I want to do a proper job.

[tuonokid]

Yup, but would you like to drill from below for rivnuts without removing the carpets?

[ArtfulHussy]

Drilling through the floor pan is an arse of a job.. avoid at all costs

[Brian']

Yup, but would you like to drill from below for rivnuts without removing the carpets?

Hm. Yeah that actually makes sense now I'm thinking about it. If I plan on removing the interior I might even try your idea with the self tappers.

Drilling through the floor pan is an arse of a job.. avoid at all costs

I know it is. But it's the only way of fitting the heat shield back the proper way. Otherwise they will be rattling in no time, like they used to do a few months back.

[moondustka]

I think I prefer rivnuts, although I get what Barry is saying about factory look

[g-whizz]

...just caught up with this again since last reading it in April, boy have you been busy! Looks absolutely lovely Bri', really like the colour, totally "freshens" the car's lines up for me. Like the contrasting little lip boot spoiler too, it works and they often don't. Great going.

[trublustu]

Like the little spoiler lip..

[Brian']

Like the little spoiler lip..

...just caught up with this again since last reading it in April, boy have you been busy! Looks absolutely lovely Bri', really like the colour, totally "freshens" the car's lines up for me. Like the contrasting little lip boot spoiler too, it works and they often don't. Great going.

The little spoiler lip is currently not on the car. This due to the tape not holding up very well (or me applying it wrong). Order up some new tape and will most likely fit it back tomorrow! It indeed does look very cool and breaks up the bright blue a bit

Also been busy with eliminating all the odd squeaks in the interior and from other bits of the car such as suspension. Also need to re-do the sealing of one headlight. A while back I splitted both my headlight to clean them up. One of the headlights now keeps fogging up making my Puma look bloody awful! So that's also a job I need to do. Going to change over the HID's to uprated bulbs as well as this might also be the reason of the headlight fogging up (there's a bit hole in the back of that plastic cap for the ballast)

And I've also been doing some research towards turbo's. But not sure on that yet as I would like to do a proper job if I'm going that route. So more on that later I guess.

So will be focusing on the little jobs for now and continue with more pace in spring!

[TylerB]

I never had any issues with rattling heat shields, but if needed I would also take out the carpet to repair properly. Are the existing fitting screws broken? Can you not just attach the shields with larger washers to them?
The more I see this colour the more I like it, great Puma.