Considering a Puma - do they *all* rust?

[R3BB]

Hi guys, I've always had a soft spot for the Puma, and whilst they are still cheap, I am considering getting one as a weekend car.

I'm familiar with Fords of the era, and know Puma's are prone to rust in the arches and sills, but do they all get it?
I've seen them advertised as rust free, but is it inevitable unless it's already been repaired?

 

[st220kyle]

Yep pretty much, none of them are exempt from rust. But saying that, it's the same for nearly any 20+ year old car

 

[gingerdave]

You might get lucky and find something that’s spent most of its life tucked away in a garage but unlikely.I bought one a few years ago that only needed a small repair to one arch.Its done about 75 k miles now and needed no other repairs.

 

[mad4jags]

My 1998 one is just such a car...been very well looked after and the bodywork is immaculate...obviously living the life of a garage queen..which she still enjoys!!
I can't believe I managed to scoop her for a mere £1300 3 years ago,and she had only covered 42000 miles :grin: :grin:
They are out there.....hiding behind the rocking horse poo!!
I've also landed pretty lucky with the rest of them,the silver one(strangely the newest) being worst affected,having a bubble on the offside rear arch the size of a ten pence piece...which amounts to very little considering their age and the state of some others I've seen.The other two suffering from minor carpark scrapes more than rust,and will be easy to blend in with new paint when I get round to it.
I think the days of bagging a cheap tidy example are nearly over......prices are slowly on the up :wink:

 

[Pumanick]

I have a rust free 42k mile Puma 1.7 that has never required welding.. It has always been the second or third car for it's three owners and has been pampered in my 9 years of ownership.

 

[R3BB]

Thanks for the replies!
If there are any rust free or well repaired/modded Pumas for sale here I could be interested :wink:

 

[red]

I think at this stage in their lives unless you are buying from a real enthusiast then you can expect some level of rust. You just need to check the cars out carefully when you're looking at them.

 

[grogee]

Good inspection is easier said than done! It's virtually impossible to check inner rear arches because it requires a) car off ground and b) arch liners removed. Likewise you are not going to see full extent wheelarch of rot from the outside. To get the full picture needs rear trim ('door cards') removed.

It may be possible to get a reasonable impression by dropping the spare wheel and looking at the boot floor - this could be done without any tools except those provided with the car.

About the best you can do without a ramp is to point a camera phone underneath with flash and hope you get some good shots.

 

[gingerdave]

This Is the reason I would never buy “an immaculate “Raciing Puma.Unless you can get a scope inside box sections always the risk of hidden disasters

 

[the old gimmer]

Is there such a thing as a rust free Puma, well tongue in cheek I’ve got to answer yes there is thousands of them.
I was on hols in Portugal last year and saw the odd one here and there in rust free nick.
During the relative sort production run ford produced 133,000 cars only 52,950 were registered in the UK.
That’s an awful lot cars dotted around parts of Europe that are not suffering from the deadly rust beetle.
Often wondered how difficult it would be to convert one to right hand drive.

 

[Ollie :)]

Hi, i bought one about a year ago for my first car, and have loved it! No rusty arches as of yet, but took quite a while to find one without rust

 

[CherryVimto]

Looking at past posts about rust and my own experience.. it could be stated that the earlier/older Pumas actually rusted less than the later/newer ones.

I had a 2002 Thunder and another 'non-edition' Puma of roughly the same age and they both rusted like nothing I've seen before. One of them had only minor rust when I bought it and within several months it was almost beyond economical repair.

The old '98 Puma I first had (Jewel Green - the best green a Puma could be seen in) eventually failed an MOT due to rust, but it lasted a lot longer than the other 2 put together and it was a daily driver to/from work (100 miles per day) 6 days a week!