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

ProjectPuma

Help Support ProjectPuma:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Thanks Guys
I wouldn't have thought anyone would have spotted the tyre but Wild E Coyote you have won the prize :) It makes sense with the cars total mileage that it is the original plus it still has all the little rubber sticky bits coming out of it to show that it's not been used.
Barry
 
Great work on the Puma and some nice fabricating on the carrier. This is going in my inspiration pile for a track Puma as I'd like to deal with all the little bits of rot as you have.

Also liking the classics, I have a project of my own but being a former classic Escort owner you might not approve.

It's stalled for the past couple of years but once I get a Mini out of the way I'll hopefully start again. Will be getting a Duratec.
 
Thanks Oli.
Not too much of a Vauxhall fan but the HC looks well for it's age. My first 4 wheeled car was a 1969 Viva HB with the slant four 1600 engine. If it's getting a Duratec be aware that the bell housing bolt arrangement is not standard Ford unless you mean an ST170 which says Duratec but is actually a Zetec.
Barry
 
Hi, That HC looks very clean, there cannot be that many left now.
That HC brings back some memories, I had one once with a 2279cc lump modified big valve head, mod. camshaft, Janspeed system twin 45 Dellortoes (not sure about the spelling) also fitted a droop snoot. What a car that was, wish I still had it. Also with regard to the comment by Wild E. Coyote about the spare. I still have my original spare used only for 5 miles. I also had the original battery that was 13 years old untill last year.
Regards
Richard
 
Hi Richard
Sound like a droop snoot Firenza. Can you remember that bendy allen key you needed to adjust the tappets on that group of engines?
I have a few mechanic friends and they all seem to say that Ford batteries last a long time so they must be pretty good quality.
My Fiesta's 2003 and has 106k on the clock and it's still the original one, same as the Puma.
Barry
 
HI,
I think we are going a little off topic here. It was a long time ago I think I was able to use an ordinary allen key. I wish it had been a Firenza. It was a four door Magnam that I put the front onto.
Regards
Richard.
 


About 12 months ago I bought a Piper exhaust manifold and a sports cat off an FRP owner and then a few weeks later I bought a Piper de-cat system off another seller on Ebay. I asked a few questions on here about fitting the manifold as it seemed to be a bit of a tight fit. Well the answer is to get the car very high and then disconnect the bottom chassis to gearbox stabiliser and the stabiliser to the gearchange remote and then you can rock the engine enough for the manifold to clear the rack/bulkhead and the driveshaft. If this helps instead of jacking the car 3' off the floor I took the lid of a manhole in my drive dropped the manifold down it with some thick string and then backed the car over it. It was a simple matter then to just lift the manifold up into place.



Anyway I was going to fit the rest of the exhaust system until I found that the flanges to the manifold and the middle section didn't square up to each other. The holes matched but the mating faces were a few degrees out from square so that they would never have sealed. This makes me think that they are made in matched sets, so beware if you buy from different people.
Anyway I had to cut off the flange on the middle section and then tack it into place on the car so it fitted properly and then weld it off the car. I had to be really careful here as Stainless is a sod for distorting if you're not too careful.
Then I had a rethink on the de-cat and decided to use the sports cat to stay legal.


Sportscat showing low density mesh.


Standard and sportscat.



De-cat pipe alongside sports cat with spare flange taken from existing exhaust.



Flange ground off (again) and pipe marked to be cut.



Pipe cut and flange in place.

The rear flange of the sportscat is a triangular 3 bolt shape whereas the flange of the back section is diamond shape with 2 bolts so I will have to bore out the existing exhaust flange to match the size of the new system and then weld it onto the back of the sports cat. Then buy a S/S Lambda stub to weld into the middle section just to the rear of the cat. then job done, hopefully.
 



I had a re-think on using the original exhaust flange as the hole through the middle would have taken forever to bore out and there wouldn't have been enough gasket face left to seal properly so I ordered the right size flanges plus a lambda boss.



First job was to weld the two bolt flange to the cats 3 bolt flange. Both flanges were 8mm thick so I was going to struggle to weld it with my MIG so I dug out the stick welder tried that for a bit and put it back on the shelf...re-think time!
Eventually I MIG welded down through the bolt holes on the 3 bolt flange onto the back of the two bolt flange and that seemed to work but one of my mates uses a TIG at work so I'll get him to go round it and seal it off just in case.



Next up was to tack the second flange onto the pipe to the rear of the cat.



I then had a rethink on the front flange to the cat as it was for a ball type joint and there wasn't enough meat around the flange to seal with the gasket as well as providing a step for gas flow.



I used a spare piece of exhaust pipe to fill in the joint.



Then another flange to be welded on, centered by the spare piece of exhaust pipe.



Then I welded another thinner pipe on the inside of this to centre and help to seal the gasket



I also tacked on captive nuts as it's a lot easier to take off or put the exhaust back on. I then drilled out the pipe for the lambda boss after cutting the boss to the right length. I'll get my mate to TIG all the way around the flange on this pipe as well, but I'll weld the boss on.



