My Puma 1.7, more than a year on (A works in progress)

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tuonokid

Active member
Joined
Nov 23, 2012
Messages
3,801
Location
Huddersfield
I've been wanting to start this for some time but was struggling to get my head around uploading the photos so I hope this works.

Mmmm, not exactly what I wanted as regards the photos but here's some more.
The car sits on 17" x 7"BSA wheels with ST170 front and back discs and calipers with 40mm lowering springs and 20mm axle spacers on the rear.

These photos are showing the car about 70% complete as I still have some minor welding to do on the floorpans so the front ride height is about right but the rear's a little high as there's no tank, middle of the exhaust and seats/trim/carpets in it.
I bought the car in December 2012 from an older couple in Sheffield as I could guarentee the mileage of 37,000 miles both by service history and MOTs and the bodywork, particularly the sills and rear arches was in good condition.


The first thing I did was to start to rust proof the car underneath as most of the underside of the Puma is just in etch primer as standard. Everything was stripped off and then rusty areas treated by grinding back to bare metal, 2 coats of Jenolite, a coat of 2 pack etch primer, a coat of stone chip and then either a coat of body schutz or cellulose red (above the heat shields adjacent to the exhaust
 
tuonokid said:
I've been wanting to start this for some time but was struggling to get my head around uploading the photos so I hope this works
Looking good!

Change the album tags to read 'fullalbum' to get the larger pictures! :eek:k:
 
Anything that showed any sign of rot when I applied the Jenolite has been cut out and new metal let in. The worst areas seem to be the inner sills adjacent to the beam mountings.










 
Thanks a lot. It would have been a lot easier under a four post lift, though.
Anyway still more to come :)
Barry
 
Whilst I was working under the floor I was also de-rusting the rear inner arches and also doing a minor repair on the RHS outer arch adjacent to the bumper.





As with the floor any rust was taken down to bare metal then treated with jenolite or cut out if it was rot.










I also made a point of sealing the inner to outer wheel arch joint with a Stikaflex type material.





As with the floor the arches received a coat of stonechip followed by a coat of body shutz
 
Then I moved onto the front end. When I took off the wings and bumper I could see that the front end was in good condition with just a few pits on the inner wings. I had fitted 40mm lowering springs and 17" wheels so I knew that clearance was going to be an issue between the tyres and the lower inner wing flanges.


With the 17" wheels and lowering springs the inner wing flange needed attention as there was only 50mm clearance.

I marked out where the flange needed grinding to. Then ground off and drilled out the flange to plug weld where I'd taken out the existing spot welds.


Etch primered after the plug welds. I also lifted up the ABS leads using rivnuts,plastic pipe a screw and a fixing that takes a cable tie. They are now reusable plus the ABS lead is no longer a mud and water trap.





For those that noticed I kept swapping sides on the photos it was only because I didn't have the necessary photos. Both sides were done pretty much the same. The final clearance on the inner wing to tyre is about 75mm, much better than 50mm plus the new flange bottom is much thicker and less likely to cut the tyres
 
Next up was the front wings. They were in excellent condition apart from the arch lip about 8" up from sill level and also to the rear of the wing adjacent to the sill fixings.Both wings were affected the same. Any rot was cut out and replaced with new metal.








After the welding was done I etch primered, masked a line just above sill level. stonechipped and then finished off with cellulose red. The wheel arch repairs I hand painted as they would be covered by the mudflaps. Before I remounted the wings I liberally applied waxoil to the inside of the wings and the sides of the bulkheads and the inner wings.

 
Whilst the bumper was off it gave me the chance to see to a few repairs. There was quite a bit of damage to the black lower bib and the lower sections of the bumper itself. I flatted back damaged areas of the bumper and then used a pre-mixed two pack rattle can of Standocryl on top of a plastic primer. The bib section I carbon wrapped in two sections as it had many curves and covered the joint with a vinyl strip in red. I also bought some reinforced rubber belting and replaced the rubber strip under the bumper with a section that is 2" deeper than standard.



 
Next up was the floorpans and the trans tunnel. The trans tunnel is largely protected by the exhaust heat shields but is only in etch primer and some of this had flaked off in places. The floor pans from the sills in for about 10" are protected by a thick rubberised underseal but between that and the tunnel there is only a lght smearing of underseal which easily comes off with a petrol soaked cloth. So first of all I cleaned the above areas.


Then I cleaned up any rusty areas




Then any bare metalled areas were etch primed.


At this stage any areas I weren't happy with because of rot I masked off with gaffa tape so they could be welded at a later date. Next up was a coat of stonechip.


After this I applied a coat of Shutz or body colour paint above the heat shields


In all there were about six small areas of floor which require cutting out and patching as this :
 
I cant believe how much work you have put into this, outstanding progress :thumbs:
Makes me feel a bit guilty as all I seem to do is "Wash and go" :lol:
 
Thanks Trueblue and Evilrob, I appreciate your comments. It's been a lot of hard work but I believe that It's worth it as the Puma is another really good Ford and it's worth saving. (I also sold a MK1 Mex and a MK2 RS2000 X Pack at the wrong time so I need some return on this one :))
 
Mk 1 Mexico. How I would love another Escort. Scrapped off both my old ones years ago. 1st was a std 1300XL the other a modified one with a 1760 X Flow and a whole lot more. If only I knew back then :cry:
 
Hi Trueblue
I never scrapped one I just sold them on at a great loss as it turned out. I even had a 1300E MK 1 at some point but I can't remember what happened to that but just for our memories look at these, my ex cars :-(

The Mex is alive and well and in rude health living in the North East and I'm in contact with the owner. The RS2 is in Ireland and now looks totally different but is running a 380bhp YB as far as I know.
 

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