This is my revised Project Puma Thread

I bought my puma from Manchester for £1600 with no service history or tax in April 2009. Some people would be put off by this but seeing as my budget was small and I was going to take it apart anyways I thought this was a good price for what I was getting.

After ringing around and finding all the cars for sale on Auto Trader had been sold weeks ago.. bit of a waste of time website then... I finally found one that was still for sale and was within my price range.

I then drove 2 hours from Nottingham to Manchester with my mate to look at this black 1.7 puma I had seen and the minute I walked through the gates to the dealer ship I saw it. hiding away at the back of all these other cars. It was so low and mean looking I just had to get it!

I looked all over it and checked everything I could think of and yeah there was a bit of rust and yeah it wasn't exactly clean but I just knew that this car was going to be mine.

I test drove it and luckily the dealership owner was a scooby fan and let me rag this little puma a bit. I was so shocked at the speed compared to a ford KA.

Anyways to the point.. I paid a deposit went home and got myself insured before going back the next day with another mate of mine in a different KA to pay the rest of the money.

I drove the puma home and even though I had no radio it was the best journey of my life and I loved every minute of it.

Picture Time!


After its first wash once I got it home.

Ok so now the modding and customising can begin!

I had to decide on a colour scheme and seeing as the dials were already green and I had been given a set of green neons I thought that was my answer.

I went ahead with fitting the neons and painting the calipers green. Easier said than done and it took a lot of time to work out what was needed to get it all wired in and then fitted.

I had done neons once before but it was a real pain in the arse job and had been bodged together so I planned to do it better this time...

(ok so by now your thinkin..... CHAVVVV.. well your wrong I just like the look of the neons at night and think they give a different edge to the car.. even still I removed the under car ones when I noticed they looked so chavvy in the daytime and when not taking a decent photo)











The green obsession continues with DMB badge overlays...




An original gear knob to replace the crappy universal one it had on it.



A green stereo and other green bits.










A Fire Extinguisher... for that what if event.



Ok so moving on.. to wheels and suspension

I bought some propeller alloys thinking that they looked nice but then some BK racing ones came up for sale cheap I soon changed my mind.







With my girlfriends KA on her drive.



now to lower it to make the puma look as it should of done the day it came out of the factory imo.

Weitec GTM semi coilover kit.







The only problem was the rear axle on my puma (2000) is an eye mounting and the suspension I bought second hand was fork mounted.

The photos above were of the car lowered about 50mm at the front and 40mm at the back using standard dampers and lowering springs but then I bit the bullet and decided to go buy the old puma axle with fork mountings from the local scrap yard.

I also received some rear beam powerflex bushes with the suspension and decided this was a good time to fit them even though it was a nightmare job without the correct tools.

















Ok so now its lowered 60mm all round with sports dampers on the back and coilovers at the front but for this I needed 3mm spacers at the front to stop the rubbing on the suspension.


custom made with the exact centre bore based on universal ford ones.

I then fitted some rear Kenwood 6x8 speakers which involved removing all the rear interior







I also received a spoiler from a mate but I sold that on.



I fitted a cold air feed to an FRP Air box modification



I then cocked up... [bad times]

I fitted a FSE power boost valve after being recommended by a mate at the garage but this only killed my car.

It revealed serious weaknesses in various parts which I had noticed through driving and a diagnostic test.

My fuel pump came close to death and started screaming my MAF clapped out along with my lambda sensor and ICV.

this obviously cost me quite a bit to get sorted but I went on and fixed it.

I then discovered this cheeky dint in my fuel pipe which had caused my fuelling problems..

whoever had the car before me had switched the fuel tank for an aftermarket one and when connecting the pipes back up had crushed the fuel send pipe to half its thickness.




I managed to get hold of some Ford KA alloys and started to refurbish them aswell as sort my rear drums out with a new coat of paint and a 20.5mm rear axle spacer but I did brake my ABS sensors.















New ABS sensors




After the KA wheels were finished I decided to change the green to red. (nightmare task at hand)

I also took to the rolling road meet at Jamsport and it ran 132BHP at the fly, 125lb of Torques.





look good but can now be given a on the spot fine so they were removed soon after fitting.




















