Ford Puma 1.7 Track Project

Loving this so far. I had a puma years ago as a courtesy car and loved the feel of it.

Anything to lose weight wise by stripping the dash; radio, heating/cooling system. Must be a few kg hidden away

Following on from this:



I needed to sort it out. I'm not totally sure what it was? Maybe sunken filler, bad filler job, some sort of reaction?

Either way, it couldn't go for paint like it. So I cracked out the sander and filler and had at it. I'm hoping I've done enough to keep it at bay for at least a couple years but I don't really know! I am an amateur after all, working with limited facilities and tools!

A skim of filler and some primer, I was left with this (primer was still a tad wet when photos were taken). Much, much better looking and much smoother!





Hopefully, the next proper update will be paint! Fingers and everything else crossed as I've been gagging to paint it for months now!

Not much of a progress post I'm afraid. My car has been trapped in the garage for a couple of months as there were roof repairs being done (the council failed to tell me this).

Managed to drag it out over the weekend and was greeted by all sorts of rubble and crud all over it, not a happy bunny.



This has hampered progress somewhat, you will notice it hasn't been painted.

I did manage to start stripping the front suspension to fit the front arms and coilovers however I was met with a not totally-unexpected bump in the road.

I bought the coilovers cheap and here's why, the top thread is not long enough to go through the car. Off to the machine shop at work to sort that out, however one is in place and gives the car a much more purposeful stance.







I have also fitted "tuner" nuts as the stock nuts and socket were wrecking my wheels.

With play stopped on the suspension for now, I decided I should probably sort out somewhere to sit. Custom seat rails would need to be made to fit the Noble seat. I am not a fabricator by any means but am having a bash here.



Need to do some more welding and probably beef this up with some box-section but need to make sure my measurements are ok before I go too mad. Should find out this evening how badly I have done haha!

All the best!

Cheers, will hopefully be able to chip away at the list. Lots of niggly little bits but I'll get there. Maybe even in time for the RRG2022!? 

Ah yeah the dream! S1600/S1400. They do look much more butch than the production car haha

Few bits and bobs done.

The coilover bolts need trimming, so back to the machine shop today and then they'll be good as gold.

The lower arm bolts are properly seized in, so wasn't able to change them out for my polybushed items just yet. Did swap over the ARB droplinks though, so that's something.

Got my seat sort of bolted up but needs some finessing. I think I'll actually totally re-do the seat frame as it's just not quite how I want it, plus it could stand to be a bit stronger. Maybe using some 1" box section instead. Either way, the seating position is proper race car, very low but awesome!



Found my danger tree which I thought I had lost forever!



Which in turn meant I could finally sort out my rear boot pins.

Things hit a bit of a road bump in that winter happened, job-change, car crashes and various other boring life things however, the sun came out yesterday and the stars aligned! I was able to get the car moved and to somewhere I could paint it! It’s not a brilliant job and does need a few “fixes” here and there but it’s not too awful considering it was painted outside by me…

Managed to get it home the next day (today), which means it can start going back together! Although the weather has changed AGAIN so it will have to wait for the next dry day. Then it’s lower arms, harness/eyelets, quick service and slug of fuel, and then maybe an MOT!?

Cheers dude! I’m glad to have been able to get a bit of time on it again, looking forward to summer! 

Little bit more done over the Bank Holiday weekend whilst getting sunburnt.

Lights all in and working, all grilles in, boot seal in, seat rail in, seat in, most of the harness in (need to drill one more eyelet hole), mirrors sort of on, (need longer bolts), most of the masking tape removed, exhaust wrapped and sort of assembled, (and hung badly).

To do for roadworthyness:

- Fit mirrors properly
- Fit exhaust properly
- Replace stuck droplink
- Replace ruined tyre
- Remove overspray on windows
- Fit windscreen wipers
- Fit last harness eyelet

Getting close now!