Boss fixed in place.



boss welded.Exhaust off to my mate for tigging.



Cat back from Tigging just needs checking on the car to make sure it's not distorted before I give my mate the back pipe to tig up the flange on that.
 
Wow that's amazing the tons of work you have put in to it Barry!!!
Just thinking about, when you don't have a lift, how many times you are going up and down and all the s... you are getting in your face. Well let's face it we ain't getting any younger and with a project like that you sure as hell don't need any sleeping pils :lol:
Keep on the good work Barry. I wish I had the time and place for a job like that.
 
Maybe a stupid question, hope it's okay since I am a newbie ;-)
Is it not possible to get a 4-2-1 mani with sports cat to bolt right on??
I have put on a 2,5" cat back system and next step would be the manifold.
And I also want to stay legal, so have to have a cat on.
 
Hi Martin
Thanks for your comments. I'm not using the car as yet so when it's up in the air for work to be done it stays like that for as long as it needs to.
You're right about the crap in your face. I had to have another visit to the hospital this year to have something dug out of my right eye even though I wear goggles. That's about the fourth time in 30 years....not a pleasant experience.
You're also right about the exhaust systems and my original intention was to run it de-cat so all the bits were bought off Fleabay (cheapskate) but at the last minute I thought I'd stay on the legal side and retro fit the cat even though this system never had one.
Barry
 
Next up was the repairs to the floorpans There was only one seriously rotted bit but I wanted to get rid of all the rot so when I'd previously undersealed the floors I taped off areas that required attention so I could sort them out later.



Serious rot!











I didn't want to do the work from underneath the car as it's a mucky dangerous job so I marked out the limits of the patches with a 3mm drill bit like this;










View from above where I'd be working.



Tool of choice for working inside the car. A Dremmel type tool with diamond tipped cutting discs.



And 15 mins later....

 
Good work there. Looks similar to what I had to deal with but mine seemed to be quite large! :lol:
 
Yeah and believe it or not I'd still call it in good condition compared to many others. If only Ford had galvanised the shells and charged £500 extra.
Barry
 
Back to my work on the Floorpans.



The really corroded bit of floorpan above was cut out and ended up like this :



Trouble is the strengthener seam is not visible under the car as it's covered with another strengthener and is fairly corroded. If I still had my Oxy set I could warm it up and run some weld in but I only have the mig now and that will just blast holes in it. I will just have to weld where the existing spot welds were as they are still sound.



View from under corroded strengthener. The seam seen from inside the car is directly above the screw thread shown on this photo. The screw thread is for the forward fuel and brake pipe clips which I've removed for clarity.



Next up was the very small area to the left of the patch I've just cut out. This just looked like a bubble of rust between another strengthener and the floor. Anyway I cut it out and then had a look underneath.



This was what I found underneath. The hole through the floor that I'd just cut is just visible at the side of the strengthener. It looks like I'll have to extend the patch into the joint between the floorpan and front bulkhead.



So first off I cut out the floorpan that had any rot in it.



View from below showing rot cut out and the rot to be cut out of the bulkhead.



Then I cut out the bulkhead that had rot in it



View from below now ready for welding.



Patches cut out and ready to go (the slots and holes are for plug welding)
 
I've been wanting to start welding the floorpans but I haven't managed to get the car out of the garage and it's too narrow to open the doors wide enough for access so I've been just tidying things up over the last few days.
I was going to buy a K&N induction kit but I went down the cheapo route with a £7.99 cotton cone filter off Ebay. I didn't want to leave the MAF unsupported as vibration could detach the springs inside it so it needed a proper rubber mount. Anyway one of the existing airbox mounts is just in the right place so using the following components ;



I created this ;



And then added the support bracket



The bracket slots into the mounting that fixes the MAF to the airbox as this



MAF fixed in place.



Filter fixed in place showing clearance to other things



The filter was actually 89mm ID and the MAF is about 85mm OD so I just made the difference up with some cut up rubber inner tube wound around the MAF flange. Now I just need to seal up the wheel arch to stop the filter getting wet and put a cold air feed to it.
 
Still waiting for the weather to improve so I can start welding outside so just catching up on a few jobs.



Put the rubber caps in place to protect the holes I'd drilled through the disc shields to check the rear disc abs sensor gaps



I used the spring protectors off the standard front Puma brake hoses to protect the rear Goodridge hoses.
Looking good but I may still take off the shockers at the back and check the full stroke to make sure that the hoses are ok

Finished off installing the sportcat after I'd checked it for gas tightness (it was full of pinholes so had to weld them up)



Then installed the lambdas after lengthening the cables.





I attached the cables to the chassis rails using the clips below which take a cable tie so they are re-usable.

 
Back onto the floorpans.



I'd already cut out the patches ready for letting in.



The 1st patch was the bulkhead end.



The 2nd and 3rd patches were on the floorpan. This is the view after welding and before cleaning up.



This was the view from underneath before tidying up




This was the patch done on the rear floorpan





Patches after primer



Patch stone chipped





Primered and joint sealed ready for painting





As good as new now.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top