I then bought some drilled and grooved disks but these were for the smaller braked pumas so couldn't fit them and ended up replaced brake shoes, pads and disks with mintex gear.


















I then traded the KA alloys in for some 17" Ripspeed Multispoke alloys.
this required me to raise my suspension a little which I decided to undertake in the rain.. at night.







tracked up for about the 4th time.
couldn't even get on the standard ramps.



oh and then it snowed so the fun began!








Another small photo shoot





I fitted some Vibe 13cm front speakers and a crappy but light weight Fli sub for the motorway miles

and I think that is it as a summary of what I have done over what is nearly a year.

This post has been edited from my original one on Project Puma so some people may notice a few details have been missed and a few steps aren't in the totally correct order but Ive tried to make it nice and simple for everyone.

If I wasn't in full time education at Uni I could of spent more money and more time on it but this is where the fun begins as in my next post I will show the new goodies I have and so far it has amounted to £994

Keep watching this thread

Cool car

You shouldn't remove stuff for other peoples sake..

Also .. where did you get the extinguisher from please?

extinguisher from ebay Red.

its a bit of safe netting to sooth my mind lol.

normally I don't listen to everyone else and their thoughts have slowly brought me see more advantages of them being off rather than on... the main one being the car will go lower so much better

An idea ive been speaking to my mate about in the last 30 mins was to maybe install some sort of lime green neons in the engine bay?

I like all the green detailing - it looks great on a black car

thanks Neil. I was torn between that and Black and White but now ive done the green i think i will keep it like that for a bit. If I fancy a change I can always change.

Looks good, you have picked a theme that works well!

Where did you get the decal from to go over your steering wheel Ford badge, also how did you get the wires for the lighting into your doors?

the lighting in my door was very customised... took me ages to fully sort it out... lots of fiddling between the door and the main body of the car... and then covering for waterproofing.

the logos for my ford badges are gel covers thanks to DMB graphics. they are very good quality.

i like alot...well done mate!!

Thanks Simsimma

Lowered today.

Mudflaps all round yesterday.

Will upload photos as soon as I can.

Thank God you removed the neons, everything else looks great

looks good.. reminds me of mine lol

what caliper paint are you using?? i want some!

I liked the neons

looking good mate.... like Red says never remove something if YOU like it and others don't

its what makes you car indivual..ive had some stick over sum stuff ive done to mine... but tbh I cudnt care a less lol! and I like it

I wasnt a fan of the green but hey its your car

the neons were good but i think they serve a more used purpose on my floor rather than on my car lol.

I know what you mean Jay... its hard to do things to mine without thinking have you done it before lol... u have a very similiar taste in how you like your puma and as ive said before yours is very inspiring and helps me see what some things would look like when they are finished.

Thanks zara.



After driving round for a bit in my new lowered puma i have noticed a really bad knocking noise from the left wheel when I turn left... im going back to the garage tomoz but this is not good and does it at any speed except crawling

any ideas?

ok so back to the garage today... 1 wishbone and some tweaks later the cause has come to the coilovers being built up wrong... a piece is missing off them both....

will update soon on what has to be done...

.

a little bit of work today.... re-clipped my door cards so now they stay on and stop squeaking...

fitted a metal plate over the spare wheel hook hole which fell off and left a hole in my boot... I also painted it to stop any kind of moisture creeping through...

I am currently driving round with my Black BK's at the back and silver props at the front as my dad is making me some custom spacers at his factory for the front wheels after they decided they didn't like my coil-overs.

It is also eating away at my air box...

A few things to do still before my list is complete but it will always keep itself updating..

oh man it says all the pics are unavailable?! I wanna see.

Also neons in the engine bay sounds awesome

i know.. whats with that???

neons in the engine bay may never happen now im afraid ... cba with all the cheesy stuff lol... im still keeping my neons inside but ive towned it down a little outside...

fixed the photo problem.

now its lowerd it look bloody mean! nice job mate!

thanks mate!

Where did you get the hoses? How were they to fit etc?

there just conduit.

from ebay...

various colours...

used for covering electrical cables but i did a few hoses too..

it was a biatch to fit... rips your fingers to bits and takes ages to master it but in relation to most car problems there a doddle.